THEMOVE - Is Pogacar his own worst enemy? | Tour De France 2024 Stage 11 | JB2

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Most people have been left scratching their heads at the tactics of UAE and Pogacar. There is still a lot of racing left including a lot of climbing. Johan analysis team tactics of UAE and we also discuss the momentum shift in the tour.

I've said it before the tour, JB, and I've said it yesterday, and I'm going to say it again. The most dangerous rival of Tadej Bogacar is called Tadej Bogacar. And today we saw this. Hello and welcome to JB Squared. I'm JB Hager, joined by johan bernil and i have a feeling one of the writers from today from today's stage is going to get a tongue lashing from mr bernil he's going to put on his director cap and i think we might hear a what the f from johan we'll get we'll get to that in a second but uh we're happy to be here with you to talk about stage 11 of the 2024 tour de france but first our uh title sponsor for jb

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This helped me mellow out my appetite and just focus on main meals and not snacking all the time. So, okay, I'll report back to you on that. But anyhow, 30% off your first subscription order, free six pack. When you use the link ketone.com slash the move. All right, let's jump into today's stage. I don't even know. It was such an exciting day. I don't know, Johan, if we should start with the final kilometer or do you want to work up to it? And some of the development, do you want to talk about the breakaway and all

that? I think, I think, I think it's best we start from the beginning, JB. It's a 211 kilometer stage, which is pretty long nowadays in the tour um 4 300 meters of elevation hard that's that's the equivalent of a real mountain stage this was not a real mountain stage there were hills but not real high mountains um so um super hard stage but man especially for the people who have watched from the beginning the first 80 kilometers it took 80 kilometers until a breakaway could go away and after 80k they had 50 kilometers average 50 kilometers per hour average uh insane insane and i've seen a lot of comments of riders after the finish.

He said, this was mental. You know, it was. And then the break goes finally, you know, there's 10 riders in the break with really good riders. You know, Ben Healy, Richard Carapaz, Oyer Lascano, La Pera, Julien Bernard, Romain Grégoire, really strong riders. You say, okay, this is it. This is the breakaway of the day.

Logically, that would have to be the case because the team of the yellow jersey with control, there was nobody in there who was really dangerous for the GC. But man, none of that happened. UAE just started to pace really hard. In my opinion, way too hard. And they just kept the breakaway three, two minutes. And then as soon as... Because initially, the terrain was hard,

but there was no real hills. There was five hills in the final of the stage, but mainly in the last 60 kilometers. And, and once, once they got into that terrain, there was attacks in the front, uh, in the breakaway for guys who said, okay, we need to get out of here because the Peloton is, is, is too close. Um, but it was clear that you was, you,ua was pacing not to control the breakaway they were going for the stage win yeah when you do when you when you describe this stage yesterday i one of the things i almost said is i enjoy these kind of stages because you get two races to watch yeah you

know there's a there's a great breakaway and then yeah three five minutes later, we get the GC battle. And that's what I thought we might see today, but they clearly had ambitions with the whole stage. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I mean, honestly, I think that's, I don't understand how, why they race like this. You know, if you have a yellow jersey and especially, you know, you know that by now, I think by now they should know, if you have a yellow jersey and especially, you know, you know that by now, I think by now they should know that Jonas is in good shape.

You know, he's shown now he's, he's passed all the tests, right? He passed the first stage. He passed the mountain stage. He passed the time trial and he passed the gravel stage. I mean, he's in good shape. He, he, he, he, a sprint stage too let's say that a sprint victory i'd add that yeah but but but you know and and then and i think i put it on the on the move chat you know i i said what i can't really understand this if you look at the profile you know that you had the you had the hardest climb with um 31 kilometers to go and it was the last kilometer which was the steepest so obviously if pogacar wants to plan

an attack he's going to attack there but it's going to be in the last kilometer now if pogacar goes he may take have a gap, which happened. But I always compare it as the risk-reward that you need to look at. What does it take in terms of energy to gain time, and is it really worth the effort? For example, if it's a steep climb and you have a short downhill and then there's the finish, okay, it's worth it. But it's 30 kilometers to go from that steep climb where the attack was supposed to happen and where it happened. And it's like, okay, Pogacar, okay, you're in amazing shape. You're probably the best rider in the world, but the others are also really good. It's not like they're gonna you know

look at each other and and all of a sudden you're gonna ride away it's gonna take a lot of energy and that's what we saw today um pogacar did i mean first of all the the the they burned the whole team right so they had they have a strong team um they burned all of their riders. And then, and then finally Pogacar attacks, gets a little gap, but you could see already on the top of the, in the, in the last 500 meters of that climb, once he got that gap,

Vingegaard got into his rhythm and he kind of clawed back a little bit, at least visually he got back. And then, you know, Pogacar went and on the downhill, he took a little bit more time. But those efforts, even if it's on a downhill, it was a lot of pedaling.

It involves a lot of risk-taking also. So all of that costs energy. And I've said it before the tour, JB, and I've said it yesterday, and I'm going to say it again. The most dangerous rival of Tadej Pogacar is called Tadej Pogacar. And today we saw this.

In my opinion, UAE practically did a stupid race. I don't understand why they do this. They don't have to. At the end of the day, it's Pogacar who's in the lead. He had one minute 15 and Wingergaard

is behind. He's the one who needs to attack Pogacar. Right? My conclusion would be that Pogacar said, well, you know, they're Visma, they're scared of me. I think it's the other way around. I think Pogacar is scared of Visma. I think Pogacar is scared of Jonas.

It seems like, and I would love your thoughts. He's that fear. He wants to put the time in now because he's worried about those last yeah five days right that that's the only logic I can think of for attacking today he's like I have to put him in now they do believe that Jonas is getting stronger as the tour goes on don't you think yeah but you know JB I think I think that would have made sense uh on stage two for example where he did it on stage four where he did it uh he took a bit of time there and then in a time trial but but by now they have to they have to know hey finger guard is in great shape i'm not just gonna shake him off whenever i want so today for example was in my opinion a big mistake they made a big mistake by, first of all, wanting to race for the stage win, putting the whole team at the front.

And I think it's a bit disrespectful towards the rest of the peloton. Like the UAE rides like as if the other guys don't exist, the rivals. It's like they ride their own race and this is what they're gonna do and then but today it exploded in their face because today was he went away it took a lot of energy but in my from what i could see he just ran out of fuel at some point i want i want to hear you break that down because it's interesting watching you know sitting next to like Lance George and Sir Bradley and you guys like pagachar was different and I'll tell you what I what I saw but I'm sure you saw 10 times more things I saw him stand up quickly and sit down you rarely see pagachar he's either stand

up full gas yeah or he or he just rides away sitting down like he did a lot in the Giro. He was up and down. And that's when you think you've got it and then you stand up and your legs are going, oh, no, I don't have it. What else did you see? Facial expressions? What I saw, first of all, on that last climb that last climb the one before the finish line you could there you could start to see okay he starts to fade a little bit he started to look back um was reaching in his pockets uh didn't have run out of he didn't have any gels anymore or any any anything to eat

uh and uh you could see that he was running out of energy did you see yonas take that gel very near the end i did not i did not but he was sitting right on pagachar's wheel and this is like you know when it was going down and you could see him reach back squeeze in a gel and take care of business but yeah yeah yeah um no i mean listen for me it's it's clear listen pogacar was bonking today there's no other there's no other explanation okay he was bonking so from that point of view i would say okay there is no reason to be concerned to be worried but hey you have to start riding differently my friend friend, and especially the team, you know, I mean, ride to defend, don't ride to attack or attack when you know that the benefit can be really good, which is an uphill finish. I'll read it I'll translate it yesterday in La Movida in our Spanish podcast I said to Victor I said

if tomorrow Pogacar attacks and tries to drop Wingergaard I will start to have serious doubts if he can win this Tour de France

for me it's just stupid to try to gain time in a stage like tomorrow and exactly that happened. So I don't know, JB, you know, I've been critical of UAE's tactics in the past.

Unfortunately, I'm seeing that they haven't learned from the past mistakes. Riding like they did today and riding like Pogacar did today, that's how he lost the last two tours. And you feel like you're just seeing it repeat itself again. Yeah, well, I mean, it's always proper also to his style of racing, right? And that's also why we like it so much, why he's a spectacular rider. He's not a calculator absolutely not but it can cost him very very very dearly um and i would think i mean if he won the tour in 2020

in the two in 2021 and he did in the tour in 2020 he just he wanted in the last time trial he was basically always there always there but saving saving and one in the last time trial he was basically always there always there but saving saving and won it in the last time trial at 21 he was the big favorite he did one big attack one big amazing ride uh and then uh and then he just took a little bit more time now and then but he didn't do anything stupid um i don't know what has changed in his mentality. Obviously, he has the reputation of you put a number on his back and he just goes and he wants to win, which is amazing. But this is not a good strategy to win a three-week tour, and even less so the Tour de France. The Tour de France is a different animal. You have to be always

conservative. You have to think about tomorrow and in the case of Pogacar, even more so. Let's not forget, he is on a super high level since March. He comes in, all guns blazing, wins Strada Bianca, then he keeps going,

wins, wins, wins, wins, goes to the Giro he has the zero in his legs you know and and they may have things they may they may say okay yeah he was he was going 80 it doesn't matter the others were training and preparing for the tour it had pagacha raced very conservatively in 22 and 23 he could be knocking on the door of his fifth victory in the tour. This, you know, just some, yeah, last year was different because last year he had this crash in the and then he had to kind of, you know, get,

get an emergency plan to get ready for the tour. So that was different. And of course Jonas is amazingly strong, you know, he's, he's, he's a, he's a great cyclist and, uh, but I don't know what it is. Um, I, I have the impression like they, they're, you know, one of the strengths of a great DS or a great team manager, in my opinion, is that you have the authority to keep your champion in his cage. And you only open the door when it matters. And to me, it sounds like the door is always open for Pogacar. That there's nobody saying, hey, think about tomorrow. Think about the team. Think about this. And Pogacar loves the race. I mean, you can't blame him, but it's... And again, at this point, I still believe he can win the Tour.

I still believe that he's the big favorite. It's not because today this happens. This is obviously... I mean, if it's a fueling issue, it's going to get fixed, and it's not going to change anything. But he needs to ride differently. He already knows now that he can't shake Jonas whenever he wants. So why don't you just stay with him?

Don't burn your team like this. And, you know, let the race develop a little bit and see whenever you can to take a little bit of time. He doesn't need to take one, two, three minutes. He just takes a little bit, 15 seconds there, 20 seconds there. He has two minutes and he's okay for the last time trial. I have a pretty good grasp on what you would say to Pogacar if you were his director, right? Maybe he wouldn't listen, you know what I mean? I know, I know, I know.

But everything you've said in the last 10 minutes would be great director advice for Pogacar. Now, Johan, let's put your director hat on if you were in the bus talking to Jonas and the team. I would love to know what you thought, what you're thinking and what you would tell them because the momentum has swung in his direction. For the moment. Yeah.

Yeah. What would you tell him? Well, I would tell him to keep doing what he's doing. You know what I mean? He's, he's not nervous. He's,

you know, patient. He's shown that he's in great shape, not in his top shape, but it's good enough to not lose a lot of time or even to come back to a pogacar so i would say okay let's keep the pressure on let's keep him nervous because he's nervous well char he's you know i mean it's also you know this is this is what the tour is compared to all the other races like everything's so blown up and everybody's

the what we saw that statement from pogacha after the gravel stage right by saying oh well we're not happy you know they're they're scared of me uh they only look for my wheel pogacha never says anything like that about his rivals yet on the tour now he has said he has said it you know and it's that he's on edge he's on edge he's he's nervous he's anxious and so that's what I would say to Jonas I say okay we keep our patience stay calm let let him deal with all the stress that you you know let him say stuff whatever don't we don't care we just do our stuff we just do our race um and um and yeah and just um you know stay out of trouble you know um i mean i'm gonna go back to for example uh okay what pogacar did on stage two for example that was expected and that was that was

understandable he wanted to test you and us couldn't shake him on stage four absolutely understandable great great strategy they should they they they got time on him in the time trial they got time on him but then for example in the gravel stage I mean these attacks with 60 70k to go that's that's madness I mean you don't do that if you're in in that situation because it takes so much energy uh first of all jb on a stage like the gravel for example right so you if you as a leader if you attack you you're in front that means that you're losing almost all of your teammates so if something happens there's no assistance you need to stay with your team. You need to stay under the protection of your team. And he's got a lot of teammates nearby.

Yeah, he does. He does. Plus, you know, and, and, and the same goes for Remco, for example, in that stage, I mean, that attack with 70K to go, I mean, where are you going, man? Where are you going? You know, you're not going anywhere. As we get farther into this, I'm going to, let me talk about the teammates that are, you know, four in the top 10. There are other riders trying to protect their position so they could get some help. Correct.

Yeah. Well, having four in the top 10, that's also a bit strange I would say it's not normal I mean it's not the usual you can have one but I mean I guess from now on it's going to change also I mean I think

Ayuso for example lost four places today so I think he's now seeing that the tour is a different race and he should probably start to think about, you know, completely be at the service of, of, of the team. I haven't seen it for the moment, not even today. Um, so that's obviously somebody that I would have a serious talk with.

Um, I think the mistake has probably been made before, like not having had the talk, like a clear talk before, before the tour. About what his role is supposed to be. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So,

so, I mean, listen, he's young, so he can, he can, he can, he can change,

you know, but I don't know. I mean, the, the, the, the strategy of UOE is, is to me, it makes, it makes no sense.

There is no long-term thinking. If you do a Tour de France, you need to think long-term. You need to think three weeks. This is a three-week effort. And especially when I heard Joao Almeida, after the finish, say that their plan before the stage was to go for the stage win, then I said, okay, that's just, you know, after the finish, say that their plan before the stage was to go for the stage win. And I said, okay, that's just, you know,

now I understand why they are having the problems they're having. Because you just don't do that. I mean, if you see the tremendous amount of effort that Tim Wellens and Marc Solaire and then Pavel Sivakov did, you know, you need these guys in one week too, you know, and these kind of efforts, it's not just Pogacar, it's the team that basically you know, you put the hurt on the peloton

but you're hurting yourself plus, let me tell you, you're not making any friends. You're not making any friends. This could backfire these kinds of like, not leave, not letting this break go. Uh, it's like, okay, you know, why, why do you, why does Pogacar need to win this stage? That's the, he doesn't need to win this stage. I know that during the stages you're communicating with a lot of industry friends that you know you know

directors former directors it is anyone that you're communicating with diff like defending what Pogacar and UAE is doing it or is everyone shaking their head the same way you are more more more or less everybody shaking yeah I just wondering if anyone has like that you respect is going no this is good i'm not communicating with the uae guys so yeah they're probably gonna say it's good but and they're not communicating with me because i've criticized them and they're a bit they're a bit pissed off at me, but I don't really care. But yeah, I mean, I've said, I think in a podcast last year at the beginning of the season, I said, I think I said, I'm worried that a rider like Pogacar, who is with that kind of drive, that kind of hunger, is not counterbalanced in the car

with somebody who kind of calms it down. I said that at the beginning of last season and, and I see that nothing has changed. Yeah. We've said it all along. Like the recurring theme is he needs someone just to put the reins on him. It's like quite often in horse racing,

you're the jockeys trying to keep them from killing themselves. Right. Maybe listen. I mean, he's won two times a tour. quite often in horse racing, the jockey's trying to keep them from killing themselves, right? JB, listen, I mean, he's won two times the Tour. Two times, the guy closest to him, giving him advice and calming him down, was Alan Piper.

He was the main guy in the Tour of 2020 and the 2021. Then, I don't know what happened. Something happened there in the team. Alan obviously has his health to take care of, which, by the way, is going pretty good for the moment, he told me. But since Alan is gone, there's nobody there. I mean, I don't know if it's Tadej Pogacar who doesn't listen

or doesn't respect anybody. Nobody has the authority to say it. The worst thing that can happen to a rider like Pogacar is to have a guy next to him, advising him, who follows him in his hunger to race and to win. You know, you need somebody to kind of counterbalance that, to say, hey, okay, we'll do what we can, but hey, think about your team. You don't need to win that many stages.

You don't need to win there. We need to be smart about this. And I have the impression that there's too much passion in the management that follows the passion and the enthusiasm of Bogacar. And in a big tour, you can't be passionate and so hungry. You need to be calculating. I mean, people don't like to

hear that. It's obviously great to have a rider like Pogacar who, you know, whenever a rabbit crosses the street, he goes and chases it down. But I thought the way you in the Tour de France. You know, this is a wildcard question, but you've talked about it in the past, the pressure from sponsors and UAE. Do you think maybe there's some pressure coming down from the top to just dominate and win more stages and, or is it's all Pogacar? And it's actually a director. I don't think, I don't think it's the pressure from the sponsor. The sponsors, what they want is to win the tour. If you win one stage and you win the tour, it's great, you know, but it's,

I think it's, it's something that's, you know, everybody goes, follows that, you know, there's super, Tour, it's great. But I think it's something that everybody goes, follows. They're a super strong team. They have the best team with the strongest riders in this Tour de France. No discussion. And it's difficult to stay calm and to say, we're going to do this, we're going to do that. No, no, no, no know, we're going to do this. We're going to do that. No, no, no, no.

We're not going to do nothing. We're going to do just, we're just going to be quiet and just, you know, what we want is that yellow jersey in Nice, you know? Yeah. And I mean, from a distance,

you know, I don't know the details within the team, but from what I can see and observe, there's this passion and this this enthusiasm which is a bit out of control you know I've read a quote from uh machine uh before the tour and uh and he said yeah we don't we don't like to write defensively oh I have bad news man if you want to win the tour you to ride defensively. Oh, I have bad news, man. If you want to win the tour, you better ride defensively. Otherwise, you're not going to win. Yeah, take it.

I know we do a lot of analogies and comparisons, but look at martial arts. Your defense is every bit as important as your offense, right? Let's talk about Roglic and Remco for a minute. I've seen it again and again and again. Remco does not panic. And he grinds back much like we saw Jonas do. And that's cool to see.

This is going to be a good podium fight. It is. It is. I mean, listen, we're now 11 stages in. And we talked about the big four and there they are the big four are there uh and they're close to each other um so i think today was was you know a great day for for uh for ramco first of all i mean he defended that you know that place really really well um as you said you know didn, didn't react, didn't panic,

rode his own pace. And then, you know, he seems to struggle a bit in the technical downhills. But then he was with Roglic and great day for Roglic also, actually, you know, he showed that the guy is tough and, you know, he doesn't have that top speed of those two first guys, but he's there. He's there and, you know, he doesn't crack. top speed of those two first guys, but he's there. He's there and, you know, he doesn't crack.

He comes back. So don't count him out. Remco, I'm, you know, I'm pleasantly surprised that he keeps having that level. So, you know, step by step, he ticks all the boxes. You know, now we need to wait until it's the high mountains which we're going to see for the first time in stage 14 but for the moment he's uh he looks good i mean he's a minute down he's in second position and uh he um he's up there with the big guy so really good uh just an observation and i love your thoughts because you've you've obviously followed remco

very closely for a long time and you you've talked many times about the tremendous pressure on his shoulders which has made him a very serious young rider he seems like he's having fun like he uh just observing him post race and stuff like that like i feel like he's uh, disproved some critics that he can race in the tour de France. He came in, he came in leaner, but just watching his personal interaction and the cool down and stuff like that. I feel like he's just having a great time at this tour. Well, first of all, I mean, he's having a great time because he feels great. He feels in great shape. Um, and so, you know, from now on, what are you having a great time because he feels great. He feels in great shape. And so, you know, from now on, whether you're having a great time at the tour is, is based on, on, you know,

your, your, your mental suffering capacity, they're all tired, but you know, if you have something to fight for, and if you have something to defend, it's, it's a completely different story, but yeah, I mean, you know, he's every day, he's every difficult day he's there he has a stage win he's on he's in second place um he has the white jersey you know what is it not to like you know I mean it's first two so I know I keep reminding myself that it's his first tour to France I just it doesn't seem right it seems like he's been around. Anything else from today before we move on to tomorrow? Not really.

I think we covered it all. You know, great. I mean, listen, Jonas, what a win, you know. Yeah, I want to just come back on this. So what I observed is that once Jonas jonas got back to pogacar um obviously you could see that pogacar was bonking he was running out of gas uh when when a rider catches somebody that's running out of gas you feel that so basically you know pogacar just when he when he saw that he was losing terrain he just just put everything on, okay, I need to win those eight seconds.

He got those eight seconds, but barely. From then on, you know, when you see that Jonas starts to collaborate with Tadej, that's already an indication that he feels that he has the upper hand. When he went to the front, when he went to the front. Yeah. The fact that he collaborated and I can tell you after three, four pulls, you know, when they, when they pull through and they relay each other,

I can guarantee you that Jonas felt that they was running out of legs for sure. You know, you, you feel that if you, if you relay, you can feel if there's something in the pedal stroke or if it's just a guy who's sitting on his bike and turning the pedals you know and so that's also i mean i could see that every time every time jonas went to the back he kind of was looking you know when pogacar came through but not with a lot of conviction um and that's also the reason when they got to the finish when they you know it was an uphill drag usually that would be ideal for today you know and the fact that jonas felt that he had the upper hand that's also the reason why jonas started the sprint he felt like okay if i start the sprint uh i can i can have him because he knew he was empty.

For sure he felt that, that Pogacar was empty. And so if Jonas waits and lets Tadej do his typical acceleration, that's potentially a loss because that's the thing that Pogacar has on Jonas, this

punch, right? So he didn't do that. So he started the sprint earlier and Tadej, you know, had to fight to keep the wheel, then came next to him, but, you know, ran out of legs. So that was something that I, I mean, I think when they were relaying at the end, Jonas knew that he had him. And, you know, winning a sprint from the front leading out like is very hard to do yeah and that that had to be a mental blow to pagachar because you you you put in your

notes i'm glad you brought this up an interesting thing that pagachar has not lost a two-man sprint in the tour ever yeah yeah first time he wins he loses a two-man uh uphill sprint in the tour um i think i think i don't know i would have to look at jonas's wins uh if he has ever won in a sprint a race like usually he it's a time trial or or a mountain stage where he comes by himself so um but anyway i mean it was so great to see you know the emotion of of jonas i mean now there you really see what the guy went through right i mean we cannot imagine you know he he was he was in the hospital you know at the beginning he was fighting for his life then he was you know fighting to be able to back

back on a bike and then finally he gets to the start of the tour with all these doubts i mean the amount of hard work the doubts uh you know will i do it should i should i do it um and then finally you know coming to the tour with doubts and day by day growing into it. And then finally winning this stage. That was such a, an emotional moment. You can, you can really see that the guy went through a lot, you know, Do you think because Pogacar was able to put time into him in the downhill, we're going to see more of that as an aggressive thing. Yeah. That makes me nervous. I mean mean because they can't they've reminded us you know if you look at you know it was it was Jonas it was Remco and it was uh Primos that that

took that nasty fall on the same downhill yeah that wasn't that long ago you know that's in your head I mean even us you know amateur you know people amateur racing you have a bad crash it's in your head for quite a while yeah yeah yeah and then then you forget about it and you move on hopefully but it's still very fresh for all three of those riders it is it is it is um but uh no i i i yeah i expect totally, uh, that they will try on downhills. I mean, you try everywhere, right? I mean, uh, downhills are part of the race.

Yeah. Um, so, um, but I mean, if I would be him, if I go on a downhill, I'll make sure that there's not, not, there's not far to go to the finish because uh it needs to you know if if you take a gum if you waste a bullet it better it better be for for a good time gain otherwise you're gonna pay the price at some point all right uh tomorrow you've predicted a bunch sprint i think the i think the on the move they were thinking it would be more of a breakaway day. But breakaways have been harder to form, it seems. I've predicted a bunch sprint because I think there's only two chances left for bunch sprint tomorrow. And then stage 16, I think.

Other than that, there's no chances. So I think it's going to be a bunch sprint because there's teams in this tour that have teams built exclusively around sprinters. And especially Alpecin needs a bunch sprint. They need those two stages to be a bunch sprint if they still want to have, it's a long shot, but to have a chance for the green jersey. So Philipson would need to win those two stages and then Guilherme would need to be fourth, fifth or sixth or something. And then there's still possibilities with the intermediate sprint.

So I think there's a few teams that will work together and that tomorrow there's a big chance to have a bunch sprint. Yeah, there's some other sprinters that are pretty hungry that tomorrow uh there's a big chance to have a bunch sprint yeah there's some other sprinters that are pretty hungry that have been there we've seen delhi up there a lot um grunewagen's hot he's sprinting well yeah uh jacobson's in there yeah yeah jacobson's suffering i mean then we still have mark cavendish who still can win another stage. Yeah. Yeah. Not expected, Cav.

You've already done it, but that would be great. Yeah. And then if you pick up the phone and FaceTime with your friends over here at The Move, that would be nice. Okay. So, okay. Let's move on then. And we'll look for that bunch sprint tomorrow. Let's jump into, uh, Ventum trivia. We're going to give away a brand new NS1 at the end of the tour. You can register every single day by submitting your answer. Every, um, every day you submit one, that's a new, uh, entry into the drawing so the question from yesterday was what fitness competition did Lance recently get first place in his age group that was hydrox New York City pretty interesting event if you want to look it up it's pretty wild today's question is what year city and country did lance win the uci road race world championships

okay what years i know that one yeah i figured you were you there were you at the in that same race i raised it yeah that's what i figured timing wise yeah uh what year city and country did lance win the uci road race world championships send it to don't email it to us, send it to ventomracing.com slash the move, submit your answer there. And also, and I should have mentioned this to you earlier, if you're in the market for a brand new road or gravel bike, listeners of the move can save 20%. That's a pretty good discount.

20% discount on any Ventum bike during the tour and through July by using the code the move 20 at checkout and now let's jump on to i've got a quick comment and one question for you johan the comment we were discussing yesterday uh you were commenting about how many days that that today has had in yellow so young in his career and then i threw out well who has the most days in yellow not most stage victories like we're talking about with with mercs and cavendish but most days in yellow uh the answer is pretty remarkable 96 days in yellow for eddie merckx That's crazy. Think about this.

So he won five times the tour. You know, he didn't. There's one tour I know that he was in yellow from start to finish. So that's 21. But if he would have had all five tours, 21, that would be 105, right? Yeah. How many did he say? mean he's 96 okay okay so there must have been one tour that he didn't win that he was in yellow for a long time also i mean i know he lost one to uh he lost one to bernard tevene where he was for a long time in yellow and uh another one to luis ocaña so yeah it's probably

in in in in seven tours there's so many jerseys he he could literally hand those out as halloween treats here a little little little scarecrow here you go i'm not sure he doesn't have many anymore. Here's a good question for you. This is interesting. This is from Rich. And Rich says, I was wondering why last year it was said that Tadej lost the tour because of his lack of preparation due to his accident earlier in the season. But now the same people are saying that jonas will win because he is getting stronger as the tour goes on even though he had the same issues with a lack of preparation leading up to the tour because of an accident it seems like a double standard

uh can you explain that's from rich it is it is it is true it's true it's a bit of a double standard i think but you know the main explanation i think is that they're two different type of That's from Rich. It is true. It's true. It's a bit of a double standard, I think. But, you know, the main explanation, I think, is that they're two different type of riders. And also, historically, Jonas has always been strong in the last week of the Tour, of any Tour he has done. Even the Vuelta he did last year, he was super strong in the last week. They're different riders.

Their way of racing is different. Tadej has sometimes shown a bit of weakness in the last week because of his aggressive way of racing at the beginning. And for example, last year, he came into the Tour with you know with with with the preparation which was not ideal and he started full gas like full gas attacking with Jonas is different he tries to follow and he looks where he can get and so I mean it's a theory JB you know it's not it's not sure it's we're not sure that Jonas will improve during the tour let me tell you one thing which will improve is his confidence

after today, that's improving and that's a big factor if your confidence improves physically you're going to be better too but it's a theory I think it's based on history that Jonas is typically

at his strongest in the last week or the second half of the tour. There you have it. That makes sense. If you have a question for Johan for a future show, please send it in, themoveatwedo.team. And let's hope for a bunch sprint tomorrow. And thank you again for everybody for listening. We really do appreciate it. I know there's a lot of choices out there to get your race coverage, but Johan, thank you for all your expertise.

And we will talk tomorrow. Thank you, JB.