THEMOVE - Is Tim Merlier Cycling's Next Great Sprinter? | TdF 2026 Stage 12 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

Lance, George, Sir Bradley, and Spencer Martin (aka The Professor) break down Tim Merlier's sprint win on Stage 12 of the 2026 Tour de France to get his third win of this Tour. They discuss the fast, chaotic run-in to the finish, how much bunch sprinting has changed at this Tour, and how the battle for the Green jersey continues to evolve. They also preview tomorrow's Stage 13, take listener calls, and answer yesterday's Ventum trivia before giving out a new question. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Roka: The Move listeners get 20% off. Just go to https://ROKA.com and enter code THEMOVE at checkout.  Timeline: Support your cells and how you age with Mitopure® Gummies from Timeline.Visit https://timeline.com/THEMOVE and save 20% off your Mitopure® Gummies. 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 https://eightsleep.com/themove for up to $350 off. 30 days to try it at home. Free returns if it's not for you.  

Tim Merlier. One of the things that's really impressed me with him is he hasn't got the team. Well, he has got a team, but they're doing their job way before the final kilometer. And so he's pretty much left to his own devices in that final 1,500 meters. And he finds the right wheel and he finds a way out. And he is almost trusting that a gap is going to open, he's going to get out of there. And to do it three times on this tour so far, when we've seen how chaotic it is and how little sprint stages there are, Tim Merleon for me.

I'm going to go against the grain. him here a bit and maybe perhaps a little bit biased. I'm going to go with Captain America. Quinn Simmons. I mean, the amount of aggression and the lack of fear that he rides with attacking on these climbs, I mean, let's make no mistake. It may look easy on TV, but when you're able to have that sort of power and split on the second and the last climb, make a group of, what was it?

14 guys. 20 seconds up the road, like that is one of the hardest things to do in cycling. And then he gets caught and does it again on the second and last climb. I mean, if this guy had a team that was behind him, he would have a couple stage wins in his bank account. Welcome back to the move podcast. I'm Lance Armstrong, joined by Sir Bradley Wiggins. He's in a bit of morning.

We're going to talk about that in just a sec. Mr. George and Cappy and the professor. Second day in a row, he goes for a pre-show ride, not even an invitation, nothing. Britain with you one time the store. You know, we had a call-in question on our voicemail yesterday about mental health. and you know and about this like you know do these teams have sort of sports psychologists and so I've I've decided this this early morning ride on these days I don't I know that nothing's going to happen uh at least we think I think I know but um and so I'm I'm getting out early and just

getting a little little thanks for the thanks for the message getting some alone time and uh yeah I wrote two hours this morning on the mount bike but anyways and the professor, Spencer Martin pulling double duty today. He's got a little, yeah, whof, high stakes here. I'm doing the peacock ad breaks. We'll see how it goes, folks. Of course, we're talking about stage 12. Alan, what, what happened? Stage 12 from Cirqueen Nevere, Manikour to Chalon-sur-Sone. I mean, just, that's one of the better one of the one. From Circui Neveir Manikour, to Chalon-Sor-Sone.

Okay. of course, Tim Merleier wins his third stage of this tour, his sixth stage ever for him in the Tour de France. But before we get into it, we just have to go back and I just want to check on, you know, wellness check on Bradley. You know, again, everybody that's listened to the show, the soccer thing is new to me. I've watched, you know, I've watched a lot of these games, certainly these ones in the, final rounds here. But this messy. And I also said on this show,

just a matter of days ago, that Tadey Pogachar is the most dominant athlete in the world. When I watch this messy guy, I almost have to walk it back with Pogatari. This guy, I don't even, it's like he just has it and knows what's going to happen. Or is this, help me. He's the greatest of all time.

He really is. in terms of football. And the way he galvanizes the team, they all play for him, the passion they had, and they'd ever give up as well, which I think is what won it for him yesterday. And they,

amazing, amazing. There was a cut on Twitter. It got taken down, but it was every messy touch after they went down. And it's unbelievable. I mean,

what he's doing in like how he's orchestrated. Phenomenal. Yeah. It's goat shit. I didn't like, yeah, it's, it's after the,

I think I said this after the, after the game against Egypt, they're down to nothing. And the guy just snaps his fingers. And I'm like, shit. This is just goats doing goat stuff. Yeah. I've had the... It's so...

It looks easy. And you know all the guys that the Tour of France are watching this. And I believe in one of our early tours, I think France was playing Italy in the finals of the World Cup, which is super fun being around Italian riders, French riders. But now we have probably not... Not one Argentinian in the Tour de France, right? I don't think so.

I don't think so. I don't think so. I'm not going to be able to do that, but of course all the Spanish riders will be pulling for the 13 months on Sunday. That was an insane World Cup final by France versus Italy. And I was at a hotel with a team with a bunch of French riders and Italian riders and they were going nuts. Yeah.

Yeah. Did you know that George as well has been, you know, because he moved out of our house, moved into his buddy's house. I guess he's having, and this, of course, has become a big thing with the optimizer community, the sauna scene, the cold plunge scene, the combination contrast therapy of these. He's been having these cold plunge parties. Did you know this? No, I didn't know that.

Yeah. Yeah. And we did not get invited, but look at the guy that he did invite. Let's run this clip. Whoa. That was last night. My wife and I were just sitting outside chilling. and this dude just walks up, jumps in the little pond next to us.

It was amazing. My wife's like, can we feed it? I'm like, no, don't feed that thing. She nuts? Definitely don't feed that. Yeah, we didn't get the invite. Of course, then again, we watch it. You're invited tonight if you want.

But Bradley, what are you thinking of this decision? So they go up 1-0, start putting defenders on. But what would you have done if you're at the time is to? I don't know. to be honest. Everyone's got an opinion now, haven't they, that we've lost, and everyone's an expert. The reality is Argentina would have found a way to win, I think, you know,

and they have the best player in the world ever. But yeah, I mean, you can play it back and say, oh, we shouldn't have gone five at the back. We should have played more attacking. But everyone, no one's saying that before, are they, you know? At the end of the day, the manager's paid to do that job, and I'm not an expert by any means. So it is what it is, and it's going to be a great final.

the thing I found most annoying yesterday we watched it at lunches is George was sat behind cheering for Argentina well well you know being a South American team you're not South American

you know you pick a Jews when you want no but Bradley did you notice this this is a man who went by the nickname of Captain America his professional career you know

yeah and now plays to the gallery now plays to the gallery no and he in for most of the game it made it quite fun actually he didn't say anything

and we had the first Frenchman, Alan, who's an Englishman for the day. Yeah, well, he's married to an English woman. Alain, who, of course, joins us every day for the stage announcements. We joined us. But everybody was cheering for England. But after, you know, it was one to nothing for seemingly forever. And then it got to be one-one.

And all of a sudden we started hearing the person in the back of the room cheering for urgent Tim. Like, you are such a bitch. Like, what are you, you can. And then. put me back in the kids table. Like I had to sit back in the dining room like, I don't know, 50 feet away from the TV while all the adults sat on the couch. That's because you're just kind of insulted.

Okay. But then it's going to progress from there. Just so you know, just to make it feel good. So the other day I leave, this was yet another day that I rode without you. I leave the house and I'm pulling out and there's this dude walking down the street. And he sees me and he goes, vamos. It's catching on your thing. It is.

And your people are being all nice young. I keep getting constantly yelled out on the bike pad. Like I yelled at it again yesterday for, going too fast. I was going like 5k an hour. That's what you get for riding a factor. They see the bike. Yeah, they see the bike. It is quite intimidating, look. And I have to agree with you, Bradley.

All right. Let's talk about this stage. Timmer there, kind of came out of nowhere. This was also, and for those who watched it, and for me, I'm not, I'm not and never was and obviously never will be a field sprinter. But every time I watch a field sprint, I'm just like, oh, God, just to have a everybody stay on their bikes. And it's more common than we would hope for that there are these. Today was the first big crash.

Yeah. Look like we lost two guys with broken collar bones. Not surprisingly crashed like horrible, but, but Marlera got through, all the big ones got through. And he's just a, he's just a class ahead. Well, I mean, the unique things about these field sprints in the Tour de France is like there's such small, minute differences between the winners and somebody crashing. You saw the same exact scenario happened to Malir 100 meters after what happened to Fernando Garvareer,

where the guy in front of him was kind of slowing down, moving to the right, Gavaria was trying to go and just wasn't able to anticipate the move that was about to overlap his wheel, crash, unfortunately broken collarbone. But theoretically, the same exact thing should have happened to Malir. But he was super aware, was able to anticipate that wheel going over his front wheel and slow down. And in most cases, most cases like your sprinting. over. When you slow down in the spring with 150, 200 meters ago, it's done seeing the doches. But the power that Tim Malir has right now is absolutely incredible.

Bradley and I can't find them in these bunch prints. He just comes out of nowhere. And then how much, like I had a project once where a team hired me to watch like 400 bunch prints and then analyze how they were won and common themes. And it looks kind of like nothing, like these new bunch prints look so different than anything I would have looked at. You had an amazing point during the, while we were watching the race, is that not having the GC teams up there fighting for position.

I mean, we would have been up there fighting for position until about 1K to go, because at our time, that's when the time stopped. Now it's 3K to go, sometimes 5K to go. That is making a huge difference because we have team like UAE, team like Vs and Melissa bike, team like Trek, they can be up there fighting as much as these other teams. So what happens? It makes it faster.

It makes it more stressful, more dangerous. Instead of having two or three teams fighting position, you have six to eight teams. And that completely changes the game. And that was a great point that you chatted out earlier on. I think it means they're like, they're basically running out of gas. That's why Bradley thought it was so slow yesterday in the last game.

Yeah. Because they have to pick it up way further out than these. Today was quite exciting the last 25K. I agree. Watching this counter attacking and Pedersen was attacking and Liddle, we didn't know what Liddle were doing. And you said, what the fuck of Visma doing? And it was like, it was all like this, wasn't it?

But it actually made for an exciting running. Captain America, the new Captain America, Quinn Simmons was attacking like crazy the last two times. His dad was there. Hopefully he's riding Philly. I don't know if he is. But yeah, it was very exciting, like you said. Yeah, it was really good.

And the field looks tired. Like as these attacks start just going off in the last 2020- But it was on a whole day again, wasn't it? It's strung out. You see this group showing the fatigue. I think they did get a bit of a break in the heat today. But yeah, Little Trek, like, obviously Quinn Simmons, his natural instinct is to attack.

But you saw Peterson attacking. You saw Skelmosa on the front. They had a plan clearly going in the day. By the way, Alpacin had, I mean, Philipson can't look at anything today and say, well, this could have or should have been better. Me had a perfect leadout. He just, look, 26 is not its year. He actually said that in his post-raised interview, he said the team did an amazing leadout. Like, I was there to win.

Unfortunately, the guys are better than me right now. Yeah. That's what he said. We saw the bad. forward. Fair play. This is it. And they just kind of ran out of the juice before they got to the finish.

There's also the eighth fastest stage of all time. After the fastest stage of all time yesterday. Yeah. So they're cooking along here. Eight sleep move of the day. Brought you by eight sleep. The also exclusive sponsor to UAE, they are customizing their sleep. They are optimizing their sleep.

Cold plunging with bears, sleeping on cool mattresses, 55 degrees to 100 degrees, 110 degrees Fahrenheit. By the way, either side, so you, your partner, whoever else is over there, they can customize it. Use the code the move at 8Sleep.com slash the move for $350 off till the end of the tour. Move of the day, Bradley. Tim Melier. One of the things that's really impressed me with him is he hasn't got the team. Well, he has got a team, but they're doing their job way before the final kilometer.

And so he's pretty much left to his own devices in that final 1500 meters. and he finds the right wheel and he finds a way out and he is almost trusting that a gap is going to open and he's going to get out of there and to do it three times on this tour so far when we've seen how chaotic it is

and how little sprint stages there are Tim Merliere for me. I'm going to go against the grain I'm here a bit and maybe perhaps a little bit biased I'm going to go with Captain America Quinn Simmons. I mean the amount of aggression and the lack of fear that he rides with

attacking on these climbs I mean let's make no mistake it may look easy on TV but when you're able to have that sort of power and split on the second and last climb, make a group of, what was it, 14 guys, 20 seconds up the road, like that is one of the hardest things to do in cycling.

And then he gets caught and does it again on the second and last climb. I mean, if this guy had a team that was behind him, he would have a couple stage wins in his bank count. I might also add, I don't disagree with any of that. I might add that if he just, just were able to pick and choose a little better, these accelerations, these moves, these breakways, after three weeks, they catch up to you.

In this sport, especially, you know, as I view it now, you just have to be so careful and cautious about these efforts. They're not endless, right? Your piggy bank, your gas tank, or whatever, it's not endless. So I would urge him to just be a little more selective, find that perfect moment, and then go. So thank you for agreeing with me on the move of the day. Well, I didn't agree with that.

At the same time, I am going to disagree with. with you slightly in the fact that if he had a team fully behind him, he would have the luxury to pick and choose more. Now he does not have the luxury because it's all on him to make these breakways. I did have Lance's thought. I was like, at some point, you kind of want to pick your spots

because it's impressive, using a lot of energy. I would get a Tim earlier, though. Six-six-tour win has only started three tours. So he's averaging, he's never done a tour without winning a stage. So he's averaging two wins per tour start. And he had a tough day yesterday as well, didn't you? Yeah. I mean, he's a brutal.

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Green Jersey, is it, I don't know. What's the latest points tall? Look, it's the Pedersen 357, Germaine 317. Philipson, I think we can, but who knows, 311 and Merlier, 307. That sounds close, but maybe not. I did take a peek ahead of a few stages. We'll look at tomorrow stage here in a second. The intermediate sprint is late, but after that, they're early.

I mean, these are going to be like literal filled sprints. I didn't realize until this morning there's 25 points to win one of those. After tomorrow's stage, they start, I mean, they're at 12 kilometers, 20 kilometers. I mean, these are ones On mountain stages. Yeah. On just, um,

so, you know, I don't, I don't remember a green jersey battle having such a dramatic effect on the Tour de France. The way it's being race. I would say teams controlling it. Yeah, a couple years ago.

2020, I think things changed because Sagan was really going at, I believe it was Sam Bennett. And it was just this nuclear starts. And then it did. That's when I first noted it, noticed it really changing the race. Huh.

But, last year too remember because little truck would hold it together from Milan early and then it does but here's the question I would ask how many more stages could someone like Merley or Phillipson win or Gurmey are there any sprint stages left at this race no so it might be could be over unless there's an intermediate sprint where Phillipson flats and he can't contest it or Patterson did I say Phillips yeah Hmm And is Pedersen going to win stage 21 Would be the question Well our guy like I mean can Grimai ride That circuit in Paris better than

Or can Patterson ride that circuit better than the others I say right now is trending towards yes Because of the way he's riding But I mean Grimai has won some big classic races before You can't count him out But Peterson I think it's got the slight edge right now When you look at it on paper it looks like Oh Grimai could win that

But you guys remember how violent that was last year Well, Antahde got ridden off the wheel last year. Yeah. And if you want to talk about him in this revenge mindset, that was the other one where he got ridden off the wheel last year. He's definitely going to be going for that one. Who knows? I mean, that's based on your theory that he doesn't forget these things.

Well, he was at Switzerland and Rummandy this year because he wanted, he'd never won them. And it annoyed him that he hadn't won them. Right. So the tour Switzerland? Yeah. So he said, I got to go win it. Because I haven't won it.

Gully. He has in one stage 21. He's got to win it. it's just how he thinks. He might be in Philly because I know he had in one. He could be in Philadelphia. Well, he's got Mouten Venture to do with there. That's right.

I'm coming after him. Oh, goodness. Try and sign him. Yeah, just like a one-day contract. Yeah, that would be something. Maybe like a one-month loan. A one-month long soccer. We can work on that.

What you mean, Franco Bels? we're in the thick of it now boys and girls it's that time of the tour you know yeah we can only show so many bear videos yeah it does you're like please get to we're getting close to the mountains again though and then it does start to go really fast then but it feels long here all right we will be back in two minutes and 32 seconds and we are back um just there on the commercial break catching up with the open, I should have said. I were talking about soccer. I spend a lot of time soccer.

I don't care about soccer. I love golf. I do have the open on right here on the iPad. I'm looking at a lot of stuff here, but started today. George hates these four days and tour every year. I know. I'm glad I'm not actually staying with you because you never watched the tour. You watch the open the open the whole time.

I got it on. I got it. I got it. Let's talk about tomorrow. Stage 13. This is officially the longest stage of the tour, which I think is somewhat nowhere. These stages where are we at 205 kilometers. This is back in the day, we'd have been like, oh, all right, cool, average length.

This is the longest day. Of course, we've seen 220s and 240s and even 260s. So, and really, I don't know, uneventful day, it does start to get interesting. This is just been an interesting route. And I said it at the start of the tour. And then I almost wanted to walk it back because the first couple of days were actually very, very exciting. Yeah. And since it's just been, I'm sort of, it's kind of a head scratcher this stage.

And even Tadipokr said in his post-race interview today, he was sort of questioning or what, Bradley, what did he say about this? Well, he kind of said something along the lines of, you know, tomorrow, this is a strange stage tomorrow. Strange stage. And that, you know, I think a lot of the writers don't know. how it's going to pan out. There's a long way till that sprinted, immediate sprint for teams to keep it together.

So you would expect a break away to go. And then we've got those two climbs in succession and downhills of the finish. I kind of like it. It's interesting. It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

But I think, you know, could a break go tomorrow, a big enough group? Because would someone, would a sprint team want to hold it together? No. No. Especially with that climb.

Not too much work. So then who would hold it together? A GC team? That seems like a lot of work for, no one 10k long climb at 7% that's not even at the finish so probably breakaway and then the question is does peterson go and then what does that breakaway formation look like yeah i mean there's no doubt if we're saying this on the show all the tacticians of the teams are the teams right now are saying this is the best chance for a breakway to make it and you like you had the teams that have not

want to race you have to be in this breakaway so it's going to take a long time for this breakaway to make it could go yeah it might go super aggressive yeah exactly man it's going to be really fast start to the tour or to the stage. And there's so much on the line for the teams that have not won yet. This is like a big opportunity for them to make it to the finish. And Lance was complaining about the lack of prestige climbs, but I think this is the first mountain ever climbed in the Tour de France. We've certainly done this climb.

It sounds very familiar. Another X factor for tomorrow is there is a steady chance of rain for the day. So, you know, long, long flat, uneventful day, fairly serious climb has to be a fairly

serious downhill. Yeah. That's up. Yeah. You don't get a lot of rain in the tour these days, do we? You don't get a lot of rain

in cycling these days. No. When's the last time you're watching? Yeah. I remember watching it in the early 2000s. There was days in the, in the massive song travel.

It was rain all day. Yeah. When Stuart O'Grady would in that break and took the jersey, you know, remember in 2001. And it was like they took 20 minutes. You know, but nobody that, you've grown up following more cycling than anybody that I know.

And if you just think, and I mean that. Like, if you think about the spring classics, right, the, even San Remo. But Flanders, Rubei, I mean, when we were growing up, this guy, I mean, Andre Schmiel winning in the snow. A lot of everybody, yeah. These guys are riding around 75 degrees, no warmers. Yeah. Flanders. When's the last time we had a really rainy tour of Flanders?

Yeah. How many times is it rained since we've been doing the show this year? up here. Yeah. Like any? And then weirdly, it rained in Paris last year, which never does. Yeah. Think of rainy terrorist stages.

It's such a bummer. Such a bummer. What happens in the GC group on that? So let's say a breakaway is away. Is there any GC action on this climb? Wow. But these guys for second and third. Or do you wait until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?

I think they wait. I wouldn't see UAE doing trying to do much damage. I don't think Nizmo would think that. they can gain an advantage by doing anything on that climb. I would say it's kind of neutralized, but you never know. You never know. And Jonas could be waiting for this last half of the tour. You know, I mean, I keep reading things that, like, he came in, like, great for him

at the end of the Giro. They've been waiting for this end of the tour to France to start making moves. We'll see. Back out on with it. Yeah. Yeah. Our master plan, we lost four minutes to the best ride of all time. It's all.

It's all where we want it. Yeah. We just got them right where we want them. But hey, we're going to have the races. And they're going to take the time of the start and the finish. And, you know, it's one bad day away or one crash away. Not that, you know, certainly that sounds bad saying that. But that shows you how, I mean, look at today's finish.

I mean, it's, you know, people, you know, there's crashes in bike racing. I think what's mentioned, let's say, God forbid it happens. We hope it doesn't happen. But let's say something happens to Bagachar. It's interesting that this is the first year that it's not an automatic onus. win that I think there would be quite a bit of competition there behind them. So, yeah. I can see a lot of the, you know, at least my G-C guys like SET or climber guys like SEP or

Mateo trying to get in that breakway tomorrow to perhaps hopefully go for the stage win, put a little pressure on you. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm excited about tomorrow's stage. I think it could be a really good one. The brakes. So no riding before. I was just going to see, are you cool if I get up early and go, no, no, you need to watch it. Look at the start of the stage.

I might come over and watch it. It's not going to hurt anybody if I'm out there by myself riding my bike. And believe me, if something crazy happens, I got the AirPods in. You call me. I can turn on Peacock on my phone and listen and ride. Let's take your calls, as we've been doing every day. Here is the hotline, if you want to call us, leave us a message. That number, 970-7182736.

Caller number one. Hey, guys. This is Greg from Fort Collins, Colorado. I want to hear from each of you, what would you, I'm curious, what would you tell Paul sex us, how would you coach him as he gets ready for the Alp? What are the ways you're going to coach him in his current position? Thanks. Bradley?

Well, I think his natural talent, and this is his domain. You know, when we get to the Alps, it's actually the safest part of the race for him because he can just be in position and thrive and do what does what he does best on the climbs. In some ways, the stages we've had up to this point have been the most challenging to navigate for him. him getting him into position so he can be with the stars. So I wouldn't worry too much about him. The only thing is he's going into unknown territory in terms of the distance into the race now. We're nearly two weeks in.

He's never been that far anywhere. But I don't see it being a problem for him. And I think he's done well to be where he is with the challenges he's faced up to this point and this far into the race. Yeah. I would say similarly that he's 19 years old. He's never done a tour of France. it's super easy to get caught up in like the hoopla and the craziness of the Tour de France and the pressure from his whole entire country.

Just do what he's been doing. Like stick with the basics. Don't change it up. Do what he's been doing to get him to this point thus far. And he should be able to ride amazingly. But just don't get cut up and caught up in all this outside pressure and stress that the Tour de France provides. I think he's, Greg, I think he's, for a 19-year-old kid, he's got, he has a strong. mind. I mean, this is, this is by all accounts. And there was a lot of debate and there was a lot of

opinions out there about whether or not he should even start the tour at 19 years old. Being, I mean, any 19 year old actually can go start the tour, but being that you're the great French hope in the last 50, 60 years, it was highly debated, right? He know was on the record saying this is a mistake. But Paul Seishaw's actually over, he and those closest to him actually overruled everybody and said, no, he is doing the tour, which is, I think it's kind of fascinating. I think he's done a hell of a job so far. Do you think having him there in the position he's in,

with the hype that's around him, particularly in France, adds to the booing of Taday Pagat. Oh, yeah. I said that at the start. I mean, it moves in the second. Yeah. It's interesting that, isn't it? Had he not been at this race, Taday wouldn't be.

I said it. Not booing Taday because they want Yonnas to win, are they? No, no, but keep it, listen. And I sort of, I'm even reluctant to acknowledge the booze that Taday is starting to hear. Keep in mind, this is the Tour de France. This is July. This is, you know, we're getting towards peak vacation time in Europe. These are not just French people on the side of the road.

So they could be Danish people, right? They could be Spaniards. They could be Germans. They could be. So it's not, it doesn't have to be. a French person who's all who's now super super loyal to Seychas who wants to be critical, they come from all over the continent, right? And I, and I speak from experience. Like, I, you always kind of figure out pretty quickly who is the guy who spit on you where he's from.

And that's, you know, it is what it is. So. But I will say the media influences the public in France. And that article, particularly in Le Kheap the other day, it was a double page spread. it had comments from various riders, David Miller, a few others, about his dominance. Was it killing the sport? And just that narrative now creeping into it to the public's mind, that only adds to being influenced. It's just messy killing soccer. He wins too much. Yeah, but they never do that.

I know. It's so ridiculous. No, they protect messy. Yes. Because they celebrate like this great feat for what it is. Oh, and it's not like, oh, he won two World Cups in a row. Oh, that's so lame. It's ridiculous how cycling media does that.

But I thought on Paul Sik soss. Also, Tad is going to lose one of these. He's not Lance. He's not going to win seven in a row. Whoa. Well, he's already lost to. We already created it. Internet controversy.

He's already dropped two of them. God, don't get me started again. I do have thoughts. But have you seen him lose his cool at all this tour? Think about it compared to Remka, who's always losing his cool. Like, he's ice man. Ice man. You don't even notice he's there in his breath.

at least said he's getting to his best terrain. By the way, Greg, my wife grew up in Fort Collins. Went to high school in Fort Collins. So, good to talk to you, homie. Number two, caller number two. Hey, this is Jeffrey from Minnesota. Love the show, longtime fan. Question for you.

What is your favorite nickname of anyone you have written with? Thanks so much for all your comments. Wow. That is a damn. good question. I got one. Can I go first? The Falcon.

Yeah, that's good. Palo Salvadoradev. Yeah. He was, that was the favorite nickname. And they call him that because he was just like a beast on the downhills. I had like the pleasure of once getting to the top of the pojo in Milan San Remo. And he attacks and I just, I just challenged myself. I said, I'm not going to let him drop me on the descent, the best descendant in the world.

I hung on his wheel and it was, I pretty much risked my life to hang on his wheel. and I understand why they called him the falcon, but very impressive dissender, won the Giro di Italia because of his descending skills for the most part, but that would be my favorite nickname. Yes, I mean, mine is quite a funny one, actually. So Fabian Cancelaro, I have a huge amount of respect for Fabian, great rider, so I would never use this for him because it was quite derogatory,

and he hated this nickname. But Juan Antonio Fletcher, who I was teammates with, was teammates with Fabian at Faso Bortolo, so they obviously had a kind of piss-take relationship. and Juan Antonio would always call him paruka, which in Italian I believe means wig. His hair looked like a wig and Fabian hated it,

but Juan took great pleasure in calling him this whenever he was with him. And I would never use it, but it was always made. Until today. It was made, we'd be in a crosswind in Qatar or something going through and off

and he'd go, paruka, paruka! To get into it, it was just, yeah, great. That may have been talking about Jimmy Casper again. Bon leu. Which means wanker. in French. Quite literally. You would have had to have listened to last year's, one of the shows last year.

I don't know. Best nickname. Look, let me before I, it's kind of hard to say, but here's the thing about nicknames. And we've seen guys over the years, and I won't name names who gave themselves a nickname. Yeah. Okay. You cannot nickname. You cannot nickname yourself, but that's against the rules.

You're a disqualified. So somebody else or the public or whatever has to give you the nickname. Having said that, I don't know. I mean, I'd probably go with the Lion King, I mean, Chippo or even Kipucci back in the days. The Lion King, I like that one. El Diablo, Capuch. I think this, and correct me if I'm wrong, or you guys might know this, I mean, this goof that stands on the roadside every day during the tour.

D.D. This German guy with the devil outfit who got robbed. Yeah. In Barcelona, he got robbed. They stole everything out of his car. Very sad. He still, to this day, runs around with the little pitchfork and he dresses like the devil.

I think he got inspired to do that because of Kiyapuchi. Yeah, Putsche. So, one of those two. Good question, though. That's a great question. All right. Number three. Third and final.

one. Hey guys, this is Shannon from Los Angeles, California. What's going on with the Ben's? Ben O'Connor, Ben Healy. You know, they've both had a couple standout seasons in the last few years, but seem to be nowhere in the Peloton right now. Do you think they're holding out for the mountains or maybe just don't have what it takes this time around? Would love to know your thoughts. Thanks so much. Thank you, Shannon. I almost thought she said what is going on with the Ben's, B-E-N-B-N-B-E-N. DS, a good buddy of mine, who's, I think you've been to the studio and watched the show, his nephew who went to LSU and all his buddies went to LSU, had these great, this great career path post-college, but they were also musicians, like a college band, making a run of it, called

The Ben's. And, you know, you see them in a lot of videos with Zach Bryan, like these kids are killing it. And I thought, wow, how does she know about the Benz? That's pretty amazing. Anyways, the Ben's, Ben O'Connor and Ben Healy's a good one. I mean, this kid was I mean, you couldn't go a day last year without talking about Ben Healy. Yeah, well, one thing's for sure is they're not, they have no choice. It's not like they're holding off for the Alps. Like, that's their only option right now. These guys get paid a lot of money.

They have huge expectations from their teams. And I would guess that we'll start seeing them in more breakways coming up in the final week in the mountains. But they have no choice. Like, they got to go all in from now on to the finish. I mean, Ben O'Connor. Yeah. He's been trying. He just, I mean, it's not really.

been the route for him up to this point in terms of that big mountain day. But I'm sure we'll see Ben O'Connor in that third week. I remember last year he was nowhere and then he wins the great stage. He wins the toughest stage, are there any other Benz that we're forgetting about

just because Shannon didn't get him? I would say the answer to this question is almost always illness that you're not, that like you're not aware of, but like Ben Healy, I would guess, had some illness. Yeah, because Sean Quinn just said the other day that he had a cold during the rest day, so perhaps he's going around the team.

Mm-hmm. Good question. Yeah, great question. Good question. There is time, right? We've got, God, what is today? Today's Thursday. Thursday snuck up on us.

It does sneak up on you. But there's time and also running out of the time. So, go ahead. Ben He was such a, he was fun to watch. He was a monster last summer. Finished top 10 was just, I mean, it was like every day you looked up. We're like, well, there he is again, like the Energizer Bunny. Yeah.

It's hard to get it right. guy like that, it's hard to, you know, you have a magical tour like that and you leave and you think, okay, I'm going to build off of that and come in. I'm going to repeat it and do even better. Man, it's hard to time it right at the start of this thing. And, you know, obviously, if you're, if you're a guy like Tata, it's not that hard to time. But for others, it is. I mean, how many breakaway wins have we seen? One, the Vanderpull one.

Yeah. So it's a tough line of work to be in, breakaway artist at the moment. Let's do some trivia. Yeah, Sir Bradley wants to get to the gym and get out all that frustration. I did last night after the football, actually. I won a great session because of it. Wow. Well, you were, and you were burning rubber out of the house.

I was like, whoa, get out of the way. He is out of here. Yeah, I mean, it's just. By the way, the referee, England didn't get screwed by the ref, did they? I'm not aware. Because that ref is from Austin, Texas. I heard that. I did hear that.

I was going to apologize, but I didn't feel like there was anything. fucking guy this messy I did seem buddy buddy though him and messy never like hugging it out a bunch

in the field well it was weird that they launched that business together too oh oops let's do our Vintam trivia of the day answer the day's

trivia question correctly and get entered for a chance to win $5,000 credit towards a ventum bike of your choice yesterday's question

this is a real humdinger the best sprinter of all time Mark Kavanaugh holds the all time record for tour stage wins. What's the answer? The answer? 35.

Here's today's question. This is the second day in a row with a sprint finesse and the last chance for many of the fastest men in the world to claim glory before the race ends. When was the Mayo Verre, the green jersey, first introduced into the tour?

Not bad. I actually have no idea. When was the green jersey first introduced into the tour? Head on over to ventum racing.com. Use the code the move 10 and submit your answer. All right.

Well, thanks for tuning in. And look, to my guy, guys, we've got clients tomorrow, maybe some rain. It's going to be exciting. Should be great? Keep your head up. Stay away from the bears. All right. Thanks for tuning in and in, everybody.

See all tomorrow.