THEMOVE - Did This Stage Just Decide Every Leader's Jersey? | La Vuelta a España Stage 4 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Tadej Pogačar's dominant ride to win La Vuelta's Stage 4 and continue to pile onto his overall lead, while a thrilling battle for the remainder of the podium places came into focus behind. They discuss how Pogačar continues to execute these long-range breakaways, and what the others could potentially do to stop him, before predicting the outcome of tomorrow's Stage 5, which promises an intriguing battle between the sprinters and attackers. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Ultra Pouches: Ultra is the ultimate guilt-free pouch — delivering instant focus and mental clarity, without nicotine or caffeine. New customers can use code THEMOVE to get 15% off at https://TakeUltra.com. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them our show sent you. 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. Momentous: If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to https://livemomentous.com and use code THEMOVE35 for up to 35% off your entire first order. 

Yo, and I was thinking during today's stage, when I was in the basement, you left me in the basement all alone during the tour de fronts with the other guys. They kept saying, like, who cares? Who cares about second? You didn't win? You lost. Like, who cares? Give up. That can't obviously cannot be the mindset because you're not going to beat Pagachar. If that's the mindset, you should retire because you're not going to be them. I would imagine that a lot of these guys are racing like second place is first place in their mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and they said it. They said it. Everybody. says it. Enrique Ma said it. Felix Gaul said it. I mean, only said today also, there's no way. I mean, we're just in an own race. You know, Pogacchar is doing his own race and we are doing another race.

Everybody, welcome back to The Move. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johann Bruniel. We're breaking down stage four of the Volta, Spain, as well as previewing stage five and giving out our outcomes picks. Tare Pagacra won stage four, though. No, no big surprise, Johan. That was our pick from yesterday. He wins by two minutes and 39 seconds over the chase group, which was an ever-changing group of podium contenders. We had Felix Gall followed Pagachar initially when he attacked on the day's second climb. We thought, you thought he would wait until the third climb. He did not.

He went early because his team looked a little bit under pressure. So he said, you know what? The best defense is offense. I'll go. But at first, Felix call followed. Then he was dropped back to the chase group. And then he pushed again and got away with Oscar Onley. But a group built up over time with Prumus Roglis bridged up,

but pretty good doing so. Enric Moss also bridged up with Sep Kus. And Yarno Wiedar, is that his name? The Young Belgian on Lano Intermarsche. It looked really, really impressive today. Richard Carapas was dropped from that group. Lost a little bit of time. So was Mateus Schoamas.

It looks like the Tour de France is not great preparation for the Volta, unless you're Tadipagos. But Johann, what was your eight-sleep move of the day? And if you want to get an eight-sleep, just like Tadei-Pagachar, probably slept on an eight-sleep last night in Andor to get ready for this stage. The cooling and heating mattress topper. Go to eight-sleep.com slash the move to get $350 off through the end of this Vuelta. But, Johan, what was your eight-sleep move of the day for today's stage?

Move of the day has to be Tadei-Pogachar, Spencer. I'm afraid we're going to have to say a lot. lot of times that the eight sleep move of the day is not a progacha. No surprise today, exactly as it was planned. Yeah, as I said yesterday, maybe we expected him to go on Ordinio, but yeah, I mean, that attack was, was it really an attack actually or just an acceleration? I don't know. Yeah, not really an attack. That's the crazy thing. Yeah. I mean, the most impressive thing about Pogacar is and okay we have to take into consideration the rivals right it's not it's not Jonas it's not Remko it's not del Toro it's not sexas right these guys are I think one level

below those guys but still his attack lasted for five kilometers and he took 16 seconds per kilometer in that attack by the time he was on top he had one and a half minute in five kilometers. Okay, 16 kilometers, 16 seconds per kilometer uphill, but still. And then the most impressive is that he just keeps going, right? He keeps another time. He takes a minute 20 on the next climb and then kind of manages those three minutes. Finally, it was 239. But it was always hoovering around 240 to 503 minutes. This is, by the way, as I saw it on TV, his longest solo breakaway in a Grand Tour, 50.3 kilometers. He has won races with longer attacks, one-day races.

But still, half of the stage he did by himself. Yeah, 50% of the stage. I mean, the second longest breakaway in a successful solo breakaway in a Grand Tour was just last month, the Tour de France, 42K. Two Mollest Stage. Yeah, the Tour Malé stage. And then his longest breakaway in any stage race was the month before that tour of Switzerland stage 1 70k long solar breakaways so his three longest

stage race breakaways have come in the last three months yeah yeah no i mean listen uh today was he said it before before the vault already that stage four was going to be very important he did what he wanted to do uh is now i don't know how much advantages you have now more than three minutes right Yeah, he has three minutes, 12, 21 seconds to Prima's Roglitch. We got a Slovenian first and second. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, I mean, that's also impressive. Roglidge being there, you know, nobody talked about him.

There were doubts about him about his, you know, physical readiness after his accident with a car, being hit by a car. And today, I think he looked good. He looked good. He's in there. has obviously a lot of experience so knows how to pace himself really well

he was a few times I think he was in a little bit of problems but finally could hang in there is now second in GC and what to say about Yarno Widar Spencer young Belgian guy first ground tour ever first mountain stage in a ground tour and being second

amongst those riders I mean those are all really legit podium contenders right and he looked really good on the climbs. And then finally, I mean, there's this tiny little skinny boy. I'll sprinted all these guys to finish second. That's a second place that tastes like a victory, I think. I mean, it kind of is a victory.

You got to consider it as such. I mean, Yon, I was thinking during today's stage, when I was in the basement, you left me in the basement all alone during the tour to fronts with the other guys. they kept saying like who cares who cares about second you didn't win you lost like who cares give up that can't obviously cannot be the mindset

because you're not going to beat pagachar if that's the mindset you should retire because you're not going to be I would imagine that a lot of these guys are racing like second place is first place in their mind yeah yeah yeah I mean they said it they said it everybody says it

and Rick Maas said it Felix Gall said it I mean only said today also there's no way I mean we were just in an own race you know Porcacha is doing his own race and we are doing another race

so I think I think yeah winning that sprint for Weidar was definitely I mean he did have some problems this this season he had a very long knee injury it took forever until he started

racing and and then I think he got sick in Burgos so probably came into the VELTA with some doubts, but after the first mountain stage, and what a hard mountain stage it was to be up there, being really, really present in that group, showing that you're one of the two or three strongest riders there and winning that

sprint. That's a really, really nice result. We'll have to see now, of course, you know, how he will perform over three weeks, but it's definitely a great start for him. How does a prospect like that end up on that team? Is it just from being on their development team? And then he stays on there? I think it's his own choice. It's his own choice. It's his own choice.

I was on the development team. Wanted to stay there. I knows a lot of people. And of course, you know, he got promises that the team will be built around him. I don't know what the merger did to that. But I think he made that decision already before the merger with the former management that he would be on the pro team of Lotto Intermaché, which was back. then Lotto, it was just Lotto, right?

It was Lotto destiny, I think. So, yeah, I think it's a good team for him, Spencer. You know, he's definitely the star, gets all the support, and has a lot of talent, so we'll see how he develops. But let's not forget,

Wiedar was the guy who was rivaling in the last year's tour, the Laveen with Paul Seix-S. I think Paul Sexas only won it in the last time trial in the last uphill time trial. So he's a year older than Paul Sexas, I think. But yeah, definitely a big talent. Yeah, to be 20 and get second on this stage

and then to be in the GC, super impressive. We should say. So we got yours 321 up on Roglidge. You know, probably over if we're being honest. He's probably going to wear the jersey line to line. safe to say. I think that's probably going to be his next challenge now.

Keeping the jersey. Well, we have a few stages now where it can get out of control but at the same time, you know, there's already riders so far back that it should not really be a problem to control you know guys that are seven, eight, nine minutes

down, you know? Yeah, because when you have a GC day like this, the problem is anyone close as good. So you can't give subcoos the jersey right well it's also it's not it's also not not up to UAE

you know when when anybody of those top 10 riders gets in a break the other teams are going to start to pull because they have aspirations for a top five or a podium true they're not going to let it happen right

like if like even if Harold Tejada gets in a breakaway teams are going to pull them back because it's too close yeah we should say so second through we'd are so second through ninth place separated by

45 seconds. So we do have an exciting race for the podium. If things did not blow up today in that group, we can assume that it's going to be pretty tight through the remaining mountain stages will probably come down to the time trial as well as just people chipping away time

at the top of summit finishes. Pretty exciting stuff, actually, for the podium. Quite interesting. Let's talk about the podium after the ad break, but before we go to our first ad break, we should mention, so Pagotcha attacks on the what's the name of this climb it is the best like bexalis how do you say that see yeah bexalis

or something like that i forget sexalis so he he doesn't really attack decathlon leads into it he goes to the front happens to drop everybody 17 point 17 and a half minutes 6.9 watts per kilo gets to the the next climb the ordino 9k long 23 minutes 6.8 watts per kilo but the thing that you know Stood out today, but we already knew, is the special thing about Pagachar is these stages that have climbs spread out throughout the day help him significantly because everyone in this race can climb pretty fast. Like if this is a summit finish, he's going to have a bit of a gap at the top. But there's a limit, there's a cap on his gap because there's just mathematics.

So, you know, Phyllis Gaw can ride for a lot of watts per kilo for 30 minutes. He's not going to lose that much time to Pagotcha on a single climb. But Pagachach can just push over the top and can do. continue pushing for, I mean, for 50K over mountains. Like how long do we think that was? Like two-ish hours that he was, or maybe an hour 40 that he was away? An hour 45, yeah. An hour 45.

That to me, that that's really what separates him from the rest. His ability to just keep the pressure on for over an hour where most guys can't, apparently, or else they could follow him. Yeah, I don't know anybody else who can do it. I mean, we've seen Jonas do it in a few races. where today was not present. He's also done that. I'm thinking, you know, thinking in like Vota Catalonia,

he's done it a few times, I think, in the past, maybe two of the Basque country one year. But Pogacca is still a level above that. It looks like he has it really mastered, you know, this attack, getting that minute, and then just staying there. And it doesn't necessarily go any faster. But the fact that he gets that minute,

and behind. They're riding for second place. There's not an organization. He just keeps taking time, right? Yeah. And we should say that, yeah, he looked super impressive because he's by himself. So he can find agreement with himself. The others are arguing behind.

That makes it very difficult for them. I mean, one thing that really stuck out to me is his team where, you know, they didn't look amazing at the beginning. DeCathlone gets to. the front, it looks like DeCathlone is trying to capitalize on his team, not being great. They're pushing hard. And then what is he, he's like, oh, if you're going to push hard and I'm going to be isolated, I might as well attack.

A little bit of debate online, some decent points, like decent things pointed out, where he's most dangerous when he has a weak team, like World Championships where he goes early, here where he goes early. But it probably is worth pointing out that, yeah, it looks like DeCathlon is trying to capitalize on his weak team. and it's easy to say, oh, they should sit back and let UAE set the pace. But, Johan, do you think the Cathlon was trying to pressure Pagachar or everybody else today? And they were just collateral damage and Pagachar's move.

I think the second option, Spencer, they didn't try to isolate Pugachar. They just were trying to put other riders in problems. They had a strong team. I think there were four riders there at some point. By the way, Murr Berger was amazing today, doing the job for Felix Gall. But it's true what you say, Spencer, you know, it's very easy to predict Bogachar attacks as soon as his teammates are gone. You know, as long as he has teammates, he just stays there unless it's a point in a race where you can see, really see that they launch an attack, right? Then he hit that.

But today that was not the case. And he said it actually in his post-referial. his interview. He said, you know, when he saw that Jay Vine had to get out of the wheel and he was by himself, that's when he wanted to attack because he didn't want to deal with

tactics from other teams. So it's true when when, when, when you, when, when Deccatlon started up the pace, it was a hard pace. There was a lot of riders in trouble. So that kind of, it's, it's a knife that cut both ways.

You know, you can try to put, the hammer down and put the hurt on your rivals for the podium. But at the same time, if Pugachar and his team starts to struggle, then Pogacchar is going to attack. And then it's game over. And we saw also, Phelix Gal did try to follow. Was it 200 meters?

Max, not more. He has something like that. So, yeah, that didn't work out very well. Felix Gall looked okay, but, you know, not. But anyways, in the Giro, we also thought that and then he got, he got to get better and better. But I don't think it's the same Felix Gall as in the Giro. He was struggling sometimes in that group of five riders. But his team definitely took the responsibility of the race already on the first climb on the Porto

and Valira. They were setting the pace. It was really hard, fast. So they definitely had the intention of doing a fast stage and trying to get Felix in the best possible position. Worth pointing out that, so first mountain stage of the Veltah, Felix Gall loses two minutes, 39 seconds to Pagatjar. First mountain stage of the Giro,

Philis Scal loses 13 seconds to Jonas Findergarde. So, yeah, a little bit different. Delta, yeah, there. But is he leaving with Mulberger to Little Track? Is that right? Yes, the year. Yeah. So pretty impressive that they're all working so well together.

I have forgotten that he was leaving. That's how good they looked. Yeah. Yeah. And the remaining riders of Decathlon also do a great job for Felix Gall. You could think, okay, these two Austrian guys are leaving. BCO could say, for example, you know what? I'm going to ride my own race.

Yeah. But they're professionals and they know what to do. And it looks like he's leaving in good understanding. So it's so much better for the race, you know? So I think it's going to be. going to be a really interesting race for the podium, Spencer. I think so, too. Let's dive into that a little bit more right after our first ad break, but we'll be right

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and you don't want to miss that 15% off opportunity. Okay, Johan, so we talked about Pagacharo's in first. pretty pretty, looking pretty confident, looking pretty good up there. Three minutes, 21 seconds over Primos Ravich. Inric Moss, three minutes 32 seconds back. Sep Kuzz, three minutes 44 seconds back. Oscar Onley, 345. Richard Carapaz, 350.

Bealus Gall, 357. Gaul is further back because he had those bad two days with the time trial and then lost time in the sprint finish. Scomazio 406, Wiedar, 406, J Vine, 411. J. Vine, who rode the whole day by himself. basically extremely hard to stay in the top 10. I guess they're going for the team G.C. I guess it doesn't really matter. So Javany, you might as well go out there and ride hard because Pachachar is going to be fine.

Who were you most surprised by in that, let's call it second through fifth. Who surprised you the most today? Well, first of all, Jan Nogneauvidar, I think that was a nice surprise. Yeah. And then actually, you know, we can't really say it's a surprise, but Primos Rogliz. I expected Primus to be better later. And the fact that he was, you know, he was up there. He bridged up, he bridged up by himself to, was it gall and I don't know who else it was.

Was it gall and only? Dole and only. Yeah. You know, so, so Primos Roglisch, that was, that was a really good move. Shows that, you know, he starts to discover that he's, he's okay. I think he's riding conservatively. and then during the stage started to feel confident, right? So, yeah, I mean, that's where he belongs under normal circumstances,

but given the situation that he had before the Vuelta and having a really poor preparation, that was kind of a surprise for me also to see Primos there with such good legs. I thought so, too. I mean, my pick would probably be Enric Moss and also just as meta-commentary. So the youth, the youth are taken over cycling, right? In sports in general. And that is true to an extent.

But second place, 36 years old Primo's Roglitz. Third place, 31-year-old Enric Maas. Fourth place, 31-year-old Sepkous. And we can't name them all, but I would also say Sepp Kuz, huge surprise for me. I did not think he was going to be this good in a GC sense coming out of a Gero tour double. And then coming to his third grand tour of the year, look at it. great. I guess he did win the Valta when it was his third grand tour of the year back in 2023. Freakish ability to recover. I mean, he's incredible today. It's incredible, Spencer. I mean,

there's not many riders who can do that. First of all, to do three grand tours already is crazy, but to be at that level, plus, you know, winning a stage at the Gero, almost winning a stage at the tour, you know, without that crash, you probably have one. On up there. the West and then I guess he's probably going to win a stage here in the Vuelta. And I think he's going to stay up there in GC for the top five. So that's that's incredible. That's that's amazing to have such an endurance and such a capability to recover between those grand tours. One thing to point out about today is it was the highest altitude day of the tour of the Valta.

So like that's like Sepkus lives in Andora and grew up in a place almost. exactly like Andorra from an elevation perspective. So that helps them. I'm wondering if the climbing is going to change at all. You know, it's like, I don't know, Enric Moss is he a good high altitude climber? I don't even know. I think Enric Maas is probably going to do a really good Vuelta.

He looks completely different. He is by excellence the Vuelta rider, right? Three times second, I think, in the Valta already. he's always at another level at the Vuelta Spania and he looked he looked confident before is very very moderate in his interviews doesn't want to give away too much it's very like going to take it day by day we'll see you know

but he looks he looks really really good so I guess we have to count him also as a serious candidate for the podium who's your revised if you had to pick a podium right now who would it be pooh uh godcha one probably right yeah progacha one for sure okay um

I think Oscar only looked really good today yeah he looked really good did we did I did I I think I put him in third no for the before the before the Valta yeah you had him in third before the Vuelta yeah yeah um I think I'm going to put Primos up there. You know, Primos is, you know, he's won this race four times already. So we have to, we have to put him up there. You know, by the way, today we also saw that Joe Almeida is definitely not here for a GC. Yeah. You know, has not recovered from whatever he had. And, you know, I saw some people, some of our listeners, being critical about us, not naming him as one of

of the podium candidates. Well, I guess today they got their answer. Why? Guys, we've, we don't, we don't know everything. We make a lot of mistakes. We know a thing or two about Guaameda, all right. We're not, we're not going to miss a potential Juala podium. But yeah, I thought today he did, he did have a mechanical, I don't know if he saw this like first thing and then chase back on. And it was pretty impressive little chase. But yeah, He does not have the depth of fitness right now to be contesting the overall. Finishes 23 minutes back. But I think on I thought on Lee looked really impressive.

He said he was sick. Like a stomach issue was up a lot last night. Looked really comfortable. The risk and when you're in the position like onley, you're away with Felix Gall, Felix Gall, feel as teammates. Other guys start moving up,

coming up, bridging up to you. You can kind of over commit and spend too much time on the front. And Onley didn't really panic. I thought Gall looked a little under pressure at times. So if I was repicking my podium, it'd be probably Pagachar. Keep on the in second. And then we got to start looking at Primus Roglidge.

I mean, this, he looks pretty good. And things are quiet on the Roglidge front, exactly how he wants it. I think. And he's riding for a contract. He's riding for a contract. He's riding for a contract. Crazy to think. But does it not feel like yesterday?

You remember this Welta where Ben O'Connor got a huge lead and Roglitz just kind methodically reeled them in and won the race. That feels like that was 10 seconds ago. It's 24. It's only two years ago, Spencer. I think, I think Inric Moss was third that year, actually. Enric Moss, good, good Vuelta rider. But now he's looking for a contract. It is, but this is that, you know, yeah, no better time to perform.

If he's performing well at the Vuelta, it's obviously, because, you know, it's going to be a balancing act, right? For Primos, if he wants to continue racing, he's going to have a team. That's for sure. The question is, what are the conditions? And also his contract demands are probably going to be quite high. So there's not that many teams who can afford him. So, of course, if he gets a podium, that adds, again, to, okay, Primos is not done.

Primos is still up there, which is, you know, which would be true. If he gets on the podium of this Veltah, then that shows that he's still a rider to be counted with in Grand Tours and in one day race, in one week stage races. And is Red Bull, I mean, I guess it's not worth it to them. But let's say he gets on the podium here. Pretty significant for Red Bull just to be able to send your fifth best GC rider to a grand tour and he finishes, brings home a podium. Like, that's not a bad turn on that. I think for Primos also personally, I think there's no more, there's no room at Red Bull with, with Remko there and Lipu was there. And he's never raced with Remko, right?

I don't think they've ever had a race day together. No, no, no. I think Primos is a kind of guy. He wants to be the leader. And so I'm, you know, I'm still, still trying to get my head around this potential move to Lotto Intermaché, if that would make sense. I still can't see it, but who knows? I mean, first of all, I think the biggest problem for that move to happen is they're going to need to need to find the funds to pay Primos

because it's a team that is known for to be on a tight budget and they were not able to keep Arnold Lee or Lennon-Haithfeldt. And, yeah, Primos is a different level, rider, you know, than those two riders. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's kind of a luxury item. If you're a lot of intermerche and you need, like they need riders to pull double triple duty. It's like Roglet's pretty specific skill set for a team like that.

But so GC, we talk about GC. Let's talk about points for a second. So after today, Taday Pagaccha takes the point sprint at the top of Ordeino, 20 points, 20 points at the finish. He now is 87, 82 points. Ethan Hater, 37 points. Matthew Brennan, 30 points. And then, Walthvinard, we should call out 25 points in sixth place.

Do we think Tadipagatra is going to win this points jersey? I think so, man. I think so. There's not, I mean, there is, there, there are differences between, you know, flat stages and mountain stages in the Velta, but it's not the same difference as in the Tour de France. And so historically, the points jersey has been won by guys from the G.C. already in the past. it all depends whether he makes it a cold or not

I would think I would hope he doesn't you know why why would he want to win the points classification but yeah I think he's winning the points I think he's winning the points jersey he is two stage wins by stage four how many stage wins do you think he gets at this race five minimum five minimum five minimum five minimum yeah minimum and let's just say just count it as 20 each.

There's people who are saying that he needs to go for the record stage wins in the world that's not going to happen. What? Isn't it like 15 or something? 13, 13. 13. 13. Let's not do that.

Freddie Martins in 1977. He won 13 stages and the overall. Let's let that stay. How many stages were in that race? I think it was 20 stages. 20 stages. Yeah. Jesus.

Yeah. Let's not do that, Taday. Being a classics rider and somewhat of a sprinter. You know, this guy won the green jersey and the tour. I think one year he won eight stages in the Tour de France also, Freddie Martins. Hell of a rider. I mean, hell of a rider. We're supposed to be the next Eddie Merck's had a very short career.

It's actually from the town next to where I'm from. But had a short career. But yeah, 13 stages and winning the overall being. not a climber he was definitely not a climber two times a world champion also i mean that's pretty good career it's not like you didn't pan out it's like one 13 stages of a single grade two and two world titles people would people would take that so on the k o m front pogachar 23 points lorenzo fortunato who's actually looked really good 10 points do we think he wins k o m as well ah i mean i don't know uh it's going to

to be. I mean, normally, yes. Normally yes. I mean, there's, there's more, a lot of points on those horse category climbs, right? Like Itana, for example, I guess that's like double points of what is it. Like today, I'm Valida. How many points were there? Oh, Invalida was only 10, I believe. So the problem you're going to run into is, you know like today the points are spread like butter evenly throughout the stage you're not going to get a lot of stages like that because there's a lot of stages where the hardest climbs

the last climb and a breakaway is not going to be able to get away and get those points I think you could be looking at red green yeah the only the only interesting competition here is going to be the white jersey well it's pretty close Oscar only 21 seconds over we'd are

so something to keep an eye on. That is going to be a good one. We are still claims he's not here for the GC though. I don't know how much I believe that. Well, he's going to grow into it. I think it's the right approach. You know, it's his first ground tour. He's never raised longer than a week. So I think it's the right mindset. Just look what comes towards him and, you know, gradually grow in confidence during the three weeks. I think he can do a good GC. I mean, the way I saw him riding today is definitely very hopeful for for the next two weeks. You know, I can't believe I almost forgot to say this.

Do you know what country Tade Pagaccio won his first Grand Tour stage in? Yeah, Spain. Oh, no, Andorra. Andorra, just like today. So, yeah, he wins today the site of his first ever grand tour stage win, stage nine at the 2019, Vuelta, Spain. I also saw a stat somewhere like this year was today his 20th victory or something, 20th, 21st victory of the year.

He has a 50%. He has a 50% winning rate, Spencer, including all the stages of the tour that he didn't contest. That's the case. Yeah. Like when you hear that, we really should filter that out, come up with a system to do so because you're like 50% win rate. he's losing half the time. He's like,

there's most stages of the tour. He's not even contesting. Yeah. Yeah. But here, let's do wins. Can we sort by season? Let's do 2026.

He has 41 race days. 21 wins. Oh, my. Yeah. That's over 50%. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a lot of days where he's not trying to win.

Tadipa Pagachar. I think last year he had, he had 20 wins over almost 60 days of racing, I think. because he did two round tours. Yeah. There presumably will be stages of this fault that he does not win. Potentially tomorrow.

So that percentage will go down probably. But let's take a quick break and we'll preview tomorrow's stage, which he may not win. Stick around to find out. We'll be right back. Okay, Johan, so stage five. We're finally in Spain, by the way.

It's our fourth country we visited tomorrow on stage five. First stage in Spain, 173 kilometers. Kind of a tricky stage through Catalonia. We start and then we loop back through. There's some rolling hills, a big flat section in the middle with a sprint point and bonus seconds at the end of it. I'd assume the breakaway soaks all those up. But the last third of the stage is actually quite difficult with a, the big headline is there's a third category climb with 24K to go. And it is a hard climb.

I'm looking for the stats. It is 6K long. It's cut off on me. I hope it's 6K at 6.5%. That's not easy. I'm sorry, 4K at 6.5%. And then it goes down to the finish. How do you think this is going to play out and who's going to win?

Yeah, I think if you look at the details of that glam Spencer, it's 6.5% average. But I think it's in two parts, if I remember correctly. If at the beginning and the end are hard, it's like 7, 8%. So too hard for it. the sprinters. So I think we can expect, we can expect Visma and Little Threk trying to make it hard in that section to have the sprinters dropped and for their, for their guys, Walt Van Art and Matthew Brennan and then Matt Spederson to contest the sprint. Going off what we saw, it's not as, it's not as much of an up. It's slightly uphill, the last kilometer, but not

not the same as the other day, but still, I'm going to go for Matthew Brennan, that kind of power. And today, by the way, today, what he did on Porto de Marlida, he was in that breakaway and tried to get to the top of the big climb for, I guess, Ben Tulette for the points. I don't know exactly what that was about. But he was impressive there. He was impressive. So Matthew Brennan definitely on great form. And so he's my pick to win tomorrow. Well, Matthew Brennan, a lot of people agree with you because he's minus 140 to win the stage.

Wapenar plus 600. Matt's Pedersen, plus 900. Jordi Mayos plus 1,200. Caden Groves plus 1,800, Tadipagachar. I don't know if that could happen, plus 1,800. And it goes on and on from there. Brennan's a good pick because, obviously, as we saw today, he can get over that climb. And I guess he's the fastest flat sprinter.

Like, do we know that for sure? That's the only thing I'm wondering about. In a flat sprint against Matt's Pedersen. In a pure sprint, I think in a pure sprint, probably Caden Groves, Jody Meos. I don't know who else is here. If there's another pure sprinter. Those guys are definitely also super fast. But I think what primes now is the physical fitness of Matthew Brennan.

He's an incredible shape. I can see him win this kind of sprint, the same that he won on stage two. but I can also see him win a flat sprint with these legs. Does Mads Pedersen stick around to let this be a sprint? Are we looking at Mads Pedersen while up and aren't getting up the road? Either at the beginning of the stage or when it gets hard when we get to the hill section, because that's a tough section going to be hard to control. Yeah.

And the two teams that would control it would be Vizma and Little Track. Yeah, they could go in a move for sure. And then it would be Walt Vonart versus Matt Peterson, but, I mean, Matthew Brennan can be in there too. You know, today, for example, he lasted longer than Walt Von Art on the Envalida. That's true. You know, so he even dropped his own teammate, Bruno Amiral, when Matthew Brennan was pulling. Did he pull too much? Did he give too much today?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think he got way too excited, way too excited, you know. that yeah and then yeah and then bentula didn't even have a cheviz i don't think he was even top five in that in that sprint uh so so i don't know exactly what what the thinking was behind that setting the pace of matthew brennan but uh at least he showed that his he has incredible legs for the moment so in the last 50k of tomorrow stage here the climbs 3k at 6% 3k at 6 and a half percent 1k at 4k at 4k at 4 4%, 1.5k at 5%, 4K at 6.5%, 4K at 6%, 700 meters at 6%, and then flat for the last 20K. That's hard.

I mean, that's going to be really hard to control, especially if Mads Pedersen does not want to stick around for a bunch of brands. So that would be my only concern. So I'm going to pick as a hedge, I'm going to pick while Van Art, that it does not get to a sprint because Matt's Pedersen says, I don't want to sprint against Matthew Brennan. Van Art and him have a classic shirt. We get a classics race on stage five. I would love that.

I would love that. It would be nice. I mean, the Volta is actually pretty good. Last year was not their best route ever. They're pretty good at throwing in these. Their sprint stages always have a twist usually. And they can play out really interestingly probably because the teams aren't as strong either. It's harder to control.

I think it could be a quite interesting stage. We'll be nice to take a little break from the GC as well. Get a little pallet cleanser there. But anything else, Johan, on tomorrow stage. Yeah, well, Spencer, before. I forget, I want to take the opportunity to make a correction to what I said yesterday. Yesterday, I was critical of the organization for not making responsibility, for them making the decision.

You know, it was straight after the finish. Afterwards, having seen the images and seen the situation, they are not to blame. They are not to blame. It all happened so fast, this hailstorm. They had no way of seeing this coming. So my apologies to the, for my criticism toward the organization, they are not at fault. The writers made the call. It was the right call.

And it was the only way possible to cancel the stage when the writers were making the decision. The organization didn't have any possibility to see this coming. Yeah, that's fair. Also, they must have been, you know, this hotel is getting a lot of good publicity for housing them. Yeah. They must have been on the lookout for a hotel. It was like, what are the odds that they pull over right when there's a hotel there? So it's a pretty, pretty funny story that there's now, I heard there's something like

5,000 five-star reviews on this hotel. Yeah, but I mean, if you saw the condition afterwards, when you see the images and the footage, it was, wow, you know how much that hurts? Like, these were, they were like, I mean, I'm not going to say ping pong balls, but, you know, they were big, big, big hail balls, you know? And you could see You could see the guys scream you know

when they were hit by the hill Yeah I saw some bruises Some some bruises on legs and stuff Yeah it was not good It was not good And there's just nowhere to go You're totally helpless you know

Yeah So it's lucky they found a place to go That worked out for most people But anything else Johan Before we take off That's I think we covered most of it Spencer All right well we hope for uh and i don't know if people i'm sure they've noticed the voelta the oddity of the

volta not televised start to finish today was televised start to finish which was great so we will not see probably a very interesting breakaway portion tomorrow but around let's say in europe around 3 p.m the race comes on in the u.s it's going to be around i don't know 7 a.m. mountain time 9 p.m. eastern on peacock if you're looking for it but joan we'll we'll talk tomorrow we'll see how this race goes out it goes on okay preview stage six all right talk to you soon thanks bye bye