THEMOVE - Has Any Sport Ever Seen Domination Like This? | TDF 2026 Stage 6 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

Lance, Johan, George, Sir Bradley and Spencer Martin (aka The Professor) break down Tadej Pogačar's dominant ride on the Tourmalet to win Stage 6 of the 2026 Tour de France and open up a massive gap on his GC rivals. The crew discusses if this level of dominance has any precedent in cycling or any other sport, how Jonas Vingegaard and Visma can hope to recover and move forward, and what to expect from the tight battle for the overall podium. They also preview Stage 6, take listener calls, and answer yesterday's Ventum trivia before giving out a new trivia question. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Ekoi: https://www.ekoi.com/en-us/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=podcast-weedu_us Kineon: Use code THEMOVE for $50 off or go to https://kineon.io/THEMOVE Honey Stinger: Use code THEMOVE25 for 25% off at https://Honeystinger.com/THEMOVE25 Ventum: Use code TheMove10 for 10% off anything at: https://ventumracing.com/ Eight Sleep: "Use code THEMOVE at http://eightsleep.com/themove for up to $500 off. The 4th of July sale ends July 12. 30 days to try it at home. Free returns if it's not for you.  

We don't know how Jonas is going to fare now the next two weeks. You know, I have a sneaking suspicion having watched him today and that he's not going to finish this race. That is a wow. That's a wild. But hey, we're here to give a penny. I'm not saying that's going to happen. I just saw a man who was broken today. And he, the last couple of years, he remained positive in second place.

He said, I'm going to take this race. I'm going to push him to Paris. I mean, how many years do you want to do that and finish second? There's not much he can do in this race. All right. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Moop Podcast. I'm Lance Armstrong, joined by Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mr. George and Cappi, and Spencer Martin. We are talking about stage six of the tour to Tade, which is turning out to be yet again.

Alain, what would we do here on stage six? Where we go? Stage six, from Po to Gavarnie Jedr. That is so good. From Poe to Gavarnie Jadre. Never been finished before town? Never been, never, never, never been up that climb. Taday made it look like a flat road. Taday Pogachar goes away after an unbelievable performance by not only his team,

but then the acceleration by Isaac Deltore to set him up. He goes away with 43 kilometers to go. Just as we always say, seeing the douches. I mean, that was seeing the duchess. which is. Bradley, my question for you. I did just,

what did we just? I mean, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. We're not surprised. No, we said yesterday he was capable of it. Yep. We hoped he wouldn't do it.

Yeah. What does this mean? What does it mean for the rest of the race? I'll say it again. This is stage six. Yeah. Where do we go from here? Well,

Jonas looked a finish shell at the finish. He looked tomorrow. in his body language, in his post-race interview. And you have to think in his position, on he said that all about that last climb. He was getting caught by the group behind and losing time to Tadei. We never saw him once like that in the Jiro.

We never saw him once like that in the Vuelta. He won. This race is over, you know, barring. I mean, we try not to predict that the race is over with two weeks left. But this is Tade Baguagato we're talking about. It was a dominant display, not just from him, but the team.

Yeah. I think that's the biggest difference from last year. Yeah. Where I felt like Vizma was taking the race to them in the first week, and Vizma was dominated today by UAE. On the positive side, we have a really exciting race going on for second place. Yeah, we do. All within, what, five guys within 25, 28 seconds.

And, you know, and one thing I thought about when we were watching this dominant display is hopefully now we start seeing like breakaway guys winning stages, like exciting races. now we can go for guys that have chances to get away Pokachar's got such a big lead obviously the race is not over like you said but I hope this brings it back to like that dynamic racing that we saw on the Giro where some of these breakways start making it a lot of big riders

are going to start trying to get into these breakways to get at least a stage winning this tour so I think there's plenty of exciting racing left to go there is yeah and the big question is how many more times is Taday going to do that to take a chunk of time yeah at what point are they going to sit back and go right that's enough now to defend it can't do it again to stage 14 right Exactly.

We have a break. Yeah. Then again, he's proven time and time again that he can do this on, it doesn't have to be a stage in the Alps or stage in the Pyrenees. Let me just repeat also, Lance. This is a man. I keep coming back to it. The one Milan Saint-Rameo, the Tour of Flanders,

which you couldn't get any more different than those races. And this is just this year. Second in Paribé, yeah. And the end of last season won Tour of Lombria and the World Road title. I mean, the difference. in racing. I mean, how hard it is, George. You know how hard it is those races,

Flanders, Rubet. And then to come to July and do down the tourmalet is, he really is. It's Merks-esque. Yeah. Well, and I actually, yeah, I agree with that. But I would actually take you one up there.

And if you just, obviously, look, we can look at these performances and say all the things that we've just said in the first five minutes. but you can also look at these performances. And just, and we're talking about sport. Let's just talk about all sports. Yeah. Okay.

Wimbledon is going on. The Open is about to start. The World Cup is going on. You name the sport, right? And I'll say, I mean, my view, and I think we all share this view, there's not an athlete in the world. I mean, this is the equivalent of winning the New York City Marathon by five minutes. These guys are happy to win by 10, 12, 15. 15, 20 seconds.

There's not an athlete in the world. Forget cycling. We can, obviously, everybody listening, everybody watching agrees. This is once in a lifetime. But if you want to have fun with it and continue to play it out, this is the most dominant athlete in the world. Nobody close. This is like Yokevich rolling up to the Wimbledon final,

whoever he plays and going 60-60-60-60. Exactly. And to your point, brother, you say it's Merck's X-Ehrks, I don't even think this is the best we've ever seen. Going back to what we saw in San Remo, where he crashes over a minute behind before the Trapressa. Like, race is over 99.9% of the time. He can not only come back in the suppressor.

He taxed before the top of his suppressa, something we've never seen in cycling history. And days like today, he just keeps doing it on it. Oh, and I forgot Leo's Bastogne there as well. Of course. It's easy to forget. Sorry, sorry, sorry. But, George, are you saying you think that this is?

This isn't Merks-S. This is like beyond. Beyond. I think beyond. I mean, the stuff that guy can do from San Remo to Paris, Rubet, to the tourmalade, I mean, this is like every different discipline in cycling. And he can just cover it all. Like, we haven't seen that. And has the team.

I will say, you know, last year we were questioning Visima's tactics. Well, it's as if they listened and they're going with sort of a different, more passive approach. and say, hey, let them make the race happen, let UAE set the tempo, et cetera. Well, that, and I think we even said it last year. Like, it really doesn't matter. There is no defense here. Yeah.

The other thing, it bodes well for our Americans, too. I love how you keep bringing it back to this. I'm trying to bring the positives. Sebkus, Mattair, Jorgensen, I mean, all of our really strong Americans now may not have to just sit on on the front and burn energy for the rest of the tour of France. They can get in breakaways, go for stage ones. There's a lot of positives that can come out of this.

Sean Quinn's interview at the finish. Look, these are, this is a tough day, right? And I know we're only six stages in. All of the factors that we've talked about, the heat, the difficulty of the first six days. This is already a very, very difficult tour. His interview at the finish, he was, I mean, and he said, look, we had a plan. The plan was to, you know, maybe Torsten train cracks. Maybe I can find my way to yellow.

And he was just defeated. I mean, he just shaking his, literally shaking his head. From personal experience being second place in the GC of the Tour de France is about as far away as being 150th. It's probably worse because you're right there, you can touch it, you can taste it, but it's just so hard to actually get it. So I feel for him. Yeah. I mean, it was also the buildup, wasn't it? You know, we thought that Jonas, this was going to be his best chance since he won the race, having won the world, so having won the Gero, never really looked in any difficulty in the Gero.

and we thought maybe this is the year that someone challenges the dominance of Taday. And there we are. That was the result today. And it's. Well, yeah. And if you're Jonas Engagard and Johan got us these times, like this is the beauty of, now there are other, this isn't a perfect science, like the 100 meter freestyle, where the pool is the same pool and et cetera, et cetera. But, you know, there's still the elements. There's the heat.

There's the wind. Climb like the tourmalet can be exposed. we saw that there was win. But they timed these climbs. They know where the start line is. They know where the finish line is. These are segments, just like you would have on Strava. Tadipoacar beat the best time up the tourmalade by two minutes and 44 seconds.

Now, having said that, the best time before that was Jonas Vingergaard. He was only about 35 seconds down. So he also beat, he beat his own time by two minutes and 10 seconds. And everything you said about him is still true. So he's Jonas Vingergaard defeated at the finish line. A shell of a man. And oh, by the way, he rode the tourmalade two minutes and ten seconds faster than he ever has. Yeah.

That's got to be demoralizing. Yeah. It is. And Johan and I talk about pretty much every week that like every year, everyone's the fittest and fastest they've ever been. Like Egan Bernal today finished 11th, five minutes-ish down. And he probably had a better performance than when he won the tour in 2019. His numbers are better. Yes, they are.

He's doing the best power numbers of his life. Yeah, think about Jonas. Like, he really improved since 2023, and he's getting crushed. It must be demoralizing. Do you guys want to hear power numbers on this? Not, I mean, these are like crazy good power numbers, but it does feel like the heat and the fact that it wasn't what the funnel climb got to people. But Pagachar did, this is like my calculation.

It's pretty accurate, but just, it's not real numbers. 435 watts for the 42 minutes, so that's 6. watts per kilo. Interestingly, Jonas 6.8 watts per kilo which shows you how when you're that light, you actually have to produce more watts per kilo. Like he did 385 watts

because he's so light though his watts per kilo or higher. And that's where you can kind of pay for being so, so, so light. Similar performances to Vindigard at the Giro though like he did 6.8 watts per kilo on Piancovallo on stage 20. So it's not like Pagacchre's numbers

are like out of this world. It's just, I think, the arena in which he's doing it, second to last climb, super hot day. Like, it's hard for anyone to match that. Well, not only that, but the endurance, the difference in endurance where Jonas didn't lose that much time. At the top of Tourmalet was maybe 15, 20 seconds behind. But then he was at the limit. Then you saw Pocachar just sort of get into his own on the downhill and on the final climb and put another two minutes on to him. I mean, that's a massive difference in endurance. Like, forget about the numbers. Like, what he did today is just a completely different level. Well, I don't think any of us are going to have any wild picks here or any

disagreement on the eight sleep move of the day. The fun fact, though, because I think I know who everybody here's going to pick. Of course, eight sleep, the mattress cover that can cool and heat your mattress, your side, your partner side doesn't matter. Taday Pocuchar sleeps every night of the Tour de France on an eight sleep mattress cover. It is a game changer. I've been sent to all these hacks and gizmos and there's only if i had to pick one i'm thinking to get in one is there a big machine that goes with it this it's a yeah i was wondering about how big how how portable is it uh they take it to every stage yeah his he's not carrying it but they have a whole staff for that and probably a whole truck it is it's a game changer head on over to eight sleep dot com use the code

the move you get 500 bucks off your first uh smart mattress cover um also 30 days to try it at home or send it back. Move of the day, Bradley? Taday. I mean, again, we're not. George. George, Ditto. How can you say something different?

Right. Tade, for sure. Spencer. Taday. You'd have to dig deep to come up with one that's not that. Yeah. Yeah, I hate to be unanimous here, but maybe fools to not pick. Well, I think the Zag would be not Taday and the Tormale, but what George said,

Tade after the Tormale, that's the move of the day. So, keep piling it on. Keep piling it on, never slowed down, kept the pace the whole time. I had some discussion yesterday about, and I think all of us were internally rooting for Torsten Train. We thought seven minutes, finished top 10 in a grand tour, doesn't finish on the Tourmalade, does it neutralize it enough? Can he hold on to the old jersey got popped, as did a lot of people. I mean, he got dropped when a lot of really good riders were getting dropped. Matthew Rickettello.

Jorgensen got dropped. These guys are, these guys are. these are real climbers. Couldn't hold the wheel. Clearly, had given everything, was cross-eyed on the downhill, crossed a wheel with his teammate and hit the deck.

I think they're waiting on X-rays. He did say in a post-race interview, he hit his head pretty good. They were giving him the, like the fucking Muhammad Ali thing, you know, on the side of the road, they're like how many, I don't know how they do it,

like how many, he was woozy. Yeah. But, bummer for him. We'll see if he was kind of leaving it out there, like there might be something broken or something that would prevent him.

He definitely looked like his shoulder was hurting, and he hit that pretty hard. But like you said, that's, you know, as a van watching that going, what are you thinking, why you're overlapping this wheel, but you come across over the Tourmalaya at 200 heart rate? I mean, the pressure of the world is on you.

Like, you just don't think straight at those moments. I've crashed on the Tourmalade, a very similar situation. You can cross a wheel when you have a 20-20 vision. Yep. Yeah. When you're cross-eyed, it's a lot easier to cross the wheel. It was what Ben Wiggins said, too.

Two days in yellow, crash boat days. That's a tough, tough tenure in yellow. I was shocked that he lost. I thought he would hold the jersey. I mean, the gaps today just, like the 10th place rider, Supkous was over three minutes down. Yeah. Well, he wouldn't have held the jersey even without the crash.

No, yeah, there's not a chance. That's right. You know what else Ben Wigan said when he walked into the studio, I walked down here? I guess you guys had a little break because you had to get from the car or the house to the car. Yeah. And then down in the studio when Ben walked in, he said, is he up by 20 minutes yet?

That'll stick with you. Yeah. Exceptional. And then Lance, you were saying, you know, I'm like looking at there's a lot of talented writers. I think Paul Six Oz had a great day to finish in that group. He's now still competing for the podium. But you mentioned earlier that this is just a different race than any other race. Like, how is the tour?

Like, why are these guys in such shock when they've had such good performances? earlier this year. Just a different race. I don't, I never buy in to the, to the hype and the, and the, the,

the promise of what anybody did in the Giro de Talia or the tour of Spain. It doesn't matter. Oh, you guys come in here and talk about, well, but he wrote a great Giro. And he's won all three. Fuck, who cares?

There is one bike race. And it is, it is the, it is by far the biggest bike race in the world. And it is by far the hardest, it is just, different. Everything about it's different. Probably you want it. It's just different. You cannot mimic it. Nothing compares. I don't care what you did in May or what you're going to do in September.

It is just different. Everything about it's different. Don't sugar cut it. No, sugar cut it so much. What about Roubae? No, that's a one day. That's a whole, that's apples and oranges. It's just different. I mean, the intensity of it, the speed of it. The attention. And if you're, and I was so, um, I felt like I was leading the Paul Seishos fan club in the preview show. And I think, look, now that I'm watching this unfold, Paul Seishas has, now has a problem.

Okay. Yeah. And his name is Isaac Del Toro. Right. Isaac Del Toro is 22 years old. Paul Seychas, 19, 20 years old. Yeah, that's younger. But we'll see what happens with Todi Pokutjar.

And I want to get to this in the second half of the show, because I think there's one thing that can beat. There's one thing. There's one element that can beat Tidei Choschard. a polka chart. And I'm going to talk about it in the second half of the show. But if you're Paul Seishas, yeah, I think he had an okay day. But he is

watching Isaac Del Toro going, okay, this Slovenian may not be here forever. And he's looking around he's got an IDT problem. Yeah, well, he did probably have the best, I don't believe a 19 year old is in modern history has finished in the top five of Mountain stage like this. So,

pretty good day. Yeah, this is a younger sport now. It has moved that way. Today show brought to you by E. Koi. Today, look here, got it right here on the desk, the R2 Carbon. During today's brutal stage in the Pyrenees, you probably noticed one of ECOI's latest innovations in action. The brand new Ekoi racing R2 Carbon Helmet, which was worn by multiple riders during today's stage. This is because the R2 carbon was specifically developed for climbers and riders who demand the perfect balance of lightweight performance, cooling, and aerodynamics,

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Great day for Matt's Patterson. Yeah, Matt's Peter's an early breakaway. Had to do a big bridge to get across to the breakway to get those points. Heads up bike riding. Yeah, heads up. But not even a hodge up, but just pure power. It was a demonstration. Yeah, demonstration of power.

He's got power. And he's all in on the green jersey, obviously. Yesterday, what he did yesterday, today, making that huge effort before the big climbs he get those points. Obviously, he's putting a lot of emphasis on getting as many points as he can when the road suits him. Who are we saying he's going to be his biggest challenger now? Because Taday is now...

Well, it could be, right, because he's got 168 points. Max Gantor, 93. You were impressed with Max Cantor. Pena M. Germai, 91 points, and third. then Philipson, 86, Tedda Picotcher, 75. That's who I would be worried about. These are similar discrepancies.

When you look at the yellow, the time differences for the yellow jersey, and the points differences for the green jersey, these are very similar to describe, 168 to 93. I don't know how many, how many that is. That's, uh, whatever,

uh, 75. If you, you got to go all, you got to go a long ways down the points total to find another 70. To find another 75. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it was kind of,

of interesting because Campanards went up the road with one other guy. Pedersen Bridges up and then the other sprinters, it was so hard they didn't even try to go. Alpison went on the front and paste so that other people couldn't get up there. And they just were like, oh, we'll get fourth at the intermediate sprint because it was that hard at the start of today's stage. And we also haven't seen, uh, yeah, called it. Yeah. We also haven't seen Remko climb this good, even though he didn't have like a standout

performance compared to how he's climbed the last year. I think today was his best climbing day. at least in the last year. Yeah, it's the best performance of his life that no one will ever remember. Yeah, it was incredible. Yeah. But still in there for the podium fight

after arguably one of the hardest climbs of the tour defense. What did you guys think about del Toro? How do you look in that? I thought he looked good. I mean, he set the pace for Pogachar, dropped Jonas right away, and then gave the head nod to Pogat, like, I can't keep going at this pace.

But still, instead of blowing up, just kind of got right on the wheels and stayed with that group of favorites for the podium. also a big contender for the moment. And he was fresh at the finish, I thought. Well, yeah, that's, I mean, if you can make it over the Tourmalet, the downhill for a guy like that, that's so good technically, it's all recovery. And then the valley floor is leading up to that last climb. Same thing, didn't have to take one pull.

He was in an ideal scenario and won the sprint for second, or for third, sorry. Bradley, if, if, who is more demoralized? Jonas Bengagard or Remko? Yonis. 100%. I would say Yonis. 100%

I would have said Remko. No, I would say I would say, I don't think Remko is riding the perfect race up to this point.

I know he came here to win the race, of course, but a success for him will be the podium this year. After where he came from last year, new team,

you know, asserting his leadership over Lipovitz. I think that's what his goal was secretly. He might not say publicly, but I think that that's success

for him. And look, we don't know how Jonas is going to fair now the next two weeks. You know, I have a sneaking suspicion having watched him today and that he's not going to finish this race.

That is a, wow. That's a wild. But hey, we're here to give a painting. I'm not saying that's going to happen. I just saw a man who was broken today. And he, the last couple of years, he remained positive in second place. He said, I'm going to take this race. I'm going to push him to Paris.

I mean, how many years do you want to do that and finish second? There's not much he can do in this race. There might be an underlying illness, as we mentioned yesterday. I don't know. He's still wearing the face mask at the start. But he went two minutes faster than he ever went. I know. I know, but he still lost nearly three minutes.

So, you know. When you were right last year about Remko, you said he's going to drop out and dropped out. I'm not, I don't want that to happen. I don't want to see that. But, you know, look, we're six days into this Tour of France. And that is the man we're witnessing at the top of this climb today. And this is new cycling. I don't think there's any scenario that either one of y'all who have both won the Tour de France

would have done what he did today and would have put. which I did on the tour late today. No. 3, 14, eight, some of the best climbers in the world.

You're in the best spot, super safe. You could still win the stage by letting your guys do the work. Nope. He goes with 40K to go solo. Like, this is completely new cycling

that we haven't witnessed, but I guess it is what it is. I mean, for him, that's short. Yeah. I mean, think about what he's done.

I mean, we've talked about, uh, the monuments. Yeah. But, uh, uh,

my brain is mush. Um, the damn race in Italy, the, Strati Bianchi I look at Stradi Bianchi 70, 80, 90K from the finish

Yeah, but in my point of that That's a one day race He doesn't have to recover The next day, like he's got two and a half weeks to go What do you guys think about that? Because he's with teammates on the Tourmalay You could easily have just gone over Probably won the stage,

maybe, he definitely would have won the stage Maybe a gap Yeah They put him in a position where he has to drill the descent A pretty, pretty sketchy descent No teammates with them Obviously it worked out

But what do you think about that decision? Yeah, I mean, it puts a lot more pressure on his team. Not that they care because they could do whatever, but now they have to control the race for the next two weeks. And he even said in his post-race interview that he didn't even technically want to get to yellow. He didn't think he'd put that much time on Thorsten. But the dude was just flying. Yeah.

Well, and before we go to the peacock break, I don't disagree with it. I think if you have good legs, you've got a long break until the next, until the Alps, basically. If you can get the time, I know it, it, it, leads to a lot of things, leads to a lot of conversation. People, oh, this is boring. You got to get it. You got to get it. Like, who knows?

There is still going to be a bike race for more than two weeks. If you can get the time, get the time. We'll sort the other shit out later. You got to get it, I think. It's a long time for the next mountain stage. It is. But, yeah, they're going to start every day. And we're going to be here every day.

We're going to be back in two minutes and 32 seconds. All right. And we are back. I talked about just in the first segment of the show about something that, and look, I'm not a facial recognition specialist or a psychologist or any kind of what, you know, analyst. But I said, I said, there could be one thing that ultimately beats Tadipokchar, and it's not a person. It's not a team. It is not a crash. It is not an accident.

It's not bad luck. It's boredom. I'm not kidding. You see it. And George, I'm being dead serious. Because I've been in this position. I've been in the position, no matter what anybody says or thinks, I've been in this position. And after a while, it becomes a job.

And you're paid to win. You're supposed to win. Of course, you don't want to lose, but it's different. And you see, I don't know. And maybe I'm in a unique position because I, have been there and it's like, God, we're going to go. This beat down again. I'm watching him.

You watch his post-race interview. This is a guy who's phoning it in. And I'm, and I actually, I have a ton of really actually sympathy for that because it's, he spends a ton of time preparing for this. And look, Todi Bokachar would love a fight. Just a fist fight. Just bring it on and duke it out.

He would love that. He's not going to have that. I think that's the only thing that eventually, and you know, Bradley, you've sort of, and others, it doesn't have to be, others have said, okay, is this, you know, does what is the, how does this end, right? Does LA 28 sort of the Swan Song and however many tours that is, we don't know. Only he knows. Or maybe he doesn't even know. But that man at the finish line today, that was a guy who just seemed uninterested. And I, and I say that with a time. a compassion for him because it's not easy. I mean, it's I'm serious. I don't know if you guys, but I mean, we said it last year, didn't we?

We said, at what point is he going to get bored of the sport? And he seemed disinterested at the last week last year, didn't he? Yeah, I would say, though, this is this going to sound ridiculous? He's not really a stage. He's like, stage racing is his job. It feels like one day racing is his passion. Yeah. So I almost feel like he's here, like,

preparing for worlds. He's like, I got to get an effort in today. Because those were the races that, like, think about Walt Van Ard, the duel with Wild Van Ard at Peribet. Like, that's probably what gets him out of bed. These are challenges. These are new. These are fist fights.

These are, you don't know what somebody is going to throw at you. And that's exciting. Look, you see his face in those races. You see his interviews after those races. They are different. Yeah. And it's hard, it's hard to even think about it because this. is the Tour de France. I just told you how great this race is and what it means to the entire

sport and what it means to the world of sport. But I'm watching it and I feel for the dude. I really do. It's the most miserable you see him all year of the tour. He is like a different guy. Yeah. I mean, the other thing is though, we all know how much training it takes, how much alone time. He hasn't raced that much this year, maybe 20 race days. 22 race days. 22 race days. So like you mentioned earlier on, Lance, it is the Tour de France. It is. still massive to win the stage. He looks like he's doing it with ease, but I'm sure he's still excited tonight at the dinner table with his guys.

So how many of those 22 race days? Has he won? Like 16, I think. 14. 14. 14. 14. 15.

Yeah. I guess. Yeah. That's pretty good. And that's counting. Like he's doing stage races and that's counting like sprint stages at the stage races. Yeah. One of a kind.

Yeah. One of a kind. But that one of a kind still, look, and I, I'm not debating whether or not, not he likes. If you're only racing 22 days thus far, the rest of the time he's out training, that's what, I don't want to speak for him, but I will tell you how I felt. And I suspect this is how he feels. Those days he's out there, whether he's in the south of France where he lives, or he's at training camps, or he's at altitude. And he's alone. He wouldn't want to be anywhere else. That is, that is the only place in the world he wants to be. And that's,

different than today, right? It's just, there's a question for you lots. Was the process, though, those training days were they boring no no no that's all the matter that's what i that's what i loved the most yeah yeah and it's why when when uh these tours would play out as they did and we would get to paris and you know paris is a celebratory place it's crazy we're already talking about paris but um uh i was like all right the process this particular process is now complete yeah well and it's so i'm ready to leave have a little time off and restart this point process. Now, I'm just telling you what I felt. I am not telling you that that's healthy. If Taday Pogachar called me tonight and asked me about it, I would encourage him to expand the horizon

a little bit because it isn't healthy. It's successful. It's going to get him and his sponsors and his legacy, everything at once. But it's the way I looked at it. And I'm 55 years old now and I look back on it now. And I wish I would have stepped off the bus in Paris and looked at that scene differently. How did you find it, George, you know, in that third week, the tour going for number six or seven? That's a good question. I mean, it always boring for you or it's just as exciting as the number one. It evolved a lot of change. I mean, I remember when he won year five, it was like, we never quite knew if he was going to win because he wasn't his best and he was struggling the whole time. And I think guys like myself played a much bigger role in keeping them confident and keeping them safe.

And that was super motivating for me and appealing for me. But yeah, after that, you're right. You're just kind of get in this zone where you're like, okay, probably going to win. And we know exactly what we need to do. But that said, we didn't witness that kind of domination, what we saw today. Like, we would. It wasn't far off at times. I don't ever remember you going more than 10K solo.

Right? Yes or no. Last climb, go. But it was equally as destructive. It looked up Cestrier from 1999. And that folks thought that was, that was the beginning. That was real, that was a big one. Hothacam was two minutes.

Because I was saying what you were saying, Bradley, we were sitting here and I was like, well, you dominated everybody, but you won by 31 seconds at Cestria, which I remember it being as destructive as this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that was, and that was, you know, we woke up to, you know, look, there was a lot of, there were fires there. There was smoke around those fires. But we woke up the next day to screaming headlines across the country. entry of the sport of two speeds.

Le duvitez. It's 31 seconds. But anyway, so we don't need to... But like when you caught Jan in the prologue, that was equally as... Bradley, did you find the process boring? I enjoyed the process more. I would have just been paid to do the process

without the racing. Interesting. Yeah, absolutely. I would have loved that. And you've mentioned it before, which I find super fascinating, like some of your training rides. I know we've all trained crazy hard,

but like some of the shit, were doing like my irka like when you do the lap of my i don't know how long like seven eight hour ride yeah yeah calorie deficit but it's it's only what was leading to what these guys are doing now your sky were the but what like break down that one training ride you told me about which i thought was insane so it's calorie deficits you aim to create a massive calorie deficit in order and you fuel under that so we're protein each hour half a bar each hour so you you look to burn five six seven thousand calories on the bike but only consume three and a half during the day yeah in order to burn fat but they would take it out of

out of you in the days after. Yeah. But you would do it. How long was that one day? That whole, that whole, pre-breakfast, no breakfast,

fat burning, using that as a fat source is changing. It's all about carbs. Yeah. Yeah. Fun story about that 2003 tour. I was, you're right.

I was, I was like, well, I don't, this is it. I don't think I can do this. So, Yon was good.

I was off my game for sure. And mentally, I was like, not in the best place. And we would, we would sit in the back of the bus and I look at George has this little white thing. And he had these, uh, headphones plugged into it. And it was, you know, jam. Finally went out. I said, what the fuck is that?

He says, there's music on here. It's an iPod. I said, what? That's right. Yeah. A little, had a little wheel on it. And I said, what? I said, let me check that thing out. I said, how do you find different music, you know, and put the headphones in and rolling this wheel? And, of course, He's listening all this rap and hip hop and all. I said, boy, all right. And I changed the game for you. I don't know if I, and I'm like, fucking running this wheel and his band pops up at Incubus. I said, whoa, I can listen to this.

I don't want to listen to any of this other stuff, but Incubis, boom, push the button. Fucking change the tour of hands for me. I swear to God. That was, I was like every morning I was like, hey, let me borrow that white thing again. Incubus, boom. Not to get, not to get super. but like that was one of my most funest stores because I had to take care of him. He was like Mr. Confidence here.

It was always sort of insecure of his form, the whole Tour de France. So I would always just be on him. I was courting. I was chasing my wife at the time, which I met early in the tour in the tour in 2003. So I was highly distracted that tour, but it was a super fun Tour de France for me. And it went down to the wire and to the time travel coming into Paris. Well, you know what? The good news is, George, for that Tour de France, you bat at 1,000.

That's right. And you know what the great bear Bryant said for another show. Just kidding. Post race. We forget about the preview? Post-show show. No, we're going to do the stage seven to preview. Let's pull it up.

How about the profile? 175 kilometers. Look, you know, the fun thing to think about, I mean, Bordeaux is classic spring stage. Yeah. If you're a climber, I mean, you're thinking about the west. You're thinking of on two. You're thinking of the tourmalet.

Are you thinking of those things? If you're a sprinter, Bordeaux is your out to west. Like all the grates. You name the grates. They have won in Bordeaux. And that's where we're going to finish tomorrow. Look how, I mean, these riders must be looking at this profile going. Yes.

It is going to be super hot, though. It's going to be hot. It's going to, and George, you like talking about the dynamic of the early race. Look how late the point sprint is. Yeah. I mean, 55. from the finish. It's so, you know, track is going to have to do some, well, you would think they have to do a little bit of work.

But what is the temp? So we're talking 100 degrees again? 100. Yeah. Yeah, of course it's going to be. Bordeaux's a hot. It's just a hot city. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You could technically have the day off tomorrow because the sprinter team's going to control it from the start. You know, one thing we haven't talked about here is, and I don't, we can look this up on some weather forecast is a day like this is if you just had some mystery or some summer wind or, you know, you know, you can get, yeah, that can make this race interesting. Yeah. You don't have to have a, you know, 20 mile. I have a little perfect cross wind.

Right here we could look at it. How's the wind looking? The wind is looking, uh, not strong. Okay. Three K an hour. Yeah. So that's not, that is not going to do it. Uh, but hey, we got two more weeks to go.

There's, there, there may be some stages that, the, uh, wind plays a factor. Yeah. I mean, this would be a classic wind day, like into Bordeaux. Everyone's taking the foot off the gas a little bit, boom, and then he could cross wins. Who do you guys think is going to win? I'm going to go with Philipson.

I think he'll find his he'll find his footing this race. George. I'm going to go with Coy. The team saw how strong he was the other day, so he's probably going to have more guys. Not probably, he will have more guys focusing on him on the finish tomorrow. And I think with that

sprint he did, it's going to be hard to beat him. I'm going to, I'm going to ride with George on this one. All off Coy. I see the run in. Yeah, very, I mean, right along the river in Bordeaux. This is the last four kilometers are just right along the river. It's straightforward.

I mean, you always think about the, I mean, I think we all agree. The crash disrupted things two days ago. I'm going with Olaf Coy. By the way, I heard this morning the highest paid sprinter in the history of the sport, is it? Yeah. Three million euros a year. Is it worth it? I mean, for DeCathlon, they, they have.

never won a tour stage as a decathlon. So, I mean, now it's... But he also flew under the radar the other day a little bit. Yeah. And I think at some point, Alperson and Vanderpaw in particular, are going to play their part in this lead out. Might be tomorrow. That might be tomorrow.

I think Bordeaux is the second most visited town in the tour tour history. Well, the original, and I'm not a lot of things. A tour historian would be at the top of the list. But as I understood it, you know, the original tours, 113 years ago had had 15 stage or five, sorry, five stages, five finishes in Bordeaux was from day one. Am I getting that right? Was one of them. It says 133 finishes at Bordeaux.

Wait. So there can't be possible. I mean, would there be tours that would finish there multiple times? Double. Is that chat, GPT? Yeah. That's funny. Look, AI is going to sell.

They've only had it at 113 times. There was a time trial one day and the stage finish the next. They're split day. Sean Yates's first tour. They had a stage in 1984 from Nantes to Bordeaux. It was like they started seven in the morning. Wow. I think it was 350K.

Wow. And we look at some of these stages like, ooh, a long one for the guys today, 185K. 1085. How are they going to do it? Can you imagine doing the tourmalight today on a fixed gear and it's not paved? That's mind blowing to me. Yeah.

Did that happen? No. Let's take some call-ins. I think we all agree. We've been loving this. We've got the voicemail line set up. It goes straight down to George's room at the house. That is, of course, plus one. 9707182736 calls and leave us a voice. Tell us just because we like, I don't know, answering you directly. Tell us your name. Tell us where you're from. And we'll pick a, you know, it depends on the day. We'll pick two to three to listen to and spitball on. Coltland, let's roll them. Who we got first?

Hey, guys. This is Brad from Mobile, Alabama. Oh, baby. First-time caller, long-time listener. I was curious to ask whether or not Wild Van Art not being there is a huge blow to Yon's Indigo. What do you guys think about that? Love the show. Keep up the good work, fellas.

Great question. Amazing. Great question. George, you have really rallied the people from the South. Yeah. We are getting a lot of calls. from the south and the southeast. We are, yeah.

I never knew the tour was so big. Yeah, like, in Mobile, Alabama. A bar in Moby. So you want me to take it since the southern call? I do, but we can all chime in. I mean, there is, we're all a little curious about Wout Thunard, but yeah, go for it. Well, I mean, I don't think it had much of an impact today,

perhaps in the first couple days, but what we saw today was just a different level from the first two guys. Wow, would not have been able to, he would not have been able to make any difference today, sure it would have been great to have them in the last couple of days for positioning but I don't think it's had a major impact yet the race is still two weeks to go that's my opinion yeah I don't think yeah I agree with George in terms of the performance point of view but

you know much like when we were just talking before about how you played your role to lance in 03 and and having a someone like walt round you know he's he's a great it's got a great aura and so just to have him around when you're a little bit demoralized and not feeling great Want would be great in those situations. So I think he would be missed on the bus. It would be missed around, just running around the Palleton on easy days. Because, you know, he's Walthanort.

Yeah, Walthanard is a top 10, top five rider in the Peloton worldwide in terms of prominence. Like he is, nobody needs to say, well, who? Yeah. I mean, he is wildfire Nard. And with that comes a lot, right? And having him in the group as a, whether it's the wind or just as a, a, you know, whether it's off the bike and the bus for morale. Yeah, he's, he's had a hell of a career and he's, he's, he's wild found art.

I mean, it carries a lot. He's a giant, like literally. And, like, big Palmire. Is that you have a question, George? And what about the rumors flowing around about? I don't know if we need to. And he's one of the few people that have beat Tatei this year. Well, yes, yes.

I do think that matters. And the weird thing about wow is I would have thought the, like the stage that he would have helped the most on was the team time drill and they won it without him. So that's what do I know? All right. Thanks one. Thank you, Brad. Hey, guys.

It's Jane from Philadelphia. So my question is when you were deep in a mountain stage or really any stage late in a grand tour, how much did you like look around to assess how your rivals were feeling? And what did you look for? Take care. Love the podcast. Well, I can, Jane, I'm going to answer that one because I'm coming to your hometown next month for Philadelphia. Cyclone Classic. I mean, you were so predictable. But you know who would, you know who would, like, would do this to me every tour like two weeks in?

There's my man right here. He'd be like, he'd go in front of me and he'd look back. It's like, do I look fat? Do my calves look shredded? Every year, without a doubt, two weeks into the race, he would be asking me how his legs looked and he'd be in the yellow jersey the tour de france so he probably would be looking at others less than looking at himself yeah um i mean i i you know you you would naturally um but you know there's so many so many mind games going on on those climbs nimbly was great at it not giving

too much away as to how he was feeling um others not so much like someone like frum would you know his riding style would always suggest that he was struggling, and it was quite the opposite. Yeah. The one I almost remember was watching you, and I think it was 01 with the famous when you, when you faked being not so good on the climbs on the Clemson Telecom Road, and then you hit them on Outduos.

Was that the Outdoers day? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. So when you won the tour, who was your most feared rider? Was it Frum or was it Nibbley? A Nibli, really.

Because there was an element of control still. We were still teammates. in cross, even though he may have been better than me in the climbs. I still knew I had the better of him in the time trials. But Niboli was, he was the shot. And he might not have been the best in that race with the strongest team. He had Basso and a few others. But he was, you could never, ever underestimate him.

I mean, look how he won the zero that he was like six minutes down. He would hit you when you least expected it. Like a shark. Yeah. Yeah. And Jane, I think, I mean, I know personally, I would, I was, I was, I, I had my head on a swivel. You had your guys that you knew that were your main rivals in most of these cases for me was Yon.

So you're always checking them out, right? And you would see them on day one and you would judge them immediately. Do they look fit enough to beat me? But as the race plays on, then you're starting to look for other. By the way, guys are looking fitter and fitter as the race goes on, especially Yon. I mean, that year 2000, Jan came in way overweight. And you saw him every day. It was like he was losing a pound.

And I'm like, damn, I hope this thing ends before he gets to the perfect weight. But as the race plays out, you're looking at everything, right? You're watching a guy. A lot of sweat today. A lot of salt. You're listening to a guy, right? Some guy that's just got a little. And again, you are centimeters from these guys day in and day out throughout the course of the year.

you notice a guy's got a little cough, just a little something. Or you look at a guy sweating more than usual. You know exactly. I knew exactly how much Marco Pontani sweated or didn't sweat. It didn't matter, right? The heat, the elements, you know, they're breathing. You can listen to it. And so we were a constant.

And also, and this is what I was always so incentivized to at least, like I speak English. And in terms of other language, I probably speak 10% of Spanish, 10% of Italian. But I learned enough in all of the languages to know, to know when something was about to happen, something negative was going to happen, whether it was for them or towards me. And so I learned enough and you hear, right, the guys are talking on the radio, the guys are talking to themselves. I knew enough to just pick up on what they might be saying. And so, yeah, I mean, it's ears wide open, eyes wide open, head on a swivel, absolutely. And George, we'll see you in Philadelphia. You know, just a quick one.

You know, the fear factor was always the Schleck brothers. They were like Siamese twins. You know, and they'd get really close and whisper each other in their language. And no one else understood. You know, and it was like, what they're going to do? And nine times out of ten, it was they'd start hitting you one or the other. It's like the NFL. Actually, at the World Cup, all sports now, the coach comes in, he's like,

yeah. So, George. I mean, like we're lip readers. Yeah. But, yeah, that would be tricky. Like, especially when they have a language that no one else. Well, yeah. It's just that strange dialect they have.

And they speak every language. Not only do they speak to themselves in a weird language, but they understand every other language. Oh, no. All right. Last one, final one. Who we got? Hey, boys. I'm interested in the logistics of the nature break, story subject.

Could be interesting. I'm just, I don't know. Do you have to go whilst you're just writing sometimes? Any interesting stories about spectators or? blow back. I'm keen to know. It's Stu from the UK. Stu. Thanks. I mean, look, it's a good question.

Like, a lot of people have this question. Stu, you're not alone. Like, people are like, so what happens if you have to? Like the average person. Oh, I'm curious. Like, what happens if you have to go to the bathroom? And then I'm always like, well, it depends. Number one or number two. Yeah. Number two is a real problem. Number two is a real problem. Number two, you should have got out your system before you stop. You know, something's probably not right. Yeah. If you're doing number two.

If number two should be done. Bad, bad, bad day. You know, hydration's so important in this race. And you start by drinking lots in the stage. And there's so many times where I would just pray that the break was going to go so we can stop and have a urine break. Yeah. Like at the tour, they'll wait until the first break goes.

And then everybody will stop. Not everybody, but like 80% of the Peloton, then you know you're going to stop. Or if you have like a chill section in that's slightly downhill, you just kind of pull over, whip it out and coast along. So that way you don't lose so much time. Get back in the cars and you're right back in. Yeah. There's multiple options.

I mean, a lot of times, and a lot of, most of the time, the yellow jersey will dictate this. No. Look, if tomorrow, Taday Pogachar pulls over, maybe not early in the race because it's going to be so aggressive, but if there's a lull in the race and he stops to go to the bathroom, there are going to be 80 guys that take advantage of that opportunity and stop. Like, they are protected. They're like, well, if he's here, we're good. That's one option. The other option is you just go off the bike, right? and, you know, I'm sure people have seen this on the coverage.

But, you know, if you're, and you have to obviously not do this uphill, folks, but you either find a downhill or even a slight downhill. And you just sort of whip it out and have a couple teammates push. It's almost like a, you know, a train where they just keep pushing you. And look, we're talking 45 seconds. I could not pee if someone was pushing me. Yeah, I had no problem. Now, the third option, which I don't know if you ever know,

So I won the world championships in 1993. I was a young kid. We're in Oslo, Norway. The weather is horrible. It is pissing rain. It's probably 50 degrees. This is summertime. It is abysmal.

I'm nervous as shit. But the race is long. It's 165 miles. And I have to go to the bathroom. I'm like, I can't stop. I don't know what to do. Fun fact. In the Oslo Worlds, I pissed in my shorts three times.

I just said, Like on the downhill? It was raining and it didn't matter. No, all over the course, didn't matter. I'd be peddling and pissing. This is so gross.

By the way, it wounds you up. It warms, first of all, it was cold. It was cold. It was cold. Nobody wanted to be here with your ass.

It was stanky. It was cold and it was pouring. So I'm like, I'm soaked anyways. What does it matter? Yeah, it's like you're surfing, just peeing in a wetsuit. Yeah, exactly.

And so, fun fact. Three different times. it's like I'm not stopping. Interesting. So there you go, Stu. By the way, option three, I don't recommend. No.

For anybody. Option one, everybody, just do that. By the way, too, we're guys. Right? Here in three weeks, I'll be talking about the Tour de France fam of X Swift. I don't have any, I don't know what happens. I don't know what goes on there. We submit the question.

Call me back in three weeks, Stu. You can ask Allison or Marr. Sorry. But it's not. Last thing. I feel like I read recently, there's been a bit of a crackdown. Was there some crackdown on this? So there was some penalization.

Yeah. Well, or there's some. Victor Camberdardt was peeing in a bottles, which I think is a good idea. So you're not like exposing yourself to the public. You just pop a bottle there. Give it to the team.

Hangar. Yeah. And he got, he got like fine for this. You're allowed to do it. I'm going to tease out one more thing. We do what nobody realizes. Nobody realizes.

If you're watching the show, we do take a two minute and 32 second commercial break for Peacock. And every time, which nobody sees, Sir Bradley gets up and goes to the bathroom. Now, I'm fairly confident now he is coming back on day one, day two. I was like, Jesus, is he coming back? But it still makes me a little nervous. Tomorrow, I'm going to bring something for Sir Bradley that has a solution for this. I'm dead serious.

So just just get ready and it works it works every time. All right? That's all I have seen. I know what this is and it's going to be fantastic. Yeah.

Let's do a little trivia. Those are great questions by the way. Keep them coming. I was just about to say that number again. What is it again? George's personal line, 9707182736. Call us.

Ventum Trivius. of the day, Dia is still a deep, dark depression for the Egyptians losing to those corrupt referees

and the Argentinians. We had a big conversation last night about soccer. I'm over it. We got France. We got France. We got a big game. It doesn't matter.

I mean, I was interested. I was all in, and now I'm out. I'm out. The question yesterday was that Poe has hosted the tour more times than almost any other city. How many times has it been featured?

survey says 67 times. 67 times. By the way, how old are you? You are hanging around 21-year-old Ben way too much. My 15-year-old daughter does.

The first time she did that shit, I was like, what are you talking about? She was like, Dad, you're so lame. You are, okay, I'll hurry up. We're almost done, I promise. And then you can go do, you know, all right, here we go.

Today's question. The cold of Tourmalet is the most climbed pass in tour history. When was this historic climb's debut in the Tour de France? The Tourmalet is the most climbed pass in Tour History. When was this historic climb's debut the first time they did it in Tour History? Head on over to Ventrum Racing.com slash the move to give them your answer. Use the code the move 10 for 10% off. By the way, whoever wins this thing and we'll announce it at the end gets $5,000.

credit on their next bike. I don't know. I was not very excited for today's show, and I have to say I had a hell of a day. So you guys just want to keep hanging out? Nope. Okay. It was fun. That was a great show.

I thought so. Thank you, Taday, because you made the show. Yeah, we got to get them on. We got to get them on. Rest day. Special show. Yeah, you won't have any media requests, I'm sure. We'll get them.

All right. We'll see you all tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you.