In this episode Patrick Broe and Benji Naesen preview the biggest race of the season, the Tour de France 2024.
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Credits:
Photos | Cor Vos (unless stated otherwise)
Profiles | La Flamme Rouge
Results | FirstCycling
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:35 Parcours overview
00:05:00 Last year’s edition
00:05:32 Pre-race chat
00:12:27 UAE Team Emirates
00:22:30 Team Visma | Lease a Bike
00:33:13 Red Bull BORA-hansgrohe
00:41:20 Soudal Quick-Step
00:45:32 INEOS Grenadiers
00:49:30 Alpecin – Deceuninck
00:52:04 Astana Qazaqstan Team
00:52:50 Team Jayco AlUla
00:53:36 Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
00:53:57 Israel – Premier Tech
00:54:20 Lidl – Trek
00:55:30 Lotto Dstny
00:56:03 Sprinters field
00:58:01 Bahrain – Victorious
00:59:22 Cofidis
00:59:48 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
01:01:54 Movistar Team
01:03:04 EF Education – EasyPost
01:03:45 TotalEnergies
01:04:13 Groupama – FDJ
01:05:08 Uno-X Mobility
01:06:59 Stage-by-stage analysis
02:05:24 Predictions: Young rider’s jersey
02:07:56 Predictions: King of the mountains jersey
02:09:49 Predictions: Points jersey
02:10:10 Predictions: General classification
02:15:33 Hot takes
02:23:24 Outro
welcome back to the lantern Rouge cycling podcast brought to you by our show partner join cycling for the big one Buckle in get yourself a coffee sit down just strap in get whatever seat belt belt I don’t care what you have to strap yourself in Benji’s locked and loaded if you watching on YouTube this is the tour to France 2024 preview two months ago we thought we might even have to skip this because it was a foregone conclusion Tides have changed things are back and we can’t wait to get into everything the route a quick overview the rules the favorites The Outsiders the best sprinters the break hunting teams recapping what happened last year and going through every single stage piece by piece in great detail so you have everything you need to know including our picks for each stage and the jerseys at the end how are you feeling Benji you look I’ve never seen you so serious in in Five Seasons my man this is a serious podcast we got to be serious but this Twitter France I am so looking forward to it am extremely hyped and the main reason is on paper every single big GC Rider is here yonas vinga one two two of the Frances pachar one two two of the Frances they’re fighting each other with the outside is being Primos RIT with REM quapo with some other Riders like Carlos Rodriguez but also Riders within the same team y he has 17 bloody leaders in this race and fmas here with Matthew jensson as well who’s been great all year so I want to see see all these rers clash and the parkour going to spoil a little looks pretty good I think it’s a really good parkour we’ve got traditional Sprinter stages we’ve got hard TTS we’ got a flatter TT and we’re starting in Italy begins in Florence goes across to the we still don’t know we think it’s the Adriatic Coast but Benji and I are still not sure at riny then Works its way West O paci yeah exactly it’s uh it connects with I think if you just go across on a sailboat or a tug buddy boat you can get to Perth directly from reminy West West Australia but then it goes across West to Bologna which is the finish of uh jro deia GC action straight out of the gate on stages one and particularly two then a big long transition stage to Terin for stage three we leave Italy on stage four across the Galia early on stage four we have big climbs and then it’s a few more Sprint stages as we head north to djon and as a TT around the the furthest North we go is Troy which is I think an hour and a half out of Paris Southeast with as a gravel stage to end week one so we got Sprints Punchy stages the G A TT a gravel stage all in week one then we come down from oron down some transition massive Central stages hot horrible heavy roads in the heat in the middle of France with some Punchy climbs and then down towards the Pyrenees with a PO to PL and then ludville to Plateau de Bay which is just over that Mountain Ridge where I’m looking here uh beneath F near Andor stage and then there’s rest a two and then we have a couple more transition stages to barcelet and then three very very difficult stages the finish of this toour of France is much different to previous years with uh I don’t know what area the Alps this is it’s like the lower Alps near n uh but we have Isela Bonet uh kuol RAC is familiar to you from parin and then a tit to finish rather than schs at least they finished due to the Olympics in Paris this year uh I think Benji are really quite a well balanced route actually I think so as well and it’s really a a journey you know cuz we start off with a bit of Alps in the first week and we finish off with a bit of alvs but there’s so much in between like the mive S hul and also the Pyrenees and I’m also quite intrigued by the selections of climbs they have because there’s mythical ones in there there’s a tural in there there’s a g in there but also climbs that might not have the most Renown names like isolo 2000 as a cycling fan I know that clim but the M mainstream only to the France Watchers might not necessarily hear that and say oh that sounds like an interesting climb it’s an interesting climb so that’s big but also the ceiling of this race is so high Chim debonet what is that 2,450 M or is it higher 800 800 really 2800 I I don’t know what the isan is luk will know uh but it was uh yeah that’s maybe 27 00 I mean the Gia already goes to 2630 so we got some really high altitude here and it kind of even with Isela Benji you know Isa doesn’t look the hardest climb either but the first six G of that is is very very difficult indeed so uh I can’t wait to see yeah how these last three stages play out I mean and who knows with the we’ve seen in the final TTS in the jro in the tour to France in 20120 that the final TTS in week three after hard stages who knows what can happen yeah but to recap last year it was basically the battle between vingard and Pat they went back and forth neck and neck vingard taking time on Marie blong Pacha fighting back the other the next day and then vingard ended the race in the TT and then on lows the next day in week three pach had crashed before in Le BST on Le where he uh fractured his wrist finger guard said in the Netflix series didn’t affect him Benji um How do you do you think it’s much of the same do you think do you think it’s do you still see it that way because you introduced this episode by saying vinga Pacha and Outsiders yes because I see those two Riders as significantly better than the others now we we’ve had loads of discussions the last one month and a half two months about this Wier Road the jro in pacha’s case Vaga had a a pretty major injury collapsed along multiple fractured ribs uh broke Bren colar bone etc etc so that probably hindered his preparation towards this race we’ll talk about the individual Riders once we go to Every favorite but then when it comes to demen RIT that RIT moved away from Yambo Vima after last year towards borro Red Bull banso do we know whether that’s going to start off with that name or it’s how many days until the T France why do I not know the name of the Steam for the sake of everyone listening we’re recording this Monday 24 June 5:00 p.m. 1700 C think benj is in Belgium uh and he’s not okay fair enough 1600 C 1600 g i here for nine months and you still don’t recognize my background you’re a man of mystery you’re a international track you know you’re here you’re there the a fair few of these teams are not announced fully when we go through the teams we’ll let you know that and indeed DSM just announced after we start a recording uh but as Benji said jerseys we don’t know Red Bull’s Jersey we don’t know alberon’s Jersey we we know visma eight eight specific to the France jerseys apparently according to the Twitter France website including alerson including s quickstep yeah I’m curious what it will look like quickstep used to do it during the Rond of onand but there were two [ __ ] in the classics that they saved it for the T they used to do I can’t remember what I actually look pretty pretty good in the F anyway that’s just so you know uh so yeah you’ll be as confused as as we will when you look at stage one you’re like you’ll feel like you’re watching to under with all the new jerseys but that’s that’s just unfortunately the way it is uh but before we like oh yeah quickly about that there’s teams that need to change their kid like Vima for example cuz they’re literally riding a yellow Jersey the entire year so it’s good that they have to change that in my opinion because otherwise they look like the yellow Jersey the entire race but there’s also other teams where I I think okay maybe it’s against their brand identity to shop for a completely different Jersey throughout the race and and not necessarily have to change in the first place but anyway that’s just my opinion yeah I agree and it’s in the jro we see every year the EF also have to change uh but you know that’s it’s just the way it is maybe we’ll see a change in the future but before we get into uh the favorites uh the odds and all the stages are work on our show partner join cycling many cyclist struggles to improve their Fitness due to lack of proper guidance consistency and motivation that’s been a problem for me in particular if I go and look at my training history it’s not that special in terms of what’s going wrong it’s consistency it’s uh just trying to do enough to keep improving and join cycling has provided me and many of you already this year with science-based adaptive structured training plans that evolve with the users progress ensuring continuous and for me most important sustainable Fitness Improvement if you I mean you can probably do it my st’s public download my files and and map my CTL you can see my training load is progressively improving and now I hit 50 uh Fitness or CTL chronic training load or whatever you want to call it I’ve gotten better much better and I’m in the best shape for like five or seven years I can’t even remember I’m aging myself since I was a student a uni student before I started working a real job uh which I’m really really happy about and so with join every cyclist can improve their your Fitness in an easy accessible and enjoyable way and I’m not talking this is not just for people doing 15 hours a week I’m not doing 15 hours a week I’m doing 5 to seven hours a week on a good week I’ll do nine and it’s not like intervals crazy workouts as well that’s the beauty of it um and listen mileage varies between individuals of course you got stress sleep neut of course but average Improvement in your functional threshold power basically how much you can hold that threshold or for an hour or however you want to Define FTP the average Improvement for join users that do a plan after 3 months on 3 to 5 hours a week is 10 watts on 3 to 5 hours a week now if you’re doing over 5 hours a week 16 watts to your FTP after 6 months over 20 watts just on over 5 hours a week 5 to seven hours a week huge improvements with structured adaptive training plans and so that’s why I wanted to really reiterate that that it’s the best way to improve your Fitness and maybe to have fun on the bike particularly this summer is to improve in a way that I think is super sustainable and not going to grind you into the dust and indeed we got a message from Jim Vandenberg you heard on the podcast last week about that consistency delivering it to me and Benji ourselves something we need to hear during the tour to France so there’s some time can be hard sun sea beach maybe some occasional to the front so the challenge for you guys is actually to ride your bike at least three times a week it doesn’t really matter whether you ride your bike like 3 hours or whatever training load you hit you don’t even have to maintain your current joint level it’s just all about consistency and keeping in those rides for at least three times a week even though it’s a 30 minute or 45 minute ride so that’s your guys challenge for this uh well upcoming month of July um good luck I’m sure you can take care of it and um see you soon so that’s the challenge Benji and I three rides a week I think we’ll be able to do it Benji’s coming here on Friday even so we can force each other peer pressure each other to do it even we’ll get Luke I think we Luke has to do three rides a week as well I’ve just decided that adding to what Jim said and if you want to try join cycling there’s no better time during the month of July during the Twitter France the current offering 30 days free trial because we believe that you know why not try it no strings attached you don’t even need to put your your credit card details in and you can see if you like it don’t just take our word for us so 30 days free trial using our link down below and that helps the lrcp show a lot as well and thanks to join cycling for supporting us throughout the year as well as in particular during this tour to France okay time to get into the favorites Benji there is one favorite according to the markets it is T Pacha who is just over the odds on favorite ahead of second favorite jurus Wingo got let’s look at Picachu wins the Juro Talia uh no no pressure did what he wanted I think what he went eight stages 10 stages I think he deliberately tried to win like 15 he win by less time deliberately to annoy you cuz you picked 10 minutes or say could have won by 15 minutes n that I picked 851 and he actually got more oh really oh underrated um M to grab mayy uh the team they’re bringing Benji I want to get your reaction Pacha ausa AA yat COV solet Well’s pollet AO third in the Welter ala Yates dominant in Swiss and then COV Solair well poet clearly to me helpers how do you see that team well first of all Let’s Get Serious again let’s put put the sunglasses on because this is a very serious conversation you emirats there’s a lot of riders in there that could be leaders on other teams for this race and they might not necessarily be the riders that can win the St of FRS like if I think about J wmea I see a rider that can top five this race that’s why I perceive him but on the other hand U is not here to top five okay these sunglasses are terrible I can’t read my notes anyway so I see ala as a rider that in my opinion will probably fold into a Donald SE coll in this race because when I look at the team and I think okay which Riders could be useful as co-leaders for pachar I more lean towards Adam Ys and almea I more lean towards even though his form hasn’t shown it AO than almea and that’s because they’re really more attacking Riders than Alida is and therefore I find it harder to imagine that Almeida will be able to put pressure on the competition outside of just being consistent throughout the race so you’re saying like on a stage 15 there’s a really hard start in fact that’s where we’ve seen Arma struggle he’s not the guy that just jumps in a breakaway he’s the steady diesel like Benji’s saying and yeah whereas I you so he in the Welter last year okay it didn’t work out but he’ll throw he’ll go for it and is it too early for a hot take or can I have a hot take drop in a hot take my friend Adam the third best GC Rider in this race that’s not a hot thing is it not no he sixth favorite made its eyes cold in my opinion how is I you so the same o as Yates why does everyone hate Adam Yates I think a us has that X Factor where he might just show up when you don’t expect it but then again I’ve been saying that for two years while he hasn’t necessarily done it in my opinion so it’s hard to look at that I personally agreed that based on to the swis and doph that I have full confidence that could Podium this to the France but on the other hand that is also dependent on how remen RIT and other Riders ride because they might put UA in a situation where adam8 will need to work for pagat Tran therefore loses a bit of time here or there which that’s always possible but I I think that an8 is definitely strong enough to combine that and maybe still Podium this races so I when it comes to strength I I actually agree with your hot take to give an example of what Benji is saying whilst Yates may be the third strongest that doesn’t mean he will Podium if you look at the tolay stage last year he’s dropped pagat goes clear with vinger guard UAE are not going to chase pagat for Adam Yates and so Yates gets put on a three minute gap on the tolay stage or on the Marie Blanc stage because if pogy’s ahead no one’s UA is going to help his GC at that point but he’s also in a position where like in stage one last year people might not respond to him as fast as they do to the other UAE Riders which means he might actually win a stage or gain some time that way so I see some possibility there and the thing with almea is just that I haven’t seen that acceleration that brutal attacking continuously uzo can do stupid and crazy [ __ ] every now and then so I see him doing that more but I’m looking at pachu and Adat as the leaders for this team so you think okay so cuz usually it’s like everyone knows the big boss in July yeah so you think pogy and yat who they will use as co-leaders and almea and are us some more as the domestics but to be clear Pacha above Adam Yates like Pacha is a big boss Adam Yates backup co- leader almea I I see more as the guy that will be more lenient to falling into a domestique roll earlier than the others really while a yuzo I am more feeling the I think AO might try to stay up there in GC and they might try and use him to do some crazy [ __ ] throughout the race I don’t know how easy he will fold into a domestique role because we’ve seen some some selfish riding in the past from AO but also when it comes to what sorry Anda really where on bees on stage 16 of the wter he refused to pull and then attacked that is I know that’s ala and uzo while this is alao and pachar yeah yeah and in cadal he was good for pogy but then I would say that Yates is the one who’s more ready to fold into that role almost too soon sometimes and that he he is he’s like I know why I got signed I’m over 30 I still get my own results the other guys are the young hungry dogs they’re the they’re the young pups so the young pups I actually don’t know I’m this is one one of the things I’m most curious about this whole tour to France we are finally seeing pogy the all the guns apart from deloro at One race The Uso almea pogy and how that is going to work it can work brilliantly it canot work brilliantly it’s certainly on paper the fire power they are the best team in the mountains in terms of depth by far but you just said it one of the strongest teams in the mountains the strongest team in depth when it comes to the mountains but that also leaves questions elsewhere Solair yes he’s also Mountain territory he can do a bit of versatile teritory maybe try and help control on the flat a little bit but it’s mainly going to be down to P it and well to do so and when it comes to P it I’ve got the confidence that he’s a major add-on for this steam yeah for sure but to have the pressure on him like the way I’m expecting it to be in this race that’s a lot of pressure Wellens I don’t really know what to expect when it comes to breakway formation control Etc because on paper he’s got the engine for it but I you need more than an engine for it you know yeah he’s a Classics Rider so they’re generally speaking you know they should jumping and and but the heat stage racing he’s never had to do it before doofan not good and then but then he won the Belgian national champs in TT y so did poit so it’s I think it is an upgrade poet is an upgrade on Langan and B for that role poet is an upgrade but then Trenton’s out langan’s out they have COV in there COV and Soler are the odd ones out for me because they are in the bote and tratnik role is how I see it The allr Rounders yeah but they are not as all round as bote and tratnik and they actually clim COV is a climber y so he W to laue he is a climber um and so I don’t yeah I I I think it is quite unbalanced actually the team um so we’ll see but yeah you you got to look at team and also ask the question what would you change then if you had to try and balance it a little more would it be keeping out COV or Soler and putting in someone like Langan or or do you see it more as we’ve got a leader too much that’s the thing because it’s not like they left Stephen Kung at home you know uh well seriously like yeah they left it well maybe he left himself there yeah yeah and they took him they took the the rulers to the the jro as well but yeah I don’t know someone like someone like b or mcnalty or Novak or Langan either of those I think would have made more sense to be honest yeah but I don’t I don’t rate novik’s rer qualities as high as you how did this was how did this switch around no no cuz like they are going to have to like we’ll get to it on let’s look at stage four and and his example Benji yeah cestria is like 40K long 3% Big Break goes you know hindley style break of Marie Blanc last year is pollet and wellin going to control that may maybe they can you know but it’s like you that’s where I think Novak would be good just another big body I think that’s where Solair comes in and COV yeah and COV is not 60 K he’s not like a lightweight climber either he can ride the flat but um yeah I think if there is a weakness in the team I would say it’s there because certainly in terms of climbing in terms of climbing it’s uh pretty good I agree with you now looking at that team I got to be honest before this race starts Pacha having ridden a grun or having ridden that Jalia I think that matters but on the other hand I personally still have him as the favorite and that’s mainly because I haven’t seen finger race so it’s it’s hard to know where he is and I’ll be honest going into that yumbo Vima Vima Lisa bike now oh my God on the Twitter France uh podcast I’m I’m naming them wrong we’ll be at the bottom of the ranking this time oh no anyway when it comes to Yas Vaga when it comes to crashing at Bass country having major injuries as a consequence yeah fracturing ribs collabs lung broken col whatever I personally I’m not impacted by all the by all the Vima Lisa bike conversations TB pretending that yonas vingar can barely ride a bike at the moment I don’t listen to that at the moment the way I personally see it is that vingo came back from a heavy injury so I find it hard to believe that it’s going to be at 100% from the start of this race I hope for the race that they’re both at 100% and that’s why personally pogacha is a slight bit more of a favorite for me than than V go at this race and that’s just how I see it it makes sense I think you know like it’s no secret he hasn’t raced since the crashing bass country and so clearly he’s had an affected preparation compared to the ideal preparation of last year but I will say there’s been so much what seems like sandbagging in the last week that it’s gone a bit over top for me I can’t handle every single rider in the team of isisa doing an interview and saying oh I would never bet on one of my Riders to on thing top three the the podium I don’t dare to do that it’s it’s it’s very oh I’m not sure I want to risk my house on that stuff like that cuz I’m sorry but that’s too much two years ago they had a a whole shebang of V for not having a knee injury not being able to go to the Belgian Championship showing up at the Twitter front and then we a glorious performance so I don’t believe [ __ ] all anymore that’s cuz your your BS Belgian rules like the Remco said he was too sick to do the Belgian national champs on the weekend and someone took a video of him doing a Recon of the TT you know wi did well and say he was sick as well I don’t know he wrote it oh do you right I mean yeah yeah but you have you have to do the road race if you’re a license holder in uh in Belgium I I don’t know why Benji didn’t do it I didn’t see him lined up so Benji probably expecting a fight what do they do if you don’t turn up and you don’t give a a reason to they like ex communicate you or you don’t get selected for worlds or something I don’t think I’m allowed to go to the Olympics now which I would have o in my Twitter bio Jesus Christ dude don’t need to look down in wona that much you’re you’re the Belgian federa federationist what is that called I don’t even know the belgians I want I want to secede yes from breaking news Patrick wants to split Belgium in two countries I think you already got a party for that don’t you um I think we do actually um I know where I was going with this oh yeah V’s got one leg um Jesus Christ that’s what you’re saying that yeah clearly he would not line up for the T France if he’s going to cannot hang on to the pelaton like that would make no sense but it also has to be true Benji that it’s unclear what his shape will be it is like training is training but it is also impossible to know uh there’s two sides to this thing like communication wise I think vizar shouldn’t have started in the first weeks after the injury with a uh he needs to be 100% before we sent him to the to frons because now people are going to use that against him I think I play Devil’s advate and if people don’t know maybe listen to the preview for the first time I work for Vis M of like yeah um wow did you I don’t know that yeah about two friends preview people I I think they meant 100% from like a health perspective like he is not you know he doesn’t have 50% lung capacity or something and they’ll send him to the tour Jesus Christ that’s not how it sounded yeah yeah I know I know I know about it but yeah that that that messaging has certainly been watered down the last uh two weeks and then [ __ ] gave an interview saying I don’t know what he said uh that he doesn’t know what V got to be like it’s all sandbagging I mean I also think that’s too far the other way cuz like yeah you don’t know you don’t know but this is my objetive opinion my objective opinion is Patra is slightly the favorite because I find it hard to believe that Vima even knows where vinga is right now when it comes to the level because I wouldn’t know how you would know just before the torrons after limited preparation whether you’re Rider can sustain a three-week ground tour after an injury like that you don’t even know with with perfect preparation it’s like a it’s like a freak event it’s like three we race but this is an important discussion because yeah for the present purposes for the rest of the podcast we are going to assume that vingard RIT Pacha and AO are competitive against each other CU frankly if we spend the next hour and a half discussing having to Cave it it’ll be annoying or also esteemed listeners you are intelligent enough to know that if vingard rogl and Haven aul are bad who is going to win the race and you don’t need a long podcast so we are going to assume for present purposes that they are all in fighting shape except in the prediction and hot take segments at the end because there we can freestyle yeah Adam y the win baby um second year in a row for you dude I love y so much um mate you signed the other one because you wanted ad him so much see the UCI push back the transfer announcements to um like October 15 I can’t figure out that rule so there who even knows what the rules are uh that transfer rules got changed but the French version got changed English version didn’t change anyway uh we should probably do the VIS team for Daniel Benson transfer releases are facts to me all media speculation don’t trust it uh this m bik’s full team as confirmed on PCS vingard cous T bote Jorgenson laort tratnik vanard kelderman the climbers of cous Jorgenson kelderman The Versatile Riders are tratnik benote vanard let’s say and then lorts the rer bad out for vanard it’s certainly a more rer heavy Classics team compared to UAE uh but with no van hon it’s sort of missing that super ruler as well but obviously he had to retire um also CH crashed out the do he was intended to be where kman is but then kman was good in Swiss certainly it’s not as good as if you watch Swiss in the mountains as uae’s support for pogy uh in the but the uh I think it’s pretty hard to go past these R for The Versatile terrain Benji it’s also because we don’t know where everybody stands when it comes to the level jensson looks strong very strong to the point I see him as as a co-leader for the team a backup leader because once again I don’t believe that vimma can know we 100% vinga is so I’d like to see jensson start with a bit of a backup leader role because that can also be useful tactically I see SE cosmore as a as a f into domestique role than a than a backup leader personally next to that like we we know what the Laport and a tratnik usually do in these races kman last year when it comes to the first week yeah Kon looked pretty good at Swiss until Del Toro took him out but then again on the vong um what is it not the TT but the second last stage because it’s not even clear which vage long stage I talk about because it’s every single stage in t Swiss he was good in that race so he should be solid domestique there but I agree I probably trust uh I don’t know I trust Vima Lisa bikes Mount team more to work for Vaga 100% when it’s absolutely necessary than the UAE team Emirates Mountain team in the first week already for example personally because those Riders are less leadership role as almea and uzo when it comes to UAE does that make any sense yeah and also those UAE Riders are are kind of better outside of the tour for their own results so it makes you but then you think of the actual previous Twitter France Benji and you’re like who’s in the valley after spandel before alteram pulling on the flat do not remember t b okay but then if you say ah but you put him side by side with XE rather you say they are a much better climber Marie blonc who is dropping Adam Yates seus who is dropping yeah adam8 on toay SE has looked [ __ ] at the do at the do so I’ve got limited confidence myself even though it’s upus so he should he could show up and beat a domestique he has every single year at the most important races do normally he cooks in the even if he [ __ ] in the early stages he’s still normally good in the mountain stages in the do he was not good he was sick so but Kerman tolay dropped the eight so like I think I agree with you that like yeah on paper they’re not as was pil high but they’ve done it before and having done it before I think is also important but clearly like UA should have more numbers Y in a group of seven or eight in the mountains they clearly should um yep what they’ll do with it I don’t know uh but that’s yeah it physically hurts not seeing Mike out the Twitter FR for me I don’t know why but mik physically hurt I miss it off on M car he would have been in if I us so crashed out properly right I would say yeah would would you prefer Rafa mic at this tour having crashed out of the no having Not Crash would you prefer having Rafa M at the store Front instead of AO hasn’t been too promising towards the tour I would have taken M instead of AO and I would have taken another ruler okay I I find it difficult because I don’t know where I Uso stands but I would have I think having M as a Cornerstone within the team is something that inspires confidence I think for Pacha as well M is so committed to pagat and the goal that even when he can is allowed to go win the stage he like refuses to you know like he really like knows his role yeah the B stage yeah yeah um okay onto the quote unquote Outsiders Bora hansra and Primos RIT the third favorite uh didn’t finish the doofan a too well but not withstanding he still won three stages and won the race Bor are not confirmed yet but I think we know at least five of the Riders 100% Primos rogl ji hindley and vlasov are his Mountain support which we saw on the doofan then soero is kind of that versatile Rider then I would say the rulers will be nicod denz Marco Howa and probably Danny van Popple on the provisional uh but this is to me Benji similar to UAE and visma maybe yeah you can talk about Co leer all you want but at the end of the day it’s Primos Rish is the leader of this team the goal is to win GC with Primo’s Ro exactly and when it comes to the Doan yes he he lost some time early yes vazov was actually super strong in the in the last portion of the of the race there and like yes on the final day rogl had a a relatively bad day he lost time towards a lot of riders that day including jensson and Rodriguez that ended up fighting for the stage winw well fighting Jenson kept riding while while Rodriguez took the stage but I I don’t know what to expect here when it comes to R because when it comes to the Dolan it doesn’t inspire me that he can win the Tour def France but it does show me that he can compete for the podium and that first spot or even second if if one of the two big boys have a have a worse day or have a worse form throughout the race so I think RIT is probably my it’s hard to say I one hand I want to say Prime candidate to to Podium together with someone like Adam Yates but on the other hand he’s got a very high crash rate compared to what our GC Riders and M as well to be honest they both have relatively High crash rates and rage crashed twice at the dolphin a crashed already at um at Bas country as well in that race twice I when it comes to the team I do think the worry we had before the season started which is a can they rer rollage to a safe position in Sprints I’m still a slight bit worried but I’m probably less worried than I was at the start of the year for some reason I’m not worried about Bora per se like I think vanle hen’s pretty good actually if you got DVP in there he’s really the problem is RIT can’t hold the wheel if you go watch parin or or doofan you see the lineup of jungles how saero and there is no RL he gets washed off the wheel so it’s um it’s not that they’re weak in that just haven’t made it work yet from what I’ve seen but certainly hindley was probably less than what he expected in the doofan but certainly had time to come back and uh and vlasov was very very very good uh in in the do actually very like he was really really strong so they also were very committed to RIT the question marks about teamwork own ambition not they worked very very well all As a unit um and I think I saw post that Danny Martinez he was on the long list I think but he’s doing some Grand Fondo in okay not in Europe maybe I couldn’t I didn’t check where it was but in July so I don’t think he’s in the team uh he he was like the wild card that might be in there or lip of it but I I don’t see it I think they’ll add another rer and hope hle improves uh also before we venture onwards I think there’s a different between Bora and vimal laab and I feel like the pressure to to control the race to to to lead no not to lead the race but to lead the way the race flows is more in the camp of vism malap and UAE while boraas team will be more the team that are we see an opportunity here so we’re going to jump in and try and take over for it and see if we can get something out of this specific stage while the others might have to do it on more than the stages they want to go for themselves yeah and I see a bit of tension between how rogl likes to race and how B raced with hindley last year in the tour um where they were jumping in the break bit of chaos and that worked really well whereas I think the rogl are closed stable race mhm everyone’s brought to their positions goes to the Sprint bonies time Gap good TT happy play third week tter France 2024 a going to be a Sprint up a climb my from the bottom of the K that’s the problem is and as you say it’s not really up to them to carry the race cuz it looks like lab UA and even inos which we’ll get to in a moment but when it comes to these Riders also REM we haven’t spoken about ademco RIT fera pachar over the last two years we’ve spoken a lot about energy expenditure and being able to perform on very hard Mountain stages which of these 4 GC Riders do we have the most and least confidence on on very high mountain stages because on paper L he would have been V vingard the big one but now I with pach having a new trainer not necessarily I’m not necessarily sure that he’s still still having a bit of a vulnerability on a very hard stage after multiple hard stages on a on a very difficult climb at the end that was maybe the vulnerability that was exploited in previous years while right now I don’t know where he’s at at those climbs when it comes to RIT the hottest stage of the dolphan in my opinion was the one where he ended up dropping when it comes to Remco he has shown weakness on very hot Mount stage in the past but the one in the VTA last year I still don’t know what happened to rco there because the man dropped on the first climb and it’s hard for us to judge this externally but feels like pressure was a big part of that as well in my opinion yeah and it’s like was he really worse than Alida physically and you know ala also dropped but he kind of grinded it out and he came n in GC and then next day Remco 115k solo so it’s I I haven’t seen Remco perform really well on like a hard Mountain Stage at World Tour level since like the Welter 2022 yeah but the Welter 2022 there was no very brutal Mountain Stage either except maybe Sierra Nevada yeah and and they controlled it well himself but you’re right it’s a it’s a question mark it’s it’s it’s not a there’s not a clear answer and so yeah I would I would say it like you did Benji vingard normally and then patcha and then I think a gap actually but the thing is when when Pacha cracks it’s not like a linear crack you know yeah when he cracks it’s like all of a sudden he’s worse than David goodoo and and yor Zimmerman yeah it’s it’s he either is wiening or that like and a moderately bad day for pagat is when he wins the Sprint against vingard it’s as if the moments that he cracked in previous years he capitulates because I don’t know it’s like he he tries to hold on until he explodes but then again if you’re on cold LA with 7K to go what are you going to do drop early and try and pace yourself yeah but it was like Castro pacing he he already dropped like he thought like he held on too long he just was finished you know um but how did the TT mentally affect him the day before as well big disappointment but uh yeah certainly there’s question and it it’s but I do not want TTS to decide this race for once I want it to be decided on Mountain Stage this no going wait till that final TT unless the last TT oh that one H the first one shouldn’t um the first one I think well play uh but yeah there the question marks about rogl because indeed the the opening stages actually suit him and his team quite well uh onto sudal quickstep they’re also not announced but I think we’ve the team has been leaked here or there uh Casper ASR said he’s not in it Remco Evol is leading the team molanda one of the best signings of the offseason sudar quickstep wanted too or COV they got a better climber they got mikanda yeah Anan Vana there for Mountain support as well Louis vaka all rounder Casper Pon the ruler evil art ruler moscon is the other ilor and he is kind of the again I’ll keep saying it benote maybe tratnik I don’t know M who knows what you get from from moson uh no mer no van burer unless something drastically changes they didn’t I doubt they will uh what do you make of this team Benji first of all I would have liked seeing oen in the team it’s hard because he hasn’t had the best season his Classics weren’t good when it comes to his form in the national championships Etc he was okay in those races last year he saved their T the front single-handedly and then I look at the rest of the team and I’m like okay I don’t know if Lampard can do better what oin would be doing is how I see it so um I think as graen could have been in the team personally that being said even Kasper Peterson for example I think Asen could have been in that place but even Panda perfect duo in my opinion F Wilder was a bit worrying during the Doan but then again the N was kind of worrying as well during the during the Dolan I read somewhere I don’t know where maybe I made this up in my head that LE said something about Remco also being ill at the Doan not just the national championships or did I make that up myself in my head I think I mean there’s been this is like the week Benji the sandbag week no no like T T minus 7 to remco’s Main Event of the year yeah Patrick LEF and Patrick aul start firing off interviews it’s like clockwork it’s like don’t like uh I think you’re the only Patrick that hasn’t spoken about MCO publicly yet so here’s listen I’m all in for ramco like I hope he does really really well but uh it’s yeah C Pon I don’t think’s very good frankly and like not gone we don’t know asgr he said he doesn’t know the reasons did he want to go for stages certainly it’s it doesn’t have many stage winning options here if [ __ ] goes south for rco that’s the problem it’s really not hedging its Bets with a sprinter with a breakaway winner a Ker could go for it I guess uh to me it’s like one elite elite Mountain domestic M Landa then kind of some Miser support and then what you’re saying also is there’s no real backup when it comes to Stage wins or when it comes to breakaways or Sprints but then your backup is kind of your Mountain domestique cuz landai is the backup if something goes wrong with Remco to the point that will he be going all out for Remco every single Mountain Stage yeah I think so he did in the do especially with the time TR coming in week one I would I would consider that the option but Lando was better at the Dolphin M call yeah yeah but he’s got the worst reputation for someone who’s not selfish most of the time no no there were days where he was selfish the aru versus Lando days at aana I will never forget as a previous aru fan let Lander cook but and do he was like waiting for Remco when he maybe other rers wouldn’t like he I is really good teammate did he also not exit the VTA in the in the third week while he was fighting for GC just cuz he wasn’t successful at getting him breakway boy help your dude out he’s in your team help him for GC he was fighting for the podium sorry but you can’t you can’t you can’t come out on this podcast and put a flaque on your screen and say land hasn’t been selfish at all no no no no no no no he has been self was flying and would help he he knew he was he going to do ride faster than 2021 p i don’t think so well that’s that’s definitely true uh the next Outsiders team we’re putting him in here Carlos Rodriguez the leader for the inos grenadiers with one of the strongest teams in the race in my opinion pidcock Thomas Rodriguez Kat kovski Turner Castro Bernal dplo Bernal was very good on quite a few Mountain stages in Swiss and then lost the podium spot in the final TT the PLO was excellent in a fifth on GC Rodriguez fourth won the hardest stage Thomas big question mark to me pidcock the Wild Card kovski the allrounder Castro the sort of diesel the lightweight Diesel and and uh Turner is the ruler support I think Benji this is one of the strongest and well-rounded teams most well-rounded teams in the race okay I but I don’t I would have taken hater instead of Castro or instead of or instead of Thomas what do you think Thomas will be in good shape I’m not sure I agree with your hater analysis yes I’m super happy that he won the British national championship genuinely yeah but that being said he has not had the greatest year so far before that and I also don’t see those hater stages as many of them in this in this race so you’d have to hope he does well at the time trial and be a a prominent domestique in the race which he’s shown to be at romendy I’m pretty sure yeah romendy he was stronger than Castro on the queen on the hard stage so I think there’s something there but I still I think Castro has been a Cornerstone in so many ground tours that you know you can depend on him and I think that’s a that’s a big thing and then I lost the team but there it is I found it again I think it’s a strong team and the question for me will be after seeing tter FRS and chain then the madeup drama between pitock and Rodriguez oh no will will pitock ride for Ruez when necessary or will he fight for his own GC that’s the big question now on a serious note I think Carlos Rodriguez can top five this ground tour I hope he steps up to maybe fight for the podium which I currently don’t necessarily see yet but I do think harder Mountain stages fit Rodriguez better than easier Mountain stages and there’s quite a few stages in this ground tour that I would classify as the Stag i’ expect Carlos Rodriguez to would do better in than a lot of other top five competitors yeah yeah where Simon Yates could fall through or or whoever uh and indeed that’s why I suggested hater because what happens in in a world where vingard falls through yeah you don’t have lab to make the race hard lab and and bear in mind who was pulling last on cold L’s last year wasn’t Vima it was it was Castro and then kovski who Dro pogy in the end and so took over right yeah but only after was dropped yeah um now maybe Thomas in in good shape he’s better than ha of course in the mountains uh but I I don’t know the role of pidcock and Thomas will they go for stages I don’t know I think pidcock will sty and stay in GC for as long as possible his Swiss was actually very good I thought GC wise I thought his most consistent GC race yeah I don’t even think his T of France last year was too bad top 15 inju see for the first time trying for GC yes there’s only x amount of people that really go for that spot but it’s more the he was strong on the uni Puerto kind of stage and it would got harder on the very heavy Mountain stages and that’s where I’m worried about pitock in this ground tour but this year he’s been a little bit better on them so on on tereno adriatico on the Monte Pano super hard Vima launched it and he was solid he actually dropped arensman which he shouldn’t have but um and then Bernal and dplo great shape so very well-rounded team I think one of the strongest teams in the race uh be in mind we spent quite a lot of time now on the the top GC teams which I think is appropriate but just to go to the Sprinter teams the the green jersey winner last year returns yasper philipson with Matthew Vanderpool I would say Robbie CH is definitely in as well as re K Anderson thees Johnny that is uh Rickard I would assume is out I haven’t seen a report but he looked like he he maybe even broke his wrist he was certainly holding it in the Bel Champs crash yesterday he was he’s the second last man before VPO in the lead out normally so I’d say would be into replace him it’s only provisional team at the moment probably because of that injury or crash uh but yeah he’s the favorite for the green jersey competition Benji yasper philipson and uh I would say it’s a weaker Sprint field in general but this team’s about stage wins again it’s a very simple team with it’s like the old quickstep right yeah it’s it’s true it’s got that Sprint capabilities of philipson plus vpol as lead out philipson has not been the outstanding Sprinter we saw last year this year he’s won multiple Sprints already but he’s not been unbeatable and last year at a certain point it felt like philipsson was unbeatable in Sprints and with onol has lead out that might return but last year in the T France philson also won Sprints while vpol was not there to lead him out to one or two in in the second week if I recall correctly but it’s also who’s not here at this race when it comes to other sprinters on paper merer on paper Milan and then I’m thinking okay who are the three four best sprinters in the world well I just named two of them that are that they’re not riding this race so on paper philipson should still be the favorite for a lot of Sprints in this race especially with this lead out and for the stage wins I kind of like the idea of johnan merish for that Troy gravel stage yeah he was good in did he win D had harand ahead of a Uno XA uh inting you on they dropped uh the dude from T un the yeah abrahamson yeah I think VES so he’s in good shape as well Herman’s looked okay and he’s not in the team but um they they they come in this is a CL no one no one’s spoken about Vanderpool I swear since paray it’s like he goes off the map and he comes back and he probably win win Stage Nine the gravel stage or something could even win stage one in Theory I I don’t think so but yeah it’s it’s his team around stage wi philson is the green jersey favorite uh as well and I’ll I’ll do a bit quick fire through the other sprinters teams Cavendish returns which is fantastic to see with Asana Kazakhstan the lead outs of merku ballerini B uh federov and then there’s tahara gatsi and luchenko for probably yeah see where they go in GC probably some Mountain breakaways quickly uh yes does he take his 35th stage one or not I mean the Sprint field is not so good I’m going to go with Yes actually I’m going to go with yes as well because there’s just a lot of Sprint stages and like as you said philipson yesterday watching Belgian Natty Champs I just thought he’s going to come out of the wheel he’s going to come out of the wheel and that moment like last year just hasn’t happened so yeah let’s go Cav uh Jak Lula bring G and meds gets Rangers durbridge jul Jansen bling uh as well as Simon Yates and Chris Harper so one climber for Simon Yates and uh a pretty strong lead out actually for groven if you got Matthews mesg gets like actually pretty good leader and grov won Dutch naty Champs yesterday uh that’s another sprinters team as well last year I remember thatan was worse on the stage where alberon had a brutal lead out I don’t know if that’s still going to be the case this year I do think the the fact that he’s one of the top sprinters here because ‘s a limited Sprint field which is weird to say about the to France I think that increases the chances of actually taking a to FR stage one this year yeah um also DSM announced to have yakobson supported by eof De and col Bram Welton they also bring bade uh B Frank vandenbrook and only frankly this is the the best team they could bring I would say because Onley and Vanden Brook look really really good the young prospects and then who knows what B and B can do uh other Sprint teams include Israel Premier Tech they bring uh Stewart and B around araman but then they also have G who was third or fourth in the doofan uh Chris nens who should have won a stage last year except there was no G2 syndrome full sang Williams uh yeah so also going for stage wins uh any other Sprinter I’ve missed Benji little Tre with Peterson I think that’s an important one he’s pretty good y he’s got Gibbons and also uh Sten and squin as part of his lead out if I’m looking at the team right now yeah I feel like I miss a name that I would have expected to be there Alex K did he he’s been crucial did he crash or what was the reason he did the jro I mean I don’t I don’t know the reason but yeah heest the Luxembourg Road Race the NF stage six of the C the doin is so maybe actually got an injury there that I don’t remember yeah cuz normally it goes skin H Gibbons that was the order on the stage one that that pison won into doofan Verona sort of can do everything all around her uh I dare say sorry the big mission T gagen har he had has has or had Co he’s out of the race unfortunately that he was going to be their GC leader so I I I dare say they’ve put some moving pieces around there to refocus on pedison stage wins and or green jersey and CH I’m not I never know I hope he just goes for km in stages actually um and when it comes to Pon he he’s also kind of like lot of Destiny arono the Le at this race new Belgian Champion I’m actually pretty happy to see the Lee win of Belgian championships especially after the first half of the Year where he didn’t have the the success and it mentally kind of broke him is what it seemed like now I don’t trust a lot to Destiny lead out I’ll be honest about that when I look at the team burin has been okay in lead outs but not against the to France field and I think the gone to the tour cuz he’s having another kid or something I don’t remember Jared driers I’m not completely sold on myself I’m I’m looking at these Riders thee and pis and I’m thinking okay those are the firsts atal sprinters okay philipson is the pure Sprinter we’ve got W fad we haven’t mentioned when it comes to Sprints he’s on VI Malisa had injuries at the start of the year as well couldn’t ride the jro build towards the T frons instead is in the to front SC Sprint can get over climbs also vers like Pon Etc but I look at the point system I like okay there’s about six roughly pure Sprint stage with 50 points there’s three hilly stag with 50 points including stage two to Bologna for example you think it leans more towards Phillipson style riders or Pon vard style riders or is it wrong to put pson in the same bracket as vanard no I think pson is like you see how well he can climb in the doofan and stage one it really depends how it’s raced we’ll get to that in a minute but yeah I clearly delet do not climb as well as Pon and vanard but that stage eight finish if he makes it to that 500 met 6 5 6% uphill drag based on what we saw yesterday at the Belgian national champs no one’s coming out of his wheel so I think Lotto have to be very very happy with how that went yesterday you need to be in front of them for them to not be able to get out of the wheel and that’s where worry about the leag can his positioning in the Sprint be good enough to be ahead of the other Riders when that Sprint even starts yeah cuz you can’t take 15 20 Riders like you did the Belgian national champs yesterday but also and and then indeed they’re not bringing buros who I thought was excellent yesterday uh Bren vanmore I don’t know what he did to to earn his spot ahead of Burke most frankly um maybe they see it for the B breakway stuff he was okay in Baza Belgium Tour I think but okay yeah okay you know I I would have prefer to see BM as well but he’s also very young so he’s maybe doing Vala yeah uh Bahrain Victorious also another stage hunting team but P Bill baau he said they’re forcing him to do GC he just wants to go for stages he’s sick of and he came like fifth last year it’s not like he’s a bad GC Rider he’s very consistent they bring morch PS Bill Bal bouse Santiago Bago hag Fred Wright nikkas a the lead out for bouse is right and a’t but no szin uh this team the lead I went backwards since howler retired I’m sorry I think AR okay good the king hler I still cry every night is he in the car but for for Bora or for them I think foror traitor I mean this team won three stages last year with three different Riders Paul’s morid and B B B B that’s correct it might do that again to be honest yeah it’s it’s a nasty stage hunting team they can do it on all terrains andago yeah and Santi as they say is their leader maybe he’ll go for GC I think that might be I don’t see it but um is TT was very very good in the Doan so I why not try for and see how you go top 10 in the tour might be worth it still a for Bago yeah he looks their best option at the moment cord to Spring coard gu Mar yon zires s see geska Renard zangler and pet alagard so they’ve got two versatile sprinters in coard and zangler don’t know how they’ll go for coard I think and then climbers in is air Mar and her uh so they’ll be going for stages uh you know as many terrain as possible other sprinters dear but AR are not announced yet as well as daath Aela mondal with Sam Bennett does make the team I thought his shape actually was fine generally speaking in Doan as well as am Lair pron Nar doron gon n pz that’s the surprise one to me and Felix G is their GC option I’m very happy to see paulaa in there especially after seeing him win the the French Nationals being great at the hill Classics at the start of the if you in French national champs I’m pretty sure legally you have to do the tour then if they would leave him at home the FR didn’t didn’t s or Cav have that that quickstep at some point or did they get in at the cost of someone else I don’t remember think it was some drama cavish staying home and maybe I don’t remember anyway we we have a team here that has been at for the Sprints but I don’t know where Felix Gull is at he got 10 for to the swis got some top 10 in Mountain stages I am worried about the GC bit for phix G but um he can win a stage win a stage his TT is awful uh the mountain support the mountain support is a little bit surprised actually it it’s a Team Construction that suggests that they’re not really committed to that GC bid which I’m not saying is incorrect uh it looks like a stage hunting team I don’t know if I don’t know if clal ber is injured or not but certainly he is better than n PES in the year of Our Lord how many domestiques does someone like Felix G who’s trying to fight for top five in GC maybe top 10 really need as domesti sorry but he can figure it out himself I would I would have Tak a per if he was in good shape because actually there’s not there’s no one there’s no one that can climb here nor pis can climb not amazing but he can climb he did win a to a France break stage but he’s not look the same since uh M has he not win a jural stage as well has he won a v one yeah he’s good break Rider but but there must be something wrong with bir it must be he should have Beed for the VTA that’s the one where he hasn’t won a stage yet uh moar bring enrik mus lazano Nelson Oliva formo Aaron baru just one Spanish national champs yeah I know gav as a sprinter Javier Romo and mulberger is probably the best possible team they can bring uh the lead out for gavia don’t know about that but at least they got a sprinter they’ve got Maron laano as as climbers and then other guys to go in breakaways I think they’ll go in the break as much as possible and hope that en rcky mask can get a top five like he did in uh 2020 and and six not looking good no doesn’t good yeah adamu wins seven stages that’s the only thing I can conclude from that he’s got addicted to winning lascano though I don’t know what to expect they won’t go stage win is very possible I think I think lascano needs to hunt for stages and I think he can win not hot day lascano wins three might be too much let’s say two St three I mean geez I mean I’d love to see it but he needs to lose time in week one then he can win two stages yeah he that’s going to be the trouble for him uh EF bring we not a confirmed of course for EF but they bring carapaz who I’ve been going past training a fair few times El hagwa uh and then you went past him in training no other direction he was going up you dropped G yeah on join cycling fdp buddy am actually cooking um but I’m not going that good uh betol I assume will be there just won Italian national champs Healey just won a stage in Slovenia Palace I’m not sure Maran Vandenberg would be their Sprint option who gets over Hills no problem total Burg T jagat gashin verier du Gia don’t know who half of them are CR good to see he’s back from his crash as well he was in that bass country crash and also burgo Aldi Al Philip prediction gashin will be in seven breakaways in this race because I swear I’ve seen him in every Breakaway this year he was good in French national champs yesterday came to third maybe a bit too generous uh and gr fdj just announced David goodu going jenet greguar Kung Lenny Martinez who was supposed to do the Welter Val MZ Quant Pas and cl rouso and the rouso and the Tweet says G meaning to win which unless dag is improved a lot I think they mean stages I think so as well not GC n no no my friend they’re going for the green jersey my friend Lenny Martinez polka dot and Stage is that not what the prophecy for told I would love that Greg as well go for stage WIS I uh I think there’s viability here for one or two stage wins for group on this race I would love to see it uh and then actually would no I’d love to see Len stage un bring Court kulet Rasmus tiller OD Christi iing Kristoff s varal Tobias johanneson and abrah Hansson also their best Riders all Norwegian team uh oh sorry mag is Danish Danish um but yeah it’s also going for stages quite clearly uh the problem I see is that they apart from johanneson do not have great climbing support and I think a lot of the break stages you might you need to be able to climb and also yeah the barcelet stage you’re like abrahamson would be so good for that he would be so good and then you realize who’s going to be in that Breakaway Matt Pon mat V Kristof the p and like y Abrahams is a nice Rider Jesus Mor oh I was about to say that Kristoff will win on the Shan but will be easy to do that because everyone else is in Kristoff won the last knee stage as well in 2020 he won the Sprint on UAE he’s not winning the DD my friend why not cuz he’s [ __ ] slow in a time trial he’s 80 kilg he’s a red turtle come on leave okay Magnus yeah but yeah they’ll go for uh they might have somebody who I might pick for stage one uh in that team so I think it’s clearly caught for the the hard Sprints and Christoff for the real Sprints uh have I missed any teams Benji before we get into the stages probably I think we haven’t mentioned the F too much but well their roster is invisible so who knows who they’ll bring but when it comes to other Riders I think we’ve gone over every single team so I think it is time it is time to go through uh every single stage one by one this time I’m doing odds and you’re doing evens because we like to spicen things up on this very very serious podcast anyway let’s get into it stage one Fen turini 206 kilm on paper and it’s got loads of mountains I would classify this as a medium Mountain Stage we’ve got six medium mountains and a hill in it the climb start already after 25 km with let me the glasses off again caji something like that can we just talk about this before we get into the actual stages why does the T France feel the need to translate every single Italian climb to Ci or something instead of like the the pooi or whatever it is is the Cod to San lcer on the next stage as well it’s like anyway that being said there’s loads of climbs on this one the last 80 km will be the most important though and then I’m looking at the The barboto Climb with about 70 km to go which is 6 km at 7.6% followed by a bit of a plate on top then descending and we almost immediately start the the cour the San Leo which is 4 8 km at 7 and a half% followed by a climb just after that which is the C de mon Mao which is 4.3 km 6 .7% and then finally we’ve got the court the San Marino 7.1 km at 4.7% question is the CT the San Marino in San Marino and second question do the GC Riders light this one up C San Marino is in fact through San Marino I think that’s why Tiber couldn’t start the race I don’t know if he was barred from San Marino but Jesus Christ it is through actually don’t Jokes Aside if anyone knows um but do the gcg contenders light it up someone will and that’s it UA Benji have to I mean not even them Why Can’t This is a good stage for Primal Rog glit for Alexander vlasov for Remco aapol this is an Italian Classics Grande par MH 206k it’s like the I it’s super hard the problem is this is very very similar stage design to theisel Stage last year same distance almost from the top of the last cl to the finish same same length of climb the problem is it’s 4.8% and steady it it’s not fake news with 2ks at 10% at the end as a Launchpad haisell was 7% for 7 a half% for the last 4K so that is like pogy’s good Benji don’t get me wrong mhm but also 5% is 5% and he does not just drop renco or Primos Rish on their good level on 5% I agree but when I look at the climbs when I look at the stage this feels like a raid stage where you go on the four for third last climb you you try and make it hard on the fourth last climb you then launch on the F last climb but you don’t do that on a stage one on paper so that’s that’s the one question mark I have with this stage together with the initial who will try to go in the break and who will try to control that factor cuz a lot of KM points here and if you get all the km points in this stage and I’m pretty sure you will be leading that for for three stages that was shorter I expected but but like man UA is there breakway options here no no no no okay because many people want yellow the stage will start and mads Pon and youo X will think they can take yellow with court and Patterson because if this was a midweek doofan stage MH they probably could win cuz you know the Riders and the teams do make the race but then what will actually happen is we will get to the S cot barboto 6.1k 7 half% and I expect UAE to start smashing it because you cannot just start on the last climb right like the steeper climbs are earlier and so I expect them now do they actually try to attack with our maid or are you so I don’t know because like vlasov also is so good like you cannot it it it might be an exercise in futility cuz like Bora are not and Quick Step are good so I don’t know but just those thought when when sand when when dear boto comes and the next climbs that will determine is it a pedison stage is it a vanart stage is it a betol stage or is it really like a GC paga stage you’re saying a betol stage to me a betol stage is only a situation where he can ride away in the last two kilometers because of group dynamics and I lean more towards maybe an outsider of Maxim Von Hills who also has that kick in a Sprint like he showed in edor Frankfurt BET’s my pick for the stage for the same rout so I think bet wins like Lefay won last year uh and Van Hills he can win the same way he can also win from the Sprint yeah CU he is super fast so so both of us I think I I see a group of 15 to 20 at the finish that the last climb is just not hard enough I think yeah it would have to be such a crazy crazy crazy Pace to to do anything else but you know is Pacha in UAE but um I’m going to go and say that my brain says Pacha wins the stage my heart says maximon Hills wins this stage both gone Outsiders uh stage two 20.5 km long not as difficult overall as the previous stage much more flat for the first 150 K who will control the Breakaway is the is the interesting question probably you know if UA don’t control it like does rogish he’s won J deia before de Bora control it uh maybe or Lotto cuz is clearly in yellow after my prediction on a serious note then we might have a random yellow Jersey ER that might have a team protected on this stage but on the other hand talking about vagar I think the reason that UA might smash stage one is also because they don’t know where vinga is and might want to know where vinga is before they settle into the next couple of stages because this this stage one seems like relatively harmless stage where you can try and smash it and see if vagal stays with you or not yes but also it’s this type of stage where ala on a 10 12 minute explosive effort yeah on opening stage of a grand tour not his bread and butter either but it’s also a stage where a user might be a chance to right away might be your attacker while while then you see what happens with with Vima it’s where you can play out that multile leader strategy for sure and stage two indeed is give those sort of opportunities as well because we have two repetitions of the Cod to San Luca it’s been frankopan ised as Benji said not sure if that’s a word 2 kilm at 10% there is a couple of warm-up climbs before where maybe teams Pace but there’s like proper valleys between them it’s all about from the second last s Luca and then the last San Luca is uh Crest 12ks from the Finish short descent and then a 1K 5.4% that’s where you could see a betol Lov if they make it a LEF he existed and then a short descent and then maybe 8 7ks more like sixks to the flat finish in Bologna it’s not jro delilia is is where this climb has been used before where RL has dropped pagat where enrik M has dropped pagat but this has actually a flat finish and this is indeed the TT of France not a Wednesday race in October so I think yeah I think pogy goes for bench like he went on cot to he got the lead out and went on cot to I don’t see why they’re not going to do it he went on stage one in in the J Italia not just to drop vard but because he can go try and win the stage it’s pretty clear to me uh or do you think they do something different and suddenly on first s Luca we see Adam yay launching nah not necessarily I think RIT is also an option for this but then the question for me is what happens if if RIT and pogach are maybe Gap theas a little bit will RIT r with Bacha over the top I actually don’t know the answer to that he should I think so too well yeah I think so um I I think he should yeah but then I’m I’m more worried when it comes to Remco on this stage and it’s weird because he’s won races like lbl and so4 but then in ground tours on these kind of stages he kind of always wrote Tempo and was behind like for Bron scares me for this yeah but he had Co beginnings of it but I agree with you you know I think uh actually quickstep should be aggressive on this you know they should be positive about this stage in theory but in Grand tools they think a bit differently uh like on stage one for example that’s the kind of race where isn’t that the kind of race where Remco would go with 50 km to go and try something yeah won’t happen in a ground tour you Cal though because you go and then like you have Civ Sol pacing behind you is sorry but the kept kept tougher people than than civil govern so behind him on climbs and on valys and on Des sends Etc so I’m not worried about them two I think pachu wins this stage in a Sprint but I could also see uh again a different winner like Jorgenson like Yates one um after C to P we saw this is to me this is the code to PK stage even vlasov could win attacking probably Bor won’t played like that but uh I think I’m I’m going to go with Pacha from a Sprint of 10 guys it’s like I said head on stage one pogacha hard maximan Hills for example but kind of got a similar feeling for for a stage like this where you might have that late attacker like a beeld or or a Von Hills or it’s probably more names Alex uru who knows um I’m I don’t want to pick the same Rider as you though cuz that’s that’s a bit stupid so I’m going to go with El hagwa no I won’t go for kapas no way in hell I’m going to go for kapas on this Stevie Williams it’s actually not a bad shout for this I’m going to go with Stevie Williams oh really I mean if he’s in the shape of the ardens then I it’s not a joke like you should be there who and indeed Maybe Paul is suddenly there because the are flying this year but uh they’re the opening two stages Benji certainly you know Pacha and UAE they’ll be looking at those one would think because yeah that you can’t also you can take some gaps but I also don’t see how you can kill the Twitter France on those two stages either exactly it’s more the it’s it’s super clichy saying but you can’t win the race here but you might lose the race here because you you might have a bad here and lose three four minutes and or one two minutes or or a second leader like AO might lose two minutes or almea might lose a minute or two on a stage like this and you might see it differently after that exactly like adamm at the at the jro and I’m less worried about Jorgenson to the point that I actually see a possibility where on stage one or stage two there’s a scenario where U Rider goes and maybe jensson goes with him and you’ve got maybe Adam Yates and Jorgenson riding off but then again will Jorgenson ride with Adam Yates I’m not so sure about it it’s but it’s not unlikely to me that one of one of those guys a UAE Rider or a visma rider that is not the leader on paper the full leader wins a stage of these first two that’s not impossible in my head but anyway stage three yen to Torino yes I Italian ified it again because I’m not happy with the frenchification of of everything here 231 km why do you make his flat Sprint stage of 241 km on stage three of a ground tour cuz we’re an Italy baby 200k believe it two corners at one Kil so there’s two corners in the in the kiler at kilom go at 800 me to go so pretty straightforward Sprint I’m going to go with yper Phillipson I think the kilometer to go the safety thing is move from 3 to 5 on this stage okay uh from memory uh you’re going with philipson I am going with uh Mark Cavendish on this I think he’s good on the long hot stages I’m not having it we’re not having a cage win so early in the ground tour it needs to wait until the last possible moment for me for the lead out to click yeah uh but that’s a spring transition stage quite obviously uh who who do you think will be controlling Alon aana ja they’ll all put a rer yeah they’ll all put a rer that early in a ground tour where people might not be thinking okay we need to put all the pressure on on the as Phillipson team yeah yeah they’ll think he’s beatable which he is to be honest um stage four another GC stage from pinolo crossing the border we go back into France finishing in valir 138 km long with near on 4,000 M elevation game it’s like they start with 50ks uphill but it’s 40ks to cestria but that’s at 3.7% average it’s not the hardest climb but it’s over 2,000 M descent and then up to C de Mo genev which is 8.2k 6.1% with a couple of steeper sections at the the beginning then a bit of a valley for I don’t know 25ks and then they begin the Gia from the I think quote unquote the easy side this is the I think this is the side where rogl and vingard attacked Pacha in the 2022 Tour of France but I don’t know myz from MZ anyway it’s 24 km at 5% up to 2,600 M yes the first part isn’t a steep but the last part is 88.7k 6.6% and I guess if you’re doing a rule of thumb and you’re saying altitude makes it all harder you could say that’s the equivalent of doing like an 8% climb let’s say given that they’re going to 2600 M before a 19 km descent with almost no flat to valoir I don’t think it’s the most technical I think it’s a fast like straight line descent um I don’t know Benji K situation on this it’s got to be crucial already for like if you if you take poker points on top of from you’re in that for a while that’s actually only 20 points so or category is 20 points uh then you’ve got first category which is 10 points then second category which is Five Points then third category is two points and fourth category is one point and there’s one climb on stage 19 I think Chim laon it the highest one in this race that is double points so 40 I’m pretty sure but I must say that I will call you out sorry but this is d the goba from 2011 I’m pretty sure this is the same side I’m looking at the the profiles of both stages right now you’ve got beon start you’ve got the lean part in the middle there you’ve got the L part in the before the the top of the G this is the one where cat elans fought back against the Andy schle and Frank schle attacks and brought home in Australian yellow Jersey and you forgot about that only got told on the news and I was like oh cycling exists and that’s where it began baby yeah uh not far from the truth but yeah okay so it’s certainly hard enough that you don’t want to have a bad day here that being said Benji I think the breakaways got a really good chance here just like on Marie Blanc to me this is positioned like the Marie Blanc stage last year where there was a big Breakaway fight and indeed there’s a hard uphill where they can fight for an hour and a half to make that happen on sestri a and uh that being said there’s more teams like inos Bor and quickstep who might want to control better like have a more controlled race than like a chaotic race compared to last year I don’t know but I think a breakaway has got a good chance now if you’re this is where Benji if you’re Chone if you’re betrag if your bill ba this is the sort of stage where P Bill ba probably wants to lose deliberately 10 minutes on stage one so he can go in the break and win it’s a descent finish he’s the best descender in the world you know and and the quality of climate in this Breakaway will be significantly worse than the quality of Climer on stage 20 that’s just how it works in grand Tours uh so we’ll see who falls out of GC who’s smart enough to go for that who sacrifices I mean you can always come back in GC but or do you not see do you think UA shut this down Benji and try launch launch some attacks on Gia to to do what Vima did in 2022 I’m not sure I expect that necessarily I I think a break has an opportunity here the one thing that that’s worrying for me is that it’s such a short stage so the breakway formation will take quite a bit of time and by the time that break is formed we might not necessarily see um I don’t know it’s for me it’s a hard stage to predict I there’s so many GC Riders we have now on paper that they might actually be willing to there’s always a chance that one of the teams might be interested in trying something on this parkour and I it wouldn’t shock me either that if Vima is confident in vagar that they might try something on a parkour like this either but it it doesn’t seem long enough necessarily to Stage I would also think and it’s like on paper You’ think back okay what did the gr All Stage look like it didn’t look like this you know the the last climb here is the gulbe with a descend to the Finish there there’s some risk there if you attack on the climb but I do expect action on this stage when it comes to GC but not necessarily at the front of the race and when it comes to a stage win I’d also lean to the Breakaway and it then depends on will CH cor go for stages or for GC cuz if he goes for stage this is one that he definitely can win but I feel like he might be going for GC a little bit at the start of this race Roman B from the Breakaway I’ll wing it and say that but I fear that he will go for GC for the first week Frank ven Brook for for DSM I go Tom pitcock I think [ __ ] if he’s if he’s not winning stage one or two I think on stage three he’s got to sit up lose 10 minutes go for this one easy think that’s a fantastic Big Easy dub um if he goes break so but we’ll see just sometimes the of GC is too strong for these riders or indeed the team like with b b wants them to stay in GC yeah but I don’t know where I stand on the pitcock GC part I don’t know he should if I’m if with Rodriguez there as a clear leader yeah I would go for the stage with Bill Baal they want him to also be the leader um yeah okay stage five Benji okay stage five from San jeen to San B it’s basically a a Sprint stage there’s two hills in there but they’re actually not that notable and when it comes to the actual Sprint there’s no BS in the last two colom so it’s pretty straightforward again I would say that on the stage it’s going to be the the big sprinters again fighting against each other I’m going to go for someone different even though I feel like philipson is the favorite here I’m going to go for not Cavendish yet it’s too early for that D Gran I’ll go with philipson uh but yeah groven also normally is pretty good in the first week stage six is another Sprint 164 km long from uh ma maon or Mason I don’t know to Dijon it’s flat mustard yeah mustard territory potentially crosswind territory I don’t know how exposed it is up here it’s it’s certainly very flat and uh here I’ll go for Dylan that’s also a good pick I think because it’s pretty damn flat and I’m not I’m not solding calling the Lea 4 the Sprints because I feel like his positioning might not be good enough on these stages I’m going to go for philipsson again stage seven Benji TT okay time TR we’ve Gotan to shamb 25.3 km I’ll be honest there were two different profiles I saw for this the first profile was the the ASO to the France one and I was like this looks pretty flat then I opened the the FL Rouge profile was like There’s an actual climb in there there’s a climb in it and the climb is 1.6 km at 6.5 5% I had to like put my screen sideways so I can actually read the profile but ah I feel like we’re going to see GC Riders already pop up in the in the TT standing things what other time TR lists are in this race that could be going for this time TR specifically I think vanad might be uh going for this time TR as well Kung definitely also but winning I’m not necessarily sure about I think Remco destroys this one it’s a hilly TT it’s got like 10 m elevation gain per kilometer I think it’s got over as week one this is also the T the TT that uh Pacha can just win so I’m going to go t Pacha winning the TT normally Remco on a flat TT should beat him but with that H and then paga can like just explode on the hill that, 1500 met 6% Hill like I still think Benji took Remco so I can’t pick him but uh do not be surprised if pogy wins this TT do not I’d be surprised really why he he won this TT in 21 I’ve said for an entire year that Remco is going to destroy the CT so I can’t back now so I need I need to stay on my ground no one going to win this TT R in top shape also [ __ ] dominant in these sort of TTS with a Punchy heel and he is really so I expect there to be gaps I think vingar is the one that should be losing time to all three of them in the TT uh well on paper yes but we saw a pretty crazy TT last year so I I wouldn’t be shocked if we we see a crazy TT again this year when it comes to Vagas so I do expect it more to be stage 21 than stage uh seven though when it comes to you us we discount vanard for the victory yes personally yeah Remco with the hill yeah Remco hilly just he should be good even if you don’t believe in rco in the mountains as a TT Rider he’s well champ for a reason uh stage eight 176 kilm long from s on pass the oord to col Le leig uh to church town so very very hilly it opens with three Benji wouldn’t call the medium mountains he call these Hills like 10 minute 8 Minute climbs at about 5 to 6% three of them in a row no flat that’s in the first 40ks in the first hour 15 is where a medium Mountain starts I just I think it’s 10 minutes I think it’s 10 minutes anyway um what’s my train of thought so it’s not so easy to control the breakway formation uh then we have rolling heels all day it can be super hot here and then it finishes with an uphill drag this normally I would say this a break could win I think with van dele and with pson control n it shouldn’t they’ll be looking at Pon with little Tre coford is with Kar will help control the stage Co and zangler the Lee with Lotto I’d expect to control this stage and yes also I’m going to go with the Le on this one I know it’s a m Pon stage but I feel like pison might actually get detron here but and it’s also because of the stage profile it might also be a little bit easier for the Lee to position himself after such a harder stage than a a pure flat Sprint so I’m going to go with the Lee on this one because it’s on paper in my opinion the the stage he can most win out of the entire race but yeah yeah I think uh yeah it’s a I haven’t checked the exact gradiance but maybe it’s not even too hard for Kristoff you went with dele yeah I’m going to go with bie if he does you’re not going to go with Lok I expected it be honest L doesn’t have the horsepower normally I probably win now but uh with zangler leading him out like they got two great guys to this finish in zangler and coard but uh also don’t be surprised to see Sam Bennett too well here I know I’ve not always been the biggest proponent of him but actually no do not be surprised to see him do well here uh in the past he would have been up there but I don’t see it anymore yeah but anyway to 198 km it is the gravel stage and there’s loads of gravel segments in here I actually forgot how many kilometers in total uh that there is gravel in this 14 sectors if I remember correctly there was about 30 km in gravel so let’s hope I’m not making the [ __ ] up on the spot here there’s some harder gravel sectors in the middle of the range because they’re climbing and my worry about the Sparkle is that if I look at the route the hottest spot of the route is in the middle of the stage they still gravel in the last 40 km but those are flat ones so I kind of feel like this is either a breakaway stage where a breakaway goes up the road and then we’ve got a fug lauga on the on the hills with a few riders that get towards the flatter gravel sectors or we’ve got little TR thinking they can control this for Peterson and Alon thinking they can control this for philipson and Lotto thinking they can control this for the Lee and then it might also be a bit of a a very reduced kind of fight between versatile gravel sprinters I don’t know what to expect let me add another name into the mix mat Vanderpool oh yeah [ __ ] he he’s pretty good on flat gravel I mean yeah like Vanderpool is a is a nasty rider for this finish I mean saw rub you know the last 50k this a flat by the way so like do not compare this to strata Bianca this is not strata Bianca there are some hills in the middle phase that Benji said but the last hour of this is flat yes there’s gravel but it’s not the same as Str bian whatsoever so don’t expect a group of a GC group suddenly of like 10 guys eight guys with an hour to go that normally should not happen but then we saw on the flat when there’s a mixture of terrain there’s what there’s the there’s one team that’s the best in the world that’s alberon toer y uh with philipson and and all their guys for mesh so uh I would like to I would like to ask alason right now how about you pretend this is Paris rub and he go on to every single sector with the same furiosity you had at Paris R just to see the GC Riders cry at the back of the pellaton there’s quite a few GC riders that would do well on this Pacha for example there’s also a few where I have question marks not sure how happy remu would be if Alin does that RIT Yas as well I don’t know RW to to be honest GP theet one and a half two years ago was pretty good at at a at a global stage shockingly yeah but I don’t know ala won’t be happy if this goes my that’s and by the way Alon to thankfully just announced their team Rickard is in so forgive my assuming he was out uh thankfully he he seems to have recovered from yesterday’s crash uh and it is a nasty team for this stage laurance rard Janny V Rob Deer Anderson vanderpol philson they can win it in a whole different number of ways um wait is laurance an outsider for stage two uh stage one has have we skipped Vanderpool for those first two stages I don’t I mean he won on BR he won on the mood of brania I think Amelia is too hard I think soia is too hard um and you never know what shape he’ll be in uh but Lon certainly he is very very good uh for that sort of stage um GC on this stage what do you think happens Benji I to be honest I don’t see I don’t see like paga attacking I don’t see like what I see is some GC guy unfortunately is going to have [ __ ] luck and it will cost him time I don’t think it’s like I don’t know you can make the race by attacking here I hope we see GC action on the stage but I agree that it’s more going to be GC Riders being involved in how the race is played out by the Riders trying to win the stage and maybe acting accordingly if Vanderpool goes maybe Pacha just says I’m going to jump in the wheel and try and benefit from this move and and see if the other GC react I think that’s not an impossibility in this race so I agree I agree with you but I do see some opportunities that maybe a GC Rider might try to spicon things up that GC Rider being Pacha stage 10 stage oh yeah [ __ ] who did I pick who did I pick H lascano lascano that’s a good pick I’m going to go with Vanderpool I don’t think he’s turning up for three weeks in July just to do lead outs I think there has to be there has to be some stages that abson said he can go for I’m evens as well Benji by the way um yes yeah first rest sorry yeah I forgive I I do that every preview um to Sant mon 186k is a Sprint stage a little Hill near the Finish don’t think it matters uh I’m going to go with philipson okay I will allow it and I’ll um I’ll do an I’ll do an upset and choose the same Rider I’ll also pick Phillipson Tre bends in the last kilometer one with 450 me to go probably won’t make a too much too much of a difference here so onto stage 11 we we are speed running through these Sprints because let’s be honest about it not the corners though now we have the Alon steam we also think they have the best lead out here right I think that yeah but also the corner is also not at 300 met to go so it’s not like gavidia will be winning that’s also an important factor stage 11 to this is an interesting stage in my opinion it’s already a bit of hidden altitude in the first half of the race it it looks flat but it it’s got a bit of ups and downs everywhere second half of the race gradually moves up towards uh towards pumari which I don’t remember exactly what year pumari was in was it 202 2020 Danny Martinez beat camner and Rit just rode Tempo with poy yeah exactly and this climb is about 5.3 km at 7 what % that’s that’s fake news I’m sorry but I’m not accepting that I’m not is this one of the OG fake news climbs I think it might be the first three km of this climb is 4 to 5 and a half% and the last two km is 9.3 and 1.4 kilm uh percent sorry yeah it’s m Blanc it’s it’s maybe even hard it’s a fake news stage it’s a fake news this is a hard GC stage yeah like 21k it’s going to be it’s in the massive Central it’s going to could be 40° that could be hard breakway fight and and then you got these climbs all put together that are all steep this is the third last climb there’s two climbs that follow afterwards so I’m thinking as a launching pad there’s a bonus point on the next climb which that climb is is 4 km at at at 8.2% so it’s also very hard and then the final climb is at the finish line or just for the finish line and is the the cold the form which is 3.4 km at 5.6% roughly so to be honest if frear isn’t the launching pad the one afterwards is the launching pad for the bonus second so it won’t be fought on the last climb this is a really good stage design for our great last 45 minutes yeah I think so and and the break can go deep on this stage and you can do a lot on this sort of stage it’s I really really like it and um as Pikachu wins you think yeah or RIT what do you think Chone from the break really H yeah UA it’s a long stage I got a control a long time you got control four hours very fair before you get in the run I I’m still going to stick with Pacha because I can’t change my pigs but I agree that a break is more likely than the GC Riders yeah um but very very interesting stage uh stage 12 from or orac I’m having trouble with the French names today to villain Sol lot it’s a Sprint stage 204 km long it’s a bit hiler than the others if there’s been a dominant Sprinter this is where we might start to see some realism from some Breakaway teams where we see abrah Hansson getting in the Breakaway here rather than going for Kristoff or Court indeed uh maybe not yet maybe this is still uh but certainly a break could try should be a hard start but I still think it will be a Sprint because there’s too many versatile sprinters like pison delete Etc so I I’m going to go with mad pison okay that’s a fair pick I’m going to go with um I think philipson survives that so I’m going to go with philipsson on that one but then I’m going towards stage 1 I feel like it’s kind of a carbon copy not really but H kind of feels like it will go the same way 165 km so 40K shorter when it comes to controlling so seems like an obvious Sprint to me in the last 40 km two hills in there of 6% that are more than a a kilometer long so there’s something to work with but I don’t expect anyone to do it so I think this is the the mess P since yeah I think little track should make those climbs as hard as possible and let’s see who Sprints at the end but I’m going with M I go W uh much for the same reasons uh stage 14 uh starting in P we finishes the day before 151.50 km this is our first uh okay cestria Gia is hard but this is our first I would say proper multi- Mountain Stage with a hard finish it’s our first Mountaintop finish uh I think I’m correct in saying they do the 70k valley where we’ll see fighting then the cold Talay 19 K 72% 2,100 M than the or Don Don which is where Mikel B dropped everybody in 20122 uh before the parag good that is a up and down climb 8 case 5% but the the actual climbing parts are steeper they’re over 7% then a descent short valley and then plada day 10K 8.7% Benji this is a fake news finish right it’s it’s hard it’s got like a descent in it yes but it’s really a fake news climb that is still very bloody hard because sometimes you’ve got these like fake news climbs that or like the cona finish in the jro two years ago for example where the start of the climb is hot but then it flattens out towards the finish line on the profile this climb looks like that but I look at the actual Mountain profile of the climb itself and I see first kilm 8.7 then 10.7 then 8.8 and a kilometer of 13.1 km uh percent 7.2 9. 6 9.7 and that’s the one where it suddenly shows up 3 km from the Finish Line minus 1.7% on the third last kilom but then again 9.6 7.3 so it’s really only that one kilometer that breaks it up which I think the gaps will already be made before that kilometer happens yeah I think so it’s pretty obvious launching point when you have 11% kilm before an easier section so uh think pachu wins this stage uh could win in a Sprint could win with a small Gap like on cter but it’s hard to go past pater on this sort of finish to be honest 30 minute climb steep hard before but not like the hardest stage yeah looks like I agree with you I also have Pacha here do we still look at the the length of the climb to see whether it’s a it’s a vingo or pogacha stage because when I look at his profile this one seems more the per good kind of style and when I look at later climbs in the race there like 15 km CL which is 45 minutes where on paper in the past I would have leaned more towards Vaga but this year I don’t know what I do is like pu a dome uh 30 minutes pogy was the best last year put vingard on a small Gap gr colia was long but not that hard still put him on a small Gap so uh normally he should put him on a small Gap I would say and WI when it comes to the rest days do we have a rest day uh before the lud down VL to Plate the B Stage 15 or is it after don’t sh your odds odds responsibilities I was more asking because we’re starting that stage with a climb at the start we’re starting off halfway up the called perur 7 km at 7 point whatever perc and that’s a pretty rough climb to start with so if that is like just after rest day that’s going to be rough if that is after six days of medium Mountain plus Sprint stages in the in the heat still going to be rough so I think this is a really oddly shape but lovely stage because it starts over that climb then it’s a 20 km Valley towards the next climb which is the the c m 9.4 km 88.6% once again really bloody H then the next climb also very steep 4.4 km though at 9.7 % so Breakaway formation phase in this race will be extreme and there’s options there to really launch something maybe get a few Riders up the road and have a battle between pelaton and Breakaway maybe if there’s a a second leader you want to send up the road I see opportunities on this stage and then a 50 km Valley until the next climb so in the middle of the stage 50 km of Valley after those first three climbs and three climbs left we’ve got the colan yes which is 10.1 km at 8.2% I swear they could only find climbs of 7 plus to 8% in this stage then on top there’s a small segment of the portal air which is 4.4 km 5.4% so not the hardest there then we go straight back down with a roughly 25 to 30 km valy between that segment of the race and the final climb which is plat to De Bay legendary for the wonderful victory of one man himself yell Von Ender in the tour of FRS of 2011 we’re going back the FR a lot today is it because do they just go back x amount of years and redo the parkour cuz I swear we seen multiple climbs from 2011 that came back G um this one with plat de Bay so I’m enjoying it I think uh will not be winning because he’s 39 and is not riding anymore but ooh I don’t know who’s going to win this for the sakes of the the tension and the fact that I’ve named pogacha a few times Vaga must win this for the sakes of the battle for GC I go Felix gal uh winning I don’t know if it’s from the break I don’t know if it’s slipping away from the GC group um Carlos Rodriguez I like Carlos Rodriguez but at the end of the day he he had to follow Mato jensson in the Doan yeah like it wasn’t like he also dropped him so then to see he and he also wanted you play the downhill can I change I don’t think see him dropping p no that’s the thing so I’m going to go with yat Adam yeah I’m going with Yates in like a weird multi-leader not weird you know in a multi-leader uh attack or something Yates on Plateau de Bay but this could be really hot it finishes yeah in the Pyrenees uh just north of here it’s uh it’s a brutal stage just cuz the gradient of all those climbs are hard yes but if feron needs to win the St of France it has to happen on stages like this as well yeah cuz you like I think we didn’t really re didn’t really say it on rest day one and we can probably say it here but like there’s almost if pagat is at his normal level there’s like no way that vingar should be ahead of him on the first rest day the TT the gravel The Punchy Italian finishes even if they’re the same level poy should be taking bonies and you know it’s REM as well but yeah Remco as well it’s like 2022 to to France vingar was better in the end but arrest day one he was a minute back uh so you have to take that time somewhere um and for the sake of the race I think it needs to happen on stage like Stage 15 cuz otherwise I’m looking at I’m looking at the next week and I’m going to let you dive into it but there’s a few stage in there where I’m again like ooh stage 17 will go to it soon also kind of pgat your territory when it comes to GC yeah rest day two and then we go for a couple of transition stages stage 16 from grant grant to NE this is a could be a Sprint could be uh M Breakaway I’m going to go with Magnus caught from the Breakaway who you got Benji I’ve got philipson philipson again 17 sample TW to Super devil we this is stage I’m most mentioning as a potential pachar stage again this is such weird parkour my man because from the start towards the end it just climbs up very gradually but the gradual climbing changes with about 50 km to go because then we just have three final climbs in a bit of a a step I would say the first climb is the kar which is uh the first kilometer is 4% but the rest of the climb has 8.8 8.8 6.1 6.7 10% at a certain kilometer it’s 7.5 in total with 6.8% so that’s the fast of the tree that’s bit of a warmup climb for me then the second one is for me the launch climb gold this is with about this stops with 12 km to go so the perfect point to launch in my opinion 6.6 km 8.3% it’s got a oh 600 met Plateau segment on top before we Dive Into The Descent and then at the end we’ve got a small 3.8 km it’s not false that uphill it’s more 5 to 7 and a half% climbing segment so appar the apparently the sent is technical off for me pachar tries to attack away on noer and wins the Sprint at the Finish Line I’m going to go with Wild pools from Breakaway uh or Kevin V I feel like I keep forgetting breakaways exist in this podcast you assume you are going to control the Race easily on these like again three hours flat they’ve got SS yeah I don’t know I agree I agree the these stag should probably be going to breakaways but you know what I mean I I don’t only care about GC to be honest at this point stage by stage maybe I’ll care about breakaways but cuz like breakway someone like bet might be in this breakway I’m not necessarily saying he’s going to win that stage bling what the [ __ ] bling on this stage n bling one on M from the Break N he’s not going to win this no we’re not doing it no we’re not having this conversation I’m not accepting your offer Gap to Bar lyette 180k laa is winning that stage this is the one 17 or 18 17 17 okay I’ll allow it or 18 who knows yeah I I thought 18 looks pretty good for that um this is the most nailed on transition Breakaway stage I’ve ever seen in my life it’s up and down non-threatening Hills way too hard for a sprinter team to control eles and so I’m going to go with uh I’ve lost it I’ve lost it m Yeah March will be in there he’ll be anticipating I’ll go with bling though he is also an option what’s your what’s your love for bling at the moment what’s he done this year he he come on he big race Rider bling actually is a big race Rider yes but not this year um my stage winner for this will be by the way it’s literally possible that we have a GC r that drops out of GC first week and maybe R like REM qu pool suddenly has to save his ground Tour by going for for that’s like the least likely one of the four in my opinion gets in the car on platter the bay I’m gone I’m dead break away three stage later like had against dere G oh G how I forgotten about Israel’s existence in this race G and they were good n was good in the breakaways last year like they’re a good Breakaway team and laano laano on this stage also this is going to be yeah this is why like the unox team it looks good on paper and then you realize who’s going to be the rulers in this breakway it’s going to be the murderers all the best rulers in the worlds has a chance though you got a chance but [ __ ] like vpol should be in there as well and vard and whoever but he will be very marked so fuga will beat V on this I think yeah I’m sticking with G okay stage 19 Benji uh stage 19 is well it’s a pretty good stage I would say 145 km so the traditionalist in cycling are in uproar about the length of the stage being too short we’ve got 20 km relatively flat and then [ __ ] hits the fan we’ve got a climb that is O 18.9 km 5.7% but it’s a bit of a fake news climb I’d say in the middle of the climb there’s three flat kilometers the first half of it has a 9.1 10.2% kilm in there the second half is more 6 to 8% with more kilm around 6% so in total 5.7% it is it’s going to be a hard starting climb a perfect climb for breakway formation and this is the kind of thing where you might see x amount of rulers riding up the road in the first 20 kilometers but then on the climb itself they’ll they’ll melt while the actual climing boys will go up the road this is going to be an important stage when it comes to km 20 points on this climb and 40 points on the next climb chind lonet the ceiling of the St frons you mentioned already 2,800 M 2,790 to be precise 23 km at 6.8% Fast 2 km is around 5% but then the rest of the kilometers is like between 6 and 8 to be honest and the last kilometer is 9.9 so this is a perfect fight for like a a km Jersey climb in my opinion but also it’s a kind of climb where you can attrition the hell out of it from the pelaton so I think we’ll see km fight in the breakway on this climb then attrition on the first two clowns in this stage maybe maybe an early attack from a a secondhand GC Rider in a team that is still in GC if they want to put pressure on the runers will’ll be in a very luxurious position if someone can actually still put pressure as a as a backup leader in this race on stage 19 so it’s unlikely but it’s all in preparation for the final climb and it’s not an easy one this one reminds me of ooh 15.9 km 7.2% what does it remind me of does it remind me more of come Gran yeah it’s no it’s not as hard as grol it’s longer is 2,000 to 2,000 meters as the name suggest granal went to 2250 2300 maybe 2400 and that was 9% all the way but that was a 30 minute climb 35 minute climb this is probably 45 minutes uh but the first 5Ks of this are very very difficult of visil us so I think this is actually way harder stage than it it almost looks because of the they go over three passes over 2,000 and one at 2800 there’s some steep sections in the final climb the density of climbing is incredible uh it’s a very very hard stage um so we’ll see GC action I mean that’s that’s all there is to say uh and so uh Peak form vingal wins this for me yeah that’s like on how to come as you said Benji it wasn’t the hardest climb it wasn’t too high altitude but he still won so uh you’ve gone with vingard I will go with going to go for a break Rider again my dude n they can’t cuz there’s no time to take a gap yeah Carlos Rodriguez but I also don’t see it to be honest do you cuz like on this stage this will be this these kind of clowns will be the decider for me on who wins this race is vagar still better on these kind of stages than poacha or not and that’s why it’s very difficult for me to like guess who’s going to win this because I don’t know what shape they’re going to be at we said at the start we’ll pretend they’re in Peak form and if they are in Peak form then vingo wins the stage and and if he’s not you know it’s not like Pacha completely like if you look at uh stage 17 of the Tour of France uh I’m I’m trying to draw an analogy to C Porte which is which is actually the same length but steeper but not as hard before you know poy pogy also beat everybody easily in the up spr he was way ahead already so it’s not it’s very different race I think yeah well I’m saying that but he might be way ahead already at this point yeah and you know then if he if he wins easily on this stage you know stage 20 everyone’s going to be thinking what do we do now 133 km long from n to kol this is we all these Clans are extremely familiar to the guys that live in Monaco and N we start with called the BR 10K 6% then not there’s no valley in here in this stage by the way it’s like literally 4,500 M or something in just climbing uh cini which is 20K is at 6% with a couple of rest periods climbing Parts actually over 7% usually then they do the colan 7.6k 7% there’s actually like a whole climb that’s just not categorized before that of 10ks um and then another descent and then called theol 16k 7.3% we unlike yesterday we do not go to the uh high high altitude we don’t pass 1700 M but it’s a very very hard stage and uh I’m going to go with where I’m going to go with Felix Gull I think I rescinded my Felix G pick before and now I go Felix G because he was very good on stage 20 last year I think that’s um I think that’s a very strong pick I feel like this might be like a fallen GC Rider Victory but for the sakes of uh the France gr tour I’m going to go with Lenny Martinez nice I think Lenny should win a stage here you know he’s like he just drops out of GC enough he should really win a stage or bring us home for the the final stage but to be honest when it comes to your stage the one you just mentioned at this point we might it’s 133 km also not much time to actually gain a gap from the it’s a GC St of ofing L Martin win at the top of kuol here but anyway stage 21 no Shan this year which [ __ ] celebrating I love it we’ve got Monaco tunise we’re celebrating so everybody’s talking about oh this Rider will have an advantage because they live in Monaco half the bellan lives in Monaco like I I disagree with that I’m not having this but it is a pretty rough parkour to be honest we’ve got the L be climb which starts at about 3.2 kilm into the N about 3 kilm into the TT L starts it is 8.2 km at 5.7% yes that’s a hard clim for a time trial and on top of that there’s a bit of this Plateau section of roughly 7 km where it goes downhill a little bit uphill a little bit so so and that uphill a little bit is actually called as cuz on the profile it looks like it’s like a FAL SL area on top of on top of the L to be climb but it’s 1.6 km at 8.8% so it’s not super easy and then we descend for the next 11 km with eventually finishing with a 5 km flat segment into nce so this DT will be decided for me on l b CES plus the whoever re then Goes Ham on that descend then takes maybe a few more seconds in every corner based on K BL last year I need to say vingan a St TR but poacha could do it as well the third week I don’t necessarily believe in Remco myself I go vinger guard um because yeah it’s it’s a really good TT for him there’s barely any flat as like there was a Punchy climb where he even took time the star of comau last year and then the yeah with the Descent but also the this is like a TT bike stage I don’t know I haven’t but uh we’ve seen that vingard on the comau stage didn’t change TT bikes and he went pretty quick on that TT I think so um but then again do we know if the kago TT bike is still the slightly heavier heavier one that might I reckon they’ve worked on Lightning CU like or maybe they haven’t because like Yates and ala didn’t use B tape in the Swiss uphill TT on the road bike so like Yates Road Bike stock yeah is not 6.8 and he’s on a small frame which I was like holy [ __ ] um yeah so I don’t know the TT bike my guess is that it’s saier uh cuz to be clear you were saying that that UAE Riders were using the TT bikes without B because they were trying to say their road bike okay okay okay that makes more sense I was really confused I was trying to like work my way around the theory but sound like a conspiracy theory at some point but okay so yeah I think I think vingard should be pretty happy that they finish with this TT uh but again like pogy did a great final TT in stage 20 in 2020 as well um Rish did on lari so rogl also can win this TT we’ve not spoken much about rogl actually um he also can win this I don’t know maybe the climb starting at the start of the race of the TT might be better than being in the second half of the TD for R in my head yeah and then CI can expar went well yeah I just for some reason I don’t see Ritch on the level of vinga and pachar considering their what I’m expecting and also the crash probability when it comes to R I don’t trust him 100% to stay on his bike the entire two three weeks the way I see this gr tour developing if I had to write down now what will happen is that I expect remor to be in yellow after the first time trial that I expect him to drop out of yellow in week two for pachar that pach will have a lead on vinga and Remco and all the others and Rit in the third week uh going into the third week and that vingo will get closer and closer throughout throughout week three and then the final time Tri will decide the victor of the two of the front that’s my ideal scenario that’ be great for the podcast numbers and R RIT it’s stays close enough to be also competitive and a threat they have to mark him and yeah respect him I mean that would be great for the the P and and for the audience interest so I I endorse that wholeheartedly um you believe in it though you believe in MCO yellow after the first ET or am I I think pachu will take yellow after the first t and oh should we do our GC predictions now we’ve just uh let’s start off with what do you think and so forth or do not give a [ __ ] about youth youth go for it remco’s eligible AO is he uh AO is definitely eligible and joranson is eligible uh I am going to say that Jorgenson wins it actually I was leaning towards that as well and it’s it’s annoying to say cuz I I’d love for Remco to do a a consistent ground tour where he finds for that Podium but I don’t have the confidence yet and that is because we’ve had multiple ground tours where he had a bad day which can I resend it wait before we go there before you resend it let me finish my point Y the first jro that The Deco joined he did that after a serious injury the lombardia injury he came back he was sent to that jro too early so that jro discount that in my opinion he still wrode great considering the circumstances going into that race then the next jro he was sent to well well the VTA he was sent to in 2022 he won but then there was no really super hard Mountain Stage and the one Sierra Nal stage he lost time towards others on that stage and then I go further yes he crashed the day before which is also a potential excuse for that bad day on Sierra bad day relatively bad day on Sierra Nevada and penda but then we go to the jural he had Co there so I don’t know what to expect on difficult Mountain stages then we go to that VTA last year where he had that bad day on the brutal Mountain Stage then he came back and won from breakaways but that doesn’t mean much for GC CU as a as a GC rout you should destroy Breakaway Riders if you have the like if you’re 20 minutes behind so that’s what he should have done so it’s hard for me to say that Remco will Podium this ground tour and I would lean towards joran finishing in white myself I forgot that Carlos Rodriguez is under 25 years old oh yeah that’s true too I’m going to go with Rodriguez I don’t think necessarily because he’s better than jensson but he is the clear leader team support and jensson you know he he’s Shadow leader let’s say but also probably going to have to get his hands dirty at points so I’m going to go with Rodriguez for white but uh I agree more with your P than mine anyway uh K when it comes to K I’d love it to be Lenny Martinez yeah I know I wish he’d go for it properly Wells Chone G Y Mart maybe no not wining it no way no not competitive enough Pitcock or Pacha I think it’s going to be pikacha I think so as well I think there’s not but I don’t want that so I’m going to pick Lenny Martinez instead they’ll have to I think Lenny in theory could win it but they’d have to really get a ride I I resent that’s a word I just learned because of you and I will go for Roman B I want his last to France he’s finishing at the end of the doin next year I want them to win the km Jersey I need tell you what Roman B is going to do let me tell you what he’s going to do right shut up I going to try stay GC for a week stay GC and he’ll get dropped hard dropped on first two stages but he’ll fight to the line and he’ll be on 130 out the gate he’s then too close on GC to go on the break on stage four so he misses that opportunity no km points no stage win despite the downhill finish he’s good for TT he ships another two and a half three minutes uh gravel stage then finally we get to Stage 11 he might be allowed to go on the break unfortunately it’s not a long m stage stage 14 then he might so like yeah and then stage 14 he’s going to try he’ll pull to try get back 5 minutes on GC and uh end up throwing the stage win like he did against VPP in the jro and then he um he ends up 12 GC no stages no km that’s R by these to France Luke’s going to try Ed I don’t like your theory I don’t think Luke likes it either so Sprint Jersey points Jersey rather points Jersey I think Phillipson wins with Patterson I actually think with the number of these difficult stages and the intermediate Sprints and I think with no gaging heart I think the best chance of tre getting a jersey is green and so they go all in for peton and you’ve picked philipson so I have to go for Pon and he’s probably the second favorite for it uh all right this brings us to the Mayo Podium start with Tre car Rodriguez third oh second Ty Pikachu first okay I also accept Yates in third I accept it but I think they will struggle to keep all their co-leaders safe in all the [ __ ] for 3 weeks so I put Carlos in third Yates is better than Carlos but I think y uh yeah caros third I think it’s interesting you say that because I have Yates in thir I’ve got vinga in second and I’ve got pachra in first think I think weig one’s good for pogy the TT I really think first TT is good for him and so yeah if they use the dominance in the mountains if everything goes correctly you know and vingard if he doesn’t have that cold L Los moment which was an aberration and he’s built up a buffer then even if he loses a stage here or there on ala C he lost 30 seconds right yeah but but he should take probably 30 in the first TT um my reason Etc my reasoning is that when it comes to our predictions are our thoughts on the preparation for this raise matters and I have find it hard to believe that vingo will be 100% at the start of this race and despite not believing in the crazy sandbagging of Vima that he’s barely able to ride his bike is how I how I that’s how it feels when I’m reading it it’s not actually written like that but that’s how it feels when it comes out like like the the sentence that benol said which was h no one in our team would bet on on vingo making it to the podium I read that as complete [ __ ] Contin you they got allowed to ride a balance bike on the the family circuit around the lake for the first time last week yes and you failed at that right yeah I crashed I [ __ ] sunburnt that’s for sure no you got burned from scraping on the floor due to the garage he anyway oh I agree I agree with what you like if vinga was in 100% preparation yeah all good Tano Bas wins easily I think he wins this toour of France by five minutes if it if it’s not by five minutes doesn’t count but the reality is he crash in B country but yeah in top shape you should clean it I’m not necessarily saying clean it but I have more confidence looking at week three that vinger would be beating plot the bay beating competition on ploto the B by significant gap on on the the other the other 15 km whatever climb what is it called for example isoli especially as well like those three stag I would think I would think V wins those against pachar yeah and maybe not with as much as a gap of last year because I would expect pachar to be closer but still enough to to maybe win it but to be clear that’s not me saying that if Pacha wins it’s because Vaga had a had a had an injury or something no that’s just situation going into the race and was the same situation last year that pogacha had a had a wrist injury going into the race so oh I mean come on they’re acting like he couldn’t use his legs for two months vima’s acting like he can’t r a balance by cont you just said it okay but like he actually did crash it like 80 K down to a concrete embankment and was in hospital there is a difference I mean but it I still read a lot of sandbagging last week it’s been a bit extra vingard clearly like he could not go on the turbo 3 days later that is true um but we don’t know we don’t know and hopefully and the reason we we’ve done this podcast I think in pretty optimistic Spirits for both Remco rogl vingard and indeed pagat yeah we didn’t mention Remco and Rish too much though so I don’t think we’re that op that positive about their chances to win this race yeah true um yeah fair point but you know it’s what are we doing a 1 hour p and saying pogy wins this stage that stage that stage that stage and wins by 10 minutes like I watch the jro fine fine I probably wouldn’t watch it again if I had to sit down and watch it again I wouldn’t watch it again so not not not his fault but yeah I couldn’t care less who wins this race as long as it’s super close into the line it’s got a a good story entertaining narrative to the race I just want an enjoyable bloody race like every year when it comes to every ground tour I just want to see a fight that makes it till the end that makes a a a story that would make a good season of Tour of France and chain when it comes to the GC battle you’re a producer for for Netflix but I agree we’ve been spoiled in 2022 we were spoiled in 2023 we were spoiled for most two weeks really exciting racing I think a lot of us remember 2021 tter France 15 of those stages were not like the uh not as good as 2022 or 2023 let’s say so we’re hopeful for an exciting and indeed uh I I do think it’s the week three is should be good should be good um but we have the same Podium no you picked Y no I picked Y in fun but hot takes we might not have the same hot takes and I actually forgot to prepare my hot takes so I’m being stupid cuz I put it in the notes and then I forgot it existed what are your hot takes while I think about mine Adam Yates drops paga broom and Wigan style in 2011 and Expos him on one stage I thought you were going to stop after wiggin and you were going to say oh he drops Wiggins and Bradley wig also participates for team inos this year um that’s a hot he said he’d be at the tour frons in one of the Articles so I don’t think it be I know what sh um yeah I think Yates exposes him on one stage like he did on text last year on Stage 15 where pogy said he let his will go to help him fight for the podium AKA he couldn’t follow anymore I think Frank V the brook podiums two stages I say the tour I was like what the [ __ ] I was close close but no almost did it he’s actually good Rider yeah I think Alex aramburu gets sixth in the green jersey classification six and wins a stage he can’t Sprint he can’t Sprint he sees a bunch Sprint in DJ and is like no thank you I’m going to come 30th and he’s not even the Sprint in his steam he’s he’s not a sprinter how did you not pick him for stage one by the way I don’t believe it yeah well didn’t name for another stage I remember which stage who’s the mo like we got to go for a random guy to top 10 GC where it’s just like we look back in 5 years we’re like how did you top 10 uh oh God that’s a good question I’m going to askcar only the top 10 GC I think he’s think that’s not an outter name that’s oh come on he’s like get SC in the Euros uh all right I’ll go some wild um Kevin vcan top 10 GC that would be crazy that would be crazy 4 second at to the Swiss he was close yeah I mean Toro is good but a for Bas country no Toro he was real good in the oh not real good like pretty good pretty good yeah 10 I’m saying he gets St it’s not likely but I’m saying he gets 10 in week three he will be destroyed like let’s be real about it yeah yeah I’m saying voala why do we not mention voan for like a close position in the first two stages he could he should he’s a puncher yeah there’s a lot of guys that’s why I’m like I’m not so sure it would just be a group of seven guys there’s a lot of guys that can get over those sort of climbs uh make a living out of it uh I’ll go with wico to top 10 as well they’re R his at his string of top 10 why not n why lose time um I think vpol does not win a single stage okay but I don’t think that’s bad because I think he’s here to build up towards the Olympics and how about philipson again like last year think some hot takes Cav D wins more sprins than Phillips that’s see you know you say that but I think he I think he take one take one not sure about tree oh I’ve got one full of them today no it’s not a hot take I was going to say that Simon G tries to go for km every single stage but fails to do so but just what will happen but he will do that yeah so it’s not a heart take yeah uh I think the kathon win somehow win three stages oh my God not really given how how they’ve been going this season kin Tyson wins it toward the front stage I think rogl doesn’t crash but doesn’t top five o that’s a hot take I’m allowing that well I believe in it though but I think most people would say that’s hot de and what about what Jonathan V said about caraz are you believing it or not Podium Contender [ __ ] no the problem with cutas is that EF will have some crazy idea to launch him two CLS from the end and he will drop by like 5 minutes after exploding okay which team is going to have a public SL assumed spat internally visma with vanar and vingard UAE with the four leaders betol chasing his teammates going for yellow like he did in 2022 pitcock and Rodriguez Rog and vlasov any of the above all of the above what do you think I’m more eager to lean towards Bora I see they looked real unified in the doofan I thought they did they looked very unified but if RIT has two bad days like he had in the Doan yeah might get close with another Le leader of and and that Doan stage happens or even after that you’re like really I hope that R is competitive for the podium and even for the victory but I don’t truly believe he will be for the for the victory at least not against Peak pogy same with rco I I want to see it but I don’t believe it Pak pogy yeah um it’s hard uh to be honest I think you going to have all their guys in line uh to be honest and so yeah I actually think it might [Music] be might be might be inos but I even think that was kind of created by Netflix um I maybe it’s Lotto where they want to go on the Breakaway and dele wants to go for the stage but to be honest the Belgian national champs they all around him maybe we just have a happy tour with everybody happy clappy which you know the entertainment perspective no we’re not having it what about you see van attacking on the gravel stage Pat is in his wheel with vanderpol vard’s chasing on the flat betel goes to the front rides for Pacha against gapas we’ve seen that before see in 22 so yeah it’s going to be an exciting race there’s loads of good teams everyone’s bringing their best teams and I think if uh final question oh yeah what is the most likely stage for Alex anduru to win you’re trying to backpedal now and well see so you can text him listen Alex I’m I’m afraid that aramburu has never actually acknowledged my existence oh I cannot understand why it’s really sad I’ve been his biggest fan publicly for my entire life ever since 2019 welta espani where I predicted him three times to come second on a stage maybe that’s why cuz I predicted him to lose stage see the thing is like I don’t even think he’s quicker than pogy in a Sprint so like stage two I don’t even think he wins a Sprint against the GC gu no he doesn’t so I the I think Dev l a 3K 6% punch but he’s [ __ ] dropped my friend no not against break he’s a good CL oh the breakway okay fair the do is POG from the break I was thinking he would be the GC Rider okay listen if pelari if he just held 500 watts for 10 minutes then pogy would have gifted him the stage exactly adura just needs to learn from that moment just pedal harder bro that’s Ste William is actually a big for that stage from the break yeah but that’s when to answer your bre question but let us know down below what’s your Podium tell us all the jerseys do you disagree with on on our stage analysis I think we’ve tried to spread the picks around between GC breaks Outsiders sprinters uh hopefully uh we get that sort of open and exciting and competitive Twitter France that we are hoping for and indeed we can’t wait to watch on Saturday uh Benji will be joining me and Luke here in Andora from Friday on onwards I was thinking we have a live stream of uh lrcp Katan which is a Bo a competitive board game maybe on Friday night wait I’ve got a cycling Monopoly I probably shouldn’t take it in my flight but why can’t take might be a good idea hey it’s not that it’s not what Piccolo had his [ __ ] in his back Jesus Christ this Monopoly s shouldn’t laugh uh are we planning to discuss that on a on a separate podcast at some point or how do you that bother to be honest we would have done a reaction to it but you were on holiday yeah I was I was sitting inour in the middle of I think the tour previews got long enough for people to sink their teeth into this week so yeah I mean you can read it on uh skate Collective or cycling news or wherever what happened with Piccolo uh stopped by police in Italy but that aside uh yeah we’ll be doing maybe some we’ll be doing some live during the stages some watch alongs on select stages not all the stages uh but the opening weekend I dare say you can you can write your little black books uh but follow lrcp on L Rouge on Twitter or yeah L Rouge media Twitter account for announcements on that and who’s going to win the lantern roou at his Twitter fronts merku easy yeah I’m going to go with Cavendish in his wheel and there’s no shs Alis Sprint so where we see more sprinters abandoned because there’s nothing there’s no 21 present for them that’s something to monitor uh if you’re not in the green jersey competition uh otherwise yeah we’re we’re going to be uh covering all the stages together at least in week one and uh I’m just really really do you feel that do you know the two under song Benji by the way the roots just got announced this morning the two Dr under song yeah what do you mean like I think it’s like uh doe feel Feel the Rush Feel the [Applause] Rush Feel the Rush of the Tour of France I feel it uh thanks for listening as always V’s like [ __ ] the T you bro you forc me to come out in January actually not true we’re going in January and you will respect that race Benji because it’s a good parkour and I’m terrifi to spiders talking about in the Twitter France preview um but yeah thanks for listening as always thanks for join cycling for their fantastic support go and check them out with a 30-day free trial to help them to support us we’ll see you maybe later in the week till then ciao
25 Comments
Love the shades !
2 and half hours of cycling yap I’m ready
0:10 I'm not sure the time you're releasing it is the best for 'get yourself a coffee' gimmick
I am going to take the whole week to digest this one!!!!
One problem for Jonas will be descending, I think the crash will effect him with no race days since to be comfortable
Benji baby
Let’s GOOOOOOOO!!!!!🤩💛🇫🇷
I think UAE are going to do the train, Sivakov > Soler > Ayuso > Almeida. I think at this point Almeida has it in him to drop every other GC rider off the wheel of Yates and Pogi. If they do, they will cruise to the finish. If they don’t, you can be for sure it will only be Roglic and Vingegaard left after a hard Almeida pull. Yates has shown his power and could be pretty much red line those two before Pogi attacks and no one will be able to follow him
Unless Jonas can compete, it will be rinse and repeat. Giro 2.0. Pog by a mile. I don't like saying it. I actually hate the thought of yet another GC snooze.
I could fully understand if Vingo is not (yet) the same rider and i would not blame him if his handling takes time to get back to his normal excellent level. His ITT in the TdF in rainy Kopenhagen, 2 years ago, impressed me a lot . You can plan a lot in cycling but coming out of a serious injury both physically and mentally is something else. Godspeed you Viking Emperor
what do you guys think of piccolo and the parallels to hessman are these kids scapegoats or what lol
The show the world has been waiting for.
Essential pre-tour ritual. Great video!
I get that Jonas had a massive crash with severe injuries but actually in sports overall and cycling, if u have enough time to work on your way back, you can actually focus more on other things from the ground up and there were a lot of examples that riders came back at 110% after injuries so I expect Jonas to be even better than last year, murdering those climbs with more than 7w/kg, for me antagnostic to populae believe Jonas will be at a 100% at stage 1 but concerns are farther down the road of his body reacting to 3 weeks of hard racing after a break.
Too many sprint stages
I told you guys Jonas would be ready for the tour. These elite pros are just built different
the goats
Patrick with the hottest of takes that last year's 3rd place is the 3rd best gc rider in the race 😂
The most serious podcast on the planet, well except for the Tug Buddy T-shirt LR is wearing
They climb and descend Galibier in the direction they took it when tom pidcock did that daredevil descent and then won on alpe d'huez from the break ahead of Meintjes and froome.
Yessirrrrski. Benji is different, look at this man ! Amazing style
Stage 4 is actually the way it was in the Alpe d'Huez stage in 2022, not the Granon one, so the descent into the finish is the one Pidcock bombed down. Makes his bid for the stage win even more possible tho
#JusticeforRafałMajka
Appreciate the time stamps LR
The Tour De France can officially begin now!