THEMOVE - Where Will Juan Ayuso Race in 2026? | Vuelta a España Week 1 Recap | THEMOVE

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Jonas Vingegard's dominant performance to win Sunday's summit finish ahead of João Almeida and Tom Pidcock with well-planned and aggressive tactics from his Visma-Lease a Bike team, and what it means for the GC battle for the rest of this Vuelta. They also discuss how Almeida's UAE's disorganized strategy isn't maximizing Almeida's abilities, the developments in the last few days that have led UAE to release Juan Ayuso for 2026, and what to make of Pidcock's impressive GC performances so far. Before they depart, they anticipate what to expect for the second week of this race, and preview tomorrow's post-rest-day summit finish, discussing how they think the race will unfold and who presents the best betting value. AG1: Head to https://DrinkAG1.com/themove to get a FREE Welcome Kit, including a bottle of Vitamin D and 5 AG1 Travel Packs (a $76 value), when you first subscribe!  Ridge Wallet: Ready to upgrade your wallet and maybe your ride? For a limited time only head to https://ridge.com and use code [THEMOVE] at checkout for 10% off your order AND a chance to win Ridge’s biggest sweepstakes ever—a Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato, a Hennessey Velociraptor, or $100,000 in cash. No purchase necessary to enter, but every dollar you spend gets you more entries. Ketone-IQ: Take Your Shot— Get 20% off your order at https://Ketone.com/themove and use the code THEMOVE. LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at https://DRINKLMNT.COM/THEMOVE. Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share with a friend. Be sure to try the LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water. Helix Sleep: Their LABOR DAY SALE is ending soon: 27% off all orders on the site Go to https://HelixSleep.com/TheMove. Make sure you enter our how name after checkout so they know we sent you!  Use our special link to see where you can bet in your area and claim the best sign-up offers https://nxtbets.com/betoutcomes/

Sorry, sorry, breaking news, breaking news while you're reading the ad. So I'm going to read, I'm going to read this. I just got this here. It is from Daniel Benson, your friend, not my friend, not my friend. I do like Daniel Benson. But he does, I have to say, he does have really good information. And a news flash just came in breaking news. Juan Yuso on the market little track in the frame,

Spanish rider is set to move after UAE team Emirates agree to let the rider leave. We're still awaiting official confirmation from all parties, but we understand that Juan Yuso will move teams at the end of the year as several sources have informed us that UAE Team Emirates will allow the rider to explore his options on the transfer market. everybody welcome back to the move i'm spencer martin i'm here with joan berniel we are holding it down at the move headquarters while while our colleagues are away enjoying their post tour to france vacation but we're here watching the vault of spania every day and we are doing a podcast about it you can find us on this feed

on the move plus we break down every stage and preview the stage before we'll do a similar format today and then but we'll talk about some bigger picture themes from the first week what where we think this race is going where is one i use you so going potentially. What is going on at UAE? Why is Vizma so good? All these questions will be answered. And then we will preview tomorrow stage 10. But first, before we do that, let's take a moment to talk about some of our partners that make this show possible. The first one is AG1. I am using AG1 every day, the daily foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole body health. I gave it a try because I was tired of taking so many supplements and wanted a single

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All right, Johann, the Volta, Spainia. Stage nine, I would say the most impactful GC stage so far by a long shot. We thought nothing would happen. We thought breakaway, some muted GC action because it was a steep final climb that went and it was like steep for the first half, 8%, then went into like four to two percent, for the second half. So we thought, well,

that's not a great climb for G.C. action. But no, Little Trek pigged it back. I guess they thought they had a chance of the stage win with Giulio Chocone. And then Yonis Vindigard,

he's pretty good, right? He's won two tour de frances for a reason. At the bottom of the climb, he said, hey, guys, hey, Vizma, can you lead me out? I think I can do something here. He attacks immediately.

I mean, Vizma does this genius thing where they have Mateo front, Yonis second, and everyone else is behind Yonis, so no one can get on a. his wheel. It means by the time he attacks, he's got 10 seconds immediately. Almeida, of course, not a wizarding positioning wizard, was a little out of position. He didn't have great team support. He had J. Vine, but that was kind of it.

Initially loses 10 to 14 seconds. And then by the top of the climb, pretty impressive actually, it's impressive that Vindigard held them off for 10 kilometers. It's also impressive that Pitcock and Almeida, the two riders that, I guess, rose above the chase group, only lost 10 additional seconds after that first surge over 10K they lost nothing in the last 5 kilometers but Vindigard finishes 24 seconds in front of Pitcock Almeda 1.02 in front of Phyllis Gahl

and 146 in front of the the chase group of the GC contenders oddly led by Mark Soler Almeda's teammate Torsten train was in that group though Tryin trying so he's still leading the overall by 37 seconds over Jonas Fendergarde 115 over Jolameta, 135 over Tom

214 over Felix Gall with Julio Chocone kind of sliding down into 6th at 242. But Johan, what was your take of the day on Sunday, stage 9, and then what's your big picture take of this race so far? Yeah, well, I mean, I have several takes on yesterday's stage. First of all, that we were wrong in predicting that it would be a breakaway and that the climb was probably not steep enough to make differences in GC. That was not correct. Little Freck was actually doing all the work, the whole stage.

So that was definitely a surprise. They had high, high hopes for Chicone. Turned out that that was a mistake. And then, yeah, Vizma launches Jonas with 11K to go. Before that, actually, my, my, my, my, my, surprise, maybe not my surprise, but still, you know, I kind of expected it, but still, it's not until it happens as you actually believe it's happening, is Juan Ayuso. Juan Yuso is just sitting in a bunch, not doing any work, knowing that he's out of G.

Almeida is on good form. The whole team knows that. And the guy just doesn't bother. It's, you know, he just, at the bottom of the climb, he sat up with, with, with, with, with printers. There was probably 50, 60, maybe 70 guys left when Almeida, when Ayuso sat up, didn't try. That was a surprise for me. And also a disappointment, I have to say, because, you know, I think, Ayuso, as we said, we are not questioning his qualities as a writer. What he showed on that stage when it was obviously very nice. And also proved that he's not in that.

terrible shit, as he says. We could blame Ayyosob, you know, we are kind of part of this, you know, exterior part that criticizes Ayuso for his behavior and we don't know exactly. I don't know him personally.

We don't know what's going on with the team, but what I do find disappointing is that UAE in the situation they are with Joe Almeida and whether he can beat Jonas or not, that's irrelevant. I mean, at least they need to try to stay as close as possible.

And I'm surprised that they do not have the influence or impact on a writer like Ayuso to tell him, Juan, okay, today, there's no stage win. Today, I need you to be during the first half of this climb with Almeida. Even an Ayuso, who is not 100% in shape, can do that. The proof is that there were many others of other teams who were there. You know, even Jay Vine was there. Groszhardner was there. There was other riders there.

So that's a disappointment to me. And so I'm a bit lost in what's actually going on. Is UAE in the position that they don't have the influence on him or the authority over him? Is Ayuso creating this himself to kind of, enhance the situation, what everybody thinks that he's not a team player and he wants to leave. We don't know. But for me, that was, I mean, we saw Jonas winning the stage, Almeida and Pitcag did a great rate. But for me, the event of the day was the attitude of Almeida, of Ayuso, sorry.

Yeah. And, you know, there's a lot of information flying around now. We don't know exactly what's accurate or not. But it is a known fact that, and we've said it's already many times here, that Ayuso wants to write for himself. I think that's safe to say. We've seen many, many occasions already. And this is another one, another example of, okay, I want to stage. I want to win another stage.

Whatever happens to the team, I don't care. That's one thing. then does this actually fit into the narrative of does Ayuso really want to create a situation that puts him outside of UE and they actually let him go? I'm starting to, I mean, a few podcasts ago, I said, you know, I don't think Ayuso is going anywhere. I am starting to have second thoughts on that. I did hear, I mean, there are some rumors around that Little Trek may be interested in

So as a G.C. writer. We all know that he has a long-term contract and that there's a huge buyout clause in the contract. The fact is that until a few months ago, the agent of Juan Ayuso was his dad. And that a few months ago, he hired Giovanni Lombardi as his agent to represent him. So then my thought is, if you, or are you so you have this probably really good contract and you have this long-term deal until whatever 2009 why do you need an agent now you don't need one because everything's supposed to be set already for the next few years so I think there's something cooking there and I think that what's so I it's difficult to say whether this behavior of our usual fits into his desire to leave if that's the case if that's the case that I'm disappointed in the direction of UAE at the race, the guys who are in the car,

even the management. They need to, I mean, if this is really the case that Ayuso wants to leave, I would send him home. I would say if you don't, if you don't follow these instructions, and we are here as team UAE, and we want to try to win the Vuelta,

and Ayuso behaves like this, he's going home. Now, maybe he, Spencer, sorry, and this is the last thing I'm going to, going to say about it. Maybe he will prove us wrong by being an exemplary teammate in the next two stages or in the next mountain stage. I doubt it, but maybe he proves us wrong, right? But for the moment, that's a little bit my take on the situation with Ayuso. I think it's, you know, we saw the interview actually, the interview he did after the stage was telling. First, we saw Almeida being disappointed. He said, he said literally, I missed my teammates today.

but it is what it is. End of quote. Are you so? Said, well, I didn't have good legs. I'm not in the G.C. anymore. So I don't see why I should push it just to push it. And I have the question if he could have helped Almeida. He said, push it just to be there five minutes longer.

It doesn't make much sense. It doesn't make much a difference. Literally, quote. So, I mean, that's, okay, it is in the heat of the action. It is right after the finish, but still, it's, no, it's, it's ridiculous. So I saw Almeida trying to calm the atmosphere afterwards with another quote, saying, okay, well, it wouldn't have probably made a much difference, but what was telling was that Almeida was super disappointed right after the finish.

That's when there's no filter. That's when he really says what he thinks and what he feels. So I think it's not a great atmosphere in UAE between Ayuso and Almeida. Well, I woke up this morning out of this big question queued up, I was going to say, Johan, would you send Wana Yuso home? But you already answered that. I would say him home. I would definitely have someone home. He's not offering anything. If he's not going to work for G.C., if he's not in G.C., they don't need another stage win. They might as well send him home.

Like, you make an example of them because you have Mark Salar back. They're pulling for other riders now. Well, it's also, listen, Spencer, the bigger picture is even different. You know, UAE is the best team in the world. of course they're in here in a Turin bike races but UAE can take the luxury to say you know what we don't get we don't want if we don't win this Vuelta or if we're on the podium who cares? It doesn't matter. It does not matter. It does not make any

difference and they are in a position to make a statement to say hey guys listen this is the deal here if you don't follow the instructions of the team this is what happens it would probably how would I say they're in a difficult situation because on the one hand I think I'm going to say

it's probably Machin who got Ayuso to the team who is Spanish who has a very close relationship to him he's in between two fires right but as a team I think somebody needs to put their foot down and say okay

this is the deal whoever doesn't want to follow this that there's no place for you and then just see it a business and say, okay, are you so? You want to leave? Okay, fine. This is, this is the price and then negotiate. That's what I would do. And the reason that quote caught me so august is the five-minute part of that quote, because Zhao made it. So he's, what, 40 seconds down on Yonis Findergaard after going into the first rest day of the vault. If you told him that at the start of the race, they'd bite your hand off to have that deficit to Jonas Vindigard. I personally think, Spencer,

a guy like Ayuso can definitely do, even if it's, listen, even if it's one and a half kilometer, one kilometer, it would make a difference, first of all, plus, for Ayuso's image and for the atmosphere in the team, that kilometer is worth its length in gold or length in whatever. Yeah. And, you know, it would be a statement. So, yeah, I'm guessing. I'm guessing what's going on, but, yeah, from the outside.

it doesn't look good. And I think the responsibility is on boat, you know, but if you know already that you have a rider, like Ayusu, who is an individual rider, and, you know, given he also gave a lot to the team. Let's not forget that until, if I'm not mistaken, Spencer, until the last stage of the Tour of Catalonia, Juan Ayuso won almost all of his races since the season started.

And then he lost the Tour of Catalonia in the last stage. Then, you know, failed at the Giro now is not 100% in the tour, but it's still a good rider. But I think they are, yeah, I'm disappointed in the lack of authority of the team management over the situation. And, yeah, I am shocked actually at the lack of management. But you say a kilometer, that's all Almeida needed. It's all they needed because all the damage was done in the initial attack. If he's if he has a teammate that keeps him on Jonas's wheel and then Jonas is up there on the on the bumper of the motorcycle for not even not even dispenser. I think, you know, you can understand that Almeida initially loses that time because it's the steeper part.

He loses the 10 seconds. But if if Iusso stays with Almeida and drags him for a kilometer when. the steep part is finished he just does one kilometer and almeda's on the wheel that's enough to give him that breeding room to make his search as almeida can do and once he's on yonnas's wheel when the steep part is over he's not dropping him anymore yeah and in fact he put him he put 10 seconds into yonis in the last kilometer yeah which imagine if they go into that together okay listen spencer we're analyzing this as of today after this stage right let's not forget that ultimately it will probably not matter because there's so many steep climbs that the way Jonas is going now,

I think it's going to be extremely difficult for him to not win this Vuelta, and it won't matter, right? But as for now, we're nine stages in, and this is the situation. I think it was a mistake from Ayuso and a mistake from the team management to not have the authority over a rider like Ayuso. I have some thoughts about Jonas in this race and where it's going, but we'll do that after an ad break. But before we do that, after, I thought that was one of the most impactful first kilometers of a climb I've ever seen for a writer's career. Because after that, you can never take him to the tour de France with Teddy Pagacha, right?

How could you ever trust him? I don't think they're going to write together. I think after the 20, 24 to the France was last year, right? Yeah. That's over. They're not going to race together. As long as Pugacha is going full guy. for the tour, I don't think

Aruso will be in it unless he, I don't know if he's whatever, signs with his, I don't know how he has to sign. Anyway, even if he signs it, I don't think it would matter. I think he has to leave then, right? You can't really have a rider like that on your team

who just can't race with your best rider. And also think about Pagaccha. Do you know what Pagaccio is doing at the 2024-0? This is the best rider of all time who was trying to win the race and he was leading out his sprinter at that race. Yeah. While he was juggling GC. So in Aeusa's mind, he even exceeds Pagacha's level of protectedness, I guess, which

I just don't know how you can have someone like that on your team. It's not just in the actions, Spencer. I mean, we've seen Pogacha already do really nice things for teammates. But it's also in the behavior and the attitude. you saw how unbelievably worried and given it's for his own interest also because he needed Almeida in the tour but he was so preoccupied by the state of Almeida you know how he was after the crash and I have never heard words like that from Ayuso as we said already his interviews are about him on whether he is bad or if he's good

It's not often about the team. And that's the big difference. Why would you hold on to him? That's the part I don't fully get. Like what's the downside of just selling? I think it's Machin, you know, having discovered Ayuso, I mean, discovered. I mean, there's not really much discovery because he's been, he's been great since he started racing. So it was clear that he was, he was, but it's his, I think it's his personal relationship with, with Ayuso and with his family.

which puts him in a difficult spot not easy to manage but still you know when you're in that position you're at some point you have to take or make difficult decisions and I think this is one that they should make yeah I agree and where do you where would that landing spot be if he leaves well it looks like it's little track if I can read if I can believe the the social media and the reports it would make sense you know little has definitely invested a lot in cycling more a lot more they're wanting to become one of the two three super teams which there are already that would make sense now does that mean that they can they can they manage him we don't know so I mean I use so is

definitely a writer who's interesting but how manageable is he and which team is willing to take that on and you're going to spend a lot of money taking them on is the is the problem yeah well i think there's only one there's only one i don't think i don't think i don't there's not going to be any any buying out i think it's uh it's it's just a matter of a usuf or or lombardi finding is out and then another team if if there's a negotiation in buying him out i don't think that's going to happen uh no that's going to it's not going to happen. Yeah.

I mean, my personal, I don't know if he thinks he's playing a clever game. Like, I'm boycotting work until you let me go. But I have to imagine yesterday was not helpful to his market rate. Like that, if you're little trek and you're thinking about investing a lot of money into him, that would concern me. Here's an interesting thing, because you say ice is really good. Eighth, eighth and pro wins this year. He basically didn't race all summer. That's really impressive.

Little Trek, though, has two riders. win more than him. They have Mads Pedersen and third, Jonathan, Milan, and seventh. It's like this team isn't exactly hurting for riders that can win races. They don't have that kind of ride. I mean, Chicona is similar, I would say,

but I use is probably a more complete rider than Chicone. Or at least, you know, he has the potential. theoretically, yeah. That's the thing. It's like, well, you haven't finished a grand tour since 2023. he did finish on the podium. The problem I have is do how many top GC riders have had a point young early in their career where they've just like they let the rope go.

You know, like even Mika Landis at this race like fighting for GC. The guy could easily set up and go for stage wins. Yeah, yeah. So that concerns me. But let's take a quick ad break. And then we'll talk about Visima. We'll talk about Tom Pitcock, some of the bigger GC implications. But this, this partner is one of my.

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And again, that's drink elementi.com slash the move. The next partner, Helix Sleep, as I said on the last show we did, I don't even know the days of the week. Maybe that was Saturday. Helix. I have a Helix mattress. I got it through the Helix sweet sleep quiz. So you think, man, they've got a lot of mattresses.

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I was like, wow, Jonas Findergert's pretty good, huh? Spencer, sorry, sorry, breaking news. Breaking news while you're reading the app. So I'm going to read, I'm going to read this. I just got this here. It is from Daniel Benson, your friend. Not my friend. Not my friend.

I do like Daniel Benson. But he does, I have to say, he, He does have really good information. And a newsflash just came in breaking news. Juanayuso on the market, little track in the frame. Spanish rider is set to move after UAE team Emirates agree to let the rider leave. We're still awaiting official confirmation from our parties, but we understand that Juanayuso will move teams at the end of the year,

as several sources have informed us that UAE team Emirates, will allow the rider to explore his options on the transfer market. Contrary to some reports, the rider has not signed with Little Trek, although the American team are very much in the market for the stage rating specialist. Ayuso has a contract until the end of 2008, but a 100 million euro buyout clause was in place. It is unclear, but also very unlikely, that UAE Team Emirates will look to enforce this clause. Early this summer, Ayuso recruited the services of Giovanni Lombardi in order to help facilitate a possible move away from UAE Emirates at the end of the season.

Right now, it's understood that while Ayuso is free to move, he still has officially to sign a contract with Little Trek or any other team linked to his name. Movistar and Astana are also in the running at this point. So that's just that just came in while you were reading the ad. Interesting. Daniel tends to have very good information. is I don't want to I think he has very good relationships

with a lot of agents which means you sometimes have to read between the lines but this is pretty clear I think he's probably right is this who won it like did he win did he make you say uncle or they just decided this isn't going to work I haven't I haven't seen any

this just came in so I don't know crazy it's wild that happened as we recording I'm glad we picked this recording time. I didn't miss that. I have to say, I'm not shocked. I wonder what the rest of his schedule will look like. Like, will he race Lombardi?

He definitely, he goes to the world. So I think he's racing. This is another thing that I could foresee, Spencer, is that Juan Yusu does two weeks of the Vuelta, calls it quits to prepare for the world championships, not excluding that at all. Do you think he's going to go to Lombardia? Because Pagacha is going there, presumably.

for sure not okay if poggha's going he's not going he's not going if poggha's riding he's not going yeah interesting well well there we have it looks like he's going to i am curious to see if he ends up at little trek movistar or astana i would not rule astana out that actually would be i would like that move for them they don't really have a rider that fits that profile but you notice vindigard pretty good he just dominates here the thing that most impressed me is This wasn't pre-planned. He came up with this on the fly. He saw all the pieces in place like, hmm, steep launch point.

If I can get a gap, I can probably hold them off. My biggest rival, Jalameda, not great at positioning. I just saw Juan Ous sit up. I think he doesn't have anyone to help him recover from this attack. He asked over the radio, can someone lead me out? Mateo goes, right now he goes, yeah. And then they do it. It works.

he just looks he looks better than everybody else here unscientific analysis I know but he's just very good and he's better than the rest and he doesn't even look physically like he looks physically good right but doesn't look like on another planet

like Tom Pickock finished 24 seconds behind him on his summit finish and he's just able to use the he's like Jason Bourne he can use the resources around him to fend off and attack whenever he needs to but did you know I was thinking I was like wow Jonas is he's pretty good rider do you know how many tour de frances there wins there are in this peloton besides he like he is

two do you know how many more there are sitting out there in this group well i know at least one other one that's bernal um that's it it's just the one yeah yeah so he has double the amount of tour wins personally than the rest of the peloton combined at this race and there's only three other grand tour winners in this peloton and I thought it started to show at the end of that first week like there's winners and there's the rest and there's a reason the guys that win

grand tours win grand tours because they're just better at taking advantage of moments like that so one of them is Jay Hindley who won the Giro and who's the other one it's actually it's fun little thing to think I couldn't get it right by the way let me let me guess Bernal's one

Bernal's one Jay Hindley is another one and it's right in front of your face it's i couldn't think of this one i had to look it up uh he's on yonis's team oh sepkus sepcus yeah yeah yeah yeah so there's four grand tour winners at this race um not looking back with the predictions is like maybe yonis was a pretty good pick to win the overall this guy's very good having said that i don't know if this is over because As we talked about, Amadea was really good. You know, I don't think we've talked about him yet.

Tom Pitcock, what a ride from that guy. That's the ride. That's the ride of the Vuelta for now. I mean, in terms of G.C. aspiration, I mean, Pitcock said before the Vuelta that, you know, his ambition was to be top 10. Right now, he looks, I mean, yesterday he was able to follow Almeida and even closing in on Jonas. us. The question is, you know, can he maintain it during three weeks? The Vuelta is different than other than the tour and the Gero. You know, once you're there, it's about the form

of the moment, right? I mean, there's so many guys who are there just, you know, to be there. And that's it. It looks good for Pitcock, man. I mean, I have to say, hats off. Do you know, like make a statement like that? He's never done it before. Has he ever been top 10? I don't think so no he's ever been tied to him uh and so on top of that i would i would assume that he didn't follow a specific or at least not a long-term preparation to get ready for this welta uh you know he did mountain biking a while ago um world cup race and so um yeah he looked good man he looked really good he's looked good since the beginning of the of the welta but he looked specifically good yesterday and And yeah, and you're right, Spencer, you know, to get a little bit of hope for the rivals of Jonas, right?

Not that. It can change. But, you know, yesterday, you know, the, obviously it's a pure, it's a net win for Jonas, 24 seconds, I think, in the end. But he only took 14 seconds in the last 10 kilometers. Yeah. He got, he got that first gap of 10 seconds in that one kilometer search. and then he only took five seconds in the last 7K and he lost time in the last 5K. So, okay, that's something that as a rival of Jonas, you would say, okay, this is something

to grasp a little bit of positive hope on it. It may not matter in the end, but it's not that dominant as we could expect. But also, you know, the climb was hard in the beginning and then was more rolling at the end. I used so and Pitcock were two riders together versus Jonas by himself so it took Piccock a while to be able to I don't think he was holding back Almeda was yelling at him but it's like this you could that guy's on the limit no he was on the limit you know I think he took a pull whatever he could it's normal that I use amida is frustrated that's in the heat of the action but I think I think Whitcock did what he could whenever he had the opportunity to take a pull he did

Yeah, and these gaps are, I mean, also Torsten Train, still in the race lead. Yeah, let's talk about him, Spencer. I have this, we can put up this picture here of Thorsten Train. Gabriel can put it up. 2022 being in the hospital after surgery for testicular cancer, three years later on the podium in the red jersey of the Vuelta, Spain. That's quite something. I mean, it looks a completely different guy also. I mean, like, three years ago, he looked like a kid.

And, but yeah, what a story, man. I mean, listen, he's not, he's obviously, he's not going to win the Vuelta. I think it's safe to say. But every day is a bonus for him. And, yeah, the way he's defending and the way Bahrain is reeling around him and supporting him is quite remarkable. Yeah, and I heard, I'm kind of in disagreement. Someone said yesterday, oh, it's not like a good. It's not indicative of climbing form.

There's a tail end. I kind of thought yesterday was like a laboratory because you couldn't hide at all. I think we're looking at the best riders. I think it's Jonas, Almeida, Pidcock, and then Phil's skulls a little bit behind them. And then everyone else is bunched up, including Torson Train. I have to imagine Vizum's pretty excited that he's in the leader's jersey on the first rest day. I even, I don't think this was intentional, but you could see like Suck Cus taking polls in the train group. I'm like, is he trying to keep him in the race lead?

Like, this is in Vizma, too. I mean, I can't say enough. Like, it was obvious yesterday. You just look at Vizma versus UAE, and you can see why Vizma has had success of this race in UAE, at least in the G.C. sense, maybe not doing the best they can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And on the other writers, like Julia Chocone, that would, he, I don't think we said this, he responded to Vindigard. that was impressive and shows bravery i think he paid for that quite a bit on the rest of the climb because he did you see it popped it was like yeah no he exploded completely and paid for it and lost lost a considerable amount of time uh it's the proof that you know you don't know how good you are until it really matters and you know if when you're 95 percent you're you feel great and then all of a sudden you're 99 percent and you say oh shit this is not good yeah and yeah i mean he's kind of he's already in sixth i think we

tipped him for the podium maybe we got excited but started it starts to look it starts to look not so good anymore no and we have a lot of the same so like it's steeper climbs going forward but it's a lot of these stages where they kind of roll along they go to a climb they climb up real fast and then we have a time trial near the end of the race i think we saw the three strongest riders and the gc and we'll continue to see that i agree thanks gal phoenix gal is up there also with those guys yeah kind of lurking but but the thing is that it's not a great climb for gal did gal did the tour you know uh pittcock should be fresher um so yeah i think it's going to be those four guys yeah and then you have quiet a quiet competition julio pelazari 27 seconds in front of

Matthew Riccatello for the white jersey. That's interesting to me because I've put money on Ricotelo for the white jersey. We know him. We know his family and he's American. So I still think Cricketto's getting it on the steeper climbs. He's in the advantage. I agree. And then I guess that time trial, but I think he's going to be heavily advantaged on these steeper climbs. He's built specifically for it. His team has him targeting this race because it makes sense for him. But anything else, Johan, before we go to predict tomorrow's stage? I think we've covered pretty much everything, no? Yeah, I think it did.

I just can't say how surprised I was that it exploded so much on a stage that I didn't think it would. And a part of that is Little Trek controlling it for Visma. We'll talk about that in the preview, but we probably won't see that again for the rest of this race. Yeah. well our last partner of the day before we get into the prediction johan is a product used by team vizma lisa bike who we've been talking about and that's ketone iq vizma has been using it to boost athletic performance as well as increase and optimize their recovery which showed yesterday they just looked better than everybody else and in placebo controlled studies with trained the athletes they found that it it boosted average power by 19% peak power by 13% cut fatigue by 10% and spiked blood ketones five times in just 20 minutes and aided faster recovery. That looks obvious looking at them.

They have two key products that I would recommend checking out the ketone IQ classic shot, high performance energy, 10 grams of ketones and no sugar or caffeine. And if you need a little bit more, the ketone IQ plus caffeine shot, 5 grams of ketones, ketones with 100 milligrams of caffeine from green tea. We were using both of these during the tour. and this Gabriel, our producer, noted he did not feel tired after using them, which that mid-afternoon wall will hit you, coffee will not help you out of it. That's where Ketone IQ can really help.

So take your shot, get 20% off your order at ketone.com slash the move and use code the move at checkout for 20% off. Well, Johan, tomorrow, more of the same. This would be really annoying, I feel like. You got a rest day. You have a summit finish, rest day. Oh, guess what? another summit finish. It's just a little bit harder than the one you just did. And you don't know how

your body's going to react to 175 kilometers. We were not in the Pyrenees on stage 9, but now we're going back to the Pyrenees. Is that correct geography, Johan? I mean, yeah, kind of. That's what we're shooting for. It's, this is, these are climbs that are not known. I mean, I had not heard about this climb yet. I don't know if they have done it already in the past. It's difficult, difficult to predict, Spencer. You know, it looks quite similar to yesterday's stage. We predicted a breakaway. I'm going to think the same.

It's not in the interest of, I mean, as long as Jonas is not in red and Dorsentran can stay in red, it's great for them. And a breakaway would serve that purpose. Yeah. So I'm going to go breakaway. I'm going to go breakaway. Difficult, difficult, difficult to predict the breakaway. Do you want me to read the odds and then you can tell us who? Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Jonas Vindegarde is the favorite plus 350. I criticized that last time, his favorite status. I won't do that again the rest of the race.

Juan O'Souso's second plus 500. J. Vine plus 800. Tom Pickok plus 1,000, Juala Mata plus 2,000. Jolomeira plus 2,000. Julia Chaconne plus 2,200. then my favorite, Marco Frigo, plus 2,500. I agree, I think it's breakaway, but who do you think is going to win from this breakaway? Oh, man. I mean, imagine that Yusel goes in the break. I was just going to say that. It is likely.

Yeah. It is likely. I'm going to go Jay Vine. All right. Jay Vine, you know, King of the Mountains still wants to gather some points. so yeah j vine for the win plus 800 i i don't hate that i think that could could very well happen i'm going to go juo i think i think he's going to be in this break i know we've we've done the iusovine one two and it's not worked out i think it's going to work out tomorrow so

you're going vine i'm going i use so one of those two guys if if they're away on that final climb it's hard to imagine anyone else beating them so i think that's a safe bet but if someone else does beat them, who do you think it could be? Jonas, from the G. Yeah. And I think it's a steeper climb. I do like to pick quite a bit because it's steep all the way.

It's actually not steep in the final kilometer. So I think if Visma wants to win and Jonas wants to win, he's winning tomorrow. I agree. Yeah, I think he probably wins out of the G. I think he probably puts time into GC guys again. I do think it's hard to imagine because if they pull it back it's been a hard day,

hard fast racing and then it's going to be hard on the climb. Jonas can probably drop everybody and win. I was humbled a little bit yesterday watching him. I was like, this guy is really good at racing bikes. Maybe we should pick Jonas Vinikar more often. But I'm going to go wild card.

Marco Frigo plus 2,500. He was the only people who could even remotely match I use so the other day. So I'm going to go him. He's do a win here. Plus 2,500, that's, that's pretty good. Yeah, I, you will get stages where guys like Marco Frigo win. It's just a question of if it's tomorrow.

And do you, I mean, it's such a unique situation, Bism is then, because they're putting time into their rivals and not taking the jersey. Like, how rare is that where, yeah, it's like, train is the perfect guy to have that jersey for them. For sure, for sure. They might not press it and take it back tomorrow. I mean, now, the argument. getting into territory where they don't really have to do much for the rest of the race because they have a lead going into the time trial. Maybe they want more padding, but there's not a lot

of pressure on them for the rest of this race. Yeah. Are you on anything else before we take off? No, that's it. I'm my last day, last day in Belgium, as you see, very nice weather. It is very nice. Tomorrow going back to Spain, so we'll be back tomorrow. It's going to be a bit later than today because I travel in the afternoon and then we'll have to do it in the evening, but we'll be back tomorrow with more. I think you're safe just watching that final climb, but I will be monitoring the race, letting you know if you missed anything and we will speak tomorrow. Okay, thanks.

All right, bye. Thank you.