THEMOVE - Tour de France Stage 8 | The Sir Wiggo & Johan Show

Episode Date: July 12, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Sir Bradley Wiggins peel back the curtain on the tactics, strategy, and pivotal moments that shaped Stage 8 of the 2025 Tour de France, offering sharp analysis and insider perspective you won’t hear anywhere else. Join: No race? No problem. JOIN keeps you riding stronger, just for the love of it. Discover your path at https://join.cc/themove Download JOIN today and transform the way you train. 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/

We're now getting into the WELP domain, the WELP territory. He always comes good nine days into a tour, doesn't he? I think he's going to be in animal mode in the second half of the race. He's going to be, I mean, and we know that this guy just doesn't hold anything back. He's the best. I mean, he's going to want to try to win a stage for sure, but it will not be at the detriment of his function for the team and in critical moments. 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 the Sir Wigo and Johan show, presented by Ketone IQ, like every day. Today, flat stage, 171 kilometers from Saint-Méan-le-Grand to Laval.

And we're going to start as usual by asking Bradley, what is your take of the day? What's your main takeaway of today's stage? Well, today's take of the day was, well, I predicted Milan would win yesterday. I thought it was a sure thing for him. But more importantly, the green jersey competition is shaping up and Milan won the intermediate sprint again today. And now it looks as though his main competitor in this green jersey competition over the next two weeks will be Tadej Pogacar.

As Binigam Gamay fell away a little bit more today, wasn't in the top 10 in the final sprint. So that's my main take, is the green jersey competition now is looking like it's going to be between a sprinter and the main GC guy. Yeah, for sure. I can see that. It's not going to be easy for Milan. The official results are not out yet, but I think today he got 70 points, but he's going to get a penalty of 10 points for something he did. I didn't really see it. He pushed away one rider with 700 meters to go and he's going to get a penalty. But anyways, this was their goal of little track, right? And, uh, sprint stages and green Jersey, but with Bogotar as a rival, this is not going to be easy. Uh, before we start to talk about anything else, I want to talk about, uh,

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and you will get access to the join app 30 days for free. So that's join.cc slash The Move. Bradley, today the stage started from Saint, let me get this pronunciation correct, Saint-Méan-le-Grand. It's the birthplace, I've looked this up, it's the birthplace of triple Tour de France winner and ex-World Champion, French Louisan Baubé. You as a cycling historian, and I know you are and you have an incredible memory, do

you know which years Louisan Baubé won the Tour de France? Baubé, 53, 54 and 55. And was World Champion 54 as well. Wow. Yeah, that's correct. He was an amazing cyclist. He also won four monuments. Only in Les Bastons Lièges is the only monument. He didn't win. And I think you had another stat on him, right? Well, his last Tour de France. So he had a really bad car crash in 1960 and it was a career ending car crash.

But he's lost, he climbed off the bike in, I think it was 59 on the Col des Oran when Coppi attacked to win the Tour de France and climbed off his bike and never rode again. He retired on the spot for a big champion like that. And of course, the Col d'Iseran goes over the top and finishes in Val d'Isère. Beast of a climb. Beast of a very long, very long. It's where it's where that's the climb that Bernal won the tour in 2019. Was it the Iseran or the Iseran?

Yeah, it was the is it on? Yeah, you know, when it snowed on the descent into yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it was supposed to go up. I still you know what I was talking with Spencer about this the other day, Bradley, I don't know what you think. So this was 2019. Right. So 2018, Grant Thomas had won the tour. And Bernal attacked on the Isaron, he got away. I think, was it with Simon Yates? He got away. He was chasing Yates. And then there was a mudslide and the stage got short. I mean, I'm a big Bernal fan. I love to see him win that tour. but I personally think if this stage would have

gone on, because it was the downhill of the Ilerone, then they had a long valley and then they went up to Tignes. And seeing what was behind, Geraint Thomas, who was not going to work, and there was Kreuzweig, and there was Laurent de Plus, who was pulling for Kreuzweg, and there was some other guys, Alaphilippe even. Alaphilippe was in yellow. Yeah, he was in yellow. Yeah. And so anyway, so they stopped on the top of the Iseran, and that was the finish of that stage. But I think that Bernal would have had difficulties to win that tour if that stage goes to the finish, because he would have problems with that super long valley.

In the cold, snowing as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then, and then the day after, the stage with which was stage 20 was cut short, and was Vincenzo Nibali who won the stage, who was until today, the last Italian, the France stage winner. Six years ago. Six years ago, yeah. Anyway, so today was as we predicted, right? The headwind, flat stage, nothing going on. We had little track and intermarché controlling for Milan and Girmay.

So I thought by myself, you know, it's a really good day for, and I think the majority of the of the riders in the peloton will agree, except the last 30K, which are always super hectic. It was a really good day to recover and also a good day for a guy like Jawah Almeida who crashed yesterday and surprisingly was at the start this morning. Yeah, I mean, so the report came through that he had a non-complicated fracture of his rib. I mean, I know what it's like to break a rib. Have you broken ribs? I did the first, in my last tour to France in 98, I did the first 10 days with three broken ribs.

Yeah, yeah. And this is, yeah. the first 10 days with three broken ribs. And not only that, we saw the abrasions and how cut up he was as well. I mean, he was at the back today, we saw him riding at the back and I think he was fortunate that it was a stage like it was. But part of me just doesn't, you know, you can recover from road rash and things like that and knocks, but you know, is he going to be the oil-mater that we expect of him in the mountains with a broken rib? I mean, I wouldn't put it past him, but at the same time, it's going to be a big loss to Tade.

Yeah. I think we're not going to see the Almeida. We want to see. There's a quote from Machin on Almeida. He says, he's a fighter. He has a broken rib, but it's not a fracture that will impinge him on his breathing. The doctor has given him the all clear to start. Did you ever continue races with broken ribs or fractured ribs? No, there was no chance. You can, you can do it. I mean, my experience personally, and all every single cyclist has had either bruised grips or fractured grips or broken grips. Um, you know, continuing to ride your bike, it's not going to make it worse, but it's definitely kind of not making it, going to make it better because your, your, your ribs

go, you know, every time you breathe, you know, and I think that the problem with broken ribs or even fractured or cracked ribs is initially you kind of feel okay. You can say, okay, okay, it's not, not as bad, but three, four days later when you've done this huge expansion of your, your rib cage, right? Yeah. It starts to inflame and yeah. Yeah. we also saw Marc Soler crash today as well. Yeah, he did. Yeah. It didn't seem to be a bad crash, but hey, listen, I mean, it's the proof Bradley. I mean, the tour is unique. You know, you can have your leader in top shape. If he loses Soler and Almeida, this changes completely.

Do we know something about the Bahrain guys who crashed? It was Mitrago. He was really bad. Yeah, but did he start today? I don't know. Dunbar is out. He's out. Yeah.

What was the change? Did they have a wrist fracture or something? Wrist fracture, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it was a stage, you know, there's really nothing much to report, you know, an easy day for the majority of the stage. And it was, you know, you could see clearly, okay, nobody wanted to go on the break.

We had these two teams controlling, Inter Marché and Little with one rider, I think, one or two riders probably. And we could see that some riders in the peloton had, you know, they were in the wheels recovering. I mean, I think they all needed a recovery day after these hard stages. We've seen that Tadej Pogacar was even in the mood to check in with his team car, his girlfriend, Urska, girlfriend or wife, I don't know if they're married, she's racing in the Giro d'Italia for women and he was checking in with the team car so we have this little clip here

with the team car, so we have this little clip here of today checking in. Today, Urska seventh place at Giro d'Italia stage. 10 in the GC? Wait, wait, we still got half info, maybe ninth, but we will check when we'll be official, we will tell you, okay. And how was Austria? The Turo, Wien, third, Mica. Interesting.

So yeah, he had time to check on that. By the way, first of all, I don't understand, do you understand this? That in the middle of the Tour de France they have the Giro d'Italia for women. Who put this calendar together? It's kind of weird, no? Yeah, I think I don't know how that is constructed, the women's calendar, but obviously they do have the women's Tour de France when we finish here. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know on that one.

It does seem strange, but at the same time it is a different calendar to ours. But I did see something the other week that there was a consideration that they may run the women's Giro to coincide with the men's race or just after, which would make sense, wouldn't it? I think so. I think so. I think they should do the same with all three Grand Tours.

It just makes much more sense, no? Yeah, because the women's Vuelter has already been, hasn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The women's welter has been that that was like before, like in the old days when the G, when the welter was the first grand tour. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, you know, there's not much to report. There was, there was another, another thing before we go into the details of today's stage and the final of today's stage. to the details of today's stage and the final of today's stage. I've seen this comment from today versus Vismalice Bike and Matteo Jurgensen. There was apparently there was an incident

yesterday. And I think it's just an example of what's going on and how stressful it is. So the last the last lap yesterday, just after the first time with the Britannia, there was a feed zone and there was an incident between Pogacar and Jürgensen. They had their soigneurs, Pogacar was on the right side. He was going to his soigneur and then Jürgensen came next to him and basically took it took it took his bottle of for his one year was in front. But I think they both both missed their bottle and there was some pushing going on. So you know, Pogacar said today about this. You know, for me, it was normal, but I don't know what their intention was. They do this a lot of times coming in front

of you in the feed zone, like they are the only ones having the bottles there. Sometimes you have to be patient and stay on the wheel when you're taking bottles and pay respect to everybody. You know, it's not a love affair between UAE and Visma. Where was those comments made? Was that just at the finish? No, it was this morning before the start.

This morning before the start, yeah. I saw the incident, you know, but I think, Bradley, I don't know what you think about this. Okay, an incident like this, it happens. It's obviously not deliberate, not from one guy or the other. It does happen, right? But this tension between them, could this be part of Visma's strategy in the long run to really annoy Pogacar, piss him off and push him to make mistakes? Yeah, I'm not too sure. I'm not too sure on that. I think incidents like that just happen on the road and there's no intention from anyone. I can guarantee that someone like Matteo Jorgensen

wouldn't intentionally do that. And you know, we've seen how stressful and how fast the race has been and half the time when there's a lull in the racing and you're trying to get your drink or your food or your bottle, we know what feed zones are like. I mean, they're, you know, it's... They're mayhem. Yeah. So, I don't think there's much in those, to be honest. But Tadej's comments, when asked about it, you know, he didn't dismiss it, did he?

No. He's clearly a different animal to the one we've seen in any interview in the previous years. Yeah. You know, yesterday he looked quite concerned in his interview. He didn't seem as jovial as he normally does. And there is a different side to Tadej this tour, and an extremely confident side, as

we've seen. But that's also reflected in his body language and the way he's conducted himself. I mean, just like, you know, riding there and asking about his girlfriend or his wife, sorry, excuse me, whatever, whatever they are, the situation they are. But also I saw him sitting on Tim Welland's lap

behind the podium today, having a bit of a fun, you know? And there is a more sort of, which certainly not arrogance, because if anyone's- Confidence, confidence. It's a confidence and it's a, you know, it's a different demeanor. And I like this demeanor of Tade. I think he's warranted it.

But there is more of a sort of public rivalry this year with those two teams than there ever has been. Which can only be good for us watching it. Yeah, yeah. And you know, one of the things I also notice is that, and this is typical for the Tour de France, right? Sometimes Pogacar looks a bit more irritated than normal in interviews.

And this is the Tour de France effect. Everything is blown up out of proportion, magnified, exaggerated. And I just wanted to ask you, Bradley, you have been firsthand in this situation in 2012 when you took the day you took the yellow jersey. I mean, you were the favorite already before this stage, but when you take the yellow jersey, then everything changes, right? You have to do

these press conferences. You have to always ask. I mean, and I think people underestimate how draining this is because, you know, there's nothing else you want to do. Then go back to your hotel to recover and you see the same faces, always the same question, sometimes even stupid questions many times. I would like to ask you to explain a little bit how you manage that. Well, sports journalism for me is dead. I think that anyone can be a journalist these days. You can run a page, a blog, whatever, and feel free to have a comment or an opinion on something, which is fair enough. What I've found difficult to always deal with

was that I felt that some of them or a lot of them, because there's 2,500 journalists, photographers, and cameramen on the Tour de France. That's a lot of people. Do we need that many for a start? Now, half those journalists that are there, or so-called journalists, are really only there, you know, they're blowhards seeking to make currency out of someone, and seeking to make currency out of comments from someone where they get them and they have

the privilege of getting them 10 meters after the finish line or for a six hour stage. And as we all know, I was the best at it. You're not going to be the best version of yourself in terms of what comes out of your mouth. So, you know, and there's people that seek to make currency out of those comments when you're on the tour, and you have to deal with that every day. And once you become aware that those questions are coming and they're coming daily, and I led the race for 14 days,

you know, it can become irritating, particularly the type of questions you get asked, you know, which are, and in my case, when I was leading the tour, the topic of hot conversation was me and Froome and the situation, which is understandable. But once you've covered that situation once and that topic once, you know, there's obviously a rampant need from certain journalists who want to make more of it than it is, if indeed there was. And again, the thing that the psychic journalists seem to get away with is the misquotation of you.

You know, so you can say something that is verbatim and you can see the transcript of it, but they will, as we know, twist, sensationalize and misquote you. And that can become a problem through the tour, particularly if there's something you haven't said. And that's why I asked you about Tadej Pogacar, where those comments came from. And when I listen to a writer give an interview

and I hear what they say verbatim, I'm much more inclined to trust what comes out of their mouth than what I read. Because I don't trust many journalists, if any, if we can still call them journalists. Even these comments that I'm saying now, Johan, I'm sure there'll be a story from. Wigging slams journalists at Tour de France, calls them all a bunch of cunts. Sorry, not actually cunts. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, it's very easy to do.

Anyway, so there we are. That's my take on it, Johan. Yeah, no, it's hard. You know, I mean, it's also one of the things that you have to master if you're the favorite, especially in the Tour de France. The Tour de France is different to anything else. If you're leading the Vuelta or the Giro or you win a big classic, it has nothing to do with the attention that is thrown over you. Of course, Pogacar has won the Tour de France three times now, so he's used to it, but he's becoming a more and more bigger star. He's a global star, isn't he? Yeah, for sure. And yeah, so I think that little irritation sometimes, the irritation after the stage or when they come with a question, sometimes, and you're right, Bradley, I think this little incident

now that we saw in the feed zone, they just want to blow it up. I've seen articles everywhere. Especially in Denmark, it's blown up. Yeah. And I mean, we saw that last week with the potential know, the wanting of a feud or some sort of question as to whether Wout and Wout was giving everything he could to Jonas. And there was a great shot yesterday of Jonas riding back down the finish straight in the opposite direction after the Muda Britann and they both touched hands as Wout was coming through the finish line, which dispels all the crap that was written last week. Of course, yeah.

But good to see Wout up there today, second as well, I have to say. That was amazing. That was impressive. It's one of the stages that a Wout van Aert in like a hundred percent shape would have a really good... I mean, okay, it's Jonathan Milan. You don't beat that guy easily, right? But still, good to see him up there.

This is another reason why, for example, whatever they say, even if you see it come out their mouth, you just said, I want to see the interview. Don't trust that either. Because Waldo said specifically that he was not going to go for the sprint today because he's still not feeling good and he went for it. So he must have been feeling quite good during, during the stage. Yeah. I mean, we haven't seen him in a bunch sprint since I think the Vuelta 24.

Yeah. It's been quite some time, but at the same time, um, we're now getting into the wealth domain, the wealth territory. He always comes good nine days into a tour, doesn't he? I think he's going to be in animal mode in the second half of the race. And we know that this guy just doesn't hold anything back. He's the best. He's going to want to try to win a stage for sure, but it will not be at the detriment

of his function for the team and in critical moments. Before we talk about Jonathan Milan and the sprint and the final Bradley, let's talk about Ketone IQ. Yeah, Ketone IQ of course are our main sponsor here. We've got Ketone IQ is a classic shot, high performance energy, 10 grams of ketones, a clean shot of energy. Ketone IQ plus caffeine, 5 grams of ketones, 100 milligrams of caffeine from green tea, a two-stage energy shot with caffeine to get you going and

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and better stamina. Take your shot, get 30% off your subscription plus a free gift with your second shipment at ketone.com forward slash the move. That's ketone.com forward slash the move. Okay. Um, today's stage. So initially Bradley, not, uh, not much going on boring stage, you know, an

ideal stage to watch and fall asleep on the couch, uh, and there was nothing really happening except the intermediate sprint. Jonathan Milan won that with no contest. You know, it seems like everybody else has except Pogacar. If Pogacar wins the green jersey, it's going to be because it just comes to him. But Merlier, I mean, they were there, but they didn't give it their all. You know, Girmaie was fourth or fifth, I think, they were there, but they didn't give it their all. You know, Girmaille was fourth or fifth, I think, in that sprint. So it's clear that Milan is now, I mean, that's his main goal. That's the biggest goal of the team, I think. And he's the clear favorite of all the sprinters to win the green jersey.

But apart of that, there was nothing except when we saw those two riders of Total Energies go away. Yeah, I call it a TV attack. Well, it's the region of the team, isn't it? It is. It is. Jean-René Bernadot. I mean, I used to live in Nantes when I went to la Française des Jeux. And of course, I used to train every day with Jean-Cyler Robin, who lived there. Okay. All right. So you lived in Nantes?

I lived in Nantes when I first went there because this is the region of Marc Madiou. Marc was from Reynazee. La Moyenne. So I moved there. Good memories actually. Okay. So we saw on the race radio also, I don't know

who it was, the director he says, okay, let's attack, let's honor the race. That's typical, that's a French. On doit honorer la course. Honorer le Tour de France. Do you think that comes from the team? Is it a sponsor call or as some may suggest, I mean, it's maybe a bit farfetched, but could

it be a request of ASO to say, hey, this is a boring stage? You know, I don't think it would have come from ASO. I tell you what, I find that hard to believe, but if there is any plausibility in that call coming from ASO, then I think that we got a serious problem on our hands. You know, ASO shouldn't have that much influence on the racing, on the racing side of things. In the past, it has happened. It has happened. It has happened. But I imagine it.

Yeah, I can imagine Jean-René Bernadur saying, guys, you know, we need to be up the road. This is our region. Yeah. I think it's, yeah. Jean-René has always found sponsors for that team. That team has been in existence since Bonjour. Before that, it was Vendayou, which was the biggest amateur team in France. And then of course they've had different amalgamations.

You know, was it Brioche Laboulanger, Europka, Brique Télécom. Yeah. And so, you know, there's a long history there. Yeah. And, you know, with, um, direct energy now co-sponsoring INEOS, yeah, somehow, um, you know, there could be a fear that, you know, that team could, you know, be extinct in a couple of years. And, um, yeah, well, I, so, yeah, I mean, it's good for the team, you know, quite, it's what they're, it's what they're there for,

you know, in the tour. Last year they won a stage. Was it Antoine de Turgis who won the stage? The gravel stage, right? Yeah, Turgis. Yeah, yeah. He's sprinting up there with the points. He's a class act, yeah. He's a good rider.

He's been second in Milan San Remo, won that stage last year. He's a good boy. True, true, true. Yeah. So, well, anyways, then nothing happens. Those two riders go story. True, true. Yeah. So, but anyways, then, you know, nothing happens. Those two riders go away. We have the usual stressful preparation towards the bunch print. And then we see one of the big favorites, Tim Merlier punctures with 11K to go. I think it was

crazy how fast he was back in the peloton. But still, you know, I think that kind of effort is what he missed at the end. On top of that, only having one lead out guy. I expected Merlier to be up there with Milan today, but that was not to be. Speaking about Milan, so what is printer? As we said, 1.96 meters, almost two meters, 88 kilos. This is for today's cycling. It's almost impossible to race at this.

Yeah, but he's such a versatile rider. I mean, he's Olympic team pursuit champion, you know, sub is the world record holder for the 4,000 meter individual pursuit, three minutes, 59 seconds for 4,000 meters. Standing start, standing start. Yeah. And he's the current world champion for that meters. Standing start. Standing start. And he's the current world champion for that discipline. Last year, he won it in October last year. His first Tour de France, he's won the points jersey

at both previous Giro d'Italia's. Won four stages this year. He's a class act. He comes from that track school and that track program of Marco Villa, who looks after them all. And of course, they've brought Ghana through.

Marco world Madison champion back in the day with Silvio Martinello. So he's a class act and a very unorthodox sprinter. You can see how much kind of energy he's using just to keep the bike in a straight line, but it works for him. It works. Yeah. But imagine the power of Bradley to see, you know, it was straight. You know, there was no, even if potentially he has committed an infraction 700 meters to go, the sprint

was straight. There was no discussion. Slightly uphill, a guy like Milan, the power he must generate to have a guy like W Walt Van Aert on the wheel, and Walt could not move an inch. He didn't even come at his real derailleur. He just had to stay where he was. That's the amount of power this guy has. Imagine if he would be the aerodynamic. He reminds me of the way Greipel used to sprint. Big, big unit, big pig power. He's taken a lot of wind, which is such a different style to the Mark Cavendish's of this world, and the Caleb Ewens. So he has to work a lot harder just in the wheels,

in the run-ups to sprint. I mean, we saw his face with 1.5 kilometers to go, and he was hurting. And I thought, is this guy even gonna be able to sprint? Because it's not just a sprint, as we that you have to launch you know your yeah your peak power 2000 watts whatever it is in the last 200 meters you know the numbers he'd be doing in the last five kilometers you know surging and constantly surging just to stay I mean he's it's it's incredible to get to the sprint is quite something to launch your sprint you know

yeah yeah I was I was I was happy to see him win. It's the big goal of the team also. Let's not forget, they made a very difficult decision to go for Milan, having Mats Pedersen on the team, who has already won stages in the Tour de France. And so they made that decision. And I just wanted to, I listened to the move Bradley and I heard George's five minute rant on the fact that little track put Quinn Simmons, the whole stage on the front. And he said he was highly insulted by this. I have a point. He had a point. He had a point. Well, yes, he has a point.

I mean, he can feel like that, but I completely disagree with his point of view. I completely disagree because, you know, Quinn Simmons got at it. And I like Quinn Simmons, you know, he's a really good writer and he deserves to, you know, to have sometimes his chances. But I think in this circumstances here, I'm looking at it from a different point of view, not as, of course, I'm not an American, but you know, it's also, we can't consider right now, as of now, the way Little Trek has evolved over the years. Little Trek is not, even they may be registered as an American team. I don't know if that's still the case. I think it's still owned by Trek, but it's going to be co-owned pretty soon. Little is a big player. So this is an international team. And they went to the Tour

de France with a clear goal. They have Jonathan Milan. They made a much criticized decision to take him instead of Mats Pedersen. And that's the goal. And they have Skjell Mose for potentially a top five, top 10. That's a secondary goal, in my opinion. And Quint Simons got added last minute to the Tour de France team because he's in good shape because he didn't get added. Let's make this clear. And this is what George needs to understand.

He did not get added to the team because he wears the stars and stripes. That's completely secondary. He got added because he's in good shape and he did great in the Tour de Switzerland and proved that he had his chance on the team, his place on the team. But if they go for Milan and, you know, I, I would think that there's been

agreements made before the, before the race. When Simmons, when he got the call, I can tell you, I can promise you when he got the call, okay, Quinn, you're, you're, you're in, in the eight places, you coming to the tour, this is, this would have been after the tour of Switzerland. They have their whole strategy planned out already. And I'm sure that part of that call was, these are the conditions. We need you to be always on duty. We want to win stages with Jonathan.

That's the main thing. And if you look at the way the team is composed, you know, they have two leaders, main leader Milan, secondary leader Skeil Mose, then they have their lead out train, which is, I think it's Consonni, Stiven, Tom Skoeins, and Edward Teuns. So if you see that composition, that's a team which is completely concentrated on a sprinter. And so to me, it makes no sense that criticism. I think, I can understand his position from an American point of view, but this is a professional, a big budget professional team. Stars and stripes are completely irrelevant. You know, so I personally think that these decisions have been made on beforehand. You could say, okay, Quinn Simmons and Thibaut Nays, you

know, those are the two guys. I think Thibaut Nays rode a little bit today, but let's not forget that Thibaut Naes was also already on beforehand one of the potential stage winners. He had a crash in stage two or three. He's still recovering from that. And so it's only Quinn Simmons left and Quinn Simmons will have been told today on beforehand, this is what you have to do. And as a team manager, team director, or team owner,

I completely understand what they're saying. You don't like it as an American. Okay, fine. But this is business. These decisions, this will have been one of the conditions when Quinton Simmons when Quinn Simmons got the call. So I personally think that George exaggerated with his, you know, highly insulted. Okay, fine. I mean, he may have a personal preference for Quinn Simmons because they have a personal relationship. But if you look at it from a team's point of view, I think that George needs to, how would I say it?

Needs to get his stars and stripes, pink sunglasses off and talk some sense. Because this is, you know, this is professional cycling. So anyway, that's, you don't seem to agree with it. No, no, I mean, I think there's plausibility in both arguments there. I mean, obviously you're the DS, you come in from a different angle and different thought process.

But I can understand what G is saying. And I think there's gotta be scope for plans and goals to change on the road. I mean, Quinn didn't win the stage yesterday, you know? He was in that break or two days ago. And he's capable as he showed at the Tour of Switzerland of winning and, you know, it's all very well having all your eggs in one basket for Milan.

I mean, this is his first stage win. It might be his last. There's not many more opportunities for the sprinters in this Tour de France. And Quinn has got a fantastic opportunity to win a stage, as he's shown. And he can win in different ways. And I think what George was saying was that there are other guys that could do the job that Quinn did today. I don't think so. Because today, if you look, I mean, of course you cannot, you cannot predict how the last two kilometers are going to plan out. And it's easy to say, okay, he was on his own, you know, sprint train sometimes get

derailed. But you know, if you have one of these favorites and you have these four riders, these lead out riders, it has worked in the past. He had, they have the best lead out train, it has worked in the past. They have the best leadout train, if it works. I mean, before, before Phillipson left and you had Alpecin, but, you know, if you look at Consoni, Turnz, Sqeens and Stuyven, these four guys are the leadout guys. So unfortunately, you know, it's, it's Quinn Simmons who had to do it. I mean, I'll ask George, I mean, I'll ask George if you remember, I don't remember which year it was, was it 99 or 2000? Postal service. That was an American

team, a real American team. And I left the American champion home because I thought that he would not be a good teammate. Who was that? Who was the American champion? Marty Jamison. Oh, Marty Jameson. Oh, Marty. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, those are decisions you have to make sometimes, you know, so it's not because he's in stars and stripes. And, and I also don't think actually that what Quinn Simmons did today is going to impact his possibilities later on in others in stages that are well

suited for him to go for a stage win I don't think it will impact him Because you know, it's it's it's another flat stage tomorrow. He will be again on duty. I suspect that Tomorrow it's going to be Quinn Simmons and people nice together Probably people nice will have to do the majority of the job and Quinn Simmons will have to be a little bit you know because it's gonna again, probably a bunch print. But yeah, so I disagree with George's, I mean, especially saying feeling highly insulted. That's no, no, you need to understand.

I mean, okay, if you think it's America, America, it's an international team. And they went there with clear goals, you know? So, okay. You have anything to add to that? No, no, no, no, I think it's a fair point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Before we talk about tomorrow's stage, Bradley, Ventum Trivia, like every day we have our partners at Ventum, the contest for the

whole Tour de France every day, there's a question. Yesterday's answer was, it was about the Mure de Bretagne, right? The answer was, it's called the Obdues of Brittany. Today's stage of Brittany. Today's stage eight question is the following. Which rider holds the record for the most green jersey competition overall wins in the history of the Tour? So which rider has won the most green jersey final classifications in the history of the Tour de France? Send your best guess or if you know the answer to VentumRacing.com slash The Move and you will enter in the grand prize, $5,000 of store credit towards any Ventum bike you want to purchase. If you don't want to wait until the end of the tour and you want to check out the Ventum

website, there's a current 10% off the whole site using the code the move 10 at checkout and if you want to go for the road model the NS1 you get 20% off with the code NS120. What to say about stage 9 from Chinon to Château Roux tomorrow, 174 kilometers, bunch print again I guess? Yeah I think so and I think it'll be the same players from today's stage. I think Little Trek will ride again. Biniam has to try something again, so Wante have to do that. But I think for tomorrow, my tip for tomorrow is Tim Mellier. He wasn't present in the sprint today. We saw that puncture he had in the latter stages,

but I think Tim will get redemption tomorrow. And I think Tim will be, excuse me, play a big part in tomorrow's stage. Yeah, yeah. I think so too. Yeah, today it was not to be, but if you look at the way it planned out, I think it was not an ideal sprint for Tim either.

It was really for the strong. I mean, you could see, you know, you had Milan and Van Aert and everybody else was dying. You know, it was, it's the first time in this Tour de France that I see and in many states, many races that you see a sprint and it's all lined up. It wasn't bunched up. It was, you know, it was a line and then you had, you know, the rest of the peloton coming in. So, okay, we'll be back tomorrow for stage nine. Thank you, Bradley, as ever, for joining us.

See you later, mate. See you, have a good one. See you tomorrow. See you later. See you later, mate. See you, have a good one. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow.

See you later, mate. See you, have a good one. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow.

See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow.