THEMOVE - Breakdown of a textbook sprint | Tour De France 2024 Stage 16 | JB2

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

The last bunch sprint of this year's Tour de France, Johan breaks down what he considers a textbook sprint by UAE. The Green Sprinters jersey race may not be over after the Girmay accident leading into today's sprint. Intermediate sprints will come into play with these last remaining days.

This was, you know, textbook lead-out train and also, you know, incredibly done, especially by Mati van der Poel. What a difference compared to the first week when we had a few sprints and Alpecin did not get their lead-out train right. This was really, I mean, that's how you, I mean, if you write a scenario of how to lead out a sprint, this is the way it should be done. Hello and welcome to JB Squared as we go into the last week of the Tour de France, which is always a blip. You know, the first week feels like an eternity. And then all of a sudden you lift your head up and you go, wow, this thing's almost over. I'm sure the writers don't feel this way. the same way. It feels like an eternity every single day. I'm JB Hager and I'm joined by Johann Bernil and we're going to take a look at today's sprint stage, stage 16 and what lies ahead. Before we do that, thank

you to our title sponsor, HVMN, Ketone IQs, using the ketones every day. Everybody on the team, keep everybody sharp, doing all these shows, cranking out four shows a day. So a little shot. There we go. 30% off your first subscription order and a free six-pack. If you use this link, ketone.com slash the move. There was not much to talk about except for the sprint so i mean the only thing that happened was really a tv attack yeah a little bit you know and well the first thing that happened jb i mean until uh until 93 kilometers to go, we had the intermediate sprint, which is still, which

is still, uh, you know, heavily disputed between, between, uh, Philipson and get my, um, who's the guy from COVID is, uh, go cart and then the lead tries to be in there. So we had that. And then typically then the, the Peloton slows down and we had this one courageous French rider from Total Energies who went, never heard of the name before. Apparently he was third in the French championships, his first Tour de France. He had never done a stage race, which was more than six days before this race. And so he got a lot of TV time, which is, you know, which is interesting for, days before this race. And, uh, so he got

a lot of TV time, which is, you know, which is interesting for, for, for that kind of team at least. Uh, but you know, we also, of course we knew that, uh, it was not going to go anywhere. Um, he had two minutes, two and a half minutes. And, uh, it was basically, it was, uh, Alpecin and, uh, Jay Kualula who were selling the pace. So we knew. I mean, we already knew before the race, before the stage. I listened to a few interviews of sprinters, and they were all 100% convinced that there was going to be a bunch print. If that happens, that's usually because they know that their team

is going to do the work, and they've also spoken already to other teams who have said the same thing so guaranteed bunch print today i uh you know that uh because it was some of the only action and that i think that that total energies guy got like an aggressive jersey for the day yeah whatever that award is most aggressive rider i i think on days like today, you know what they should call that jersey or award? The Hi Mom Award. Hi Mom! It takes, listen, I mean, it takes courage.

It takes courage. I know. Hey, I would give anything to be out there. So I shouldn't judge. Hey, before we get into Guilherme and Philipson, which is really the storyline today on a couple of different levels, not only for the stage results, but for the remaining days. You know, we were talking this morning on the move about all these teams that might go home empty handed, which is a tough. Yeah. I mean, you were a director for a long time.

That's you don't enjoy that going home to talk to. No, but I'd wanted to give props to a couple of names you just mentioned because they're, they're, they're so close. Their teams are smaller, working hard, but that is Cocart, great sprinter and DeLee, great sprinter. Yes. Yeah. Very close many, many times throughout this tour, but they're going to go home empty-handed which is uh unfortunate yeah you know but but they're young guys too they're young i mean they well car is not that young anymore uh but uh you know it's it always happens jb you know it's there's there's there's five six seven eight sometimes ten teams uh or more that go how home without any victory or

uh how old the scorecard you're right i'm sorry i i i get my people mix up he's 32 years old 32 okay and it's still pretty fast my bad he looks young he looks he looks young though but delhi is But Ali is only 22. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, but now this week, it comes to a point where we'll see tomorrow and the day after, those two stages, we're going to see crazy attacks, desperate attacks. Everybody knows that it's their last chance, not just to be in the game for a for for a stage i mean actually to be on tv it comes down now to okay guys listen we're not

going to be in stage you guys are all fucked but at least let's show ourselves right and so the next two stages are going to be like this um and then it's just a matter of how hard the director pushes, how much authority he has, and how much the riders care. You know, you get to a point in the Tour de France also where no matter how much you want it, you just don't have it anymore. Because to go out there in a breakaway, you still have to be pretty good. And there's not that many riders left anymore that are pretty good. So, but the next two stages are not going to be a walk in the park.

Now let's, let's talk about the sprint. So, you know, if anybody did not watch it, I think most people, just looking at the results from this tour they're mostly looking at gear may and Philipson yeah you know and then gear may crashed out on a very it was a tough run in and that lot of roundabouts and then you know even Lance Lance said this when we were watching because it was so close to the finish they put up the barriers with the legs and that's what they got pushed into but quite often on those roundabout situations those riders if they get pushed out they just bunny hop over it and they're fine yeah um that wasn't the

case it it took guillermet out he didn't lose time because it was within the 3K, or they may have even done this one farther out, right? Today was back to the 3K long. Back to 3K. Yeah. So now, okay, Phil, well, I'm going to get ahead of myself. Philipson wins with an amazing lead out. We'll come back to that in more detail. But now we've got this points competition,

which is very tangible for Philipson to maybe come back. It's something to watch in these remaining days. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, I've seen conflicting reports. I've seen the, okay, so Guilmar goes down on one of those roundabouts. First of all, there was way too many roundabouts. You look at the last five K, I think there was 10 roundabouts in the last five kilometers. More importantly, there was three, three roundabouts in the last kilometer.

Uh, they did a pretty good job in fixing one of the, so basically they, they, they, they flattened it out. And the last roundabout, they did a pretty good good job to to make it as safe as possible but I still cannot get my head around why they absolutely need to finish on that particular place knowing that they have three four five roundabouts in the last three four kilometers um anyways uh bad luck for guillem. Independently of the crash, and that's always what happens. It was a relatively easy stage for everybody. Everybody knew it was going to be breakaway.

Automatically, when they go slower in the beginning, they go crazy fast at the end. They were fighting for position until the three-kilometer sign. We could see a lot of stress. Usually, you know, the sprinters teams, but especially also the GC teams did today. The difference with Visma and UAE was that Visma was keeping Jonas up there all the time until three get a go. And Bogacar was kind of surfing the wheels, looking a little bit,

sitting back a little bit um not wanting to take any risk uh and his team didn't either so uh that was a difference compared to the other days i guess also because you know if you have a three minute lead it it gives you a little bit more of a buffer right uh but anyway getting to the last kilometer, we could see that some team, UNOX did an amazing job for Christoph. They were fighting. I even saw our good friend Jonas Abramson doing a very real headbutt against another guy.

I have seen debates on social media that he should have been disqualified. It happens. I mean, as long as you keep your hands on the handlebars, it happens all the time. But, you know, as soon as we get into the last kilometer, we could see that,

okay, this is Philipson's race. This is, you know, today, I think Alpecin did a perfect lead out you know they had johnny vermier uh until like one k to go then they had robert and then finally they had multi-wonder pool who really let it out and you know we can see here i put this picture together um you know especially because you know with this kind of finish you know with a few roundabouts in the last kilometer having a lead-out train like this is such an

advantage you know because because you could see like okay first we have um we have robert hayes who uh first we have the unix guy just pulling off and with meters to go. Then Robbe Geis, the third last guy from Alpecin, he goes till 550 to go. With 400 meters to go, Van der Poel takes over and you can see here on this middle picture, that's already a line. It's a complete line and from there on you know,

okay, Philipsen's winning. Because Van der Poel is going to accelerate here. On the next picture, until 250 to go, you see that it's already lined up. Everybody's sprinting in the wheel of Van der Poel, and Philipson is still checking when he's going to go. Finally, with 200 meters to go, Van der Poel goes to the right, and he opens the road for Philipson. Philipson just needs to say, okay, the line is 200 meters they get full gas nobody came next to his wheel or even close to his way he won like with with

two bike lengths um this was you know textbook lead-out train and also you know incredibly done especially by matthew vanderpool um what a difference compared to the first week when we had a few sprints and Alpecin did not get their lead out train right. This was really, I mean, that's how you, I mean, if you write a scenario of how to lead out a sprint, this is the way it should be done. Didn't we even see one where Van der Poel gapped Philipson a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. So I think Philipson a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.

So I think Philipson's come on stronger and so is Vanderpool. I think both of them are really coming on in this final week. Yeah, definitely.

Also, Philipson said that he has felt his condition grow in this Tour de France. I think, you know, the same, it's the same like

with Jonas, right? I think more than the condition was the confidence that grew and, you know, not doubting anymore, choosing your right moments. But, you know, Same like with Jonas, right? I think more than the condition was the confidence that grew. And, you know, not doubting anymore, choosing your right moments. But, you know, today he, when he went, there was no slowing down.

You could see that the power was there until that very last pedal stroke. He was not dying to get to the finish. And if you listen to the interview of Bauhaus, who's second, he says, you know, I have to be really happy with this result because there was nothing I could do. Philipson was just faster. I was in ideal position. I couldn't even put my head out because if I put my head out, I got all the wind and there was nothing I could do. So, I mean, third stage win for Philipson. What started as a tour with doubts and he got his sprints wrong and everybody was starting to say, oh, he's not as fast anymore.

He is fast. He is fast. Three stage wins. Last year was four stage wins. This year, three stage wins. I mean, winning more than one stage in a Tour de France is a huge accomplishment. And now he wins three. The question is now, you know,

what's going to happen with the green jersey battle, right? I think that's one of the interesting things that it's left. Of course, the yellow jersey battle, I think we can expect some attacks still from Jonas. But, you know, bummer for Guilherme, from Jonas, but, uh, uh, you know, bummer for get my, you know, because, uh, he goes down. I mean, he got to the finish. Um, he was pushed by his teammates. He's a bit hurt. He's a bit hurt. He got stitches. I heard, um,

it's going to depend on tomorrow, how he wakes up. Yeah, he did. He, you could see a cut on his hip, uh, but in his post interview, yeah, you got a couple of stitches in his elbow and he said he hit his knee pretty hard. That could be the kind of thing that you wake up to a much bigger problem than, than you realize. Yeah. Yeah.

Especially because the two next stages are hard stages. Now the advantage for Gilmai is that he is in great shape and that normally he should be a bit better on difficult terrain than than philips and so i i think that both of these riders will try to go in breakaways for that first intermediate sprint in the next two stages. If Alpecin tries to control the race until tomorrow, for example, tomorrow is super difficult to control the stage because the first sprint is after 115 kilometers. There's only one intermediate sprint, but, you know, it's not an easy terrain to control.

It's a lot of work for usually, normally, I mean, if they make it a sprint, Philipson could win, but Girmay will be second or third. So it doesn't really bring anything. So I was saying I've heard some conflicting interviews. The team management says we're going to go full gas now for the green jersey. Then I heard Philipson and Van der Poel, and they said, you know, well, you know, we don't want to really win like this.

Plus, you know, it's still 32 points, and the points, it's still 32 points and the points it's only going to be the points at the intermediate sprint so it may be a difficult task I think

Van der Poel in his mind his tour is done already he's not he's not he's not going anywhere anymore so he's just

he's happy with his form he said he tested his legs a few times was happy with how he felt and he's, you know, focusing on the Olympics. I'm assuming you saw this because you always watch the post-race interviews, but even Jeremiah said that the green jersey is not important to him. Did you catch that?

I did not. I did not. And then that may not have been the exact words, but he said, you know, I think, but I think he said the green jersey is not important. What's important to me is getting to Nice, probably after he hit the pavement, right? If you go down on the, and you could have like, anybody who has ever crashed a bike, and you know this, obviously, you don't know the damage at first, right? All this stuff goes through your head and the adrenaline's rushing even when you go to the line you know with your teammate you just don't know what the damage is and that's what made me think he's saying you know because he's got three wins it's this Eritrean history it's it's uh it's a great story to be ashamed the green jersey is important if it's especially now so close and knowing that there's no more sprint stages you know okay he wins three stages that's amazing but i mean winning the green jersey uh that's that's you know it's he isn't it's already historical what he did right yeah but um yeah taking the green jersey i think it's really important i know but it's one stage win of guillermet is an amazing story and and just that it may have just flashed through his head like

oh my gosh i might not get to finish in Nice. Yes. I'm just thinking about something now, JB. Imagine, of course, the crash of Guilherme, that's an incident of the race. You cannot avoid that. It happens. Let's go back to the first week and

let's imagine that that particular day, Philipson does not get relegated. He's in green. Oh gosh. That day we said, wouldn't it be a shame if that becomes a differentiator? I forgot about that. It's going to come down to those points. Oh man.

Cause I think he lost 50 something points there. It's coming back to haunt him. it's just such a small thing yeah oh man okay good point um anything else from today you're looking ahead to tomorrow i do we do have vintum trivia and a a couple of good emails um nothing else nothing else um you know i i saw that some guys were really happy to have an easier stage um you know but most most of the guys are just you know they're just looking towards getting the niece now uh there's a lot of people like it's typically typically jb you know the first week you see that these sprint stages and everybody and in the final 5k everybody hangs on right like now you see the pack of the peloton people are just getting off and off and off and to the back because they

just don't care anymore you know they just yeah they've been working hard and they just want to get there. Did you ever participate in a tour that did not finish in Paris? It has never not finished in Paris. It's the first in history. And of course it's because of the Olympics, but yeah, that's interesting. The Olympics start in 10 days, by the way. Yeah. And the Giro has changed that, where it finishes. Yeah, the Giro finishes. Yeah, the Giro changes it.

Sometimes Milan, sometimes Rome. It has finished in other, yeah, the Giro has had different finishes, but the Tour never. And the Vuelta? Usually finishes in Madrid, usually. But I've done Vueltas that did not finish in Madrid. Okay. Where did it finish? The one you did? In Galicia, in Santiago de Compostela.

Ah, okay. I'm going to have to look that up. Ventum Trivia. We're going to give away a brand new NS1 road bike on the last day of the tour, which is the end of this week. The question from Sunday was, what city and country was Bradley Wiggins born? That was Ghent, Belgium. Ghent, Belgium, yeah.

And then the next question for today is a little insider, but I think you can find it in a Google search. Matthew Riccatello is a rising star in the pro peloton. His dad, friend of the show by the way jimmy was also an endurance athlete what notable event did he win during his triathlon racing career jimmy ricotello i'm sure if you google that you'll find it send the answer to vintim racing dot com slash the move um and also through the end of this month 20% off on a brand new ventum all right if you go to ventum racing comm 20% off and use the code the

move 20 the move 20 when you check out you get 20% off your brand new bike here are a couple of questions first one from Keith he says thanks for a great show is my question is is today's new coach Javier Sola primarily responsible for his improved performance this season and in the Tour de France if so and what uh way has his training changed that you know of that's Keith in Cape Town yeah well we all know he changed the coach I think by the way I think uh Almeida and Adam Yates did the same thing I think they're I'm not sure if they're with Javier Sola but they did change coach the former coach was uh Spanish a Spanish uh guy living in the US, by the way. His name was Sam Dilan.

What I've been told is that before, until before this offseason, Pogacar was mainly, mainly focusing on, the majority of his training was zone two. Always zone two. A lot of zone two. For this season, he has changed. He's done more intensity. He's done a lot more higher intensity and also training on very long climbs above zone two.

The result is there. I mean, it's a big change uh i i if you remember you know if i go back to our podcast about strada bianca when when poca came back into the competition um after last year i could see this guy's on a different level you know is this not the same guy he's just so much better uh and he's done the same throughout the whole season um so you know something he has done differently must be working really well and i've been told it's like it's a it's higher intensity on longer climbs and the you know tell our audience like say you're a you know a decent rider but you ride on the weekends with big groups and stuff.

Like what is, you like to do big rides. What is zone two for typical athletes say they have a max rate of heart rate of one 90. Well, don't, I mean, it depends, it depends on everybody, but you know, a good, a good way of, of, of, uh, I mean, zone two is an effort that you feel it's, it's not like, it's not going very, very easy, but you can still have, it's that like, just on the limit of having, of having a conversation in full sentences, as long as you have to, when you have to start talking in like in single words or, uh, wait, wait, I'll tell you the rest when I get to the top. That's not zone two anymore. You should be able to converse.

Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Hmm. Okay. Another question here from Lucio says, Hey guys, long time listener from the original stages pod. Always great to get the insights of the team at the move. Just wondering what Johan thinks about the following. UAE seems a much better team and unit since the departure due to Juan Ayuso.

Is it just me being a conspiracy theorist or was he a bit of a disruptor in the team? That's from Lucio in South Africa. And I wasn't going to do that question, but I got several that are very similar. Like, was it good for UAE to send Ayuso home? What are your thoughts? Well, I mean, first of all, he abandoned because that's positive for COVID, right?

So I think that he felt the symptoms, he felt the consequences of covet because he was he was riding pretty well uh for himself and then all of a sudden he lost on that particular stage when when Jonas beat pogacar he lost seven minutes there so um they didn't send him home he had to go home because he was sick um one thing is for sure is that they don't seem to miss him they're strong and uh the six guys that are there are are you know are strong enough to support pogacar and are strong enough to control the situation um i mean going as far as saying since he's gone the the team functions better, I wouldn't necessarily say that.

I think, you know, we all go back to stage four when Ayuso was, you know, there was this incident with Adam Yates and with Almeida. Almeida called him to come to the front. I think that the road would have put him in his place and the situation of the whole race would have said Pogacar is by far the strongest guy we need to all be behind him I keep saying this is not so much

an issue of the cyclist we all know that Juan Ayuso is a great cyclist. He has a huge potential. I think that there was not a clear enough message to him before this race. And then from the team management, I would say, and there you could argue, yeah, when he's Spanish, he's probably one of the

preferred riders of Machin who's the the sports manager and maybe he's not clear enough towards what I usually that's just me saying that from a distance right I don't know what's going on within the team but that's that would be my take on things but if he would have stayed in the race

I mean after you know after, you know, after the, after the next mountain stage, um, he would have been in the position of Almeida or, or, or Adam Yates or, or Sivakov, you know, um, he would have done his job. Uh, otherwise, otherwise they would have sent him home on purpose. So, so I, I don't, I mean, you know, I don't think – there are seven strong riders, six of them at the service of Pogacar, and they're just going for one goal. And usually when you have the yellow jersey and you see that the leader is so strong, these guys are going through a wall for him.

They're going to kill to do their job I know on a previous JV squared maybe probably a couple years ago I asked you if you ever sent anyone home because they they weren't playing well with others? The answer was yes. We don't have to revisit that right now. But as a director, did you ever have to pass on a writer who physically absolutely should have gone to the tour or another grand tour, but you knew mentally they weren't going to be in domestique mindset and it might be a problem. And so you said, just don't take them i've made those decisions yeah yeah you just said yeah but

physically they would have been a great asset if they were willing to work exactly yeah wow that's unfortunate did they know that's the reason why back then probably not i don't I mean, I haven't had those discussions anymore with them since then, but, but yeah, yeah. I, I, I had to make those kind of decisions. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's a tough role. He's not going to spill anything on this. That was me putting my journalist hat on trying to get you to say something dirty i wouldn't do that i won't do that to you hey send your questions in this is the last week you get to ask johan everything and we need to have you on the move

well there's a spot now you're right i mean there's a there's a free spot because bradley has gone so we need to it. He's rumored to be coming back. Okay, well, let me know when he comes back so I can get on before he comes back. Maybe we can do it tomorrow. We do have a guest at the very end of the show, but I'll send a note to Lance and George. I think tomorrow would be a good day.

Sure. Okay, all right. Great. Again, send your questions for Johan to move at wedo.team, and we will be back tomorrow. Thank you, Johan. Okay. Thanks, Davey.