Who will win the 2024 Tour de France? | Beyond the Podium | NBC Sports

Phil Liggett and Tejay van Garderen discuss the likelihood for favorites Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel to win the 2024 Tour de France while also naming some of their outside shots at landing a podium spot. #NBCSports #Cycling #TourdeFrance
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Who will win the 2024 Tour de France? | Beyond the Podium | NBC Sports
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and if it comes down to that final day I would if renco is in Striking Distance he will be a danger and yes like I think he’s still a little bit too far behind in the mountains but his day will come but you know that I I’ve always said it from the minute this guy appeared he does remind me of AD M I know the world’s going off about this is the greatest psychist ever lived taddy Bacha he’s only just beginning his career he’s going to want to come back with some Redemption cuz don’t forget he is the current Olympic time trial Champion so if it comes down to a time trial do not count out Primos rogich the team has been very shady but today we spoke to the team with the manager gcia nman and I asked him the question Point Blank who decided if he’s ready to ride the tour to France and apparently vingo said to gcia I am ready hello everybody and welcome back to beyond the podium now we’re going to discuss of course the upcoming tour to France it’s going to be a fantastic event H we say that every year you know but the fact is this year is going to be pretty special I’m we’re going to discuss now as to why it’s going to be pretty special now welcome on board to one of our new team on peacock and NBC join the tour to France welcome along TJ I’ve commentated about you a lot in great positions in a bike race but I’ve never worked with you so welcome aboard mate where are you I’m actually in uh Trevor City Michigan I just finished up a charity ride and uh I gotta say Phil before we get started this is I’ve listened to you commentate racing since I was eight years old and then uh it was surre actually hearing you commentate on me and now that my time’s over I I never thought that I would be being able to chop it up and talk bike racing with you so I mean this is a huge huge honor you’re the voice of cycling so um I just wanted to take a second to to say that I can die a happy man knowing that I’m talking bike racing with Phil liot actually I was curious how many tour to Frances have you called and which one which number are you about to call well I keep adding them up and getting a different answer I’ll be honest but I believe this is number 52 52 which I think is more than any english- speaking uh journalist has done every day i’ I’ve actually reported every single day for 52 years back in 1973 when the Great Louis o Kan really lit the world up for me he won eight stages of the race that year that was the start and I I’ll tell you what TJ I said to my wife trsh after two years you won’t believe this Trish but there are old guys going to the tour to France who’ve done 40 years uh so um they’re probably gone by now I would think anyway TJ look this year the tour to France and I do say it every year and it usually comes true but this year it is going to be a riveting race we’ve got four I think four favorites who are a little bit ahead of the rest of the field but there is room I believe for an outsider to win the Tour but let’s talk about the big boys vingo won it the last two years Pacha won it the two years before that RIT who got it taken away from him on the penultimate day in the Pyne a couple of years ago by pachu becoming the young whipper snapper and the new boy Remco Evano from Belgium which one’s going to win to you uh I mean I think you’d be foolish to bet against t pogacha i was uh directing the tour or not the tour excuse me the jro um for EF education easy post there with Matty brel so I got to witness firsthand just his dominance and uh the way he just the way he’s just the mo the thirstiest winner out there like he doesn’t give anything away um and with the form that he’s shown this year he’s been able to avoid all the mishaps that a lot of the other guys got cut up in uh didn’t doesn’t isn’t coming in with an injured hand like he was last year I just think he’s A Cut Above the Rest you remember those words last year when he was honest enough to admit I’m done when he was climbing the mountain he realized he didn’t have the answers to yon’s vingal and and and he was honest enough to say I am done but you know that I I’ve always said it from the minute this guy appeared he does remind me of AD M I know the world’s going off about this is the greatest cyclist that ever lived taddy patcha he’s only just beginning his career and he’s got a tremendous Palmeras but he’s not Eddie MKS yet and those will take a few more seasons Eddie MKS won Milan Sano seven times Le bash on Le AG five times five tours five J so let’s not compare him with Eddie M but the most fearsome thing in my opinion about t TJ is he loves riding his bike he goes into that bike race to have fun to hurt him and to race as fast as he can and I think that is what makes him a most difficult Rider to beat absolutely I mean you said it it’s too early for the Eddie MKS comparisons but he is on the right track if he keeps winning at this level for a number of more years I think he by the end of the year we can start having that or by the end of his career we can start having that conversation um but yeah like you said he is one of the thirstiest winners out there he doesn’t give anything away um some might even call him greedy but uh I think he just loves he loves repaying his teammates he loves getting out there crossing the line first and yeah like you said sometimes you see those Champions they get very Stone faced kind of stressed uh very like kind of agitated and I was I was guilty of that I got super stressed out and I wasn’t always having the the best of the time but he just loves every second of it and uh that’s yeah he’s he’s just out there having fun now of course he’s aiming for the double that of Marco Panton and we’re better to get the Double L with the race starting for the first time in Italy and then moving into France of course two big differences with the tour this year no finish in Paris thanks to the Olympic games under way there not quite under way but preparations are and of course the stars for the first time in Italy Italy have won the race nine times with seven different Riders overall but there’s only one Tad patea I think he seriously wants to do the double which has not been done I say since 1988 but the thing is with Tad Pacha is that he’s going to go in that race to win it and he’s going to attack in every corner now when he took the lead in the recent jro italion he took it on the second day of the race I thought my God this guy’s expecting to lead the race for 20 days red hot favorite they’re all going to throw everything they’d got at him then he got accused of being a little bit mean with the race because he he attacked all the time and he stole all the big stages and they were getting a little bit annoyed about the attitude but the thing was TJ they couldn’t do anything to stop him well um that’s true he did take the Jersey on stage two and he held it all the way through which is a big ask for the team so I’m wondering if he’s not going to try to save his team a little bit maybe take some time on his Rivals but then if there’s a breakaway that he’s happy with somewhere around stage 11 maybe he would give the Jersey away to someone who’s maybe five or six minutes behind let them go in the break let them take the Jersey knowing that okay I’m going to be able to take this thing back in the third week um that might just help him out by not having to do all the podium ceremonies not having to you know get an earlier time on the bus get an earlier dinner earlier massage um at least just give yourself a little bit of a break for a few days I mean a lot of the guys who had won uh multiple tour to Frances would kind of have that that mindset of we’re not just going to hold this thing all the way through it’s too big of ask um but then again pacher is not in the business of giving anything away I think that’s the point he doesn’t lie to give it away he he he just sets his sights on thinks about the problems as they come to him day by day could be said that’s why he lost the race last year because he tried to limit and then said I’m done and that was the end of his bike race and R all won the race we said there’s four guys here now the big question everybody will ask is because Tad’s playing his usual game he’s won the jro now he disappears he’s doing all his altitude training bringing his body back up to strength again wasn’t in the do didn’t come to the um to the to the this guy’s ready to come back to race again The Grand Tour now if you compare him with Eddie MKS of the old days Eddie would ride up to 200 race days a year tday rides about 65 and he looks after himself and he’s of course he’s still only young as well that’s why I feel he will come this just like a firsttime bike rider in the tour let me get at him you know let me just go for those boys and the boys he’s looking at vingo RIT is he too old now because I think he’s the best tactician of the bunch and of course Evan the pole who can’t wait to come to his first toour of France and I actually like Remco a lot I think he’s a superb B Rider and he’s an exciting B that’s the best thing of the year now right these guys are exciting BWI can’t really call RIT exciting he’s a bit calculating Pacha vingo Remco they’re exciting absolutely they all have very different styles um yonas I think he’s more your typical uh yeah you’re just your prototypical grand tour GC Rider he’s gonna he’s going to wait for that big knockout punch in the mountains and in the time trials but he’s he’s going to just try to follow in all those technical stages whereas pater he’s going to attack all of those stages um Evan AOL I think he’s going to be he’s going to look for the time trials to make his time uh might just have to follow in the mountains I don’t know we haven’t seen him go uphill we haven’t really seen him go uphill to the to the same level as Pacha or Bingo but when we talk about Primos rogich he is very calculated he is a very good tacti but the thing that he is going to have going for him is he goes for every single Advantage he never does that knockout punch and I know I’ve said this before but he will paper cut you to death like he’ll go for that second place time bonus he’ll go for an intermediate Sprint time bonus he’ll mix it up in the bunch Sprint where all the GC guys are trying to stay safe in this little bubble he’ll mix it up with the sprinters in hopes that there might be a gap in the pelaton and he’ll gain 7 seconds and next thing you know you look up and he has a minute on you and you’re like I don’t know where he gained that minute because I’ve been with him the whole time he’s never gotten away from me but he will just find those little advantages and he’ll and he will just gash you for like five seconds six seconds 7 Seconds three seconds and those things add up yeah now TJ if you had a level table there’s only two guys going to win this race isn’t it got be Pacha or vingo however that bad crash in the tour pay bask it was the worst crash I think I’ve ever seen on television it took out all the stars of the event left them limping Hospital bound and one of the worst injured was of course Jonas ring and we’ve never talked about him since because he’s never raced since the team has been very shady but today we spoke to the team with the manager Gia nman and I asked in the question Point Blank who decided if he’s ready to ride the tour to F and apparently vingo said to Grecia I am ready now he would not say he’s ready to ride the tour if he was 5% below being ready because this guy’s always been honest in the tour the fance you see him at the Finish Line he walks up to his team he says I wasn’t so good today or he says I can feel it coming now so he’s a very honest guy so I believe the fact is’s going to be on the start line in Florence in a couple of days time he’s here to win the Tour absolutely he’s starting with that in mind um I mean we saw how relaxed and how just cool GNA was playing it when we spoke with him and um I’m almost starting to think if the reason they didn’t have him in Swiss or the doofan was actually just because they knew he was good but they didn’t want to show that to the rest of the to the rest of the world because then it would be like okay we we see you’re on good form you’re the champion of the last two years it’s on you to take the responsibility so he might be able to sit back play it cool and be like you know what I’m still nursing these injuries but in the back of his mind knowing I’m going to go for that knockout punch there in the third week um I mean I would love to see yonas every bit as good as the yonas that we’re accustomed to time will tell but if not they do have a good backup plan in mato I mean this guy has improved so much over this year winning Perry um winning what was it dwars dor flandrin he was second in the doofan and when I saw him second in that doofan I was like okay I went from thinking you know maybe he can get in the breakaways like he’s done before and actually win this time and he might be able to win two three stages but I’m changing my opinion now from what I’ve seen from Mato Jorgenson he can podium in the tour to France I’m not I’m not going to put him in one of those four Rider categories just yet but I the way I see him doing it is kind of similar to the way gine Thomas did it a few years ago just follow ride a solid TT follow the wheels and you can you can get that Podium spot I think he’s he’s ready to do it and if yonas is uh is a little bit below what a what a Dom Mystique to have the the two previous tour winner pulling in the mountains for you well he’ll turn 25 jensson on join the Tour of France I might be wrong I think July the 1st he’s 25 um he’s getting an old man these days when you compare with all these youngsters winning the Tour of France now but I think he was a different guy in the Dolph a he believed in himself he had the backing of his great performance in pan East but now this guy was riding as a winner he was now believing in self so there we have now two Americans on the vimma Lisa bike Team both I believe capable because let’s not forget seus is one of well to hisia last year both capable of winning the tour to France they’re handicapped of course because the man who’s going to win the Tour to France if they get their way will be B Bingo for a third time and he’s a superhero in Denmark now this guy can’t go anywhere in Denmark the biggest number of people ever watching a sporting hero came out last year in the main Square in Copenhagen to say Well done for the second victory in the tour to FRS so he’s a superstar but what backup to have now I’m not sure where cus is with his form he was not looking too good during the pre- races and I don’t know what’s wrong with him uh I don’t believe it’s anything to do with the Welter I think he came out of that race very strong last year he’s not quite the man we’ve known in the past yet not yet I really hope that he can uh that he was able to figure out or pinpoint what the issue was in between the VTA and the tour but don’t forget he raced all three grand Tours last year and he was part of a winning team on all three grand Tours with uh uh Primos rogl in the gro and he was his right-hand man in the mountain and then yonas in the tour right-hand man in the mountain and then he won the the welta himself and he he had to go deep in that welta I remember that stage on angr he had to go pretty deep there so doing all three grand Tours I’m wondering if he’s carrying a little bit of fatigue from last year um I hope I’m wrong I want like I’m a huge huge sep cous fan and he is such but uh I I want to see him back at his best but uh maybe maybe he’s just a little bit too fatigued from last season you mentioned what a nice guy he is TJ I was staying in the same hotel as him last year at the start of the race in BAU and uh I haven’t seen him the whole time I was there four days never saw team never mind SE and on the last day before the start I walked out I must have come down early enough he was about to go out for a bike I said Seth lovely to see you how are you going he just looked at me and says you’re in for a tough three weeks I said what I said what about your three weeks they’re going to be a lot harder than mine mate and that’s that it was just being nice saying I’m in for a top three weeks commentating I doubt except and of course he rode superbly in the to of clance and I have a lot of time for him and if if vingo whatever the reason because of that bad crash and his bad injuries and he doesn’t hit the top spot um SE could be the man to save the day or indeed Jon could be the man to save the day as well but hey we’re talking about two Americans here TJ two Americans one of the biggest teams in the world with the potential now of making the podium in the tour to France this is this is unbelievable now I know I mean it’s American cycling is in a good spot right now and we have guys who had just won a grand tour and they’re getting podiums they’re winning world tour races I mean I don’t think we’ve seen this talented of a group of Americans since I don’t know the the 2000s or something but uh yeah I mean you also can’t forget about Neilon Palace who uh you know we he’s won San Sebastian he’s finished on top five in some other monuments and he’s coming and he’s in good form he’s battled through some injuries this year but he is on good form right now and I think we can see him maybe battling for another pokot Jersey uh definitely going to mix it up in some of the stages there’s a lot of opportunities for him but I mean American cycling is absolutely in a good place and we also have um Shan Quinn going there representing in his US national champion jersey so we got uh we got a lot to look forward to well that’d be great now let’s talk about Remco having a PO um this guy has developed nicely he’s he’s looks a little bit more fallible at times uh when he blows he but I think Remco is the guy I saw him win when he won his world championship in Scotland halfway through the race I told everybody to watch the guy still in the pelaton but end of the race he rode away and took the world title alone um he is I think fallible I think he can make mistakes but he gives it his best shot and when he goes he goes with great determination I’m he’s the youngest Rider to win the Bas on Le age for 54 years that’s two years before I did my first toour of France and so this guy’s got all the talent but I’m not sure he can cope with the likes of poacha yet or Ving I I got to say I agree with you um in the mountains yes he is a he’s a very talented climber but he has I’ve never seen him actually really attack drop the rivals and gain a minute on on a climb in a time trial that’s another story and in some of those mid- Mountain races maybe some of those lumpy stuff like like a best L age style he’s so aerodynamic that if he gets away he’s basically he he can stay within himself and he’ll be going at 55 60k an hour with barely pedaling he’s he can just fold himself in half get so aerodynamic which is why he’s such a talented time Trier and there are two time trials and actually that’s something that we need to discuss because the tour to France is finally finishing with a time trial some of the most exciting tour finishes is fin with a time trial if it comes down to it and he’s within a minute of someone coming down to that final time trial Evan AOL could just take it on the last day why not you know the reason that Toto France never had a time trial finish is because of the exciting finish back in 1989 when Greg lemon turned the tables on Long Fon 50 seconds behind at the store 15 miles later he wins the Tour by 8 seconds I had both CRI alongside me Kathy and Greg crying for joy and Fon rolled up like a Peaches on the floor crying because he’d lost the tour and I was crying because I predicted Greg will win by six seconds and it was by eight and my producer in England put the key in my ear and said Phil get it right next time so those three of us different reasons but I’ll tell you what um what because of that unbelievable finish on the Sha they’ve never had a time trial again and I feel it’s been kind of forced on them because of the Olympics in Paris it’s completely shut down Paris the Olympics everybody on the tour to France he’s flying to Paris the day after to take part in the road races and time trft and commentating and of course the um those guys now are could be in a position as you predicted of still racing because the the few last few days the T very hilly but these guys are pretty good well measured climbers and it could be a time trial to decide now rco if he were still to be in the action would I think produce the time trial that would really count he’s a superb time Tri he is the world champion and I think um I think he could be the man to do it but you know he’s done everything first Belgium is a superstar and the belgians of all the supporters in the world of psyching are the best if you want to be a star be a star in Belgium because they love you and he the youngest winner of a world tour race ever he was 19 years of age when he won his first world tour race he’s the youngest winner as I said of Liz bason L the greatest the Dwayne of the classic races for 54 years and in Belgium gror wins well he was the first Belgian to get a grand tour win in the Welter since 1979 so he’s got all the honors behind him and now he’s in his first tour to France he won’t give up without a fight that you will believe will be one heck of a fight I think we’re in for a great tour TJ absolutely I mean I think the the French the reason they didn’t have the time trial uh on the last day was because I think the entire country of France fell into a depression after uh luron fenon lost it on that last day they did they did that’s that’s probably why we haven’t seen it again but man if it comes down to that final day I would if renco is in Striking Distance he will be a danger and yes like I think he’s still a little bit too far behind in the mountains but his day will come like you said he is still so young and uh he’s already won a grand tour so he knows how to handle three weeks he’s a world champion Time trailer also on the road from the year before when it was in Australia so he knows how to live up to those big moments so I don’t think he’s going to be nervous his age won’t be a factor um he’ll line up and look at look to his right he’ll see T Pacha he’ll to his left he’ll see yonis vingo and he’ll be like you know what I’m here with you guys and I’m not afraid of you well we picked out the four possible winners they’re certainly the leaders of the team well let’s just talk about the four teams of those Riders vingo Vialis um batea UAE Emirates rogl we haven’t talked too much about RIT but that guy for me is going to be very much in the frame he rides now for a new team he left bisma is on to Bora he loves being with the team and I think he’s got all the support he needs to to have a good talk and of course Remco rides for sudal and the infamous Patrick levra who shouted everybody unless they’re winning races however um those are probably four best teams in the world right now carrying the four Superstars for the tour to France how do you rate the teams there well I mean when you look at the recent tourist Switzerland you had Adam Yates winning and Jiao Almeida finishing second and they’re going to be the ones pulling for T in the mountain so I’m like and behind him you have Juan a Uso who again I’m gonna say this every time I bring up Juan a Uso’s name I still see him as American he’s he’s our token American I know he has a Spanish flag but he is an incredible young Talent also going to be pulling for T so tday definitely has the strongest teams especially for in the mountain but Bora hrow they have vlassov who finished fifth in the tour and ji hindley who had just won the G A couple of years ago he’s GNA have him supporting those two supporting obviously we’ve talked about sep cus Matteo Jorgenson and uh they’re going to be for Vis M Lisa bikee um Mikel Landa also for sudal quickstep that’s yeah if I were to rank the teams UAE is on top but those other teams you’re not you’re not not going to have uh a weakness of a team is not going to be an excuse for any of these guys because they’re bringing in some star power for support can you imagine TJ in those team buses the night before the next day stage the conversations that are going to take place with these Riders because they are so closely matched as teams and they’re going to have to pick guys who can handle guys I think it would be quite nice to hear those guys chatting out the next day’s plans on Road Remco for example like all of these team leaders they’re pretty demonstrative you know they they know their ability so they tend to get deep into the conversation Say Hey I want you to help me do this um they kind of choose their own teams a little bit too who they want on the teams to be because they trust them deeply that they will deliver the goods if things get well yeah those I mean I would love to be a fly on the wall and one of the team buses there and one of the guys who’s clearly the best at that is T you see him doing it out on the road you he’ll be moving his teammates like chess pieces up on up the mountain he’ll say you sit there you sit there time to go to the front now let’s pull like pull gas I want to hear you I want to see you sprint so I can set up set me up for an attack um it he’s like a quarterback like a he’s like Payton Manning out there just calling audibles and I I I did a foot football American football analogy there so sorry if you’re not following me but uh it’s so fun to see that um just these guys out there everyone has such trust in their leaders that uh and they’re willing to just do whatever it takes for them well I don’t know it’s a tough start let’s face it Christian vandell told us the other day that in fact the first day is already marked down as the hardest opening stage of any tour to France and it began back in 193 with 400 kilomet stages so we riding away from Florence and Bound for Remy um a series of Hills a course that’s well known to the Riders because the grand PRI Amelia is in that region and we’re riding on some of those roads so they know what’s coming but I mean when we get the other side to Remy and the Beautiful Coastline then we start crossing our route to go back to France over the next three days and um it’s the old story we say it every year you’ve got to be very careful on that first stage we talked to a lot of the teams you and I this week and they’re all saying the same thing they’re all telling the Riders they must ride near the front but you know 176 Riders can’t all ride near the front so it’s going to be a tough opening stage I think a real it won’t be a peleton it will not be a big peleton spin no um there’s going to be a lot of nervous Riders out there a stage that hard um obviously in the in those Tuscan regions it gets quite open it’s windy um you see from Strata biani and all those races that uh it I mean it’s it gets open um and there’s a yellow Jersey up for grabs so anyone who can climb a little bit or can Sprint a little bit or just can survive thinks that they have a chance to bring the yellow Jersey into their team and might be the only chance they get because the stages get so hard already on stage four we have massive mountains that we’re going over and to or one of the favorites is going to take the Jersey there and probably not give it up so if they want to find success in the race or have a chance to wear the Jersey it’s got to be on that first day so we’re going to see yeah the road’s only so big like you said it’s 170 plus Riders and they all want to be at the front Jersey up for grabs um it’s getting me nervous just thinking about it I’m glad uh I’m glad I’ll be in the booth and not out on the road now oh you see po sh on said the same to me after he stopped cycling he thought us journalists did nothing and he got very tired when he found he had to work long hours on NBC um we go back from Italy via touring into France then we start to turn north it’s it’s uh I don’t know how the Normans and the bretons feel but they’re not going to see anything of the toour of France this year because we’re not going too near Parish because of the Olympics so we’re going to start diving South again but in that region there around we start to fall the way to the South and this doesn’t surprise me in the least the Tour of France has always kept to the Forefront of all Innovation so of course they’ve now put in the gravel roads love them or hate them they don’t care what the Riders say have the same situation when we introduced the cobblestones which unfortunately wrote wrote the script for uh Chris room and he crashed out on the cobbles on wet cobbles in northern France so what do you reckon on the gra gra this a whole this isn’t Cobble this a whole different racing spirit and I find it uh I mean if you fall off on on a gravel realm I think you’d hurt yourself more than the problem yeah um I remember that Cobble stage in 2014 very well and uh it was a sitting in the bus watching those raindrops come down um thinking like oh man this is it was one of the scariest times I’ve ever had sitting in the bus before a bike race of my career and uh I remember the interview that I gave afterwards and I was quite displeased with the with the ride that day and how the race went down and um I don’t know maybe I’m uh maybe I’m hardening in my old age but these are the days that you look forward to as a cycl or as a spectator not at all as a cyclist as a cyclist I would have said take this out out of the race it does not belong in the tour to France but I got to tell you on that day I’m going to be on the edge of my seat wondering what’s going to happen um and it’ll be some exciting bike racing and that that is how cycling is going these days you you can’t just be good at one thing and expect to win uh you have to be good at everything you have to be able to handle your bike avoid the crashes you have to be able to ride cobbles gravel crosswind climbs time trials um you have to be a complete bike racer to win the Tour to France and this gravel it’s it’s going to test who’s the most complete bike racer you’ve also got to be a complete team player to get your man into the position before these gravel rows hit town so they’re going to look out for Pacha of Theo R and of course Remco Evan they’ve got to get those guys right onto the bad roads in a position to see where they’re going and to see where the favorites are alongside them because a puncture or a crash could end the whole of the 18 days or whatever the 15 days that lie ahead after the gravel so it’s it’s going to be a touch Ando situation I’ve not heard talking to the Riders any major complaints about putting the gravel roads in uh but it’s another aspect of the race that comes and then of course the last week when we get down to the last week time trials the mountains bad memories for RIT because it was where he lost but sort of fance to pach in the first year the paga won um and so they it’s really a stinging the tale and as you if you predicted it right TJ when once we get through barcel andette we drop down to uh to Monaco for the last day’s time trial it could be as exciting as 1989 hope it is I hope so too man that would be that’s that’s the dream scenario is if all four of these guys or even just two of them are within striking distance of each other and we can see an exciting finish I mean I know that it hasn’t finished with a time trial before but there’s been time trials on the second to last day and um an old teammate of mine cadell Evans won in an exciting fashion over Andy Schleck and even uh Primos Rog glitch he I’m sure that that uh that 2020 tour to France where he lost it to T pachar that’s going to be fresh in his mind I’m sure he’s still he’s still is angry about that and he’s going to want to he’s going to want to come back with some Redemption cuz don’t forget he is the current Olympic time trial Champion so if it comes down to a time trial do not count out Primo’s rogich you can’t I agree all right well we’ve named the stars I’m sure one of those four will win the Tour sure as it can be um now let’s talk the emotional side Mark Cavendish when he rode the race last year he was looking for that record Victory 30 five wins he almost got it things went wrong with his gear et on the running and he got snapped on the line and the next day he crashed broken collar bone gone that was his last to to France but because he crashed two weeks later he was rethinking his whole career he still wants that Victory now a couple of weeks ago he got a surprise present from the King of England they knighted him he’s now sirar Cavendish and it kind of Suits him and so I think that uh on the stages when we perhaps will see the protagonist just look after themselves stay out of trouble let the sprinters have they say Mark is going to be tense and I’m going to ask you now TJ do you think he can get the record that will take it clear of any mer no one’s ever one 35 stages the to of France and Mark for years said it was never a Target but I’ll tell you what it is it it absolutely is um Mark Cavendish has had one goal for the past couple of years and that is to get that number 35 and I have a lot of love for Mark Cavendish the very I started out as teammates with him in 2010 when I turned uh when I signed my first world tour contract I rode my first tour to France with Mark Cavendish and that was when he won the green jersey in five stages um great great guy I say hi to him I catch up with him anytime I have a chance to when I see him at a race I would love nothing more than to see him get number 35 but if I’m being completely honest I don’t think he can do it the sprinters now they’ve they’ve gotten faster younger they’re taking risks he’s I haven’t seen anything from him this year that says that he’s ready to do it I know he just wanton a stage a tour of hungry um so maybe his legs are back I would he would make me the happiest person in the world if he proves me wrong I hate saying this because I have so much love for the guy um but I I just don’t see it and but I am rooting for him all the way I think what you’re saying is what everybody would say the same thing they just love Mark and they would they’d be over the moon to see him win beting F squirly I think yasper philipson and the other big sprinters and we’ve got Tim Malia and not sure Tim’s riding but we got the the um Arno Dee riding this year for the first time these are Big sprinters now and they’re quicker than Cavin so he’s got to work out how now he’s got a he’s got his lead out man back marov and he just loves leading out Mar Cavendish and more than that they’re very close friends um but if they beat the other spinter F square and Cavendish win I’ll bet you the sprinters are the first to congratulate him because they all love Mark cabage he he wears his heart on his sleeve um he said only he only lives down the road for me by the way just out this window here 20 miles away and you know what I’ve never seen him here only ever see him around the world and but he lives just around the world he trains he even knows my coffee shops that I’ve never seen but Mark is the sort of guy that H he would just love to do it I think hey I’ve called every stage wi he’s ever had that makes it 34 stage I would love to call his 35th I really yeah like you said he is so well respected in the bunch everybody knows what he’s done what he’s represents he’s won son Ramo he’s won the World Championships not only has he won all these stages of the tour but we forget about all the stages of the welta also points Jersey and the welta all the stages of the jro he is the greatest Sprinter of all time yes he is and that’s that no yeah nobody’s going to let him cross the line first nobody’s going to give away a tour to France stage but if he does manage to win all of them will give him the biggest hug and they’ll be they’ll be thrilled for him yeah I totally agree and he wouldn’t want to take a present anyway he wants to wear every do Mar and well that would be I think we’re in for a great tour let’s let’s be honest I think in many many aspects this is going to be a great tour Renaissance for some of the Riders and people like vingo coming back from what was like an horrendous accident as not seen him pin a number on since April and he’s coming to the tour of the pl to pin his first number on since April and of course Remco is is coming to the tour and the world particularly building is Wai to for that we’re in for the best Tour Ever I guarantee it it should never do that with the to should anyway there we are beyond the podium we hope you’ve enjoyed our little chat everybody now don’t forget that we’ll be on peacock and we love to see you on the start line when we kick off from fenza we know it better is Florence on Saturday hope you enjoyed the chat T TJ you’re going to be a superstar on television thank you very much well I’m I am so honored to be working with you hopefully I can live up to your expectations but I’m just thrilled to have this opportunity and I I I can’t wait to be calling the races with you we’re going to look forward to it we’re what a race we chosen to call thanks very much good luck see you on Saturday all right [Music] for all your cycling content year round subscribe to NBC Sports YouTube page we got it all