THEMOVE - Pogačar Makes History on Alpe d'Huez | TdF 2026 Stage 19 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

Lance, George, Sir Bradley, and Spencer Martin (aka The Professor) break down Tadej Pogačar's stage win on Alpe d'Huez with a record-setting performance and how the GC shaped up in the chase group behind. They also discuss Mads Pedersen's incredible performance to get into the breakaway yet again to seal Green, and preview tomorrow's monster stage through the Alps and how the dynamics of the race could dictate the stage winner, and take listener calls before answering yesterday's Ventum trivia with a new question to close. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Ekoi: https://www.ekoi.com/en-us/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=podcast-weedu_us LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT's most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at https://DrinkLMNT.com/TheMove Kineon: Use code THEMOVE for $50 off or go to https://kineon.io/THEMOVE 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. Hyperice: Get 15% off Hyperice products now with code THEMOVE15 https://Hyperice.com

What else didn't disappoint today is Thaday Pokachar? We got our wish. The fucking guy ripped the pavement off Alp the West. I mean, literally, the local municipality is probably out there now, repaving pieces of it. Yeah. Is this the Pokachar era? I mean, when in the history of cycling do you have 40 guys over four minutes up the road with some of the best climbers in the world? And they don't make it.

Yeah. And you're going to make it to finish the top-tier climbers. It's unreal. I'm Lance Armstrong, joined by Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mr. George Hinkapy on the full fully on the mend. Proud of you, man. I'm back. The professor, Spencer Martins,

the professor has been hard at work today. A lot of data to crunch. A lot of times to look at and compare. A lot of watts to think about. We, of course, are talking about stage 19. Alan, our good friend, what do we do? Stage 19 from Gap to Alpe deus. From Gap to Alpeuduiz.

Alain is going to make a drop in tomorrow. We're going to have a live reading. That's exciting. It is exciting. Of the stage. Alain will be here. You're going to take your seat for about a minute. He might not give it up.

I saw him yesterday at the bottom of Ashcroft. Oh, biking? Yeah, biking. Full we-we-do kit on. That's a boy. Well, he is on the team. I mean, he's on the show every day. Wow. Alp de West. This is, you know, I love the setting. Obviously, all of us have been there so many times.

You kind of have to, I mean, you get the sense if you just went there and rode it on a day where they were just cars driving by you. But to ride that race with those people, I mean, it's a sanctuary. And it didn't disappoint today. and what else didn't disappoint today is Thaday Pokachar. We got our wish. The fucking guy ripped the pavement off out the west. I mean, literally, the local municipality is probably out there now repaving pieces of it. Yeah.

Is this the Pokachar era? I mean, when in the history of cycling, do you have 40 guys over four minutes up the road with some of the best climbers in the world and they don't make it? Yeah. And you're going to take it to the top to finish. Top tier climbers. It's unreal. Lenny Martinez, Richard Carapas, Seppcus, mows them down four minutes.

I was impressed by how he was going fast. He was ripping the road up almost how in control emotionally he seemed. Even when he went, he didn't go. It wasn't, he didn't stand up. He just kind of noodled off the front. He catches Yates, works, hasn't worked for 2K, like you said, George. And then even when those guys were right out there, he wasn't going. He's never going too deep.

Just always. Not only that, but teams like, yeah. Like their whole mission was to keep Carapaz as far up the road as possible. All in team time. Pulling as hard as they can. Pulling as hard as they can before Alpdouaz. Never a doubt. And UAE wasn't even pulling.

The other teams. I mean, a team who's on the ropes, as has been well publicized, all forms of illnesses and aches and issues running rampant through that team, played it perfectly. But the other team, I mean, the guy's riding for 10th or 7th. or team, whatever they're riding points class. He just, they just teed him up.

When we saw him at the finish, it was, that was a mean Taday at the finish. Yeah, good. The celebration, like, how'd you like that? Yeah. And we've been waiting to see that Taday for a couple of days now. I'm glad he didn't remain with Del Toro and try and nurse him to get third.

You know, he played his own card and left him to do his thing. So it was a classic Alpdures. I think it went down in, in the history books as a classic Alpduez. Yeah, he said declines before Alpduez were full gas. Yeah. Pokerjar said that. So I think when he got to Alpduez, he realized it's going to be mono and mono anyway.

I mean, the group was so small, wasn't it? Yeah, it was so small. Yeah, he just went 1K in. Well, it was Johann's theory that him attacking at the bottom was the best thing for Del Toro because it locks everybody in a pace behind. Yes. Yeah. So in some ways that, you know, he could attack and it didn't really hurt Del Toro. No, just sit down in the group, yeah.

So is that the best, climbing performance ever? Yes. Climbing performance? Climbing performance? That's a good question. Because we know he broke the record by a minute 25, right? Seven watts per kilo for 30.

Is that the best ever? Probably. How are we, I mean, it's a good question. How do you measure that? Do you measure it in watts per kilo? Do you measure it in VAM? Probably not the best VAM, I would assume. The best VAM, I probably still goes back.

You know, to set or sort of break the record for VAM, you have, I mean, Now, uptoes is steep. I think it averages 8 or 9%. To break a VAM record, which for those at home, that's the total vert climb per, I think, hour, you have to have a really steep climb, right? So I believe up until this point, just like Alteuiz, up until today, Marco Pontani had the best time up Aptuiz. He also, I think some of the climbs in the Giro from that era, he was smashing VAM records, well over 2,000 meters. fam. But in terms of time, got to talk about the time, right? And Spencer, you brought up an interesting point. This is kind of a head scratcher for me living in 2026. Even if there isn't an official start line and there's not an official finish line of Alp Duez, I mean, they're really sort of, this is easy. I mean, if I were the town of Alp Duques, I would have it permanently marked on the road so that every Tom Dicker, Barry could go over there and compare themselves.

But we can get close, right? And by all accounts, and by the way, the time wasn't close, so it really doesn't matter. He smashes Marco Pontani's record by a minute 25. Wow. Yeah. I did not expect that more than I thought. I don't know. I expected that.

I expected that. By that much. Yeah. Minute plus. I did not. Well, every other climb they've been breaking records by at least that two minutes. on the tour malay. Seven watts for kilos.

Let's not forget we're three weeks into the Tour of France, too. Yeah, but I don't think that matters anymore. Look how they're racing the first. I know. That's my point. It doesn't matter. And we are, Pentani's record, we all talk it's 30 years ago. Yeah.

Think of the rolling resistance of his tires, very terrible. Bike, probably a little bit heavier. Yeah. Clothes, not as good. I mean, but, yeah, so he probably did 455 watts for 35 minutes. I mean, that's seven watts per kilo is. Mind you, yeah, a body weight of 60. The reporting we have, this is inside reporting, was 64.5 kilos.

Which is pounds-wise is 140, 150 pounds. Yeah. So for all you 150-pounders out there that have a peloton or some other little thing in their garage, go on out there. Eat a big breakfast. Have a lot of coffee. Go out there. You 160-pounders. Jump on.

Just start at 455. Let us know how long you go. Yeah. We already have enough of those people that think they can do good watts and they can be pro cyclists and they're all these influencers. But it's, you can't say that unless you ride into Peloton or the Tort of France in Europe. Small roads, corners. This is, it's only 50% of it. You know what?

I appreciate the snark. I love the snark. That's not like you. It's funny. I know a guy he just got on Zwift and he did 500 watts for an hour, just on Zwift. It was just hard to do. Yeah. And then he's a good example because he's not a professional cyclist and everything kind of falls.

part when he get in the heat of the battle. Yeah. He was a 185 pounds. Yeah. There was a British amateur last year who was breaking all the Strava records on these climbs. Canadian guy. Canadian.

Jack Burke. Yeah. Yeah. He did Alteuettes, didn't he? Yeah. He is the, well, we should see if his Strava segment got beaten. Yeah. Yeah, we should.

Look it up. Taddy hasn't uploaded yet, though. Go ahead. While you're looking that up, Professor. Can I point something out of? Sure, of course. With the stark that you have today, I hope you talk more. Five Americans, out of six and

entire race in the breakaway. I mean, how cool is that to watch? I mean, these guys, a lot of them trained together at times, have gone to the junior ranks at times, race, American races growing up. And just to be in one of the most iconic breakaways of the Tour to France, they didn't win. Stepkus got fourth, I think. But still, it's incredible to watch these Americans, third week of the tour making the hardest breakaways still. Almost a negative, though, if you think about it, because you have to be so good to be an American in the World Tour that you'd be in the United States. the breakaway on the Alpto S stage.

That's the bar just to get in. Yeah. No panicookins. No panic, no panic, also honorable mention, Richard Carapas. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, the guy's tough. The guy is tough. You know, won the stage yesterday. I mean, there was a second, what he,

I mean, he had three plus minutes at the bottom. Worth noting Taday Pocartre went with just under 12 kilometers to go. That's a long ways from the finish. I can't imagine. Who would ever do that?

Yeah. And then you factor in his attacks. I mean, he does these 10 seconds full gas sprints. And, yeah, we're looking at Taday's average watch, but like, how do you even factor in these sprints when you're on full gas up 40 minutes of the plan? He seemed to be anaerobic the entire client. The entire time. Not just that.

He was sprinting for everything of the mountains during the stage as well. Yeah. He's, yeah, we said yesterday he was on a roll. Yeah. You know, you almost could question. Because as Taday was bridging a. three-ish minute gap. You had to know.

I mean, if you're Richard Carapaz or his team director, you had to know he was coming. You had to know he was going to close it. Maybe not. Maybe not attack, continue to attack. You're not going to stay away from him. Yeah, he was trying to get rid of multi-nazeman. But that wasn't his problem.

Yeah, that's a good point. If you had just, and who knows, right? There's a lot of, it would be very hard. Even if you were, wrote the best race tactically you could, It's very hard to stay with Tade. Even Tade, I mean, when he surged there, the hardest he tried or the most that it looked like he was trying was, you could tell he put in this surge when he was in the saddle. The gap opened up.

He looked back and saw the gap. And then he really accelerated. You saw him. I mean, his cadence went up 10, 20 revs. Yeah. So if you're thinking, he averaged 450 watts. That in the saddle acceleration, what, $6.50, $700? Probably.

Almost 40 minutes into a full gas climb. After he went three minutes fast in those guys. But you're right, if they almost should have struck a truce, if let's just work together and then we'll sprint it out. And we'll see who has the legs to stay with this guy, and then we'll all cross my fingers and see if I can beat him in the sprint. Highly unlikely, but a better chance that nonetheless, hell of a ride by him. Let's do our eight-sleep move of the day.

The pod by eight-sleeps a smart mattress cover that easily codes on top of any existing mattress. Heats or cools, each side, independently from 55 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. I've talked about it. Game changer. Love this thing. Traveled with it up to Aspen for the summer. Also, the official sleep sponsor of UAE Team Emirates, 8Sleep.com slash the move. Get your sleep over there. Is there Bradley move of the day? Taday Pachia. Yeah. I mean, it goes without saying quite some ride. By the way, fifth stage win of this tour, 26th stage win of his career in the tour. Yeah.

And we're not done. Probably could have had more at this tour. I think he gave one away. What's his total victory in professional cycling? Do you know what that is? I was over 100. I was going to be able to celebrate his 100th victory, I think, last year. But I think it's 125.

Yeah, something like that. Let me look it up. It is 1.26 today. Yeah. Wow. George, move of the day. I mean, obviously, Tadee move a day, but I'm going to have to go with Carapots, making the breakaway again, getting the mountain jersey, super aggressive throughout the day. The whole team was backing him.

I mean, like Spencer mentioned, I mean, they have a really solid plan in this tour de France. Back in one of the best climbers of the race, to get in the breakway, get him as far up the road as it possibly can. And 99.9% of the time that breakway is making to the finish line, unless you factor out Tade Pokachar. Well, right. But when he's in the race, then you have a 0.1 chance. Yeah, especially when all the other teams say, we got to get Tade to the base of this climb with them in reach. Yeah. I mean, that was, it warmed my heart to see that.

Well, I mean, and I mentioned that earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, they're not let Lenny Martinez go, but maybe encouraged him to go. Or once he went, they're like, thank God, because that just puts all the pressure off of UAE. Then you got three or four teams that have to chase Lenny Martinez down, which we saw happen today. So that was actually master class. tactical race for them today. Yeah. Spencer?

It's Pugachar. I mean, that was incredible. Also, I know Jack Burke's probably watching. I'm sorry, Jack. He hasn't uploaded yet, but you're going to lose the K-O-M by about three minutes. Wow. Dang. Dang.

My move of the day, the obvious one is Pogatar. I'm going to pivot a little bit here. I'm going to give it to Adam Yates. Think back to two or three days ago. I think it was three days ago. was so sick and we're watching him and they showed him. The coverage kept showing him just barely able to pedal, had a teammate with him, whether or not he could finish the stage, sick as a dog. We've all been there, right? It's so easy to climb off and just say, hey,

and nobody's going to fault you, nobody's going to criticize you. Say, I can't even, I'm so sick. I can't pedal. He stayed in the race. I think it's the ultimate look of a professional. He knew that the team was going to need him. And look at him today. What he was, you know, this guy is, well, he may not be back to the legs of a normal Adam Yates, but he certainly wasn't swinging off the back. And I just think it shows his class and his dedication to the team, his dedication to Pogachar. He wasn't getting off. And just class, class. Yeah, there's nothing easy about recovering from a stomach illness in the middle of this third week of the Tour de France.

So you're right. And the average person could have watched that and said, why is it even? doing that. Just get off the bike. But he knew two days later, like they're going to meet me. Even just the optics of it, right? Just even if you know that if I finish, I stay on the race, I probably won't be able to impact or help the team that much.

But the, just the optics of them losing a rider like him gives the other teams a little bit of juice. And I just think it's an incredibly professional thing he did on his part. I'm unreal. I would have got off. Maybe. Got to talk about Matt Spaters. Talk about professionals.

Holy shit, Mads Paterson? Yeah. This guy, dude, this guy is like Hall of Fame linebacker, heavyweight champ. Like, this guy fights, gets in the break, makes it over these climbs. Two days ago, he was, his finish line interview was like, he was defeated. He basically said it's going to come down to Paris.

He had another plan. This guy making the moves. Dude, it's over. He's got the green jersey locked up. Third straight day in the breakaway. Unreal. You think how much effort he's putting since the start of this race? There's not been a day that you've not seen him as part of the race somewhere along the road.

Yeah. It's quite a commitment. Those guys are key. These guys like Carapas and Patterson, they are key to the race. Without them, it would be far less interesting. We said it a week ago. These are the stories that the third week always gives us, which is great. Today's show also brought to you by Kenyon.

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The team has been, look at Spencer's Hammer. Every time I walk in, people just jamming these sparkling cans. E. Koi. Here we got the helmet on. George, you rock and E. I wear it, you wear it.

No, you do. I used to. They all great helmets. You don't ride your pocket anymore. I do, I do. Occasionally. Yeah, I do. As we saw during today's stage, it's hot out there and clear that heat management

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He's the Great White Hope for France, but we got two days to go. We're coming up against kind of a historic thing here for the country of France. Still no stage wins for the country of France. That has only happened twice in history. Yeah. 1926.99. And 1999. They do have two or three in the top ten, though, didn't they? They have two in the top five, four, fourth, fifth, and tenth. It does raise an interesting question. Would you rather have two in the top five, potentially

one on the podium or a stage win? No, that. I mean, if you can give, and we're going to, again, second half of the show, because this is, we are going to talk about tomorrow's stage. We are going to talk about, We have to talk about this fight for third place because it's tight, right? And I think that's, you know, Palcetius is in fourth. And I think some of this is France, it's growing pains because it's just like, oh, there's so much pressure. We got to win a stage. And you'd have guys that probably should have been the G.C.

dropping out of the G.C. to get a stage win where it's like, no, let's just function like a normal country. It's like maybe we don't get a stage win, but we're going to try to get a podium. And I think they are progressing, but this is a temporary growing pain they're having. Like Lenny Martinez today, in a normal tour, maybe he's going for stage wins, but he's in the top five overall. Yeah, you've also got Lenny Martinez, who's on Bahrain. There's not a French team. St. Chars is on, obviously, a French team in Ducathlon, who are very international now. But the absence of, you know, what they call now, Total energies, Confidices,

La Francese, Groups. In the past, those French-dominated teams always had riders that were. potentially try and win a state. They were factors. And they've been absent in this tour from start to finish. Group armor. I mean, there was a time when, you know,

you had Tebow Pino and the sprinter they used to have, I forget his name now. Damar. Damar. You know, and those guys challenging for stages. But, yeah, I think those, that they're struggling, those teams, that sort of base level, grassroots level of French cycling.

Could you tell me if Kofidis has been in this race or not? No. Or Frances de Jue. At least they did have Roman Gregor Bridge up to the breakways. Well, total energy. So, energy. They got a guy in top ten at least.

They're fighting for that top ten. True story. It's also just harder to get stage ones than it used to be. All right. We're going to be back in two minutes and 32 seconds. Welcome back to the move. I kind of, you know, y'all wouldn't believe what gets said in the two minutes and 32 seconds.

Let's tell them. That's why George got mad at us for, somebody even just mentioned a word that's not politically correct. Oh, he can't say that anymore. You can't say that. We didn't say it. We said that somebody else said it. True. Right? And that somebody else was Juan I used so.

If you watch the dofine, you'll know. Yeah, tough, tough day for old Juan. Interesting guy. A lot of folks think he was raised mostly here in the U.S. spent some time here, but not as much as people think because English is very good. Of course, he made the big transfer from UAE to Trek. But bad day, off day for Juan Iuso lost quite a bit time, lost a couple of places on G.C. Not the tour he wanted. And they were riding, right?

They were riding in support of that. And now his teammates, Scalmosa, who we all agree is kind of having a five-star surprise of a tour. But Juan Iuso is a guy who has so much, there was so much promise behind him. Yeah. And he's a believer of that. And like when we like we're not, when we say promise it almost doesn't do it justice, he was at UAE,

the best team in the world with the best writer, maybe of all time. And he was the management's preferred rider. Like he was untouchable. They didn't want to get rid of them. They were trying to figure out how do we fit this guy into the team with Bagotcha? They don't get along.

They won't race together. And there was considerations of like, do we keep Ayuso? Like that's how much they like this guy. And they only let him go. because a team paid them $9 million for a transfer fee. How old is that? How old is I used to know?

23. 23, you know? Still young. I mean, the problem is he's racing against, it's, you know, generational young guys as well. Well, yes, you could say that, but also he's losing to his teammate, Matea Schaelmoza. So it's not like, oh, he's only losing to the best riders. Like, he's not the best GC rider in his team at this tour. Well, he's only one place behind him.

But he's minutes back. Two minutes back, yeah. But Schelmelsa wasn't even a GC thought coming into this race. I had some homework for you as well, Spencer, for tomorrow. What's that? What is the average age of this year's top 10? And how does it compare to... All right.

Is it the youngest top 10 we've ever had? Let me write that down. Well, I think that's easier to figure out. Yeah. And that's pretty easy. We could do that while we're sitting here. I think you're overestimating the record keeping and professional cycling. That's a good point.

I have a job for you. You can... A job for you. This is great. A new database. Yeah. Easy to do. Nonetheless, a tough day for him.

Yeah. Great day for scale. Well, it's not just a bad day, though. Think of the time trial. He was terrible in the time trial. And, you know, this is the second bad day he's had in the third week. Is it's just who he is in the third week. Yeah.

And he went to the VALTA last year as a GC leader for UAE. Yeah. And he kind of was uninterested in racing for them or listening to them. It just starts to become a bad look when it's like, well, I didn't like UAE. I left. And now I'm all in. Like, you know, if you add in his salary plus his transfer fee, you could be looking at a 14, 15 million euro investment on this guy. So he's making more than LeBron next year. Yeah. And I can't imagine this is what they had in mind. I actually don't even fully understand the transfer. If I, like, I don't. They just got to think of it. Equally, equally overrated those two guys. Ouch.

Which you have taken. It's funny. It's just, huh? LeBron, I'm 4 million a year. Do you think that's a good deal or not? No. No. No.

Never. I mean, we're here talking about the tour of France. What do we possibly know about basketball? But what I do think is interesting. And maybe this was with every sport. You know, my, I grew up. Maybe you did too, George. And there, MJ is the best of all time.

As far as I'm concerned. But you get these younger kids, like my son, Max, 17. I mean, he laughs at me. This is concerning to me. He laughs. He's like, are you crazy? LeBron, he starts to all the stats. He's like, no, it's not even close.

So, like, generationally, I mean, but MJ, come on. He's never lost to finals. I think LeBron's lost more finals than Jordan won. There you go. Undefeated in the finals is pretty good. They won't have it. Anybody listening or watching and, you know, got kids at home that follow basketball, you understand.

If they're under the age of, say, 25, you've got no chance. They will swear up and down that LeBron is the goat. Why are we talking about this? This is crazy. I am curious about this average age. You take about a minute to do if you look at the things here. It's young. Yeah, right?

Very young. And who would be the oldest guy in this group of top 10? It's Carapest. Tom Pitcock? Yeah, I guess you're- Perip has the only rider over the age of 30, probably, because Tom Pickcock would be the next oldest rider at 26. You know, again, we haven't spoke about it for a couple of good week or so now as to how Seychas was going to hold up in this third week. Another strong day today.

Let's not forget. He's still, we almost forget because we're getting used to seeing him in the race now and his talent. He's still 19. And, you know, if you talk about Taday breaking the record, is Seychas was for sure, will be the fastest 19-year-old that has ever been up out to do as. That's for sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's probably one of the fastest riders of all time up to us.

We keep talking about the podium as well, and that's the expectation in France of him getting on the podium. But fourth place in this tour, if he finishes fourth, if it remains the same tomorrow, is a hell of a performance for a 19-year-old. No doubt. And, Mel, great to see Rigotelo with him there until the finish. Yeah, yeah. Really helping minimize that gap to Deltoro. So we'll see tomorrow. I mean, this is the, this is a fun story to watch tomorrow.

It's, I mean, I never thought I would find myself talking about. about the intensity or the excitement about third place in the Tour de France. But when you factor in two young riders, one incredibly young, one who's the hope of France, Paul Seychas, he's, he's, uh, am I looking at this? 20 seconds? He looks stronger in the third week than you did the first. By the way, I mean, it held a ride if a 19-year-old gets fourth in the Tour de France, but it's a different thing standing on that podium in Paris.

Like, that's worth, tonight he's going. Where do I find 20 seconds? Isaac Deltoro is obviously writing great, an incredible talent. But Paul Seychos is like, I have to find 20 seconds. I have to be on that step. Yeah, that's going to be a tough one. Up until now, every mountaintop finish, Deltor has been slightly stronger than him, just by a few seconds.

Yeah. But Spencer brought up a good point. I mean, he's got a nice buffer, which is over two minutes to fifth place. So he has enough buffer where he can be a little bit. he can gamble a little bit. And I would encourage him to gamble. Like, don't gamble so much that you... By the way, I guess having said this,

I mean, if you're going to get fourth, you may as well get fifth. As far as I'm concerned, well, it doesn't matter what I think. But if you're going to get four... He's not going to want to be the second Frenchman. He's going to want to be the first Frenchman. True, true. I mean, if it's 20 seconds, let's say they finish on the same time tomorrow.

It could go down to Paris. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be thrilling. Good do. Unless they stop the time. I hope they don't. And a shout out to Remko today as well.

I thought you had a great ride. We didn't. Yeah. He slowly answered all his critics over these three weeks. We don't know who they are. I mean, and Red Bull, they rode most of the day as well, combined with, of course, one or two guys from UAE and Remko, great ride. I'm pleased for him.

Yeah. He's kind of entered a new, yeah, third at the tour. Now he's probably going to get second. Yeah. And you'd say how, the question I walk around with my head all day every day. who are the best GC riders below Pagachar? And he's probably starting to enter that conversation. He's lived up to the price tag.

That's funny you say that, Spencer. He's at the beginning of the tour. He said he couldn't climb. Well, now he can climb. He could not climb. And now he can't climb. By the way, it's between Del Toro and Seychos on the classification. It's actually we were looking at yesterday's GC.

It's 24 seconds. And the difference between him and Martinez from fourth and fifth is three minutes. A little more wiggle room there. There, you got to go for it somehow, some way. Yeah. Do we mention there's a one-point difference in the KOM jersey? No. Between the Pogature and Carri-Kajara and Carri-Kla.

It's going to influence the race tomorrow for sure. Yeah. Well, we know who the best climber is in the race. And he doesn't have... It's Lenny Martinez. He doesn't have the polka-Dade jersey. But let's look at tomorrow stage. Hyper-ice is presenting the next stage preview.

This is a hell of a stage. Hyper-ice. Everybody knows the brand. Everybody, I'm a huge fan of the brand. the Norma Tech elite legs. It's funny, I have old images of me wearing the very first versions of NormaTech back 15 years ago, since we're like dinosaurs, still have them to this day. You get 15% off all Hyper Ice products now with the code,

The Move 15 at hyperice.com slash discount slash the move 15. Now, I, let's pull up, pull up this graphic. This is what we've been waiting for. This is not a tropical delusion. This is the day before Paris. This is hitting a peloton that is completely devastated and fatigued. This is 18,000. I'm going to say it again.

18,000 vertical feet of climbing on the day before Paris. That's with the race site. And it's only like 106 miles. Yeah, it's a relatively short stage. Yeah. And we know we know these climbs, like the back of our hands. Yeah. Yeah.

Quintessential Alp stage and these climbs is just relentless. This is what we should be doing, actually. Yeah. This is Quadifere, telegraph, glibier, you know, the sort of hybrid version of Alp de Wes. But this, leading up to that, this is what you see images of when you're growing up. Look at the height of the glibia. That's basically where Bradley and I are sleeping.

Yeah. That's true. But they start from this valley. is not that high above sea level. Like, that's a huge, it's crazy ascent. And then should this stage misplace, should they have just done this stage nine? Yeah. But this goes back to the design of this route.

I said it three weeks ago. I think I was proven right, honestly. I think this is a very strange tour. This particular stage, I would have loved to have seen this a week ago. And I also go to sleep at night. Maybe not, but I think about just going back to a classic tour. What happens? You know, it's interesting.

They design these, whether Taday Pogachar wants to think about this or not or anybody else wants to think about it. They designed these routes to defend against him. They did that to defend against me. That never works. The best guy is always going to win. But I kind of crossed my fingers and hope, but let's go back to a traditional tour, like a 20-year-old tour, 30-year-old tour. year old tour, long time trials. Pyrenees one weekend, Alps the next weekend,

like a bunch of stages for field sprinters. Let these guys have 10 opportunities to win field sprints. What do we think is going to happen tomorrow? Great question. Because we haven't been this high in the Tour de France this year, have we? No. This kind of altitude, which, you know, again, racing as hard as they have been at those altitudes, you know, it's very unpredictable.

And particularly on the Galibia. I mean, that last three, 400 meters of elevation, guys are cracking and, you know, guys are coming to the fall that we haven't seen before because they're better at altitude. It's going to be an interesting stage tomorrow. Well, I think it's interesting for the folks at home because if you watch the race on TV, you see these huge mountains. And here the guys are, but the high mountain. The altitude must be terrible. You know, we're sitting here in Aspen as 8,000 feet. As we sit today, we can go up to 12-4 if you went over Independence Pass.

you can go up to Ashcroft and be it up over 10, that's real elevation. If you look at the profile, yes, they're going to spend some time up there, and yes, they're going to feel it. But most of it is, you know, not sea level, but just above sea level. So most of that time is spent at lower elevations. But to your point, what is definitely going to happen tomorrow is Richard Carepass is going on the attack again. Because I also do think, to your point, Bradley, there's a guy who grew up at an incredibly high elevation. Still lives there. Still, I mean, this is nothing to him.

And he did it yesterday. He did it again today. He is going to do it again tomorrow. And he's on a roll. But Pontre said after the finish that he sat up, is to save for tomorrow's stage. And he's so far been beating him in every sprint in the early climbs. So it's still tight as the race isn't over.

And I think it's going to be a small selective group at the top of this mountain, first mountain going for the K-O-M sprints. They'll probably stay away. But really, ultimately, like we've seen, this whole tour to France. It all depends on what Pocotrath wants to do at the end of the race. Yeah. I tend to think not a G.C. day because UAE has no team left.

Yeah. The team is on their knees. But they're going to get help. Yeah. I mean, you can see a Matthew Rickettella riding, doing something perhaps aggressively for Seshaw to finish on the podium. You could see. Yeah.

You can see a couple guys in the top, like lower half of the top 10, sneaking into the breakaway like we saw today, takes the pressure. of UAE, which then in turn give Petate a chance to win another stage. Here's where it gets really weird. So three HC climbs. When you get over the last one, the coldest to serran,

there's two more climbs. It's like rolling. There's two more climbs left that are around 1K to 4K each. That's going to be hard to control. Yeah. So you could see like a GC group with Carapaz go over. Like if yesterday is repeated tomorrow, or sorry, today is repeated

tomorrow, it could be hard for Bagachar to because you can have to nail everybody back on these attacks after the final big climb. I don't really know how it's going to play out. The thing to keep in mind to and keep the profile up, the climb, it really looks like one climb in the middle with the telegraph and the glibria. You guys know this. You've done it dozens of times. There are two separate climbs, right? Telegraph is a category one. Glibe is a horse category. There is a small downhill in the middle. By the way, you don't even feel the downhill. That is one climb. they may as well just have it categorized as one climb it feels like one climb and if you total it up it's 35 kilometers

of climbing right from the 80s I mean it's 3k of a of a downhill these guys do that in less than three minutes probably two and a half minutes that's not a I mean there's no recovery there this is one long climb it's a beast if fagotra let's say he had a disaster a few days ago a breakway went away he was 10 minutes down how much much time do you think he could make up on the others on this stage if he had to go all out from the beginning well we saw him take out three minutes on some of the best climbers in the world today's two and a half two or two and a half on rimcoe so there's yeah he's going he can go solo on the glibia and nobody will see him again or before he'd go on the telegraph and we've seen him do

that this is like the world's european janupt like he's done that before if he wants to do it he can do it he's not going to have to do that yeah do you think he's going to go for the stage win No. I don't think so either. No. Bradley? I just, I mean, I'm hoping. I don't know. I mean, this tour is very difficult to predict, isn't it?

But it'll be interesting. It'll be nice if it lived up to the expectation again tomorrow that this is going to be a decisive stage, which is what they've planned the route to be. But it's not going to challenge Taday, is it? It's just whether he's going to want to win the stage or not. But the problem with these kind of things, you can't see a break getting as much time as they have.

been getting because on here it's more climbing because they can't climb that much faster than the no no yeah yeah I mean stage the queen stage because if let's say Martinez or let's say Carapaz goes up the road teams will want to peg him back because now he's becoming a danger in the GC so that does set up a Taday win potentially hmm uh running out of time to give us a call What have we got, Jayes? Two more days. Two more days to call. Are we taking calls on the last day?

Yeah, we have to. Okay, we have to. Well, you got two more days to give us a call. Live calls. I'm down. And I would love to have live calls. Imagine the shade that could come in. Yeah, that could get it wrong.

9707-182736 goes right to Liz Cruz's phone. She picks up most of the time. when she's not out riding around on that scovy-ass scooter of hers. Did you see her taking hot laps in the West End yesterday? Call her number one. Hey, Lance, I'm Carol from Orlando, Florida. I'm 78 years old, and I love your show. Given the growing popularity of gravel racing,

should a gravel mountain stage be added to the tour? Thanks. Carol, it's... That's cool. Carol 78 in Orlando. Damn. We're reaching the people, dog. There has been, you know, look, I mean,

there's a lot of ways to think about this. I mean, I actually do think that events like the tour should acknowledge the industry. The industry is a big funder of this sport, the teams, the athletes. And for the industry, gravel is the shiny new thing. If you think about the bicycle, industry, certainly here in the United States, you've got the rise of gravel, you've got the

rise of e-bikes. I mean, you could almost make the argument, why wouldn't we do a day where people have to manage battery life? Come on. Now we're pushing here. There's like carbon monoxide poisoning in the studio. Well, according to 60 minutes, you had to manage battery life in 1999, right? That's right. And that little tick that I had where I always grabbed my shammie, that was the on-off switch. the dirty little secret, literally, is that I was always trying to line up my ass and my shami and my seat. Because if they were not lined up, it just didn't feel right.

I digress. So why were they always coming out of line, though? That was like a Nadal tick, I think, because you did always do that. Anyhow, Carol, it was a couple years ago we had a gravel, some gravel stages. You can have a flat gravel stage. There are some of the summit finishes, some of the high mountains that had some stuff. on gravel. I was sort of surprised. They were not viewed positively by the teams and by the riders and by a lot of folks. And so you really haven't seen it in a couple of years. I've always

speculated that the perfect bike for Perry Rubet is a gravel bike. George always laughs at me. Having said that, he's done 10 plus rubets. I have done zero. 17 rubies. Like I said, well, that's 17's more than 10, but I always thought a gravel bike was perfect for Rubet. It's a good question They gave it a run It was not viewed The guys didn't like it Well back in the day

Most of these roads Particularly the ones They're climbing tomorrow The Quad Fair There's pictures of copy Coming over the Quad Fair And it's dirt It's not quite gravel

But it's dirt Before they were all tarmacx Of course But I've never been a fan Of the gravel stages Per se I just think it's

It's too much of a change I mean The cobbled stage Is great in the tour I think they're brilliant because Parry-Rube is a big part of cycling, which we haven't had for a few years. We had two years ago, didn't we?

At a cobble stage. But no, not the gravel for me. I agree. I mean, the tour is hard enough as is. It's dangerous enough as is. Like, why add to it? I'm always surprised. It's definitely a European-American split.

I always think it's kind of cool. And then you remember Tate's first tour when 2020, they had a gravel. It was like, they went over a climb. It was two kilometers long, wasn't it? Yeah, but like, and I remember Richie Port had a flat, didn't he? Yeah, and I think Roglitch had a problem.

it would kind of be a shame. It feels kind of random. You're like, well, what if Taday flats and loses the race because there's a gravel section? But I don't know. I kind of like it, but you're right, Bradley, that everyone in the race and around cycling in general hates them. So I don't think they'll be coming back.

Can we go back to the e-bike thing for just, just humor me for just a second? You've lost interest. You're not even, you're thinking about leg day. I know you are. No, no, no, no. I had to manage battery life. You know, you've got, let's just, Tom Pickock did win the World Championship.

He did. He did. You know what? Let's want to talk about it then. It's the best at managing battery life. That would be kind of, the stakes would be high. Can you imagine running out of battery the last? Then you're riding a heavy bike.

Yeah. Are you getting paid from ASO? What's going on here? Like the EGiro has gotten in touch with you. Now you're going to be an ambassador for them. He was messaging Terry Guvino. I said to Terry. Terry Guvino is what the head of competition for

So he's also the guy that jumped out of a car right in front of Richard Carapass at the end of a mountain stage today and nearly took him out. Believe it or not, that same guy actually raced it in the Tour de France. Of course, he was never at the front of any fields to have to consider things like that. I don't know who picks the route. He once finished a couple of spots behind Georgia Perry Bay. 2001, he was seventh. Wow. Oh, jeez.

You would, you would remember that? Why would you remember that? I don't even remember it in 2001 in Perry Bay. You do? If that was the one you punched in Aronberg. Yeah. Oh, okay.

That's 2001. Don't panic. Don't panic. Yeah, Service Canavan went away in the final. Yeah. They had three domo, Van Steens, Mousseau. And, uh, yeah. Roman Vansteens.

I got fourth. You come a ton. Yep. Hmm. All right. Caller number two. Hi, gentlemen. This is Janice calling from Butler.

Pennsylvania. What do you do with all the LCL stuffed lion mascots that you receive after each yellow jersey stage win? You have to have a bunch of them at this point. My husband and I, Marty, love the show. Bye now. Janice, thank you. Bradley, go ahead. I hope, I want you to go first, because I hope you have a better answer than I do. Well, traditionally, I think, I don't know if it's always been the tradition, but certainly in recent years, it's... it brings kudos to each team by putting them in the front of the bus, you know, and the windscreen.

Yeah. And it's a way of teams rocking up the start going, we've done something in this race, you know, look at our lion, you know, and obviously someone like Taday will have a lot. So you kind of run out of space for doing that.

But I made sure I kept all mine together. But then, of course, teammates who have children, you'd give, you know, give Michael Rogers, he had a couple of daughters, give him a couple for them. And you eventually start losing my, I kept about three or four of mine. Yeah.

Yeah. And do they still do the daily small lion giveaway for the team for team GC? So we would have had a lot of the small ones. I would have had a lot of the big ones. There's one here. Can you? Am I, I'm covering him up every day, Janice. Look.

Wait. Ah, you see him back there. I should move it. I think I'm down to two. You know, it's interesting. When you're there in the moment, you just don't think about these things. You don't think about, and now as we sit here, as I sit here at 55 and Bradley, a few years younger. Quite a few years younger.

Quite a few years younger. I mean, you look back on that stuff, right? Wow, how did I not just keep it all? Yeah. And, you know, you get these little medals, at least in our generation, you got these cool glass medals for stage winds that had the town etched on, the stage etched on. there. And when you're there and you're in it, you're like, who gives this shit? Yeah. Like, what am I? It's just another thing I got to carry in this suitcase tonight. Oh, my God. And then, you know, you're on a team with a bunch of, a bunch of staff, a bunch of

people, buses and trucks with equipment. And, you know, these are your people, but it's shocking stuff goes missing, right, over the years. And so you get 30 years down the road and you're left with two. But having said that, the one thing I will say that never leaves, right? You can hand off lions to teammates' kids, and you can not want to carry the medal for the stage win. But the one thing that never leaves is your memories. And so, thank God, because I know I got a lot of them.

And I know you folks out there listening and watching have a lot of them. And you're going to have memories of this performance today of Taday Pogo Char. you're going to have, you would have had memories of mine, of Bradley's, of George's, and those stay. Those stay forever. And so that's great. How about that? Love it.

It's an amazing. I love the lion. We're not hitting the show because we're going to do Ventum Trivia. Oh, that's right. Ventim Trivia. What was Terry good? But I love the lions. The full cycling.

I love the lions. Great question. Well, and if you don't, and the lions are a thing, not because it's the tour, it's because of the title sponsor. Credit Leonese has been the title sponsor for so many years. I mean, you can imagine a world where they say we've fulfilled our initiatives, our goals, and we're going to move on to F1 or whatever. And then MasterCard comes in, right?

And then the line, I don't know, but the line is no more, right? But it's been the thing, and Credit Leonese has been such an integral part of this tour for so long that it's... You know, it makes it to the call in line. The tour is amazing at holding on its sponsors and making them a fabric of the race. Like growing up as a kid in the middle of nowhere, I loved scotas because of the tour sponsorship. And it's all I wanted to have was a SCOTA. And I think it's a shame when some races lose that.

Yeah. Like the VWalter about 15 years ago lost, well, had a new sponsor and they wanted a red leader's jersey. And it always used to be to Amarillo. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and the only problem with SCOTA is now, and we have taken, um, exception to the fact that it's not, it's kind of a, I don't know. What is it? Dark green jersey.

Yeah. Bring back. Let's make it green, bright green. Real green. I'll talk to SCOT about it. Talk to them. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Get taken care of. Getting down to the end, kids. Uh, Ventum trivia. Enter to win over at ventum raising.com slash the move. $5,000 bucks credit towards the ventum bike of your choice. Yesterday's question. The finish at Orsia Merlette is legendary for a 1971 stage where a Spaniard crushed Eddie Merckes, taking around eight minutes out of him.

Who was that? Answer. Luiso Cagna. The beast. Yeah. Eight minutes out of Eddie Merckx? That's crazy. At dinner that night?

Yeah. What's up? Then Eddie cursed him. Hmm. Happens. Today's question. Stage 20 crosses. The cold of Galibier, which earns what distinction in the 2026 race?

Stage 20 crosses the Galibia, which earns what distinction in the 2026 race. By the way, we alluded to it when we looked at the stage preview. Answer and enter to win at Ventimracing.com slash the move. The better question would be, when does the glibia, when is it included and it does not earn this distinction? It's hard to think of climbs that, yeah, would. superseded. And not a climb that that has, I mean, it's just a climb. Those ones that do, do do what the trivia question says that it does. Yes. Yeah. The glibier is a, is a top five. It's a monument right in the country of France. When you think of what kind of, because you go up and then

there's a tunnel, right, with these big doors and it kind of separates Italy from France and you're like entering the Alps when you go through them. Of course the race goes above that. By the way, does it though? Do they go? Yeah, I don't remember that. I think we go to the tunnel. They go to the tunnel. No, they go over the tunnel, which is the highest point.

Because at times we would go to the tunnel. Depending on the weather. Yeah, and I was always like, thank God we're going to this. Thank God they made this tunnel. I'm sick of climbing. I think they go over it tomorrow. Yeah, they go over the tunnel. Yeah.

It adds an extra three of 300 meters of altitude on there. Which feels like a lot. Yeah. And the descent they go down tomorrow is actually the scariest side. Yes. It is a sketchy descent. Yeah. Well, it's just, if you, there's no guardrails.

No guardrails. Last time they did it, had I attacked off. Yes. Yeah. Spencer, we need you. This is going to take you 60 seconds. But for tomorrow's show, let's average. Let's get an average age of the top 10 on G.C. It'll be like the last 10 years.

It's shockingly no low number. Yeah. Okay. So, all right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. We will see tomorrow for the Queen's Stage, Stage 20. Have your date.