He was in the Tour this year, and is in the Vuelta now, right? Someone—maybe I’ll do this—should cross reference those rosters and come up with a list on Google sheets. Then we can all go in and cross off names as we rule folks out. Like didn’t Caley say he’s not on Lidl-Trek? Cross all those guys out…! If a rider doesn’t speak any English? Cross him out! The last column implied he had never spoken to Roglic before this Tour…cross out all current/former Roglic teammates! We got this!!
And probably not Woods. Caley said they would like to extend and invitation for him to write for the site after he retires.
Bikegrid has been training us for years to figure this out!
I can’t remember which site did it, but somebody wrote up a piece about who the Secret Pro (at that time) could be. They concluded it was one of the Izaguirre brothers, or there was more than one since that didn’t quite line up with every race the Secret Pro mentioned riding at that time.
That’s a good point, certainly could be reports from multiple people coming in….
My theory is that there are actually multiple secret pros and the columns is a mix of what they wrote.
Ok, you got me. I am the secret pro.
FYI here’s the list of who rode the Tour and is in the Vuelta. Assuming I understood it right that the author said they’re going to the Vuelta, it’s not a long list….
| ALMEIDA JoĂŁo |
|---|
| ARMIRAIL Bruno |
| BUCHMANN Emanuel |
| BUITRAGO Santiago |
| CAMPENAERTS Victor |
| CASTRILLO Pablo |
| COQUARD Bryan |
| DE BUYST Jasper |
| DUNBAR Edward |
| GALL Felix |
| GANNA Filippo |
| GARCÍA CORTINA Iván |
| GARCĂŤA RaĂşl |
| HAIG Jack |
| HIGUITA Sergio |
| JORGENSON Matteo |
| KUSS Sepp |
| MARTIN-GUYONNET Guillaume |
| O’CONNOR Ben |
| PARET-PEINTRE Valentin |
| PHILIPSEN Jasper |
| RICKAERT Jonas |
| RODRIGUEZ Cristian |
| SCHACHMANN Max |
| SCOTSON Callum |
| SEPULVEDA Eduardo |
| SOLER Marc |
| STEWART Jake |
| TEJADA Harold |
| VINGEGAARD Jonas |
Clues from last from last Secret Pro article:
- The way they described PogaÄŤar makes me think they are not a UAE rider
- Their description of not knowing Roglic rules out any current Bora rider or former Roglic teammate
- SP also critized Simmons so that elimates them riding for Lidl Trek
- Lastly, they gave some shout-outs and critiques to a few teams so we can strike off Uno-X, Arkea, and Astana.
Of course, any of those could be a red herring to sniff us off the case!
My reading of the article was that they were just commenting on the Vuelta as an observer, not a participant.
My guess is Fred Wright or Lewis Askey, unless the overtly British phrases are being inserted to throw us off…
I agree, the article definitely read as coming from a Commonwealth citizen…
I don’t know, it says in the article: “Anyway, the Tour’s done with now and onto the Vuelta a España.” And then it ends with: “See you on the other side of the Vuelta.” I read that as he’ll be racing. But I do also see he says, “I’m excited to watch the Vuelta….”
I recall EC (or CT?) staff previously saying they were never going to write the articles in a way you could identify TSP by process of elimination, so all the analysis about participation in races is a red herring.
But that’s exactly what they’d say if they didn’t want anyone to quickly deduce who the Secret Pro is.
Caley has said it’s rewritten by staff; the voice isn’t the pro’s. He’s also suggested not trying to figure out who it is if you like the articles, since that would be the end of them.
Also, since they’re a secret pro, they probably aren’t publicly listed on the race start lists, and I imagine keep away from TV cameras.
It is quite safe to assume there are multiple riders and they might change over time. Language was adjusted even before ChatGPT made it simple to do.
Toms Skujiņš (Lidl-Trek) could be one of the quoted riders (but as a minority), considering that he is married to Abby and on good terms with others.
I think it’s probably possible to figure out who it is, but we do make an effort to make it really hard.
The funniest answer is Jonas Vingegaard
Is this a hint? Lol