THEMOVE - Tour de France Stage 9 | The Sir Wiggo & Johan Show

Episode Date: July 13, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Sir Bradley Wiggins peel back the curtain on the tactics, strategy, and pivotal moments that shaped Stage 9 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/

You know what, Johan, today is the 18th year anniversary of my solo break in the Tour de France. Oh. Which was of course 2007, which also started as a joke. I said in the morning to the journalist, I'm going to go out today because it was the anniversary of Tommy Simpson's death. Uh huh. The 50th anniversary. And so I decided to go up the road to honor Tom Simpson and I thought, you know, people would come with me. No one came with me.

I spent 207 kilometers alone in the front that day. it was today the 13th of July 2007 so it was 2007 so which stage was that it was the stage to Bob the buzz on Tom's Tom Boonan won the stage I got caught okay okay my breakaway my breakaway is 207 is still the seventh longest solo break in Tour de France history. Little stat there. I'm the 2012 Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins. And I'm Johan Bruniel. I directed my teams to 9 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. Welcome back to the Sir Wigo and Jürgen Hanschow. We are talking today about stage nine of the Tour de France from Chinon to Château Roux, 174 kilometers, as every day presented by Keto Ny Q. I'm here with Bradley Wiggins and we're going to ask him a few questions, what his opinion is about certain things. Bradley, first of all, as every day, what is Bradley's take of the day?

What's taking the day? I mean, there's a few things today, but the main one today was Mathieu van der Poort's attack from Kilometre Zero pretty much and getting caught with one kilometre to go and two with a teammate as well. But yeah, that was an incredible effort. Didn't quite come off, but we're all left wondering what it was about. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I agree.

This was definitely the event of the day. Respect to Tim Merlier, who won the stage, but this was definitely the the talk of the day. I'm going to guess on all the TV stations in the caravan, amongst the riders in the peloton, and now also after the stage. Yeah, exactly. Bill, I want to talk to you, Johan, about one of our sponsors today, Zwift. So Zwift recently rolled out its new cog and clicked product.

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So simple and no need to remove your cassette. Zwift Ready Trainers start at just $299, meaning anyone can jump into a world class indoor training without breaking the bank. Yeah, I like I like it. I mean, I've... Good idea, isn't it? It is.

It is. It's amazing. And I'm fortunate that Zwift provided me with the Zwift Ride, which also has this virtual cassette integrated. And it's really also a part of the setup, which is really very simple, but it enhances the experience because if you combine it with the handlebars, the handles that Zwift has, it's like you're playing a video game. It's really really good. We all know that indoor riding can sometimes be a bit monotone but this actually

increases the experience a lot. Okay, Bradley. So as we said, you know, we had this attack from kilometer zero. First, Jonas Richard joined by what you under the pool, boat riders from Alpecin, quite audacious in a sprint in a stage that everybody thought and was almost convinced that it was going to be a bunch sprint.

What do you think, like when you saw it, I don't know if you saw it, but you know, I mean, once you started watching you for sure found out that they went from kilo hours, what do you think the plan is behind that? Do you know, I have no idea what the plan, I mean, we were witnessing these kinds of things now in modern day cycling where, you know, from my time and obviously your time, it was, it was unheard of, these kind of things. And we're seeing more and more of it where we can't explain relating to our time,

what the tactic was. You know, knowing what it's like to be a week into the Tour de France and having watched the race this week and seeing how hard it's been and understanding how hard it's been and even thinking it's, well, this is even harder than my time. You have a semblance of kind of an understanding

of how these riders must feel in the bus. But you know maybe van der Poel is different because van der Poel is very very special and unique but his teammate Rikard I mean I can't imagine that he would have been sat there this morning at 88 kilos a week into this Tour de France and how it's been thinking thinking, you know what, I fancy a whole day up the road today, hovering at five minutes and lasting until a few K to go. With tomorrow in mind and how the Tour has been up to this point, I imagine we said these two days transition stroke sprint stages would be a welcome break for the riders in terms of recovery and maximizing the recovery and maximizing the recovery

and maximizing the days where you don't have to think too much. So to go up the road with your team leader in Mathieu van der Poel, I mean I wouldn't fancy going out on a training ride in my prime for five or six hours with Mathieu van der Poel swapping off. So to do it in the stage of the Tour de France. Yeah. No, I thought, I thought the performance of Ricard is, you know, listen, Van der Poel, we know he's, he's a one of a kind, you know, and he can pull things out of his head that yeah, it's okay. It's, it's impossible, but it's Mathieu Van der Poel. So it is possible. Ricard today, Ricard today was incredible. Uh, you know, both more or less both are the same, the same height.

I would say Ricard maybe, I mean, he's 88 kilos, but you know, not very arrow. But now if he wants, he's pretty arrow also. I mean, to be able to do that with your leader at this speed, that was quite the thing. But you know, I listened to Monty Van der Poel after the stage and actually, initially it was not a plan. It was, it started as a joke in the bus. So apparently the story is, is that Jonas Richard in the bus

and already probably a few times told that it's his dream to at least once in his career to be on the podium of a Tour de France stage. Yeah. Yeah. And he said, you know what? Probably the easiest way to do that is to win the most aggressive rider of the day.

Yeah. So that's why he, that's why he attacked and, and Mathieu said, well, you know, we'll go together. So, uh, Ricard thought it was a joke, but then so Riccardo attacked. And then when he saw what you're coming and he started to relay, once they had a minute, Riccardo said, well, you know, it was a joke, but now I found out it's serious. So here we are, you know, and, um, and yeah, I mean, uh, I think sometimes these

things happen, but, uh but I was surprised that the peloton let them take like at some point they had five and a half minutes or almost six minutes. You would still think, okay, you know, it's a flat stage. But anyway, got caught by the peloton with less than a kilometer, 700 meters to go. I was cheering for him, man. I mean, something like this, that would have been quite the ride if he could pull himself. Do you know what, Johan? This today is the 18th year anniversary of my solo break in the Tour de France.

Oh, which was, of course, 2007, which also started as a joke. I said in the morning to the journalist, I'm going to go out today because it was the anniversary of Tommy Simpson's death. The 50th anniversary. And so I decided to go up the road to honor Tom Simpson. And I thought, you know, people would come with me. No one came with me. I spent 207 kilometers alone in the front that day. And it was today, the 13th of July, 2007. So it was 2007. So which stage was that? It was the stage to Bog de Boisson. Tom Boonan won the stage. Okay. Okay. My breakaway is 2007. It's still the seventh longest solo break in Tour de France history. Little stat there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. You were on…

Coffee Dix. Coffee Dix. Yeah. Yeah. And the director who was with me all day in the car next to me was Bernard Kiefan. Oh, Bernard Kiefan, yeah, yeah. He passed away sadly a few months ago. Yeah, really nice guy. Super, super nice guy. I remember him. But if there's any race you want to be in a breakaway, either alone or with another rider, any other race, it would be, you know, it would just be the worst thing in the world,

wouldn't it? You wouldn't want to be out there. But the Tour de France, once the helicopters come up and you know you're on live TV, and you know the world's watching, it actually goes very quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That must have been quite the experience. How far from the finish, how far from the finish did you get caught? Five kilometres, five kilometres. Yeah, yeah.

When I was out there, I had a 17 and a half minute lead at one point. And I remember thinking that day, I thought, when I was out there, I had a 17 and a half minute lead at one point. And I remember thinking that day, I thought, right, I've got a chance to win in here and taking yellow because I remember it took me back to the 1997 Tour de France. I remember watching on telly, I was 17. It was 10 years before that. And Cedric Vasseur did a solo breakaway for GAM. And he got 17 and a half minutes. And I remember sitting there on the bike thing, I got Cedric Vasseur did a solo breakaway for GAN. And he got 17 and a half minutes. And I remember sitting there on the bike,

thinking I got, Cédric Vasseur got 17 and a half minutes. He took the jersey and took the stage. He ran for GAN at the time. And I thought this is the same thing's gonna happen to me. But then the last 100K was into a headwind and the time came whittling down and it wasn't to be. But I got the most combative that day. So that was your first time, that was also your first time on the Tour de France stage.

I got the Cœur de Lyon. I got my body weight in cheese. My body weight in cheese that day. Yeah, yeah, those were the days. Interesting, interesting. Anyway, so we have those two riders up front and as expected we have Little Trek setting the front and as expected, we have a little track, uh, setting the pace, starting to set the pace. Initially, uh, just with one rider with T-Bone

Nice, uh, pulling in the bunch. So, I mean, I, I, I don't know if you guys on the move have talked about that George must have been happy to see that, right? Yeah, George was very happy, you know, Did he already get over his frustration from yesterday? I think he was still quite angry about it last night at dinner. Yeah, well, so anyways, it was clear that that was just to maintain because Little Trek with one rider, they were never going to bring back those two riders. And especially, you know, it was cross tailwind most of the day.

So, those two guys went really fast. And then the mid-stage, at the mid-stage they had five minutes 57 or something, the two meters. And there you could start to see the conviction of the Alpecin duo that you could actually make it. I mean, normally you would would say there's no chance. But this is Mathieu van der Poel.

That's the difference. Or Adria's, Phil Liggett kept saying all day. He does. He was actually, I mean, I raced with Adria and I was a teammate with him on Rabobank. He was an amazing cyclist. He was a good one. He won the SBUS Tour of Flanders. He won the Lombardy Tour of Flanders.

Do you remember who he beat in the Tour of Flanders? Sean Kelly. Sean Kelly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The one race that eluded Sean. Yeah.

Yeah. Sean has never won the Tour of that alluded Sean. Yeah. Yeah. Sean has never wanted to have flounders. No, no. But for Matthew, for Matthew, I mean, if you have a father who's that good and your father is not even half as good as Matthew, as the son. No. It's incredible. It's incredible. Yeah. And the other brother was really good as well for a time, wasn't he? There's another brother. Yeah. David. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was very good. He's now a rider's agent. He's actually a Mateusz agent and he's an agent for a lot of cyclists and doing a really good job, by the way, I've heard. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but I mean, if you, you could, you could say, okay, this is a sprinter stage,

but you know, with those two guys up front and those speeds, you know, I thought by myself, you know what, this is a horrible stage for the majority of the peloton, you know, it's not like you have to pay attention all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But so anyways, um, crosswinds the whole day. Um, one, uh, particular thing that I'd also, I think we should talk about is, uh, we could see already before half stage, uh, Joel made up Joel made up got in trouble. Um, it was, you know, the speeds were high. He got dropped. He got brought back in the caravan. And then, and then finally, uh, you know, he has to abandon. I think, that's only logical. Yeah, there's no,

it was always going to be, it was always a tough order, wasn't it? For him to have, we know what it's like to break with. We said yesterday, um, but not just the rib, you know, he went down heavy and um, it's a, it's sad to see him hovering off the back actually, cause I think he was, you know, Tadeus side again, I keep saying it, but Tade, if you take Tade out of this race, um, which you know, stranger things have happened in terms of if it Tade aside again, I keep saying it, but Tade, if you take Tade out of this race, which, you know, stranger things have happened in terms of if Tade crashed or something, the GC would be wide open and someone like Almeida, if he was still close as Mateo Jorgens is to his team leader, it would have been a very different race.

But yeah, so I think, I think that puts, you know, unfortunately, you know, they lost Almeida. Let's not forget, you know, he's the most successful stage racer this year of the whole peloton. Spencer also made some calculations and he said, he's probably the third best climber in this race. Seeing his performances in tour of Switzerland and Romandy and Basque country. And so he would be, he would have been, I mean, it's actually scary to have a

rider like Almeida at your service. Yeah. For the other riders. When does Almeida get a shot at winning a Grand Tour himself? You know, it's going to have to be the Giro of the Vuelta. I mean, if you'd have put him in this year's Giro, I think it would have been a very different result to the Simon Yates display that he did on the last day. Probably.

But you know, he has, wasn't he second or third in the Giro one year? Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was still on a quick step, I think. He was. And so yeah, I mean, I think he deserves to have a chance. I think that's going to be his next step. So this year he was focusing on those one week stage races and already in the planning of the season to be the guy next to Tadej.

So what do you think will happen now, Bradley, with Almeyda out? We have some hard stages coming up. Obviously, this is in the advantage of Vizsma. How do you think Vizsma has to play and how do you think UAE has to now adapt after losing Almeyda? I think Vizsma are in an ideal position now as a unit, as a team. Obviously the jury's out in terms of how good Sepp Kuss will be, which we'll find out tomorrow. But with Jonas and Matteo Jorgensen lying pretty much together in the GC,

they've got all the cards to play now and they're going to have to have a very good think about how they do that, how they play those cards. But Tade, I don't know. I mean, if we were talking about anyone else other than Tade, I'd be worried for that team and for that leader. But you always get to the point that Tade need a team. I mean, he's just, he's that good, isn't he? And we were saying before we came on this recording, you know, you were saying about the Strava files and just how effortless he is through the stages compared to other riders.

I mean, yeah, well, we'll get up in another show in the next days. But you know, I've done some research and I've done it last year already. It's incredible how efficient this guy is in the peloton. If you see his calorie consumption compared to some of the rivals, it's mind-blowing. We'll save those files for another day. Yeah, I mean, I think other riders around Taddei will have to step up into a position who hadn't anticipated having to step up into a position, but we've already seen that. The job Tim Wellens has been doing since the start of this race is phenomenal. And I watched

him win the Belgium championship. I was over in Belgium at the time. Um, and it's, it, that Belgium title has almost given him a new lease of life. Um, and, and you can see how much he's enjoying riding in that role. And, and, you know, the, the camaraderie has and the friendship he has with Tadei and Tadei giving, giving him the king of the mountains chance. And so Tim Wellens is now now gonna be the most crucial rider, I think, going through these next two weeks.

They have Tim Wellens, they have Adam Yates. Adam Yates really needs to be- Adam will be good, Adam will be good. And I think Marc Soler is also quite good right now. But I agree, if you look at the strength, Visma versus UAE, right now it's okay, if you take Tadej and Jonas, then you had Jorgensen and Almeida. And now they lose that card, right? So my

question is, however, you know, what is it exactly that Visma can do? You know, they can send, I mean, whoever they send in front, even Simon Yates, he's out of the GC, if he's in front, it doesn't really matter. It matters that there's a rider in front in case Jonas gets up the road. But Tadej really needs to only focus on two guys. He doesn't let Jürgensen go away. And still, I would still say, until now, Matteo has never been even close to Tadej in an overall classification. So if Jürgensen goes up the road, it will have to be on a climb. If it's not on a climb, UAE has the manpower to shut it down. And if Tadej follows Jürgensson, as he has done already in another stage,

Jonas will be on the wheel. And then what, if they're three guys, what are they gonna do? Yeah, it's not like, the thing is that right now, what we've seen compared to, because everybody goes back to that stage of called the Cote d'Urano, was it 2022? Yeah, it was 2022 when they broke Tadej, right? But with

Primos and that was different. And I think there UAE and Tadej made a mistake by considering still Primos as a candidate, which he was not because he had already had a bad crash. And so he actually let him seduce there to, to, uh, a game that he shouldn't have played. And what we've seen until now, uh, no matter how strong the competition is, the team, uh, if they, if they're aggressive, once that goes, it's him versus Jonas. There is nobody else in sight.

No. So, you know, I mean, and, top of that, what I think people should also understand that the Tour de France is not the same like any other race. If Jürgensen goes up the road, he's a rival for Remco, for Voqalin, for anybody who has a top five ambition. So you automatically get assistance, right? Which is different to other races. So it's going to be interesting, you know, but, but, you know, I think that I think the,

the loss of Almeida, it's definitely, it's at least mentally, it's a game changer. I think it kind of takes away that feeling of safety, which I think they had in the past. What do you think? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah. It's gonna be really interesting.

I mean, I think, and I think 24 hours from now, when we're sat here discussing Monday stage, we'll have a better idea, we'll have a clear idea of, because this is, although it's not a mountain stage, I think this is shaping up to be the hardest stage of the race. But it could be a very different thing, you know, if we're sitting here tomorrow night and Tadej has put more time into Jonas, then I just don't see where anyone can go after that.

Tomorrow is key for Visma and Jonas. Jonas needs to be with the day tomorrow. I think he will be. I think he will be. Yeah, yeah, me too. Me too. Yeah. And it's still, this stage still doesn't suit Jonas down to the ground. It's the longer climbs that are really going to suit Jonas. That's where we get a true,

I mean, I know it was a different story in the Dauphiné on the longer climbs, but I think Jonas is in better shape than he was at the Dauphiné, which is always your plan, isn't it, to come good into the third week of the race. Yeah, for sure. Before we go on, I wanted to talk about Ketone IQ, our presenting sponsor. We all know that ketones are widely used in today's cycling. My preferred format is this one here, the 10 gram ketone shot, no sugar, no caffeine. And it's been scientifically proven that ketones boost the athletic performance. Ketone IQ in the placebo control study with trained athletes discovered that ketones boosted the sprint power by 19%,

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Because they're not just riding for second place at this Tour de France. I mean, how do you play it tomorrow? I think tomorrow is a stage, it's part of a longer strategy of wearing out day by day. Personally, I think tomorrow there's not much they can do. Let's not forget, you know, because we've seen these comments, yeah, we want to make the race hard for Jonas. It's better for Jonas, probably. But it's also better for Tadej.

And they're always talking about isolating him. I mean, isolating Pogacar is probably more interesting in an easier stage because you have better chances to play with the majority of the riders you have. But on a difficult stage, isolating today meet today means that it's going to be there on an isolate Jonas also, because it's it's only going to be Jorgensen and if Simon Yates is going to be good, which I suspect he will, and Sepp Kuss, that's still a question mark.

I mean, everybody says Sepp Kuss, Sepp Kuss, but we haven't seen anything from Sepp Kuss until now. I hope that we can see the Sepp Kuss again from the good days. If you look at that, you know, as you said, you know, Tim Wellens is in great shape. Adam Yates will be there. And now more than ever, this guy knows that now with Almey Dagon, he needs to step up. And he will. And he will.

I'm pretty confident he will. I think it's just a matter of making the race hard. And I personally think they can only beat Pogacar if they push Pogacar to make mistakes. Because wearing out everybody, it's going to wear out their own teammates also. And at the end it's going to be Tadej versus Jonas. Do you think they give too much away now in interviews as well? Like telling us what they want to do and what they're attempting to do? I mean, the thing is also what can we believe?

Yeah, exactly. Is it all true? Yeah. Is it all true? I cannot, I just keep, I keep thinking that their whole plan is based on, you know, let's wear him out, let's wear him out his team physically and him mentally. You know, and I think that these little, you know, like interviews of, you know, you know,

criticizing one and the other, that's good for them because that kind of puts the day on edge and it's all energy you don't need to spend. Yeah. Right. I mean, getting, getting irritated in interviews. I mean, the question is, does it really affect Bogacar? We don't know. I don't think anything. It does.

I don't think, you know, yeah. But anyway, so, um, we, uh, coming back to the stage of today, uh, Bradley, so with, with about 72 K to go, we see that at that point I was thinking, I don't know what you think, these guys still have a considerable advantage, the two riders. And we see that little track accelerates in the crosswinds. Actually Jonathan Milan himself was taking the initiative. And that kind of took a minute off, but then

people came back and it kind of slowed down again. That's, that was the first time I thought, okay, you know what? They may have a chance, uh, because the teams were running out of riders to do the job. Yeah, that's true. And then, and then we saw Visma get involved with Jonas himself on the front. Yes. Well, that was, that was with, that was closer to the finish. That was like 20, 30 K to go. Visma started an echelon, Jonas himself. And then the difference came back to one minute 30. So by then I was thinking probably a 50, 50 chance that they could make it, especially

because it was Mathieu in the front. Yeah, also a slight uphill finish in the final didn't help Mathieu, I think. And a few more bends and maybe the odd crash and that would have helped him in that running. But it was a shame. It's really, really sad to see him actually get so close, but so far. He went deep, man. His interview after the finish was, you know, he was, okay, it's not going to break or make his career of course, but he went really deep. It took him a while before he could start answering and actually thinking straight.

I mean, both of those guys did an amazing job. I would wanna see that power file and see their gallery expenditure of those two riders. So 50 kilometers average, which is the second fastest stage ever in the Tour de France done by only two riders, which is incredible. Normally if you have a fast stage like this, it's either the peloton, obviously with a tailwind, an easier stage or with or a big group. I think the fastest stage is still as of today. I don't remember the year,

but I think it's Pablo Lastras. He was on Manesto or was it? Moviestar. And he's now the director of Moviestar, one of the directors. And it was a big breakaway. I remember that, but yeah, 50K average is crazy. Over 171 kilometers.

We get to the finish and finally, heartbreaking, but Mathieu gets caught after Ricard couldn't help him anymore. And we have the typical sprint, right? So Merlir wins, Milan second, Arnaud Le Lé third. First time we see him back in a good spot. I'm happy to see that. He was very, very happy after the finish. But we talked about it and you guys talked about it already on the move yesterday, I

think. Jonathan Milan versus Tim Merlier. I want to pull up the picture here of Merlier sprinting and Milan sprinting. And if you look at the difference in frontal area, Bradley. Yeah, it's incredible. It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And when you watch the overhead shot as well of the sprint,

for a big, powerful guy, Jonathan Milan, he pedals a smaller gear than most. He almost looks under geared for the power and the torque that he's producing in those sprints. But he's so unorthodox, isn't he? It's different to watch, but it works for him at times and then other times obviously it doesn't.

But when it's as close as this and it's a drag race to the finish, you have to think that someone who's a lot more aero and a lot more efficient in their sprinting and the way they apply the power and get the effort out will get the better of him every time. Yeah, I mean, I haven't seen the speed in the sprint, but I'm going to guess it's around 65, 67 kilometers per hour. And if you see that difference in frontal area, that makes a huge difference. No. Yeah. I mean, even when we were watching that sort of last study came, Vizmar on the front and Campenaerts, you could see how aerodynamic Campenaerts was.

And watching Wout behind him, taking quite a bit of wind on Campenaerts. But then four or five back, we saw Milan, who was just compared to Campenaerts. So even in those crosswinds and all those lineouts, Milan's are working that bit harder than everyone else. Yeah. Because of his, yeah. It's strange if you think Bradley

that it's on his road bike because he's a pursuer, right? He's world champion, forget about the world record holder and super arrow. Super arrow, right? Or is he not as arrow as anybody else? No, I mean, he is. It's just obviously on the road bike is a different thing. Yeah. And there's a fine line on a road bike between being efficient and being aerodynamic in the modern day of cycling. Yeah, for sure. And being able to get that power out.

But he actually looks taller than six foot three. I mean, he's the same height as me. He's the same height as me. Yeah, well, you're tall. You're very tall. You're very tall. So yeah. So are you as me. Yeah, well you're tall, you're very tall. You're very tall. Yeah. So yeah.

So are you, what are you, 196? Yeah, 190, yeah, 190, 191. Okay, well he's 196. Is he? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Do you think that it could be that the fact that he's,

I mean, he's obviously has a high cadence. Do you think that could be through his track background? Yeah, there's part of it. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. I did, they did a thing on his, Steve Porino did a thing on the MBC looking at his bike

and I'm, it's funny. He rides 175 cranks on the road, which are quite short for his height and I'm, it's funny. He rides one seven five cranks on the road, which are quite short for his height and from my air anyway, but a lot bigger than most are using in this day and age. Yeah, today and today that's long. That's super long. Yeah.

Okay. Second stage went for Malir, third stage win for Sudol Quickstep. As you pointed out also Bradley, fourth stage win for Belgium. Yeah. Out of nine stages. It's been different in the past. So yeah, I mean, I guess yesterday on the move, you guys were talking about how Sudol Quickstep had decreased in their quality, but out of nine stages, they won one third of the stages already.

Yeah, it's incredible. They won fourth stages in this race, leading the white jersey competition, second on GC. So they're not doing too bad considering a week ago, we were saying what a disappointing tour they were having. And thinking also Bradley that, you know, Merlier comes here with one lead out guy, you know, it's a team concentrated on, I mean, it's actually, you know, initially when they announced that Merlier was going to go to tour, nobody agreed, you know, Remco had agreed to it. But imagine what it does to the morale of a team to have after nine stages, three stage wins, whatever they do now is bonus. Right?

Yeah. And yeah, Merlier, man, I mean, he's like the, he's the super sprinter, right? I mean, he's the pure sprinter. I could see, you know, when he was there in the right the, he's the, he's the super sprinter, right? I mean, he's the pure sprinter. I could, I could see, you know, when he, when he was there in the right position, he, you know, I think Milan started a bit earlier, but he just went on his own sprint. Usually I think when Malir wins a sprint, he kind of goes and takes off on the other side. He almost never in the slipstream.

He's, you know, he took off to the left and it was a drag race and he won by more than a bike length, right? Yeah, yeah. He reminds me of the old school sprinters, you know, like Wilfrid Mellison and Tom Steele. He always finds a way to get to where he needs to be. And when you're looking down on the sprint and you're concentrating on Milan and you know, the people that you expect to be there. Melier just comes

up and glides through a bit like Cav used to do and finds a way to win, which is which is great. I love the sprinting like that. But yeah, yeah, it's great. You know, he's not he's not the most expressive guy. If you look at his interviews, he's very, very, very reserved. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw I saw an interview, a very in-depth interview with him. And he says that's the way he is. He's just happy in his bubble.

He's not very expressive. He jokes when he's with his friends. But yeah, I mean, he could show a little bit more happiness. He's like, okay, yeah, I want another stage. His 12th stage win, 12th victory of the season already. Or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, before we talk about tomorrow's stage, I wanna talk about our daily Ventum trivia, Bradley.

Yesterday's question was, which rider holds the record for the most green jersey competitions overall in the history of the Tour? The answer was quite easy, I think. The answer is Peter Sagan. Today's question, I think, is also easy, especially for people who have watched the race on TV. Sir Mark Cavendish became the winningest rider in the history of the tour last year with 35 wins beating the famous record of Eddie Marks with 34 wins. The question is why

has stage 9's finishing town Chateau Roux unofficially been dubbed Cavendish town? So why has stage 9's finishing town Chateau Roux unofficially been dubbed Cavendish town. So why has stage 9 finishing town Chateau Roux unofficially been dubbed Cavendish town? So send your best guess or if you know the answer send it to Ventumracing.com and you will enter into a possibility at the end of this tour we will draw a winner a grand prize of $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, go on the website of Ventum. Ventum is offering a standing discount during the tour. You get 10% off the whole site for any bike using the code theMOOV10 at checkout. If you want to purchase in

NS1, the Road Frame Road Bike, you get 20% off with the code NS120. So VentumRacing.com, enter your answer and you will enter into the competition. Tomorrow stage, we talked already about it, stage 10, I think this is the first huge appointment. I mean, yeah, there's a second appointment. I think the first appointment was a time trial, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and a lot of meters of climbing tomorrow in a short stage.

Let's have a look at the profile first, if Gabriel can pull up the profile. Yeah, look at that. 165 kilometers. There are eight categorized climbs. Almost 4,500 meters. Am I right, Bradley, to say that this could be more of a suffering fest for the majority of the peloton than any huge mountain?

Yeah, I think so. I think after the race, after the week we've had, and it goes straight up from the start as well, you know, this is, these are, you know, in some ways these are sometimes harder for the lesser riders and the guys at the back than the mountain stages. There's more of a clearer pattern to how the race develops in the mountains if you're in the groupetto, isn't there? You know, you've got an hour or so of suffering and you know exactly when the groupetto will form or when you need it to form in order to get into the time delay. But days like this, this could go for three hours

and just break from the back and you'll have rides everywhere over the road. So it's these are the harder, harder ones. Because also well, the stages like this, because it's not a mountain day, you know, riders that don't expect to get through the stage will have to do the job early on for the teams and be there as long as possible. So they're the harder ones, definitely. Yeah, seven category two climbs and one category three climbs, seven category two climbs.

And they're all just not long enough. I mean, so that it's basically accessible to anybody who has good legs, because it's not long enough. I mean, so that it's basically accessible to anybody who has good legs, because it's not super steep. It's between six and seven and a half percent, all of them, except the last climb to the finish, that's three kilometers at 8%, which I think that's where we're gonna see

a battle between Jonas and Tadej. Then the other question is, will we see the battle between Jonas and today for the stage win or does a breakaway have a chance tomorrow? I mean, that's a good question, isn't it? It's either way, if a break does last to the finish tomorrow, I think we'll see a battle of some sort behind. For sure. So, you know, it's and the what all eyes will be fixated on tomorrow is that battle between Eunice and Tade. I mean, I think by nature, the fact that those guys will be at each other tomorrow, I think

on the natural, you know, for what Visma want to do and what they've stated they want to do constantly in this race, the natural inertia and the speed of the Peloton in doing that will mean that nothing goes to the finish. But we saw it the other day when Ben Healy won, you know, the right break. But this is this is on a different level tomorrow this stage compared to when Ben Healy won. So you know, and you got to think as well if we are racing hard tomorrow, which I'm no doubt they will, that in order to for a break to get a gap and maintain a gap on these type of roads, you know, we know the power difference that they have to be doing, you know, to attack off of a roaring peloton that's, you know, everyone's trying to get in a break.

The power you have to sustain once you've got that gap is immense, you know, and it's only certain amount of rides that can do it and it will go a la pedal as the French say. And especially already 10 days within the tour, you know, like by the 10th day is normally when like half the peloton is dead already, you know, even if we didn't have the mountains yet. So everybody's dead and there's not very many riders who can make it into the breakaway. And then on top of that, I think it depends on how aggressive Visma wants to be. And on top of that, I think it depends on how aggressive Visma wants to be. Sometimes I don't really understand their tactics. So they'll probably go again hard, especially in the final. But it may also be that Visma actually has a rider in the break.

And at some point during the stage, they decide, okay, we're going to keep this rider up there and try to get the stage win. They haven't won anything yet. That's not what they're coming for, but I think at some point you also want a stage win as a team, right? So we'll see. It's going to be interesting. Anyway, we'll be back tomorrow Bradley for stage 10. A huge day and thank you as every day for being here and speak soon.