Echelons Nervousness | Tour de France 2024 Stage 10 | Lanterne Rouge x JOIN

In this episode Patrick Broe and Benji Naesen recap the 10th stage of the 2024 Tour de France.

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welcome back to l r cycling podcast so the biggest stage of this year’s T France no I’m just kidding uh it was the maybe the cross win day there was cross wins in this finale in 2013 where Mark Cavendish took a big victory from a group of only 15 Riders uh and we’re hoping for that today from oon to santand Monon 187.5 km long not a single categorized climb an intermediate Sprint with 58 K into the stage one little uh as as KL and kby would call it a Peet on a on a big road with nine K to go that wouldn’t drop even Fabio yakobson and I was kind of excited last night and this morning there was weather forecast that the wind would be picking up again wind perfect Direction cross tail for a lot of the last hour and a half we’re seeing 18 K an hour base this is the forecast this morning and then progressively the forecast got lower and lower and lower and lower and lower and uh eventually there was like the least amount of wind one could ever think there would be in this exposed plane region so um happy days for one of you so and Simon y I think I think so as well and to be honest I I started today with the thought of okay probably not going to be too much action in this stage I I will not get cros disappointment today I will not invest my entire day and then be having formal feelings about the stage no I choose not to I chose to watch the intermediate Sprint and watch the final Sprint and I think I missed nothing there was no Breakaway and yeah even even and this is normal for the second week even the GC team seemed less nervous there was less like sprinting into the villages like no one eventually you can only hear the message get to the front so many times and by week two when you’re being told Sprint to this Village eventually people just reach an accord and like even even Mark Solair and visma seem to reach some sort of okay let’s just let’s we’re all here now let’s just ride on the front it is what it is and uh we didn’t even see the shenanigans of last week so it seemed pretty relaxed really until the last unfortunately oh yeah what else we should probably say what was before the Stage B when it comes to the basically we’re going to go over the intermediate Sprint and the Sprint of today’s stage but reality is there there was some stuff before the stage uh started some interviews that spicing things up over the last couple of days and let’s start off with the interviews that came off stage nine which was um REM which he said after Stage Nine we could have secured the podium if in the situation of Remco yon Z if they all three rode together with 85 kilms to go on that gravel stage they could have secured the podium but sometimes and I quote you have to have Big Balls for it and you on us didn’t today that’s a typical Remco quote I would classify that and I I see OG Remco spicing true in that it was yeah my take on that is as simple as REM was frustrated because if you has wrote then he would have secured the podium and reality is we’ve said it already last time that’s not your Us’s problem and I don’t think Remco had any like Grand designs as well to like also then later attack yonus to take time on the flat gravel sectors I think he genuinely was happy to like swap turns all the way to the Finish to put a million minutes into rogl and aler en Co because I think Remco would be quite happy with a stage win the white jersey in the podium in his first tour to France uh no one’s going to call that a disappointment to lose to pagat or vingard so from his perspective of course it’s a disappointment and frustrating when you have that opportunity of create a separation not to for them not to go on with it I would say looking when to look back Benji AA didn’t pull when they got to the Breakaway he and Remco should have pulled if they just pull for like 10 minutes so what vingard doesn’t pull with you on the flat for a bit if you just keep it going Yas stvan he helped he helped pater on the Cobble stage in 2022 maybe those guys start working with you because you the the Gap starts to extend to the pel on and Jerick G starts pulling and Healey who knows what Ben Healey would do I think they should have continued gave up too quick when they got to the breakway in my view I think that’s a possible a possible take but I think from their perspective perhaps maybe Pacha was thinking okay if is just going to sit on he’s just going to sit on and benefit from more work and maybe later he will be the one trying to counter me on a stage where I was planning to counter vinga I I’m not necessarily sure that would have happened but I somewhat agree with your take there also for example when all three were waiting for the grw behind I think MCO could have had another attack in cuz he was in third position at a certain point just attack from behind them see if anyone responds again cuz maybe then they’re actually frustrated at each other pachu and fero maybe and fingo might not react in my opinion rco so Pacha might be frustrated so maybe that action then Works afterwards so I I would have liked to see that second attack from from Remco is how I see that situation but to be clear I’ve got no real problem with what Remco said I mainly because it feels like that that typical media I don’t know from rco it feels like frustration when he’s saying she just a bit frustrated from andas the interview sound more like subtle attempts to jab each other every now and then and then Pacha came out with I like running with riding with my heart it was a day to do it yes I think vinga is afraid of me otherwise he would have taken over they don’t only think about my wheel they only think about my wheel not those of others referring to uh but who who didn’t put a rider when RIT was dropped yeah but but they shouldn’t I’m not saying they should UA but also pagach does not give two shits about rogl either y I think that’s a fair take otherwise you put a UAE right at the pool my opinion on this is that yes Pacha is right that Vaga doesn’t care about about those other Riders and was only looking at pogacha at vingo no at Pacha sorry yeah that’s that’s take number one number two is it’s logical in my opinion that go is afraid of him on a gravel stage and therefore doesn’t want to ride with pacher and doesn’t want to be putting him in an exposed position where pigar might be able to attack him afterwards without teammates around Vaga so yeah it’s correct in my opinion that Vaga is afraid or at least aware of his vulnerability that pogacha can exploit If he rides with pogacha there so I think it’s a a correct comment but it’s nothing to be ashamed of from V side to be afraid of attacking on a gravel stage that’s exactly what pach was planning but what Pacha then said which he himself doesn’t even believe is we should have pulled because then you never know it’s a it’s an it can be a danger to have the other guys still close in GC later in the race I don’t think he that’s [ __ ] yeah like his plan was yeah isolate vingard and then he’ll go again and probably drop him um vingard was then like I don’t know why this was such a fural to be honest because like we’ve seen vingard refuse to pull for two years in situations which don’t suit him it’s like not surprising um we saw it on S Luca on the descend oh not on the uphill second then the last kilometer yeah last K and then the the 1K F per Center he wouldn’t pull um but yeah it’s like I’m surprised it was such a funeral cuz to be honest it was kind of it’s like pretty normal racing tactics from a diminutive climber and V was like yeah I didn’t want to pull because I wanted to away from my team I think that was a smart thing to do and yeah there was also there was also a segment in yesterday’s interview from vingo where he said I don’t just care about pgat I care about everyone within the top 10 and that’s 70% [ __ ] 30% true as in he’s not scared of them but he’s okay with having them maybe closer because those other teams tactics might be useful for them in the future for example it’s useful for Vaga that Rodriguez is still fighting for the podium because then inos might make stages harder in week three yeah I think he said that pretty openly um he was like yeah it’s useful maybe they make the race hard which suits me so and it’s also both JIS and pogy they don’t want to just come out and be like yeah you know these other guys they’re not on our level and like they can’t say that either so to be honest all of those quotes from everybody made sense and it seemed like actually on the rest day they were kind of tired of answering those questions about it Remco yonis and Pacha I can understand on AR rest day I would also want to rest uh and then this morning there was another question to pachu who’s been asked it about 10 times I think uh from ITV he was asked from uh you know there’s been some criticism that you’re racing not intelligent and with your heart Etc and Pacha said wasting too much energy yeah are you wasting too much energy and Pacha said racing intelligent racing intelligently or not it’s a nonsense right now I have the yellow Jersey for me that’s intelligent having the leadest jersey with a good lead in the tour to France yeah intelligence is is important but above all you need the legs to win the Tour and he seemed quite irritated actually with the amount of questions that have been asked in the last three days about [ __ ] about Stage Nine and so far I’d be quite irritated as well to be honest but anyway I think that’s a wrap on the interviews we had like you said it’s more but on that point from pach I don’t know like yeah I don’t agree I don’t agree with that point like how he wrote on grol on Gia in 2022 like not always the strongest win sometimes you do have to think a little bit oh I think so as well but he corrects that in the last sentence that he says in that interview like in the first 90% of that interview response where he said about oh tactics no writing intelligent is not important it’s the best legs that count but then in the last sentence he says had the Tour of France tactics are important but having the rider with the best legs uh no but the rider with the best RS wins in the end which I I about 75% agree with cuz you need the legs to be able to pull out tactics in the first place yeah at the end of the day you have to do yeah you need the was pilo to win you can’t just do it on you know tactics or whatever that is also true you can’t tactic your way to winning if you’re 20% worse than the best guy uh no matter what your strategy is there’s a Nuance to it yeah but definitely it seems like there’s more I don’t know there just seems to be more back and forth this year compared to previous years maybe it’s the addition of Remco into the mix but definitely like uh there seems to be more back and forth this year we’ll see how that uh how that continues in the tour but yeah uh the intermediate Sprint Kobe Hon’s goes in the Breakaway with uh Brent van Moore yeah Belgium Breakaway to take is points away from philipson I think that’s a great move I think an Marche is kind of making that move intelligent because like yes there’s a chance that bam Beats philipson at the intermediate Sprint but if he can reduce the potential Point gain of philipson if philipson does beat bam then I think that is a a good move because the first rid gets 20 points and 17 and 15 and 13 then 12 11 10 I think or maybe it goes from 13 to 11 not completely sure about that but the more points the more places you are behind the the less the points gain or loss is going to be within the pelaton and with those Point Delta yeah with those R is taking the points from the Breakaway it becomes a onepoint Delta from the pellaton and then we’re looking at okay philipson versus benum are we going to see a proper lead out and we we do see vpol doing a lead out for philipson on the road as well and there’s a bit of a deviation story in the Sprint isn’t there yeah so philipsson launches and he’s going to win the is or it looks like he’s winning it easily B’s found his wheel again bie starts to jump to the right there’s not much space in the first place frankly on the right M and then philipson looks over his left shoulder at dear who’s like on the other side of the road and he’s got I I don’t know a bike length two bike lengths on and when philipson looks over left he then veers sharply right at the same time B is trying to shoot the Gap a new set of hoardings come in or barriers uh the the scoder I think sponsor barriers so then like philipsson moves that way Bing Holdings come in bie nearly gets his front wheel chopped into a Oblivion at 65k an hour and uh I think Danny row on on comms nearly like she let out a gasp um because it really looked like bnie like nearly got chopped and uh it’s both it’s I think oh what do you think about it Benji because yeah I am obviously uh yes I got a view on it okay so my view in it is that there’s phases to this Sprint at first you’ve got Phil gradually moving right not endangering anyone yet that is the the first portion of the Sprint where he moves close to the barriers but there’s still a space for B move to move through but the space isn’t actually that huge and that’s when he starts looking left now first of all when it comes to looking left behind you in a Sprint I don’t think any Sprinter lead out should ever do that we’ve seen so many crashes because of lead outs and sprinters looking behind them and accidentally as a consequence deviating to the opposite side that they’re looking at because that’s a natural thing that happens that I think they’re should be more hammering on the fact that that shouldn’t be done in the first place that being said he looks left and to me it seems like he didn’t move right while he was looking left but after so it’s kind of like he looks forward again and then he veers right and it’s that moment that that second deviation not the first gradual one but the second one where it moves to the right again where I feel like where I felt like o that was a that was a moment where it looked like on screen binam had to stop a Sprint because he was trying to move up on the right side of philipson now the other Factor like you said is this is about 20 to 10 m in front of the barriers which come slightly into the road which second topic that I want to talk about in the last kilometer here the barriers move in twice also during the actual Sprint where those two sprinters are trying to launch the barriers come in now the deviation on paper happens before the barriers come in is how I saw it that second deviation to the right into binam happens before the barriers come in and I think that’s definitely a questionable move and um honestly considering all the situations here with the barriers with the first deviation being slow the second deviation is where I’m looking at and honestly I would I I think it’s not I think it’s definitely a questionable move but I think it’s hard to judge yeah I the barriers moving in definitely complicated that being said I think just from a perspective of why are you looking over your shoulder during a sprint number one and then I don’t think philipson meant to move today at all I think no intention unlike the other days I think this is an unconscious movement that when you look if you’re driving a car and you look to a shoulder check you can move to the other side and I think same with riding a bike if you look so if you go and watch how Remco crashed in the jro in the Sprint stage he looks left when ballerini left him after three case to go he drifts right just a bit Kish comes over his front wheel this is the same he looks left cuz he he wants to stop his Sprint cuz he’s doesn’t want to Sprint all out to the line if he’s already won it and because of that he moves right and nearly chops bie and it’s a sharp move right and it’s like pretty amateur honestly like I don’t think he meant anything bad by it but he again can’t Sprint in a straight line there there’s two there’s two parts here the first part about the rule is Riders are forbidden to deviate from the lane after they selected the lane that they’re going to sprint in or the line cuz in two play on the on the UCI rules it’s written differently the rule to be clear so the UCI should probably get that in order but first of all he chooses his line by going to the barrier and chooses that line across the barrier but that second deviation is technically moving off his line but is it a big move no the rule doesn’t declare how big the move needs to be kagan’s move on yakobson into in Pia wasn’t actually a half a street or anything was a small move as well but they’re close to each other so with dangerous and the second factor is yeah when it comes to those barriers it’s I don’t think the discussion first of all the barers don’t need to come in at that point do you the ASO needs to figure that out but second of all I don’t think that barrier was there the barrier didn’t come in yet when the deviation happened I’m just rewatching it now it’s like it’s so it’s probably if you need if if we have to discuss it this much then probably you can’t relegate somebody because it’s not so clear you know for me for me it’s on the fence this one but yeah I do want to add intent is irrelevant whether you want to deviate or not is irrelevant the fact that you deviate and endanger someone regardless of intent is how it’s written in the rules I just think like intent is what makes so for me can’t tell exactly you can’t tell what’s in someone’s mind uh I was just inferring his intent the second topic is then intent comes in for me when it comes to this disciplinary commission if they feel like you actually maliciously try to crash someone then they come in in my opinion but when it comes to the rule itself intend is relevant yeah for sure I would most it’s also like yeah just another maybe not black spot but more like can you just can you just fix yourself up a little bit please yasper Phillipson that’s all we’re asking just Sprint a straight line don’t do any don’t be right don’t look over your shoulder Sprint the straight line and we may even see that later um for me this was maybe just not a relegation because I don’t think we’d be having this conversation about this intermediate Sprint if that wasn’t philipson oh no I would if you look over your shoulder and then V and you chop somebody yeah then you’re a clown for me it’s just just like we’ve seen who did the lead outs in the unox guy last year on stage four looked over his shoulder Bang big crash 60k an hour like you it’s you cannot be looking over your shoulder it doesn’t get punished enough that like if you finish your lead out the guys finish their lead out and start frantically looking to see where their guy is like uh crash those crashes happen all the time um and at high speed unfortunately but anyway that was probably the biggest or excitement of the stage no one goes in the Breakaway there’s barely any change in the in the green jersey competition we see uh the road get blocked up we looking straight at it visma UAE eventually aana inos uh Tre don’t know and literally nothing happens basically the Pelon just ride on the front and uh in case there’s Crosswinds which never comes and then we have a hill there’s a big sprint there was thankfully no crash I was very nervous about that hill before the 4 case to go four case to go happen and the sprins teams take over Benji they really I don’t think there was anything else in this stage yeah nothing else happened in this stage why would we talking 10 minutes about intermediate Sprint if anything else happen in this Sprint so in this stage so it’s all about the last the last five kilometers and it’s like vizar on the left side Israel Alison on the other side of the road trying to get their sprinters to the front was a big move from from Alon to get Riders to the front then they had like Vanderpool Phillipson temporarily lost F the pool’s wheel with about 3 and a half 4 and a half kilm to go roughly and then there were other two other alpon guys that were kind of off the back so I would expect them to just be there just in case they need them because they weren’t actually part of the the lead out at the front and I was looking for other Riders the Le was moving up in the last two kilom EF was pretty forward with with four kilms to go cuz this was the 4 kilm rule today so EF takes over isra in the wheel Alon behind that at that point then at that point a lot of sprinters are like in individual cuz we we see in the last 3 and a half kilm K come up with a three man train in front of him of jco to get him into the right position but I swear something seemed to have happened in the last yeah two and a half kilm here cuz I don’t know how it happened but suddenly there were like 30 Riders and the jco train was trying to survive at the back yeah it was uh Gran just never got back into position caval so you could see he was sh like he was way way too deep there’s also a big left hand so there’s a roundabout that had like a monument on it that was asymmetrical so they couldn’t go straight through it and so this Sprint is all about a left hander with like I don’t know 800 to go and then a sweeping rander almost a hairpin uh before then another left uh with 450 500 M to go so you could actually if you were smart with your men and blocked it up a bit you could could unlike a 1K straight you can basically keep your men longer because they’re obviously freewheeling for like 150 of those uh 800 M uh compared to a straight so alerson three three men left with 1K to go uh unox went early with abrahamson again Kristoff leaport moves vanard up on the left hand side and you think oh that’s very very early and then he basically was just going for that first left hand corner and he’s trying to get in between the in train which he does I don’t know if it’s Robbie and then s and CR or if it was I can’t tell Robbie and S and CR to say it’s I think it’s I think it’s KES and then vpol but no where’s rard then I think no R Rick is not even doing the lead outs he didn’t even have an arrow helmet on today he was in week one but he seems to be out of the train this time yeah anyway it goes alerson second last lead out man leaport takes his wheel of Vanderpool in the Leander vanard gets put on Philipson’s wheel and then loses it in the right hander that’s his Sprint over araman takes it off him gavia takes it off him and then through the last left hander Vanderpool opens up with about 400 to go and it looks like his lead out of last year the perfect lead out leaves enough space to the barriers or basically philipson can choose either side that he wants to Sprint to philipson opens up his Sprint and with beanie I I think coming from a bit deeper he wasn’t directly on Philipson’s wheel he was like moving up positions on gavia and eventually finds it but philipson opens up his Sprint and wins the Sprint easily by bike lengths and bike lengths they got it right today alerson uh he said the values or power numbers are the same as last year and uh with the super lead out that they did today alerson really no one could beat him from that position that lead out those that Sprint no one could be philipson yeah for certain and I think I think there’s actually like one small thing they might have been able to do better which is when vanol is in that final straight vanol should probably look for a line just next to the barrier so there’s so we can open it up and then philipson can come through on the right side you know there is a danger though that you get boxed in in that situation but your Sprinter is more likely to win then because they all have to go around vapol as well in that situation but regardless near perfect lead out when it comes to Alon and philipson does a clean Sprint at the finish line and wins by a bike length and Bam does come around behind and looks like the the the second best Sprinter here at the finish line and I got to be honest about it if bam is maybe on the wheel of Phillips and we’ve got a bit of a battle Ono but with Aenon being in between in the final straight there was no one going to beat Phillipson in that final because he he was definitely the fastest Sprinter equal to Bam maybe but probably faster today exactly now maybe if he he doesn’t get dropped off right at the line and sure if if uh gr or be’s in in his wheel and they’ve saved energy up to that point maybe with the draft but uh today to be honest alerson uh looked like they look like they did in 2023 and that must be a weight off their shoulders and relief for for philipson for Vanderpool for the the the team and uh because yeah like it was coming as well like we said this Benji before you know last week we’re like he’s going to win a stage he he’s still too fast um and there’s just so many Sprints in this T fr the big surprise to me is bie second again like this is like no offense to bny but he’s not been that good a bunch Sprinter in Toro he ran fourth in one of them and then the others non-competitive this year and some of them were quite suitable actually in the tour last year uh he was yeah he had one top five and he finished tour in torreno third and a fourth last year as well he just in the hectic big Sprints hasn’t looked as good maybe um maybe they the lead outs made a big difference it is Mike Turners and lawren Rex who look really good maybe he’s more comfortable with it but he is absolutely on fire like I said the big danger for him losing green is you know if philipson starts to win a couple of stages it can quickly change but if you’re coming second you’re still losing 20 points but it’s different to losing 40 or 45 points so second’s huge for him aan third vanard fourth G fifth Sam Bennett sixth de seventh bous e8th grova never got into it ninth and zangler uh 10th with coard 13th I think I don’t know what’s going on there I think I listened to an interview of a I think he said both they’re going to change and maybe both of them get to Sprint I don’t know anyway that Sprint does lead to a change in the green jersey classification where philipson gains roughly 2122 points I think on on bam which means he gets closer but he’s still around 74 points behind points behind on bam which I think that’s a good defense by bny this is the best defense you can have if you don’t win the Sprint that the intermediate Sprint and the uh the final Sprint and the best thing to do is be just behind philipson in both Sprints and that leads to this and an ideal world is beating bam uh is beating philipson for bam or having someone else beat philipson so he takes less points on you but I think this is the closest you can get to that and it’s going to be a close fight until the end when it comes to the green jersey and we’ve got a few more Sprints coming this week so I’m very curious what that’s going to be like when it comes to the other things in the Sprint like you said it laports tried to take a A Wheel in the middle of the Alpin train I it’s a move is it super useful for R fard Daddy’s then in that position maybe it can lead to a moment the r fard can use Le’s wheel but I I don’t know about that so with the second vanard lost the lost it was in that corner like mention I don’t think Le did I think Le did a good job vanard just he didn’t hold the wheel through the corners and if you can’t do that then it’s over exactly and when it comes to the other sprinters I feel like gavia has been close he’s like not been close to a victory at any point but I feel like he’s been close enough to do like three top fives and I think that’s a solid performance from gavidia to be honest and let’s be honest there’s no Corner in the last 300 meters in a lot of these Sprints so yeah but he made up positions in those earlier Corners like he comes underneath vanard he dares to go faster in these corners and that’s why that strategy is maybe one that he that he tries going for in in Sprints before it’s not often successful though I think he did ones in the Jal but 700 UCI points this year yeah Ma be happy PR good I think they’ll be really happy with the return I mean what lead out has your man got here no one but he’s out of contract as well they’ll extend him for sure they should 100% like that one of their top UCI points scorers and he’s giving them relevancy in the tour to France is’s the only guy giving them relevancy outside of Nelson in the tour so far like they can’t turn your nose up at top threes so I think they’ll extend him anyone else Benji you think I think gron ofan disappoint I mean yakobson Benji I don’t want to I don’t want to beat a dead horse but if you can’t compete on this stage where it was 100 wats in the wheels all day and like no Hills no categorized climbs then and he comes 130th then I’m sorry but why do they then stop stop trying to do a lead out just stop like it’s it’s yeah it’s not good I’ll be honest when it comes to Fabio yakobson the second the transfer was announced from yakobson to go to DSM at the start of the year it felt to me like we had a sprinter that can’t position himself for the life of him going to a team that can’t position their Sprinter if their lives depended on it so it’s honestly a transfer that was doomed to fail in my opinion it can still turn around if they get a Sprint stage somewhere but it’s not looking very uh very bullish in my opinion but also his level just hasn’t seemed to be good enough at the jro nor at the ton so far to even get over to the simplest of hills in the stages we always see him very early in the gretto and yeah I I just don’t feel it when it comes to yups and it’s like they there were better sprinters on the market for DM to pick Olaf KY was on the market and they went for yobs and over him sorry but that’s crazy to me yeah because CO’s much more versatile you can send him to I don’t know uh BR thean or whatever race you want to you want to pull out of your hat and or even even in parin in the uphill he doesn’t maybe have that burner speed of Gran but he’s a bit more versatile um so yeah that uh is was surprising uh Anna dear AR and he have been like very they’ve been going for the intermediate Sprints a lot I don’t I think they should probably not waste their time anymore cuz he’s not going anywhere near the green jersey competition and they’ve been quite aggressive at times he came 23rd sorry Patrick we are 30 plus minutes into this podcast and we are talking about Arno dear in a Sprint where he wasn’t even present this podcast feels like we’re trying to squeeze juice out of an orange already empty it isn’t here’s a Mary signing of ARA French Sprinter Twitter France should monitor the progress of all teams not just the big teams um and yeah all right I’ll take your point um GC no changes except for vov didn’t start he fractured his ankle and so he’s out of the race G said that on his podcast that vov was vomiting when he got was in the bunch so yeah really good job that he got put back on his Spike uh and no km changes cuz there was no Sprints all right let’s do tomorrow’s preview Benji Benji got a date Oh I thought you had a date to keep okay I’m jumping in there were some conversations about there there was another relegation story line going on with with ban akan on the finish line but I think it’s also not enough just like the Intermediate Sprint I think it’s also not enough to to relegate bie for moving into aanan just before the finish line which he barely moved into him and Aon didn’t have to break or or decide to break instead of crashing or anything that this that was never there so just wanted to have that take out there I don’t think it’s relegation there either um let me look at it Jesus Christ should never brought it up can we talk about the next date already please please yeah I mean Jesus I don’t see much there I don’t see much there I mean b also B’s not Ben’s moved around throwing elbows himself in the Sprint I think every now and then as well um and as often the sprinters yeah they’re not all blameless uh so tomorrow stage this should be much more exciting 211k from to this is the stage Greg vanav one from the breakway maybe 6 seven years ago don’t remember exactly it’s exactly the same last 60 km the first6 60 K only have a cat 4 and a cat 3 but it is Rolling Hills the whole time and so a big Breakaway can go and that’s a long time to control 160 K is 3 and 1 half hours best quickest case so that is very very different to say just remember that if we’re comparing cestria where poet had to control sort of on on like a false flat for not nearly that long uh we but then we get into the final C iner on four K’s 8.6% really quite difficult with a K in there or a mile in there actually of about 10% uh then a short Plateau then they do p Marie which is uh a category one climb 5.3k 7.8% very very similar to Marie Blanc the first 3ks are 5% and then the last 2.3 K are about 11 and 1 half 12% so it’s like yeah steady and then like mold or or Marie Blanc very very steep uh 10 to 11 minute wall then a descent no flat and then they do the celus which is 4.5k 88.2% also irregular the first 1800 M 9% then a 5% K more or less and then the last uh mile is 82% why are you going to Miles because it’s broken up like that on the llam Rouge thing it’s 16 I’m not saying 1600 M every time they’re doing 8 800 M increments uh got a lot of us viewers but we got to we got to get these us and and British viewers up so they don’t know what we’re talking about we do caves they they go they don’t know what we’re talking about uh we say oh I live in the UK and I don’t know the [ __ ] milers they use miles in the UK I use PSI feet for height and kilometers what’s the PSI pounds per square inch used bar yeah you say bar silly metric bar is uh and then that’s that’s not the first time I’ve heard that uh three point then they have the the second or the last real climb is not actually difficult at all C fond South 3.4 K uh which is just over 2 miles Benji at 52% uh and that’s pretty yeah there’s about 700 M or just under half a mile at about 7% in the middle of that so uh that’s how Greg won because of that sort of finish there’s a little kicker to the Finish as well what do you of this Stage B he just screams massive Central big Breakaway to me I think so as well there’s just so much to control that poacha has already or UA has already shown in the first week of this ground tour in the first few stages in stage one stage two that they’re not going to control every single stage and on their YouTube channel they’ve got these videos about their day and they showed one pre-ra briefing where they expressively said we don’t necessarily have the team or we we we won’t invest the resources in controlling a stage like this and I think this stage will have the same pre-ra briefing I think they might try and see if they can have a manageable break at the front if there’s only four Riders gone they might try and close a few counterattacks to see if it’s possible but if the breakway formation takes too long if two many teams are interested in that Breakaway then it’s not going to be uh controlled by this team in my personal opinion and yes it is a Pacha stage in my opinion it’s not impossible that pachar even take time takes time on a Vaga on a stage like that but it’s uh in my opinion something that will happen in two phases we’ve got the Breakaway and then we have the fight in the pellaton behind then I’m very hyped to see the fight in the pellaton because remember the the big fight between pachu and Rit in in 2020 with the primar stage in there where we had the Breakaway between was it Martinez and shakman and K were one twoing him yeah oh yeah shockman was there went up the road cam sett on Martinez and Martinez just cooked everybody and when it comes to GC we had the big guns kind kind of going head-to-head with n real that was the classic Rog glitch riding Tempo not really pressing home the advantage and Pog looked a little bit gassed at the top and Rog sort of just Rod Tempo I am curious what’s going to happen though on the well first of all I agree that the break is winning is my biggest few yeah secondly P Mar is not at the Finish Line this time it is the third last climb and I would expect qu to maybe be the launching point is there a bonus Sprint on top or there’s a bonus Sprint on puse the the last difficult climb which is about 15ks from the finish so that also suggests that maybe uh P Marie is not where the rers will jump uh because yeah it is uh yeah I’m looking at so the Greg year rather uh they all came in in a group there’s actually it was just a GC group there were no gaps at all I don’t think except for like Pito jumped out by like 3 seconds or something there was no like major gaps except or Greg went into yellow uh via the Breakaway by taking five minutes but that was on stage five uh let me just I’m just checking how far from the Finish P Mar is Benji 180 it’s 31k from the Finish 31k to jump there also it’s the second hard climb okay you’d have to do neun pretty hard and then yeah so I think pertus which is 15ks from the finish with the bonus gate on top that looks like the most natural place to attack but then you have to contend with a uh a very gradual climb afterwards that actually might be a good thing for for paga or or Remco or whoever so uh or we could just see a Sprint a Sprint over that or a Sprint at the end so um it’s it’s just such a long time to control that unless the Breakaway self neutralizes and refuses to let it self form the break really should be getting a huge advantage to contest this stage win because they are hard climbs but they’re also not 20 minute climbs or 30 minute climbs they’re the hard Parts they’re much less they’re 10 to 12 to 15 minutes the hard parts so let’s first start off with a prediction for the the breakway and then do a small prediction for what’s going to happen in the GC group when it comes to the Breakaway I’m I’m now looking at the 2016 St list by accident cuz we spoke about the 2016 of off that M was good on this stage back then no no no no he was [ __ ] on these kind of stages M was indeed good back then I am thinking immediately about Ben he is the kind of Rider you’d expect on a stage like this oh yeah um give me barin Victorious this is the this is the S stage they win every year like this is why they bring Wago W pools Jack ha um I think buto is their best rider for it like he cooks on these in parenes on oh was the climb he went with PL and he dropped PL to win the stage that Bor were pacing where he anticipated anyway he won a Parise finish on M bouquet maybe who who cares very similar he’s very very good on close that’s the problem with Santi I wish he was on another 2 or 3 minutes he was actually he came 10th on the gbo stage he’s on 5 minutes that’s a bit annoying now maybe pagat if I’m UAE Benji do you actually care if Santi goes into the GC lead by 2 minutes I would not yeah so but maybe if you’re Carlos Rodriguez if you’re and suddenly he’s taking four five minutes on you Santi is not a scrub so but he’s on the on the border but if these big breaks go then sometimes like with hindley it gets out of control uh but Santi is who I would would really think can win this stage uh and then my my next pick Chris Harper I think he could have actually done better than the Gia but he had to pace for Yates he did 135k rest day ride yesterday to keep the engine running I think Harper is a really really good option for this in the heat okay after seeing son Luka it wouldn’t shock me if kapal goes in the break and tries to win from the breakway because he has to he’s he’s nowhere onc I’m going to go for with Tom pitock from the break yep and anyos got to help too it’s a flaish start you can’t just be like okay 57 kilo poock just jump in the breakway yourself they have to help him uh or try to jump with numbers like G I see no problem why G can’t go in the break with him or try to jump himself frankly g g is in good shape too he came in the jensson group on gbia he is in good shape or B doubles up not imposs Yeah by Frank van Brook it’s a nice stage for ven Brook that finish with the 5% 3K climb yeah is really good and or if it comes to a small group punch at the end DSM they’ve got a good option with those two what about maximon hills I don’t know if the climbing’s bit too much it is at the end of the day like proper 10 minute climbs you know it’s a medium Mountain on a hill this time yeah I would like a Healey or a carapaz or a brago to drop van Hills if you go to the finish with him or a 5% climb then you got a problem of course yeah anyway I’m going for pitcock when it comes to um who you have again can I hedge with Santi and Chris Harper sure I’ll allow it hard winning so um and San a been allowed in the breaks they got zero chance just saying that anyway GC predictions I think Vaga will ride with bachar after the bonus Sprint I think that’s possible right cuz after the bonus Sprints there there’s going to be no bonus you can annoy the [ __ ] out of him but there’s no harm in riding with him he can ATT on the downhill part are you saying he’s going to drop on petus or that V will be dropped on the slight uphill towards the Finish Line he could attack you on the Finish to the Finish TR Sprint he could attack downhill oh yeah you can take you can pull on the front and block the corners no problem block the corners why would you block the corners slow down come back so Pachi gets angrier at this point it’s just a tactic to make pugach as angry as possible why not I don’t know it clearly irritates him so much vard just don’t doesn’t give a [ __ ] he’s just like people were sh like n he should P if goes behind like you have to take time R if it’s w based on the last n days 11 days whatever on every climb I think RIT will be gapped on this stage and might not come back this time around and if vinga and pagach are having a staring contest I think Remco has to be the one to do it if he cares about the podium I’m not if you’re going for the win I’m not saying he has to I’m just saying if it’s really Podium and gapping I use I also don’t think it’s so good for Al us so this this finish or Rodriguez actually really not so good this finish it’s a very very good finish for Remco winner of San Sebastian 10 to 15 minute climbs uh long classic style stage he’s very efficient on the flat first four hours remember because he’s so aerodynamic um on the flat on the Rolling Hills I think Remco this is actually a big opportunity for him this stage to to to in his terrain I think put pressure on glit and if if Rodriguez yeah like he can drop Carlos Rodriguez I’m sorry on on yeah and maybe maybe maybe yeah he he maybe not all of them but he will drop some but he will drop someone relevant for Podium if he goes on one of these climbs uh now the question is will he get help from pagat or vingard or whoever um but that last 3K 5% climb he can pull very fast too so um yeah I think it’s actually if you’re thinking about stages that are good for Remco I actually think considering his palar it’s actually quite a good one what do you expect is vingar getting dropped oh touch and go you know ah it’s it’s interesting because it’s all about whether his burst can pacha’s birst can create a separation initially because with that separation it’s harder to close which makes it that think go spends more energy doing so ah I’d give it about a 50/50 chance right now yeah sometimes vingard can overperform in these like massive cental like on M he was good I think uh in 2022 uh but then on Pome pagach dropped him but that was a 30 minute clim with a very very steep finish so as Benji says I think 5050 is a pretty accurate uh estimation of it do you think we see a huge attack on pu Marie or is it really petus I’m expecting it on Petrus I’d like to see it on pumari but it’s more logical with the with the bonus Sprint that it would be on pus and that they use pumari to make it as hard as possible then again if we look at the Gradens of fi that’s already territory to attack and like it’s the hardest part of the stage if I’m pachar I wouldn’t be scared about attacking on p on pedol on the actual fum part and yeah don’t you want to try that it depends gain more time in it because the bonus seconds are irrelevant there because the break’s up the road exactly we’re assuming the break is winning by five minutes so then you then you stop thinking about the bonies you also got to be careful of vingard though like on 10 minutes steep on Bez on kblo in good shape he’s also not so bad you’re B we’re basing it on the last 11 days and not on last year right now whether Pacha should attack there and in my opinion I would if I’m pachu I’d like to see him attack on pumari because you want to maximize your time game before week three true true and so by definition if you drop him on P Marie and keep him dropped you have 30ks to play with not 15 um but we’ll see 30k is a lot though that’s what I mean but but it’s descending for 10 how technical is the P descend haven’t done it myself but um thanks for that to be honest I think if it’s I think it’s like a it Nets off or maybe Pacha has the marginal advantage on Des sense anyway um and it’s short enough that yeah we’re talking 2 five 7 Seconds uh on a short descent like that but it should be an exciting stage certainly better than today’s snoozefest although me and Benji have managed to gas bag on long enough somehow uh I think in the end I think it’s actually going to be a group of three going to the finish together pagach vingard and and uh rco and and rco pushes it pushes it to uh get that some Podium breathing space is that’s how I see it um and the break wins but who knows uh the weather’s not roasting hot like I think it was hotter when uh Danny Filipe Martinez won it’s like but it’s still humid it’s still long stage and I can’t wait to watch it so hope you hope you enjoyed the this recap and we’ll see you with the stage 11 Showdown tomorrow till then ciao