THEMOVE - Protests Overshadow a Massive Comeback Win | Vuelta a España Stage 16 Analysis & Stage 17 Preview | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down a chaotic Vuelta stage that was shortened due to protests, overshadowing Egan Bernal’s huge comeback victory and limiting action in the GC group, where João Almeida was left isolated from his UAE teammates and Jonas Vingegaard was forced to swap onto a teammate’s bike. They discuss the key takeaways and whether the race should continue if organizers can’t ensure safe conditions. Before wrapping up, they preview tomorrow’s summit finish, outlining how they expect it to unfold and who offers the best betting value. Cook Unity: Crush your health goals with mouthwatering, chef-crafted meals delivered straight to your door. Go to https://cookunity.com/THEMOVE or enter code THEMOVE before checkout for 50% off your first week That’s 50% off your first week by using code THEMOVE or going to https://cookunity.com/THEMOVE Use our special link to see where you can bet in your area and claim the best sign-up offers https://nxtbets.com/betoutcomes/

Listen, obviously it's great for Igam Bernal to win the stage, right? After all the trouble this guy has had in the last years after his horrible accident, to win a stage, of course, it's not the same feeling. You know, there's no victory salute. He doesn't cross the finish line first where all the people are. There's no podium. But it's a win. Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus.

I'm Smith-Marie. Martin. I'm here with Johann Bernille. We are breaking down stage 16 of the Volta of Spagna. And then we will predict and preview stage 17. I'll give a quick background on what happened during the stage. Then we'll get Johann's thoughts on what he thought of it. There was a breakaway. It went clear. We didn't see it. Unfortunately, I'm sure it was exciting. As it happened, the big cliff notes are it had Eganbernaal, Mike Mika Landa, and Mark Saler from UAE, UAE, up there again in the breakaway. I've ceased to be amazed and confused by this. I'm just going with it. And up front, the move is breaking up.

Eventually, Mika, Landa, and Igor Bernal get clear with two FDJ riders plus Nico Denz, who was stood out in that group because he was by far the heaviest and the most powerful and the fastest. And this was relevant because there was so many protesters in the final climb, they moved to finish from the top to the bottom. So if Denz made it to the line, he could have won, but they hit a super steep that the second to last climb we talked about in yesterday's preview, not very long, like two and a half kilometers, but they were hitting grades of 17%. Bernal and Landa go clear with one of the FDJ riders

who unfortunately flats, and then Bernal and Landa kind of awkwardly sprinted out with the 8K to go banner. It looked like they weren't quite sure that was the finish, but Bernal gets his first World Tour win since 2021 at the Girode Italia, also on stage 16. kind of a funny coincidence back in the gc group the the most notable thing i thought that happened is they hit the second to last climb rain goes to the front did not see that one coming

torsten train putting his team on there they do drop a few gc guys like felix skull so ended up being worth it they also dropped the entire ua team so jala made a completely isolated um jvine who we were talking about being in the breakaway the day before the rest day pushing on trying to win that stage look like he paid for it he's dropped and then mark saler has to come back from the breakaway to support almeda he does so in kind of an awkward way and he gets caught on the final climb and then doesn't really do any work and gets dropped from the front group i probably would have had him catch them at the top of the climb so he could support him over the top yonis fendigard has a problem with his bike flat or mechanical he just takes one from a teammate just like the tour de france last

year, Ben Toulot with an incredibly smooth dismount and then pushing of Vindigard. And apparently Vindigard didn't tell his team because Mateo Jorgensen stays on the front, setting pace. But he gets back in pretty well and then rides that bike to the finish line. We've seen him do that again where he just doesn't seem to care about riding someone else's bike and is able to do it well enough that it's not a problem. And then the G.C. group rolls into the finish line. the only the I guess the the the abbreviated finish line

Felix Scull loses time and I was there any like junior was there another yeah junior junior serf junior junior officer and last time yeah yeah but kind of a I guess a little bit of a wet blanket of a finish you on with the protest we'll talk about I mean we mentioned it yesterday that we thought this would be an issue in the final week and it has proven to be an issue but what was your takeaway of the day. Yeah, obviously, Spencer, the fact that the stage couldn't go all the way to the finish, you know, this was an uphill finish, a decent climb. We didn't get to see that. About three kilometers before the finish, more or less, there was, there were, the protesters were,

I mean, there was a lot, a lot, a lot. It was basically impossible for the organization and even the extra police to keep it under control. So I think they made a very wise decision. Um, but, um, to, to have the finish at the bottom. Uh, I was first, first I was thinking, well, maybe they're going to take the times and again, no stage winner that would be this, this time that they did it differently. Um, listen, obviously it's great for Igam Bernal to, to win the stage, right? After all the trouble this guy has had, uh, in the last years after his horrible accident, um, to win a stage, of course, it's not the same feeling. Um, you know, there's no,

Victory salute. He doesn't cross the finish line first where all the people are. There's no podium. But it's a win. I mean, somebody had to win and Nagambernal won it. So, I mean, I'm really happy for him to, you know, to have him win again after maybe a bit of a disappointing Vuelta in terms of G.C. Also great to see Mikalanda there again. You know, he also comes back from, I mean, this guy comes back from really, really far. I mean, we all remember his horrible crash on stage one of the Giro, broke his back or his neck. I don't remember what it was. It was very, very serious.

And, you know, to be back now and in contention for a stage win, that's also really good. But, you know, I mean, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the break and the fact that UAE had a guy in there. And again, Mark Soler. I don't know what I have to think, Spencer. You know, I mean, something tells me that Mark Seleer was not in that break with the intention to be up front and have to and then come back. He was in there for the stage win, which I think, I mean, obviously first you have to be in it and then you can make a decision, right? what's happening was a big group again but yeah i mean um he didn't need to be in there uh they

don't need another stage win what they need to focus on now is how to how to put the pressure on on yonas and on vizma and on top of that this morning victor campanards didn't start because he's sick so they're down to six riders because they already lost axel zingle in week one and after a few days already. So they're down to six riders, right? So I would have tried to have the majority with Almeida over over that second last climb. Anyways, then afterwards, you know, it all got canceled because the stage didn't go through to the finish. But man, I mean, Soler was in the front today. He wrote okay, you know, he missed that five-man break. Then he tried to bridge up, didn't make it, but then I'm looking at the group of the favorites on

the second to last climb, which was really hard. And I think, if I remember correctly, I think it was Bahrain setting the pace with three or four riders for Thorsten train to keep off junior reserve, I guess, because I guess their goal is top 10. And the surf was in ninth, I think, and train was intent. So they set the tempo. So you would have to think it's a fast tempo, but it's not the best riders who are setting the tempo.

It's not super fast. And what do I see? This Jow Almeida is isolated. Felix Groschartner was getting dropped. I mean, he would have made it back, but he was getting dropped. And Noah used to be seen. And I said, where's J. Vine?

Where is J. Vine? You know, Jay Vine is a guy he has to be there with, if he must have four riders, Bahrain has three or four riders. I mean, that's a bit surprising to me. And so I'm still, I still don't know what's going on. Why do they let these guys, why do they keep them letting go in the breakaways? Why would you go after the pocket of Jersey for Jay? Vine, if you're UAE, okay, for Jay Vine, it's fine. It's okay. But it cannot be at the expense of

team goal. And it has happened a few times now that the guys who need to be with Almeida in the crucial moments of a certain stage are not there. So that's, that was interesting. That was interesting to see. Yeah, to me this was the worst one. I mean, we talked about it yesterday. I don't understand Jay Vine. Okay, he's gone for K-O-M, he gets the K-1 points. And then on Sunday, he just keeps pushing for a long time. It spends a lot of energy, a lot. And then is absent from his job.

It's like he went out partying, okay, great, but are you going to show up to work? No, he overslept, missed the alarm, and show up to work. Like, now the drinking is a problem. Like, the breakaways have become a problem. They're affecting the life of UAE. And they're in it again. I just, I, how does this? keep happening, Johann? Is it like, are they, who's deciding this? Is this the riders deciding this

or management? Well, I mean, I think there's, there's different things. First of all, there's the decisions that are made before the stage. And, and in my opinion, in my opinion, it needs to be, listen, from now on, nobody goes in the break. We stay with our leader and we're there with him. And whenever, I mean, one thing could be, okay, let's have one rider up front. And if Fismah is having trouble, we have already a guy up front who maybe, but Soler should always be in the group whenever, let's say, Tulette is there. Yeah. Maybe not. I mean, Tulette has been riding really well. But, um, so. I mean, Mark Saler is a perianist winner. He, yeah. Yeah, 2.11 a new winner.

Yeah, and you'd think he could be there with Toulat. Well, yeah, I mean, okay, maybe he can, maybe he cannot. So if the intention was that Solaire had to be up front in order to drop back, then I said, okay, good, I can, I buy that. But that was not the case. I mean, he was going for the stage win. Once these five guys were gone and he missed that, that move. He was like the one well.

it back together. Really fast. Like really, really young. There was one un-categorized clam which was really, really hard. He dropped everybody except,

what's his name, the guy from, Finley? Yeah, Finley Pickering. Finley Pickering, yeah. That was the only guy who could stay with him. So he was going really, really hard.

So he was, at that moment, he was not thinking about waiting. And then finally they had to call him back because it was getting too tricky for Joe Almeida. Okay, so the question is, okay, at least he could drop back. Maybe if he would have stayed with the group, he would have been there.

But I think it's just an accumulation of the amount of efforts they did and the amount of energy they have spent already going in these long breaks that now at the end, hey, you know, it's the last week or the last few days of a grand tour. I mean, you just have to hang on, hold on to whatever you have, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I find it confounding. We'll talk about tomorrow in a little bit.

If they're in the breakaway tomorrow, like, what are we doing here, guys? Well, Spencer, they might be, you know, it might be part of a plan. I don't know. I'd like to figure out what the plan is. Well, I mean, I'm joking. This isn't what they were thinking. you. But I hate to say this, Johan, is the GC done in this race? I just don't see, I mean, I think we should say up top, I think that the Volta and UCI need to provide safe racing conditions.

Like, it's incumbent upon them to provide a safe course. I think we can all agree on that. I don't really know what they do in this situation. Like if the protest, especially on these small climbs, these narrow climbs, and that's where the race is finishing. If they want to get on the course, there's not really a lot you can do to stop it it seems like they're picking up steam i like are we going to see another successful uphill finish at this race yeah well yeah i mean as we as we said there was there was talks about not having stage in madrid today i when i listened to the tour of spain director uh javier guillen he he said that they're going to madrid um it's not going to only depend on him right but but yeah i mean tomorrow is another uphill finish

same kind of areas same kind of roads like like today i mean if they couldn't control it today what is going to stop the same people from doing the same tomorrow i mean they they were successful today yeah right so i mean think they were successful back in bill bow and then it's like today's another They have to be seen that as a win. And I just imagine that that gives them more power to keep doing it. Yeah. Yeah, I'm afraid we may see a few more of these modified stages. Obviously, you know, it's, I mean, it's a shame for the VALTA.

It's for the riders. You know, they all want to raise their bikes. And it's definitely, if you see the situation today, you know, they sprint. until the bottom of the climb and then it's chaos you know nobody there of course all the buses were on top yeah right there there was nobody there everybody i mean there was not even enough vehicles to transport the riders because it's it's two vehicles per team that are in the race and all the other vehicles are on top they couldn't make it down i mean it's a total mess I mean, here's a provocative, I'm also worried about the time trial.

You talk about wanting to disrupt something. There's nothing easier to disrupt than a time trial. Yeah. There's sitting ducks out there. Should the race be called off? Like, if they can't provide a safe course, should they just cancel it? I mean, it's an option. It's an option.

It's not safe. I mean, look, I mean, Chavi Romo today had to abandon. Yeah. After his craft from two days ago. He tried yesterday, but, you know, he was, he was hurt too much and he had to abandon. You know, one thing is the protests and then another thing is, you know, the, you know, the insecurity and crashes, you know, it's obviously a different, a different subject. But if the security of the riders is in danger and you can't guarantee it, there's not that many options, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, what are they doing?

The vault is different because a lot of these stages don't finish in towns. But I imagine they have contracts with these starting towns and finished towns. And like, do they have to keep going to collect the money that those towns have paid? I mean, yeah. Yes. But, you know, it's not the same. I mean, yes. I mean, the answer is yes.

The towns, the start places and the finish places they pay. But, you know, this is ASO. ASO has a lot of money. True. And a lot of these are like very rural areas that. Yeah. And it's nothing compared to the money that's in the game for like the tour. You know, this is completely different.

So you, Madrid might pay them not to come. I'll pay them not to do the final stage so they don't have to disrupt everything. But I'm in a pretty, I don't know, pretty negative, just setting everything else aside. It's like, I don't think we're going to see GC race. It just puts a damper on the race. When you're like, well, I don't know, what would have happened today? We have no idea and we'll never find out if Jonas could have dropped.

I was quite excited to see that final climb. And then it didn't happen. I think what's going to happen is there's going to be more and more police coming to the race. but there was already a lot of police today and they still they can't keep it under control I mean I'm just thinking that this is going to this movement is going to get bigger and bigger and more and more people are going to join yeah yeah and like I yeah like I share an office with my wife and like she works in international relations and like the moment that the bill ball stage happened like she was hearing about it on call she was on so like if

this is now bigger than cycling it makes me worry a little bit that yeah it's the race is going to get like put through the shredder a bit um anything else on today's stage we should shout out nico dense guy guy almost nearly wins a mountain stage yeah impressive yeah he was the fact that he was there with these other four riders was already impressive um and yeah i mean it's like you say if he makes it over that climate there was no way he could make it over that climb spencer it was It was so steep. A protest, you should have stopped it there. Yeah.

Yeah. The riders were zigzagging over the road. There was 17, 18%. So it was a lot harder than the last climb, actually, that second, the last time. We should also say that the FDJ rider, Briak, Rolande. This is the second time, I believe he's coming. He got third back on stage 12. if you were all behind Romo and I used to have super impressive ride from this guy.

He's 22 years old. So I felt like we glossed over him. Wanted to call him out. Yeah. Is it his first year pro? If he's 22, it must be close to his first year pro. He was, yes, it is. He was on the Continental team last year.

It's pretty impressive. That is pretty impressive. But just keep the media away from this man. Yeah. And also there's this other rider who I did not know. this on on fdg on the groupama brass alfonso um was already in a move also and and today he was actually with egan bernal and michelanda until he had a puncture um also really a name to uh to remember and to follow yeah i mean it's i guess it's in theory possible that he wins the stage if he doesn't

it just shows you i mean they've they're going through a hard time groupama f tj a lot of talent it though that they get they still pick up it's pretty impressive yeah yeah i guess i guess they're their development program is pretty good i'm going to guess this guy also comes to a development program like this guy's 25 already i think braz alfonso yeah he is 25 and then it's his first year but he was on a continental team last year so it's his first year is like i guess like a pro pro Pro writer. Yeah. It must be a story there.

I don't fully... Which theme was he on? Nice. God does you? Nantes. Atlantique. Oh. Hmm.

Yeah. Hmm. I should get this guy on the show. Yeah. That is impressive. Anything else on today's stage before we move on? No, I don't think so. That's about it.

All right. Well, let's take a quick break, and then we will preview stage 17. Today's episode is brought to you by Cook Unity. During the Volta, I am quite busy watching the race podcasting, putting out my newsletter about the race, long days, late nights, barely enough time to eat healthy, and that normally means I end up sacrificing health in terms for convenience, which is not good for my long-term viability as a person.

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So that would be another thing I would be worried about. But the app is very easy to navigate. fuel your day with the freshest, best-tasting meal delivery made by award-winning chefs. Go to cookunity.com slash the move-free or enter code the move-free before checkout for free for free premium meals for life. That's an incredible deal. Free premium meals for life does not get better than that using code the move-free or cookunity.com slash the move-free. All right, Johan, stage, tomorrow. another mountain stage another uh i'm not racing it but just from the profile looks mild i would

say i know people might if we actually rode the course would say well that was quite hard but not a lot of damage will be done to the peloton probably there's a sprint point with bonification seconds about 100 kilometers into the stage the whole stage is 144 kilometers and then it finishes with a really really tough final climb 9k long 10% average it looks like the the final 5K is 11% average. So this will be an incredibly tough stage. All list off the favorites. And then we'll get your take on who is going to win.

Jonas Vindigard is the favorite at plus 185. This is on Fandwell in the U.S. You might see slightly different prices elsewhere. J. Veyta plus 280. J. Vine plus 1100. Waini Uso plus 1,300. Jai Hinley plus 1,400.

Ton Pickcock plus 2,700. San Diego Butrago plus 2,700, Coupos plus 3,000, goes on and on and on. We'll call them out if we need to. And if you do want to bet, check out nxtdbets.com slash bet outcomes. It will show you the best price wherever you live and where to bet where you live and the best sign-up bonuses for each book. But Johan, how does this play out and who do you think is going to win? Yeah, well, you say mild, Spencer. 143 kilometers and there's 3,250 meters of.

vertical. So that's not nothing. And the last climb, I mean, I think I have a different profile here. It's here it says it's 8.8 kilometers at 9.5%. The last three kilometers seem a bit easier. So you know, maybe I misread that. It's the first five kilometers. It's 11%. Yes. The first five kilometers, yes. The first five kilometers are very, very hard. The last three or The last 3.8 are a bit, I mean, a bit better. I mean, it's 8.6. And then six and a half, seven, seven and seven and a half. So, still, still very steep.

But because of the fact that the, the easier part of the climb is at the end, I'm going to pick Jiao Almeida to win in a sprint against, against Jonas and other favorites. he's plus 300 and also i think tomorrow he has to win if he still wants yeah he still has a chance he needs to start getting time back and um and so tomorrow could be one of one of those days jow almeida plus 300 for the win i mean yeah at some point you we has to circle the wagons target a stage right of the front almeda wins and takes time back it is a good climb for almeda because it's so steep he keep like the young meta the thing you don't want to see is like him

starting to yo yo off the back but when it's that steep he won't yo yo because it's just so slow and hard and everyone's going as hard as they can it's really good for him and then he can maybe win the sprint at the end i'm going to go though yonis vindigard plus 200 because i could see vindigard attacking at the bottom of this climb getting clear and then holding them off i mean he doesn't really have to but he kind like I just can't imagine he wants to go into this TT with a 48 second lead. That would not, I don't think that's ultra comfortable. So I think he will try to extend his lead tomorrow if he truly is the strongest

rider in this race. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, listen, it's it's logical that these two riders are the big favorites. You know, looking at the state, Spencer, I think a breakaway has very little chance. I actually think that UAE will control this stage. They kind of have to control it and make sure that it's all together or that at the bottom of the last climb, they're in it for the win. And so my second pick is going to be another guy from G.C.

If it's not Jonas or Jow Almeida, it has to be Jay Hintley. I think he's the third strongest climber. In this race at this moment, I think that, you know, Pitcock was up there a few stages ago, but I think Jay Hindley has kind of made up that deficit in terms of form right now. And on a climb like tomorrow, I could see Jay Hindley also having a chance to win. He's plus 1,400. So that's interesting. That's actually pretty smart because he's under almost the most pressure to attack if he wants third.

like he needs to pull he doesn't know how many the problem is it's like you're you're flying blind here like how many chances are you going to have like this might be the last summit finish like well then the question the question is spencer are we going to have a month of finish tomorrow you know that's well that's the condition i mean that's the conditional you know we don't know that's where i'm zagging here for my wild card i'm going finlay finlay pickering plus 12,500 just in the case i think you're right i think it's too hard for a break to stay away on the on the climb but but if they finish at the bottom like today a break probably wins so go ahead and pick whoever you think is going to be strongest from the break pickering is really i assume it's this is not the child of ed pickering the cycling rider but if it is that's incredible but he is really impressed me at this race so i'm going to go at this part of the race you tend to see the same people or gc guys that are no longer gc guys like we saw today at the front so i'm going to go pickering for the win at plus 12,500. Okay.

All right. Let's see. Anything else, Johan, on the stage? I just hope we have a regular, nice stage tomorrow. Yes, just a normal stage where they finish the race would be fantastic. It is quite short, 143 kilometers. So should be explosive. We might not see all of that because of that television decision.

The problem with their TV programming is they're like turning the race on after everything's happened and then the last part gets canceled. So it's like the worst possible TV product you could have. Yeah. Yeah. I would not want to be in the in the shoes of the Valta organization right now. Some, you know, really stressful, stressful moments, stressful days. You start to realize like a lot of pro cycling is dependent on like communion between fans and riders. Yeah. Like please don't storm the course because there's not really anything we can do to stop you if you want to. All right.

We're going to end up doing circuit races in the future, Spencer. Something that's completely controllable. You know, I mean, that's what I was thinking. I was like, they're going to have to like find a like a car racing track in Spain and do the last five stages on that. Like it's not a good prospect of the moment. All right. Thanks, Johan. And we will be back to break this down tomorrow.

Okay. Thanks, Spencer. All right. Bye. I'm going to be able to be.