Storms Ruin the Day & La Vuelta's Controversial Influencer Partnership | La Vuelta a España 2026 Stage 3 | THEMOVE

Why can't the organizers make that decision already a bit earlier?

Because let's not forget, you know, we have the race going on. The riders get to the top of the climb, but the race organizers, they have cars 10, 15 minutes ahead of the race already. So, you know, there's a whole chain of information that should come to the race director who's the guy just behind the peloton or behind the breakaway.

“So, that's the only thing that I have a bit of criticism of,”

why didn't the race organizers decide that immediately? At the same time, you know, these things do happen really, really quickly. So, it can be, I mean, it started to hail all of a sudden, right? It can be that 10 minutes ahead, it was not hailing.

When the first cars went up the climb, it was raining, but not hailing.

And then all of a sudden, it started to hail very happily. But there was no way they could have gone on this race. The downhill was super dangerous, you know, hail on the road, super slippery. The ride call, a bummer, of course, but the ride decision was made in my opinion. Everybody, welcome back to the move, I'm Spencer Martin, I'm here with Johan Bernier.

We are breaking down stage three of the Valtza, Spania. And it might be a short episode because the stage three of the Valtza was canceled. It was neutralized with around 17 kilometers to go. When Wright when stuff was getting good, UA was on the front hammer in the pace

on the first of the final two climbs of the day, the only two climbs of the day.

Massive hailstorm hit. It was, they were right to stop the race, but Tatepe got charred. Not the race organizer came to the front and said, we got a tick shelter. And they went into a hotel bar hotel cafe. And if you were watching the race, you knew right away that they were not going to blow to restart it. Kind of a funny odd turn of events, strange turn of events, because the race before that was

it was on. There was a six rider breakaway up throughout Ethan Hader was in it. He was getting green points that were later nullified. So he was in the green jersey. Virtually the race ends. He loses those points retroactively, not in the green jersey. Even though he's still wearing it because Tatepe got charred and the lead. And the major racing news of the day was at 90 K to go. There was strong, strong winds up the ocean.

You know, I don't know if you saw this. Like almost 40 K an hour, UA goes to the front. Starts accelerating through. They know the road narrows through a French little French town. We know it's going to happen here. They leave town. They just start hammering. Anyos in UA here at the front split the peloton. The only major GC rider caught out was feel well, I guess Joelle made it was back at the team car when it happened. UA probably said,

sorry, well, we'll get you later. You'll come back. But feel as golf is caught out. He has to cath on team had to chase pretty hard for like 10 K to catch back on.

“But Johan, what it's kind of an odd eight sleep move at the day. And if you want to get an”

eight-sleep mattress top or which UA will be sleeping tonight on tonight, ahead of a got chart. Specifically, we'll be recovering with this throughout the entire vaults. If you want to get $350 off through the end of this vaults, on your own eight-sleep mattress top or go to eightsleep.com, slash the move today. But Johan, what is a toughest day sleep at the day, I think, for the vault. So what is yours today? Yeah, a sleep move of the day sponsor. Let me give it to ASO

to get the size right of the green jersey for eaten hatred. So yes, we saw him in his skin suit. And apparently it was the right size today on the contrary to yesterday where I still can't get really my head around what happened yesterday with that skin suit. But no, I think I think, you know, the event of the days probably Pugach are going to the front and acting as the boss, taking responsibility and say, hey, guys, okay, we're not doing this. And everybody was, of course,

straight away in agreement. It was kind of a ball move, you know, because there were two riders in front. You know, so I didn't think about that. You know, what happens if the race organizers don't agree and they let these two guys go, you know, and they get like 45 minutes. Everyone's they would have gotten half an hour. They would have gotten half an hour. I didn't think about that.

“Okay, so, you know, of course, we know that's not going to happen, but I think it was the right call.”

If you saw the images, it was already, you know, very obvious from the footage. But, you know, you can only imagine what happened, you know, how these guys felt on the bike these, I mean, it, that hurts man. That really, really hurts. So, yeah, the right call really good initiative. I think of Pugachar and nobody has protested and for sure, even the race organizers. The only thing we can ask ourselves is, you know, we talked about the briefly before we started recording.

decision already a bit earlier? Because let's not forget, you know, we have the race going on. The riders get to the top of the climb, but the race organizers, they have cars 10, 15 minutes ahead of the race already. So, you know, there's a whole chain of information that should come to the race director, who's the guy just behind the peloton or behind the

“breakaway. So, that's the only thing that I have a bit of criticism of, why didn't the race organizers”

decide that immediately? At the same time, you know, these things do happen really, really quickly. So, it can be, I mean, it started to hail all of a sudden, right? It can be that 10 minutes ahead,

it was not hailing. When the first cars went up the climb, it was raining, but not hailing,

and then all of a sudden it started to hail very heavily. But there was no way they could have gone on this race. The downhill was super dangerous, you know, hail on the road, super slippery. The right call, a bummer, of course, but the right decision was made in my opinion. Yeah, I live in a climate almost exactly like the finish of today's stage, and you can get these. If you're going to be kind of the race organizer, it's you can get these crazy storms that

roll through, and they don't hail, and then in five minutes, it's perfect. My perfect weather, and you would look kind of silly, I guess, if you called it off, just because it was raining, the hail did come in very fast. If you again, if you watched the race, it deteriorated so fast. It was shocking how quickly it went from like, yeah, it's probably raceable to the roads literally look like ice rivers. It was like the stage of the day where they got

“called off in 2019. But I think you mentioned it, Johan. You a lot of work today, like they were”

on the front, you know, they're splitting, first of all, why did they split the peloton with 90

K to go? Because realistically, they were never going to hold off to Kathlan for, you know,

what, 60 K until the start of the climb. But do you mind just telling listeners, those of us who are not like nine time winning Twitter friends, winning directors, why would it team to do this in the crossroads? I think, you know, first of all, you know, if you're surprised, now with ace, now with ace into the cycling, with all the information that is out there, if you're surprised by crosswinds, it's because you've done, you've done it on your whole work. So, you know,

you can only think that Felix Gaul was sleeping, didn't pay attention or that just doesn't have the legs, we'll have to find out, you know, he lost time yesterday, not not a lot, but, you know, sometimes it's an indication of, you know, even if it's a climber, if you're in top shape, you do have the strength to move up when you see something's happening. I don't think personally that this was a move to put Felix Gaul in problems. It was a consequence

of the initiative of UAE. And, you know, if you get to, if you're the favorite, you have a strong team and you get to these areas where it's crosswind and you notice already since the morning, it's just better to organize your team and, you know, take the initiative yourself rather than having to react to another team or sometimes two teams. It happens sometimes that with crosswinds, two teams make a deal. They talk to each other and say, hey, you know what, I mean, before, okay,

nowadays, everybody has the information, but before, like, let's say 15, 20 years ago, we didn't have all this information, you know, it was just the beginning of the internet age.

We didn't have weather apps, we didn't have a value of course. We basically relied on people

going up front with the car, we had scouts going up front and, you know, scouting the conditions, then it got relayed to, and some, and at the beginning, the only the biggest teams did that because that's not forget cycling has evolved so much that now there's an overflow of staff, but back in the days, we were only, we were tight on stuff. So you had to have an extra person, an extra car, which sometimes was not the case for a certain team. So

then it could happen that two or three teams had information and they say, hey, you know, and they talk to each other, let's go together, you know, of course, that doesn't happen anymore nowadays. But still, in the case of UAE, they just went to the front and

“did what they had to do. It's the best way to stay out of trouble, because you don't have to react.”

Normally, when a team starts to really put it in the gutter and go fast with crosswinds, you have to try to organize your team, go to the front, it's chaos. You lose what are two riders that, you know, don't get to the wheel. So I think it was the right thing to do. It was more because I was out of safety, then out of the intention to take time. I don't think, for God's sure, doesn't need to take these opportunities to take time on as rivals. There's plenty

of opportunities for you to take time already with in the climbs. So I think it was obviously

We'll see tomorrow if feeling it's gone has the legs. I hope so. But yeah, that is the safest thing

“to do, Spencer, to just go to the front and organize. And then also, hopefully, you always hope”

that another team or two teams will join because then you share the work. It's easy to organize. And if you have two or three teams, it's very difficult for another team to get in there in that rotation, right? Because if you have one team of eight riders in this case, okay, I'll maybe that was in the back. So you're only down to seven. Pugaj has not been a pool. It's down to six. You have two climbers that probably are not going to be very strong. And so you're very limited.

So you actually want and hope that another team or two teams will join. Yeah. And if it's UA by themselves, then you're going to get to the final climb and you're not going to have all made up because he's off the back and your guys are tired. And then have you hurt yourself because then there's no one to set up Pugaj on the final climb. But we should say, we should even back it all the way up to the beginning at time. The easiest place to ride in

crosswinds. It's very counterintuitive. It's on the front, right? Rotating through. So if you're in

the crosswinds and you're ever in doubt about what to do, someone's always just told me,

just start rotating through. Get to the front right hard. Rotation. Absolutely. I mean, listen, it's a blessing for us yesterday. Yesterday, I had this, this same example with my son, my son, did this four-day stage race in the right order. And yesterday was a crosswind stage. And so I had told him, I told him where the crosswinds were going to be. And these guys, these juniors, don't, especially in Spain, they're not used to ride. They're not used to ride in actually

long. So I told them, okay, so you know, you go to make sure you're in the front and as soon as you feel the crosswinds, you rotate. So yeah, 20 guys, 20 guys went away. And that was the race.

“So you have to be always rotating. If you stay behind the team or you try to skip a few turns,”

you are at high risk of getting dropped. You may be a strong, you may be super strong. You can't do it on your own in the crosswinds. You can't. Yeah, if you try to sit in, you'll get dropped, like sure is day that's going to happen. It was interesting to say, just a weird day in general, though, because now poor isn't here. I can't believe they did this to these guys. They they nullified everything where I mean, I guess they can't, right? If they neutralize the day,

does it not allow them to keep the, well, a point. Spencer, let's wait until we get the official, yeah, I guess we don't. The official information, you know, it's very recent. So I, I would think logically, whatever happened on the road until that, until that moment should, should count. On the other hand, you could also say, well, you know, he got the opportunity to get the points and then the guys were, we should go for the result and the final didn't get the opportunity to score the

points. So it's kind of even, right? I mean, true. Yeah. With the points of the day that Ethan had to look on the road, he should be officially in green, but forgot you're didn't get the opportunity to get the score points, which you probably would have. So he wouldn't be in green anyways. Ethan, hey, that's good. So it's maybe, it's maybe, it's maybe a fair decision. Actually, probably helps him because there was 30 points for the win, 20 for the intermediate. So he

would have lost 10 points. And then now he doesn't, let's take a quick break to talk about our presence in sponsor and then I'm going to ask you a few questions and then we'll get into the stage four preview of this quick as we can, but we'll be right back. Everybody, this vault to a Spaniard coverage is brought to you by ultra pouches. If you're someone who needs a coffee every couple of hours, just to feel normal, you know the trade offs, the racing heart, the crash,

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for 15% off. And when they ask you where you heard about them, tell them we sent you it really helps to show. Okay, you're on one. So just just quickly, imagine the stage finishes. What do you think happened? Who wins the stage? I mean, I haven't seen the last climb, of course, but

you know, they didn't have to chase that break back. Of course, you know, if they, if the

“break stays ahead, then he's not in red. But I think we're going to have won the stage.”

And I, more and more, I start to think, also only stage three today, but I think he, he really wants to win this, the where this leader jersey from start to finish. I think so too. By the way, yeah, I think yesterday I said 1991, the year it's 1990, that Johnny Buño was in pink from start to finish 1990. So almost 40 years. 37 years. 36 years ago, yeah. Wow. Well, I, I think so too. I also saw something on the road where I made a, you know, he's more banged up than I thought. I guess he had

a crash, what a Poland. Yeah. But, you know, he was really, him and Pugachero was taught. We're talking and they were like, you could tell they're very close and like work very well together. And it's like, I made us here full on for Pugachero. And I do think you're right that he's trying to take this leader's jersey line to line. UA worked a lot today for nothing. Obviously, they didn't know the race is going to be neutralized. So you can't fault them for it. But I, doesn't really affect

the race probably because they're loading fatigue into their rivals as well. So it's like, well, everybody was riding hard, but they did spend a lot of time on the front and nothing for it. Does that matter? Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, they're strong, you know, and I mean, it's not like

“they destroyed the team. I think that the pace of UAE was was, I'm going to say, I'm not going to say”

comfortable, but it was well within their limits. They didn't kill anybody on the team. Their climbers didn't do any work today. It was, well, who was it Novak? And then, and Marc, Kevin, they marketed a lot of work, a syvakov, who else, and really, already made an even only base. This is a strong team. Actually, you're just going to do that. Like, actually, I was a Kevin today. I didn't realize that. I mean,

funny story about it, only Veda, the only Vera twins. So we just saw, really Veda, winning his first

win ever at the pros, right, in the two of Portugal. Evil Veda has won already a few races in his career. But did you, did you realize that for the Paris Olympics, they were scheduled to do the Madison and the Olympics, the Madison race together, the only Vera twins. And real Veda, the guy who's here in the world got sick a few days before the event and couldn't participate. And then another Portuguese guy of the track team came in, he's called Yuri Lightau.

And they won the Olympics so that they won the gold medal in the Olympics. And so normally,

“we'd have been the Orivala Brothers, imagine how nice that has been to have the twins, right?”

That twins, yeah, identical twins. Yeah, and they kind of won that would have been. What a bummer. Yeah. But there's this footage out there, that's footage out there of Evoli Veda, filming his brother and the other guy winning the Olympics. And yeah, I heard this today, I heard this story today. So that's, I mean, we have to talk about something because that's not much to talk about about this stage. But that's a nice story. You know what fascinates me,

twins, twins. I could, we could just do a spin-off podcast about twins. So the twins, pretty similar people, right? And something with the Yates, the careers can be quite different of what they're, there's a specifics of what they're good at can be quite different, even though

they're essentially the same person, very fascinating. Like, EVO, seven wins, really just gets his first

win. EVoli Veda, two time, Portuguese, National Road Race Champion, Portuguese, National Time Trail Champion, it's just really fascinating to me. But even with the Yates, their careers were so different, but they kind of ended up with the same number of wins when it was all set and done. Quite interesting. Fascinating stuff. Yeah. Yeah, following twins, calling to the show, we'll look at it on the other twins. Any other twins? Because the von derke, the von derke brother's twins?

Yeah, I think they're twins. I think they are. Yeah. Well, here, we just have to look them up, see if they have the same number of them. Micabendike, what's the other one's name? I don't know. I mean, Tim, Tim Vendike. Tim Vendike. And also twins on different teams, like how do twins make decisions about what teams to be on career decisions? There was a pair of twins in the NBA that I went to school with actually had the same bank account. I just shared

stage four preview, the big story of the day, or you roll a John's, never heard of this person,

“extremely popular Spanish Instagram influencer millions of followers on social media,”

invited by the Volta to kind of like get she got crazy at access to good of access, if you ask me, but to popularize it with young people. It's not a bad idea. I saw the Tour de France films, Tour de France films that had an amazing job. For some reason was living in the influence or district in London. And every influencer went south for the Tour de France films. They were posting about the films all day, every day, but it looked kind of organic. The ASO did a very good job

with that, of getting like popular London influencer involved with the Tour de France films and

then amplifying it to their audience. There's a good way to do it. This is probably not a good

way to do it because this woman was like you could say, I don't know what the circumstances were, but Pagotcher was getting fitted for his red jersey with press officer Luke McGuire. He's kind of an intimidating guy. I probably wouldn't be bothering Pagotcher when he was looking for a very nice guy. He's a very nice guy, by the way. He's a very nice guy, but he's like, he kills them with softness. He's very nice, but he knows how to put a barrier, which is what you need. He's a super professional

guy. He's very good at his job. We should say. When he says the questions are up, the questions are up. He commands the room. He is a great presence, but just kind of like hassling them. I need to

inappropriately if you ask me. And then Pagotcher comes out, she asks him like a really inappropriate

question of like, why do you blush every time you see me? No, why? She said, why are you hyperventilating hyperventilating? Yeah, and he you tell he was really upset, but really caught off guard and upset by the interaction. And what do you think of this? Is this a good move for the Volta? I think it's ridiculous, Spencer. It's a so also. Okay. So I don't know if there's different people making these decisions, but I would say, you know, the idea behind it is definitely not bad,

because if you invite influencers, it's a good move to attract a younger public, a new generation. You know, whatever these people do, go viral, but the fact that she got so much access where that nobody else gets, she gets, I mean, she literally gets in almost inside the camper where the guys change at the end of the stage. Right? And then she starts to ask these stupid questions. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's, I think it's this respectful. And I mean, I, on the one hand,

“I think it's a good idea to take those initiatives, to have these influencers, but you need to put rules.”

And I'm sure Spencer, I mean, if it would be the Tour de France, it's still ASO, but it seems to me that in this Tour of Spain and since it's more relaxed, different rules apply to the Tour de France. The Tour de France is a rigid, well-run machine, you know, these are the rules. The Tour of Spain is more, okay, let's see whatever, you know, but man, I think she's, she's going to get called and and they're going to put some barriers, some filters on what she can, plus, plus, I mean,

if I saw that intro, when I saw that intro, I would need to check, but I think it's actually published on the La Vuelta official channel. I think it is, yeah, which is, which is even more mind blowing, you know, like, how can you publish this? You know, like, okay, it's say, okay, you know what, like, okay, to form tomorrow on, this is what you can say, this is what you can't say, and whatever doesn't pass or filters does not get published. Right? I mean, you can't imagine at

Wimbledon, they hire some influence to come in and kind of hassle in the players and the publishing, if I wouldn't happen. I'm thinking back now Spencer, I mean, I don't know, I mean, I would need to check if it's the same person, but in Monaco, at the team presentation,

“there was this singer, it was a couple, actually, it was, but I think it, it might be the same person.”

They gave a performance, it was horrendous. I mean, she couldn't sing, it was false, it has to be the same person. I think it's the same person, I don't know, but it was really bad, and I saw a lot of comments about it, they'd say, wow, what the hell is this? So yeah, that's, that's not good, man. And I saw this, I saw this reaction of Laura Messiger, who was a super professional journalist for your report. She's at the Vuelta, and I know, I mean, she has worked her way up

during many, many years, I think, like, busted her butt for years. Yeah, for 20 years, I think, I remember, I remember Laura as a young girl, being at Vuelta, I want to say 2007, 2008, maybe I don't

with all the writers, she gets interviews, because she has these relationships with them, and is always super professional. And she made a good comment, she said, you know, this is, this is unacceptable. You know, we are, we are in a man's world, we had to really work hard to be accepted in this man's world of cycling and cycling journalists, with the majority,

have always been men. And this basically is a huge step back, you know, it takes away all the

credibility or a bunch of credibility of female journalists. So at the same time, we all know, we have to take it with a grain of salt. It's done on purpose. You know, it can't be taken seriously, but I don't think it's a great, it's a great view. I don't think it's, yeah, they, they will have to do something about it. I, I'm curious to see how this is going to progress now for the next three weeks.

“I think she's going to get called into the office and will get a mouthguard or something.”

So disrespectful to people like Laura too. You know, she gets better access than her. Like what are we doing here? Yeah. I do think Christian, you're some pointed out, probably that directionally is a good decision. Like bringing someone like this in is probably good for the vault as awareness with young people, just the execution of it could have been done a little bit better. You think. Yeah. I mean, there's only one, one way to look at it is take, take this as a joke.

You know, it's funny, but at the same time it's not funny. And yeah, it will probably attract interest of young people. I mean, she does have 3.2 million followers on Instagram. I just saw, so I mean, I'll tick talk. It's probably a lot more. So yeah, that's probably the reason why she's there, but man, they need to, they need to do something about it, about the content, about the kind of

“content you piece out. The brief should have been, hey, make sure our most famous guy looks good.”

Don't try to embarrass him on camera. You say Luke McGuire's nice reminder me of this story. I sat, I was having breakfast, sat down at a coffee bar, had breakfast. Sit up to pay. They said, you can't pay. Someone's already paid for you. And it was Luke McGuire. I'll secretly got the tab. Nice guy. But let's take an ad break in the whole preview tomorrow's stage four, which is a crazy, crazy good day kind of wild. They put this in here in stage four already. I'm

quite excited for it, but we'll be right back. Are you on tomorrow's stage four? 104, 100, 104.0, let's call it 105 kilometers with just under 3,000 meters of climbing. Starts in Endora finishes in Endora. Starts to finish is in the same place in the capital,

which is one of the, you live there. I've never lived there. One of the lowest spots of Endora,

like around a thousand meters, but we climb up to high points. Like the first climate that ate tops at a 2400 meters, which is very high. And we really just have the, it's a simple course. It goes up the valley. 23 kilometers of climbing. The last 10k of it is at six and a half percent. So really hard. That's a cat one climb. Then we descend down. We come back to where we started, but we do a detour up at an extremely hard climb. 6.5 kilometers at almost 9% and then we descend down

sprint point climb back up 10k at 7% descend down. And then we take a little detour before the finish of 4k long climb at 6%. But last K and a half is a close to 9%. So we got some steep pitches here where a tax could come. And then we descend back down into town.

“For the finish, a neat 105k it's going to be done fast. I think it's televised start to finish.”

Probably think the TV coverage starts around 240pm. Local time, how do you think this is going to play out your hand? And instead of who do you think is going to win? Where do you think the winning attack is going to come from? Yeah, that's I think that's the question. I think

Pugacha already said before the vault that at stage four was a crucial stage. So he's definitely

going for it. I think he's winning the moral stage. Can't see anybody else win. The question is if two questions I have Spencer, where will Pugacha attack number one? I mean, we don't know the answer because you know he can go, I don't think I don't expect him to go on in Valeda after what is it after 20kms, 25kms. Probably not. But after that, you know, we have this climb Koyala the big south, which is, it's a bit press with 60kms. So it's six after 60kms. So 45kms from the finish. That's

doable. It's the hardest climb. The question is does Pugacha need the hardest climb to, I expected to go, honestly, I expected to go and call the ordino, which is 9.9kms at 7%. It's a hard climb.

it is downhill, I expected to go there. That would make a lot of sense. And then the biggest

“question is Spencer, who if anybody will try to follow him? That's, I think that's the question”

of the day tomorrow, right? Yeah. I would say probably anybody who is in their right mind, nobody tries to follow him and just write their own pace and try to be the best of the rest. And hope, which we have been hoping for the last two years now, the Pugacha goes to early and runs out of energy. That's actually the only hope they can have in my opinion. I'm guessing Pugacha is in, you know, more or less the same shape as he finished to do the

France with. So, I know, with this field, there's, yeah, there's going to be a huge difference. I think he's winning tomorrow with two minutes, at least. That's usually what he wins with, and when he does these attacks. So, yeah, I think that's going to be what happens. Well, this stage layout, like you might just look at this and say, like, it's not a summer finish, and then gloss over it. But this is the most lethal layout in my opinion for Pugacha.

“Similar to stage six, the tour, where I think that was his biggest GC gap. He pulled out where”

he attacks at the top of the tourmalay. And he's most lethal when he attacks before the final climb, because then he can, for whatever reason, you know, like, the vinegar goes over the tourmalay about 30 seconds behind, and Pugacha can just stay on that gas. He just keeps on the accelerator, and he can turn a 30 second gap into two and a half minute gap on a guy that's probably the second best stage ratio in the world. So, what's he going to do here? That's a little scary to

think about. Where is he going to go? The climb you point out, I've actually never seen this.

You know, you can look at these profiles, and that's a color for the steepness, and it's the same color all the way up. So, it's extremely the regular that's a good place to attack. That tops out 25k from the finish. The only other in place I might think is the climb before, which is steeper, more irregular, tops out about 445k from the finish. If we look at the longest attacks of the season, solo attacks that are successful, Tata Pugacha, number one, 80k at Stratabanki,

Tata Pugacha, number two, 70k to a Swiss stage one. Probably won't see that. Tata Pugacha, number three, 42k to the French stage six. So, that would have been what about, oh, that's maybe more than do that. What about his attack in Zurich at the World Championships? That's was a 100k. Well, yeah, well, this is that's just this year. Okay, so, okay, okay, that's crazy. It's crazy. That's just from this year so far. So, okay, okay, that 40k figure is or he does that kind of

regularly. Yeah, he has done 100k attacks. I don't think we're going to see him again on the first

final day. That would be a little much. No, well, I do think what we can also see from Spencer is that

“there's, I think it would make a lot of sense tactically for both him and whoever can be with Pugacha,”

is that there's a selection on the, on the Koyado, the basis, on that second climb. Then he uses these guys in the downhill because it's in the interest of these other guys also to take time on eventual contenders for the podium and then goes on ordino by himself. I think that's the most likely scenario goes with two or three guys, you know, on the, on the, on the Koyado base else and then goes by himself on the next climb and who are those two or three guys? Well,

you know, before the start of the, before the start of the, the Vuelta, we, we were all talking about feeling gall right and starting to be a bit of doubts now on the way we're going to see tomorrow. I'm going to say Kana pass. Kana pass will definitely try to go with him on the, on the Koyado base else if it's not a full on attack. Let's say this is another full on attack of Pugacha, but it's still enough to get away with three or four guys, which is perfect for Pugacha.

You know, and these three, these three other guys have all the interest in the world to collaborate with him after the, after the, after the, if they can make it to the top of that climb to collaborate with him and a part of ordino because if they get over ordino with a separation on the rest behind them, yeah, it's a good, it's a good step towards the podium already, right? Yeah, it's stage four. So I think that's probably the strategy that I would try to use both in the case of UAE and Pugacha,

and also in the case of these other guys who are contenders and hope for a podium place.

So good at burgers. Hardly for Pugacha only. Oscar only should be there also. I think Oscar only should be there. Yeah, I don't know who else Enrick Mass Roglic. I don't know about Roglic. Well, I mean,

“Roglic isn't unknown, right? I think Roglic needs a bit more time. He looks all right right now,”

but tomorrow obviously it's, it's a big day. It's a short, it's aggressive. It's fast. And it's a lot of climbing. I mean, 3,000 meters of climbing in 100 kilometers. That's a lot. So I don't know if Roglic is ready for that right now. But maybe he, he surprises us and he's there. I hope so. I would love to see it. Yeah, he, you know, it's crazy. Daniel Freibond is podcast. I was like, I'd love to see Roglic's Roglify. Pugacha are in a finish here.

Yeah. It's not, you forget so everything changes so fast. He's like, yeah, I guess I feel like it could have happened, but it's almost like he did someone describe a dream. Like, what the Roglic vacation, the Roglic vacation is not going to happen, but it's not just there. No, no, I don't think so. And yeah, probably not. You're probably right. I do think you named him. I think it's Caripass on like all go with him and get dropped. And then if you, if they're smart, but Carip, you know,

Caripass, I'm worried, Caripass, Caripass is going to like stay with Pugacha until he explodes and then loses 10 minutes or but if they're smart, they'll just focus on working together and hold it. It's really going to be about holding off the writers who missed that move. Yeah, it shouldn't really be about following Pugacha. That's a fool's error, in my opinion, on the stage. Yeah, and so that car is really like smart and conservative. I mean, I'm stressing on the

right conservative, which he most most most most of the time, he's not. Then he would actually

not go 100% on that second climb with the intention of having some company. Yeah, you know,

yeah, this is so the top 15 longest successful solo breakaways of the year. How many do you think Pugacha has of those 15? Six? Seven. Half of them basically. Crazy. Crazy. He's pretty good.

“He is pretty good and then Vanderpool has two of them. Wow. But yeah, I think you're right. I”

think that's exactly how it's going to play out. Pugacha was around minus one. I think he was like minus 160 to win today. I bet on it, but didn't get paid out, obviously, because yeah, there's no finisher. Are they going to? I think you get, yeah, you get a refund on your bet. Kind of disappointing because he probably would have won, but he didn't burn like it. He would have had to burn a lot right to win that. It wouldn't have been a hard thing to do. Now, he doesn't have to do it. Let's see,

they don't have the odds out for today, but I would bet it's going to be significantly worse than minus 160. Like we could be looking at like minus 300, probably still worth it because the only way he doesn't win is what you said attacks too early and and blows up was the last time we even saw that though. Yeah, you know, that's wishful thinking man. That's wishful thinking. And then especially switched on so early. Also so early in a grand tour, you know, he's still

he's still super, super fresh. And even later in a grand tour, it doesn't happen anymore. So yeah. By the last two riders. By the way, Luke, who came to say hello Spencer, he's back. Pugacha's back. Bobby's back. At the general request, some people have heard him in the background. But here he is. He's not that impressed with the Valka. He, uh, look, he's, yeah.

He's, um, yeah, he's not interested in the Valka Spania. So, but anyways, he's here as always.

Bobby's there. The Valka Spania yet to go to Spain. Kind of in, you know, like even tomorrow we're not in Spain yet. You're not in Spain yet. That's true. That's true. Yeah, not in Spain yet. Yeah. I keep forgetting, I'm like, you know, because you look at the scorched landscape and like, oh, there it is. The Spanish landscape. It's like, wait, we're still in France. It's going on.

“Do you think the, uh, just being in France, effect the racing, is it more chaotic than when they get to Spain?”

No, it's the same. No, it's the same. It's the same. I mean, you know, unfortunately it's the, the Valka, you know, in, or hang on, Bobby. Unfortunately, you know, we don't see huge crowds, yet. I mean, today, obviously, people wanted to shelter at the finish. But, um, that's the

difference. You know, with, with, uh, even with the Jiro, there's never huge crowds unless it's a weekend

then amount of finish. Uh, that's a bit, the struggle that, uh, there's still people on holiday, uh, and then, yeah, most of the people are back to work. So it's, it's difficult for the Valka to draw attention from the public. Yeah, I guess a lot of the places the stages would be,

local. It's just not a lot of people live there, right? I think that would have to be people coming in from somewhere else to watch it. Like, what do you think about this coast of block estate, though? Will there be a lot of spectators or no? Is that a cycling hot weather just to place people happen to ride a lot? No, but, you know, in some or there's less cyclists, you know, they're the, uh, this is when the least cyclists are there, like July, August. Yeah, um,

end of September, it starts again. But, uh, my, there's going to be a lot of people. I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people. There's a lot of foreigners there who actually live there permanently.

“So, I think there, there's going to be quite some, uh, some spectators. Okay, like these, these”

these stages, like now in the, you know, like, north of Spain, uh, France on Dora, there's never been

people there, never, never, never, it was, yeah, it was deserted sometimes. The, you know, it was basically,

you know, the people from the organization and a few family members, that was the crowd that were, those were the crowds at the finish back in the days, and it's still the same. It's always a little weird, too, and it's the, well, uh, in Spain. If Italy was a little less weird, but like the, sorry, the, the, well, to in France, it's like the two of France just finished. And yeah, there's another Grand Tour, it's like you're

doing this all again. And it does, it feels so much more muted. I thought Monaco actually was great. I like the crowd level was perfect, and then yeah, as we've now gone to the more rural areas, like, there's not a lot of people out here. We got to get back to someone with that, that they have people. Yeah. And Dora's not very densely populated is that true or not. There's a lot of, I mean, it's a per square meter. I guess it's very populated, but it's all

concentrated into Andoraleveia, which is Andoraleveia is Laveia is the old, laveia, laveia is the

old part of the, of the town. So that's basically the, that's Andorra, you know, all the other

little towns around it. It's remote mountain towns. Uh, there's almost nobody there. Uh, although it does change a lot in the winter. There's a lot of skiing going on in Andorra. Yeah. For example, En Valida, you'll see tomorrow. That's, that's a ski station, you know? I'm looking at the population of the start town, start finished town. 22,000 people. But yeah, it is very dense because there's not a lot of, yeah, it's not less. Yeah. Interesting. I'm excited.

I'm excited for the race. And we'll be back tomorrow to break down here on anything. By the way, there are tomorrow, and Andorra, there are 32 local riders, 32 riders who actually live in Andorra in this Peloton. Wow. And then so total, the total number would be around like 170, 180. I don't know how many, but, uh, yeah, between Monaco and Andorra, uh, I think half of the Peloton is a resident. Yeah. And it's indoors becoming more popular. I was talking to a world to a team who's moving their

base to Andorra from really the coat disorder. And it's, it's very, a very attractive place to do business. Yeah. There's not a lot of red tape. The taxes are very low. But I think it's getting more popular because you can, you can just live it out to it. It's a lot easier to do out to camps, you know?

“It's a far life of just a few. If you want to live it out, you basically have to, I think I'm,”

I can't confirm that. I've seen somewhere that I think Bitcock has a place on the top of Inbalida. Yeah. Which is, and then 2,400 meters. That's interesting, you know? And I guess if you're, especially if you're a high-ernian rider, you could have a separate place in Gerona. And so you could split your time if you have a family though. Like, you could be living in Andorra. They could be going to school there. And you're living it out to it. I mean, you look there,

though. There's downsides. There's no trend. There's no trend. I lived, I lived there in 1967.

So, one of the first guys, it was different then. You know, I lived there occasionally.

So, it's changed a lot. I think nowadays you have to be, to be able to consider an Andorra resident, you have to be there 160 days during the year. Basically, half of the year,

“you have to be there. Yeah. So, yeah. And then I just found out, actually,”

last week, there is actually, there's flights into Andorra. Yeah. I mean, I didn't know that. You could fly from Madrid to Andorra to Laseo Durguel, which is a small, with a, with a, I'd be a few flights for 100 euros. Huh. Yeah. I would bet, though. It's like Aspen. It's like, oh, yeah, the flight exists. And then any weather moves in, you're not that flight's not making it. High risk flight. We'll see. Yeah. Yeah. The success rate of that flight could be low.

I am shocked that, you know, I live in Boulder, Colorado, at least part of the year.

could live high, it's not too high. But you're in a city, I'm shocked that the number of

“professional triathletes and runners, especially non-Americans who do all of their training”

that they used to do in Boulder and Andorra. Andorra's gotten incredibly popular.

It seems like it's done a good job of capitalizing on its strengths and great facilities there.

“And I guess the finished we saw today was that the French version of that, where they have a lot of”

like trained facilities. And if you can go there and you get a track and you can have it. Yeah, like the finished we didn't see today.

The finished way to not see today out, that we saw the buses ripping away from and an extremely high

“speed. Yeah. But Yo Han, we'll be back tomorrow. Thank you for joining us. And well, let's see what happens.”

We're to pour, put a notch or goes. We can't wait to see. Thanks guys. Bye. [Music]