THEMOVE - The Most Unexpected Stage Win of the Season? | La Vuelta a España 2026 Stage 20 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: September 12, 2026

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Mikel Landa's incredible ride to win Stage 20 of the Vuelta from the breakaway and the non-stop GC attacking and action behind, which ultimately saw Enric Mas seal his first career Vuelta overall win. They discuss how Landa scored this comeback win, what it means for him, and what Mas' win means for his Movistar team, before previewing Sunday's final Stage 21, which closes out the race on a tough city circuit in Granada. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Ultra Pouches: Ultra is the ultimate guilt-free pouch — delivering instant focus and mental clarity, without nicotine or caffeine. New customers can use code THEMOVE to get 15% off at https://TakeUltra.com. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them our show sent you. 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. Keeper Security: Right now, Keeper's offering 60% off personal and family plans at https://Keepersecurity.com/THEMOVE. This incredible offer is only for podcast listeners! And if you're running a team at work, check out Keeper's business plans! Just make sure you use our link, so they know we sent you.

Great tactics of Red Bull, but Primos didn't have the legs to execute the plan. But at least they tried, you know. And hats off to him to defend that second place. You know, it shows you how tough he is. He didn't have a great day. I saw him several times struggling, like on the verge of getting dropped and still, you know, keeps fighting and keeps that second place with, what, with 30 seconds now on Felix Gall. So.

Yeah, not a time. Yeah. But anyways, I think, you know, tomorrow nothing's going to happen. happen in terms of GC. But yeah, as expected, Spencer, this is the podium. Enric Mas will win the Vuelta. Primo Roblich will be second and Felix Gahl will be third. And I honestly think that the three of them are happy with that outcome.

Everybody, welcome back to the Move podcast. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johann Brunel. We're breaking down stage 20 of the Valta, Espania Lavalta, in previewing tomorrow's final stage 21. I can't believe it's over. Johan. And we'll do our outcome stage preview. We'll predict the winner. The last two days, we've not been so hot because who in the world bet someone did. There's someone out there who

bet on Mika Landa to win today's stage. And I hope they're buying a yacht in Monaco because the odds would have been substantial. I have to think. Suit all quick steps. Mika Landa wins the stage from the breakaway after missing the early move. Tobias Holland, Johansson, second, Rasmus DeBroina. third. He bridges up from the chase group, two minute bridge. At the moment, Johan, the moment I saw him in that move bridge up, I knew he was going to win. I mean, he has to be so fit to do that. We don't know where this ride came from, but there's clearly something about these big engines, as you would say, that can just turn it around the third week of a grand tour when everybody else is on their knees. I guess that's why Mika Landa

was one of the best climbers in the world for a long, long time because he's pretty dang good at climbing. I'll walk us through. The stage was chaos. It was insane. Five-hour stage with pretty much all-out racing for five hours. I'm just going to give us a quick overview, not dive too deep in. The stage starts, weapon art attacks from kilometer zero with Ibo-Eliabiera, a little bit of a

tactical move there. The big powerful guys trying to get a gap before they get to the first climb. So the breakways coming to them as opposed to the other way around. It works. They get clear. What we didn't think was going to happen is UnoX breaks the pellets. on up in the crossmen's on the flat. They get six guys up the road in a chase group that is ripping.

They are riding so hard. They link up to the Ven-Arte and Olivier group. And that's the front of the, that's the breakway right there. The only rider that makes it across, I believe, is Mika Landa. As soon as the climb comes, Movi starts attacking.

I don't know if you saw this, Johan. Kind of unusual. You'd think they would be trying to control. I'd assume they were thinking this stage is so hard. A lot of our guys cannot get over the, the front cannot get over in the front GC group so we might as well have them get up the road so Mobystar instead of controlling the peloton is having guys attack the peloton they pull a massive like 54 rider chase group clear in pursuit of a 14 11 to 14 rider breakaway up the road and then what's left in the

gc group is not a lot and Richard Kerpas starts attacking from about 100 kilometers out he looks like he's going a thousand miles an hour, but decathlon closes it down. The thing is, Carapest just keeps doing this. And the more DeCathlun has to close it down, the fewer riders they have. Eventually, our GC group is just three riders. It's just Rogglich, Moss, and Gaul. It stalls out. They let support come back.

We have satellite riders dropping back and dribs and drabs. I would say varying degrees of success. The Red Bull would have three guys in the front, and then two minutes later, no guys on the front. because if you you can be up the road, but it's another question of can you work on an 8% grade? They did have Luke Takwell and Finn Fisher Black eventually get there and setting a good pace. And Moves Star played the satellite rider game really well.

They had Ivan Romeo waiting at the top of climb. They had Pablo Castrillo on the final climb. And the big story of the day for the GC is Sepkos, Forge is clear. It was like a 10 and a half minutes of the breakaway with 64K to go, I believe. If he attacks out of the GC group, he's 11 minutes, he's in 11th place, I believe around 11 minutes down. They don't really have the luxury of marking them because what are you going to, you can't mark everything when there's no teammates left. And he gets up the road. He's got four Visma riders up the road, links up with them.

Eventually he has Walt Van Art leading him into the final climb. And SEPCUS finishes on the day, eighth, 435 behind Mika Atlanta, jumps from 11th place into fifth place overall. really super impressive. Like, Coos has made time not really matter. He can lose as much time as he want throughout the Vuelta, and he'll just make it up on State 20 as needed. Felix Gall drops everybody on the final climb, finishes about a minute in front of Primos Roglitz.

Still not quite enough time to jump in a second. Inric Moss loses 18 seconds. 18 seconds to Gall. It doesn't, didn't look like he was controlling there because he still had a 244 lead on him. He secures red, Gall secures third. Roglitch pretty impressive. He never looked that good all day.

He kind of looked like he was struggling, finishes well enough to preserve second place overall, which is really impressive. Carapest fourth, whose fifth, Oscar Onley, who I think he just lost the wheel at the top of a climb and then could never catch back up. Lose his fifth place by 43 seconds,

but does secure the white jersey. So a little bit bit bit bittersweet there. Assume Ineos is happy that I think that's their first leaders jersey win since the 2022 Valta when Richard Carapas won the KOM jersey. So that's a big deal for Ronley, big deal for the team. But Johan, what is your eight sleep move of the day? If you do want him to get an eight sleep before the end of this Volta, act now because the Valta is ending tomorrow, eightsleep.com slash the move.

But Johan, what is your eight sleep move of the day? Yeah. I was doubting, Spencer. You know, you, you, you pictured it perfectly, everything that happened. I would say initially, my initial thought was, you know, we would have to give it to, you know, X for blowing up the race with six riders. And then having four riders in that 14-man break, getting close to the victory. But, you know, in hindsight, I think we have to give it to Michelamba. What a win.

I mean, Spencer, question, you know, if before, if at the start of this Vuelta, you would have said, you would have said to me, okay, Michel Landa is going to win the queen stage of the Vuelta. And Enric Muss will win the overall. I would have said, I would have said, Spencer, what have you been smoking? And we see, we're seeing these two things happen, you know, I mean, it's crazy. It's like the revival of the Spanish cycling, you know, which is great. I know. Spanish cycling was really, you know, in the gutter. And, yeah, Michelanda did an amazing ride today.

It was super emotional. You know, it looks like he has been going through two years of really hard times with crashes, injuries. He gets my eight sleep move of the day. Also, if you look, Spencer Landas' last win. is the G.C. and Tour of Burgos in 2021. That's the last time he won a race. And the last time he actually crossed the finish line first, like today, I checked it, is 2019. He won a stage in Settimana, Copi Bartali.

So that's seven years ago since he last won a real, like a race coming first over the line. And where did this come from today? You know, it's like, plus, you know, in this Vuelta, we have not seen him at all. He's been dropped. He's not been any, any breaks. And all of a sudden, he finds this last piece of energy. Obviously, is not being renewed by Sudhaq Quickstep, has signed his last contract of his career, a two-year deal with Uskal, of which he is actually the godfather and I think also kind of a little bit of the co-owner.

So that's where he's going to finish his career. And he was super emotional. He couldn't believe it himself. But he showed his class on that last climb, wrote it perfectly, very consistent. You know, initially I thought, you know, Ramso's the Breonnair looks the strongest. Then I thought, you know, Tobias Johannison doesn't look bad.

And then finally, here comes Vika Lambda, man. Like, when, you know, I think he went with 7K to go, six K to go. And, you know, it was so steep. You could feel the suffering through the screen. But he wrote it very consistently. And if you look, he didn't lose that much time, you know, to the leaders. For example, to three minutes behind him at one point.

He gained time on Coos, but Coos was that. Kuz was that. But Landa has been out there also the whole day, you know. So big performance. Definitely my eighth leap of the day for Mikhail Lama. I mean, he won by six minutes and 37 seconds over Felix Scall. Who didn't gain that much of time on him. Yeah, I'm speechless.

So the last time, not only is he not won since 2019, do you know the last time he finished inside the top 10 of a race, any race? Two years? Actually, it's not that like. Last year's Welta, do you know who he finished second on a stage? Do you know who he lost to? Oh, yes, yes, yes. I remember, Igan Bernal.

But that was an unusual. You're like, whoa, Mika Landa's up there. What's going on? Yeah. I can't believe this. People are always asking like, what's class? You guys always talk about class. What's class?

It's like, this is class. I don't know how else to describe it. This is, he came out of nowhere and he looked, he just physically looked like Team Sky era, Mika Lando when I thought, man, this is the best climber. Yeah, super focused in the world. It looked really, really good. Yeah, I mean, you have to be happy for him.

You know, it looks like he went through a lot. He's 36 now. I mean, it also says a lot about the fact that he still wants to prolong his career and do another two years. That's crazy if you think, you know, the unbelievable rider he has been already. You know, he's been up there. Has he not been podium in the Vuelta? I know in the in the in the in the in the Gero. I know he was fourth in the two hundred.

I think when he was on Sky. He's been up there in the Giro, I remember when he was on Astana, very close. Third and zero 2022, believe it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And now 36 years old, still wanting to go on in today's cycling, where, you know, we always hear the story.

You know, this is not for me anymore. You know, I can't do this anymore. man yeah he probably gets a good deal at those caltech he's a basque rider but uh anyway hats off to him for his performance today and for coming back after all the adversities he has gone through this is just turning into the landa cast but this is going to blow your mind so he has two third places at the giro de talia one is third place jai henley richard carapaz mechalanda do you know who he finished third behind the other time this is Alberto Raysi and Fabio O'Aru.

And like, those guys have been retired for so long. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a different era. I mean, I saw Mika Landa eating dinner. This was in June at a race, the tour of Switzerland, just like we were eating dinner in the same restaurant. And I thought, like, man, I forgot he was racing. Like, I had no idea.

He was kind of like looking at the wines and he was like talking to the bartender about the wines, going through the wine cellar. And I incorrectly assumed, I was like, oh, this is a guy, he's on, he's on a tour, right? He's on a paid bike tour of Europe. Yeah. How wrong I was, right? Like, yeah.

Was he, was he interacting a lot with the staff? The staff of the team? Yeah. That's what, no, that's usually what happened. The older riders, you know, like you can see this at the end of their careers. They tend to prefer to go sit with the staff at the tables with the young riders because yeah. You feel so much more connected, you know?

Yeah, he was talking to the director, like they had some sort of team meeting and he was hanging out with the directors. And yeah, yeah, I just thought like, oh, he's a figurehead. No, like he was preparing at that race for for this, you know, like he knew he still had this in him. I can't believe he did this. So impressive. Yeah. So cool to see. Also, did you see how tired Johansson was finished his 47 seconds back? Yeah, he was. He came zigzagging. He's zigzag to the finish. You know, I have, I had friends who were there. on the last climb they went up by bike and they sent me some feedback and you know whatever we see on tv doesn't do it justice they said it this is crazy how steep this is this is the first time they did this climb ever in a race um was actually discovered i saw on tv by the late xavier tondo uh do you remember that guy he was on i think he was on uh he was on banesto or kess de parne i think uh or movie star maybe i don't remember sat

Hadley had an accident at Sierra Nevada. Very sad, very sad story and died. But he was the first one who kind of discovered that climb. Today I saw interviews of sport directors, you know, and since all these teams are spending spending so much time on Sierra Nevada, all everybody knew this stage of by heart. When I saw, what was it when I saw I saw this video, Pedro Delgado always does these previews of these climbs for the for Spanish TV and I saw this video yesterday and he must have been in April or something or May when he did it and there was full of riders going up and down Remco was up there and all the whole Red Bull team and they were all going up that climb using it for their I can I guess intervals or whatever they want to do because it's so steep and so consistent yeah I mean it looked brutal what did you think about the stage in general. It was hard. It was, it was like, like trying to describe a cup of water without the cup.

It was just like everywhere. There was no form to it at all. You know, Spencer, if you look at it, you know, I don't, I don't remember at least not in the Vuelta. It's been a very long time where I saw a stage, and even in the Tour de France, with four first category climbs. And the last claim was, I think, H.C was horse category. It was so hard. And, and, and, And even more impressive, something I heard during the broadcast was before the last climb, they had done 3,000, almost 4,000 meters of climbing. So they had done 3,900 meters of climbing. And they had an average speed of 40K an hour.

Then it dropped down to 30. I just saw 37.5 or something with the last climb. But with 4,000 meters of elevation in the legs, they had 40 kilometers average. That's crazy. That's crazy. And, you know, I think you could see the way they came in everybody one by one. You know, there was no groups. Everybody came in one by one.

It was a brutal stage. One of the hardest stages I've seen in the last few years, actually. Yeah, hard in the sense of speed, terrain, and then also just the lack of, you know, nobody was in the wheels. I'm just like, yeah, everyone's racing by themselves. And the, I guess the byproduct of having, you know, the second climb of the day to the first, first cat is far out, almost 100K from the finish. And it's 8K at 8%, which means everything's stripped away. Like, you're not getting a teammate that's not an elite climber over that with you. Like, who's this teammate that Carapas had?

Do you know his name is? Yeah, Juan Felipe Rodriguez. This is a guy. they just promoted him to the world tour team one month before the Vuelta. He was on the Devo team. Colombian climber really good. I mean, really did. He did some amazing stages for Carapas.

And today was even, I think today was the most impressive because, you know, he was there. He got dropped, came back, started again. Like three, four times. He did the same thing. I mean, he's really the only domestic that could do that. Like everybody else was catching a rider and then they'd get dropped. But yeah, the 22 just got. now we're talking about

Karapas Spencer, you know, what do you think about? I mean, obviously it's great. You know, he did four or five attacks. Spectacular, right? Especially that one attack, I don't remember who was pulling. Was it Movistar was pulling? Or was it Red Bull? I don't remember.

I think it was Movistar. And then, man, he comes out of the, you know, fifth, sixth position like they are launching a rocket, you know, so spectacular. I think it's like, you know, he puts in a thousand watts for 30 seconds or something. and you say, okay, wow, this is crazy. And then, you know, the usual thing happens. You know, you see this unbelievable difference in speed. And finally, you know, doesn't get anywhere.

He took 20 seconds and then got back. At the end, he paid for it, you know, couldn't stay with the first guys. But anyways, you know, he was here to try something. I mean, he was at some point he was with, he caught Sepp Kus, right? because Seppcus was already away first and then he caught him. Then they got reeled back in and then Seppcus went again. But yeah, I mean, listen, Carapas is just incredible. And Seppcus, by the way, in the third week of a grand tour.

You know, at some point when there went away, the two of them, you know, I had flashbacks, you know, that these are the same two guys that were together in front on stage 19 and 20 of the Tour de France on up the west, the two stages. same two guys. I know. So they have this ability to be incredibly strong in the third week. You know, both of them in the tour were not in G.C. Today, like in this Carapas is in GC.

He's fourth and still have that ability to do it. And that's impressive. That's really impressive. It's an amazing quality. Well, he did get caught. He didn't go anywhere technically, but he did blow up the group because DeKathlon used basically all of the resources. really and it blew up the GC group. I'd assume his tactic was like he stripped away resource,

like all the resources doing that. And then he kept attacking thinking he might get away eventually. Let's take a quick break and then I'm going to ask you because I don't think, Spencer, I don't think there's much tactic. He just attacks. It's his nature. You know,

he just attacks, has this ability to attack, get reeled in, not get dropped, attack again. Anybody would get, anybody would blow up with an attack like that, especially on steep climbs.

Carapas just has that ability to not blow up. But I don't think there's much tactics behind it. It's just his nature. He just needs to attack and make it look spectacular. And it looks, I mean, it does look spectacular. It doesn't go many wear in GC groups because the fire power is too big. But where it does work is like at the tour. When he isolates, yeah, breakaway riders who don't have the raw power of a GC rider.

Yeah. That's when it's really successful, as we saw with this. stage wins. But let's take a quick break. I'm going to ask you about this because somebody did get away and you almost didn't notice them and I want to get your thoughts on it. We'll be right back. Everybody, this episode is brought to by Ultra Pouches with the Vulta in its third week. Let's take a little time to talk about our presenting sponsor that made this all possible ultra pouches. If you're someone who needs a coffee every couple hours just to feel normal, which I have during this WELTA, you know the tradeoffs, the racing heart, the crash, the wrecked sleep score.

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every afternoon. Ultram is the ultimate guilt-free pouch. Instant focus and mental clarity without nicotine or caffeine. New customers get 15% off with code the move at take ultra.com. That's take ultra.com. Use code the move for 15% off. And when they ask where you heard about him, tell him we sent you. It does really help the show. So, Johan, these Carapaz attacks didn't get carapaz away. He loses time on everyone he's attacking. A rider does get away. you almost did not notice them attacking on this stage. Sepp Kus, like, how does that work? Is he just picking his spots better?

Like, you know, is he attacking at a less theatrical pace that makes people think like, ah, SEP's not going anywhere. We don't have to chase that. Like, why did he get away and not Carapaz? Yeah, well, first of all, you know, the first attack was with, I don't know how much it was, the palaton was at 10 minutes when SEP Kuz attacked. And my first thought was, hey, what the hell? where are you going?

Right? But then Carapas catches him. They get called back. And then, you know, when the group got bigger, when the riders came back and there was confusion, he got away. But apparently it was all part of a plan. They did have four riders. Bismah had four riders in different groups up front.

And so it was an all-or-nothing move. I don't know exactly if the goal was to try to win the stage. I think that was the initial plan. but but but i think also you know they could not foresee that there was going to be all of a sudden 60 riders in front and the gap was too big to win the stage but sep could do an amazing right man from 11th to 6th no to 5th in the gc makes up yeah makes up what six minutes makes up six minutes right on on on all these guys um so he was i mean if he he was dead at the end it's normal because he could hardly keep the wheel of North Hagen anymore in the end, right?

But apparently it was the plan. The plan was that they would have riders in the break, and then Seppcus would try and attack. And of course, count with the fact that he's not a threat, four, tenth, nine, eight. But man, that worked out differently. You know, first of all, because Seppuz obviously had a great day. And then the ones, the other ones, the 7th, 8, 9th, they didn't have the legs.

You know, like even Oscar Only and Omersel, you know, they didn't have the power today to do anything against Seppcus with all these teammates. I mean, same thing again, Spencer, you know, when you see, it was not for the victory of the stage or for the VALTA victory, but Walt Vonart did kind of the same thing he did with Simon Yates. I know. Same thing. Crazy. Crazy. The Walt Von Hart is unbelievable. He's there on all terrains.

First attacker of the day, kilometer zero. And then it's crucial to that, you know, fifth place now of Seppcus. He doesn't get fit without, wow. At some point, Mold van Ard was even trying to get the KOM from Vitrago, which was, which would have been incredible. I mean, he would have had to finish top five on that last climb. I didn't see that happening. But still, man. And anyways, I think Walt Val-Vart is not done yet.

We'll talk about tomorrow in a bit, but I think tomorrow will talk about him. Tomorrow and beyond, potentially the rest of the month, I think. Yeah. I mean, I was thinking, like, is he going to get KOM? Because he needed to win, he got dropped in the penultimate climb. He had to win that and then get top five on the day. Unlikely knowing what we know now. But at the time, you know, he had won two count ones.

Like that's freaking crazy, dude. Like what is going on right now? And But Bucrago missed the move. That's how hard it was to get in the move. But Seppkous, like just a huge, huge engine. I mean, it's funny too on the final climb. You look at these time gaps. Sepkouz six minutes ahead of the GC group.

Oscar Onley didn't really lose any time. If anything, he almost game timed on those guys. So that tells you, WattVernert was critical because if Walthenart's not up there, onley's not jumping up those spots because it's or uh coos isn't jumping up those spots because it's not like onley and ormizel are blowing up in the back they were riding actually pretty well they just didn't have a truck in front of them pulling them along what did you think about what did you think about these i don't even like this term satellite riders the stashing riders up the road it worked to varying degrees of success yeah movie start did it pretty well but what do you think about that decision for them

to blow the race up as opposed to just keep everybody together. Well, I don't think it was blowing the race up. I think, you know, initially, because if you look, you know, the initial group of 14, you know, it was four or five, you know, X, Walt Von Art was there and two Red Bulls, you know. And then that's so that's already Movistar on the back foot, right? I mean, two Red Bulls in front. That means, okay, maybe Primos has a plan, you know, you don't know. I think the fact that they started to accelerate was to create separation and have two or three riders finally also in a breakaway, which turned out to be the case because there was, you know, you can't call it the breakaway because at some point there was 64 riders ahead of the peloton.

But in those 50 riders behind that first group where actually Landa then escaped from, Movistar had three riders, which all three came in really handy later on. I think the fact that they started to accelerate was to create separation in the group and have another group going up the road with riders ahead. I think that was their objective. I have to say also today, you know, tactic-wise, Redwell, I think did a great job. They had four riders at some point ahead of the peloton of favorites, you know, with the two guys in front and then two more guys in that second group. And that's great if you have a plan.

You know, the question is, of course, always does the leader then have the legs to do that, right? I mean, the setup was great. You know, at some point, Red Bull had this numeric advantage and they were setting a pace. But Primos just, you know, when his last rider was done, I don't know, I don't remember. Somebody took over. I think it was again that Juan Felipe Rodriguez from EF. and you could see that when the moment Primos was supposed to go

he couldn't go and he had to go to the back so you know great tactics of Red Bull but Primos didn't have the legs to execute the plan but at least they tried you know and hats off to him to defend that second place you know it shows you how tough he is he didn't have a great day I saw him several times

struggling like on the verge of getting dropped and still you know keeps fighting and keeps that second place with what with 30 seconds now on Felix Gall. So. Yeah, not a time. Yeah.

But anyways, I think, you know, tomorrow, nothing's going to happen in terms of GC. But, yeah,

as expected, Spencer, this is the podium. Enric Muss will win the, we'll win the Vuelta. Primos Roglich will be second and Felix Gull will be third. And I honestly think that the three of them are happy with that outcome. Yeah,

especially with like Primos, you might think, Oh, he's, like, what does second mean to him, right? He wanted to win this. But from what we saw today, like, I was just impressed he stayed in second. I thought he looked kind of bad all day. I think he had Finn Fisher Black was his last writer. In retrospect, was probably very key because he paced for a long time.

And then as soon as he was gone, Primos was pretty vulnerable. Saves the second place by half a minute, basically, maybe right under half a minute. So also, you know, surprise a bit by, by Phoenix Gall, who, finish is so strong, you know. Today he did, I mean, he even dropped Enric Maas. I'm going to guess Enrique Mas, you know, he kept his pace, had it under control. He gained time on the second rider, which, you know, that was his main rival. Loses a little bit of time, 18 seconds on Felix Gall, so no problem.

But it's the first time we've seen Enric Maas getting dropped on any climb in this welta. By one of his direct rivals. So it shows that, you know, everybody is at the limit and the end of their resources. Did you not get dropped on like stage seven by Felix Gall? Remember when Pagacchar attacked and Gahl went with him? And then Moss was in the group behind. So it was like Pagachar 420. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wait. I don't remember that. So Gull finishes 10 seconds in front of Moss on stage seven. Okay. But at that time, Moss had not shown. that he was particularly good at climbing at this race. And then he gets red. Well, yeah, he did.

He fought. He caught. Oh, yeah. He caught him. Stage six, I think. But I think the narrative, if I remember right, was like, well, he's pretty fortunate because then he's got a truck, you know, like he got a big advantage on those guys because he had Pagachar with him on the flats.

And then he went stage nine and it like flips the. Yeah, but I know. But, you know, on stage six, there, uh, uh, Puerto de Bartolo, you know, he did something there that we have not seen by almost anybody. The only guy who was able to do this at some point was Fingerguard, 2004, I guess, in the tour, or was 2025? I don't remember now. Nobody else has been doing that, like coming back on a big slime.

Except in Rick Boss. Yeah. In 2021 or whatever. It's the first time you really saw him in problems compared to a, direct rival, but you could ask the question, okay, is it physical? Or is it just, okay, I stay in control, I keep everything, you know, Gal is not his direct rival. He is in third. So, you know, you could see that he came to the finish, super happy smiling, knowing that, okay, it's in the pocket. Crazy, actually, to think about it. Again, who would have thought this at the start in Monaco that

Enrique Musk would win and Movistar would win DeVuelta. You know, if you look at it, there's in the last, what, six, seven years, there's UAE, Visma, and I think, Quickstep with Remko. No other teams have won Grand Tours, I think. You're missing one. I'm missing one. It's tricky. Red Bull, Red Bull. Red Bull. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah. So, I mean, to be up there, Movistar now,

with those five teams to win ground tours in the last seven years, that's, yeah, nobody would have thought this, you know, especially also, I wonder, I wonder what will happen, Spencer. You know, we all saw the news that Movistar as a company want out of the sponsorship. Yeah. You know, they have, they have a contract in place until 2009. Yeah, so they have to honor that contract. But apparently there's been a change of CEO. The new CEO doesn't like cycling and wants out. You know, normally they can't get out.

So the message is, okay, we want out. So try to find a replacement if there's a replacement. So anyways, you know, the team, the team that the company that manages the team was the company of Osebio and Zouye, who is now, it was 45 years in business. by the way. They're okay because they have these commitments. But I wonder if there's going to be a change now at the highest level in the company movie star because I would think, hey, you know, how can we not keep supporting this?

You know, we're a Spanish company, multinational. We win the tour of Spain. This is hugely popular for us. We have to bank in on this. We have to honor this commitment. I wonder what will happen. I know. I was wondering about that too.

And the team's in a bit of a, it's not a terrible position of being that you know your title sponsor wants to leave. Is leaving in 2029? Yeah. He wants you to find a new sponsor. So presumably, you know, is you not getting the rug pulled immediately? You can find a sponsor potentially that wants to be with you for the long term. Did they not have a partner? I've noticed this.

It's like a rabic of sports or something. They have, they have an Israeli company, which invest in sports. very wealthy individual who also owns, I think, a big stake in Athletico de Madrid, has other sports properties. And so, you know, if it would be needed, this guy alone would fund the team, you know, or this company would fund the team. But of course, you know, if they can find, and they have Movistar. So they can keep Movistar to their contract.

It's not that easy for a big company like Movistar to not fulfill their obligations on that contract. So I think the team is in a pretty good situation. And he's like a serious guy. He's not, it's not like, about a team because I like cycling. He's like serious sports investors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm confident. This company. Yeah, yeah.

I'm now huge for the team. I mean, I thought even after, so stage six, Moss finishes with Pagachar, Moss is dropped by Gaul and stage seven. And I was thinking, if you looked at my private notes, you would not see me riding. Like, Inric Moss is going to win this welto. Like, I didn't see that coming really until stage nine. So it is super impressive. And big first home rider to win a grand tour in a decade since Nebula in 2016. Yeah.

So that's cool to see as well. Anything else about the stage, Johan, before we move on to tomorrow's stage. I mean, there's, yeah, there's been a lot going on. But I think we, in a nutshell, we covered, we covered most of what happened. And hats off to all the riders who finished this stage, man. I was suffering with them. Yeah, that was one of the hardest stages I've seen in the last few years. Really, really hats off to them to ride like this.

And, you know, it was hot again. And at the end of three weeks to do this crazy. Yeah, it was. That was brutal. Actually, I think they probably with the heat, best case scenario, it's been. It's been, it was hot, but it's not like. unbelievably hot. Tomorrow will be hot, but this could have gone poorly, but they got some like reasonably warm days that could have been scorching. But let's take a quick break and then we'll

talk about tomorrow's stage 21, which is actually pretty interesting for a final day. Okay, Johan, we are back predicting tomorrow's final stage. Stage 21, Car 4 Granada. I assume they're starting in a car four supermarket. Title sponsor of the title sponsor of the of the of Spain, you know, got to take care of your title sponsor um so granada to granada basically 112 kilometers long warm hot in granada like 30 my my little thing here's telling me 33 degrees at the start 30 degrees at the finish probably because it finishes later in the day could be a lot worse could be a lot worse it's going to be hotter way worse it's going to be hotter in madrid tomorrow so you know they uh yeah formula

one is going on by the way now and here in madrid yeah it's so Which is why they're not finishing Madrid and in Granada. Which is, I kind of like. I like mixing it up. I mean, I love the, the Madrid finish is beautiful. It's a beautiful city. It looks great. I think this is, this is cool.

Like, it's also weird to me when the zero does this a lot. Like, you'll have a stage in Friuli on stage 20. And then you're finishing in Rome. And it's so disconnected from the race and it can feel inorganic. So I'm quite excited for this stage. It's 112K. But the first 70K. is a big loop like around the outside of the city like out in the countryside then you come into

granada for the final 40k and it is three circuits three circuits or four it's four circuits four circuits so you call you do the climb four times the climb is not categorized which is a little funky to me because it's 2k long at 6 percent that's a hard climb for to finish yeah to finish a ground tour it's not easy it's not easy and the top of the final climb to the finish is seven and a half kilometers you know it's a descent fast descent and then twisty through the city and then a finish so it could be quite interesting it's a harder climb than mal mantra and we've seen a very exciting finish the last two years since they've added that not not cobblestones though not cobblestones not cobblestones and how do you think this is going to play out johan and who's going to win yeah well first of all

Spencer, we need to talk about this. You know, I just saw this coming on here. There is some kind of, I'm not going to say protest, but it says the riders want the times of the GC neutralized for the stage. The organization wants the race to the final, including the four laps. And now the CPA, the riders union is trying to mediate and neutralize, only the last lap. I mean, it's a bit ridiculous,

no? They don't predict rain. They don't predict rain. It's not rain. Okay, might be an urban circuit, but I don't see, I think it's a bit

influenced by what they did at the tour. You know, the tour they did the neutralization also on the, on the circuits, because they were maybe expecting rain.

It finally didn't rain. but you know why have a stage like this if okay i can understand the riders you know they the listen nothing's going to happen in gc tomorrow these guys you know if they can't drop each other on on these climbs they're not going to drop each other on a two kilometer climb so unless there's something really dangerous on that circuit which i don't know right now but i think um i think it's it's it should not be the case I fear that something's going to happen because there's going to be too much pressure. And, you know, it's not going to be the organization.

I think it's finally the UCI who's going to have to step in and say, yeah, you know, what, in my opinion, you know, I would want the race to see go on like it is. Of course, if I put myself in a rider and especially a guy who is, you know, fighting for his G.C., whether it's to win or top three or top five or top top. 10 even. I would take it if the times are neutralized. You know, it's what they want. They're all dead. So, you know, you don't want to lose, you know, your, your heart forthplace during three weeks for that last circuit. But I can't see any valuable reason to take this decision. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, I don't, I get it. When you explain it like that, yeah, I can see why a writer would say, like, well, except who's, like, I work my butt off to get fifth.

I don't know. What if Oscar Anthony overtakes me tomorrow? I don't want to I don't want that. That would stink. But what's the reasoning exactly, especially when I start saying like, oh, the final lap. But like, why is the final lap getting neutralized? Like, what's the actual logic of that? And it starts to break down. You're like, well, why wouldn't you just neutralize to 20? Like, where's the cutoff here? I do think it should be live time. I don't get it. Like Volta Catalonia, they don't, they race the final circuit with live time. Right? They don't neutralize that. Like so I don't get it at all. There's nothing yet. There's nothing yet here for the moment that has changed. So, you know, they're debating about it. We'll see.

I guess here's my now tomorrow during the stage. My guilty, like my guilty admission, though, is I kind of like it when the times are neutralized because it strips away the FAF and you just get like it's a laboratory for the stage win. And you don't have as many people clogging the road up. You just get to, like, you know, with like, Walthvinard, like that group when he dropped Pagachar in 2025 at the tour, like that was so cool.

Or it just shrinks the group so you almost get more pure racing on the circuit. You're only up there if you're trying to win the stage. And it's less about positioning. It stays like tomorrow, though, Spencer, you know, four times two kilometer climb. Don't you want to see the GC guys trying? Just imagine, just imagine right now, for example. So Felix Gall is now 30 seconds behind Rimos. Yes.

You know, maybe Felix Gall will say, hey, you know what? I'm feeling great. Roglisch is dead. I want to try. How far is Oscar only behind Seppkus? 45 seconds. I could say, hey, Sepkus is dead from his, from his, you know, big effort. Yeah, what does Seppcus gets dropped on the first climb, you know?

You know, I may, I may try to get it back and get back in fifth. You know, there are still things. Anyways, I'm just speaking out, and they're thinking out loud now. I'm pretty sure that tomorrow, if you would ask any GC rider, are you okay if we neutralize the times? Because, hey, yes, please. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it just simplifies your life. And then you said everyone's probably.

I don't know. I think, I think independently of whether the times are neutralized. or not, I think this has one name written all over this stage and it's WVA, Walt Van Art. Although he did a huge effort today, but I think tomorrow, Walt VanArts should win this stage. Stage of number three. Is stage number eight for Visma or nine? I think it's eight. Would it be eight or nine?

Eight, I think it's eight. Yeah. And that would be eight out of 20 stages. I don't know. I mean, there's, listen, I maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's other writers who could win, but I think Waltonard has some legs, man. It's unbelievable. I think Waltonardt's main competition is Matthew Brennan. Does Matthew Benin get dropped on these climbs? Yeah, I don't know. Today he was impressive. He was not really. He was super impressive. And then he did, I mean, he did, he did an amazing job when he was caught riding there for Sapkuz. That was crazy. It was crazy. I mean, I guess if I was going to pick a one rider to be fatigued from that, it's probably not the Neo Pro,

second year pro in his first grand tour. Like, how's he going to? That was a big effort for him to get up the road and do that. I mean, this is a hard climb. I do think it's wild Vinard. I would say if it's not wild Bernard, I could see Matthew Brennan wearing this. Yeah.

Because if it comes down to a sprint, who's going to beat him in a sprint? Yeah. The more I think about this, Johan, you could imagine a GC rider hitting 2K at 6%. That's not easy. You can imagine someone like, what if you're not positioned over the top and you get dropped? And then you don't catch back on.

I mean, they can't actually. What about Richard Carapas doing in one of his spectacular rocket launches? Yeah, 1,500 watts at the top of the climb on the end of the sun. I mean, you could imagine someone getting tailed off during that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did he win a stage?

He didn't win a stage, no? Or did he? He did not win a stage. Okay. I believe. Yeah. I mean, the problem Carapas has is he's going to go for it. He's going to look a lot less powerful on this circuit than he is in a mouse cage.

You know, like when he's attacking all out, Varnar could be like in the saddle on his wheel. Yeah. You know, the things with Carapas also is that he's a master in doing this spectacular attacks, but usually the speed of the group he's in is slow, is quite low when he's. That's it. Yeah. You know, so that's why it looks such a big difference in speed, you know.

I'm going to pick Van Art as well. I think this is a wild stage. Is there a veteran who's not top 10 in like two years that we should pick? Like, Vincenzo Albanese is going to win tomorrow. Like, who's the next guy to win here? I don't know. Last time they finished him, it was after a big mountain stage, actually. was Adam Yates winning the stage.

Interesting. I remember that. And then Enric Mons had an amazing climb and then lost it all. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, if you wanted to keep with the theme, Magnus Court would be the pick. I was going to say Magnus Court.

Magnus Court, there's a stage for him. Yeah. She was also good today. He was there for a long time. Yeah, he was. In that first group. Yeah. Yeah, I would say Magnus Court works hard.

What a team. I mean, that was unbelievable. Well, that was some demonstration of, you know, power as a team today. Well, it's also shows that that didn't come to them, right? Like, they planned that. They broke it up on the flats before the climb. Like, they come into these stages so focused. It's like, hey, let's get out there and try to win the stage.

Like, they've got a plan for these to win these stages. It's super impressive, super impressive. Love that team. Okay, we'll see. We'll see what happens. So we're going to be a bit later tomorrow, right? because the stage starts late in the afternoon. Again, great timing.

I guess it's also because of the conflict with the Formula One and stuff. But man, starting a stage in Granada at 4.30 in the afternoon. That's like, what? What? You get easily started at noon. What are we doing? That is crazy. It's crazy. And it's not an insignificant amount of time in the sun.

You know, 112 kilometers. You're going to be out there. for a little bit. But we'll be back after the stage tomorrow and talk to you soon, Yohan.