THEMOVE - What is Visma & Vingegaard's Plan at This Tour? | TdF 2026 Stage 14 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: July 18, 2026

Lance, George, Sir Bradley, and Spencer Martin (aka The Professor) break down Tadej Pogačar's win on Stage 14 of the 2026 Tour de France atop the Le Markstein ski station. They discuss where Pogačar's win puts him in terms of the all-time stage win record, and how the fight for the podium behind continues to get more and more interesting, especially with Jonas Vingegaard looking under pressure from Paul Seixas and Isaac del Toro. They also touch on how the race, despite being 2/3rds of the way over, still has half its climbing meters remaining, and preview tomorrow's brutal Stage 15, take listener calls, and answer yesterday's Ventum trivia before giving out a new question. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Ekoi: https://www.ekoi.com/en-us/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=podcast-weedu_us Kineon: Use code THEMOVE for $50 off or go to https://kineon.io/THEMOVE DraftKings: New DraftKings customers, sign up with code THEMOVE spend five bucks to get two hundred in rewards within 21 days. That's code THEMOVE. In Partnership with DraftKings. Ventum: Use code TheMove10 for 10% off anything at: https://ventumracing.com/ Eight Sleep: Use code THEMOVE at https://eightsleep.com/themove for up to $350 off. 30 days to try it at home. Free returns if it's not for you.  

And I think the Paul Seychos factor is starting to play here with the French crowds, with the crowds on the side of the road. He's acknowledged that it's getting a little spicy. So today's a perfect day where he could have said, you know, let me, today's a day where I shouldn't do, as Tadee, I shouldn't do Tade things. He can't help himself. And I love it. You're the best rider in the bike race.

And if you want to go, despite it all, then go. Oh, right? And so I give him a lot of credit for that. And the kid is a champ, right? He's just a stone cold champ. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Move podcast. I'm Lance Armstrong, joined by Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mr. George and Kepi, who is still in the hurt locker with this tooth. We just had a little sliver of hope. Yeah, we get some help. The dentist down in Glenwood Springs. Bobby Julek's hometown. Yeah, that's right. I'll go say hi to his peeps.

Mike get a little relief tonight. And the professor, Spencer Martin. Just, let's do this first. Alan, what do we do? Let's get this out of the way. Where do we go today, Alan? Stage 14, from Moulouse to Le Marckstein Fierering. I mean.

From Moulouse to Le Markston Fiering. That's how a French guy says. sort of a German-esque. Yeah. It's pretty good, though. It's good. Pretty good. Todi, look, Tadipokachar just doing Tade things.

His fourth stage win of the 2026 tour, his 25th overall stage win, just making it look easy. I guess, Bradley, I'm going to go to you first. I mean, now we wanted to have Johan on. He was out on a long ride. Not confirmed. That's just speculation. He is out training. And we just knew he would not have any filter when it comes to Jonas Hangergaard.

But instead, he's not here. So instead, I'm going to go to Sir Bradley Wiggins. Bradley, what, I just, look, I know these guys have to do something. They have to try something. They have to ride their race. But I don't understand. I mean, just to set tempo, we were sitting there speculating what's, and then just to set Taddy up like that. Yeah, look, I have to say, I thought that was the most exciting.

in stage of the race so far. Good. Good. With Yonis, look, I actually thought he looked better than he has done on some of the other climbing stages in this race. We're two weeks in now. I think he's running out of options as to what he can do. It's a very different approach, Taday, sorry, Jonas this year to last year when he was

in second overall. And I do feel like he responds better when it's a constant pace as opposed to these, especially on these tougher climbs. And I think there is an element of him consolidating second on GC. So when Remko was getting dropped, you know, Remko is a danger to him in that time trial coming up on Tuesday for the second spot overall. So, you know, he's running out of, he's left for very few options when he's in that position because we all know what Taday's going to do. And he probably knew what Tadie was going to do. And I thought he, you know, he limited his losses pretty well when Taday did go at that one stage.

but he soon ran out of legs. We saw that in the finish straight where he got distance yet again in the sprint. And I think he's limited by physically by what he can do in this race. A bit of fatigue setting in, maybe not as good as he was last year. Gyro fatigue, Walter fatigue.

There's a lot to consider, but he still is battling on. George. Yeah, I mean, I would disagree in the sense that I think he is maybe even better than last year, but Pocazar is even better than he's ever been. I'd like to see sort of different tactics.

Like, I don't think a guy like Jonas, he's won the Tour de France already, like second place is not that big of a deal. Like, why not go for stage wins? Why not let your lie lie lieutenants like Sepkouz go up the road and make the race more dynamic as opposed to just pulling for Tadey Porcuchar? Like, to me, that doesn't make any sense at all. Now, he, I mean, to your point, he was, Remco was getting dropped. So if it is this, if he's, you know, despite what George thinks he should do, I mean, by the way, I'm with you, too. Like, you've won the tour.

Yeah. You've won other grand tours. Who cares about, but maybe he, but by the way, maybe he cares. Is he, is he making these calls himself or has he been told to do this? Well, this is why I wanted Johan. Yeah. On, but I also understand secret training. My guess he's being told to do.

Yeah, I would think. So I get all of this. Like, that is a tempo that suits him better, a more consistent sort of, you know, eight out of ten tempo. but he's also getting probably hearing that Remco is getting dropped. So if he is thinking about consolidating second, then then he says, look, I've got to, I've got to keep him distance. Now, Remko did a decent job of coming back.

By the way, it's also worth noting Team UAE again, first and second, right? With Isaac Deltore getting second, who also wrote a hell of a stage, got dropped, came back, and then ended up finishing second on the stage. I guess we should say, yeah, but what is the function of second place? So it's important to couch this with, yes, he was distancing Remko. That's important because Remko's good at time traveling. Will Remko even be in the ballpark tomorrow?

I guess we don't know. But why does Jonas care about second? Should it be riding more like Tom Pitcock? Like, why not jump on the early move? Like, what does he really care? I don't think. I don't think that's in the car. He's kind of in no man's land.

But use your guys. I mean, Jorgson may not be feeling great right now, but Seppkus, he's looking better and better. Like, send him up the road. Let's go for stage wins. Let's build some more, like, ambiance and, you know,

get the momentum go on the team. And that'll change everything. Like, as opposed to just riding there, riding for a second or pulling for the guy in the yellow jersey. I don't know. It just doesn't make that much sense. The problem Yonis has now is not Tate. He's going to lose to Tatee for being honest.

He lost 10 seconds to Paul. success. He lost 12 seconds to Isaac Deltore today. Like, what happened at the end there? Well, he did all the work. I mean, he pretty much pulled the last 15K. But he didn't have to. Exactly. You're right. This is showing six seconds, but, um, but plus the, that would the time. Okay. Time bonus. Fair point. Yeah. And like those guys looked amazing. Yeah. So then what's going to happen when get to harder climbs? I, yeah, I don't know. He seemed, George, you said this. He seemed surprised at the end when they were sprinting. He was like, well, where are you guys going? Why are you doing this? He was asking. He was asking.

asking Deltaora to pull through. He kind of looked around like, why are you guys going? You're right. Yeah, you just kind of wonder about the race awareness a little bit. Has he ever been in this position? Because if you think about his whole career, he's either been the best in the race,

like a Voltaur, zero, or the second best, and only had to worry about one person, is he a bit befuddled by having multiple people that are all so good. Like, this isn't allowed. What's going on here? Yeah, and I think even just watching Paul Seix's his team today, like setting,

like trying to set up early fast tempo at the bottom. They seem to be more and more confident as they're getting closer to the Alps and getting closer to the hardest pace part of the race. So I think he's more on the up right now than Jonas is. And I will say about, let me just talk about Todai for a second, because this is, today is a perfect day, right? For him to, and it has been covered, and he has even acknowledged that, and I think the

Paul Seychas factor is starting to play here with the French crowd. with the crowds on the side of the road. He's acknowledged that it's getting a little spicy. So today is a perfect day where he could have said, you know, let me, today's a day where I shouldn't do it. As Tade, I shouldn't do Tade things. He can't help himself. And I love it.

You're the best rider in the bike race. And if you want to go, despite it all, then go. Right. And so I give him a lot of credit for that. And the kid is a champ, right? He's just a stone cold champ when it comes right down to it. And you put a number on his back. Whatever motivates him, he just said, I'm going.

And I don't care what anybody says. And I appreciate that. I really do. And speaking of other moves, Paul Seishas into the white jersey, that's one we should, we should talk. Now he's up into the white. Juana Yuso had a rough day as these guys are starting to get distanced. He was clearly swinging.

He was clearly in trouble. God forbid he not look at the profile for tomorrow's finished climb. But this kid, Paul Seishas, I mean, this is 19 years old. What did you say, Spencer, two years younger than the second youngest person in the bike race. Unbelievable. He's now up into the white jersey and is now, you know, I mean, sitting in fourth, but I think we can probably make a pretty good case that he's going to finish on the podium. We've never seen anything like this.

It's unbelievable. It's, it is unbelievable, Bradley. This is a good use of that word. But I mean, what are, I was excited. I loved this stage. I thought the stage design was great with the steep ramp and then going into the rollers. It's not so obvious how you play it, what you do. And then, you know, Tad is winning, but like that's going to happen, right?

Especially on this type of stage. But I was thrilled watching Six Os and Del Toro. Like, I think that's the future. We're looking at like Lance, was there ever when you were winning tours? Jan obviously is very good, was a great rival. But I never remember the feeling of like, ooh, there's a swell of another generation coming up that's going to be a problem soon. So it's quite a lot of.

You know, Basso a little younger, Balochia a little younger. But not with, I mean, look, Paul Seishos is coming with an entire country's worth of hopes and dreams on his back. Like you, nobody had that. You know when that's coming. And he feels like he's getting better every day. Yeah. Today, I agree.

Well, this was the question, right? He's now into uncharteded territories. He's never raced a bike

consecutively. You asked, as we were watching the race today, has, do you think Paul Seychos has ever done a

bike race that had a rest day? Well, the answer is no. Yeah. Well, he's about to have a second one, so he's even more uncharted territory.

He's looking better and better. Yeah. He's in the white jersey. And I will say, I mean, you know, however ASO did lay out

this course with yesterday's stage not being that, far from today's stage, even today's stage passing nearby, kind of itself throughout the day. I thought the crowds are fantastic. I bring this up because, I mean, Paul Seychoss is the beneficiary there. These are his people.

Now, there's a lot of international people. These are his people. A lot of Germans out today, too, because it's close to Germany. Big Lipowitz contingent. I thought it was a big loop kind of because they passed the finish early in the stage, really smart design for maximizing the crowds at the finish. Yeah, there was crowds even on the same. in the descents, big, big crowds in the descents, which we don't really see very often.

It is that time of day. Let's talk about the move of the day. The move of the day is brought to you by 8-Sleep, the smart mattress cover that easily goes on top of any existing mattress, heats or cools, each side, either from 55 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Head on over to 8Sleep.com slash the move. Use the code, the move until the end of the tour, get $350 off. So, Bradley, move of the day? I'm curious.

This will be a good day for other. I think we're going to have different picks here. Go ahead. Well, I'm going to go for Paul Saceous because, you know, as we said, he's got a weight of a nation on his shoulders. He's living up to the hype. He's coming into the third week of the Tour de France. Now, the unknown, he's 19.

I mean, he wasn't even born when you won your last tour. It's phenomenal what he's doing. You know, I won't say it's unbelievable because that was getting used to lock. The crowds are unbelievable. It's very believable. But it's phenomenal what he's doing. Did you know his first memory of the Tour de France is Frum running on Von der Leyen? That doesn't feel that long ago.

That's too bad. I'm going to go with Paul Sixth as well. According to your VBO, whatever that thing is, today was the hardest stage of the Tour de France thus far. And he did not back down one bit. I mean, he was right up there. Crop back up to Jonas. Incredible ride by him.

He was very happy at the finish line, smiling. So I think he's just even more motivated for what's to come in the next week. Wow. He's like Del Toro. He got popped. I mean, he looked in trouble on the climb. And then he came back. You had second on the day.

Amazing. And looked good. And he looked good. Yeah. It's not, it's going to be a battle for this podium. Yeah. I'm excited because it's not going to be,

we don't lock Jonas in for second. This is going to be a fight. That's the race of the tool right there. Yeah. And the race of the future in some respects. I think you're going to be watching Del Toro and Six Oz go at it for a long time. They don't have to improve that much. No.

Right? A del Toro or Setschus, I mean, it's, you know, and this is the case for any high-level professional sport, right? One, two percent, you're there. No. Like, these are not 10 percent gains where you're looking at these kids going, boy, you know, this is years away. These are one or two percenters that, and they're right there. Yeah. And so, but I would have picked Paul Setschus, too.

So I guess I was wrong. I guess we all picked same person. Yeah. Hell right. Also today brought to you by E. Koi. We're looking at the R2 Carbon Helmet. During today's stage in the Vogue, you probably noticed one of ECOI's latest innovations in action, the brand new ECOI racing R2 Carbon Helmet. The R2 Carbon is great for mountain stages, since it was specifically developed for climbers

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That's the price of admission for the time spent riding. and running. The thing I really like about it, it's not some surface-level fix. It uses targeted light therapy to get deep into the muscles and joints, right where the pain actually lives. George has been having it on his tooth the last four or five days. And since it's so easy to carry around, I can use it anywhere. Even when I'm traveling, I'll just throw it on as I'm checking my emails, having coffee in the morning. And since the Move Plus just makes it easy to do at home, there's no appointments and no hassle. Use the code, The Move, for $50, $50, off or go to Kenyon.io slash the move.

Sorry, that was that, did I just hit your cable? Yeah, I think so. Still works. 25th career. Did we say that? 25th, fourth of this tour, 25th of his tour career. You think he's going to, well, Bradley and I were.

Should we just give him the 26th tomorrow, by the way? He's not a bad time draws either. Bradley and I were just having fun going through the rest of the course. So let's say, assume he wins tomorrow. So that's five for this tour, 26. Let's just say he wins the time trial, just for fun. So 7th, 27, he could win three more stages after that. Okay.

Then what is the record for stage wins in one tour? I mean, some of these get a little goofy because it would be like, yeah, it was 15 stages and one guy won 14. But in the modern era. I mean, it probably would be a sprinter. Cav won six one year, did he? I feel like he did, yeah. Mark Kavanaugh holds the all, no, that's all the time in a single. I'm sure.

Because Cab did win six one year. Yeah, sure he did. Yeah. Well, Pagachar won six recently two years ago. They are Freddie Martins. He won maybe eight in one tour? In one tour? He won like 15 months in a welta too, I think.

Yeah, he did like win almost over half the stages of the Fultz. Well, then that's in jeopardy. Yeah. You have to think that's in jeopardy. He probably won't win the time trial. And probably the second out-to-west stage is tricky because it's a, it's a funky day that probably favors a breakaway. Paris is tricky, but it's fun to imagine because he would win in the other. The second last year, was he?

Second? Or no, he got caught. Caught in the head up. But what he know is probably the last rider to win in Paris in the yellow jersey. So that would be, obviously, he would want to do that. He could be looking at. Let's say he has 28 wins coming out of the season. tour.

He's not that far off. And he gave one away. Yeah. Give one away. Let's, we have to talk about Remko. Of course, he was dropped today. He did come back. This guy, this guy, this guy hangs in.

I'll give him this. I mean, he hangs in there. I mean, as we were watching, I'm like, up, there it is. That's it. There goes his podium. And he just comes back, right? And I don't know if. Let's not, let's not forget.

He's been world champion time trialist for how many years in a row. I mean, the guy can gauge it. Yeah, I think he's very good better than anybody else. He's very good at judging his efforts, A, to be as fast as possible, and never really going to the point where it explodes. Yeah, knowing that today had, what, nine kilometers after the top to the finish,

which was not downhill. Yeah. He had a little downhill and then was basically flat to the finish. You see how strong he finishes, too. Like, not only does he catch back up in the group of head of him, but he out sprints them with ease. Yeah. Look, I mean, to his credit,

they take the time at the finish line. Yeah. Right. So, you know, as we're watching this, we comment on it and sort of question, oh, here it is. That's it. It's over. And the commentators on TV say it. But the time stops at the finish line.

Yeah. Tomorrow might be. You'd worry on a day where there's multiple huge mountains. Yeah. And this has been an issue in the past. You get dropped in the first big mountain of the day. And then 20 seconds is not really. Then you're in trouble.

Eddie Merck's won eight stages in a single tour two times. Two separate times. Holy smokes. But that is the record. Eight. So that could be coming down, though. Or at least tied. We'll see.

The other thing I think is worth just kind of as we start or we're, it feels like we're starting or, you know, in the next day or two, starting the third week. Every tour in the third week, kind of these stories develop. We talked about this from one of the callers yesterday with Oscar. only. I mean, Oscar only was a week three story. I want to watch this. Like, what is our week three story? There's got to be something here. I mean, I thought Carapaz wrote a hell of a race. We were sort of internally

debating. You know, he's such a good bike racer. He's an Olympic champion. He's won other big races. He wrote a hell of race today. Like, is he going to keep trying? He was up there with Ben Healy. Ben Healy was a week three story last year. And so

what is it? Like, just... I think, I think Seychus is the week three story. Oh, what I mean, but I think there's multiple stories, right? These are all storylines. Yeah. Agreed with that. Both times Carapas was in the break, too. Like, he would have won had just one team not decided that they wanted to keep it close.

Yeah. Well, today was a little bit different because UAE was not pulling on the final climb. It was Decahathlon. But they kept it within, you know, they kept it where the sharks can smell the blood. Well, basically on purpose, right? So then Decaflon would do it and then they would, yeah. But, I mean, I kind of think if Carapaz, If you think someone's going to win a stage of the third week, it's probably Carapaz.

Yeah, I agree. I don't disagree with that. Another thing to watch with these stages as this race drags on and guys are getting tired because we got close today. Time cut. Time cut discussion becomes an issue. Some guys. I think everybody snuck in. One guy got time.

Yeah. Anthon Charming. He was on the breakaway a couple days ago. That stinks. That's not charming. That's not. No, X. All right.

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the professor over here just told me something on break, that halfway through today's stage, now keep in mind, it's Friday. No, wait. It's actually Saturday. Jeez. Even I'm tired, worn out. But it's Saturday.

So that means we have roughly a week to go. Halfway through today's stage, the tour had only done 52% of the climbing, 52% of the vertical climbing. it's potentially the hardest third week they've ever had. Yeah, I mean, it's hard. I try not to, and I don't know where the riders, they probably do look ahead. I don't really look ahead.

That's amazing. I mean, the time God actually does start to become a problem for somebody's. If you're barely making it now and you've only climbed half of the tour, and you've got the other half in the final week and you're tired and it's hot, this is going to be a hell of a week. Yeah. I mean, I was just thinking then what are the, what are the, predictions for the winning margin of Taday in a week's time.

Plus 10 minutes plus, do you think? 10 minutes would be... I don't think he lets that happen. Like on next bets, nxtebats.com slash bet outcomes. You can see they have like a running tally of us. In the... It was like plus 120 for five to seven minutes. And then seven or more minutes was negative.

So like minus 150, which would mean that's the preferred outcome by the book. But I don't know. I don't know. I mean, he is taking a minute every time he stands up, which would suggest it could be pretty big. But I wonder if we'll see more defensive racing on the final two next stages. Yeah. Yeah.

And you see it from the interviews of the riders that are getting second, third, fourth. They're not even talking about Poetre anymore. They're talking about like where they were in terms of like who's in second, who's in third. They're not even mentioning. So I think a lot of teams like, Beast, man, you'd think tonight they'd go back to the drone board and go, you know what, let's just race. like we're either going to try to win a stage

or a race like Jonas knows how to race when he's leading a big grant tour, which is attacking instead of riding tempo for Jonas. To try to distance himself from third and fourth and fifth to try to get a buffer there in this final week, I would think. Let's look at stage 15. And yesterday, Spencer revealed, he has this other index that none of us knew about

until yesterday called the VVOM, which is basically some sort of algorithm them that tells you the hardest stages of the tour, today's stage, was up until this point the hardest stage of the tour. I think it was 84 on the VVOM. 83. It just spits out a single number. Now, tomorrow's stage, which you can, if you're watching the street, you can see on screen, is a VVOM. I just love this. Of 93, I think you said. 94. 94. Wow. So 11 points higher of the hardest stage so far. And it's not even the hardest stage the tour. Nearly 4,000 meters again, yet again, of total vert, really looks never flat.

I mean, you look at that profile, and you're like, there's just nowhere to chill. Interesting, early intermediate sprint like we had today, which, of course, was won by Philipson. On a big climb. Not a flat one. Pedersen did get second, further solidifying his green jersey. But here's the story of, here's the tale of the tape for tomorrow. Let's go to the final climb. Nasty.

11.3 kilometers at 9% average. There are pieces early on 10, 10.1, 11.1, 11.3. Ouch. Yeah. And not a short day. 184 kilometers. You know, it's not 155. Yeah.

You know, this is, and all that to say, there's your 94 on the hardness meter. Never done that climb in the tour before. Interesting. So a brand new climb, did it, and the dofin. earlier this year, Isaac Deltora won. They did it in the Dauphine four years ago and Yonis beat Primus Rugglich on it.

But yeah, never been in the tour. It's a hard climb. I mean, you think Optoez is 8% average. That's a percentage higher and it's still long at 11K. I mean, I'm going to say right now, maybe this is getting out over my skis a bit. I think Remko could have a hard time coming back

on that one if he gets dropped. Yeah. It's not a good climb for him. Yeah. Also, if you've noticed, that's a different mountain range than we're in today. That's in the Alps. And they're not in the Alps.

That's a long transfer they have to do in between mountain stages. Which is like Geneva's not, like if you ever lived in Colmar and the Alsace, you're nowhere near Geneva. Like that's a long drive they have to do. Yeah. Yeah. Not fun. Not fun. And then they get to do that.

Good times. Well. All right. Who's your pick for the wind, George, tomorrow? I think we're going to see the usual suspects going in the breakway, but it all depends on what UAE wants to do. I can imagine carapats will go again. Pickcock will probably try to go again.

You know, who else has been in the breakaway lately? Ben Hilley was in there today. Ben Healy's been going, maybe getting better and better, hopefully, by the day. But, I mean, look at that start. That start really, if we go back to that profile, I think a team like Lidl Treck will really want to go for that bonus sprint

because it's on an uphill climb is hard, which Matt Peterson. will favor him more than a guy like Phillips in and being in Germay. So I don't know. I think they're going to make it try to keep it together for that first 15, 17K for him to win that sprint. And then that'll make it easier for like the really good climbers to get in the break where in the next climb.

Yeah. Did have storms today. I don't know what the forecast. If that's sort of boring at the start. Yeah, it was raining a few times today. They got some pretty serious rain. I'm sure they welcoming that at this point. There is the transfer.

or maybe we're getting to a different part where the weather system is different, but Yeah, I don't see any rain in the forecast. Hot? Not that hot. Okay, 70s. Yeah. So we're finally back to. That's got to feel good.

Yeah, normal times. The problem is a breakaway could lose on that climb. Yeah, it was five minutes on a GC group. Easy. So at this point in the tour. Yeah. I probably not would go. I mean, there's probably, if it's not breakaway, there's one.

It's winning. Yeah. They know, right, too, the guy, the Unix guy that was in the breakway, said he spoke to Tade before the start. He's like, hey, you think the breakway will go? And Tade, he's like, I don't think so. Or like, maybe not, which means he's going for the stage one. So I think they'll know ready tomorrow to start. That's a hell of a scoop.

Yeah. We're 31 minutes into the show. And he comes with a scoop from a rider who had Tade whispering in his ear at the start. And we're 31 minutes in. I think it'll be the same tomorrow as well. Yeah. I can't see Taday not going for this stage. Like I said at this point, just do it.

The big question is, what does Jonas do? Like, is he going to be leading Taday out going into that climb? Like, get on my wheel, buddy. I'm going to launch you. Can't do that. Can I do that? I think he's got to start racing more aggressively against the guys that are behind him. Give him a hand sling.

Trying to ride them off the wheel. He knows how to attack. He's done it before. Sit at the back. Just sit at the back. Just sit at the back. Try something different. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. Or attack. No, he can't do that. No, just sit at the bat. Let the race, let it develop on its own. Anyways, let's take some calls. Again, the call-in number, everyday, same number. Give us a shout if you want to leave a voicemail. 9707-1-8-2736. Caller number one. Hi, this is Mark from Minnesota. Ride for the Roses Class of 2001. My question is, given cycling's global popularity, the extraordinary sacrifice and travel to sport demands, and the very real risk of serious injury or death, professional cyclists seem significantly underpaid.

If you could change one aspect of the sport to improve rider compensation, what would it be? Thanks a lot. Really enjoy the show. Bart, from Minnesota, that's a loaded question that is almost, it's a great question. And we have spent numerous episodes talking about this. And I'm not sure that in this particular segment of the show is the time to get into it. But it's a great question. And all I'll say is we are, and Spencer and I especially have been pulling stuff together to have this discussion.

Now, we got to find a day. We might have missed, might have should have done it on some of these boring days two or three days ago. But it's, it has to be addressed, right? And it's not being addressed. Right. So what would? And the beauty of cycling. is yes, the Tour de France is one of the most marquee events in the world. It just is. You can't deny that.

It is up there with the World Cup. It is up there with Wimbledon. It's up there with Augusta. It's up. You know, it's that. So there are comps when it comes to these events. And there are comps when it comes to these athletes. And this peloton that you're all watching and that we are watching is failing miserably when it comes to those comps. Now, you said something really important in your question. You said risking your life. Because it's true. Nobody's going to die at Wimbledon final. Nobody's going to die tomorrow on the World Cup final. But these kids are risking their life, not just on the men's side, but also on the women's side. And so that is a whole other layer of consideration. I want to sort of park the full answer because I do think we'll get to this. We've pulled

the comps from the other sports. We've talked about this in the past. Look, Tadie Pogachar is going to win the Tour de France. The prize money for him winning the Tour de France in 2026 is going to be no different than me winning the Tour de France in 2005. That is a fucking joke. That's a joke. Now, here's the reality. You might say, well, maybe nobody's making money. Okay. That is not true. the family and the tour and ASO are making hundreds. Okay, write that down. Hundreds of millions of dollars. These athletes now are not participating in that.

That's not right. That's not fair. Last thing I'll say, and this is one thing I would say to Taday, he is in a position to help change that. I was also in a position at the time to help change that, and I did not do it. The athletes have to sort of stand up and say, listen, this has to change, right? I mean, what do we think that the athletes from this year's tour in terms of total revenue of ASO,

what goes to the athletes is somewhere around 1 or 2%. Oh, yeah. Maybe. I mean, we had a smart person who works in the industry, tell us a percent in an email. We should say, too, the difference between, I know there was like Wimbledon was in the news for this lately. but Wimbledon's profits all go back to the Lawn Tennis Association, which is a grassroots basically just like runs to kids tennis camps in the UK. It's like a fantastic organization.

ASO's profits go back to. Yeah, we know. Who knows what. It's just like private income. And listen, that's fine. It's their race and they've got it set up. However, this race doesn't happen with the players, with the athletes, with the cyclists. we could keep again it's a great question it deserves maybe an entire episode the structure right the structure of the sport we have so many smart guys in the sport that want to have essentially have a franchise that that is not there there is no franchise here there is no equity you do not own anything once your sponsorship dries up or runs out or you get sick of paying for it see in the duches right there is nothing to continue with that also should be a drug

Again, I think this is an entire episode. We've talked about it forever. The numbers don't lie, right? If the athletes are pulling roughly 1% of the total revenues of ASO for this event, which is a beauty, that's not right. And so now you've got me heated. They have a lever, though. That's the problem.

They need some sort of lever. Yeah. Because the teams, there's have, like, nothing to bargain with at the moment. No, no. Anyways. Got me riled up. Got me really. Did you notice that?

Yeah. Yeah. Do you agree? I do agree. Yeah. Thank you. Maybe you host like Lance. We've been talking about it.

I know. It's, um, yeah. I've been talking about it for years. A lot of people have been talking about it. Look, and there's no, there's no point in going to ASO and saying, all right, we're going to boycott, or, you know, we're going to do something extreme. Now, it needs to be a dialogue. It needs to be a conversation.

And what I would urge, like, if I had a private, room with the family, let's be real. This is the family that owns the race. If I had a private room, I would say, listen, you own the sport. I know you obviously own the Tour de France, but if you own the Tour de France, you own the sport. So why not make this whole thing? All of these ships rise, and there's a way to do it. There's a way to cut the athletes in. There's a way to create a structure where there's team equity and there's actual team owners, I think. So Next call

Bart, I hope I got parts of your answer right there But all right, no, second caller, second caller. Hey, fellas, Ben here in Boulder, Colorado by way of Hackney in London. My question for you guys is, what is the most memorable interaction you've ever had with an overly enthusiastic fan on the side of the road, positive or negative? Cheers, lads, love the show. Keep up your work. Oh, that's

One of your people. Yeah. That's a good question, but racking my brains. Where did he say? We always had the guy with the football helmet The most memorable interaction you ever had with a fan. I think I've told mine on this show before.

I may have to tell it again, because it is the one that sticks out. George, you keep thinking. You got to have something. Yeah, the Texas Bullhorn guys that always came to the tour for five, six years in a row, and then he started going off.

Parasher Bay, Tor, California. He'd like glue the horns on top of a football helmet and then wear football jerseys. Yeah, football jersey with like your name on it. Well, I'll tell you what, some bitch could run too. He could run. And he would be in the middle of nowhere. I think Liz actually picked up his, picked up his helmet thing one time. And she was like, oh, my God, you put this on your head and you run with these guys.

Like, it must have been a beast. The only one I could think of where, which was quite annoying at the time, was in 2012, I got a fan for a yellow flare at me that had just been lit. So I kind of, it burnt my arm, and I was covered in the yellow powder that comes off the flare. So I came out of this smoke, and I was just, I was caked in yellow, about 20K to go. And that was quite, but I'd burnt my arm. That was the thing that I remember the most about it was, it's just been lit and thrown into the front of the And I guess it was for the wrong reasons because at that time, Sky, we're getting booed a little bit, certainly in the third week.

So, yeah, I mean, I do remember one occasion riding behind you and Monvon, too. And I think you had urine furred over you at one point. Right. That would have not been the only time that that happened. Urine. So since Ben is clearly British and he's in Boulder. It's not boulder. But if he wasn't British, you would have said urine.

P. Urine. What would you want to mean? Urine is incorrect. No, I got you. Yeah, all right. My most memorable one, and I've told this numerous times, so if you've heard it before. I had urine on the brain as well because we, me and my son, Ben, we're in the supermarket yesterday.

Now, he's got two bike bags with him that I insist stay on the balcony because his dog at home urinates on his bike bags constantly. It's like his place of... So the bags reek. And we were in the supermarket yesterday. And there's a urine, like a spray that you can get that kills the smell of urine. Pungent smell of urine. And we bought that.

So I just see this bottle every morning that says urine, whatever it is. You know, that's gross. It's both gross and kind of sweet. I mean, the dog is pissing on the bike bags because he doesn't want Ben to leave. He associates that with Ben leaving. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. That's very sweet. It's a vicious cycle. It's very sweet.

Maybe a cat would be like, oh, there's dog piss on this. I got to piss on this too. Yeah, there's a bad position of being. No, that's his protest. Yeah. My favorite one was Alptuaz time trial. I'm going along. Of course, time trial, you're all alone. And there's a kid running beside me, and he's just, and he can run. And Alptuaz is a steep, so he's staying with me for a long time. And he's just screaming.

And he's being very positive. which was rare that day in 2004 and out to West, but he just, you're the man, you're the fucking man. And finally I'm like, all right, I got this.

Like I've had it. Gettys get tired and stop running. But he's not. He's not getting tired. And finally I look over at him and I looked him right in the eyes and I said, I know. And he stopped. He stopped him in his tracks.

And I was like, that was pretty cool. And I met the guy. I met the guy years ago, came up to me somewhere and said, you're not going to remember this. He said, I was running beside you on afterwards. And I said, yeah, you just kept screaming. You're the man. He's like, do you remember that?

And I was like, of course I do. And now I'm still talking about it. Speaking of fans, I did run into a nice couple last night. I was out with your wife and Ash and a couple other people. And this lady came up to me. She said she's a huge fan of her show. But her five-year-old son watched Wyatt. So shout out to Wyatt.

Thanks for watching us. He watches this every day religiously and he's a massive fan of our show. So thank you, Wyatt. That's a lot. Mom, I take back those F-bombs in the last 20, 30 minutes. Sorry, Wyatt. But thank you. That is cool.

Ventum trivia. Interesting question yesterday. Of course, you head on over to ventumracing.com to submit your answer. $5,000 credit towards bike your choice. Could be the NS1 like Bradley and I love with the GS1. Do you have a GS1? I have a GS1. Yeah, I did a gravel.

I didn't do the race. I rode a gravel race. I rode gravel this year for the first time. Our days of racing are over. What race was it? The Graloc in Scotland. Oh, wow. I went in, I was going to do the race, but I turned up the day before and wrote a mass participation thing.

Which is brilliant, actually. I'd never ridden on proper gravel. It's so good. It's fine. I loved it. Particularly on the GS-1. It was superb. The question yesterday was,

Frederick August Bartoldi, the artist from the Alsace region behind the line statue, who's seen on stage 13 is also responsible for one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. Do you guys want to guess what it is? What is that landmark? Is it a statue to be? George.

I would say that. It is. You're the sculpture guy, George. You're always talking about it. It is the Statue of Liberty, which of course tomorrow with the World Cup final, they're going to show the Statue of Liberty about 50 times probably during the game.

It is the Statue of Liberty. I went out there once. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's toured it. random place to go. If you live in New York, you'd never go out there. It's kind of cool. When I'd live in New York, never went.

This guy is a museum in Colmar, this artist, worth going. Incredible museum. We'd check it out. Today's question. Stage is 13 and 14 crossed the Ballon de Alsace, a Category 1 climb credited as the first major mountain climbed in the tourist history.

Is that right? It is credited as the first major mountain climbed in the tourist history in what year did it earn that distinction? 1903 was the year one. It was pre-Tormillet. Hmm. So that's a hint.

I didn't know that. Hmm. Anyways, head on over to ventonracing.com slash the move to submit your answer. Great. Big day tomorrow. Big day. According to the VVOM, we got another big day tomorrow. And a big week.

That's just crazy to me that halfway through today's stage, we were roughly only halfway done with the climbing. Yeah. Yeah. Imagine being a writer hearing that. Imagine being Tim Raleer. You're like, why am I even in this race? There's no more stages for me.

Don't give him. He might be, we think he might be listening, Tim earlier. Tim earlier, you can win stage 21. Don't give him any ideas. Yeah. Stay in the race. Yeah, he seems cool. Yeah.

All right, guys, thanks for tuning in. And we will see y'all tomorrow of stage 15. You're a podcast listener. And this is a podcast ad. heard only in Canada, reach great Canadian listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libson Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts, offering host endorsements, or run a pre-produced ad like this one, across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libson ads. Email Bob at Libson.com to learn more. That's B-O-B-L-I-B-S-Y-N dot com.