THEMOVE - Could the Ongoing Protests Shape the Overall Standings? | Vuelta a España Week 2 Recap | THEMOVE

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Mads Pedersen's hugely impressive stage win on Sunday, where he powered away from the early breakaway despite being a heavily marked rider, further extending his incredible streak of Grand Tour stage victories and Points Jerseys. They debate UAE's continued reliance on aggressive stage-hunting tactics and whether the team is leaning too heavily into stage success at the expense of the GC, while also discussing if the ongoing—and escalating—protests could alter the final outcome. Before signing off, they look ahead to the final week, previewing tomorrow's post-rest-day summit finish, how they expect the race to unfold, and who offers the best betting value. AG1: Head to https://DrinkAG1.com/themove to get a FREE Welcome Kit, including a bottle of Vitamin D and 5 AG1 Travel Packs (a $76 value), when you first subscribe!  Ridge Wallet: Ready to upgrade your wallet and maybe your ride? For a limited time only head to https://ridge.com and use code [THEMOVE] at checkout for 10% off your order AND a chance to win Ridge’s biggest sweepstakes ever—a Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato, a Hennessey Velociraptor, or $100,000 in cash. No purchase necessary to enter, but every dollar you spend gets you more entries. Ketone-IQ: Take Your Shot— Get 20% off your order at https://Ketone.com/themove and use the code THEMOVE. LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at https://DRINKLMNT.COM/THEMOVE. Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share with a friend. Be sure to try the LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water. Helix Sleep: Their LABOR DAY SALE is ending soon: 27% off all orders on the site Go to https://HelixSleep.com/TheMove. Make sure you enter our how name after checkout so they know we sent you!  Use our special link to see where you can bet in your area and claim the best sign-up offers https://nxtbets.com/betoutcomes/

If I have a little stat here, Spencer, from Mats Pedersen, his last seven grand tours he did. Only one grand tour, he didn't win a stage. So he won one stage in the Tour de France, 2022, three stages in the Vuelta of 2022. Then in 2023, he won one stage in the Giro and one stage in the tour. Last year's Tour de France, he didn't win a stage and he abandoned after. a crash. And then this year, he won four stages in the Giro already. And now one stage in the Vualta. We don't know if it's going to be more or not. And also, I think it's also safe to say that now the green jersey is safe. There's nobody taking that from him anymore.

Everybody, welcome back to The Move. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johann Bernal. We are holding down the fort at the Move HQ, while everybody. is away. This August, we are breaking down the Vuelta, Spain. We'll talk about stage 15, won by Matt Spatterson, as well as the greater implications and what we see happening in the third week of this race in the GC, as well as predicting tomorrow's stage 16, which we think will be pretty critical in the overall. But first, let's hear from our partners for today's show before we get into it. The first one is AG1, the daily foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole body health.

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No purchase necessary to enter, but every dollar you spend gets you more entries. That's Ridge.com and use code. the move at checkout and after purchase if they ask where you heard about them just say the move because it helps us out all right into the show yohan mads peterson wins stage 15 seems routine right it's like a 50 rider breakaway gets up the road on the opening climb that we didn't see because it wasn't televised but we heard little trek attacked they actually initiated the move the genius of that is yasper phillipson the faster sprinter stuck in the back because he's in the peloton they immediately build up a gap peterson has four teammates in this

move they have five total riders and j vine at jvine with louis varvarka who is kind of in the top 10 gc so there's a reason he did it they go for the kom sprint and they just keep going they're they're like dangling two and a half minutes off the front of this fake peloton slash breakaway group with the real peloton like 10 minutes behind the gc group's just cruising it comes into the finish there's a climb the brakes splits on a climb peterson goes with it and then it that's even better because because Jake Stewart from Israel Premier Tech, who is in the breakaway, is now stuck back. If you remember, he beat Jonathan Milan in a sprint at the dofinae, I believe, earlier this year. So you don't want to sprint against that guy.

And Pedersen couldn't believe his luck because Marco Frigo, Jake Stewart's teammate, is taking polls in that front group. They come into the finish. It's dicey for Pedersen, though, because he's stuck on the front. Nobody wants to work with them. There's groups, there's riders attacking him. He has to respond. But then Frigo to the rescue again, he attacks with around 500 meters to go. Pedersen gets right in the wheel, goes through the final corner in perfect position.

Magnus Sheffield from Minio's crashes, unfortunately. And then Pedersen, once he's in that final straight, it was routine. He just powers away from everyone. Orlius Ular from Movistar gets second. Another second place from Movistar. He was really the only rider that could even challenge. And even then, he was multiple bike links back. Marco Frigo, Third, Sontagabatrigo, 4th, Eddie Dunbar, 5th.

But, Johan, what was your takeaway the day? And where do you see this race going after this day? Yeah, I mean, as you said, Spencer, incredible performance, impressive performance of Little Trek. I heard they attacked after 4K. It was a cat one climb from the start, so from kilometer zero, straight away 17 kilometers uphill. Not extremely steep, around 5%, but still, I mean, that hurts in the start of a stage. So instead of them trying to have as many possible teammates with Pedersen in the breakaway, they attacked themselves, which I think was a really, really, really smart move.

So Pedersen was there, Chicone was there, Verona. who else was there um i mean it was two other yeah two of the riders i don't know i had it written down somewhere but i can't find it but anyway they were they were strong that i mean 50 riders i mean that's like okay half the peloton you would you would want to think you know if you're in that group am i have i am i breaking away or if you're in the peloton do you say i got dropped by the peloton yeah the only thing the only thing to your favorite is that all the favorites are with you in the in the in the in the in the peloton so you you're you basically not dropped but anyways um i i think what's really worth highlighting here is how difficult this

is for a writer like matt's peterson to win from such a situation because he's first of all he's in incredible form you know he's he's an animal this guy uh this is his 60th win as a professional cyclist by the way um but the way he won was was impressive first you know once you're in that group then it's basically okay his team had to do a lot of work because vine and vervaca were ahead and they had at some point i think they had close to three minutes uh on on the break on the group uh and we all know that vine is is a motor you know never stops vervaca did an amazing job also uh but anyways they catch them um and uh for him for for for peterson i think

the tricky part was to be in the breakaway from the breakaway, the little group that goes away. And it happened that when there was a climb of four kilometers with about 20, 30 kilometers to go, there was a tax. And of course, all the teammates of Patterson were gone after all the work they've done. And I think the most impressive thing that I've seen actually from Patterson in this stage yesterday was that he was the only guy that could go with two Colombian. climbers on a climb it was egan bernal and santiago bidrago who attacked uh and peterson was the only rider who could hang on it was very difficult but he was there and then a few other riders

bridged up and then finally they caught the two of the two riders from the breakaway so um that was the tricky part for peterson and then of course in the final controlling the attacks from that breakaway, but you could say that for everybody else, it was super hard to make that seven-man breakaway. You could see that they were all on the limit. You know, there's not that much left. And Patterson was smart enough to keep the speed high every time. I mean, easier said than done, of course, but, you know, the commentators were saying, I, why are not attacking? But, you know, they were going 47, 48 kilometers per hour. Yeah. It's not that easy to attack at that speed, you know. Um, anyways, uh, impressive, impressive.

I have a little, a little stat here, Spencer from, uh, Mats Pedersen. Uh, his last seven grand tours he did. Only one two, one grand tour he didn't win a stage. So he won one stage in the Tour de France, 2022, three stages in the Vuelta of 2022. Then in 2003, he won one stage in the Giro and one stage in the tour. Last year, through the France, he didn't win a stage and he abandoned after a crash. And then this year, he won four stages in the Giro already.

And now one stage in the Vualta. We don't know if it's going to be more or not. And also, I think it's also safe to say that now the green jersey is safe. There's nobody taking that from him anymore. What a rider, man. I mean, it's incredible. You know, this is a guy that this winter. gets the news.

I don't know if it's immutable agreement or not, but that you're not doing the tour. We're putting everything on Jonathan Milan, right? And he goes to the Giro wins four stages and takes the points classification. And then goes to the Vuelta wins a stage and takes the points classification. Now what I'm saying is, Little track is going to win the points classification in all three round tours this year. with

Pereson. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. That's pretty impressive. I mean, they've come a long way this team. It's one of the three

super teams, I would say. Yeah. The only thing is is a GC rider, which I guess they're trying to fix with the signing

of the rumors signing of Juan Yuso, but that is really impressive. I mean, with this way not. So since 2020, or sorry,

since 2022, that's when Pedersen won his first Grand Tour stage, he has 11 wins. And, like, in that time, only Jasper Phillips and Tadipagacar have more stage wins than him in Grand Tours. That's really impressive. But the thing, like, even outside of those numbers, like, I don't know if people realize how hard what he, how hard he did is on Sunday.

To be the marked man in that move, to have Jay Vine and Louis Varca off the front, you have to pull them in, respond to the. these climbers and then you're kind of dangling on the front and everyone knows that you have to close them down that you see a lot of really good riders not win in that position like how many times that peter segan gets get skunked from that position yeah and also i mean there was there was the potential of course there's two dangers there's the the danger that somebody slips away and you know vine vine tried frigo tried um vervaca tried um i don't know who else tried but uh and then there's also the danger that, you know, after all these efforts, there's Luis O'Lah O'Lar, who's not slow.

I mean, he's a pretty good sprinter. You know, until you start the sprint, you don't really know. But he was, I mean, he was so dominant. It felt like the whole stage, him with his team, they were always completely in control of the situation. At no moment, was there any situation that he said, okay, they're not going to win this? Yeah. Yeah.

I was thinking I was like man is it is it a slam dunk that he wins this sprint and it's like no man it it also helps to be the strongest rider in the race which is what he appears to be he is absolutely flying out there I mean and you forget the crazy thing is he's he's like a classics writer moonlighting in these grand tours and then winning I mean it's it's theoretical but he probably wins the points jersey at the tour if he goes but if he does that he's not at the Vuelta, but he's won the zero in the Valta. The team wins the tour. Hard to imagine

him not winning that. I mean, do you think he'll be at the tour next year, Johan? Has he proven of the team? He's good enough to take. I guess it's going to depend on if they get Ayuso. I mean, it changes the whole dynamic. You know, I mean, but I think if

I would say if Ayusu goes to a little track, it's going to be Patterson over Milan that they're taking to the tour yeah he wouldn't take both of them pulling alpison no well i mean why not i mean listen if i used to go to the tour if he goes to the track first of all it's not sure he goes to the tour and if he goes to the tour he's not the favorite anyway so you know yeah like what are you ever going to have to you should no one should be thinking

we got to take control this race from ua and vizma like let them do the work Um, other thing we should talk about in this stage, JVine, off the front, looking good, looking, looking strong, but is that really the best way to be using? We, we debated on Saturday if the, if UA's using too much energy and breakaways. And they said, watch this. And they come back on Sunday. And I mean, it was impressive. He got the K-1 points, but then is pushing on for a long time. And I mean, what were the odds that they were ever, like there was a bunch of little track. riders back there chasing and it was a strong headwind too yeah it feels like still i mean it's yeah it's it's a lot of work it's a lot of work uh obviously it is and there's no denying that j vine is in incredible form uh that's number one number two today was a rest day um but everybody gets a rest day right so um yeah didn't we spend a lot of time during this year i say I feel like you were in like a high profile debate with someone about this, that one, like a piece of energy, a kilojewel of energy expended in the first week, hurt you in the third week. It does.

And these guys have expended a lot of kilojoules chasing these breakaways. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's also, I mean, it's the Vuelta. It's different. You know, if you look at the Peloton, Spencer, you know, I mean, with all the respect for the Vuelta, but there are. 20 riders in this race who want to do good in G.C. You know, some of them for top 10, some of them for top 20, maybe, I don't know.

And everybody else is just hanging on at this stage in the season. So it's not the same. But, I mean, we'll see. We'll see. Yeah. We can criticize their tactics. And we'll see if one day we're going to say, hey, you see, he was. not there when he had to be there and almeida i think the the key is and i think this is the

where everything you know all the all the debates have their origin is that is omeda strong enough to beat yonos wingerard you're within a minute of them on the second rest day though yeah you got to believe yeah i mean it's this and it's definitely definitely a lot better than we expected before a lot tighter than we expected before this uh well tabat has yonas been in trouble already you know one time with pitcock on that steep climb but that didn't really matter for the final outcome of the stage and of the gc yeah he is like he's one flat tire away from being in serious trouble that's true like i mean if you're within which yeah if you think about that close mechanical problems it can happen you know i mean yeah anything i mean we've seen

unfortunately we have seen this incident with uh the protesters or one protester who was hiding and then jumped on the on the road at the last moment and provoked the crash of kavi romo uh and another guy i don't remember who the other guy was but i don't remember it could happen to anybody this was the scariest one by the way we've seen because the other ones have been people protesting like almost having a purpose out there and it's like oh i'm in a peloton not maybe understanding what's happening this guy seemed to be hiding in the woods and then was running into the peloton he slips at the last second but if he doesn't slip and fall down like he crashes luckily he slips and you know but anyways uh it can it can happen so um we'll see um i think for the

moment, you know, we see Jonas is solid, I mean, solidly in red. I mean, there's only, there's one guy he really needs to follow. And I think then, you know, we have to think he made us closer than we expected and that Vizma and Jonas expected. And then I think we'll have a really nice battle for the podium, you know, between Pitcock and Jay Hindley. Yeah, yeah, that is a really tight one. But to me, this was the, this was the most egregious of the breakways, because what Salair on Saturday, we were debating that. But it's like, well, at the end of the day, Salar could have dropped back to help.

You know, he's up there and it's like, he's serving a purpose at, at some point in the GC if he's needed. This served no purpose whatsoever. And on a mountain stage, I can understand Jay Vine investing a ton of energy. I can understand Juan Yuzo investing a ton of energy. This, like, what were the,

they looked good. Like, they were flying out there. But at no point that I'd, did I really feel like they were threatening to win the stage? Like yeah, what are you doing this for like a 10% chance of success or less than that maybe? Especially if you've won seven stages already. Yeah. You know, on the contrary, if you look at Vizma, for example, you know, you could say, you know, in their, you know, in their favor or in their defense, you could say, well, you know, 50 guys.

It's almost logical you have somebody, somebody in there, right? Vizma didn't have anybody in there, you know? Or if you're in there, you can drop back, you know? Yeah. I don't know if you need to be up there if you're Visma. I mean, what, what are you even accomplishing? No, no, no. I mean, they are really riding around their leader and everything for G.C.

That's what they're in for here. And UAE has a different strategy. still you know i think if you look at the odds of winning for ua2 of winning this this welta they're slim i think they're not they're not they're not they're not in existence but they're slim because i i mean i mean this isn't roman barde five minutes behind chris frum this is it is pretty close and time trial you know the time trial will see they will happens there but anyway yonnas is a good time trial is also um i don't think almeida has ever taken a lot of time if any on yonas no a little bit a little bit at the tour i think

but you're one bad yonis day you're one bad yonis time trial away from yeah winning this race i just don't at some point you do have to buckle down because what are you doing this for an eighth stage win a third wouldn't that be j vine's third stage one of the race it's 86 uh 86 wins in the season you got to get they are they are up at 81 by the way after isaac del toro won the the race in italy yesterday well pencil them in for 82 with montreal coming up 10 stage 10 10th win of the season for isa del toro also 10 races he won what a rider yeah it's yeah incredible um i just this was i thought one of the weirdest decisions they've made because now they have a tough third week coming up where

they're going to have to try to crack Fizma yet the odds might not be great but the hayes in the barn Johan I don't know if they need more stagements that's where like but do you know what a team missed this group that was not visma that needed to be in this group cofidus oh well it's not looking good I've checked I've checked the rankings yesterday because I saw that there's some you know X riders who scored points in Italy and they're now already like 300 points ahead and yeah yeah it's it's not going to happen for go if it's how does that happen that the whole team misses the 50 rider move yeah that's not great yeah that's crazy yeah yeah especially when it's like it's actually hugely important that they be in the move well i mean then then the question is okay even

if you're in there how many points are you going to score you know i think their team is dead yeah they have nobody they have nobody who can in the last week it's not going to happen anymore yeah i guess you had to make that front split you know we haven't seen any go for this rider who has impressed us like say okay he's been in two or three breaks and this guy has come to our attention and might have a stage win in the legs there's there's none it's kind of weird Because they have, like, remember like Jesus Harada? He was always a guy that would do that, like Emmanuel Bookman. That guy was fourth at the Tour de France in 2019.

And like, with the level now where they're not in a breakaway, that that is that big is, is not great. But anything else on this stage before we move on to prediction time, stage 16 and beyond? No, I think we've covered the stage and, you know, what's ahead of us. Obviously, we still have a few hard stages. There is speculation, Spencer. I don't know if you saw that news, that because of the potential threat of protests in Madrid, that they actually are considering not holding the last stage in Madrid.

And actually, the VWELTA would finish on Saturday afternoon after stage 20. That's a possibility. So it might be that the VALTA finishes one day earlier. I would love this actually I mean sometimes these final days it's cool I think it was last year two years ago they had an amazing sprint and sometimes it's interesting but sometimes like

what are we doing? Why are we doing? And you don't finish a soccer game and then it's like all right everyone run out there around for 90 more minutes just the race is done and then we're done so you know the tour finishes in Paris you know the Vuelta finishes in Madrid usually it's a ceremony you know huge big podium it's not fun for the people in Madrid man let me tell you at the two years two years in a row I had actually appointments for dinner on Sunday evening in Madrid and it's impossible we everything is blocked off and it's it's pretty crazy I can't imagine yeah like I'm it's it's

It is scary, actually. I shouldn't be flipping about it. The fact that they're even thinking about canceling it already tells you that they're very concerned. And it makes me concerned about races. There's stages that aren't the last day. And also, I don't know if you saw yesterday stage in the last corner, there was a big manifestation there. And there's, there was extra police and they put an extra fence, actually, also for to, to prevent people from jumping over the fence in the last corner.

And there's extra police now that has been brought to the race to scout potential hazards on the course. I mean, it looked tense in that corner. It was, yeah, it was not a, it actually made me kind of sad for the riders. Can you imagine, like, you're coming in and instead of hearing like cheering, it's just it would, I think it would make it very unpleasant, the race in general. Like the final shoot is just people criticizing you, not like a fun race experience with crowds. For sure, for sure. But before we predict, Yohan, let's take a moment to talk about our partners today. The first one, it's a rest day at the Volta.

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recovery. It also boost athletic performance. They've been using it throughout the race. It's working clearly because they're in. They have such a commanding GC lead that Johan thinks they should have all the teams should give up because they cannot beat Visma Lisa bike in this race. And in a placebo controlled study with trained athletes, ketone IQ boosted average sprint power by 19% peak power by 13% cut fatigue by 10% spiked blood ketones five times in just 20 minutes. It offers fast. recovery. They have two products that we really like. The ketone IQ classic shot high performance energy with 10 grams of ketones, clean shot of energy with no sugar or caffeine. But if you

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Folks, you hear us talk about it all the time, but some of us that we do are sweaters. And we need to be, we need our electrolytes replenished. And that is what Element is for. Even without this partnership, I would just say it's my favorite electrolyte. I use it all the time. When I don't have it, I get cranky. when I'm in markets where they don't have it, I bring my own because I like it so much. They have a thousand milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, 60 milligrams of

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of electrolytes. but Johan, stage 16 tomorrow coming out of the red. Before that, Spencer, I just, I'm just reading some information here. So about the last time trial. So apparently it's the same time trial that did in 2003 in Valladolite. Jonas, who was doing a good Vuelta back then, only finished 10th in that time trial, one minute and 17 seconds down on Philippa Ghana and see he lost one minute on Remko

and Joe Almeida was also in the race and Joe Maida was fourth and he was 30 seconds faster than Jonas so it's it's I mean Um, it was a bit longer, I think is, uh, so it's actually, is it shorter 25, in 20, 23, it was 25.8. And this one is here it's 27.7. That's this year's though. So it's two K longer this year. Okay. Okay. So. So yeah. Uh, and in, in, in the head to heads confrontations in the time trials between Jonas and Joe Almeida, it's four to three advantage of Mada. So Mada won four times against three times for Jonas.

I mean, Yonah, that is super interesting and shows you they should not give up just yet, keep hope alive. But also that's wild because if let's say that happens, Jonas wins the vault on time bonuses. And then we go back to like stage two, stage three. We're like, maybe sprinting for those time bonuses, what's smart? They know a lot about bike racing. Well, you know, let's first. They still need.

They have the moral stage, which is difficult. I don't expect any big changes in G.C. But then they have Alto the Mordero, which is hard. And of course, after the time trial, there's still the Bola del Mundo, which is one of the, I mean, after the Anglirut, I think this is the hardest climb of the whole world. But who's won the hardest stage of this race so far? So what is that? Who's won the hardest stage of this race so far? Yeah, I made that, but he didn't take time, just bonuses.

I don't know if, I don't think they're, I don't think either of them are taking time on the road the rest of the time. I think this comes down to bonuses in the TT. But Jonas does, a lot of tour guys, tour GC guys have this. Like, you know, they leave the tour and their time trailing legs just go. You know, they're not at that, they just have like a. certain level at the tour and then you leave the tour like because yonis a lot of times in the volta like 2023 like remember he was coming on late he kind of has it makes sense because he's doing a three grand tour right before the vaults of spania and he's much more stressed and not preparing

specifically for it like everybody else but something to keep in mind specifically on tomorrow stage 16 it is 168 kilometers it is a really hard tricky stage it has one two three four categorized climbs. Finishes on a summit, 8.3 kilometers long. 5% average, but that's deceptive because the first 3K are very steep, 8 to 10%. It flattens off similar to what we saw in stage 9, actually, will be interesting to see if anyone tries to use it as a launch pad like they did on stage 9. We had the same final two climbs. The second to last climbs are really hard, 3K long at 9%. We had the same final two climbs at this stage 20 of the 2021 Valta, Spain. That's where Miguel Ango Lopez just got off the bike and went home.

And when he was, I think he was sitting in the third place going into the stage, pretty wild, not seeing anything quite like that in a long time. And then I remember Primo Zaragoch winning the stage. He did not claim his shampoo is on, I believe, went clear from the G.C. group and won that stage. I'll list off the odds. And then you tell me how you think this is going to play out. I find this one to be a very difficult one to predict.

This is on Fandole in the U.S. Juos, the favorite, plus 600, Jonas Vinegar plus 650, JVine, plus 700, Mark Soler plus 1,000, Tom Pitcock, plus 1,000, Santiago, Betrago, plus 1,800, Chalameda plus 2,000, Eddie Dunbar plus 2,200, Javier Romo plus 2,700. It goes on and on, we'll call them out if we need to, and if these numbers are just nonsense to you, you can go to nxtdbets.com slash bet outcomes, and they will show you where to bet and how to bet, and the best sign-it bonuses at each book, you live, which is very hard to navigate without them. So make sure you check out that link in the show notes.

Johan, do you think breakaway or G.C. Day and who do you think wins? I think breakaway day, Spencer. I can't imagine Visma controlling it for the, for the stage win of Jonas, because that's not guaranteed. And I can't imagine UAE controlling it for Almeida, because I think there's very, very little chance that Almeida drops you on us tomorrow on the last climb, especially because the last part, the last 5K are easier. So it's a perfect climb to be on the wheel.

And the way we've seen the differences between them, tomorrow is not the day. So I think breakaway. I think breakaway. Logically, you would say, well, break away on a difficult stage. Who from UAE are we going to pick? I'm not going to pick any UAE guy, actually. I'm going to pick Eddie Dunbar. tomorrow. He's plus 2,000. He's showing that he's getting into better form. He was there

yesterday. And he's shown a few times that he's getting his good legs. So I think this is a rider that should be in the break normally and has a chance to win. On your prediction on how the stage is going to play out, I fully agree. It's just it's too much of a black box on terms of the stage winner. So Vizma won't control it. Little, not little, Little Trek controls it for Tricone. Red Bull won't control it because even if like, oh, Jai Henley wants to drop Tom Pitcock, well, Tom Piccar could win this because it's mild enough for the top. So you're not going to control it. Maybe they could control him. Maybe maybe Q306.5 control the stage. But then does Pitcock get dropped on the second or last climb? You know, it could like blow up in your face.

Ah, too far away. It's too far away. It's too short. It's 3.8K. Yeah. He's fine. He's fine. You're be fine. Yeah, that's actually the only team that I could see controlling it for a potential stage win. Not excluding that, but I'm still going to go break away. That, yeah, that would be a big, a big bite of the apple, so to say. But I would be impressed if they did it. I don't think it happens. I'm going to go with the most, everything you said is very logical and it could happen. Eddie Dunbar is a great pick. I'm going to go with Juso at plus 600 because I'm, I'm still baffled by Sunday and I think these guys are just going to keep going for stage wins so I'm going I use so why why go away from a winning formula even when it makes no sense yeah well we've

seen that of course we've seen that Juan Ayuso is able to put more energy and motivation into a breakaway with potential win for himself than working for the team if he gets the freedom then why not? But it's also going to be more and more difficult for Ayusha to win from a break. You know, the first stage he won was impressive, the way he rode away. The second time was against Javieromo. He was already not stronger anymore, in my opinion, than Javieromo on that climb. So we'll see where his form goes.

I will say, I think UA's dominance has kind of driven. It's like other teams don't have the luxury of. actually making the smart move they're like driving people insane like you see like with marco frigo or movistar it's like they can't pickers can't be choosers and they're like making these i would say poor decisions like frigo working in the group of peterson when he has jake stewart behind i think you could see you're just going to start to see funky stuff because teams are so desperate for stage ones because there's so few of them to go around um if if it's not eddie dumb bar do you have a wild card pick another breakaway guy i'm going to

going to pick santi bittrago santiago bidrago yeah he's yeah another guy that's up there on uh on barain um looks to be getting good legs in the last week and tomorrow's a good stage for him um he's my wild card yeah and back on what on sunday edy dumbar was fifth and sancho or Dragha was fourth so we know they're strong we know they're fit i'm going to go wildcard j vine just the access of chaos here plus 700 it makes no sense that they would be up there it makes no sense they don't like their tactics but you're choosing them to win the stage they've proven to be quite successful it makes sense yeah and i mean i just frankly would be shocked i think like like like patrick bro on the lantern rouge podcast was like they can't keep doing this they can't

keep doing this and they just keep doing it and i'm like as in disbelief as him but i'm just going to roll with it at this point i'm not going to fight it i'm i'm going to pick them okay let's see what happens and i any i i don't think gc action or gc separation what do you think so i don't think so maybe i think it's lower down it's moradero alto the moradero time trial balla del mundo those are the three stages left where something will happen probably or should happen for D.C., but not tomorrow. In the day after tomorrow, very Moradero, as you said, very difficult summit finish. So I think people will have an eye on that as well.

Thanks so much, Johan. And we will talk tomorrow about the stage. All right, bye. Thank you.