Palych from Vietnam: training at 4 am, bike fit and Paris — Roubaix live

Guests

Other issues with these guests

• Issue #6 · July 3, 2023 · 1 h 20 minKostya Gavrilov, "bicycle NPC": amateur racing through the eyes of someone who does not happen to be on the podium
• Issue #8 · July 17, 2023 · 1 h 24 minPalych: bike fit in exile, a new road racer and power training
• Issue #16 · March 2, 2024 · 1 h 11 minNovgorod racing plans for 2024, tandem on the Tsar Grader and honestly about colonoscopy
• Issue #34 · April 9, 2025 · 1 h 39 minWatching the race with Palyc: Pogacar, narrow handlebars and an amateur license in Serbia
• Issue #71 · October 10, 2026 · 2 h 12 minPalych: Ломбардия, MTB в Сербии и велосипедная жизнь без пафоса

Useful from the issue

1. Cameras are more reliable in the heat

   Palych rides on the road with tubes: in hot weather, at high pressure, the sealant doesn't cope, and in a group, he also splashes his neighbours. His lightweight tyre with a tube turns out to be no heavier than a tubeless one.

2. Tubeless — from wide rubber

   For himself, Palych drew the line by width: wide tires at low pressure are tubeless, narrow road tires use tubes, a CO2 cartridge, and a compact spare.

3. Do not distribute on a straight line

   On a flat race from the finish line, it is better to save on the wheel and not start a sprint per kilometer: those who give out early die, and the victory goes to those sitting behind.

4. Flat city — repeats on the bridge

   If there are no climbs around, you can prepare for the mountain race by repetitions on the only available elevation, even if it is a bridge with a set of 50 meters.

5. Insurance abroad is mandatory

   A cyclist abroad cannot save on insurance: without it, good local clinics are not available, and surgery in an expat clinic is expensive.

6. Look for a doctor through friends

   In a foreign country, Palych was rescued by local acquaintances who, along the chain, found a specialized specialist for little money.

7. Coaching requires attention

   Palych kept two wards for himself: at three he was already beginning to confuse the nuances of well-being, weather and tasks of each.

Tandem on Tsar Grader and aluminum criterium bike

The conversation begins with memories: Palych once drove a Tsar Grader in tandem with a partner with whom he had never ridden together before the start. According to him, in a straight line, the tandem flies like a barge on any surface, but on bumps and in turns it is extremely slow, and the second half of the race they were already riding on pure stubbornness. Ilya and Kostya now want to repeat this experience in the same tandem.

Now Palych is riding someone else's aluminum criterion bike with rim brakes and mechanics — hard, uncomfortable, but very emotional. His main bike is a Specialized Tarmac SL6, but there are almost no races for which he is needed in Vietnam.

Cycling in Vietnam

Amateur races in Vietnam are short, up to 70 km, of a criterion type, with jostling and blockages. But this is a festival: inflatable arches, a column of motorcyclists in front of the peloton, live broadcasts of even amateur starts on TV, a banquet and good cash prizes. Races are rare, about once a month.

Palych works in a large store selling top-end Trek, and travels as a mechanic and guide on MTB tours in Vietnam and Cambodia — for example, around the temple complex, where official races are held. He was going to go a multi-day trip across the country for a professional team, but it fell through because of the rule about foreigners in the squad. He also remotely trains two Russian-speaking riders and believes that he will not be able to conduct more than two wards qualitatively.

Training until dawn

In Ho Chi Minh City, you can train only from five to seven in the morning, while there is no traffic and heat: rise at 4:20, the form is assembled in the evening, a quick breakfast — and to the meeting place with the group. The city is absolutely flat, so Palych prepares for the mountain race by repeating on the bridge with a set of about 50 m 15 times in a row. Add polluted air — it is very difficult to be motivated without racing.

Group races in local clubs are arranged through the application: a limited number of places, route, captain and difficulty level from easy to the fastest. Palych has a week — two club races, a quick Vietnamese "warm-up" in circles across the bridge, trips with his wife to MTB, and two weeks before the race he himself rearranges the plan for a specific start.

Knee and insurance abroad

Before recording, Palych did not travel for two weeks: after poisoning and sore throat, his knee became inflamed and swollen without any visible injury, the fluid was pumped out of it. It was possible to find a normal doctor only through acquaintances — it's hard to look for medicine in a foreign country yourself. Now he is advised to donate blood and, possibly, adjust his diet.

Separately, he warns: abroad, especially cycling, you can not stay without insurance. Once he shattered his collarbone in Vietnam, the operation was offered to him for a lot of money, and he flew to repair it to Russia under a policy.

Tour de Selishchi, teamwork and cyclocross

Ilya says that he is holding the Tour de Selishchi for the last time: the race is going on without blocking roads, and he is afraid of responsibility for the accident. Instead, he dreams of a criterion in the center of Novgorod. There are also plans for a joint cyclocross cup with a Moderator: six stages, three from each organizer.

Palych, who once won a village from a sprint, advises not to forget to eat and drink and not to waste energy on a straight line before the finish — he then calmly sat on wheels while others handed out. Kostya says that he is going to help comrades who have chances in their age categories, and all three agree: without teamwork, the group road race loses its meaning, and in pursuit of a breakaway, the group usually does not agree.

Paris — Roubaix and iron

During the broadcast, they discuss the average weight of riders in the peloton, record speeds of classics, other riders' punctures, and the benefits of cyclocross experience for riding on cobblestones. Palych recalls the Kaliningrad cobblestones, which are painful to ride on with a road bike, and notes that they were lucky with dry weather at Roubaix.

In the end, they talk about technology: Shimano versus SRAM, unsuccessful integrated solutions on expensive air frames, expensive branded seatpins and inadequate price tags of top-end bicycles. Palych praises the carbon saddles of the Petersburg master and admits that hydraulic discs have to be adjusted almost every week.

Timestamps

1. 00:00A threesome call
2. 01:38Tandem on Tsar Grader
3. 06:33Aluminum criteria is great
4. 09:47Racing in Vietnam
5. 13:56Coaching and working in a store
6. 18:00MTB tours in Vietnam and Cambodia
7. 22:02Cyclocross and Moder Cup
8. 29:20Tour de Selishchi and tactical advice
9. 36:49Living and training in Ho Chi Minh City
10. 45:00Knee and medicine abroad
11. 53:10Teamwork in amateurs
12. 54:46Watching Paris — Roubaix
13. 1:02:07Multi-day tour of Vietnam
14. 1:11:15Bicycles, Price tags and Shimano vs SRAM
15. 1:26:12Cameras or camera-less

Mentioned in this episode

Paris — Roubaix · Tsar Grader · Tour de Selishchi · Moder · Specialized Tarmac · Trek · Shimano · SRAM