THEMOVE - Tour de France Stage 19 | The Sir Wiggo & Johan Show

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Sir Bradley Wiggins peel back the curtain on the tactics, strategy, and pivotal moments that shaped Stage 19 of the 2025 Tour de France, offering sharp analysis and insider perspective you won’t hear anywhere else. Zwift: Zwift just made it easier than ever to get on the virtual roads. All Zwift-ready trainers come with the new Zwift Cog and Click installed, making them ready to ride from the box - no extras needed. Zwift-ready trainers start at just $299, meaning anyone can jump into world-class indoor training without breaking the bank. No excuses. Just ride! https://zwift.com 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/

In terms of Fisma today, right? I think, I think somebody, I mean, did they listen to our show when yesterday you said, you know, they should do, they should do something that they haven't tried yet, which is basically do nothing. That's what they did. They did, um, but there was no end result for doing that. You know, I kind of feel like that worked had they won the stage and the stage was within touching distance. Oh yeah, yeah.

And you know, if Jonas was prepared to lose everything in this tour in the previous days to not finish second and try and win the tour, we understood that. But I kind of feel like he should have thrown everything today to win the stage because he could have stopped with 5k to go and had a coffee and still not lost a podium place here at the time, you know. I'm the 2012 Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins. And I'm Johan Bruniel. 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. As every day presented by Ketone IQ, we're going to talk about stage 19, shortened stage today. We'll talk about that in a minute. We'd finished on La Plana, the last big mountain stage. We expected some fireworks. We had some, but probably not in the right groups. I'm here with Brad Lewickens, as every day.

Brad, what's your main takeaway of today's stage? Probably the stalemate between the top guys. We saw Tadej attack on the climb in the final. Jonas was able to stay with him. I didn't expect, well, I was hoping Jonas wouldn't attack Tadej at that point and do what he's done every other stage, but I did think that he had a chance to win the stage today. And Arrowsman was floating there seven seconds, eight seconds just in front. I kind of feel like if he opened up his sprint 100 meters earlier than he did, he would have got him on the line and won a stage.

And I can't for the life of me understand why they didn't at least attempt to do that. Yeah. To salvage something in this Tour de France. Yeah. Yeah. For me, that's the main takeaway also. You know, of course we have Arlansman as a nice stage winner, second stage win. But the anti-climax a bit, right? Between those two guys. And especially I think here the weight of this was on Jonas because Tadej didn't have to attack with a four minute, 25 second advantage.

Bradley, you want to talk about the first sponsor? Yeah, I was going to say, I was going to ask you why you thought that Taddei did attack, but we'll talk about that in a bit. I'll talk about our first sponsor. Anyway, we're sponsored by Zwift. This show is sponsored by Zwift. Zwift recently rolled out its new cog and click product. You can use it on almost any bike. You already own even one from Walmart.

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making them ready to ride from the box, no extras needed. And if you did you know that now outdoor rides count towards your Zwift fitness score and trends, all you need to do is link your bike computer to Zwift Companion app. It's that big a development for Zwift. Bradley, we start the stage, I mean, we got the news yesterday evening, right? That the stage was going to be shortened because there was a...

Dead cow in the road. Actually a cow disease on the coldest easy. I mean, already that I would think, you know, if you still have a plan to attack, uh, shortening the stage, getting a climb out or two climbs out, it kind of, I mean, this was obviously in the, in the, in the favor of the guy who was in the lead, but, but it's still plenty hard, you know, instead of 4,500 meters was 3,900 meters of elevation. Still, still a big mountain stage and only 95 kilometers, so full speed

from the start. Before we get to the climb, we have, as we expected, a little trek. Doing the first 12, 13 kilometers, I guess, Jonathan Milane wins the sprint and secures, I think it was already secured yesterday. Now for sure, the green jersey. And then we get to the first climb straight away. It's this Col du Pré, which was the horse category climb, which was really hard, really hard. And straight away we see the attacks going

left, right and center. The first guy I was surprised to see in the move was Primos. What did you think when you saw Primos go? Yeah, I mean, with a short stage like that, he had nothing to lose. We've seen he's got better every day in this tour. And I did think it was an opportunity for him not knowing who would chase and if anyone would chase as hard as they did to potentially get a stage win in this tour. And I think that was that was purely it. Primos, he's tried everything

else this tour in terms of climbing up the GC slowly. He's got a teammate who's on the podium, who looks secure on the podium. So I think that was his attempt to try and win a stage in this tour, not knowing that UAE would chase as hard as they did. Yeah, yeah, I can understand the initial idea of attacking and getting away. I'm a bit critical about what happened afterwards because I mean, it's a great opportunity to try to win the stage. And if you get the distance and the room, of course, Primoz has the capabilities to win a stage like this. But I think that once they were off the Col du Pré, after the downhill of the Roselan, Primoz was there in no man's land for a long time. By then, I think, it was clear that UAE wanted to keep it tight. We even saw also Unix start to pace because VocaLine was dropped and Johanneson could get up.

So then I think it was clear that there was no stage when available. And I think the director should have said to Primoz, okay, that's it. We're not trying anymore because there's still the risk that Florian Dipowicz was under pressure from Oscar only. I think they should have called him back, you know, not spend, I mean, at least be there in the first part of La Plana. Because those 20 kilometers that Primoz did there on his own were obviously that was suicide. He would not win the stage and he was not able to do anything for Florian Lippowicz.

So yeah, just to be a bit critical, right? And it's of course always easy to criticize when you see the results, but not great tactics from the car, I would say. So then, you know, once we saw UAE was controlling Bradley, I was thinking, okay, this is going to be, you're going to run into the call of La Plana and UAE had more riders than Visma, if I'm not mistaken. Jonas had one or two, they had like four, no? Yeah. And they were riding hard. Tim Wellens was riding really hard today to keep that gap down. And then, you know, I think we were all thinking what would happen.

It's very similar to Hotecam. We hit the climb and Tadej did make that move. And he made it good. But once he, you know, he seems to back off again like he normally does. And I thought that that was just testing the waters to see what everyone had and that he would soon go again. But that wasn't to be. And Jonas, for the first time,

didn't attack off the back of it. Yeah. And that is from that point onwards then that the tactics sort of went out the window. The textbook or what we thought would happen, that's where the anti-climax began. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was a bit, you know, I mean,

we could say disappointing, but you know, let's also not forget this is after three weeks of racing and, you know, and especially if, I mean, it's clear that Pogacar obviously doesn't have the freshness that he had in the Pyrenees. That's, you know, that's obvious. And so, you know, if you don't really have to, then I think, you know, he just wants to play it safe. You know, he won four stages already. It's not going to change anything. And he knows that if he doesn't do anything wrong, he's winning the tour. Yeah. So anyways, before we start to talk about the last climb, Bradley, I want to talk about our presenting sponsor, Ketone IQ, as every day. Ketones are

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and with the University of Leuven to explore recovery and high altitude adaptation. Their key findings improve blood flow, higher muscle oxygenation, and better endurance and stamina. So take your shot, get 20% off your order at ketone.com slash the move using the code the move ketone.com slash the move with the code the move. Okay, Bradley, as you said, we get to La Plana. Tim Wellens, I mean, what can we say about this guy? He was pulling in the valley. He pulled super, super hard at the start of La Plana and not much happens, right?

Not much happened except the only thing we saw was Roglic get dropped at the bottom, normal, and then Decathlon takes over and they set the pace for Felix Gaud, which worked out fine. I mean, I think the interesting thing on Laplagne was more the races within the race for fifth, for third, than the battle for the win. Yeah, yeah. That's the way it looked, didn't it? But you know what?

In this Tour de France, nothing really makes sense anymore in the way the riders race, the tactics that are deployed. It goes against sort of the traditions of cycling in terms of what you think is going to happen. And that makes it more exciting. It keeps us questioning things all the time. But when it comes down to it, there's only two riders that have anything in this tour. And hats off to Aresman today. He took his opportunity right at the right time and committed.

And he's won both his stages like that in this tour. Yeah. Personally, I think that today's stage, Bradley, today's stage of Aaronsman is more impressive because he went away from the group of favorites. He didn't go from a breakaway. Right? On Superbanière, he

was in a breakaway and he kept it. But this was really impressive. I mean, even if, I mean, he's a guy who's not in GC, so obviously he knows that when those two guys go full gas, now the question is, and this is probably why Aaronsman had a chance, is that they tried once, but then afterwards, he never went full gas. No, he didn't. Right. But once Haddie was riding on the front, he was bringing the gap down himself. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But I think he was not, I mean, he was obviously, we can talk, I mean, I want to talk a little bit about the Visma tactics. I just want to highlight what a performance of Arndt's month. Two stage wins, one in the Pyrenees, one in the Alps, first Tour de France, still a young rider. And basically Arndt's month saves the Tour de France for Ineos. He has done, yeah.

I mean it's sort of the resurgence of him really because he hasn't done much for a few years has he since that Vuelta stage win when he was up there on GC as well. But he's come to the fore this year and he's really come of age. And it's so easy to dip your head off if you've won a stage of the tour and just ride groupetto and say your tours. So to come out again today and target this and ride the way he did, that's very impressive. But you know, I think that's got a lot to do with the team he's in. Brelsford perhaps being back on the race, you know, Brelsford were to rally the troops

and made sure they didn't dip their heads. We spoke about them the other day when they were riding on the front and we couldn't question, understand why they were doing that, but they were always looking to perform a role of some sort and play a part in the race and then they've done that. They've come away with two stage wins. What I really find impressive about Arltsman, also Bradley, is let's not forget, you know, this guy did the Giro and he was actually going for GC in the Giro and it didn't work out.

You know, it was a disappointment and he came to the tour just to check what it was. He goes away with two stage wins. That's pretty impressive. Crazy. It just shows you, doesn't it, how cycling works sometimes. Yeah. It was nice to see. I mean, I just saw a little clip after the finish.

He was interviewed by Michael Bogert, who was the Dutch guy who also won La Plagne. He won La Plagne, if I'm not mistaken, in 2000. Maybe five. I don't remember now. It was five. I think it was 2005. Yeah. Ex-teammate think it was 2005. Yeah. Ex teammate of mine in Rabobank.

Great writer, great writer. But yeah, I mean, I was listening a bit to the Dutch commentary on Eurosport and it was very, very exciting. They were pushing, pushing. Yeah. So Bradley, Arnsman wins. Jonas second, Pogacar third. More importantly, Lipowicz secures third place. I think that was the race of the day basically. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So unfortunately, Oscar only didn't have it today. I mean, still great performance,

but Lipowicz was just a bit better. Yeah, he just slipped off in the last couple of K there, Oskar. He does a great tour. And I think if you'd have told him at the start of this tour, you're going to finish fourth, he'd have took that. But I tell you who, I mean, Lipovic surprised me today because he's had a few tough days by his own admission. Yeah. And he's made those tough days himself. Like yesterday, he had half the stage riding on his own. So to recover and be consistent as he has done

through the mountains and through three weeks of a grand tour, you know, he's well deserved for that third place. And the guy has a big engine, the guy has a huge engine because you know, you could also see once he saw that because there was not an attack, just Oscar only, just couldn't hold the rhythm anymore. He looked back, he was on the radio asking

and they told him to go pace. I mean, then he paced basically to the finish. I thought personally that was gonna be the guy who was going to prevent Arendsman from winning the stage because if it was Jonas who had to go himself, I mean, he was going to wait. So yeah, super, super impressive performance of Lepib. It's also Felix Gall moving up to fifth place.

Also really, really good. And Tobias Johansson moving up to sixth place for Unix. I mean, that is quite the tour also. Yeah. And Vaklan, he just suffered in this last, he suffered in the Alps, hasn't he? And dropped a little bit more every day. Yeah. We could see that coming.

Bit by bit, you know, he got worse and worse and today he cracked. I mean, he's still in the top 10. I think he would have taken that before the start of this Tour de France. Yeah. Big surprise for me. And another ride of the day was Ben Healy secure in top 10. Very impressive. He just very, very impressive.

Yeah. He's just incredible. Yeah. Very impressive. He was hanging on there. I mean, the guy can climb, man. I mean, he's, he's fighting for top 10, but he was there with the top seven, eight, you know, um, now what I want to ask you, Bradley, uh, in terms of, of Visma

today, right? I think somebody, I mean, did they listen to our show when yesterday you said, you know, they should do something that they haven't tried yet, which is basically do nothing. That's what they did. They did. But there was no end result for doing that. I kind of feel like that worked had they won the stage. And the stage was within touching distance.

Oh yeah, yeah. And if Jonas was prepared to lose everything in this tour in the previous days, to not finish second and try and win the tour, we understood that. But I kind of feel like he should have thrown everything try and win the tour. We understood that. But I kind of feel like he should have thrown everything at today to win the stage because he could have stopped with 5K to go and had a coffee and still not lost a podium place here at the time.

True, true, true, true, true. Yeah, and he had to sprint 50 meters earlier. Yeah, well, I mean, it's not just about that because that's difficult to calculate, right? I mean, I did wonder whether in the back of his mind, because that was the first stage he's beaten Tadej on a summit finish in this tour. I wonder in the back of his mind whether he thought if he went earlier, Tadej would come with him, Tadej would go over the top,

Tadej would win the stage and he still would lose the stage. And I wonder if there was some sort of, well, you know, we're not going to take you to a stage win. If you wanna win the stage, you have to go yourself. I mean, I don't know. That's the only thing I could think of. No, I know. I mean, I don't know if he really thought

that Pogacar was gonna bring him to Arensman and then beat him in the sprint. I saw a quote here of Grisha Nirmann, who was interviewed about today and he says, it was close but unfortunately we didn't win, said Grisha Nirmann, head of racing of Vismalisa Bike. What was our plan? To follow because we were sure that UAE and Tadej would go for the win.

It was no longer possible to make up four minutes 30 today. We wanted to win and this was the way to beat Tadej to make him work. But he clearly wanted to win himself and they miscalculated. Hats off to Taim and Ars Manae Neos. I think the guy who miscalculated was Jonas, not Tadej. So, I mean, yeah, listen, it's debatable. They tried something different. He did beat Pogacar, but he didn't win the stage. So, yeah, you can't really be satisfied with that, I think, right? No, no, no.

And that's the Alps done now, isn't it? Yeah, that's basically, I mean, okay, we know that the GC is over. Tomorrow is a difficult phase. Before we talk about tomorrow, I want to talk about our daily Ventum trivia. Here we go. So the question about yesterday was a recent addition to the high mountain finishes at the Tour. The Col de la Loze is quickly gaining infamy for decisive duels and GC Jacobs.

What feature of this climb makes it unique amongst other climbs used in the Tour? What feature makes it unique? And the answer is it features a bike only section to the summit purposely built for the Tour de France. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Today's question about stage 19 is, in the final kilometers of the difficult climb to La Plagne, riders will pass another historic Alpine sporting venue.

What is it? Riders will pass another, or have passed, another historic Alpine sporting venue on the climb of La Plagne. What is it? Riders will pass another or have passed another historic Alpine sporting venue on the climb of La Plagne. What is it? Send your best guests to VentumRacing.com slash the move and you enter into this year's grand prize contest $5,000 of store credit towards any Ventum bike you want to buy. You don't want to wait until the end, until Sunday. There's still a standing discount running. 10% off the whole site using the code, the move 10 and 20% off any NS1 build with the code NS120.

Tomorrow's stage, Bradley. We can see the profile here. Not an easy stage. I mean, from Nantua to Pontarie, 184 kilometers, 3000 meters of elevation. Yeah, this is a stage, man, I mean, after the Alps to have to do this. Yeah, so many teams still haven't won a stage. It's the last chance for a lot of people barring Paris, which will be a bit different to what it usually is this year.

And that remains to be seen how different, but I think it's going to be like it has been every other day. It's going to be out the blocks. Everyone's going to be trying to get into the breakaway and we could have a decent size group going away tomorrow that everyone completely out of the GC. Or, you know, I can't see it being a sprint of any kind tomorrow. I think it's...

No, there's no chance. No chance. No. It's a good 20 man break, something like that. Yeah, I think it's breakaway for sure. It cannot be a GC day. The battle is over. You know, I mean, nobody's gonna drop anybody of the GC guys.

You know, there's nobody who's gonna get in. Even if those climbs, the first climb is a bit longer, but you know, it's 4%. You're not dropping the guys in the top 10 on climbs of 4%, 6%. So I think it's breakaway. Yeah, yeah. We'll be back to comment about that stage tomorrow. Thank you, Bradley. And see you soon. Okay. See you later, mate.