THEMOVE - Do Movistar's Challengers Have Anything Up Their Sleeves? | La Vuelta a España 2026 Stage 14 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: September 5, 2026

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Marco Brenner's stage win from the breakaway to deliver both him and his Tudor team their first Grand Tour stage win, as well as the GC action behind, which saw Enric Mas and Felix Gall slightly extend their GC gap over Primož Roglič and Richard Carapaz. They also preview tomorrow's Stage 15, which will deliver fast-paced, explosive action due to the shortened course. 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. Caldera Lab: A small habit with big results. Go to https://CalderaLab.com/THEMOVE and use code THEMOVE for 20% off your first order.

I think I said, oh yeah, I don't have said it on the podcast. I definitely said it to other people. I said if Enric Mas today takes another 20 or 30 seconds on Roglidge, he's winning the Vuelta. That's what he did. Roglidge was his main concern. He's now more over two minutes down instead of 145. Felix Gall is not a threat at all in the time trial for Enrique Mas. On the contrary, Enric Mas is going to gain time on Felix Gall in the time trial.

So it's a matter of just controlling and he also sees better. You know, since Enric Maas is in the leadership jersey, he has not lost one single second. He only has added time to the gap. So yeah, today also, Galt did try a few times. To me, it really seemed like Andrew Mas was in control, didn't react straight away. but progressory club back, which is the best way to do. I think we are looking at

Andigmas as a Grand Tour winner, honestly. Everybody, welcome back to the Move podcast. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johann Bernal. We are breaking down stage 14 of the Volta, Espania, and then previewing tomorrow's stage 15 with our outcomes. Stage preview, and Johann will give us pick on who's going to win. Stage 14, that won by Marco Brenner from Turo

Tootaur pro cycling team, I believe first grand tour stage win for Marco Brenner as well as his team. So a big day came from the breakaway ahead of Santiago Boudrago and Christian Rodriguez, two extremely strong riders that along with Yvonne Sosa were there at the end in the final kilometer before Bidrago attacked Brenner very casually, very casually was messing with his clothes and then just said, I got close in this attack and I'll win the stage. looked like a veteran running his 20th stage win. It wouldn't have known it was his career first. Further down in the GC group, Movisstar handled the day, I would say perfectly.

I'm sure it was a hard fight for the breakaway. We didn't see it. It wasn't on TV. But a big break gets away. Movistar not worried about the stage win. As you said, Johan yesterday, they just let the gap go out to seven minutes. They're pacing on the front. They run out of guys with a couple kilometers, about 3K left on the climb.

Brutal, brutal finish, though. Moss goes to the front to pace to keep people from attacking. Of course, Richard Carapas attacks gets reeled in, though, by Roglich, Gall, and Moss, and then Phyllis Gall, launches a searing, searing attack, followed by Moss, with Carapaz and Roglich fighting to come on. Oscar only dropped. Stays with Jakop or Muzel, though, which is key for the white jersey. And then, and then, Movistar, Ryle, I want to get this guy's name right,

Raoul Garcia Pernal? What's his name, Johan? They were so far down. Raul Garcia Pierna. Yes. They catch him. By the way, son of his dad,

Felix Garcia Casas, professional in the late 90s, 2000s was a good writer to the France writer. Is now, I think, the technical, director of the Spanish Cycling Federation. Whoa. So they're from Madrid, so I run into them sometimes on rides.

I talked about his brother the other day, right? Carlos Garcia, Marcia Piana, so cycling family. Raoul is on great form because he pulls so hard once, once Moss catches him that he drops Roglitz, drops Carapaz, Golga has to go around, stays with Moss, though, cannot cannot drop them. They finished together. Roglidge finishes like 25 seconds back. Carapaz a little bit further back. He looked in trouble. Darren Rafferty was his teammate, and he couldn't even hold Darren Rafferty's teammate

who he caught from the breakaway, and then on leave finishes 1 15 later with Armazelle. But Johan, what is your eight sleep sponsoring our move of the day? Not just for the tour, but for this Welta. If you want to you, everyone knows a story by now. Team UAE, Tadipagata. They're sleeping on eight sleep mess. mattress toppers every night, making them as hot or cold as they need to be. I was just reading, I believe it was in the Wall Street Journal. You got to sleep between 65 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

And you know how you're going to do that without having a crazy AC bill? It's going to be the eight sleep mattress topper. Going to keep your bed nice and cool. If you want $350 off between now and the end of the Valta, go to eight sleep. com slash the move and use code the move for $350 off. But, Johan, what was your eight sleep move of the day? Spencer, I think I have to say Branner, Markle Brenner, winning this stage, you know, a young rider from the breakaway, of course, but the way he controlled that effort at the end, you know, fresh off victory in Tour of Poland, if I'm not mistaken, right? He won the JC in Tour of Poland, right, at the end?

Yeah, he did. And he looked fantastic at the Tour of Poland. And looks fantastic here as well. Yes, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So, and also if I, if I read correctly, he, he struggled in this Vuelta already. He had a crash and he got an illness, was on the verge of abandoning, kind of recovered. And today did a great stage.

I think that's definitely the move of the day. I mean, I also have, I think I'm going to have another move of the day, which is Raul Garcia, Piyadh. I think that that has done already in the last two mountain stages. is crucial. Like, you know, first of all, be in the break. You know, he's in those breakaways. Those are difficult breakaways to be in. Then save yourself and then be there two times

at the very, very end of a hard mountain stage. That's impressive. I think today was more impressive than the other day because, you know, on Galarato, he also did a great job for Enric Maas. but today when Raul Garcia Pirna was pulling you mentioned it's better he did drop Prima's Robert so that was quite incredible and so yeah that's that those are my two moves of the day yeah I agree on both of those Marker Brenner by the way so he's 24 years old I

frankly have not paid close enough attention to him as I should have he won do you know so he's 24 he won Poland as we all know he looked great at Poland I was like wow what a ride I didn't know he was this good of a climber. He looked unbelievable today. Yeah. Looks so relaxed. I think maybe maybe don't have your hands off the bars messing with your jersey and they'll find okay when you have Budrago behind you. He didn't seem to care though. Like he was so casual with how he came around to win that. He won the German national championships two years ago. So at 22 years old, did he remember that at all? Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember that, but I do remember have it. There was a lot of hype about him when he when he went

from under 23 to do the world tour. He has been described as an unbelievable, unbelievable talent. Was he not on DSM? Or am I mistaken? He was on DSM. As far back as 2021. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. Which DSM is that, do they have like a German vein of that team? Am I remembering that right where they were Shamano, you know, skill shamano? No, there was at some point, I think they had like a German paying agent. I don't know why they did that. And I think it was back in the days when it's already a long time ago. But, you know, at some point they had a sponsor opposite. It's opposite.

Yeah. Yes. That's when they turn German. That's when they turned German. Yeah. So I don't know if they're still German now. Probably not. I would have to look into it.

but I remember there being a lot of talk and a lot of hype about this huge talent, Marco Brenner. And it's Marco, right? Yeah, Marco. Marco Brenner, congratulations. Get ready for your little Trek contract offer. Well, yes. It's common.

You know, Tudor is also pretty generous with VIII. very, very, very good contracts for people. So I'm, I wouldn't, I think, I think he's going to stay at two door. I mean, he's going to be the leader of the team, you know? Yeah. No, yeah, and I was just kidding. He's not going to be. Yeah.

Tudor is a very, very generous team, shall we say. I mean, Tudor, when you see them at the races, you think this is a super team that just doesn't have the riders yet. So I would, I would recommend probably staying there. It's probably all up for Tudor from here. And this is their first grand tour win. Am I right in thinking that, Johan? Or am I missing something?

I'm pretty sure that it is. Could be. Could be. Yeah, probably. Probably. By the way, I don't know if you heard that room. It's a rumor, Spencer. You know, so you've seen Tudor at races and, you know, it looks, you know, amazing bus.

You know, like everything looks super luxury. They did have, I don't know if they still have, they did have Mercedes as a car spot. You know what? I mean, the rumor, this is the rumor, okay? It's not confirmed. You know what their next car sponsor is going to be? Oh, is it Ferrari? Porsche. Porsche. You know, I've heard this too. And I've actually said it accidentally that I thought the deal had gone through already.

But yeah, I have heard that. And that would be, that's the type of team they are, though. They just exude this ultra luxury, which is perfect for the two-door. brand i guess yeah it's the most i would say it's the most popular team amongst like 30-something-year-old men with money love this team who are not into cycling which means they're onto something probably probably yeah yeah we'll see i mean i think the Porsche is it's a rumor so we'll see we'll see if that's true or not in on movey star i think i need to recant my not criticisms but doubts about that team after the rest day, they've looked incredible.

I mean, they look like they have a lid on this race. Like not getting drawn into racing for the stage win, letting the gap go out. They look really good. Yeah, and you know what? I mean, it's the leader's jersey in a ground tour transforms a team raises, raises their level to, you know, another height. And especially if you have a leader who transmits super confidence, you know,

I mean, this is this is complete, it's different kind of suffering. You know, the last week, you're suffering, you're suffering for a purpose. It makes a huge difference. And if they feel that Enrique Mas has this confidence, because, you know, whatever he says in interviews is only a fraction of what really happens in terms of communication behind closed doors. So they all know, you know, they all know. Today, actually, look at the day, I was at my son's bike race. So that's why I didn't see much of the race in the Vuelta because we had really bad coverage.

And I had, unfortunately, I had to watch the race La Vuelta on my phone and it was coming in and out. But there was actually a staff member of Movistar around me there. And, you know, he was also trying to watch. But, man, and these guys are obviously in communication. He's not at the Vuelta, working at the Vuelta, but they're in communication. So you could feel that in their mind,

I don't think there's any doubt that Enrique Mas is not going to win it with the Volta. They know. Yeah, I mean, and they're riding like it. In terms of winning the Volta and who would challenge him, how do you feel, have your thoughts changed on that after today's stage? I thought Phyllis Gull looked really good. I thought Primoz Roglich looked. It's impressive what he's doing, but he kind of looked like a podium finisher to me.

You know, I think if he finished his third, that's good. I think I said, I don't know if he said it on the pot. I definitely said it to other people. I said if Enric Mas today takes another 20 or 30 seconds on Roglidge, he's winning the Vuelta. That's what he did. Roglidge was his main concern. He's now over two minutes down instead of 145.

Felix Gall is not a threat at all in the time trial for Enigmas. On the contrary, Enric Mas is going to gain time on Felix Gall in the time trial. So it's a matter of just controlling. And he also sees better. Since Enric Muss is in the leader's jersey, he has not lost one single second. He only has added time to the gap. So, yeah, today also,

Gall did try a few times. To me, it really seemed like Enric Muss was in control, didn't react straight away. but progressively clawed back, which is the best way to do. I think we are looking at Enlickmas as a grand tour winner, honestly. Yeah, so he's minus 390 now,

which seems about right, considering what you say. Like, he's not giving up time. It seems hard for him. It seems like it'd be hard to even get time on him. And, I mean, the only thing I could think of is you look at like stage 19, 20, 21, if he's ill at all is that that's kind of the ill or crashed i i frankly think that's the only

way he loses that much time to feel a skull i think so yeah yeah i mean uh because even if it comes down to the pure performance on the bike i don't think i don't think uh and dig mass is going to lose time it can only be something else illness crash bad luck i don't know isn't it's still we still have uh what seven stages to go so uh it can still a lot can still happen but it looks really good and typically

when a guy like Hendrik Mas is in the lead right now those last few stages they tend to be the best you know so basically controlling

he's in the driver's seat you know he doesn't need to take more time the others need to make up time and it's not like it's not like Phoenix Gal for example just needs to make up the two minutes he needs to

make up more than that because he's going to lose time in a time trial. Yeah. Yes. And you think like, well, what if he, what if Moss gets dropped on stage 20? It's like he's going to lose 20, 20, 30 seconds to Phil Schaul. He's not going to lose two minutes unless there's something seriously wrong. So it does seem like he's in the driver's seat right now. Who do you think finishes second at this race?

Well, I mean, obviously today, the big event of the day is a part of Marco Brenner winning the stage, Primos dropping from second to third. Still very close, Gall and in Primos. But, Gall needs to take considerable, he needs to take at least another minute, if not more, on Primos to be safe for a second spot. Is that going to happen?

And Primos is, he's riding well. It's not prime Primus, but he's not. He's not leaking a lot of time. So I'm still going to back Primos for second place, as for now. Yeah, I agree. I think Gallo has to take a lot of time on Primos to finish second. And then before we go on to preview stage 15, and you had some information about,

so Jakop Ormazel, we should say, like this, he's going to be a bigger problem than I thought for the white jersey, for Oscar Onley, because I thought Urmazel would lose time today. You didn't lose time, at least in terms of white, finishes in that group, 1.15 down. You had some, I mean, A, do you think he's going to win the white jersey? And B, do you, you had some information about a terrible accident he had a few years ago, which I was unaware of, which makes his ride here even more impressive. Yeah, me too.

I mean, first of all, I think, I think what we really need to highlight is after his performance yesterday, Spencer, being all day out there, doing that massive. No, two days ago, sorry. That massive effort in that mountain stage, he has recovered. He hasn't paid for his efforts at that young age. And today he stays put with his direct rivals. That's impressive. So, I don't know. I mean, only maybe a better time trialist than him.

I don't know. I'm not sure, actually. I'm not sure if that's the case. So he is, I mean, this is a battle that's going. on there for the white jersey doesn't look like only is he's not improving i think he stays at the same level so but yeah i mean i got this message from a few of our listeners actually that uh so his last year junior 2004 so uh so he last year was his first year under 23 in which he won the baby be Giro. Also, I found out this is how unbelievable, versatile of a rider he is. As a junior,

this tiny guy won Parirubei Juniors. That's quite the contrast of, you know, like winning mountain stages being the Giro winner and then also winning Pari Rubet. Okay, it's a jury level, but still, it's a different race, right? It's a different kind of racing. But I got this message here from one of our listeners, you know, and it says the following. So on September 4th, 2004. Young Jacob Omersel, as a junior, suffered a devastating crash during the opening stage of the prestigious junior race Giro della Lugniana, leaving him with life-threatening injuries. The crash caused a deep wound to his neck and severe blood loss, resulting in cardiac arrest. He had to be resuscitated several times on the spot.

Doctors were fighting to keep him alive. For the following two days, Omerzell remained in the hospital. in critical condition, coma, fighting for his life. And, you know, he ended that season really bad,

came back in 2025, fully recovered, or, you know, maybe probably not in the beginning of the season, but, yeah,

usually if you have something like this, as an athlete, I would say, 90% of the guys never come back from this. Yeah. Yeah.

No, it's crazy. It's crazy. That wasn't that long ago. Yeah. And it doesn't seem to have affected his development, which is really wild. It is impressive. I mean, it shows us that he could still be improving.

He could still be coming back from that injury, essentially, and that what we're seeing is him still building back. And then you'd imagine, well, what's he look like in two years from now? You know, if he keeps improving, it's like you could be looking at another GC contender. I'm curious to see how he does in the rest of this race. obviously you think a 20 year old maybe he time trials well maybe he doesn't that's a lot to ask of someone in their first grand tour of like hey don't lose any time on oscar only in the third week and in fact you're going to have to gain time on him probably too tall of an order but i think i would flag this guy for a gc star of the future this is a really impressive ride so far yeah especially considering his injuries if he finishes fifth sixth or seventh which he will i mean he either going to be really good and oscar only a bit that could put him in fifth. I think that's his maximum aspiration he can have.

If he stays sixth or even if he drops back to seventh, it's still amazing. Still an amazing performance. So definitely we need to I mean, I think I have his pronunciation right, Jacob Omersel, but I'll check.

We need to pronounce this correctly because we're going to talk about this guy for a long time, Spencer, I think. I know, man. feel like we just learned Primos, Roglitch. And we've got a new Slovenian name to learn every, and I just learned the last winner. We've, that Tadei's name is today.

Like they say it at UAE, they say today, Pagacha. Today. Well, we've been just saying this name wrong the whole time. It's today. Today, Pogacha. Yeah. It's not Pogachar. It's not Pogachar.

No. Don't let. Yes. If you spend too much time on set of the move, you'll get the postage. go-gachar in your head you don't let that in keep those thoughts out but on on the topic of today he announced today he will not race again for the rest of the year not shocking right and probably the right decision as expected as expected yeah also i mean also officially now really officially confirmed uh extension till 2032 with you yes which is you know that i think that those were just

rumors right but today i think they confirmed it officially and also official statement that he will not race anymore in 2026. I think it's the right call. It's the only call, the only, only decision that could be made. And I think it's very, very, very wise to take that approach. So yeah, I think it gives him, it gives him a lot of time to recover without any stress. And yeah, he'll be, he'll be back next year, as before, I think. my son came home from school, said someone in first grade, the rumor in first grade is that he's not going to race again for five years. But I don't know if that maybe his classmate got the five year extension confused with when he's going to come back. But I was like, where are you hearing these rumors?

Who's getting this information to the first graders? But I did hear on the topic of rumors that private, he's going to get a private jet at the expense of the team to every race. Did you hear this as well? Well, I think that was one of the negotiation points in the extension. I had read about that. So Mike, it's pretty easy, much easier for him. I mean, I know for a fact, like two years ago, he was flying like easy jet economy to races. So imagine how good he's going to be when he's on the private jet.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, you know, if you're the Pagachar, man, you're the king, man. you can demand those kind of conditions. And he's going to get, you know, we're very pro. We're pro private jet travel podcast.

But a lot of people, especially today's age, are not. And he's going to get a lot of crap for this. I will say if you live in Europe, you know, it sounds ridiculous, but especially with F1 drivers, you can, it can be super convenient, especially if you're a pro cyclist and you're going from a location, like a location that maybe doesn't have a lot of big airports. it could save you a lot of time and energy. Like this could be not an insignificant improvement to his life, just to be able to bomb in and out of every little race.

But should we take a quick break, Johan, and then preview tomorrow stage. Everybody, this Welta, Spain coverage is brought to you by a presenting sponsor, Ultra Focus Pouches. Do you desperately need a nicotine pouch every 15 minutes just to feel normal? How many pouches, cups of coffee, and or energy drinks per day? Do you need to stop yourself from crashing or even feeling nicotine withdrawal? And suboptimal thing about using these things is they're going to make you feel anxious. They're going to make you feel on edge when you have them and when you don't.

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Let's just get right to that sprint finish. So it's 110 kilometers now. I don't know if they cut out the start or the finish or just a chunk of the middle. But 110K with two catarized climbs and then a descent down. into a town for a sprint finish that probably Matthew Brennan will win. Do you disagree? How do you think this? I mean, 110K for a non-mountain stage is going to be brutally fast.

This is going to be really fast, right? Yeah, I mean, 110 kilometers. I think, listen, I'm all for, especially when it's super hot. Apparently, the temperatures are rising, keep rising. It's going to be hot until the end of this well-pack, incredibly hot. so you know shortening this stage yeah okay good great um it's not it's going to be the same result anyways in the stage uh the only thing i'm struggling with spencer is the following i just had a look here so they they cut it from was it 150 or 170 i don't know how much it was initially

um but um and it's for the extreme heat right yeah yeah it's too hot The start of the stage is at 3 p.m. 3 p.m. which is the hottest moment of the day. Yeah. That doesn't make sense. You know, that doesn't make sense. You know what?

It is really something that pro-cycling needs to have a serious look at, Spencer. You know, if the temperatures are rising, you know, it was extremely hot in the Tour de France. Lots of riders were really struggling. You know, riding in this extreme heat, is really unhealthy. Okay, you can also say riding your bike at 45 kilometers average an hour during three weeks over the mountains, it's unhealthy. Agreed. But they train for that.

But putting your body through this extreme efforts in that extreme heat, which seems to be more and more occurring in the last decade, cycling needs to look at the starting times, man. You cannot have these stages in the afternoon. Okay, I agree. I understand it. It's for the TV viewership, you know, and it's the audience. But, dude, I mean, everybody needs to change their habits. The spectators also, I mean, you guys watch the races early in the morning on TV, right?

Yeah. What's funny. Yeah. I totally agree with you. This has confused me for years. I think it's the easiest fix to the, you know, we hear about extreme temperature all the time. And these are extreme. It's like I'm going to be 102 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very hot.

You can just start earlier in the morning and you, you could see a swing of almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit or like 10-ish degrees Celsius by doing that. And, you know, Ben Wiggins was saying during the tour. He's like, oh, it's so weird to be watching these stages like a big stage at 9 in the morning. It's like, it's kind of nice. I don't know. I find it kind of nice when it's earlier. If you have a normal job, maybe it's hard.

But I agree with you, Johan. I don't know why they don't push to start the stages. earlier. Yeah. Yeah. Well. All right. Okay. So at least, listen, they are less time exposed to extreme heat tomorrow, which is, you know, an upside. But still, just start the same time and finish earlier and, you know. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, short stage, 10 kilometers, not much, not much elevation. I think, as he said, it's going to be a bunch sprint. Especially if it's shorter, it's easier to control. I think we have to say Matthew Brennan, right? I mean, who's going to beat him? It's a flat finish, right? So it's pure sprint, but high speed. But still, I think, I think Brennan.

So I think tomorrow it's going to be the fifth stage win for Visma. I agree. So this is juicy odds, I think. So stage 15 winner on Fandul right now. Brennan plus 160, Benart plus 300, Magnus Court, plus 2,200, Andreas Crohn plus 2,200. So that's suggesting that people think there could be a breakaway. I don't know if those odds have been adjusted because of the shorter stage

and that they think it's going to be harder control because people can now just race from the beginning. But I kind of have a hard time, you know, 110K. I think Visma can control that, right? There's not that much elevation gain. Yeah, they should be able to control. Yeah. Yeah.

And if it is, if something does get out of hand, They have a nice little Trump card in Wild Bernard, right? Just sending Walt Bernard in any move. It gets away and people probably don't want to work with him. So it could probably come back together. If Wild Bernard's up there acting like an anchor on the move. So I think Brennan as well. I'm actually surprised it's plus 160.

To me, this is a better stage for him than stages he's won in the past at this Welta. So I'm going to go Brennan. Yeah, me too. Okay. We agree on that. All right. Anything else before we take off? No, I have to run, Spencer, because I have, you know, as I said, you know, little background. So I am in Cantabria. I am in the hometown of my ex-boss of Team Onse, Manolo Seiss.

He's been accompanying me two days to the race. So I'm having dinner with him now, so we need to catch up on the good old times. Sorry. Well, no, no problem. Thank you for joining. And have a great dinner. And then we'll be back tomorrow with our last episode before the last rest day on Monday. But have a great evening in, Johan.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much.