THEMOVE - How an Ultra-Fast Stage Led to a Shocking Upset | TdF Stage 11 | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin discuss how Søren Wærenskjold shocked the sprint favorites to win Stage 11 and go through what made the stage the fastest in the history of the Tour de France. They also break down the Green Jersey battle and what we can read into Jasper Philipsen's third-place finish, before answering a few listener questions and previewing tomorrow's Stage 12. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Hims: For simple, online access to personalized and affordable care for Hair Loss, ED, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/THEMOVE Lagoon: Use code MOVE for 15% off at https://LagoonSleep.com/THEMOVE Nextbets: Use our special link to see where you can bet in your area and claim the best sign-up offers https://nxtbets.com/betoutcomes/ Ventum: Use code TheMove10 for 10% off anything at: https://ventumracing.com/  

About six weeks before the Tour de France, my dad had died suddenly at 53 years old, riding his bike of a hard failure. And it was a great shock for me. And initially, you know, I couldn't think about riding the tour. So I actually gave up my spot. I said to my team director back then, Manolo Sykes, I said, you know, Manolo, I can't train. I can't train, so I'm not going to make it to the Tour de France. And then after the funeral, I don't know what happened.

Something clicked in my head and I went out on a bike ride. And on that bike ride, I think I must have had like an imaginary conversation with my father. And I decided I was going to go to the tour and win a stage. Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Brunel. We are breaking down stage 11 of the Tour de France. Bunch sprint won by Soren, Wilkinschold.

But Johan will say his name correctly here in a second. With Olaf Coy, second, Jasper, Phillips, and third. Really an incredible, incredible, long-range sprint launched from around 400 meters during an odd lull inside the final kilometer. You tend to see that now, which is not how sprinting used to be. And we'll talk about that. We'll also preview stage 11 and go through some listener questions. But Johann, just to get right into it, hey, how do we say this man's name? We might have to start saying it because he won Amlup last year.

Now he went to tour stage. He's U-23 time trial champion. So we know he's got a huge engine. How do you say his name? And what was your major takeaway from the day? Yeah. So it's certain. No, so it's not so sudden.

It's certain. Varon show. Varon. Varon. Varon. I've been told. So, yeah, difficult name to pronounce. But yeah, I mean, like,

what a win, you know, definitely was not on any of the prediction cards of anybody, at least not ours. And I think he could take advantage of the strange sprint we saw. I think what we saw was it was a fast race. But then there was this sprint, this big sprint with like seven, six and a half kilometers to go, was a big sprint to like a crucial point. There was a double chicane where everybody knew that they had to be in front. And they came on a very narrow road.

And the race basically stopped. I mean, there was like, there were five or six wide. And there was no actually no team pulling or lining it up. The race really slowed down there. I mean, slow down. They're still going 50K an hour. Yeah, they're going 50k an hour. Yeah.

But it looks like they're walking. Normally they would go 60 there in a normal, like. straight bigger lane sprint preparation. So that was a bit unusual, I'd say. And there was a lot of trying to find positions and stuff. And there was not really a leadout until we saw NSN with 1.5K to go basically accelerates very violently. And that was it.

And then I think certain virtual won thanks to The mistake of Olaf Coy, in my opinion. If you go back to the last few hundred meters, there was, I think it was Caysbole, who was trying to do the lead out, but all of a sudden he got a gap. And Olaf Coy hesitated. Instead of going on the wheel,

he was waiting. He wanted to get somebody in between. And at that moment, so he said, maybe I'm getting somebody in between, or there's a gap. So they have to close the gap. Otherwise, K's bowl could win. You know, we were already 450 meters from the finish.

And at that moment of hesitation, Werenstkolt came from the back on the right side. He found an opening and he attacked. He could get into the slipstream of bowl and keep it to the finish. I mean, initially, if you see it from the front, it's always the same. It looks like it's very tight. But I mean, he won. If you see the side shot, he won very, very, very dominantly. Um, yeah. So, I mean, listen, great win for him. Uh, and what a tour de France for, you know, X.

Now they had the leaders jersey already with Torsten Train a couple of days. Now in a stage. Um, you know, we, we were talking yesterday about the horrible hotel they had, but I mean, didn't affect their performance. Maybe it helped them. I was wondering about that. They hardened them up over over the rest. But yeah, it is as they have a stage win and a yellow jersey. So three teams have worn the yellow jersey. UAE, Visma, UnoX. It's a very good company to be in. And they've won a stage. How many teams have had a better tour so far? I was thinking about this. You'd say UAE.

UAE and UAE and Visma. And maybe, maybe, not even Vizma. No, Visma, no, because they won one stage. And they had the, they also had the yellow jersey. Yeah, for a day. Yeah. Two days. And then you'd say,

Maybe Sudol, Sudol quick step, two wins, but no leaders jersey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's super impressive. These guys are, these guys are definitely, already last year as an invited team, they won a stage already. And what I really find, if you remember. Yeah, correct.

Yeah. It was Abrahamson, no? It was the stage where Vanderpul was chasing and then he didn't know that there was still three guys in the front. It was the,

I think that was the best stage of the race. That was so fun. Yeah, it was a really good stage. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But also the way they are able to turn it around, you know, I mean, they had already to deal with some bad luck. You know, Torfell train gets in the yellow jersey, loses, but then crashes out.

Johanison is not on the level that they expected him to be for G.C. And they just, you know, reprogram and go for other objectives. And they're very successful. And it's an aggressive team. they're always in attacks so we might see more of this for UNOX. What I really like about the team is, you know, so they're easy to mock sometimes. Like, oh, why are you guys attacking on the sprint stages if you remember back to those stages? But they, I feel like they manifest their own destiny where they just, we're going to attack.

We're going to make this work. If it doesn't work today, at least they're seating that mentality. Like today, they probably shouldn't have won. Like that this guy should not be winning these sprints against these sprinters, but he sees he sees a gap with 400 meters to go. And he turns what should be a bunch sprint basically into like a mini little pursuit, 500 meter long pursuit and then can can win against way, way better sprinter. Super impressive. And also also Spencer, very unique, very unique piece of information. I mean, he's huge.

One one meter 95, 95, but he's 92 kilos. He's 903 pounds for Americans. That's big, man. That's a big guy. And he won an am loop, which goes up. One of the hardest climbs in Belgium before the finish. But with this weight, man, I mean, listen, it's not, it's not normal that you are a professional cyclist at the highest level with 92 kilos. That's very, very seldom you see this.

Well, you remember, because I remember there was this guy, Aldo, I'll say. sec that I used to race against he was a big Slovenian great crit rider great like fixed gear racer but never heard you know the problem with being that big is you can't get over climbs right you can't be 205 pounds getting over the tourmalet but he can varan schold can like that is mind blowing how good he and he's not he's not the last guy finishing like he's actually a decent climber it's really shocking yeah for sure for sure but here's a theory for you know wiggins was not impressed with the lead out. If I was like Uncle Rico today.

If I was in my prime, I'd be riding off the front of this lead out, went in the stage for myself. But I think, really? But his son, Ben Wiggins, had a very good point. And he was a leadout man last year for Dylan Grunnevegan, so he knows what he's talking about, that these breakaways, you view these breakaways as meaningless, right?

There was a four-rider breakaway way, but they're cooking out there. And these breakaways can go so fast that, The Peloton had to do the fastest stage in Tour de France history to catch them. And they caught them with under 10 kilometers to go. And they were given a lot to catch them, averaging 51K an hour. That's not so easy to do. Yeah.

But I think these stages are getting so fast that there's not as much firepower left as you would think when you get to the final kilometer. Because it's just chaos inside the final K. Yeah. Especially the teams that have to do the chasing, right? That's definitely true. I can guarantee you if you would look at the data of guys. who haven't been pulling and haven't been preparing the sprint. Yes.

Even at this speed, Spencer, it's an easy stage. I think today was the fastest stage in history of the Tour de France, 50.8 kilometers per hour. But it hasn't felt like a really super fast stage to the guys, in my opinion. Unless you're the one polling. Exactly. It probably doesn't feel amazing. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But if you think about it, Spencer, I mean, okay. Okay, the Peloton catches them, but that's how fast these guys have gone in the front, these three guys, you know, I mean, that they have, they had to go like 52, 53 kilometers an hour all the time, basically. Like rotating through in a little group like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Not so easy. Well, on that note, Johan, can you imagine going that fast by yourself in a two to front stage? Who could imagine that? Well, today was the fastest day. 1999, everyone remembers stage 499. Chippolini wins. That was the former fastest stage of the tour. But at one point, you held the record for the fastest two to front stage.

Stage six, 1993. You win solo ahead of a chasing Chipolini and you averaged 49.4 kilometers an hour. Pretty impressive, I would say. Yeah, I'm still really impressed myself with that performance. I mean, I'll just take the time a little bit to tell you, to tell the story. because it was a very special day for me. So I won the stage. I think I did like the last 20K by myself escaping from a group that was breaking away from a chasing peloton.

Back in the days, I do remember the, it was the beginning of the 11th. That was like the first year of the 11th procket. I was still riding with a 12th. So I was riding 5312. I do remember that. No high profile wheels, like low profile wheels, the Mavic GP4, whatever it was called. You know, no arrow clothing, no arrow helmet. I had a cycling cap, you know, backwards.

That was my aerodynamic feature of the day. But it's especially for me, when people ask me, you know, what's your best memory? That is by far my best memory of a victory. people sometimes say oh you know the stage you wanted to tour and took the yellow jersey against in the right no this was the best this was the best memory ever because it was a personal uh promise i made uh to myself um about six weeks before the tour de france uh my dad had died suddenly uh at 53 years old uh riding his bike of a a hard failure uh And it was a great shock for me. And initially, you know, I couldn't think about riding the tour. So I actually gave up my spot. I said to my team director back then, Manolo Sykes, I said, you know, Manolo, I can't train.

I, you know, I can't train. So I'm not going to make it to the Tour de France. And then after the funeral, I don't know what happened. Something clicked in my head and I went out on a bike ride. And on that bike ride, I think I must have had like an imaginary conversation with my father. And I decided I was going to go to the tour and win a stage. And I had identified that stage before the tour of France. I said, you know, okay, I need to do it in the first week because if it's after the time trial

and after the first mountain stages, I'm a domestic for the leaders of Onse. So I had to do it in the first week. And that particular stage was perfect. It was not flat. It was up and down. And so I had everything calculated. And when I finally got in the final with those six or seven guys, I do remember Yon Moussia was one of the, my, it was on another team,

but he was in the breakaway also. And I remember I attacked on a slight little hill. And I looked back. I said, okay, they're going to see me at the finish. And I just rode in a state of trance to the finish. I cannot, I cannot understand how I did it. But it was the most pure felt effort I've ever felt. It was super special.

And it turned out to be back then the fastest stage in the history of the Tour de France. So it's a very special, very special memory. That's incredible. That's a great story. Yeah. Chipillini was second and he got to the finish line. And didn't he say something to you at the end? Like, what are you doing here?

I mean, yeah, he, I mean, he didn't say it then. He said, you know, he passed the finish line. You know, it came all back together behind me. And so there was no race radio. We didn't have radios then. So Chipolini was just coming back because the peloton had been broken in several pieces. He comes back, wins the sprint, and then raises his arms. And the moment he raises his arms, he sees me standing there, drinking from a water bottle.

And he told me the story afterwards, like several. He said, I come there and I, and then I see you and he said, how the hell is this guy here? You know, like he thought that I had probably like abandoned and I came by car and they dropped me off at the finish line. Which makes no sense, obviously. No, of course. Your mind is not like in the right place. That's a really funny thought. What is sickening realization of like, oh, no.

Oh, no. I didn't win. And that's impressive, though. I mean, that tells you how fast you're going because he was probably thinking there's nobody that could stay out in front of the Seiko train going full speed. But wow, that's an incredible story, Johan. I feel like we're just in the show now. Still my best memory ever of the victory, you know, an honor of my father. And that was your first tour win, right?

Yeah, I'd never want a stage in a tour de France before. And then two years later, 95, you won another one? Yeah, okay. Man, impressive stuff. That's, yeah, that's a special, that special, special win in memory. But just to clean up some odds and ends from today's stage, Jasper Philipson was third, looked pretty good, and then was relegated. And then was unrelegated.

So now, you got reinstated. So how it leaves us is Matt Spuderson's leading the points classification. Little check, too, if you didn't watch the beginning of the stage, it was kind of interesting. instead of trying to hold it together, they let a four-rider move go, and then they contested the fifth spot for the intermediate sprint from the Peloton,

but Philipson actually got it, so maybe it was smart that they didn't control. So because Philipson and Germay maybe would have gotten more points. But now Pedersen has a 45-point lead on Germai and a 62-point lead on Philipson. Probably even if one of them wins tomorrow, it's probably still not in doubt, right? Because there's so many stages left.

I mean, it's going to be tight. I mean, it's going to be more interesting to watch. But I still think that Patterson, with the stages we have afterwards, that there's many opportunities where Pedersen will either take the 25 points. If it's after a hard start where the other guys won't be there. It was interesting to see, however. So that tells me that Alpacin and Phillipson, they do somehow still have the ambition for the green jersey because I saw an interview of Christoph Rothoft after the finish. And so he went to protest.

And he went in the commissaire's van or truck, whatever, to review the images. And then he came out and he said, you know, finally they decide that it's and it's better for everybody. So, I mean, if they would be completely without interest for the green jersey, you know, if you don't win the stage, then doesn't really matter. You know, you wouldn't go through all those hassles to go and protest. So they still must have hopes for that. But Spencer, I just want to come back on the forerider breakaway that went from the beginning. So it was, I mean, the most notable. rider in there was Julian a la Philippe.

I mean, I was thinking, wow, how far has it come that a guy like Julian a la Philippe who, no double world champion, almost won the Tour de France one year. Yeah. You know, has to go in an early breakaway on a flat stage. That was already for me, like, said, wow, this is a low. point. But then I think we saw the absolute low point of Al-Filipp's career, which is sad to see, actually, he got dropped from those three guys on a one kilometer, five percent climb. That was, I mean, there's something wrong with Al-A-Filipe. That's, I mean, that's not normal.

You know, you could say, well, is he sick? Is he injured? You know, but then why would you go in the break if you're sick? So, exactly. It's strange, no? very strange because even if you say even if tuador says we got to have somebody in this move which even then you're like do we yeah why ala philippe yeah exactly what a bizarre here it gets even stranger though because a he looks the same he looks the like the same guy that almost won the two friends so messes with your head it's not like he's overweight or anything and then you're like well maybe he's just out of shape well he won gp quebec last year with an amazing performance like like old alfilippe and then it gets even weirder because at gpiggen hippingen hippingen the swiss race yeah yeah he gets fifth and it's a hard hard race finishes right behind tibonies richard carapaz alexander vlasoff and leon slock in that race and and he's within seconds of them yeah so what is like it's not clear to me what's going on i read an interview of one of the of the sport directors who said, you know, we are, we don't know what's, what's, what's wrong with him. Everything looks

fine. The preparation went well. And it seems that he has like this ability to do one or two efforts in a race and then doesn't seem to recover from it, which I have seen many times, you know, he's been sometimes like super motivated, was aggressive and not just in this tour. In last year's tour, in other races, he's super motivated, goes in attacks. And then he doesn't recover from that effort and gets dropped from the breakaway. You'd think of Amstall Gold when he blew the race up and then. Yeah, but you know, on a hilly terrain, you could say, yeah, but I mean, on a flat course, these guys, you know, it's like that was strange.

And then another thing, Spencer, another writer who was in the break, Nelson Olivera, you know, veteran rider at Movistar, turned pro by the way with me with Radio Shack. many, many, many years ago. Is he related to Evo? No. No, absolutely not. No, no, no, no. He's doing his 24th

ground tour of his career. So for the moment, he did 23 ground tours and he finished all 23 ground tours. No way. Yes, yes, yes. He never abandoned. Finished every single one of them.

Yeah. That's pretty impressive. Thomas Tuchel. That's mentality right there. geez that is impressive wow yeah geez and then just another so another stat for us before we go into tomorrow stage you mentioned this before the show not clear to me if it's 60 or 61 you said it was pagetra 60th day in yellow well during the stage during the stage during the stage it would be 61 yeah it'd be 61 do you know how that's a lot of yelagers by the way do you know who has more

than him in the history of the twitter fronts He knows has more, I know. He knows. He knows like 70 something, I think. 75, that's correct. Okay. And I do know that Eddie Marks has 111. I know that.

111. Oh, you know, I'm looking at a list that it takes away ones that are disputed, perhaps. But also Lance Armstrong, I was wrong. He had 83. 83. Oh, okay. That's a lot. Geez.

Yeah. Geez, Lance, leaves some jerseys for the rest of us. Yeah. But Eddie Merck, so this, my, my tally says 96, and it says the years that he wore it were 69, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75. That's right. That means he got 96 yellow jerseys in six years. That's, that whole, that means that he, to do that, what you would be wearing the yellow jersey. an average of 16 stages out of 21 for every two of friends for six years.

So if people are complaining about Pagachar, they should have watched Eddie Merckes because holy smokes. I think, I think, I mean, I would have to, I think Eddie Merck's actually won one tour de France where he was in yellow from start to finish. You know, that would make sense because it's going to boost your average. It's like with Pagachar, he had that Giro where he, Navarius beat him on stage one. But if he would have won that spren, he would have had the jersey start to finish. So that will boost your numbers a bit.

But yeah, just shout out Eddie Merck's guy was pretty good. Pagacho is doing stuff, though, that, like, he has more Yellow Jersey's now than Miguel Endering. That's wild. More than Chris Frum had a lot, 59, shock on could deal 50. And then it drops off actually quite fast after that. But do you want to take a quick break? And then we can go through listener questions and preview tomorrow stage.

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And they could use a lagoon as well. So get yours today. Go to lagoonsleep.com. slash the move and take a two minute quiz. Use code to move MOVE for 15% off Lagoon, the marginal gain you've been sleeping on. Okay, Johan, we are back. Before we preview tomorrow stage 12.

We just have a few questions that people have written us. And if you want to ask a question, write to info at we do.com. And I'll take a look at it and try to fit it into the show. This one, I was saving this one. I'm glad I did. So we have a Norwegian riding in. He was pleased when Lance, George, and Bradley talked about Tour Hushoft and the stage for analysis podcast the other day.

My question for you guys, who has the better Palmares between Norwegian riders, Tour Hushoff, or Alexander Christoph, Tour has won 10 Tour de France stages. I've not fact-checked these. I hope he's are right. Two Tour de France,

points jerseys, world championships, etc. Christoph has several tour de front stages, four of them, two monuments, several classics, several classics that aren't monuments. Who has the better Palmaris, do you think, of the Norwegian, Johan? I would want to say,

I would want to say Huxoft because I think the green jersey and the world championships are better than than monuments. Monuments. Yeah. I probably would normally disagree with that. Christoph has Flanders and Milan San Remo, right? That he won. Yeah.

That's pretty impressive. Yeah. A tour also has more than double the tour stages. So that counts or something. I would agree. I would say Hussaud. I would say who's soft. In one of those points.

jerseys was the most impressive points jersey i've ever seen when he beat mark cavendish and he was having to go into the front group in mountain stages to get intermediate sprint points that was kind of redefined what i thought was possible for a cyclist so in the world championships too that's a big deal and yeah i don't know if we talked about this but i was at like a it was like an easter egg hunt on easter and you know the people were like oh yeah what what race was today i was like it's tour flanners is a big race and they had never heard of it obviously it's like is it bigger than the gerard Italia but it hit me then and I was like well if you really think of best on best there's not many days a year where it is you have the tour de fronts you have

the world championships flanders ruby yeah yeah for san remo maybe there's not that many races flanders flanders way bigger than me also ramo oh yeah i would put it up there with world championships for yeah yeah in terms of the best going at it question number two del tor i forget i didn't get the name of the person this is from. But shout out to you know who you are. This is an interesting question. Del Toro has been using the black Colanoago climbing bike and this is true.

On the more demanding stages this year, during the tour and in previous races, he used this bike. However, yesterday, I did not notice this. His choice was the Y1RS, the Colanago Aero bike. With regards to the bike, there's probably not much difference,

but does this choice say something about his demeanor and approach of the stage where he was dropped and lost time. I haven't thought on this, but I want your answer first. I don't think it has anything to do with, I mean, you know, these guys switch easily from one bike to another. You didn't, you didn't notice it, Spencer, because Del Toro also has a black Y, Y1RS aerobike. Okay.

Yeah. So that's probably why you, why you didn't notice it. But whereas all the other other UAE riders are on a white bike, right? Right? Except is Pagatra on the black one of the World Championship? Porcatech is on a black one. Yeah. Black one. It looks awesome, by the way.

Yeah. So, yeah, I don't think it has anything to do with, I mean, I think it has a lot to do with personal preferences, first of all. I'm pretty sure that that climbing bike, which is, I think it's a bit different than the standard climbing bike. They almost don't use anymore now. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's also pretty fast. And I think it's just a personal preference, man. And then, you know, if they go, if they have stages like yesterday, for example,

where they know that it's going to be 40, 41 kilometers per hour, they chose, they choose the aerobike. And I mean, just full disclosure, I've been riding to and from the studio on the Y1RS, which is the aerobike. And I climb up a 11K long climb to get home. Industry is, I think it climbs very well. Like it feels, you feel powerful in the climbing position. And it's great. I don't think there's any difference in how the bikes perform. But I do think it's kind of funny.

He changed. Why change bikes at this point of the tour? Would Lance ever do that? I could never imagine of doing that. No. Lance would never have done. No, no, no, no. I mean, that's initially, I mean, usually track was always providing us with, you know,

new bikes, but especially new colors for the tour. They also always wanted to change the color of the bikes for the tour, right? And so obviously, you know, I never, back then, I never accepted that the bikes would be delivered just before the Tour de France. I was demanding that we had them for the Doffiné. So because I wanted the guys to train, to ride them and that the mechanics could, you know, check and, you know, build the bikes. And then usually there's a few adjustments. So. But look, I mean,

If you go back to, if you go back to pictures of Lance's first Tour de France in 99, he didn't even want to change bikes for the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong wrote the 1990 Tour de France on the bike he wrote the classics with. With the traditional steel, I mean, the bike was heavy. It's super heavy with the steel stem and stuff. And he didn't, he just didn't like to change. And so, so yeah, I mean, some people don't have a problem with it. It's also, I mean, nowadays it's different also, Spencer, because, you know, I mean,

look, first of all, if you already, if you have, you know, people sometimes talk about the tiny little details in the feel, right? But there's not that much that can be different nowadays, especially with the integrated handlebars and cockpit. You know, there's nothing different there. You know, it's not like the handlebars are a tiny bit in a different angle or, it's just, it is just what it is. You know, there's not, you can't change anything there. It's just your, your, your, your break levers that has to be in the same position.

And that's it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that makes things a bit more standard, I would say, than then back in the days where there was more moving parts. That's, that's very true. It's way easier to match a handlebar. I do know Colanago.

I heard from sources inside the company. They're thrilled that Del Toro rides it. I think it's called the V5RS. It's a new. They showed it to me in the off-season. They were very proud of it. It's a climbing bike that's also very arrow. When you see it side by side with the old bike,

they don't really ride anymore. It is significantly more arrow. But I was thinking like, I don't know if Pagotcha's going to ride this thing. Like you might not have a rider on this. But good for you for making it. And then Del Toro suddenly is riding it. I kind of wonder if like what went on behind the scenes there.

Maybe Del Toro just likes it, though. And that's why it rides it. But I know that they were thrilled that he was on this bike and then Pagacch's on the other bike. They have representation of both bikes. Yeah. I think that was actually one of the reasons why there was this whole confusion there on stage two with the bikes because he was on that bike and then he wanted it back or something. Yeah. And it was something there because for some reason he wanted the bike that was on car number two.

And not on car number one. Yes. For some reason, was not the right bike. Yeah. But I just. And he used it in Dauphine to win the Dauphine. Yeah. And he looked right on it.

And it worked well, that's why I thought it was weird that he changed. That's kind of odd. I don't. And well, you know, who knows why? Maybe he said Tate looks pretty fast on that. Maybe I'll try it. And then people also acting like he just fell apart. You're like, well, he kind of had a bad day on the hardest day of the tour right

after a rest day in his first tour of France. Not so shocking that would happen. But one more question before we get to the preview. This is from Debbie. She says, does anyone have insight into Taday's physiological stats that contribute to his dominance and cycling back in Lance's day? I recall hearing about V-O-2 max was off the charts. We did hear a lot about V-O-2 max back in the day.

Compared to his peers, there must be some genetic reasons that contribute to Tadde's success. Why does this body respond so well to training? And then she says in 2005, I cycled. up the Col de la Madeline during the tour to have a roadside seat at the top. I'll never forget the thrill of seeing Lance and George cruise by. I actually, I went back and listened to Pogacchar's 2020 winners press conference at the tour and he said, I want to thank my parents for my jeans. So definitely he has genetic superiority. And there was a doctor, like a doctor in the studio the other day who said that Tate's VO2 Max was around 95, which is good. And he's also

real light and puts out a lot of power, which that's a great combination to have. A 95 is high, in my opinion. Plus, I don't know. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I mean, I've, I've seen, I've seen, I've seen some reports of people who have more VO2 max, but first and foremost, you know, view to max is an important, uh, number, but it doesn't, it's not what makes or breaks you as, as, as a good bike rider. Um, it's not a guarantee.

if you have a super high VU2 Max, it's not a guarantee that you're going to be a great, great champion. Yeah. And if you look at these, like the cyclists who have the highest VO2 max, oftentimes you've never heard of them. Yeah.

So it is like not a great represent. It's not a great predictor of someone being a good cyclist. No, no. No. I mean, I mean, I would assume that you have,

there's a certain, there's a certain level you have to. I mean, there's a minimum, right? I mean, I think you have to be like to be, to be,

uh, to be, to be, To be like a really, really good rider, you have to be at least 80 plus. You know, you have to be more than 80. But from there on, there's a lot of other factors to be taken into consideration. And, you know, it's not just that number alone that's going to make you a big, a big champion. Probably the boring thing is I would guess he's very efficient on the bike.

And he has great mitochondria. No, I mean, there's just helps you repair. genetically there's obviously something genetically that is off the charge spencer there's no there's no question about that um but uh yeah i mean and then he's he's a racer man he races in a way i think poggatja's one of those guys who actually also supersedes himself in competition uh like he just likes the race and then the competition just brings him to a different level also yeah that's good yeah it's true It also helps. There's something going on where, you know, because in cycling, everyone's doing work.

Like, you just have to assume work is being done. And then whoever can do the work with the least amount of output, just even if it's a little bit, but then you multiply it by pedal stroke, pedal stroke, pedal stroke, you know, you get to the final climb and you'll say, why is everyone going so slow? I'm going to attack them and drop them because you haven't been working as hard. And your body processes everything easier than everybody else. So people don't really think about it, but that is hugely important. and why you can't just line up into a 20-minute power test and say,

this person's going to be the best. But stage 12 tomorrow, 179.1 kilometers long. Hot-ish. We're in the 80s, though. We're getting a little bit cooler weather with a chance of rain. So that could complicate things. But it's harder than today's stage. There's three categorized climbs.

There's this intermediate sprint point 45K into the stage, which will complicate things. the final climb is 2.5K long, 4% average, and it is 20 kilometers from the finish. I tend to think this will be a bunch of print, but I'll list the odds. And if you do want to bet on it, we have a partnership with next bets. So go to NxtEbets.com slash bet outcomes. They'll show you how to bet, where to bet. They shop the odds for you. So you don't have to do that yourself.

You can just search on their little, they have like a little wizard on there, and it will show you where to get the best price on everything. But right now, Tim Rler is the favorite at minus 105, Olaf Koi plus 350, Jasper Phillips and plus 500, Sorenschild plus 1,200, Maxed Cantor plus 1,600, binyum, guemois plus 1,600, holy smokes, Bunium, Matthew Vanderpul plus 3,000, Mats Patterson, plus 3,000, Filippa Gana plus 5,000. How do you think this is going to play out, Johan, and who's going to win it? It looks like a bunch, Prince, Spencer, although it is not a super easy stage.

It has 1,800 meters of elevation. So it's not flat. But, I mean, it is one of the very, very last opportunities for the sprinters for a very long time. All the other stages. It might be the last period. Some of them can be bunch sprinted, but there's no more guaranteed. I mean, if the teams here go for it, the sprint teams, it's a bunch sprint. So I have to go to, I have to go for Tim Merlier.

especially after today, you know, he got, I don't know if he got boxed in or because he, he's not in top 10, no? Yeah, I couldn't even really see him in the end. Tim Rler Lear finished 15th. So some sort of catastrophic boxing in. Yeah, there must have been something there. So I can see him tomorrow bounce back and win it. Yeah.

I'm going to pick Yasser Phillips and plus 500. He looked pretty good today. He's getting better. And Tim Ralear is a great spinner. Not great third week, second and third week in a grand tour. That's true. That's true. That's true.

Yeah. I mean, the thing is Phillips has got to be by Olaf Coy today, but I'm still picking Philipson. Well, Coy could win. I'm acknowledging that. But I thought Phillipson looked a little bit more like his old self today, just at the intermediate. Last time the Tour de France finished here in Chalon, Sur Saund, was a bunch of print also won

by Dylan Grunovigan. Really? I think it was still, it was, I think it was still, the team was still called Lotto Jumbo then. Wow. Wow. Those are the days. It's kind of a loto Jumbo or Lito Jumbo or Visma or Jumbo Visma. It has been it has been Jumbo Visma for, yeah, yeah, Jimbo Visma, I think.

It's a beautiful part of France, kind of in between Dijon and Geneva. Very, just like rural, beautiful, good cycling, good sprint stages, apparently. but anything else, I don't think there's going to be any GC action tomorrow. No. I think it's another tuck in and stay safe day for the GC contenders. Yeah. Anything else, John, before we take off? Ventim trivia, no?

Ventum trivia, indeed. Lance almost forgot it on the move. I almost forgot it here. All right. So this is the question for yesterday. And if you want to answer the question, do not email me. Go to Ventim trivia. sorry, ventum racing.com slash the move and put your answer in there.

Every day you can answer. And if you answer correctly, you'll be entered to win $5,000 toward a Ventum bike, click an NS1 or a GS1. And if you just want to get one now, you can use the move 10 for 10% off, a brand new bike at Ventimracing.com slash the move. Yesterday's question was in the 2003 edition of the race, it was Bastille Day. Some iconic moment occurred finishing into gap.

what was it? And I think we all know it. It was Lance Armstrong riding across the field cyclocross style to avoid a crash, which was Yoseba Balaki, who looked amazing in that tour, by the way, crashing right in front of them. And then Lance rode through this field. Still the most impressive part of that to me, Johan, is him jumping over the ditch onto the road as the riders were coming and then like remounting without missing a beat. Yeah. In cycling. That was scary. That was scary. Yeah. That's, but Beloki's career finished there on that, in that crash. He's never, never, I mean, he was never the same.

He raced again, but he was, yeah, really, really, I mean, not at the level anymore of being competitive. Yeah, unfortunately. And he was flying, flying that year. But today's question is stages like today and tomorrow are Sprinter's best friend, the best friend of all time. Mark Cavendish holds the record for two to front. stage wins. How many stages did he win over his career? People on the guys on the show were saying this was easy. I don't know if the average person knows us off the top of their head. Yeah. I mean, I think for the average listener of the move, this is going to be very easy. Yeah.

We'll see. I mean, people could just look at it. Very easy to look up and say, oh, yes, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I think I got, because he was, he was stuck close to this number for a long time. Yeah. And then he tied the number and then he surpassed the number, kind of, a couple years later. And so that is the only confusing part. But that's the Ventim. If you want to answer, go to Ventimraising.com slash the move.

But Johan, anything else before we take off? That's it, Spencer. All right. Well, thank you so much. And we'll be back tomorrow to talk about a likely sprint and then a super interesting day

on stage 13. I am really curious to see how you think that one's going to play out. Okay, Spencer. Thanks. All right, bye.