Is Pogačar Going After the Tour/Vuelta Double? | TdF 2026 Stage 13 | THEMOVE+

but Prince Albert of Monaco has given an interview somewhere, and something has slipped out of Prince Albert,

“maybe he didn't want to say it, but he said in the interview, and we know that they've been spending”

time together and Telepogacha lives in Monaco, and I've seen lately, I mean, just before the two or some pictures of them together. So Prince Albert said that it's that Telepogacha will be participating in the Vuelta Spaniard this year. And so I just saw the today that Pogacha was confronted after the finish or before the finish, before the stage, with this quote, and he said, "Well, if the Prince said it, there's a high chance."

Everybody welcome back to the move plus, I'm Spencer Martinime here with the O'Hunbraniel, we're breaking down stage 13 of the Tour de France, and actually, I would say maybe the best

“stage of the race so far, one by Maro Schmid, out of a 57 rider breakaway with Harold Tohadis”

second Tom Pickock, their Tom Pickock moving up in two fourth place overall, because the

breakaway finished over seven minutes in front of the peloton behind, just a completely chaotic day through the Vosemountains in the Alsace region. We'll also preview tomorrow's stage 14, which is a tough mountain stage, takes some listener questions, and when we'll break down, and we'll break down both the race tomorrow, how we think it's going to go and how it was one today, but Yohan, before we get into that, do you want to put anything in Yohan's

rant corner today? Well, it's not really a rant. A little rant, Spencer, before we start talk about, just a minute. Let's call it the rant, I'm going to say that, yeah. About yesterday's stage, so we had this unfortunate crash with 300 meters to go, maybe even less, and so a lot of riders went down, and there was one rider, a Belgian young rider, Vlad van McLean, who got sanctioned, he got relegated to the last place, and got a fine

for dangerous riding. And when I look at the images of the sprint from the helicopter, and the guy did nothing wrong. There's really a big issue with implementing these rules and these decisions. And I have the impression that yesterday's decision of relegating him is purely because of the consequences of the crash. I mean, there was a crash and people hurt themselves. If you look at that incident, in my opinion, there was no incident, so really unfair to him,

and then I was thinking, you know, and actually it would make a lot of sense. I never asked

myself the question because I was assuming that this was going to be the case, but if you have jury, which analyzes these kind of situations and needs to make those decisions, it is unthinkable to me that these are just UCI commissars, most of them who have never written the bike, who have to implement a regulation. And I checked with some people in the Palatone with some team directors, and I asked, I hope that in these cases there is an expert or x riders involved

“in the decision making. Because I think that's really the way you can see, there's so much going on.”

I mean, it is not black or white. You know, the rule says one thing, but then there's so much

going on that I think it would be only logical, and it should be always the case that there are x riders

involved and assisting or advising the commissars. It's not the case, and one of the people I contacted said, you know, well, it's always the same thing, and they said it's people with people with really low IQ, you know, low IQ in the jury, or like your president Donald Trump would say, you low IQ people, low IQ people. So yeah, when I saw that this news this morning that this guy was sanctioned for this, and then I revisited this print that was not fair, and then on the other

hands, and we talked about it yesterday briefly, that you know, the maneuver of Peter's in with Philips in an intermediate print. That's a lot more sanctionable, actually, because there was clear, he didn't do any damage to the rider, and Philips was not protesting, but Peter's in did actually

anybody in danger. So there was a warning for this, and then this guy gets relegated. I mean, ultimately it's not the end of the world, the end of the guy was not going to win the sprint anyway, he was not going to be top 10, but there needs to be consistency in applying these rules, and in my

opinion, there needs to be for these specific instances, there should always be some expert,

experts and preferably, experts who are recently retired, you know, not guys from 15, 20 years ago, sprinters who are recently retired. I mean, listen, Kevin this, Kevin this is at the tour, Kevin this is part of the organization of the Tour de France. He is involved actively involved with the UCI. Man, ask his advice, you know, what is, I mean, is this sanctionable or not? I think that should be, that should be the case. What do you think? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the discussion have been relegated.

I feel bad for him, but also they lose those 10 UCI points. What if they, what if it comes down them? What if that's the difference between the relegation and promotion? But I was thinking about this with former pros, because they were talking about it on the commentary today of like, oh, why,

like, I think Nico Rocher saying, I've never, I don't think I've ever heard of a former pro being a

commiser or in the race jury. Do you think it's just not really worth their time? Like I assume that he is not amazing and who wants to be bothered? Who wants to be bothered with that? I mean, of course, you know, you would have to find somebody who really wants to do it. It is obviously a commitment.

“But I think it's, it's important. It's important that somebody who has been there can give advice”

to the commissars, you know, okay, you know what, there's nothing going on here. Yeah, I mean, it's not a huge rant today, Spencer, but I just wanted to touch on that that these rules need to be applied more consistently and always in the same way and not just based on who is involved and what the consequences of the incident are. Yeah. Also, I'm just thinking about like a rule, rule making, rule setting bodies like that. I

almost would wonder if there's a writer bias, if it's like, well, you know, they don't really know, like these juxtapes don't know what they're talking about and that's maybe whether hesitant

to take outside advice from them. Well, just, you know, they know that there's always going to be

division. You know, so they don't really care. They know that if they sanction one guy that there's

“others who are going to take advantage and they will never be solidarity. I think that's that that's”

what they know. I mean, it's historically been always the case and it's still the case that that, you know, nobody's going to stick up for the other one, you know. Yeah. Yes. Well, stage 13 on today's stage. What did you think of Maro Schmid's stage one? Impressive. Yeah. Impressive. I think, I think, you know, Jekyll Alula, they really put all the cards on their side, you know, they had first they had Maro Schmid in the breakaway,

if I'm not mistaken. I don't know if there was another guy, but at the end when the two groups joined, there was four writers of Jekyll Alula. I'm not just any, you know, Maro Schmid look plop, Beno Conner, and Michael Mathews. I mean, all the bases were covered. Yep. So I think it's very well deserved only logical that they win, but still it was a very hard fought victory and, you know, Mauro Schmid, man, I kind of mean, he started the season really, really strong. He did a really,

a few really good performances. One, one, some races also and then we all know that he's changing teams, changing, signed a big contract with Pinarello Cutor, this is about five for three years. I understand. So you could say, you know what, I mean, this guy's probably, you know, not super motivated

“anymore. You know, it's done a great spring. That's what tends to happen, right? In Maro Schmid's”

case, this is not the case for sure not. You know, today he was on his, on his, on an on a great day. And the way he won this stage was was impressive. Yeah, great victory and well deserved for Jake Walulaw, great racing. Yeah, they played a perfect. Yeah, Maro Schmid, he's one of zero stage. And I was one of two or stageers. Not many. Remember, he just barely missed out last year's stage of 11. And you had to be really talented to miss out on a stage like that. And the next

tour, like that doesn't matter. I'll just get another break away. I went all win another two upfront, like, as these are not situations that you find yourself in all the time. So to force that issue, and he's kind of been building, you know, he doesn't win a lot, but you have seen him building

has an act for doing it. Think about the zero last year. They win the queen stage. The tour last

“year. They win the queen stage. And then they show up here. You know, they've not had an amazing”

season. And they just win this, like, win a stage. And there's what, in teams of one of stage, probably 10 teams, I would guess, well, maybe less will win its stages at this tour. So that's less than half the teams. And one of them is Jacob O'Lulo. And as you said, they had the perfect mix of riders up there. Like, at no notes on what they were doing today. Did you see, though, when Schmid went to Hada was behind him. Plap could have gone with them, but he's smartly just kind of

like moved over in front of the peloton. And it caused a moment of hesitation. And then he's gonna get away. I thought that was a really good one from Plap. Yeah, no, no, I mean, they got all there. All their points today, Jacob O'Lulo. They, uh, yeah. I mean, they were really in a good situation,

also because they were, I mean, first of all, was it three, the three guys, you know, two guys

made, made the split right or three, right? So they had Luke Plap and, I know, O'Connor got dropped. Okay. So two guys made the split and then they had Michael Mathews in the group. Yeah. So, yeah. You know, so they were in a position to say, hey, you know what, we're here, but we don't need to drive this. We just take turns now and then, but we have a guy coming. And so that was, that was, yeah, I mean, that was probably gonna be their best bet to win the stage, because

you know, when you're eight or ten, I don't know, where they can riders at some point over the ball on does us. And, you know, you're in there and especially if you're two riders in them, I mean, the pressure on these guys to be in the decisive move of that break away. And, you know, to win the stage, you know, at this point in the Tour de France, you get into situations where you're escaped with eight to ten riders. That's already a huge accomplishment to be in there.

And then, the pressure you have, I mean, I still have flashbacks from sometimes in my days. You're in there and you know, you have a chance, but you have one shot of ten, you know, and somebody's going to win that stage and you can be it, but most likely you're not it. But then, then also you have your team counting on you that you're going to finish the job. You know, so if it's big champions,

“they usually finish if it's from the pool or one art or pitcock, they usually finish the job, right?”

But if you're just like a normal professional rider and you're in that position, it's nerve-wracking and to be there and having to deliver. And so, yeah, I mean, having two guys there, obviously was was an advantage, but yeah, Maurro Schmitt had this in the back my needs. And then on top of that, he had a really, really good break away partner with the Hada. Didn't skip a turn. I mean, even pulled until like 500 meters to go. Yeah, really good. I mean,

good performance also of the Hada man. That was a good right for him. And he thought it's on Tom Pitcock. Doesn't win the stage. Probably a little disappointed about that.

It was always going to be tough for him. Since everyone knew that he was the beneficiary of the

time gap and he's a very fast springer. So nobody wants to go to the line with them. But he moves in a fourth overall on the GC, what did you think? What you think about that performance? Definitely my move of the day. My move of the day is Tom Pitcock. Being in the break, he came in the second group, right with Peterson. He joined. He already had three teammates in there. So they were all there was four pinnarello riders in there. That was Fred Wright. If I'm not mistaken,

Sandra Murissa and Quinten Hermans. So they did a lot of work. And then when it was splitting on the Balondazaz, Pitcock was the guy who attacked, brought moves back. He was riding for GC. It was highly unlikely he was going to win the stage. But man, coming back into fourth place, he was in 10th place almost 12 minutes down before today's start. Now he's in the fourth place. Four minutes down, I guess. Four minutes something down. I've heard some comments and people and

commentators saying, yeah, okay, and sometimes I also say, you know, you shouldn't be too worried about that guy like that because he has lost that time. It's for a reason. Remember, I say that sometimes.

“Oh, I think about that every time. Yeah, because you say that all the time. But, but I'm going to”

make an exception for Tom Pitcock. You cannot apply this to a rider of the quality of Tom Pitcock. He may still pay for it. Or he may still lose the time again because of he hasn't for the moment. He hasn't been able to follow the better guys on the big climbs, right? But man,

podium is probably still too high of an ambition. But he could stay top five.

He could stay top five. He finished already third in the world. To me, it also looks that Pitcock

is a rider who goes with when he gets motivated and gets into the flow. And today, he was by far the strongest rider of that group. Corrected every single situation, kept driving the group. And then finishes all by sprinting to third place. Some commentators have said, yeah, you know, tomorrow he'll pay for it. I'm not so sure he's

“going to pay for it. I think he's in the get back in the game and he's going to fight for it.”

Well, George brought up a good point that if you really think about his effort, like sure there was like the initial acceleration to get into that move. But he's not like he was he had multiple teammates with him. It's not like he was driving that breakaway. His effort isn't really that much different than someone sitting behind. Like everybody was going fast. That's probably true until the bottom of the world does us. Then on that last climb, he did a lot of work,

closed gaps. But in the peloton go faster than them. He did close the gaps. And he had accelerated faster. But, you know, of course, if you're one of those guys in the top 10, you know, the ramco and lipowits and are you so and they didn't hit the front, right? They didn't hit the front, where I was when he was on the front last on that 30 kilometers. But this is special guy, man.

“Super talent. So I think it's really nice that he gets back into convention. And then it was also”

interesting to see how, you know, some of these teams started to panic. You know, first

barrain. Well, they were riding for what is it in the ninth place of Lenny Martinez? Well, right, 10th, 10th, but so he was nine, right? Yeah. Interesting to see. And, you know, we often say, you know, especially in the Tour de France, there are these other interests that are not the yellow jersey, not the pocket of jersey, not the green jersey, not the podium. Other interests that you can use to your advantage. And I think today, hats off to UAE for utilizing those

those interests. You know, they really made a good tactical decision. I think, you know, they let the group take sufficient time until seven, eight minutes to force other teams who feel that their top five, their top 10 places, Trent, barrain, little track, even Red Bull,

“Red Bull Bora, where we're starting to pace. So I think they, they were all the really,”

really good race UAE. Yeah, UAE, I mean, masters of the universe today, they get two riders up there, they get to sit back, little trek at bit of a disaster class today. They're chasing all day, yeah, before it's tough now, staff mountain stages, hats better than misses the move. If he has for Phillips and's up there, he has to bridge for, I have in my notes that he starts bridging at 130 K to go, and he catches them with 92 K to go. That's a long bridge. There was a full

move. 40, 45 kilometer chase for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, initially, when I saw that group going, I said, okay, this is a disaster. You know, this is 25 points for Phillips and and Pederson gets no points today. And then I thought next, you know, there's another, whatever, 20 riders getting clear from the Peloton because at some point that group went there was 35 riders, I think, and the Peloton was just all, you know, wide over the road,

and that was normally it. So the fact that they could reinitiate another attack and bridge up Mats was tired, and he was cooked. He was suffering. But man, he's so strong. He can recover from

these kind of efforts. Still second in the sprint. Phillips and one of the sprint, Pederson,

second, get my third. So basically in the reen Jersey competition, there's little or no movement. And but today, normally should have been a stage where Pederson actually took a little bit more advantage or stayed the same anyways. Losers, five points. It's not the end of still 41 points up on Phillips and so I mean, that was a big effort and it was worth it because that could have been a disaster if he lost 25 points. He had no choice. He had to. There was the only option was just to

go chase like crazy. And the way they corrected the situation was pretty impressive. But then,

to start the pace in the Peloton. That was definitely not the plan before the start of the stage. And now what you're looking for before a day where you're going to have to do a lead out for the intermediate sprint tomorrow. And you have two guys in the GC that you're in theory trying to help,

just yeah, not not amazing. Also, maybe should have saved some energy from yesterday because they were

working pretty hard up there at the end of the stage when maybe it wasn't worth it. And then today

“when it was worth it, they weren't there. Also, this is, I think, I think the best race of the day.”

Yeah, definitely the most interesting stage so far, I think. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. You know, I mean, you can't, I think yesterday what they did was worth trying, although there was, you know, very little possibilities for it to work. But I mean, you could not have predicted today that there's 35 riders going clear and that Philips is in there and Peter's in his not. That's like,

okay, you cannot make this up. Yeah, but it still happened. And on top of that, it was not just not

better than being there. There was no little track in there. That was even worse. I know. I know. I guess it, it's easy for us to sit here though. I think maybe we didn't paint the picture as well as we should have on the move as either, but this was, it was at the end of 40k of constant attacking that this was so fast. This was the fourth fastest stage of all time with over 2,000

“meters of climbing. So that's the key sponsor. You know, we cannot stress it enough. These”

speeds are insane. I mean, you just say it's worth a 50k an hour, 49.9k. Yeah, 2004, a hundred meters of climbing. Usually when you have these kind of stages, it's a flat stage or a rolling stage with the Nellon, cut four, cut three, maybe. And usually favorable wind. Today, the first part of the stage and then over the first climb, which was a five kilometer climb, the average speed was 51.4km/h after that first climb. That's mental. I mean, it's crazy.

It is crazy. I mean, when the move went, even though X missed out initially, and they're chasing in the gap is six, seven seconds, you think, oh, yeah, we're going to get it back. And they can't

get it back. Because they're going that fast up front. It was incredible. Also, what do you think

of Fismo's day today? Not really in the picture, camping on it's up there and it gets dropped. Well, they had two guys in the break, right? They had Campanauts and the Danish, the Danish, I don't know. We didn't know what to do. No, we didn't got it, but strong, strong, strong thugness. Yeah, they were up there, but to what purpose? I don't know. I don't know Spencer. It's just, I don't know if it's just my impression, but I have the feeling that Visma is going through

when the energy, the positive energy or the forward energy is not there. And especially in a

“ground tour, it's a snowball effect. I think they're like an negative spiral in terms of energy.”

We already said, Victor Campanauts, obviously does a great job. A lot of things we don't see, but this is not Victor that we know. He's not present where he needs to be in the middle mountains, as he was in the past, I think definitely feels the effort of the zero. Bruno Armirial had a crash early on in the race. He's not recovering from it. Matteo Jorgensen is apparently sick and had a crash, so it didn't look good at all today either.

And then on top of that, to me, I can not, I mean, unsee the demeanor and the energy after this stage of Jonas. Jonas looks like he has the suffer phase off in some of these stages. And this is all, you know, a contagious. It's a contagious motion, right? And a contagious energy. And it happens often, you know, that when things go right for a team, everything goes right for everybody. And then, on the other hand, you try, you try, you try and things don't seem to work out.

And you get into this, like, negative energy. I mean, I'm not saying that they are creating

Amirial getting dropped, Jorgensen getting dropped, Victor being in the break, but not being a factor.

“I don't know. I don't know. I'm worried for Visma. They keep saying that they have this”

incredible master plan, that everything's planned and that, you know, we have to wait for the last

week to see what they're going to do. I'm not buying it, man. I don't think they haven't. Well, you can also, they could have an amazing plan. The best plan in the world, but it doesn't matter if Jonas is not as strong as Teddy. Yeah, right. Yeah. What are they going to do? But a few concerns on Visma. So I do think Victor, Kevin Arts, I do think Jonas vinaigard are not, they have four, four writers on this tour team from the zero. And you might, it's easy to say,

like, well, that's so stupid because, of course, they're tired. They, they just did the zero. But do you know why they have guys from the zero, you know, on? Because they don't have enough people on the team that can do the job at the tour. I just feels like the whole team is being held together by Scotch tape. It's like they have, they double up writers on Grant Tour is more than any other team. Probably not because it's what they want to do. I bet it's because they don't have a lot of

on other options to support Jonas vinaigard. And if you think about it, why is that special? I mean,

they do have the third or the fourth biggest budget in, in pro cycling. Well, do they, if we,

“I think so. Well, they, so they were in the whole last year. Remember this report that came out.”

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, we had, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they've not been spending as much as other teams in the transfer market. They've been getting outgunned big time in the transfer market. Think about little track. Think about Q36.5. They're, they're shelling out big money. Red Bull, net company inios. Yeah. He's was not able to, that's true. Yeah. I was just, they're probably not in the top four. Probably not in the top four. And like Derek, Jesus, would have gone there.

But he's not going there. You know, they, they can't even afford a writer like that. Yeah. So what, someone in the studio asked the question today, what is the future of that team in terms of G.C.

Because do they have someone else that besides you want to spend a guard, or is they just,

that's the plan to keep running back on us and grand tours? There's nobody else for the moment. I don't think so. Not anybody who's knocking on the door there that I can see to,

“I mean, they would have to hire a new guy, I think. But you can take money.”

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I had that realization today. I was like, oh, yeah. These guys are all cooked, but they probably didn't have any other options. Because they've been slow. They've been bleeding writers. You know, the let writers go, but they don't replace them one for one. And they've been doing that a few years in a row. And I think it's cut up to them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You might have a point there. Anything else on today's stage before we take a break?

Um, I think that's, it's Spencer. Um, yeah. No, I think we covered, we covered everything. All right. Well, let's take a quick break. And then we have some questions in a preview and maybe a little bit of news. Everybody this episode is brought to you by Tofuci. July and August are prime writing months. And if you're following the racing, you probably know how much the right I wear matters on the bike. And Tofuci makes performance cycling sunglasses for serious writers who

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“the subject of the email was also if you want to ask us a question, send an email to [email protected]”

and we'll try to get to it. The subject was should Jonas do more classics and the question starts. I've noticed that Pagotchur can open a gap on a climb and make a slight difference, but he really seems to separate himself when he goes solo after the climb. For example, he gained all of his two minutes between the summit of the term laying the finish on stage six. You've commented on the show how this is a new way of racing with longer solo efforts. We all should say that's just uh that's

10 in Pagotchur being maybe the best writer of all time. Back to the question. It strikes me that this is not new and we have been seeing moves like this in one day races for years. The difference is that Pagotchur is not only the best climber in the race, but he can also make this type of solo effort that he is built up in practice during the classics. With that in mind, would it be been a bit beneficial for Vindigar to ride some classics where he may be in a similar race environment,

maybe not Rubeye, but it would serve him to race and would it serve him to race and flanders or the Odens? Even if he doesn't win, could the stamina and bike handling skills from these races help him compete with Pagotchur on the grand tours? No, I don't think so. My answer is my answer. Probably probably. For the simple reason that I mean, they're just not the same kind of writers.

Jonas is a pure stage racer. I don't as far as I remember he has never won a one-day race

“in his life, at least not as a professional. But I think that the real reason why I'm saying”

no is that he simply doesn't have that mentality. He cannot be bothered. He's completely unmotivated by one day racers. It's not going to change now. He's almost 30 years old now or AC may be already 30. I don't know. This is 29. It's not going to change now. He's already trying to minimize the risks and cutting out races and just preparing for his boot goals, which by the way, he's done an amazing job this year. Except now he's one every other single race he's prepared for.

So I don't see him changing his mind and getting himself into these one-day races where there's more risk of crashing and it's not going to happen. He's not motivated for it. He's not built for it. And I think he's right to just stick to stage races. That's probably what he should be doing. Well, I can tell you. I wish he would do classics. I think he could do great in him if he had

the mentality as you say. But I think the big hint that we shall take, there was never a better

chance for a one-day race than the World Championships last year for a climber. I mean, think of when Pogatra went, who was with him. It was Paul Sicsas. It was his guitar. It was one of you. So if he wasn't there, he doesn't care. And if think about European championships, there was also that was an amazing chance for climbers. And he did not seem to care and he got dropped like 100 hate from the finish. So yeah, I think he's not locked in on that. The guy, the guy, the guy

got barely to the tour. He's talking about retired in the middle of the tour of France. He's going to add more work. I think I personally think I think Spencer that interview got probably blown a bit out of proportion. Yeah. For starters, I am not 100% sure that that interview was actually done on the rest day. I think that comment gave interest. I'm not convinced that that interview was done on the rest day. We don't know. We don't know. You know, same like last year

there was, was it last year, two years ago, that this interview was wife that got blown out of proportion during the tour. It was also not during the tour or before the tour. It was way

before. And I think I think, you know, we have to fake these quotes always with a little grain

of salt, right? Because we are making ourselves guilty at playing the game of, you know,

“that's what I've heard. That's what Ben said. And then we kind of create our own stories, right?”

But yeah. Anyway, to come back to the point, it's not a secret that Jonas has been vocal about the incredible strain on his life and, you know, the demands on

on the other hand, there are writers, rivals who are not going to care and are going to do everything they can and live like a maniac during five, six years to get the maximum out of their career. And once you get to the point where you're not willing anymore to go to those lengths

and do those sacrifices or when it starts to feel like a sacrifice. I always say, Spencer,

this is something that I, you know, once you start to feel that what you're doing is a sacrifice. You go to everything. It's, it's, it's, it's, you're lost. You know, you're lost. You're done. It cannot feel like a sacrifice. When it doesn't feel anymore like that's your

“passion and that's what you love to do. Forget it. You're not going to do it. You're not going to”

be all the top. And that's usually what ends a career, right? I mean, when you're, you know, early 30s, mid 30s and you start to say, "Ah, you know what, I don't want to do this anymore. I've done this now for 10 years, 15 years." It's cruel. You know, that's it? Okay, move on. Yeah, used to see it more, you know, there would be retirement teams. Like, if we're being honest, Israel permits, like used to be a retirement team, yeah, where you didn't want to do the

work anymore. So you would go, get paid a lot of money to be on a team that would collect writers, like this for reasons, kind of unknown to me. But you just have guys who would be champions. And then they'd five, six, seven years ago, buy, and they don't do anything. And it's because they're not locked in on the sacrifice. It starts to feel like a sacrifice. And they don't want to do it. Yeah, I mean, I kind of know the moment, I think the moment you start to use the word sacrifice

in your vocabulary, it's already the beginning of the end. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. It needs to be what you love to do. It needs to be your passion. There's that they can not be

“anything more you want to do than train, suffer, prepare, and race. That's what you want to do.”

Otherwise, you can never be the best. Well, when we met up in the coast of blockade,

it was early December. And Tadah Pagatro was in a hotel. And he was there until the end of January. And I looked it up. The hotel cost 60 euros a night. Just to get people, yeah, the feeling for the amount of luxury that he's in, you know, 60 euros is now a lot of money. per night for a hotel. And he's there for two months over the holidays. And I bet it does not feel like sacrifice, right? At the moment. Yeah. At some point, I mean, well, yeah,

but as far as I have been told, the guy enjoys what he's doing. He loves the right is bike, loves the race. And you know, sometimes he may come across today. He was a bit, and you know, in his post-ration interview was a bit, ah, you know, kind of cool. Would you feel like that after Fred and 50 K an hour? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think tomorrow tomorrow we're going to see a different guy. Today he was definitely not motivated. But anyways, yeah, that's that's my that's my take on it.

“You need to be passionate. It needs to be what you love to do. And you need to be obsessed about it.”

Yeah. I kind of know what he means, though, and he says, like, if it's if I said, if it's like this, again, I don't want to do it. You know, you we've all been in that mentality, really, because it's not amazing. And then you don't, you should also calculate that the team is probably not going to support you all the way. You know, you need to see the 100% commitment all the time. You know, so I don't know. I mean, I don't know how much weight and importance we can

give to these quotes and which context they have been said, but it's I don't, I don't like it. I don't like it. It's not, no. It goes, I go back to that energy Spencer already. That's making those statements. That already creates a type of energy. That's not a point. You don't have to get a point. And it trickles down. It's not just because Jonas is going to be fine. Jonas is Jonas.

Jonas is always going to be great, but it trickles down with the rest of the team.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Began's only. Think about the thing about the kids, Jonas. Think about pegan's only. He needs a good role model. But let's do one more. I don't want to be, I don't want to be bashing on you enough too much. It's just an observation. And it's just a feeling that I have the energy and the sparkle is not there. The spark is not there. Now that you bring it up, I mean, you've been in situations where there's a big personality, they're kind of leading,

they're the example in an organization. And when they get checked out, sometimes they can get away with

And that's really not good. I hadn't thought about that until you brought that up. So that isn't

good at all. This person needs our help. So we have to answer this question. We can't kick this down. I don't want them thinking UNOX is an evil company. So Matthew from Eagle, Colorado, right over the hill, emails in and says it's enjoyable seeing smaller teams like UNOX perform so well and keep the race exciting. However, since both of these teams are sponsored by European businesses, I have no idea what or who I'm cheering for. What is a UNOX? Hopefully it's not a scandalous

version of the UNO card game, only allowed in Europe. And what about teams like Kahou Rawal, Alpson, Premier Tech, said all quick step or Vizma, who are these names? And then they bring up a good point. It's often confusing for Americans that the teams are based on sponsorship and not cities or locations. And especially when they change season to season, this would be like what the rockets are trying to change. They have the name, the rockets, and you have a,

it's like Ferrari F1 is not going to change its name, even if they have businesses coming

“and sponsoring them. But Yohan, UNOX, I believe, is a Norwegian roadside gas station company”

correct? Yeah, I thought that was like supermarkets or something or like a like a 711, whatever. Yes, and they also ocean 711. They all 711, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's called, so the pair of companies called right in, and it's a family, it's like the right in family. It's like a big company owns all these businesses here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's a point to, you know, very valid point to, you know, the teams are

named after the sponsor. When the sponsor's gone, basically the team has gone if you don't find a replacement, which is what cycling has been trying to accomplish for as long as I can remember, profession cycling, you know, it would be great if it's, for example, a team, whatever, you know, just to call a teamlifever, for example, teamlifever, the Sudau is quick step, it's the

curling, it's this and that, that there's a name that always stays the same because that allows

you to create a huge fan base also, who will support the team no matter what the sponsor is. Unfortunately, you know, in other sports, it's a lot easier because you, like any football teams or rugby teams or whatever, they own a stadium, right? That's the real estate, you home, and that's where the fans go and gather every week or every other week. That's not the case in cycling, cycling is a rolling circus. And unfortunately, for the teams, they are 90% or more

depending on sponsorship, there is no other revenue. You know, a lot of other sports, the teams, all on a piece of real estate, they have entrance fees, revenue, and they have a considerable share in TV rights. None of this is the case in cycling. So you can't have, I mean, the rockets, yeah, okay, rocket, but I would, I mean, if there's, if there's a big sponsor coming in and put so a lot of money, they're not going to be called the rockets. They're going to be what they want to be called,

“whatever, you know, the name is, because that's what that's, that's also on the other hand,”

the others, the others, it's interesting for a company that you can actually be the team as a sponsor. You are the team, you know, you're not teamx presented by so-and-so. But I should say, like Mercedes, the team is owned by any else, but it's not called any else. You know, they're just like a non-starter, like now sorry, like the names Mercedes. That's what people know it says. Yeah. And, you know, like the Denver nuggets, my favorite basketball team, they have a stadium and people come watch the

games, but that's only 20% of the revenue is the stadium. So it shows you that there are ways to make money outside of people coming to watch you, but if you, if not, we don't need to get into the TV money discussion right now, but that would be like the, yeah. Yeah. What about Cahoe Raw? That's a bank, right? It's a Spanish bank. It's a Spanish bank, a busk bank, actually, from the busk.

“A lot of good basketball banks. Santa. I believe, no, that's not a busk. That's not a busk. But yeah,”

what's going on in that coast? Why is there so many banks coming from there? It's the richest part of Spain. The northern Spain is the richest part of Spain, most industry,

most of the others are bad. Yeah. And, you know, they're basically, I mean, one of the, one of the

Stigma's is, you know, the northern part of Spain is carrying the southern part of Spain, because, you know, everything below Madrid is supposed to be, you know, super hot, people don't work,

that's the case, but I don't think it's the case, but that's what they say. The northern part of Spain

is the richest part of Spain, for sure. It also is like a free, free access to the Atlantic Ocean, which I'm sure it's held over time. Yeah. Al Pacin is a, Al Pacin's the shampoo from here.

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. Yeah. Premier tech, I believe is a peat farming company.”

Don't quote me. I don't know what I don't know what Premier tech is actually. They're definitely Canadian and they're involved somehow and peat. What is peat? I'm not quite sure right in if you like to tell us about that. Sudal, what does Sudal do? Sudal, I think is industrial glue.

Industrial love. Yeah. Yeah. That's got to be a good business. Yes. Quick step is flooring.

I only know that before England sponsored the team. Yeah. And then visa is a Norwegian tech company, like a back-end logistics company who was the logistics software for Yumbo, the grocery store company who used to sponsor the team as well. But yeah, I guess we, that we are showing a problem here where most of the sponsors, you can only consume them in a limited market, but then they're advertising to a global market. Like I don't think I can go

“by Al Pacin glue or Al Pacin shampoo. I think that's only in Europe. I don't think that is in the”

US. I think it is. I don't know if I've ever seen it. I'm going to check next time I'm going to remember the store. But yeah, a lot of these are, these are kind of the old school teams that they've picked to like, you know, UAE is a good example. Well, Al Pacin is a good example for example that, you know, this is a sponsor who has been around for a long time. If you remember Al Pacin, they've been around a long time before they were with Vanderpool initially.

John Dankov's team. They were with what's now picnic for people. Yeah. What is Dan? Dan? Dan, I don't know. Dan, they were with Katusha. Yes, yes, Katusha. And then they moved, then they moved to the to the Vanderpool team. Yes, these are some good Katusha was just a Russian government

“soft power play I believe. And then started a question. Katusha, Katusha is not nothing.”

Katusha is a made-up name. The story behind that sponsorship back in the days was so Katusha was there's this ex cyclist converted to business man converted to multi billionaire Igor Makarov who was politically very well connected and got the task or I would say probably the order of a of the number one in Russia, Vladimir Putin, to take care of everything that was cycling. And so he sponsored everything with his own money and just came up with a name Katusha. Katusha

is it's two things. It's the name of a tank like a war tank and it's the name of a woman. But it was no product. Nothing. It was just Katusha made-up name. Well, their jerseys for a while had the skyline of Moscow on it. I don't know if that would fly any more. Yeah, probably not. That was, that was the, I know a bit the background of that team. So that was strange setup. So it's not similar at all, but it's a similar

in SN is just non-sensical, right? That's just, that's nothing. That's just a name they've made up.

No, no, no, no, no, no, and SN is a company. Yeah, and it's a, it's called never say never. It's a

me, it's a, it's a media and event company owned by, uh, what's the guy's name spawned the he's a investor player. Yeah, he's the only one I'm already suspicious of this company of of that team, of that company. So, uh, so you know, they're the media company. I don't know. It's not going to that company. And events, but by anyways, what's clear is that the money to fund that team, there's just very little money coming from NSN this year, you know, it's clear where's behind that team.

Yeah, we know. Yeah, where the money comes from. Yeah, on that. The great jerseys, though, we gotta say. Yeah, I love it. I like it. I like it. Unbelievable. I like it. Um, they've won us over. They've won our hearts. So, Johan, oh, wait, you have news before we do the, oh, yes, yes, I have, uh, a last minute's potential scoop, not confirmed, but looks very likely. So, apparently, I don't know in which media, but, uh, Prince Albert of Monaco has given an interview somewhere,

in the interview. Uh, and we know that they've been spending time together and Tadeppo Gacha

lives in Monaco, and I've seen lately, I mean, just before the two or some pictures of them together. So, Prince Albert said that it's, uh, that Tadeppo Gacha will be participating in the Vulta Spaniard this year. Um, and so, I just saw the today that Pogacha was confronted after the finish or before the finish, before the stage with this quote, and he said, well, if the Prince said it, there's a high chance. So, uh, we'll see if most likely Pogacha

in the dual Spain, if I want to continue to get your 0% tax rate, you're going to start this race in Prince Albert. It just started in Monaco. So, uh, yeah, it's already a good reason to be there. It'd be it's super. If I got like that, if he sees the race, he's going to jump in it. He's not going to not do it. Um, thoughts and prayers to everybody else that was hoping to win the world's

“Spania. But I think we, we should say that this is, this is probably happening because”

Montreal, you, you hold the belief, this is kind of an open course for World Championships. So, it's also started with the assumption. He's got to win the Vulta at some point. So, he's got to do it. Yeah. And the next year is the better World Championships course for him in France. So, he probably doesn't want to do it next year. So, he's got to do the Vulta this year if he wants to win it. Yeah. Yeah. I think I mean, he could still do both. You know, he can see. It's very likely that

the punch can be considered and then good prep. And then, and then still, uh, well, I mean, yeah, but after the season, he has done, um, it, it all depends on the race like five days. He's, yeah, but it also depends how he finishes the, the two of the France, right? I think if you will have asked, oh, that's our last year, do you want to do the Vulta? He would say, yeah, no way. That's true. You know, he was mentally drained. And the weather was bad and he was hurt.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah. No, he'll be fine. Um, I'm pumped. This is great. This is great for a show, by the way. They're doing this. We can't do another boring Vulta, like no, with the Vulta needs to whatever they're paying him to do it, it's worth it, because they need to spice this thing up.

And we get another pre-mo's tally battle. It's going to be great. It's going to be amazing.

“Yeah. I mean, well, well, that's could be there. Um, yeah, I think that's it. That's,”

this is probably screwed. Maybe. Yeah, but that's not, I mean, Oscar only is good. Right, but he's not, he's not over the famous right now. Well, right now, yeah, but we have to respect pre-mo's to mean, he has a Paul Morris here. He won the, oh, sorry, Bobby, Bobby has manifested himself. Sorry, about that. He has manifested himself. So, the stage 14 preview tomorrow, 155 kilometers, pretty big mountain stage. We have 1, 2, 3, 4 categorized climbs, including a climb to the finish,

the La March Steine at ski station, not the same summit finish, like I said, as 2023 goes up a different side. It's actually, well, it's kind of more interesting because they did cold to a planter vossal last time, which is steady. It's 7k at 8.3% kind of steady. Tomorrow's climb, the cold to hog is really tricky. It's steep. There's a descent for a kilometer. And then after that kilometer descent, the next kilometer is 8% next kilometer is 9.4%. And then the last kilometer is

“11% of this climb. I think there could be a GC attack on that climb. Yeah, you'll hunt if you”

want to bet on it. We have a deal with next bets. You go to nxtbets.com/betoutcomes. You can shop all the lines. You can see where to bet. It explains exactly what to do. Do you want to guess on draft King's, who is the favorite for tomorrow's stage? Do you have a guess? I'm going to have to say, Pogachar. Do you want to guess the line? I'm going to, I'm going to pick Pogachar to win the stage. I think he's going to go for it. Although I do think that the Sunday stage is even better for him.

Maybe he wins both. I think you have. But what is he? Minus 250? Minus 185. Which I have a surprise to see. I thought maybe there'd be a little bit more action on the breakway. Richard

Carapaz is second up plus 400. To buy his Holland. You'll haunts in plus 1600. That's actually

not a bad pick. You want his vinegar plus 1600. He's at the tour plus 2000. Valentin, Perry, Pantra plus 200. Rinkle, Evan, a pull plus 3000. I'm not quite sure how that would happen. Time and owns been plus 4,000. Paul 6, plus 4,000. Really, if you think it's GC, it's Pogachar.

picks out of the breakway. I'm going to pick Pogachar. I think it is Pogachar. I actually don't. The question is, does UA control this or do they let the breakaway go? Even as I say that, I start not to believe it. I saw the interview with Pogachar. He kind of hinted that tomorrow's a lot better stage. He said I have good memories of that stage. I want to see if I can enjoy the

“crowds again. Yeah, I think it's Pogachar tomorrow. For the moment, Spencer, we have not seen any”

crucial point in the race where it was uphill and Pogachar attacked and somebody could follow.

Nobody. That hasn't been in. Well, yeah, there's no way he doesn't. If it's a GC group, A, he's going to drop them. And then if you remember the last time, they finished here. He didn't drop them. But it's kind of a flat plateau to the finish, and he just outsprinted them. And that's probably what would happen again. But if you look at the last few kilometers of this final climb, he's going to drop them and probably win the stage. I agree. I mean, if it is breakaway,

who would you pick out of the breakaway? Kind of busts looks good. You're honest enough. I like to. I like that. You know, you know, who's not going to win the stage, Spencer, from a breakaway? Who? This year? Ben Hilly. No. No. No. Not even close to what we've used. I mean, today, I saw him skin suit, you know, arrow helmet, you know, the typical setup for the, for the breakaway, but Ben Hilly does not have it. This is this, you know, and in this two seconds.

And I mean, if I was going to give out two wild cards, it would be Johannes and or Aaron's men from the breakaway, but I don't think it's. I have Aaron's men. I have difficulties to to believe. You know, who's also strong. And we will see him in many, many other breakaways. He's getting stronger. He didn't start the two of the fronts well, but he's getting stronger. And he was very strong today. It's Kevin Bocola. Yeah. He's looking stronger and stronger by today. So I think

we might see him, at least, you know, trying to win one of those stages. This is the classic. You don't realize how good outside GC guys are until they're in breakaways. This guy who's been

out of shape who's getting himself back into shape and he looked incredible in that breakaway.

Yeah. Also, do you notice Jordan J. Gott just out of nowhere is now 11th overall. Well, 10th overall last year, he's back, baby. Wow. Back. Yeah. And he was on the verge of not participating in the tour. Did you see those? At some point, there was these decisions being made in total energies, because he's not staying. I mean, I think he's going to little trek. So I think he has to go somewhere because the team's not okay. Yeah, they don't have a sponsor.

Yeah. But for some reason, they didn't want to select people who didn't want to wait to to resign. I don't know when that makes no much sense. But finally, they came to their senses and they took him. So yeah, I didn't realize he was in 10th place. Now, I know I haven't placed. That's good. I think the fear is if your best riders sign somewhere else, then it kills your chance to get a new sponsor. But obviously, they have to sign somewhere. They're not going

to, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we'll only lose their jobs. Of course, we go. I think we both think progress was going to win. It's going to be a great stage. It's going to be fun. We're all going

“up. Good time. So Vince, I'm trivia. If you want to play and win a new NS1 or GS1, or just get”

10% off a brand new road bike, gravel bike, e-bike, time trial bike, trathom bike, use the move 10 adventomracing.com/the move to get 10% off. That's also where you can answer the trivia question. Yesterday's trivia question, you know, on was, when was the green jersey introduced into the Tour de France? Do you know this answer? I have no idea. It's 1953 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the tour. So I'm going to come out of good innovation. People probably, yeah,

well, we talk about a green jersey. We don't need a green jersey. So there was only one jersey then, until then, only the other. Probably, yeah, probably just yellow. Yeah, when was the king of the mountains brought in? I don't know. But I think I spoke about it the other day when

at the marks of this first tour, I think it was 1969. There was not a white jersey yet.

I think the white jersey came like in the summer. Yeah, that's pretty recent.

“And then maybe the 80s. Yeah, and then the 70s, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely remember”

not being there. Eddie Merks. And then, yeah, they got to change the white jersey. We got

but under 23, but maybe under 22. I mean, under 21, I don't know. I would make it under 22.

“I think. Yeah, you could just, yeah, that would probably be good. Because then it would be”

like one of you. So it's not he finished on the grand tour podium four years ago.

It's not an exciting thing if he wins the white jersey. Like we've known about this guy.

“So today's trivia question is a good one. This is a hard one. Stage 13 finished in Belfort home”

of a giant lion sculpture carved directly into the sandstone cliff. Frederick August Bartoli, the artist behind the statue is also responsible for one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. What is that landmark? He's also from the Alsace region, which is why his big horse lion sculpture is carved. So it's a sculpture in the, in what in the, the one we saw today was a carved into the cliff. Super impressive. But this guy, I know I don't know the answer,

but I think I have an idea. This, yeah, this Bartoli made the, it's it's hilariously recognizable

“statue. And then you have to guess which statue is it? Enter your answer at ventomracene.com/themoop to”

be entered to win a new bike that will be revealed in the last day of the tour on the move. So it's very exciting. But Johan, anything else before we take off. I think we've covered everything Spencer exciting stage ahead of us tomorrow. Yeah, the, yeah, it is. I'm curious to see how this plays

out the intermediate sprint. It's going to be really hard fought, but ultimately we've got your

probably wins. But thanks Johan and we'll talk after that stage.