THEMOVE - Carapaz Delivers & Pedersen Strikes Back | TdF 2026 Stage 18 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

Lance, George, Sir Bradley, and Spencer Martin (aka The Professor) break down Richard Carapaz's stage win from the breakaway and Mads Pedersen's incredible move to get into the move to pick up the intermediate sprint points. They also wonder why the GC contenders were racing so passively with just three days remaining to Paris, preview tomorrow's massive stage to Alpe d'Huez, and take listener calls before answering yesterday's Ventum trivia with a new question to close. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Ekoi: https://www.ekoi.com/en-us/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=podcast-weedu_us Kineon: Use code THEMOVE for $50 off or go to https://kineon.io/THEMOVE DraftKings: New DraftKings customers, sign up with code THEMOVE spend five bucks to get two hundred in rewards within 21 days. That's code THEMOVE. In Partnership with DraftKings. Ventum: Use code TheMove10 for 10% off anything at: https://ventumracing.com/ Eight Sleep: Use code THEMOVE at https://eightsleep.com/themove for up to $350 off. 30 days to try it at home. Free returns if it's not for you.

Todd has won the Tour de France, pretty much. Is he going to go all in for Deltore's third place or second place? Or is he going to try to set the record on Apple Wars? Or is he going to try to set the record? He's going to go for another stage one. I mean, that's the question. And that's going to make it, I think, I believe, really exciting. I mean, if he wants to set the record slash destroy the record, he can do that.

Yeah. Very easily. Welcome back to the Move podcast. I'm Lance Armstrong, joined by Sir Bradley Wiggins, who just fair warning, everybody. You know, woke up early, had a lot of hater tots. A couple sips of haterade. He's ready today. And by the way, I love it.

I love it. I'm just teeing it up, Sir Bradley. And looks like the man is on the men, Mr. George Kempi. Also the professor, Spencer Martin. And while she's not on the video, you don't see her. We are staring right at her, Liz Croutch. She's sitting on her, as we said, at the top of the tour. Her gift of an Ottoman here in Aspen, people give away nice furniture items.

She took it from this guy. But Liz Crutz is here on set. And I only bring that up because, you know, this is Aspen, right? It's a summertime. There's a lot of wildlife, right, out there. We've seen bears. Obviously, bears walking around town. He's bears when you're out, you know, mountain biking or hiking, mountain lions.

But you never kind of know what you're going to see in Aspen. Like it's just a lot of these cowboy hats, like people go down and buy these these starter kit cowboy hats. You've seen these bradley? Anyhow, I'm riding this dinner party last night. And lo and behold, I said, Jesus, look at this wild animal. Riding through the streets, the mean, what the, honestly, what, Liz. Oh, you're terrible. What?

She's driving. That's the way she gets around. That is embarrassing. To make matters worse, it has a weedoo sticker on it. A couple. And to make matters even worse, worse, I actually drove that thing up here. And I lit it did. I turned the corner and I was like, look at this freak.

Oh, no. It's Liz. We are in the third week of the tour to France. Not a lot happening. We're going to get into all that. Before we do, speaking of wild animals, how's our French wild animal, Alain doing? Alain, what do we do today on stage 18? Stage 18 from Varon to Orcierer Merlet.

This is so good. From Vouron to Orcierer Merlet. See, that never gets old to me. Okay, let's get into it. I need everybody to wake up today because a lot, not a lot happening, but excuse me. I will say Richard Carapaz, you got to give it to him, right? Johan called it on the move plus yesterday with you. He has been trying and trying and trying to try.

This guy's a good rider. He's won the Olympics. He's won a Gero. He deserved the win. I am happy for him today. I thought that was really the only, No, that's not true. There were really two exciting things in today's stage.

His performance was, I got to give it to him. Carapas is a beast. He's a beast. Yeah, and every year we see the same thing in the third week of the Tour de France with Carapaz. He's a class act, and he deserved that win more than anyone today. Clearly. And I don't think he's done yet, as George was saying, when we were watching, he gets on a roll like this. There's no stopping him.

And real calculated, too. You saw yesterday, clearly he couldn't have been in that final move as well. I was probably hanging back just for today. The team controlled it from kilometer zero just for him to go up on that first category climb. So they had a plan and he just pulled it off and it was a really impressive win.

Well, he missed the move. It had to bridge to the move. And not easy then when you bridge up and everyone knows that you're the favorite to win and he still wins. It's funny, isn't it? Because I started watching the race at half five this morning and as underwhelming as the second half of every stage has been,

the starts are actually the best part of the day because it is just on. and just to make those moves I don't think a lot of people if you're just switching on the tour and watching that final 2030K you don't realize how hard it is to make the break and for Carapas to finish off the stage like that

what it took for him this morning to make it into that move is quite something At the same time, a day like today Carapaz is looking at the profile he's one of the Jiro de Italia like one of the best climbers in the world he knows he can make the break on a day like today. He knows it's not a...

For sure. It's not a lucky break. It's not a panic and break, a TV attack break. It's one of those hard man brakes, selective break. and he went into today, I'm sure, very confident that he'd make that breakaway. Yeah, the tour has taken his toll. It has been hot. Guys are getting sick. Brandon McNulty.

Another one of, looks like Adam Yates did recover today as we sort of talked about yesterday. Brandon McNulty, I suspect that's just going around in the team. He did not finish. But it's been tough. So, yeah, for these dudes in the third week, a guy like him, it's easier for him to do that. No, it's never easy, but he still got to go. do it. I still a question at the end, why was Red Bull pulling?

I still didn't. Why? Yeah. Why was any of that happening? Yeah. Why was Q36.5 polling? I could see they probably scared of Carapas creeping ahead of them in the GC. But right now Carapaz is he is 12 minutes.

No. Oh, he's like 13 minutes behind Tom Pitcock. Yeah, but they know this. Once this guy gets on a roll and they can't stop him getting the breakaways. I'm guessing that's why they were pulling. But it was strange tactics. And there was a couple of interviews after the race where they're saying UAE is not looking as strong

as they have this in the beginning of the race. Like obviously Brandon McNulty gone. Who knows if it was from the car accident two days ago or is getting what Adam Yates got. A couple other guys apparently didn't look great. But they'll tour our own Tate, of course, still look good. Yeah, I think for Red Bull, you know, it's a lot easier for them to set a pace like that when they're riding

to nullify the attacks because UAE ain't going to ride because they don't have the numbers anymore. and then it's easier to ride a tempo like that than it all back off and people start firing up the road. I want to save the, I want to save the, I want to go there on that conversation here in a sec. Because I'm just, I'm just sort of concerned. And I have questions about what we just watched, right?

We are three days from the finish. This was a summit finish in the Tour of France, heading into the final few days. Head scratcher for me, I'm not sure this is that interesting, frankly. But before we get into it,

let's talk about the move of the day, because I think we're going to have some, I actually do think we will not agree on this today. Of course, the move of the day, brought to you by 8th sleep. Eight Sleeps is a smart mattress cover that easily goes on top of any existing mattress, heats or cools each side, anywhere from 55 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, head on over to 8Sleep.com slash the move to get $500 off. I felt like it was, wow, is it gone up?

Anyways, $500 off a smart mattress cover until the end of the tour. This might be an old read. Anyways, it might be $3.50. So we don't get sued. No, that's right. It's because this is whatever. You get a nice discount. It is a game changer.

So, Bradley, your move of the day? Yeah, I'm going to go with Mudd's Pedersen. The disappointment yesterday in his interview, he was very straight. talking yesterday, very honest, and to go up a cat one climb today and make the break and do what he did. That was quite a ride. He's well and truly. He may have just sealed the green jersey there with yeah. Yeah, I'm going to go with, I think for me, the obvious move of the day of Carapass. Like I mentioned a couple of times, he was in the breakway. He had UAE not wanted to chase it down or the tactics were different from UAE. He probably would have won those stages as well,

but what a fighter. Just kept believing the team, the whole team, the whole team, was behind him. And I thought it was exciting. I mean, you know, he came to that final climb with some of the best climbers in the world and just kind of double attack them. First one was just kind of like a test attack, I believe, and then looked over and said, seeing the dosges, 4K to go. 3K to 3.5K to go. Carapaz was great, but I'm going with Pedersen. I mean, the race started on a cat one climb. And I had a strategy for a team in this race said last night, no way he can make it in it. No way. And some of the best climbers in the race can't get in the, that move and Pedersen goes up there.

And even though his little Trek team is chasing as hard as they can to keep him out of that breakaway, he's up there pulling as hard as he can. It was unbelievable. I couldn't. I was speechless. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah.

In terms of, I mean, look, it's a toss-up for me. In terms of difficulty, I think it was a lot harder for Matt's Pedersen to do that than it was for Richard Carapas to do what he did. They were both exceptional. But for a guy like that, I mean, And it's all on the line. Like we were kicking around before the show, does this shore up his green jersey? I mean, in theory, yes, but things can happen.

You could get a flat. I mean, Philipson could get some intermediate points that you just get no points, right? That starts to get close. Who knows what happens on those final circuits in Paris? But this is, I mean, and I'm with you. Like his interview at the finish yesterday, he was completely defeated and deflated. And he admitted in the interview that, hey, I think this comes down to Paris. And he must have gone to sleep last night or before he went to sleep, said, no, actually, let's try this.

That's so hard for it. He's a big guy. Man. Yeah. He wanted it. He wanted it. One and more. But at the same time, Carapass, exceptional.

I'm happy for him. I'm happy, and I'm not a big fan of that team. I'm happy that that team is now in the press for other reasons than their obnoxious team director who just runs to microphones when there's any sort of doping related thing coming in the news. That's been the press for that team up until now. So thank you. They also love to complain about Richard Carapaz and how much he makes, which is so

inappropriate, in my opinion. You probably should not be publicly torching your own writer, especially in a Netflix series. So it's great to see Carapas. Today's show also brought to you by Kenyon. We're excited for this year's show to be partnered with them. They got the Move Plus. Of course, that's not to be confused with spending.

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we said it in recent days, right? This fight for the white jersey, this fight for the podium, whether that's a fight for second or whether it's a fight for third. These are the days that this was supposed to happen. I said it on the pre-show, you know, the preview show, going back now three weeks. Just looking at this route, I'm like, what, what am I missing? Something's off here. This is not, this isn't dynamic.

This isn't now, of course, the riders make the race dynamic. But this is unfold. I was like, today, we're watching the race, okay? Now, granted, they should be showing Carapass. He's off the front. He's going to win the stage. Most of the TV time is on him. We did not see the Yellow Jersey group until Carapass had finished.

So I'm like, what is, it's a summit finish. We are three days from Paris. What the fuck is going on in this fight? Is anybody attacking Pocachar? Is anybody trying to get unseat Remko for second? Is what's going on with the white jersey? They're just chilling. Like, I just, I don't think that's that exciting.

I don't know who. I don't know. And here's, and this is where we were all riled up as we were watching. You know, this, look, we love this event, right? and we've all been there. We've all done this. This event somehow has to figure out a way to make it exciting and not become newsworthy because of a 2 a.m. doping control.

And I said it to you, Bradley. Like, I love sports. I watch a lot of sports. I read ESPN. I go, you know, that's ESPN.com. I'm like, what does it take for the Tour de France to get on the cover of ESPN.com Or the cover of the athletic? What is it, right?

If two guys got off their bikes and started fist fighting in the middle of a stage, that would make the cover. If somebody had a really bad accident, that would make the cover. And a 2 a.m. control made the cover. This is not how the event ought to be known. And so it's just... Yeah. And it's all that's been in the news the last four or five days since that happened. You know, everything that comes up on my social media feed,

is someone commenting on this 2 a.m. Doke control. And obviously more information has come out about it now. And the only person I've seen who's talked any sense about it is the head of the CPA, Adam Hanson, who did a great interview with someone yesterday who spoke a lot of sense in that and was actually very defensive of the riders.

But it's... He also said they didn't have to do the 2A. No, exactly. Which trumps someone else who decided to pipe up and make a comment, you know, that people dine out on. and love. So yeah, it's overshadowed this third week of the race, I think.

Well, back to your point about maybe not being as exciting for the GC paddle today. I mean, a lot of us, or I'm not, but I'm waking up early watching the stars. Spencer's, I mean, the shit is absolutely ridiculous at the start. I mean, these guys are going so hard to make Queen Jersey points to make the breakaways. The first two hours are over the top part, and I think it's actually nullifying a lot of the action at the end. Like they're getting close to the finish. They're like, we had to go so hard the first two hours. Yeah.

And that's completely shaping the way these finals are going right now. I think too many summit finishes too. Because who in their right mind was the tech pagachar? Because he's going to whack you. And also if pagacha first, he's pretty happy with that. Remko's second. That's like winning for Remko. He's not going to do anything.

Deltoro's third. He's pumped. Success is fourth. He's the only one with any grievance, but he's only 20 seconds back. So he's thinking I'll wait for up to West. Yes. Juanio, Uso. is,

might as well be on the moon, he's nine and a half minutes back. Schaemoses, six, he's fine. Like, there's no incentive for, but they're really happy

with fifth and six. I'm sure. That's a really great result for them. The good battle is for third. I mean, and the potential dent in the armor of UAE right now with Brandon McNulty gone, Adam Yates,

still recovering from this illness. Who knows if it's going through the team? I mean, there's rumors circulating. So perhaps the next three days are going to be excited. Yeah, but I guess, so Pugachachas in black shorts today,

which would suggest maybe he is the poops. And I don't think anyone should have attacked him, but if you think he's sick, would you not attack him on the funnel climb today? Well, like I said, I think they were just all dead there at the end. I mean, the first two hours. Yeah, by the way, I mean, you said that.

You mentioned that speculation as we were watching. When they finally went to that group, are you kidding me? This guy was pedaling one-legged. He might have been wearing black shorts. By the way, I think he should always wear black shorts. Yeah. This whole thing of like getting all dressed up and all the different things, the matching this and that,

that's stupid. We're black shorts. Eddie Merks wears black shorts. Fact. Just do that. So I don't, I don't read anything into that. All I read into,

or I saw, he was noodling. There's nothing wrong with Taday Pokachar. But, but, but what, what is it going to happen? Is Tadie going to go all in?

Tadie's won the Tour de France, pretty much. Is he going to go all in for, tour is third place or second place or is he going to try to set the record on out or is he going to try to set the record he's going to go over another stage one i mean that's the question and that's going to make it i think i believe really exciting i mean if he wants to set the record slash destroy the record he's he can do that yeah very easily that's which would explain why you know he doesn't he's not trying really in these stages i hope he does yeah i hope he does just go fly up

that thing rip the pavement right off it honestly at this point like go for it man well red bull leads him out perfectly now. So, but just to go back, and I think this may be ought to be and should be and will be the last time we talk about this 2 a.m. thing. It's just been too much, right? It never should have happened. Let me just be really clear. That never should have happened and should never happen in the future. It's the hardest sporting event in the world. No other sport would tolerate it. But if you want to do stupid shit like that, how about we, do you say, okay, I was thinking. I was like, all right, well, if we have to do that, then I get the day off, right? And I said this,

as we were chatting about it. You know, these guys are also tired. The rooms are hot. You know, it always guaranteed good sleep. What if a guy, a lot of these guys can't sleep. So they're taking small doses of some sleep aid. Well, you take a sleep, imagine everybody listening or watching has taken some sort of a sleeping pill in the past. Somebody comes and knocks on your door at 2 a.m. And you've had a sleeping pill and you've got to, you get disrupted. You've got to go back to bed. There is no way you can get a. up the next day and be clear-headed and have, be laser-focused on an incredibly dangerous sports. It's not fair. So give me the day off. How do we like that? George didn't necessarily

love that idea entirely. He said, well, you know what? You still have to ride the stage, but we give you the time of the winter. I love that idea, by the way, George. I mean, these are all, if you're going to do that, then you have to also offer up something else. I mean, but again, all of these ideas are dumb. It just shouldn't happen. I don't care. Fact. Well, the tours shouldn't have, as you say, if this is on ESPN.com, go there now.

Then the tour should not have let it happen, like protect your brand a little bit better. But then it's pretty infuriating when Adam Hansen, smartest guy probably any of us know, is saying, well, we actually don't even have to do that. Right. This is the last. Spencer, have you ever seen a dog chase his tail? You ever seen it? I have. It's sad.

It's sad. Yeah. You're watching the dog. You're like, wow, that's not good. This sport has been that dog for 30 years. They have tried more and done more and been more aggressive than any other sport in the world. And this is what I said, the day that this came out, you will not get credit for this, right?

And it doesn't matter that Jonathan Botter says, I would rather lose a night of sleep than lose credibility. Yeah, you're right. They dine out on that one, Bradley. That is a great line. You're not going to get any credit for that. So don't do it. We will be back in three minutes and 32 seconds.

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And we are back. Everybody chilled out. That was slightly longer break. So Bradley did go number one. Everybody just we just did a little team meditation. Just kind of recenter everything. Reset. Yeah.

Reset. Namaste. Recenter. All that. We did it all. Down dog. Child's post. Let's,

I mean, we're just going to talk about tomorrow's stage. I think if you get bored, go look at Saturday stage too. Quite interesting. But let's look at tomorrow's stage. I mean, look, we got to be real.

I mean, this is Alpdouez. This is, I can only think of, for my mind, when I think of sort of the Lambo fields of cycling in France, I mean, you have Alp Duaz. And you have Malphan, too. To me, those are the two, the most sacred finishing climbs in the tour that you could possibly have. And we get it tomorrow. We get Alp Duz, and we're going to see, we touched on it a second ago. What does Tade do? By the way, when you mentioned that, does Pontani still have the record?

Yes. I think it's considered unbreakable. So, I would love to see Tadda go for it. And that records from 95, isn't it? Well, 97. Yes. It was an interesting stage. I wasn't there, but it was a very short stage.

Didn't they, I believe they started in Grenoble. Yeah, they started in Grenoble short stage. It was basically a team time trial. They got it, he had quite the lead out. Outtaways, you can also, you know, you could have a team riding for you the first, I don't know, a few K, but I would wholeheartedly disagree that it's unbreakable. I mean, I think I, in the TTI, I think I got within a few seconds. They're saying, this list is saying the records from 97 and it says Lance was a second behind. It was close.

You would think, though, that's the best conditions you would ever do it. Time trial, no stage before. You had to leave, this is why I was saying, you can still, you can, if that's all you're doing and it's an individual time trial, you can go very fast. But if you have a team with you, like Pontani did for the first two, three, four kilometers of the climb, setting pace, that can be beneficial. Nonetheless, I mean, I think even with this stage at four, no, sorry, three thousand five hundred meters. So call that just over 11,000 feet. And it's short. And it's, yeah, 127.

I think Tadi Pogachar, if he wants, can break that record. You guys want to hear that five fastest times. Marco Bentani, Lance Armstrong, Marco Penton, Lance Armstrong, Marka Penton, and then Jan Orick's the sixth. Have we done Elb Do you since Tom Pitcock won? I was just going to ask you guys, who was the last rider to win? It was Tom Piccock. That was 2002. Do you know who won before that?

Before that? I do, actually, yeah. You know this person. very well. Yeah, groin. Yeah. So the last two winners are British. Yeah.

But yeah, I think he could, I think he probably does want to go for the record. I don't know him, but I would imagine that would be, especially on a stage like this, that's short, not overly hard. And before that, does he want to go for the record? Or is he nervous about his guys being sick and just playing defense now? Why would he be nervous about that if he's setting the record, though? Yeah. Well, he's going to need his guys to get him to the bottom of climb. Is he going to go for the record just for the record?

But Red Bulls going to get to the stage. Right? Well, I mean. Q36.5. Total energy. You have all these teams to take you. Yeah, well, they were chasing. I mean, look, it is a day where, I mean, you could, there can be a, and there's a long ways between.

There's a long ways. There's a long ways. I mean, the, the first category one climb is at 25 kilometers. Bottom of Alptoese is at 116. There's a lot, there's a lot of, there's a lot of time for the. Now, see, I think, I just think that would, look, I love breakaways. I think in the third. week guys should go for those and be rewarded for those, but not on Alpdews.

Alpdews, we need to see the big dogs up there. Everybody at the front, start at the bottom together and fucking let it rip. That's what we need to see. If there's a break out there that gets 15 minutes and we're not even seeing the Yellow Jersey group on Alpdawez, I just said three minutes ago, this is this, this is hallowed ground. We need to see them duking it out here. It was a breakaway the last time.

It was a breakaway. Yeah, we should be prepared that a breakaway. And it went over the Gallibier. Yeah. That day. Well, and Pitcock missed the move and it got in on the descent. I was behind him on the motorbike then. With Chris Frum, right?

No, he blew by Frum and made him look like he was stalled. The Frum made that breakway, though. Frum was in the break. Frum was third on that stage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just realized something.

It's been an incredibly hot and sunny summer up here in Aspen, right? Every day. In fact, maybe too much sun and too much heat, not enough rain. We did. We woke up today. First time this summer, woke up just pouring up, rain dark dark clouds gloomy rainy wet cold yeah i feel like that we just absorbed that that could it wasn't the hater tots we could be the weather yeah we're also in a windowless

basement it's probably yeah you never know what are you talking about i have a beautiful what are you talking about these are beautiful views you don't see these views oh yeah look i see you're on some lake what are you talking about like geneva right now hey speaking of lake oh never mind We'll tackle that later. Oh, here it comes. That isn't, that's not happening. It's still up for debate. It's not.

That's not. The team has spoken and the team wants this to be a discussion. Right. Right. Right. Well, I'll tell you a funny story. One time I was, of course, I obviously have quite a history with Oprah Winfrey. Everybody knows.

But before the history that everybody knows about, we'd done some other episodes, other stuff together. And we did a thing at her property in Santa Barbara one year. And one of her producers or something wanted me to do something kind of corny. And I was like, God, I don't want to do this. And I went over to Oprah and I said, you know, what? I don't want to do this. And she goes, don't do it. I go, really?

I don't have to do it. And she goes, no, don't do it. And she goes, you know why? because this is the O pro-winfrey show. So just keep that in mind when you're thinking about moving locations in 2027. I like that. It's like, I love you. All right, let's, we're running out of time.

You got two or three days to call us, leave us a message. That phone number, 9707182736. Colvin? Caller number one. Hey guys, Craig Lempke here from Denver, Colorado. Can you guys walk us through what it's like riding to those insane crowds in the mountain stages? What do you hear when you're in the middle of it all? How do you stay focused with so much going on around you?

And despite the chaos, is it actually fun? Thanks, guys. Love the show. That's a good question. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the thing I remember most about going through the crowds at certain times, when we were on the coldude perisorde in 2012 which is at Luchon is a big

hangout for British people, certainly in the summer and lots of people come to Luchon to watch the Tour de France in all that kind of chaos riding up these climbs and the effort you're making you would always spot someone you know in the crowd who just stabbed out of the road and goes Got our bread! You go oh that was Dave from Preston

like all whatever you know it's just yeah it's just interesting Yeah it really just depends too if it's a final climb if you're in the first group, if you're in the groupetto, like there's all different scenarios when you're going through these people. If you're in the groupetto, it could be a lot more fun. Like you said, you see people to know.

But when you're going for it, like, it doesn't really even affect you. You hear the noise, but you're so focused that you're not letting any of that stuff, like mess up your focus. Yeah, and there's always something that makes you laugh as well. Like some guy will run next to you dressed as a giant penis. Yeah, Borod. He's got the thong like Borat. I get that question a lot.

I mean, I think it, for the lay person that watches the race, they watch and they think, wow, that must be scary or you must be sort of worried that people aren't going to get out of the way. It's never scary. It's never, it's never, it's not always pleasant. I mean, there are times that are, their people are more animated and they are not your fans, but they're not going to do, it's just not going to do anything to you. Now, over the course of a hundred years, have they done stuff to certain riders? Yes, was Eddie Merck's punched and had to, with draw from the tour, yes, but that just doesn't happen. Of course, now we live, people could be

very difficult to get away with that now. Everything is filmed. Everything is on TV. You would be caught immediately. They're not all respectful. They're not all fans, but that's okay. And I think most of those, if not, no, I think all of the writers actually enjoy it. Like it is so intense. They're right on top of you. You have this sort of subtle, just knowing that they're going to get out of the way, right? Also, too, keep in mind, especially when it's a small group, there are cars right behind. So the people aren't stupid. They see the riders, but they also see the cars and the motors. They know that they have to get out of the way. But it's very special. I mean, it, and I think most guys really really look forward to it. It's what makes our sport unique, isn't it? If you took the crowds away,

we wouldn't have a race, would we? No. No. And you see it. I mean, you see this. And for whatever, reason, I guess, just to kind of make things a little cleaner and a little safer towards the finish, two or three kilometers from the summit or from the top of the climb, they start barricading the road. And then you see, I mean, you're going from what looks like a million people to 50 people, because nobody wants to be behind the barriers. They want to be on the road, touching the riders and yelling in their face. but the second they put those barriers up,

which sort of flies in the face of what you just said, the people don't want to be there. And you're a heyday, were you ever, did you ever have fear? I think we didn't sometimes one year or two years you had security, right? I mean, there was, yeah, I mean, there was a couple of years there that were a little. But I never, you didn't worry about it like in the race. You wouldn't think about it. No.

No, I was given. Outta West. 2004, Opt-O-West. a lot going on. That was the year trying to break a record. Say it again, trying to break a record. But it was also an interesting time globally, politically, geopolitically, right? 2004, we had just invaded Iraq.

It was wildly unpopular in France and mainland Europe. It was unpopular all over the world. I had a very close relationship with President Bush. People knew that. That was well publicized. I just assumed. I was riding around the country. We were riding around the country in a jersey that said the United States, Postal Service.

So, I mean, you just kind of keep adding them up. Plus, I wasn't doing myself any favors to endear myself to the public. And that Alp the West Time Trail, that was, I've never had an experience like that where the State Department gets involved. Yeah. And says, do you really want to do this? I said, what are you talking about? And then they say, the threats are credible. Do you really want to go out there?

Of course I'm going out there. There was no doubt in my mind. I said, I'm going to go start my warm-up now because I'm going out there. I'll be fine. And I was. The U.S. was not as popular as it is now in Europe. Didn't Johan have someone in the car? I didn't want to get to that part.

There were people stationed on the climb. There were people in the car. But I just didn't think about it. All right. Bring that in days. And then it was so nice to, it wasn't nice to catch Basso because I really liked him. But I thought, boy, at least I'm with somebody who I know really likes me. I'm good with this guy.

All these other people, I'm not so sure. I think it'll ever do. Never do another time traveling out to us? Or is it too crazy? No, it was beautiful. I mean, that's what? I think there was upwards of a million people. on the roadside.

Amazing. Amazing. I don't know. I'm not picking the route. I think the bus boys of France are picking the route. This is not an exciting. I mean, I do think we're going to see big crowds tomorrow, though. They're going to camp up their days before.

They're going to get two days, so they know that they don't have to go anywhere to get two days of action. It's going to be huge crowds. Yeah. And it's out who has special in, like, certain corners or certain countries. country. The Dutch corner, the Danish corner, it's really cool. Are the buses at the top or do you have to ride back down up to us? I think they're staying at the top. Stay on top. There's a lot of space up there. Finish the next day. All right. Caller number two.

Hello. This is Dale from King's Fort, Tennessee. I got a question for George. How did he convince Melanie to leave the 2003 tour for him? What was his move of the day? I'm going in strong. It's funny, we actually told that story last night. Met her in Paris. Well, we won the team classification, so we went up on the podium. She gave us a little lion. At the start, because the start of the tour, the prologue was in Paris.

Yeah, the prologue was in Paris. We had three guys in top ten. Best team the next day. She gave us the lion. I was like, how are you doing? Went back to the bus. I go, guys, I met it, how you doing? They're like, you say that every day.

I'm like, no, this time I really mean it. So I spent the next two weeks trying to get her number. She totally blew me off. Didn't want to give me her number. She was nice, but was not interested. But her driver was a big fan of ours, and her driver slid me the number. So I got the number and I started texting her.

She's like, what in the F? How do you get my number? This is pretty DMs. This is 2003, folks. Nobody's sliding in any DMs. I slid her a note. And she wrote back saying, I'm not interested. But underneath the note was a number in a different color ink from the driver.

he gave me the number obviously. So I started texting her and here we are 20 years later. And Dale. And we still have the note frame there. That's better if I tell that story. Dale, if you ever get to go to George and Mel Hinkapie's house in Greenville,

the note is framed and on the wall. It doesn't warm your heart. Bradley. You do shit like that? And she got kicked out. Yeah. She got kicked out. She got, they found out that there was some, whatever, and she got told to leave. Yeah.

True story. Really? Two days before the finish. Yeah. Is that a rule within ASO? Yeah, no. Like, yeah, they saw us talking, like at the start, it's too much, and maybe at the finish, too much.

And then she's like, they were like, you got to stop talking to him. She's like, I'm going home. So she got fired. Oh, she went home all right. She went home. Took her back to Greenville. Greenville. One of Greenville.

First, Gerona. Drona, Philly, and then Greenville. Well, listen, it's a love story, and that's a great story. Three beautiful kids later. Got a daughter in college. Obviously, Enzo out, getting kick-ass results. Luca right behind. I have a feeling.

Yeah. Lucas picking up bad habits, watching his dad shout everyone on the bike part. Yeah. Or getting shouted out. Unfortunately, he has witnessed that this week. See, I'm glad we did this call in line. This was the damn good idea. And they've been good.

And I understand we get to, we get to kind of call through them and pick the good ones. But they've all been good. Yeah. And Coltland, I feel sorry for you because you got to listen to a lot of these. You have no telling them kind of shit. You got to listen to it. How many were you getting a day, Colin? Hundreds.

Hundreds. Really? Probably not so fun going through that. Yeah. Hey. No. All right, let's do some trivia and then we're going to get out of here because we've got to rest up. It's Alp de West tomorrow.

And the next day. Yesterday's question, the young riders have been a force in this year's tour. In what year was the best young rider competition, aka the white jersey, introduced into the race. Survey says, 1975. It was a great idea. I didn't know that either. And I also think, too, last night I was thinking they're going to have to lower the age. I mean, Paul Seishost is eligible for seven years.

years, we got to lower it. Yeah. Today's question, the finish, here I need a line for this, the finish at Orsier-Murlet is legendary for a 1971 stage where a Spaniard crushed Eddie Merck's taking around eight minutes. Who was that Spaniard? Head on over to ventumracing.com slash the move. Gets enter to win. $5,000 credit towards a favorite or the Venta bike of your choice.

Could be the NS one, could be the GS one. and our friend Dia over Ventim isn't done. He's continued. I'm not allowed to say very much, but he continues to innovate. Head on over to Ventam Racing.com slash the move. See all tomorrow.