THEMOVE - Tour de France Stage 15 | The Sir Wiggo & Johan Show

Episode Date: July 20, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Sir Bradley Wiggins peel back the curtain on the tactics, strategy, and pivotal moments that shaped Stage 15 of the 2025 Tour de France, offering sharp analysis and insider perspect...ive you won’t hear anywhere else. JOIN: Your #1 cycling training app. You can now test JOIN 30 days for FREE! Download JOIN today and improve your ride. https://Join.cc/themove Ketone-IQ: Take your shot: Get 30% off your subscription, plus a free gift with your second shipment at https://Ketone.com/themove Ventum: Enter Ventum Trivia of the Day for a chance to win the Grand Prize: $5,000 of store credit towards any Ventum bike. Don’t want to leave it to chance, 10% off sitewide using the code THEMOVE10 or 20% off any NS1 road bike build with code NS120  https://ventumracing.com/themove/

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Do you remember the last Belgian, the last rider to win in the Belgian national championships in Tour de France? Probably Wout van Aert. Mon Ventoux. Yeah. Wout van Aert, Mon Ventoux, wow. Yeah. Yeah, wow.
Starting point is 00:00:15 Yeah, that was vintage. I mean, there was the Wout in his prime, you know, he won a big mountain stage, he won the time trial and a bunch of things on the Champs-Élysées. That's crazy. Crazy. I'm the 2012 Tour de France winner, Sir Bradley Wiggins. You won a big mountain stage, you won the time trial, and a bunch of wins on the Champs-Élysées. That's crazy. Crazy. I'm the 2012 Tour de France winner, Sir Bradley Wiggins. And I'm Johan Brunel.
Starting point is 00:00:31 I directed my teams to nine Tour de France victories. Welcome to the Sir Wiggle and Johan show, our daily show where we dive deep into the tactics behind every stage of the Tour de France. Hi everybody, welcome back to our show. behind every stage of the Tour de France. Hi everybody, welcome back to our show as every day presented by Ketone IQ. We're going to talk about stage 15 of this year's Tour de France from Murée to Carcassonne, a transition stage, I would say 170 kilometers, 2,500 meters of elevation. Before we had speculation, could it be for sprinters, would it be a breakaway?
Starting point is 00:01:11 We're going to talk about that, all that with Bradley Wiggins. Bradley, what did you make of today's stage? What's Bradley's take of the day? Well, I mean, there was a lot to speak about today, but obviously mine is combined. The win of Tim Wellens and the complete how in control you are now in this whole Tour de France, especially with Tim Wellens victory today. But combined with that, what appears to be the complete disarray of Visma and their tactics again today, you know, with the crash that happened, which put Jonas out the back.
Starting point is 00:01:47 The lack of, you know, communication maybe between those guys when that was happening and while Van Aert was trying to get in the break, Matteo Jorgensen was still trying to get in the break. Tadej was trying to tell Visma that Jonas was out the back and that complete disarray. But you know, that combined Tim Wellens attacking, sitting in the break, not doing any work and then attacking 47k to go wherever it was and winning the stage. So the two contrasting big teams in this race and, and how in control UAE are and what appears the complete disarray of Visma and their tactics.
Starting point is 00:02:16 Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Agree. Yeah. Um, I mean, yeah, I mean, UAE is really in a great position. And on top of that, I mean, you can see that the pressure is really off there. They are on a high and, you know, it happens sometimes that, you know, teammates go and breakaways. I heard you guys on the show talk about that. George forgot his win, for example, in 2005, he was in exactly the same situation.
Starting point is 00:02:43 It was a mountain stage, you know, he was in break, also had the excuse of not having to pull. And then finally he won on top of Platte de Huy against Oscar Pereiro, for example. But yeah, no, I agree. Tim Wellens, what a performance. I mean, after his incredible performance in the Belgian Championships, you know, and the level he has shown here in this Tour de France since day one is really, you know, he deserves to win this stage. So I'll talk a little bit about our first sponsor, Johan. It's JOIN. JOIN is the number one training app that puts professional cycling coach right in your pocket. You don't need a big goal to benefit from training.
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Starting point is 00:03:46 It even recalibrates when you miss a workout. It prevents overtraining before it even starts. And it's designed by experts with world tour level experience. Join helps cyclists of all levels maximize progress while avoiding overtraining. So whether you're training for your first century, your next race, or just want to be stronger when you ride, JOIN makes professional cycling coaching accessible to everyone. JOIN is your number one cycling training app. You can now test JOIN 30 days for three, download JOIN today and improve your ride. Okay, Bradley. So the stage starts. We all thought, yeah, okay, let's wait until we are
Starting point is 00:04:29 in the middle of the stage. Not much going on, but we had this big crash early in the race, as you said. And a lot of riders went down. It was full on, full on, full on race for the breakaway. Again, I mean, I guess this is standard now, no, every, every stage we do the first two hours, it's 50 kilometers per hour. Um, but Jonas and Lippowitz were the two main guys involved. And as you say, it was, it was chaos. Um, you know, we thought they was in front. Uh, he tried to, to slow down the race a little bit.
Starting point is 00:05:06 But you can see, even in the case of a guy like Pogacar, he's in yellow, but it's a three week stage race, the danger is really behind every corner. Anything can happen. Yeah. Right? Yeah, absolutely. And when I turned it on, it was, I saw, obviously, Mathieu van der Poel was in the front again. I mean, that guy's...
Starting point is 00:05:27 Yeah. And of course, he won that first intermediate sprint, which now really puts him in prime position to potentially win that competition. That's going to be a really good fight the next few weeks, well, the next week. And I do fear for Milan now that that competition is over for him, and it's just a matter of time before either
Starting point is 00:05:46 Matiu or Tade now assert their leadership on that jersey. Yeah, I think I think that, you know, if Milan and Little Drek look back, you know, not being there that first stage, that's going to be expensive. Yeah, that's going to be very expensive. He would probably have been top three in that first stage. And yeah, I mean, Mathieu van der Poel, what a writer.
Starting point is 00:06:13 I mean, still, you know, it's not going to be easy. I think personally that probably the biggest calipers is Tadej, because although there's less points in the, in the, in the hard, in the hard stages of the mountain, but he's going to score points in all of them. You know, you know, there's still, so there's the Ventoux, there's Col de la Lose, there's La Plagne, right? Those are the three main, main hard stages we have left. Then there's, there's Paris where I think Bogacar and Van der Poel have more chances to score points than Jonathan Millan.
Starting point is 00:06:52 And then the other two stages are probably going to be breakaway stages. Maybe the stage after the Vontoo could be maybe a sprint. We don't know. I mean, they kind of have to, right? I mean, Little Trek will have to make sure. Yeah, they've got no choice, have they? They have no choice now. They have to commit everything to this green jersey.
Starting point is 00:07:11 They've got to this point. But the same as De Kurnick, you know, Alpecin, they're going to have everything towards this green jersey competition and the intermediate sprints. Of course we got the Vontu stage. There's an intermediate sprint of 112 kilometers, which is a long way to try and control the peloton for that.
Starting point is 00:07:29 Yeah. But you know, that's their big priority and it has to be their priority in the running to Paris is that green Jersey competition. But it's going to be interesting. It's a great fight. We've got the best GC rider in the world, the best classics rider in the world, and one of the fastest sprinters in the world, all fighting for green. That's quite unique. That's quite unique.
Starting point is 00:07:48 Yeah, it's very unique. Yeah. I mean, it would be amazing also like for Alpecin, right? So they won two stages now, Philipson and Mathieu. And then Philipson crashes out. If they could still win the green jersey with Mathieu, that would be quite something. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, back to today's stage. So, you know, finally, there's this break forming, there was
Starting point is 00:08:13 a lot of confusion, as you said, Bradley, with the crash. And, you know, we had, we had Wout Van Aert and Victor Campenaerts, who obviously had the mission today to go in the breakaway and try to win the stage. And so they were there with today, obviously crashes, you cannot plan for that, right? And I think, okay, as soon as they saw, I think that Jonas was okay. I don't think he went down.
Starting point is 00:08:44 I think he was just held up. Yeah, he was. Or somebody ran into his bike or something because he had to do a bike change afterwards. But as soon as you see that that's okay, I kind of can understand that they didn't call Victor and Wout Von Aert back. It also is telling, I think, that they're focusing now on stage wins. Yesterday with Sepp Kuss and Simon Yates in the break, today with Van Aert and Victor. Does that mean in your opinion that they have given up on winning the Tour de France and that they focus on stage wins?
Starting point is 00:09:20 No, I don't think that they've given up. I think, apart from it, I just think they have to try and deploy a different tactic now and, you know, give riders that have committed themselves and sacrificed their chances to win the stages a chance to just get up the road and see what happens, you know. We know how difficult it is to, you know, your odds of winning a stage from being at a break are very slim even if you're in the break. You know, it's one of the hardest things. You don't get too many opportunities either, which makes Tim Welland's ride today even more impressive because, you know, he's done an incredible job for Tadeu this whole Tour de France.
Starting point is 00:09:59 And yes, he got to sit on a marshall that break today, but regardless of anything, you have to be there. You have to be in a position to win, but he attacked Probably the place you least expect someone to attack and they didn't let him go away that he they rode I think was Bargui was it Bargui was the Yeah, he was hovering, you know free meters meters, five meters, five, six meters, seven meters for a good kilometer. And then he sat up after the hairpin bend. Then you know, Quinn Simmons tried to and so and Tim just did not stop going and going
Starting point is 00:10:38 and going until eventually the elastic broke. So he did it in the hardest way and no one can accuse him of, you know, slipping off the front unnoticed. So, you know, and he took his opportunity and he did 45, 46 kilometers solo and put timing to him all the way to the finish. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, he, it's a copy of what he did in the Belgian Championships with Remco and with Philips and also, I mean, Bradley, you know, people say, oh, you know, he was, um, and, and also, I mean, Bradley, you know, people say, Oh, you know, he was sitting on, but, you know, I mean, people, I don't think, I don't think people really understand how tired these guys, I mean, the, the amount of work Tim Wellens has been doing since
Starting point is 00:11:16 stage one, you know, he, these guys are tired, man, like super tired. And, uh, and you're right. I mean, you know, when he took off, he just broke everybody's legs, man. It was, it was pure on power and it was, it was telling to see. But Gil, you know, he was trying to, all of a sudden he just had to sit down and then you could see, I thought personally, I said, maybe Campagnolo is going to try now he just was on the limit or he had to stay where he was. You know, uh, Quinn Simmons again in the breakaway,
Starting point is 00:11:46 uh, that guy's on some form, right? And he's, you know, he's very aggressive. He gets himself into the, you know, I mean, again, going back to the breakaway, just to make the breakaway as often as he does is something in itself. Yeah. You know, we talk, we often talk daily about, you know, guys want to try and make the breakaway, teams that miss the breakaway. Quinn Simmonds is, I forget, I actually forget how many breaks he's been in in this Tour
Starting point is 00:12:11 de France. Many, many, many. He's very, very consistent. And he just doesn't seem to be able to pull it off when it matters in the end, when the attacks go. We saw it the other day with Ben Healy. We saw it today with Tim Wellens. But you know, it's a learning experience, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:12:26 You know, it's a learning experience getting in those brakes and learning, you know, how to decipher the winning move and where to expend your energy. And if you are riding through and someone's sitting on you, where to anticipate them attacking. And so, you know, Quinn has got many years ahead of him, but no one can fault him for his aggressive riding in this tour. anticipate them attacking. And so, you know, Quinn has got many years ahead of him, but no one can fool him for his aggressive riding in this tour.
Starting point is 00:12:48 No, I spoke with him briefly at the, when I was at the tour, you know, and I told him, I said, man, you have to believe you have a stage win in your legs. You know, you just need to be a little bit more calm, you know? And I think that's, I mean, I'm not going to say mistakes. It's, it's, It's kind of normal because this is completely new for him, but he's so strong and he's showing too much his strength. Especially if you look at, rather you look at some point there were eight guys, right? So first of all, it was Quinn Simmons, Michael Sturr,
Starting point is 00:13:16 Victor Campenaerts, Tim Wellens. Already there, having Campenaerts and Wellens there, that's like a red flag. You need to say, okay, I need to be careful here. I need to really, really, really be conservative. Then after that, you know, Warren Barguil, Lulzenko, Carlos Rodriguez and Vlasov joined. I mean, those eight riders,
Starting point is 00:13:34 that's like top, top, top of the world. And Quinn is so strong that, for example, when Sterner went on that steep climb, he was the guy who tried to close it down. I mean, at that point, I think he should probably have a little bit more, maybe be more cold blooded and say, okay, hey, you know, it's still far to go. I'll let Campenaert because you know, Campenaert is going to take his tempo. He's going to come back, you know, especially after seeing how good he climbs yesterday on the Superbarniera, right? So, they's still...
Starting point is 00:14:07 Do you know what? It was actually funny, Johan, watching Tim away. I was reminded of my teenage years watching Ludo Dierksen, God rest in peace, who died this year, win in a very similar manner in the Belgium Championship Jersey. Yeah, and it's always a special to win as national champion in the tour, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:14:25 Man. Yeah. I think it's a nice thing. To display that jersey is incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now for listening for Tim Wellens, this is great. You know, this is amazing, but to win it in the, we call it the tri-color, you know, the tri-color, I think it's probably one of the best championship jerseys in the peloton. Yeah, you're right. Ludo Dirksen won, was it 2000 or 1999? 98 I think. 99 maybe. Not 99, not 98, 99 or 2000. Also a solo attack, I think about 30-35k from the finish.
Starting point is 00:15:04 He was riding for Lampre. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember the last Belgium, the last rider to win in the Belgium national champion jersey in the Tour de France? Probably Wout van Aert. Mon Ventoux.
Starting point is 00:15:19 Yeah. Wout van Aert, Mon Ventoux, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That was, that was vintage. I mean, there was the Wout in his prime, no one, no one too, wow. Yeah, wow. Yeah, that was vintage. I mean, there was the Wout in his prime, you know, he won a big mountain stage, he won the time trial and a bunch of people on the show.
Starting point is 00:15:33 That's crazy. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. But also, I mean, Bradley, you know, what we see is, I mean, this is how much all of this has changed and how much the level of everybody is unbelievably high. Like a stage like today, normally. Let's say you have those four or those eight riders, right?
Starting point is 00:15:54 That's like, normally that's like game over. Everybody knows, okay, these eight guys are gone. We're done. We're done. We're just, you know, sitting up. Nobody's sat up. You know, you'd have rolled in 20 minutes down 20 years ago. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:08 And here, here we still have, you know, because the group behind, behind them, I mean, like, Wout and Alaphilippe, I mean, they came back very late in the stage, you know, they just keep going. Incredible. It's amazing, doesn't it Al? How much it has changed. You know, yeah, when you think that this whole Tour de France so far, the break that has got the most time in a breakaway to the finish line is probably the day Ben Healy was that right? Was that
Starting point is 00:16:36 probably probably that was, you know, they rolled in three minutes down four minutes down. Yeah, yeah. And at some point, at some point, I think they got like five minutes, five or six minutes, but no break has gotten like a lot, a lot of time. Uh, we'll see what happened, but I mean, the way this is going, the there's, there's in theory, there's two other stages where a breakaway can, can go. I mean, a part of mountain stages, of course, but you know, like the two
Starting point is 00:17:01 other stages, it could be a breakaway breakaway day. And I'm, I'm, I'm going to guess they're not going to get a lot of time. They're going to have to really, really fight for it. Before we go on about Tim Wellens, I want to talk about a ketone IQ, our presenting sponsor. It's widely known that ketones are very, very used now in the Peloton in many endurance sports. It's been scientifically proven that ketones boost athletic performance in a placebo controlled study with trained athletes. Ketone IQ boosted average sprint power by 19%, peak power by 13%, cut fatigue by 10% and spiked blood ketones five times in just 20 minutes. On top of that, they've discovered
Starting point is 00:17:47 that ketones help for a faster recovery, very much needed in the Tour de France. Ketone IQ recently teamed up with team Visma Lisebaik and with the University of Leuven to explore recovery and high altitude adaptation. Their key findings improve blood flow, higher muscle oxygenation for better endurance and stamina. So take your shot, get 20% off your order at ketone.com slash The Move and use the code The Move at checkout. So that's ketone.com slash The Move with the code The Move. Tim Wellens, let's talk about him for probably for the rest of the show, because he's in that break.
Starting point is 00:18:31 He goes with 44 kilometers from the finish. And as we said, he basically, he went and at that moment, I heard an interview of, did you hear the interview of Victor Kampenard after the finish? He said, you know, Tim Wellens, you know, he says, as soon as he knew that Tim Wellens was there, he said, I'm really getting along with Tim Wellens, you know, off the bike. But on the bike, I know
Starting point is 00:18:58 he's one of the strongest opponents and also a sneaky and crafty guy in breakaways, which turned out to be the case. The guy knows how to, how, how to race, right? Um, I, I, I thought, I mean, finally, you know, Campenaerts comes in second, um, and he's, you know, he's showing incredible, incredible form, but man, Wellens, uh, he just, he just went faster and faster and faster. And then, rather, I just want to talk, talk a little bit about the relationship with Tadej Pogacar. We heard him several times on the radio, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:32 So obviously he got the information that Tim was away. Yeah. And... Yeah, I mean, you can see that they're... How close they are. I wonder if they're rooming together on this Tour de France. So, well, you know, cause they seem to have a very, very good relationship and you could see how happy Tadej was that Tim Wellens was off the front.
Starting point is 00:19:53 And he said, was he something along the lines, zip that Belgium champ's jersey up, show it off. He said, well, what did he say again? Does Tim tell Tim he looks fantastic or something like that. I mean, it's nice to see how the leader wants one of those loyal, great teammates to win, you know how much it means. I mean, we already saw early in the first week that today actually wanted Tim to be on the podium in the pocket of the league.
Starting point is 00:20:23 It seems a long time ago. Yeah, it was a long time ago. Yeah, I mean, that's actually how much in control UAE is, right? We hear Tadej over the radio asking information about his teammate who's up the road. So how nice is that? Was it their fifth stage win of the race now? They already won four, right? So he, uh, did he win four? Four. I think so. Yeah. It's their fifth is there and it's not finished. It's not finished. No. And it's funny, you know, I saw how in control you are now of this race as a team as well And they seem very calm collected and they really recovered well
Starting point is 00:21:10 From they looked a bit disorganized a week ago when they lost Almeida We were a bit concerned about them that they were short on numbers Yeah, but my god They've stepped up in the last few days in the Pyrenees and it helps when you've got a leader like Tade winning as he does But yeah Novars is that is that that how you pronounce it? Narvájs. Narvájs, sorry. He's excelled without Almeida there. Tim Wellens has been a rock this last
Starting point is 00:21:34 couple of weeks. But Siakov, he was doing a great job in the mountains yesterday, going back, getting the rain capes on the Tourmalet. Soléa has stepped up as well. They've all stepped their game up. the tourmalet. Soler has stepped up as well. They've all stepped their game up. Neil Spollett. Neil Spollett, yeah, another one. But you know, I think that is also the mark of someone like Tadej. How vocally he is on the radio with everyone. He makes everyone else feel 10 times bigger.
Starting point is 00:22:00 And his demeanor as a leader around those other guys has brought them up. That's a sign of a good leader, isn't it? Yeah. And I think sometimes, you know, there is a difference between Jonas has a different way of leading, very quiet, very, you know, leads by example on the bike and stuff, but there is, it's just his interest. There's no right way of leading a team. I think everyone has their own styles and it's reflective of your personality and your character. but Jonas has definitely made everyone around him feel 10 feet taller. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tadej you mean, Tadej.
Starting point is 00:22:31 Tadej, sorry, Tadej. Yeah, yeah. No, no, I mean, I think it's the secret of a team with a guy, first of all, who's in the yellow jersey. You know, I mean, Bradley, you've been in that situation, you had the yellow jersey and your teammates were in front of you, you know, and especially the last week, man, the last week of a Grand Tour and even in the Tour more, I mean, you know, after two weeks, everybody's dead. They're all super tired. We know there's a difference between suffering and, you know, being in the race and actually, you know, having to undergo what another team decides. And then there's the difference between being the teammates of the leader.
Starting point is 00:23:13 They're all suffering, but you look back and you see that yellow Jersey in New wheel. It's a different way of suffering. It's different. And, um, and you can see this, you can see this with UAE. To me, one of the guys who impresses me the most is Niels Pollet, Bradley. That guy, he was pulling the whole Tourmalet yesterday. You can clearly see, there's many different objectives in the race, but for a mountain stage, there's probably 20 guys who want to do a good performance
Starting point is 00:23:49 and the rest is just hanging in there. And when it really starts to hurt, they're getting dropped or they're looking for a group. But yeah, I mean, with the guy like Pogacar, it's a different, I mean, it's a pleasure to suffer. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:09 Yeah. I mean, I was going to ask you actually, speaking of leaders, what has been the reaction in Belgium of Remco's withdrawal from the race yesterday? I've seen a few things in the British media and stuff, but more importantly in Belgium, what's been the reaction to his withdrawal? I mean, you know, obviously, first of all, it's disappointment, right? Everybody was hoping that he could at least be on the podium again. And of course, because I've seen a fair bit of criticism on other networks about his withdrawal and about really questioning
Starting point is 00:24:40 his character as to whether he climbed off too early, whether he needed someone to just tell him to get on with it and things like that. So that's why I was asking. It's interesting to see. I've seen those comments too, even from some people who are commenting on TV, ex-professional cyclists. Yeah, I think that's the same one. Yeah. I don't, I mean, listen, there's only one person who knows or his team who knows what's going on. And, you know, there's obviously something going on with his, with his fitness.
Starting point is 00:25:11 If he's sick or getting sick, whatever, or not recovering, you know, we cannot, I think we cannot judge on that. Listen, and the way, the way I can see it in three days in a row, really, really having a bad day, I think he did the right thing. I think he did the right thing. It serves nothing that he stays in the race to be in the groupetto. I mean, you know, especially Bradley, the way things, the cycling has changed, it's not like, it's not like all of a sudden you're out of GC and you, because you're a little off, you're not even good because you're a little off.
Starting point is 00:25:46 You're not even good enough anymore to go and breakaways and try to win the stage. It's the level so high that the stage wins are unbelievably difficult. For all the criticism and people pitching in and saying what they think, only Remco knows how he's feeling. Exactly. And who are we to question him really? He'll make the decision, it's his career, and he'll make the decision and again, eight weeks from now, nine weeks from now, we could be talking about him as just winning the world title and it's all forgotten.
Starting point is 00:26:19 Exactly. Well, it often, I mean, like big champions. And I mean, and especially guys with a champion mentality, which Remco is, right? Sometimes they get knocked down and then they come back like, you know, like. OK, say, wow, you know, this is this is just amazing. He's that kind of guy, right? I mean, I think a lot depends, especially for the World Championships in Rwanda about Polacar's intentions, how he recovers. I mean, I'm assuming he wants to go to the World Championships again,
Starting point is 00:26:53 to make it to the end of the row. I mean, I wonder, is there any possibility he might do the Vuelta? You know, there is, I mean, one thing is for sure, any possibility he might do the Vuelta? Or is it, you know... You know, there is... I mean... One thing is for sure, I mean, of course, and it can always change after the tour, but from the beginning of the year, Jonas has the Vuelta on his calendar.
Starting point is 00:27:16 So... Pulácsar has been talked, it's not been confirmed, but there's been talks that he was going to do the Vuelta. Yeah. Pogacar has been talked, it's not been confirmed, but there's been talks that he was going to do Vuelta. I think Pogacar is in this to check out, check off little objectives. So Vuelta is the only ground tour that he's missing right now. He's won the Giro, he's won the tour, he's probably going to win a fourth time now. So having the Vuelta as soon as possible, but obviously check that box. And you know, what would be better than doing the Vuelta against his biggest rival, right? I mean, if, if today goes to the Vuelta and Jonas is not there,
Starting point is 00:27:57 well then, you know, then, okay, well, it's not, you know, it's not going to be a race. Yeah. Yeah. But I personally think he's going to prioritize the worlds. Yeah. Speaking of prioritizing, I get the sense that Tadej has had Mont Ventoux on his radar for a while now, this last few days. And as we were saying on the main show, if there's one stage you want to have on your Palmares in the Tour de France, it's Mont Ventoux, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:28:27 Mont Ventoux. It's epic. It's, you know, it's the monster of a climb. And as we said in the other day, Bradley, you know, I mean, it looks to me like Taddei has chosen the stages where he has been beaten to make a statement. Yeah. where he has been beaten to make a statement. I mean, at least that's, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's, I think it's Vantho and Calderla-Lose. Those are his two main goals in my opinion,
Starting point is 00:28:54 because that's, he got dropped there from Jonas, and I mean, didn't lose the tour, but it was, you know, he was dropped and then Calderla-Lose, of course, he lost the tour there. So- Do you know what would be interesting, Johan, if he has indeed marked Mont Ventoux and in the way he races and he has raced on these climbs all year, Dauphiné the other day on Hotecum, if he goes early on Mont Ventoux, and we know how hard that is up to Chalet-Renault,
Starting point is 00:29:24 I mean, it's an average 10%, something like that. Yeah. I think you can say the possibility of how much time do you think he could take on Mont Ventoux if he goes early? We could be talking minutes. Yeah. But it also suits Jonas, this climb as well, we have to say. Yeah, the question is, you know, is it necessary? It's not
Starting point is 00:29:43 necessary to go early, right? I mean, I've said Bradley since many months, you know, the way Pogacar is racing this year and the level he has, if he races conservatively and makes no mistakes, there's nobody who can beat him. So I would definitely recommend him to not do anything stupid. There's no need to go from early on and set the fastest time of Ventoux because it can backfire. Ventoux is a very strange climb. I mean, we've all done it, but to me it's a climb that it's the most difficult to understand. You have it's like 10 kilometers, 10 percent, 9-10 percent. You get out of the forest and then you have these six and a half,
Starting point is 00:30:26 seven kilometers where... With the wind, depending on the wind direction as well. You can feel like you're riding against a wall all of a sudden. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I have no doubt that he can win on Ventoux, but he doesn't have to attack early on. He does. He does for our entertainment. he doesn't have to attack early on. He does, he does for our entertainment. No, I mean, listen, with this guy, it's crazy. Anyway, back to Tim Wellens. I just wanted to point out also before, I mean, first of all,
Starting point is 00:30:59 Tim Wellens wins the stage, Campenaert second, Julien Alaphilippe. You know, he comes back very late, beats Wout Van Aert in the sprint and thinks he has won, which was strange to see. So afterwards we hear the director say that since the crash, his radio was beat up and didn't have any radio communication anymore. But I mean, that's where you see how much these, I mean, and if you look at the images, right, no radio communication, so he's in that group.
Starting point is 00:31:35 Wellens, for example, it's possible, he couldn't have seen it, but Campenaerts was just in front, no? Yeah, yeah. But he comes from behind Wout. So it's possible he didn't, he didn't see him. Um, I mean, what a comeback. I mean, he was, when he, you didn't see the, did you see the crash? I saw the pictures afterwards of him late sitting on the floor and looked like he did holding his shoulder. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:01 Um, but anyway, Tim Valence, uh, I, I, I did a bit of research. So he is not the first writer in the first person in his family to win into the France stage. So his dad, his dad is Leo Wellens. He was a professional cyclist, wrote for some Spanish teams. Then there's Johan Wellens, that's his uncle, who was a professional. And then Paul Wellens was the best of the three. So his uncle wrote for Raleigh, the big Raleigh team. His uncle won two stages in the Tour de France and also won the Tour of Switzerland and many other races.
Starting point is 00:32:40 So he keeps the family tradition of winning Tour de France stages open. So anyways, nice, super nice win. Bradley, anything else you want to add? No, no, I think I'm just looking forward to Mont Ventoux now. It's going to be an exciting stage. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, flat-h. I mean, you cannot, you can never say flat, you know, because we know how, how, you know, up and down it is over there, but you know, it's, it's, it's, uh, they call it a mono Puerto or uni Puerto. So just one climb, right. Um, but what a climb.
Starting point is 00:33:19 Yeah. I mean, and on top of that, I mean, in the Tour de France, the amount of people there are on the Ventoux, I really mean, in the Tour de France, the amount of people there are on the Ventoux, I really mean, I'm pretty sure you remember the moment you take that left turn, what's it called? Saint-Esteve. Saint-Esteve. The little village.
Starting point is 00:33:34 You take a left and it's like, up here, like straight and people, people, people everywhere. Before we talk about, I mean, tomorrow's the rest of the day, but let's do our daily Ventum trivia, Bradley. Yesterday's question was about the Tourmalet. The Queen of the Pyrenees needs no introduction. The Tourmalet is the most climbed mountain. In what year was its first feature in the Tour de France? The answer was 1910.
Starting point is 00:34:07 So very early, after the seventh edition already, they went on the Montsouris. Imagine, but that must have been with those bikes badly. I know, it's hard to imagine. That's what's so great about the Tour de France, isn't it? That we still go over this pass and nothing's changed other than the road surface. It's what makes it such a great race.
Starting point is 00:34:26 It's the same with Mont Ventoux, you know, in two days time, Mont Ventoux, you know, it's 60 years this year since Tommy Simpson won the world title. And of course, two years after he won the world title, he lost his life on Mont Ventoux. So, you know, and we're going up it again and the riders are going up in the same manner that Tom went up trying to do, win the Tour de France and he lost his life that day. And it's, um, that's what makes this race so special. It's why we love it. It's because of the people that have gone before us.
Starting point is 00:34:53 Can you imagine in 1910 going up the Tour de Malais with those bikes? So no derail you. I can't. No, no, no. It's hard enough with the bikes today. I mean, it's crazy. It's just unbelievable. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:07 Question for today. Stage 15 question. Which rider holds the record for the longest successful solo breakaway starting from Carcassonne in 1947? So in 1947, there was a stage starting from Carcassonne. Who's the rider who holds the record for the longest successful breakaway? There's four choices.
Starting point is 00:35:30 So there's a multiple choice question. A, Louison Bobe. B, Albert Bourlon. C, Jean Robic. And D, André May. So one of those four writers has the longest successful solo breakaway. Send your best guess to Ventumracing.com slash the move and you can enter into this year's contest a grand prize of $5,000 store credit towards any Ventum bike you want to purchase.
Starting point is 00:36:02 If you don't want to wait until the end of the tour, Ventum is also offering a standing discount for the remainder of the tour. On the whole side, 10% off with the code the move 10 and 20% off if you want to purchase an NS1 road bike with the code NS120. All right, Bradley, rest day tomorrow. I've heard in the show that you're going to ride up Independence Pass tomorrow with your NS1.
Starting point is 00:36:33 I'm going to try on my Ventum NS1, yes. Give it a run out. My only motivation for climbing, Johan, is to enjoy the descent back down. That's good. That's good. Anyway, listen, anybody who has won the Tour de France will go up that climb. I mean, you won the Tour, so, you know, as long as you have time and you're not in a hurry, I'm sure you will have a blast. Yeah, it'll be good. Okay, Bradley, we'll be back for the Mont Ventoux tomorrow, the day after. Thanks, as every day, and speak soon. Speak soon, man. See you later.

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