THEMOVE - The King of the Grand Tour Sprints? | Vuelta a España Stage 1 Analysis & Stage 2 Preview | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Jasper Philipsen's impressive opening stage win at the Vuelta a España, which sees him take his 14th career Grand Tour stage win and his second Grand Tour leader's jersey of the 2025 season. Before they go, they preview tomorrow's summit finish, which will see an early showdown between the top GC contenders, and how they think the race will unfold, and who presents the best betting value. Quince: Keep it classic and  cool — with long-lasting staples from Quince. Go to https://quince.com/themove for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.

Yeah, to me, you know, we talk a lot about, like, the difference of the tour versus the other races. And you're thinking, well, how could that be true? Because these are all professional races. Today, you could visibly see, like, when they were showing camera shots of the Peloton, like, it was visibly easier than stage one of the Tour France. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, the stress, it's the stress level. The stress level is just not there. You know, there's like there's not, I mean, there's not even 20% at stake compared to the Tour de France. It's like in the tour, okay, this is where it needs to happen. Everybody's at the tip of their toes. This is never the case in the Tour of Spain. The Tour of Spain is relaxed.

Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Bernille. We are breaking down stage one of the Volta, Spainia. And then at the end, we will bolt on a little episode of outcomes where we predict tomorrow stage two, Johan, but just to catch everybody. up stage one sprint stage in Italy. Nothing makes sense.

We have Vuelta Spania starting with a sprint stage in another country. Jasper Phillips and wins. Ethan Vernon second. Orias Ullar, third. I still don't really know how to say his name, but I should because he was also third on stage one of the Girod Italia, but it's Or Luis

O'Laur. Or Luis O'Lar. I remember him coming out of seemingly nowhere at the Giro, but at this point, yeah, he's been, you know, he was He was already, he was on, if I'm not mistaken, I don't know if he was on Kacharudal, I'm going to say, maybe last year or two years ago. He's now also double Venezuelan champion time trial and road. Yeah, I mean, in those sprints where there's not really a huge, huge, huge,

huge high speed with the big lead out train. I mean, pretty good result for him. Yeah. And then my guy, Mads Pedersen, your pick, yes for Phillips and wins, like easy, freakishly easy. Mads Pedersen never in good position. Little Trek, they seem to be on the front for the entire last 50K. And then when it mattered, Alperson was suddenly on the front for Philipson with a perfect leadout and Little Trek was nowhere to be found. Like what, there's not a lot to talk about on the stage, we should say. Not a lot happened. But what was your main takeaway from the day?

Well, I mean, you know, it was clear that it was going to be a bunch of print already. If you look at the Vuelta, the overall, there's maybe, three stages where you can say okay this is for sure a bunch print where actually we know that the sprinter teams can control so this was for sure one of them there was no sprinter team that was going to let this opportunity slip away so obviously not much going on you know big break away in a breakaway of five six guys then then finally one rider stayed away the spanish champion under 23 from last year, I think, Pablo de la Calle of Burgos. So, you know, we see these small teams going breakaways, as usual.

Spain, the tour of Spain has this system where they rotate the wild card. So this year it's Burgos and what is Burgos and Cajarural. Last year it was Kernfarma and a scoutel. Kern Farma winning last year, winning three stages. not getting an invite. So that's that's kind of very special. But I think it's great for those teams that at least every other year they have a guaranteed tour of Spain start.

And yeah, I mean, it was clear from the beginning. This was going to be a bunch of print. So nothing going on really in the stage, except, you know, just waiting for the, waiting for the bunch sprint. Yeah. To me, you know, we talk a lot about like the difference of the tour versus the other races. and you're thinking, well, how could that be true? Because these are all professional races.

Today, you could visibly see, like, when they were showing camera shots of the Peloton, like it was visibly easier than stage one of the Tour of France, which was also a spread stage. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, the stress, it's the stress level. The stress level is just not there. You know, this, it's like there's not, I mean, there's not even 20% at stake compared to

the Tour de France. It's like in the tour, okay, this is, this is where it needs to happen. Everybody's at the tip of their toes. This is never the case in the Tour of Spain. The Tour of Spain is relaxed at the start. You know, there's not, there's, I mean, there's a tenth of the media. Spectators are not the same. So it is, it is definitely very low key stress, stress wise.

And yeah, I mean, the roads are usually also better and bigger in Spain. So there's, I'm going to, there's less. road furniture, in my opinion, compared to France. And anyway, we're in Italy now. We're in Italy. But overall, they did pick the least complex roads, maybe in all of Italy for the stage. Yeah, but no, overall, overall, there's no stress at the Vuelta. Yeah, you could, you could see it, you could feel it.

I mean, I'm just looking up right now. Jasper Phillips and now has, he has 14 career grand tour wins. amongst active riders that's behind just Primus Roglich and Tadipagatra Pagantra already is 30 by the way and all time that puts he still it's actually impressive like you forget like Robin McHugh and 24 career grand tour stage wins

so he actually has quite a bit to go there it was fun to see Philipson out of his natural environment you think of him as like he just wins so much of the tour he's so good at the tour he wins today also his teammate Timer Lear wins at the Renui tour good day for Alpuss and Deconic two-part question for you why did they why did they start the welta with this stage was it just to entice like to throw any type of bone just to a top sprinter like phillipson like hey come

you'll probably win stage one you at least get a shot and then we buckle down and it's it's mountain madness for the rest of the time or like what's the thought but behind starting the race but this type of let's let's be honest pretty boring stage uh yeah i mean i i it all comes down to you know the towns that pay the money right right, and a bit of everything. I mean, they have a flat stage today. Tomorrow is a more difficult. I mean, pretty hard finish for stage two.

But it's also a way to attract certain names. You know, I mean, the sprinters obviously who come to this race, they have to have a chance early on because otherwise they won't make it over. Some of them will make it over in the first week. There's already a bunch of really hard stages where sprinters could, potentially already go home. So I think, I think it says a lot for Philipson, you know, I mean, he, he crashed out heavily in the Tour de France. As we spoke in the other podcast, you know, I briefly met him there in Dania in south of Spain, where I met him at the hotel.

He explained about his collarbone and, you know, his shoulder injury and ribs. And he went down very, very hard. Was, you know, there, I mean, there he said, okay, you know, I need to do this of Spain because I need motivation, you know. So it's obviously still, it's a big, it's a big race. But yeah, I mean, to be back like this in the first punchprint, I mean, if you look at the team also, there's no doubt that this is the best lead-up train of the whole tour of France, tour of Spain, a peloton. This is why they came with, with, with Philipson and guys like, you know, like

Resebik and what's his name, Jonas, Ricard and these big, these big. guys, Edward Planckart, that's what they do. That's their job. They actually don't race to win races. They race to lead out their guy. It was, it was obvious that he was going to be the big favorite for today. They're also just physically big. So it's, yeah, they can put out a lot of power so they can get to the front and they can just, they can make space because there's so much bigger than everybody else. I mean, the fact that they've just, and great to draft also. I mean, like Philipson. Yeah. Listen, Philipson, he's not. I mean, he's not. I mean, he's He's not a little, I mean, he's not tall, but he's not a small guy.

And you can barely see him behind him. I know. Because he took, how tall is your son? He took a picture next to your son. Yeah. Yeah. My son is 180. So he's, I mean, he's not super tall, but he is, I mean, he's not a tiny guy.

He's a strong, he's a strong guy. He looks, he looks strong. Even in his, you know, like, even if he's not in cycling clothes, you can see he's a strong guy. And he looks. You're right. He disappears behind those guys. I mean, it's a massive advantage.

also becomes the first writer, I believe, since Fabi and Cancelara in 2009 to win the opening stage of the tour and the vault in the same year. Pretty impressive for him. Wins the opening stage of those grand tours. First race leader, as you said, got to feel good coming off that injury.

And, I mean, Alpussing de Konek, just an impressive day from them. But also behind, Brian Koucard's seventh. So, UnoX won a stage at the at the Deutschland Tour today. Brian Kekarad gets seventh, and he gets double the amount of use. CI points that UnoX does

today. These are two teams fighting for the last world tour spot. So that shows you why you're like, what is Kofid is doing? They should be in the breakaway. It's like, no, actually, you're going to harvest points at these big races by, it's probably a mad dash for the last half of the top 10.

It just really shows you how important those spots are at these races. Yeah, for sure. Well, that's going to be it's obviously nothing to do. I mean, it has to do with the Tour of Spain because we will obviously look closely at what go for this will be doing. But that battleman for 18th, 18th and 19th place, that's going to be interesting.

Until the very last race of the season, I guess, until China. Yeah, until China, the Guangzhou. I might watch the Guangzhou tour for the first time ever. And I mean, it shows you the value of someone like Kakard. Like he's, he might actually win a stage here. So maybe he would be valuable in that respect. But just guys who can get fifth through eighth, you can score a lot of points in a grand tour doing that. Anything else? None of the G.C. guys lost time. I didn't. I mean, Vizma was at the front. That's kind of to be expected. I saw Iger Manal kind of hanging out at the back. It's kind of to be expected. I didn't really see a lot from the G.C. that is that beautiful.

No, I mean, you could see. I mean, obviously, you know, both Visma, Visma around Jonas, they look really dialed in strong, you know, Campan arts. As always is there where he has to be. UAE was very much around their leaders. So it was basically those two teams bringing their leaders to the front all the time. And then, yeah, I mean, there's not much we can take away from today's stage other than we know that Jay Vine's not going to go for GC already because he let it go. He did his job and I think he's going to go for stage wins. That's probably for the best. We don't need another GC guy. No, no, no, no, no, no.

there's no there's no room for that there's no room for that on uae i guess i guess the only other thing is the points classification a bit of a blow to peterson he finishes where does he even finish he finishes 14th so i don't think that's any points for the points classification phillipson gets 50 for first to start in a 50 foot bucket yeah that great like that that's going to be hard for peterson to dig himself out of yeah well it's it depends i mean it Depends if, you know, if Philipson is really motivated for it. And if he gets through the whole tour of Spain, you know, because it's, it's incredibly hard. It's, I mean, I just, I re-studied the, the course a little bit.

Man, it's hard. It is like excessively hard. It's just. Yeah. And they start tomorrow. I mean, tomorrow's not brutal, but it is a 10K long uphill finish. Do we want, let's take a quick ad break. And then we will preview that stage and give our picks for it.

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quince.com slash the move for free shipping on your order in 365 day returns. That's quince. QSQ U-I-N-C-E dot com slash the move to get free shipping and free returns for a year. Quince.com slash the move. All right, let's get back to the show. Are you on stage two? We're still in Italy. A bit of a sneaky long transfer, actually. They drive across like the plane of Piedmont and then they set them up at an Alba and they go right

up into the Alps, which is funny to think that we're back in the Alps after the tour. We're coming back. It's a 10K long summit finish, not like overly steep. And it is a simple stage, but it's net uphill, pretty much the whole way. There's one classified climb. It's at the finish. There is a sprint point after a short, short-ish climb. So I'm kind of curious to see what happens there with Pedersen and Philipson.

But then we just kind of buckle in and everyone's going to probably get behind their team and go up, work their way to the Alps and the 10K long 5.5% grade to the finish. How do you think this is going to play out GC or, I guess, or front of Peloton or breakaway? who do you think is going to win? Yeah, in short stage, but it's just a question of, you know, will these teams, namely UAE and Visma, will they want to control, right? And I would also want probably add in a little track with Chikona. So my guess is yes, they will want to control because, you know, it's, It's not an easy climb. It's an opportunity. And I mean, I don't think there's going to be any

surprises. You know, it's probably going to be either Jonas, who's already, I mean, this is already a great, great opportunity. Almeida, are you so. But my favorite for tomorrow is Julia Chekone. You know, he's shown that he's in great shape. You know, he's won San Sebastian. It was looked extremely strong there. Who did he drop? He dropped Del Toro. Now he dropped Del Toro and Jan Christen. He dropped two E.E guys.

Then he won the hardest stage in Tour of Burgos also, beating Del Toro. And obviously, you know, he said he's here for stage wins, also not for G.C. So, yeah, he's going to be my favorite to win tomorrow stage and then be a few days

in red. Yeah, I actually expect the exact same thing to happen. I think Chaconay wins this. I think Little Trek has probably had this circled for a while. The guy's an amazing form. He's very good on finishes like this, beating some of the sports best riders on uphill finishes like this. I think he does it.

I think he takes red. And then after that happens, actually going to be probably some betting opportunities in the GC because he'll be artificially probably weighted up. And then riders like Vindigard and Almeda, I useo could be weighted down. I'm fascinated to see. You can't really, you kind of have to show your work on a finish like this as a GC

contender. So we're going to get to see right away who's fit, who isn't. I would say, though, with the odds are not out yet, unfortunately. So we can't reference the odds. But when the odds do come out, remember to check next bets, nxtdbets.com slash bet outcomes to get the best price and Senate bonuses wherever you are. I would say if I had to pick a wild card, though, and I don't know if I had to pick a wildcard, though, and I don't know if this is the wild card of the favorite,

Jonas Vindigard, like the last 5K is 6.5%. I would not be shocked if he wins this stage and like stamps his authority on the race early. Yeah. Although I think for Vingegaard, it's maybe early. And also the stage is not, the stage itself is not hard.

Chikona, I think, in my opinion, it's tailored for him. But let's not forget about Joe Almeida. Almeida has been preparing specifically for this welta. It is kind of a perfect Ameta climb. Since his crash in the tour, he was on amazing shape. You know, usually when you get a problem, right? And it's not too severe while you are in top shape, you come back extremely good.

And, you know, you can carry that shape. You can recover just faster because you're in great control. So, yeah, Almeida is also a candidate for tomorrow. He did. Someone sent me on Instagram that a quote, I didn't like that he went 10 days without riding after crashing at the tour. Sounds bad, I guess. But if you think he was, he was humming coming into that tour. So maybe a week and a half break in the middle of July before ramping up for the Volta isn't the worst thing. But we'll see tomorrow. We'll find out. But I think Chaconne is just all in on this.

He's not going to hold back. He's going to go for it. I would bet Chikone as long as he's not like minus 500 because I do think it's probably a Chikone finish. Yeah, let's see. Anything else, Johan, before it's your birthday, by the way. It is my birthday. That's why we have to do the show early and I have limited time.

I have to go to a family dinner now. I'm in Belgium. So, you know, so from tomorrow on, we'll dive a bit deep. into the stages today. I'm a bit limited on time. Yeah, I don't know if we could have dove any deeper in the stage. There's not much to say. There's not much to say. No. So it worked out. Well, happy birthday. And anything else before you leave? No, that's it. It's a very expensive. All right. Well, thank you so much. And we will be back tomorrow to break down this summit finish that I'm quite excited to see. Okay. Thanks. All right. Bye.