THEMOVE - UAE Lands Their First GC Blow | Vuelta a España Stage 5 Analysis & Stage 6 Preview | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down UAE's ride to win the team time trial on the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España, which saw João Almeida and Juan Ayuso take back a small chunk of time on Visma-Lease a Bike's Jonas Vingegaard, who rode back into the GC lead by a slight margin. Before they go, they preview tomorrow's summit stage, which sets up another GC showdown, and discuss how they think the race will unfold and who presents the best betting value.

And yeah, and Jonas back in red, you know, yesterday, we talked about it in yesterday's show, you know, on purpose, he didn't want to hang on to the jersey, but now he's back into it. So knowing that now, tomorrow, we have a mountain stage, I don't think they're going to create a situation to give the jersey away again. So, yeah, I mean, I would say, you know, not a big, not a big, not a big, not a big. big event for the GC, but mental victory for UAE. Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johann Bernal. We are breaking down stage five of the Volta, Espania, a 24-kilometer team time trial, won by Team UAE with Juala Meda and Juosso picking up eight seconds on Viz Malisa Bike

and Jonas Vindigard, who finished second and Little Trek coming in third with Julia Chocone. even though he lost, Jonas Vindigard takes the race lead back. He now leads one and so by eight seconds as well as Almeda and Jukone, nine seconds back, former race leader Davagadu falling down to six place, 16 seconds back. And then after we break this down,

we will predict tomorrow's stage six and give our picks for the stage. Johan, just a few cliff notes before we get your takeaway of the day. Not a ton to say since this really was just time gap time bonus gaps essentially but eneos comes out really strong gana's pulling they're losing riders too fast they they end up finishing further back probably than they wanted almost 20 seconds back red bull was flying through the opening time checks and then matteo sabrero overlaps a wheel with the teammate crashes they end up finishing still pretty high up in fourth place 12 seconds back

potentially would have won it without that so terrible for them uAE just rips through every time check, but I was surprised almost at their measured pace, like for example, they were second through the first time check, third through the second, and then they ripped the third part of the course, finished first, and then the surprise of the day, besides Israel Premier Tech being forced to slow down due to protesters and then losing time, but then getting some time back from the organizers, is Visemalesa bike. They have a decent ride through the first time check. terrible ride from the first to second time check they did that section i think they only were

faster than four or five teams um a lotto oddly was the fastest team in that section and then they're the fastest team and the final third of the race not enough though they uh they finished second eight seconds back but what was your take take away the day yohan yeah i mean it's either 24 kilometer time trial as you said you know with one technical part in it um think of the I mean, I think the teams we talked about yesterday, you know, UAE Visma, Little Freck Ineos and Red Bull, are the five first teams in the stage. Small differences. You know, I think yesterday I said, you know, we're going to go somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds

of difference. It was less than that. You know, if you see there's only 12 seconds between the top four. That's not much. So basically, you know, it's a status quo in terms. It's not going to be a stage that will be decisive for the Vuelta overall win. But I think it's a mental victory for UAE. It's been a while since they've won.

I mean, at least, I mean, there's not that many team time trials anymore lately. But they're not super famous for winning team time trials. at least as far as I can remember. It's like Perrinuse two years ago is probably their biggest recent. Okay, yeah, but that's a different. It's basically launching your leader to the finish. Yeah, yeah. It's not the same.

Visma, I think in the end, you know, in hindsight, you know, having to ride with seven riders instead of eight could probably cost them the victory in only eight seconds. But no, I think, you know, the strength of every team has been respected. One team who did better than I expected them to do, first example, is Q36.5. They only lost like 20-something seconds, which is not that much if you look at, you know, the composition of their team. So small differences and, yeah, and Jonas's back in red. you know yesterday we talked about it in yesterday's show you know that he on purpose he he didn't want to hang on to the jersey but now he's back into it so um and knowing that

now tomorrow we have a mountain stage um i don't think they're going to create a situation to give the jersey away again um so yeah i mean i would say you know not not not a big not a big event for the GC, but mental victory for UAE. Yeah, I was going to say, the thing that surprised me most about the stage was David Godoo on Grupama FDJ only loses 24 seconds, Pitcock loses 22, and then Phylliscaul on DeKathlon loses 17. So that's like, those are not as big of a gaps as you would imagine. And then after this, there's only 27 kilometers of individual time trialling remaining, which means it's like, you know, what could you realistically pull out there?

Like, not a lot, which means we're probably going to have a really clustered tight GC battle, at least amongst the top, top guys through the rest of the race. Bad news for people watching that could create boring racing. And then if it's the other way, if it's a blowout, that could also create boring racing. So I'm not super positive about the prospect of exciting racing. I also, Spencer, also, you know, another thing that stands out for me is the speed, you know, the speed uh if if as a team in today's team time trial you do 53.2 kilometers average speed you know where that brings you 53.2 average speed over oh i bet that's last place right last

place yeah last place it's uh the winner is 56.8 56. uh yeah 56.8 almost 57 kilometers average uh over a 24 kilometer, not straight course. Yeah, yeah. With corners. So that's quite something. That's impressive. I mean, Vizma on that second section of the course, they go 53.8 kilometers an hour. And it's not, it is technical.

So that's very fast. And they're a full three kilometers an hour slower than Lotto on that same section, which is kind of unbelievable. I did. I mean, maybe it's just me projecting. I thought you could sense a little bit of the. crossiness with team time trial. And you could tell it doesn't happen as much as it used to. Like Sobrero was overlapping his teammates' wheel.

He was on the left side of its teammates wheel, but it was a right to left crosswind. And then people are pulling off like into the, into their teammates' wheels. And then you saw Movistar go off the side of the road. It just, and I also wonder with these bikes and the speeds, like, are they even built for team time trials?

Like they're moving so fast. Yeah. Your margin for air is tiny. they are hard to handle they are really hard to handle that's that's for sure um no i think i think the training the training for this kind of uh effort here i think the training has been in just in the days before the before the valta you know because the valta being the last grand tour teams typically deciding quite late on it's it's not so much a fight for selection anymore it's like the selection of teams is right is the opposite it's like okay who do we have left to

actually can go you know whereas at the beginning of the season especially for the tour who do we have to let out leave out of the team you know because there's probably 12 or 13 riders here it's okay we have to find eight riders we have five so who are the other three that can actually do it so the the the training for for this kind of event is just basically with these eight riders in the two days before they get in this case to Italy when they were when they were there to

just after the travel to Torino I was surprised by UAE the thing that I didn't notice before or the first four stages of this race like how they're obviously not big like in width but just how big that team is like I saw him on the podium

and like you know Schwalomeda is not that short like he's 510 511 and he's And he was, like, much shorter than the rest of the team. Like, these guys are trucks, and it showed today. Well, Soler, Ayuzostal, Solera is tall. Olivier, I stole. Jay Vine's taller than you'd think.

Yeah, and then Grocharton is also not short. He's also. No, like, they're big, like, pursuit. They look like a team of pursuers, basically, which paid off today. And then my big question, and maybe we don't have the answer, is Vizma, kind of an pacing strategy start with seven riders so a rider down they're missing axel zingle and the more i think about it that type of rider can be good even though they're not a good time trialist can be good in the team time trial because it's about 30 second burst and then you're resting like that actually is a

valuable person to have they don't have them but they so the time's taken from the fourth rider like uae finished with fourth four riders you know most teams with gc riders finished with four riders Little track, Q36.5. Beesma finishes with five, which means they only dumped two riders along the route. Why do you think that happened? Like, what's the thought process behind that? I mean, because the fifth rider just didn't want to get dropped.

The reason I think that's surprising, if you don't follow team time trials, is normally you would have all your riders that the time's not taken on, like exhaust themselves. And it go as hard as they can, and then they drop off. So, like, they don't even need to finish with you. You should probably use their energies to, like, the maximum

so you can get the fastest possible time. One only thing I could think of is, you know, were they worried about, well, if the fourth rider slips out in the corner, because it was kind of a technical final kilometer, like you have a fifth rider there to pick up their time, you don't have to wait for them? Or maybe they just miscalculate the pacing.

No, I think it's safe. It's safe to have a fifth rider. Look, for example, look at UAE, you know, they were four riders, and Mark Sulaire, you know, you never know what's going to happen in those last 500 meters. If one of one of those riders, like, you know, takes a corner in the wrong way and he loses the wheel, which they did. Yeah. So it's always good to have a spare guy there, you know, just in case something goes

wrong. I think that's the thinking about it, behind it, because, I mean, especially if it's, comes down to seconds if soler for example i mean listen we know soler how he right that's actually how he writes he gets dropped come back so he even does it in the team time trial but uh now it's good to have another guy there just not just to say okay four guys and everybody else just just you know goes their own rhythm at the end um i think i i kind of like that to have an spare guy just in case something happens And do you have any thoughts on INEOS?

Like, they go flying through, like, very fast through the first two-time checks and then kind of struggle. Like, to me, it almost look like Ghana hurt them. Is that, does that even make sense at that level? You know what? If you have a strong guy and somebody who's stronger than the rest and, you know, a machine like Ghana, it can be a disadvantage, especially, I mean, normally, I mean, things have changed obviously

but I was always in favor of using your stronger guy just to do longer pulls, not to go faster. You know, the strong guy always had to just stay double the time than anybody else.

Is that what Ineos didn't get right? If, you know, if you have a guy who's stronger and has a lot more power and you can kill, you can kill your teammates, especially the guy who's just behind you, or no, the guy who's just in front of you, if he pulls off and then you have Ghana do a strong pull after two or three pulls, you know, time you have, the moment you have to pick in again in the back. And there's this strong guy having there an acceleration that kills you.

Yeah. Yeah, like that's the old saying, like longer, not stronger for the polls on a team time trial. And, you know, it's like it kind of looked like it was working, but it looked like Ghana, maybe this speed just. pushed them over the edge a little bit. Also, Mark Saler might have gotten gapped off a little bit because Juan Yuso, my lord, he was absolutely ripping through that final kilometer. Like, I would say my big G.C takeaway from the day is Almeida and Iuso look pretty fit. Like this undercooked narrative, we'll find out tomorrow. But that I was really like, you could just tell looking at them, like, ooh, these guys are flying through this time trial. Maybe that doesn't translate to the mountains.

but I, especially Iuso, just looked really, really fast in this time draw. Yeah. No, they did a great time, I mean, actually, if I look at the composition of their team, you know, I mean, it's a pretty strong team, man. I mean, I would say, not a bad team. I would say Groschartner is probably the weakest, I mean, obviously, Dominovac, but, you know, this guy, does it all. But, you know, if you, if you look at Almeida, Soler, Björk, Ayuso, Olivera, and J. Vine, I mean, those six, they can hammer. So, yeah, I think, I think logic has been respected. The strongest, the team with the strongest guys won. Only question mark for me is,

is if Visma has eight riders, it would have been closer. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's a huge disadvantage huge disadvantage not that matthia jorgensen said you know they thought the wind was a little bit different it affected their pacing they probably held too much back but they they were cruising through the third half of that course on the way in so he's not just making that up like he was they were flying they probably could have got a little faster with the eighth guy it's closer I think as we said at the top of the show though the thing that surprised me the most was the lack of gaps like we're now kind of back where we started again yeah this loses his time bonus that he got on stage two, very equal G.C.

We head into the mountains. I mean, you know, really small guy. You look eight seconds on Visma, then nine seconds a little trek. Red Bull 12, Ineos, you just said, the disappointing time plot is only 16 seconds. That's not. Yeah, yeah. And then Movistar, 17 seconds. Decathlon, 17 seconds.

Q306.5, 22 seconds. Groupama, only 24 seconds. I mean, those were, I mean, Groupama, okay, Groupama and de Catalon, they've changed a lot. But, man, there's been times in history in the tour that these teams would have lost. And obviously, team time trials were longer. They would have, they would lose two or three minutes. Yeah. Easy.

I remember, Spencer, that was, there was a year where, I don't remember, was 2003, 2004, probably. The Tour de France changed the rules of the team time trial in the tour because there was teams that lost so much time that, and there were long time trials. It was 50, 60K. But they actually, they capped it. They said, you know, no team can lose more than five minutes. Like if you lost seven minutes, you lost five. That's like the tour to love in here.

And, and it was actually. Actually, so stupid that rule. The second, so you have the team that wins. The second team cannot lose more than 30 seconds. What? Yeah. So if you lose, if you lose by 20 seconds, you get 20 seconds. But if you lose by 40, it was 30.

It was 30. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that was back in the days. well now we're seeing maybe why these were removed from the Twitter frats because that's well nowadays I mean these teams all these teams they have extraordinary equipment the level of everybody is

I mean to see for example a team like Movistar finishing only at 17 seconds that's that's quite the performance they also went out they had a guy go off the road and they still only finish 17 seconds back like we should say Little Trek as well was cruising through and then I believe

they had a ride a crash into a barrier so it just I think a lot of the margins here were like the team that had the cleanest run through

one I mean as we said also very very strong any other GC takeaways Johan from the stage no I think everybody

comes through this quite unscraped no yeah yeah pretty much unscaged now I'm kind of so Vinegar did it

He loses eight seconds. He's now eight seconds in the lead. So he was 16 seconds ahead of those guys. He gained 12 seconds on them on stage two. And yeah, and then the time bonus on stage three. So it really is like kind of funny. Can you imagine the amount of work that win at this team time trial

and like how aerodynamic people are? And then it's essentially adding up to time bonuses at the end of uphill sprints. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's take a quick break and then we'll predict stage six, which is actually kind of a tricky stage to predict. All right, we're back. Tomorrow's stage six is 170 kilometers long.

We just got to Spain. Today was the first stage in Spain. Now we're leaving Spain. We're going to Andorra. Summit finish. It's actually a pretty hard stage. I mean, it would be hard to ride if we all went out and rode this.

We would think, wow, this is brutal. These guys will cruise through it. But it starts on a cat three climb, 11K long, 4%. That's going to be very, very good for a breakaway. then it goes into a 1K long climb 24 kilometers long sorry a one first category climb 24 kilometers long three and a half percent that's another good one for a breakaway and then they get into and dora there's a sprint point at the start of the second to last climb bonus seconds at the top of the second to last climb which is 4k long at 8 percent they descend down they go through the

it's like the big city of indora indora la vienna how do you say yeah and that's the biggest town I believe, capital city of Andorra, perhaps. Yeah, I mean, Andorra is, Spencer. Adora is Andorra. There's a few little towns around it like, you know, like San Julia and, I mean, but Andorra city is, it's an order. It's just a city. And then it's a 10K long climb, six and a half percent up to the finish.

Yeah. But that actually is going to be interesting with the time bonus at the top of the 8% climb. I'll read the odds, and then we'll get your take on who's going to win. Jonas Finnegard, the heavy favorite, plus 175, Julia Chaconay plus 900, Davigado plus 1,600, J. Vine plus 1,800, Lorenzo plus 2,200, Igamernal plus 2,500, Pablo Castrillo, the hero of last year's race, plus 2,800, Eddie Dunbar plus 3,300, Jbalamata, plus 3,300, and then Felix Gall plus 4,000, Wana Yuso, plus 4,000, kind of some odd guys down there.

again if you want to bet and you don't really know how to or you just want the best price check out next bets at nxtebats.com slash bet outcomes you will be served up exactly where you can bet where you live and the best sign of bonuses but yohan do you think this is breakaway or gc and who do you think wins um it's difficult to predict the breakaway um i did I mean, I did remember that I went up there once in Pal, in the Tour de France. So I did some research, and we did this same climb, finishing climb. In 1993, Spencer, how long is that ago? It's 30 years ago.

Yeah, it's a long time ago. 33 years ago. Yeah. I looked at the results. There was not that big. I mean, the differences are not. I remember Oliver Rinkong who became my teammate later on

he was on my he won the stage from a breakaway and then 150 behind there was Tony Rominger Rioner Rees Jascula Indurine Mejia then a few seconds after Kappucci

let's say the top the top 15, 20 of the stage were all within 20 seconds and this was a hard stage by the way we talked about it we talked about it before so if if i look at the information about this stage was crazy it was 231 kilometers uh with 6,000 meters of elevation it's absurd

at stage 15 at the tour of France a world championship circuit right there yeah but after such I mean obviously you can't compare to the France Vuelta Spania this was you know in the last week. But there's going to be differences, but not huge differences. Although I have to say, though, that this, I do remember this other climb, what's it called? Comella, La Comella, the second last climb. I remember that climb. We usually did that before in either Vuelta Catalonia or Semana Catalana. It's only 4k at 8%. It's pretty hard. It's pretty hard. And then, you know, to basically go down and then straight up to Pal. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's the G.C. guy, Spencer.

I'm going to go for Jonas Wingergaard to win the stage 175, positive odds. He is the best climber of this race. So I think that that's a safe bet. Yeah. I think it's really difficult between break and G.C. I just wonder if it's too early in this race for. breaks yet because the GC teams still have so much dry powder, 170 kilometer along stage,

not overly difficult. Like if Fizmo really wants to, they can control this. And like maybe Little Trek helps them as weird as that would be, since they have a GC rider. But Chikone wants to win the stage. Now, I'm going to go. I'm actually,

I'm making this up on the spot right here. I'm going to pick David Godu plus 1600. Fast finish in very good shape. Um, is really, I think this comes down to who beat, who beats Jonas Vindigard in an uphill finish. Um, and if it was harder, maybe nobody, but this is not like, and I, I always hate when people do this. Like 10K long at six and a half percent, that's not that hard. But for these purposes, for these guys, like it will be a fast climb. And I think you go do speed can help them. Spencer, it's hard. Yeah. I mean, you know, the, the climb Spencer, it's, uh, the overall, it's all six and a half percent. But it's, it's, it's pretty. It's pretty. hard. It's a proper climb, a proper climb. So I don't think people will cruise on that climb. It's, it's going to be a big battle. We're going to see Wingard and Ayuso and Almeida and Godu. Those are the guys we're going to see. There's no hiding there. No, in terms of wild cards, I mean, this is tough, because we could, you could go for breakaway guys.

I think that's a little risky. The obvious breakaway candidates would be Jay Bine, Lorenzo Fortunato. I just am not convinced it's going to be break. I think it's going to be ridden too hard in the Peloton. But I'm going to go, I cannot believe this guy is down here. Wanda Yuso plus 4,000. He is a fast finisher. And when he's on form, he is a good climber.

Oh, just this year, he had multiple summit finish wins. Like Torrena at Radico, that was solo, but he beats Primos Roglich at Catalonia on an uphill finish. Like, the guy can finish off climbs. I'm going to go him just because he's so far down there plus 4,000. I thought he looked pretty fit today. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one. Well, my wild card is going to be very similar.

I'm going to go for Joe Al-Meda. Also, plus 4,000. I don't know why he is down there. they're probably thinking okay he's still recovering from his crash but he looked good okay also today his interview afterwards he sounded pretty confident and almeida on a climb like this especially if it's a climb where this is a typical climb where you can pace yourself he's shown already in the past that he can win those so at plus 4 I think he's an ideal wild guard

or tomorrow stage. Yeah, he was beaten Jonas Findergarten up hill finished this year. At Paris. Yeah, and at, what was that? Agarve. And I mean, the thing I don't understand is, just for example, Marco Frigo,

very good rider, but he's on the same odds as Almeda and Iuso. Like, well, who is the better chance of winning the stage? Marco Frigo or Iuso or Amato, two of the strongest riders in this race. So I don't really get i don't get it but we're taking it because we're confused why they're so far down there anything else johan before you take off um no i think that's it for me all right we'll be back

tomorrow to break down this uphill finish and the another thing i meant to say that i forgot to say is even if like you're like oh it's going to be breakaway because they want to give the way the jersey well stage seven the stage will preview tomorrow is even harder than this so they probably just get the jersey back anyway so i think i think i think yonis has the jersey if he's going to win this race. There's no giving it away anymore. I think we are where we are with the G.C. But we'll be back to break down the stage,

the first, I guess, true summit finish. How many times can we say that at this race? It will be stage 13. We're saying, oh, the first true summit finishes today. But I am excited to watch to see how this plays out. Okay, Spencer. Thanks. All right. Bye.

Thank you.