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Tour de France Stage 15 | The Sir Wiggo & Johan Show
00:37:18
Johan Bruyneel and Sir Bradley Wiggins peel back the curtain on the tactics, strategy, and pivotal moments that shaped Stage 15 of the 2025 Tour de France, offering sharp analysis and insider perspective you won’t hear anywhere else. Join: No race?...
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- [00:00]
Bradley Wiggins
Do you remember the last Belgium. The last rider to win in the Belgium national Champs jersey in the Tour de France.
- [00:07]
Johan Bruyneel
Probably Wout von aert Mont Ventou. Yeah, Wild Van Aert Mont von too. Wow. Yeah, yeah, wow. Yeah, that was, that was vintage. I mean there was the world in his prime. You know, he won a big mountain stage, he won the time trial and a bunch of us. That's crazy prime.
- [00:25]
Bradley Wiggins
Well, I'm the 2012 Tour de France winner, Sir Bradley Wiggins.
- [00:30]
Johan Bruyneel
And I'm Johan Brunel. I directed my teams to nine Tour de France victories. Welcome to the Sir Wiggle and Johan show, our daily show where we dive deep into the tactics behind every stage of the Tour de France. Hi everybody. Welcome back to our show. As every day presented by ketoneiq, we're going to talk about stage 15 of this year's Tour de France from Muret to Carcassonne A. Would you call it the transition stage? I would say 170 kilometers, 2,500 meters of elevation. Before we had speculation. Could it be for sprinters, would it be a breakaway? We're going to talk about that at all that with Bradley Wiggins. Bradley, what did you make of today's stage? What's Bradley's take of the day?
- [01:20]
Bradley Wiggins
Well, I mean there was a lot to speak about today, but obviously mine is combined the win of Tim Wellens and the complete how in control UAE are now in this whole Tour de France, especially with Tim Welland's victory today. But combined with that what appears to be the complete disarray of Visma and their tactics again today, you know, with the crash that happened which put Jonas out the back, the lack of, you know, communication maybe between those guys when that was happening and Wild Van Aert was trying to get in the break, Mateo Jorgensen was still trying to get in the break. Tade was trying to tell Visma that Jonas was out the back and that complete disarray, but you know, that combined Tim Welland attacking, sitting in the break, not doing any work and then attacking 47k to go or whatever it was and winning the stage. So the two contrasting big teams in this race and, and how in control UAE are and, and what appears the complete disarray of Visma and their tactics.
- [02:16]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Agree, Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean UAE is really in a great position and on top of that, I mean you can see that the pressure is really off there. They are on a high and you know, it happens sometimes that, you know, teammates go in breakaways. I Heard you guys on the show talk about that. George forgot his win, for example, in 2005, he was in exactly the same situation. It was a mountain stage, you know, he was in the break. Also had the excuse of not having to pull. And then finally he won on top of Plato there against Oscar Pereiro, for example. But yeah, no, I agree. Tim Wellens, what a performance. I mean, after his incredible performance in the Belgian championships, you know, and the level he has shown here in this Tour de France since day one is really, you know, he deserves to win this stage.
- [03:15]
Bradley Wiggins
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- [04:22]
Johan Bruyneel
Okay, Bradley, so the stage starts. We all thought, yeah, okay, let's, let's, let's wait until we are in the middle of the stage. Not much going on, but we had this big crash early in the race, as you said, and a lot of riders went down. It was full on, full on, full on race for the breakaway again. I mean, I guess this is standard now. No, every stage we do the first two hours, it's 50 kilometers per hour. But Jonas and Lipowitz were the two main guys involved. And as you say, it was, it was chaos. You know, today was in front. He tried to, to slow down the race a little bit, but you can see, I mean, you know, even in the case of a guy like Pugacha, he's in yellow. But you know, it's a three week stage rate. The danger is really behind every corner. You know, anything can happen.
- [05:17]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, right, yeah, absolutely. And you know, when I turned it on, it was, I saw obviously Matthew Vanderpoel was in the front again. I mean, that guy's.
- [05:28]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah.
- [05:29]
Bradley Wiggins
And of course he won that first intermediate sprint, which now really puts him in prime position to potentially win that competition. That's going to be a really good fight the next few weeks was the next week and I, I do fear for Milan now that that competition is over for him and it's just a matter of time before either Matthew or Tade now assert their leadership on that jersey.
- [05:51]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, I think, I think that, you know, if, if Milan and, and little track look back, you know, not being there that first stage, that's going to be expensive. Yeah, that's going to be expensive. Very expensive. He would probably have been top three in that first stage and Yeah, I mean, Matthew Vanderpool, what a writer. He's. I mean, still, you know, it's, it's not going to be easy. I think personally that the, probably the biggest candidate is today. Yeah. Because although there's less points in the, in the hard stages amount, but he's gonna score points in all of them, you know. You know, there's still. So there's the Vantou, there's Cold Lalos, there's Laplana, Right. Those are the three main, main hard stages we have left. Then there's, there's Paris where I think have more chances to score points than Jonathan Milan. And then the other two stages are probably going to be breakaway stages. Maybe the stage after the Vantou could be, could be maybe a sprint. We don't know. I mean, they kind of have to. Right. I mean, little Trek will have to make sure.
- [07:06]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah. They've got no choice, have they? They have no choice now. They have to commit everything to this green jersey. They've got to this point. But the same as De Kernick, you know, they Alpine, they. They're going to have everything towards this green jersey competition and the intermediate sprints. Of course, we got the Von 2 stage. There's an intermediate sprint of 112km, which is a long way to try and control the peloton for that. Yeah, but you know, that's their, that's their big priority and it has to be their priority on the running to Paris is that green jersey competition. But it's going to be interesting. It's a great fight. We've got the best GC rider in the world, the best classics rider in the world, and one of the fastest sprinters in the world, all fighting for green.
- [07:46]
Johan Bruyneel
That's quite unique. That's quite.
- [07:47]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, it's very unique.
- [07:48]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah. I mean it Would be amazing also, like, for opposing. Right. I mean, so they won what? They won two stages now Philipson and, and Matthew and then Philipson crashes out. If they could still do win the green jersey with Mathieu, that would be quite something.
- [08:04]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- [08:08]
Johan Bruyneel
Anyway, back to today's stage. So, you know, finally there's this break forming. There was a lot of confusion, as you said, Bradley, with the crash and you know, we had Walt van Aert and Victor Campenaerts who obviously had the mission today to go in the breakaway and try to win the stage. And so they were there with today obviously crashes. You cannot plan for that. Right. And I think, okay, as soon as they saw, I think that Jonas was okay, I don't think he went down. I think he was just held up.
- [08:46]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, he was.
- [08:47]
Johan Bruyneel
Or somebody ran into his bike or something because he had to do a bike change afterwards. But as soon as you see that that's okay, I kind of can understand that they didn't call Victor and Walt van Aert back. It also is telling, I think that they're focusing now on. On stage wins yesterday with Sepkus and Simon Yates in the break day with. With Vanart and Victor. Does that mean in your opinion that they have given up on winning the Tour de France and that they focus on stage wins?
- [09:20]
Bradley Wiggins
No, I don't think that they've given up. I think far from it. I just think they have to try and deploy a different tactic now and, and, you know, give riders that have committed themselves and sacrificed their chances of winning stages a chance to just get up the road and, and see what happens, you know. Yeah, we know how difficult it is to, you know, your odds of winning a stage from being in a break are very slim. Even if you're in the break, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's one of the hardest things. You don't get too many opportunities either. Which makes Tim Welland's ride today even more impressive because, you know, he's done an incredible job for Tadi this whole Tour de France. And yes, he got to sit on a marshall that break today. But regardless of anything, you have to be there. You have to be in a position to win. But he attacked, probably the place you least expect someone to attack. And they didn't let him go away. They rode. I think it was Bargie, was it. Bargie was the, the.
- [10:17]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, yeah.
- [10:21]
Bradley Wiggins
He was hovering, you know, 3 meters, 5 meters, 5, 6 meters, 7 meters for a good kilometer. And then he sat up after the hairpin Bent. Then, you know, Quinn Simmons tried to. To. To. And so to. And Tim just did not stop going and going and going until eventually the elastic broke. So he did it in the hardest way and, and no one can accuse him of, of, you know, slipping off the front unnoticed. So, you know, and he took his opportunity and he did 45, 46 km solo and put time into him all the way to the finish.
- [10:54]
Johan Bruyneel
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, he, he. It's. It's a copy of what he did in the Belgian championships with Remco. With Remco and with. With Phillips and. And also, I mean, Bradley, you know, people say, oh, you know, he was sitting on. But, you know, I mean, people. I don't think. I don't think people really understand how tired these guys. I mean, the amount of work Tim Wellens has been doing since stage one. Yeah, you know, he. These guys are tired, man. Like, super tired. And, and you're right, I mean, you know, when he took off, he just broke everybody's legs, man. It was, it was pure on power and it was, it was telling to see Bargil, you know, he was trying. All of a sudden he just had to sit down and then you could see. I thought, personally, I said, maybe Campena is going to try now. He just was on the limit also. He had to keep. Stay where he was. You know, Quinn Simmons again in the breakaway. That guy's on some form.
- [11:50]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, I mean, he's, you know, he's very aggressive. He gets himself into the, you know, I mean, again, going back to the breakaway just to make the breakaway as often as he does is something in itself. Yeah, you know, we talk, we often talk daily about, you know, guys want to try and make the breakaway. Teams that missed the breakaway. Quinn Simmons is. I forget. I actually forget how many breaks he's been in in this Tour de France.
- [12:13]
Johan Bruyneel
Many, many.
- [12:14]
Bradley Wiggins
Very, very consistent. And he just doesn't seem to be able to pull it off when it matters in the end, when the attacks go. We saw it the other day with Ben Healy. We saw it today with. But, you know, it's a learning experience, isn't it? You know, it's a learning experience getting in those breaks and learning, you know, how to decipher the winning move and, and, and where to expend your energy and, and if you are riding through and someone's sitting on you, where to anticipate them attacking. And so, you know, Quinn has got many years ahead of him, but, yeah, no one can fought him for his aggressive riding in this tour.
- [12:48]
Johan Bruyneel
No, I spoke with him briefly at the, when I was at the Tour, you know, and I told him, I said, man, you have to have a stage win in your legs, you know, you just need to be a little bit more calm, you know. And I think that's, I mean, I'm not going to say mistakes, it's, it's kind of normal because this is completely new for him. But he's so strong and he's showing too much his strength. When, especially if you look at, rather you look at some point there were eight guys, right? So first of all, it was Quinn Simmons, Michael Stir, Victor Campenaert, Tim Wellens, already there, having company there, that's like a red flag. You need to say, okay, I need to be careful here. Yeah, I need to really, really, really be conservative. Then after that, you know, Warren Bargil, Lutsenko, Carlos Rodriguez and Vlasov join. I mean, those eight riders, that's like top, top, top of the world. And Quinn is so strong that, for example, when Stutter went on that steep climb, he was the guy who tried to close it down. I mean, at that point I think he should probably have a little bit more, be more cold blooded and say, okay, hey, it's still far to go. I'll let company Art because you know, company Art is going to take his tempo and he's going to come back, you know, especially after seeing how good he climbs yesterday on Super Boniera. Right. So there's still.
- [14:07]
Bradley Wiggins
Do you know what? It was actually funny, Johan watching Tim away, I was reminded, I was reminded of my teenage years watching Ludo Derrickson, God, you know, rest in peace, who died this year, win in a very similar manner in the Belgium championship jersey. Yeah. And it's, it's always a special to win as national champion in the Tour, isn't it, man?
- [14:27]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, it's. I, I think, I think it's.
- [14:29]
Bradley Wiggins
To display that jersey is incredible.
- [14:30]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now for, listen, for Tim Wellens, this is, this is great. You know, this is, this is amazing. But to win it in the, in the, we call it the drinkler, you know, the tricolors. It's, it's. I mean, I think it's probably one of the best championship jerseys in the peloton. And yeah, yeah, you're right. Ludo Didrickson won. I. Was it 2000 or 1998?
- [14:53]
Bradley Wiggins
I think 99, maybe. 99.
- [14:55]
Johan Bruyneel
99, not 98. 99 or 2000.
- [14:58]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah.
- [14:59]
Johan Bruyneel
Also a solo attack, I think about 30, 35K from the finish he was riding for Lampre.
- [15:06]
Bradley Wiggins
Yes.
- [15:07]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, yeah.
- [15:09]
Bradley Wiggins
Do you remember the last Belgium. The last rider to win in the Belgium National Champions jersey in the Tour de France.
- [15:17]
Johan Bruyneel
Probably wild von aert von von too. Yeah, Walt Von Art Mont Von too. Wow. Yeah, yeah, wow. Yeah, that was, that was vintage. I mean that was the world in his prime. You know, he won a big mountain stage. He won the time trial and a bunch on the schnauzer. That's crazy.
- [15:34]
Bradley Wiggins
Prime.
- [15:34]
Johan Bruyneel
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. But also, I mean, Bradley, you know what we see is, I mean this is how much all of this has changed and how much the level of everybody is unbelievably high. Like a stage like today. Normally, let's say you have those four or those eight riders, right? That's like, normally that's like game over. Everybody knows, okay, these eight guys are gone. We're done, we're done. We're just, you know, sitting up. Nobody.
- [16:02]
Bradley Wiggins
And you roll up, you know, you'd have rolled in 20 minutes down.
- [16:06]
Johan Bruyneel
Exactly.
- [16:07]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah. Yeah.
- [16:09]
Johan Bruyneel
And here, here we still have, you know, the, because the, the group behind, behind them, I mean, like Philippe, I mean they came back very late in the stage. You know, they just keep going.
- [16:22]
Bradley Wiggins
Incredible. It's amazing how, how much it has changed, you know. Yeah. When you think that this whole Tour de France so far, the break that has got the most time in a breakaway to the finish line is probably the day Ben Healy. Was that right? Was that probably, probably that was. You know, they rolled in four minutes down. Yeah.
- [16:42]
Johan Bruyneel
I mean. Yeah. And at some point, at some point I think they got like five minutes, five or six minutes. But no break has gotten like a lot of time. We'll see what happened. But I mean, the way this is going, the. There's, there's in theory there's two other stages where a breakaway can, can go. I mean a part of mountain stages of course, but you know, like the two other stages that could be a breakaway breakaway day. And I'm, I'm gonna guess they're not going to get, get a lot of time. They're going to have the really, really fight for it. You know, before we go on about Tim Wellance, I want to talk about Ketone iq, our presenting sponsor. It's widely known that ketones are very, very used now in the peloton in many endurance sports. It's been scientifically proven that ketones boost athletic performance. In a placebo controlled study with trained athletes, Ketone IQ boosted average spin per hour by 19% peak power by 13%, cut fatigue by 10% and spiked blood ketones five times in just 20 minutes. On top of that, they've discovered that ketones help for a faster recovery. Very much needed in a Tour de France. Ketone IQ recently teamed up with team Visma Lise bike and with the University of Leuven to explore recovery and high altitude adaptation. The key findings, improved blood flow, higher muscle oxygenation for better endurance and stamina. So take your shot. Get 20% off your order@ketone.com the move and use the code the move at checkout. So that's ketone.com the move with the code the move Tim Wellens. Let's talk about him for, for, for probably for the rest of the show because you know, we, he's in that break. He goes with 44 kilomet the finish. And as we said, you know, he, he, he basically he went and at that moment I, I heard an interview of Victor. Did you hear the interview of Victor Campenaert after the finish? He said, you know, Tim Wellens, you know, he says as soon as he knew that Tim Wellens was there, he said, I'm really getting along with Tim Wellens, you know, off the bike. But on the bike I know he's one of the strongest opponents and also a sneaky and crafty guy in breakaways, which turned out to be the case. The guy knows how to race. Right. I thought, I mean finally, you know, Campenaerts comes in second and he's, you know, he's showing incredible, incredible form. But man, Wellens, he just, he just went faster and faster and faster. And then I just want to talk a little bit about the relationship with Dadepoga. We heard him several times on the radio. Right?
- [19:31]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, yeah.
- [19:33]
Johan Bruyneel
So obviously he got the information that Tim was away.
- [19:36]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah. And yeah, I mean you, you can, you can see that they're, how close they are. I wonder if they're rooming together on this Tour de France. So what, you know, because they seem to have a very, very good relationship. And, and you could see how happy today was that Tim Wellens was off the front. And he said, was it something along the lines zip that Belgium Champs jersey up, show it off?
- [19:59]
Johan Bruyneel
He said, well, what did he say again? Does Tim tell Tim he looks fantastic or something like that? Or I mean it's, it's, it's nice to see, you know, how, how the leader wants one of those loyal, I mean, great teammates to win. You know, how much it means, I mean we already saw early in the first week that today actually wanted Tim to be on the podium in the pocket. I mean, it seems long time ago, but.
- [20:25]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
- [20:29]
Johan Bruyneel
And. And, yeah, I mean, that's actually how con. How much in control UAE is. Right. I mean, we hear today over the radio asking information about his teammate who's up the road. So how nice is that?
- [20:42]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, yeah. Was it their fifth stage win of the race now today?
- [20:46]
Johan Bruyneel
Already won four. Right. So he. Did he win four? Four, I think so, yeah. It's their fifth. Is there? And it's not finished. It's not finished, no.
- [20:59]
Bradley Wiggins
And it's funny, you know, I sort of how in control UAE are now of this race as a team as well. And they seem very calm, collected, and they really recovered well from. They looked a bit disorganized a week ago when they lost Almeida, and we were a bit concerned about them, that they were short on numbers.
- [21:17]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah.
- [21:17]
Bradley Wiggins
But, my God, they've stepped up in the last few days in the Pyrenees. And it helps when you've got a leader like today winning as he does. But. Yeah, Novares. Is that. Is that how you pronounce it? Not advice. Sorry. He. He's. He's excelled without Almeida there.
- [21:32]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah.
- [21:32]
Bradley Wiggins
Tim Wellens has been a rock this last couple of weeks, but Siakov, he was doing a great job in the mountains yesterday. Going back, getting the rain. Capes on the Tourmaline Soleil has stepped up as well. They've all stepped their game up. Neil's Pollard. Yeah, another one. But, you know, that. That's. I think that is also the mark of someone like Taddy, how vocal he is on the radio.
- [21:55]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah.
- [21:55]
Bradley Wiggins
With everyone. He. He makes everyone else feel ten times bigger. And. And. And his demeanor as a leader around those other guys has brought them up. That's a sign of a good leader, isn't it?
- [22:06]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah.
- [22:07]
Bradley Wiggins
And I think sometimes, you know, there is a difference between. Jonas has a different way of leading. Very quiet, very, you know, leads by example on the bike and stuff. But there is. It's just disinterest. There's no right way of leading a team. I think everyone has their own styles, and it's reflective of your personality and your. But Jonas has definitely made everyone around him feel 10ft taller.
- [22:29]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Today. You mean today?
- [22:32]
Bradley Wiggins
Today. Sorry, today? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [22:34]
Johan Bruyneel
No, no, I mean, I think. I think it's. It's. It's the secret of a team with. With a guy, first of all, who's in the yellow jersey, you know, I mean, Bradley, you've been in that situation. You had the yellow jersey and your teammates were in front of you. You know, and especially the last week, man, the last week of a Grand Tour and even in the Tour more. I mean, you know, after two weeks, everybody's dead. They're all super tired. But, you know, there's a difference between suffering and, you know, being in the race and actually, you know, having to undergo what another team decides. And then there's the difference between being the teammates of the leader. They're all suffering, but you look back and you see that yellow jersey in your wheel. It's a different way of suffering. It's different. And, and you can see this, you can see this with uae, you know, I mean, to see if. To me, one of the guys who impresses me the most is Niels Pollard Bradley. I mean, that guy, you know, he was pulling the whole turmoile yesterday and, and guys are, you can clearly see, okay, there's obviously there's many different objectives in the race, but, you know, for a mountain stage, there's probably 20 guys who want to do a good performance and the rest is just hanging in there. And you know, when it really starts to hurt, you know, they're getting dropped or they're looking for a group. But yeah, I mean, with the guy like Pogachar, it's, it's, it's a different. I mean, it's, it's a pleasure to suffer. Yeah, right.
- [24:08]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was going to ask you actually, speaking of leaders, what has been the reaction in Belgium and of Remco's withdrawal from the race yesterday? I've seen a few things on, in the British media and stuff, but more importantly in Belgium, what, What's been the reaction to his withdrawal?
- [24:25]
Johan Bruyneel
I mean, you know, obviously first of all, it's disappointment. Right. Everybody was hoping that he could at least be on the podium again.
- [24:33]
Bradley Wiggins
And of course, I've seen a fair bit of criticism on other networks about his withdrawal and about, you know, really questioning his character as to whether he climbed off too early, whether, you know, he needed someone to just tell him, get on with it and things like that. So that's why I was asking.
- [24:49]
Johan Bruyneel
That's interesting. No, I've seen, I've seen those, I've seen those comments too, even from some, you know, people who are commenting on tv. Ex professional cyclists.
- [24:58]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, I think that's the same one.
- [25:00]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, I, I don't. I mean, listen, there's only one person who knows or, or his team who knows what's going on. And, you know, there's obviously something going on with his, with his fitness, if he's sick or getting sick, whatever, or not recovering, you know, we cannot, I think we cannot judge on that. Listen, the way, the way I can see it, in three days, in a row, really, really having a bad day. I think he did the right thing. I think he did the right thing. It deserves nothing that he stays in the race to be in the Groupetto. I mean, you know, and especially Bradley, the way, the way things that cycling has changed. It's not like, it's not like all of a sudden you're out of GC and you, because you're a little off, you're not even good enough anymore to go and breakaways and try to win the stage. It's the level so high that the stage wins are, Are unbelievably difficult.
- [25:56]
Bradley Wiggins
So look, and, and, and, you know, for all the criticism and people pitching in and saying what they think, no one only, only Remco knows how he's feeling it.
- [26:06]
Johan Bruyneel
Exactly.
- [26:07]
Bradley Wiggins
And, and, you know, who are we to question him, really? You know, he'll make the decision. It's his career, and he'll make the decision. And, and, you know, again, eight weeks from now, nine weeks from now, we could be talking about him as just winning the world title and it's all forgotten, so.
- [26:20]
Johan Bruyneel
Exactly. Yeah.
- [26:22]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah.
- [26:22]
Johan Bruyneel
Well, it, it often, I mean, like, meet big champions and I'm, I mean, and especially guys with a champion mentality, which Remco is right. Sometimes they get knocked down and then they come back like, you know, like, okay, say, wow. You know, this is, this is just amazing. He's that kind of guy, right? I mean, I think a lot depends, especially for the World championships in Rwanda, about Bogachar's intentions, how he recovers. I mean, I'm assuming he wants to go to the, to the World Championships again today to make it two in a row. So.
- [26:56]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wonder, is there any, any possibility he might do the Vuelta?
- [27:05]
Johan Bruyneel
You know, there is. I mean, one thing is for sure. I mean, of course, and it can always change after the Tour, but from the beginning of the year, Jonas has the Vuelta on his calendar. So, yeah, there's been talks. It's not been confirmed, but there's been talks that he was going to do the Vuelta.
- [27:25]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah.
- [27:28]
Johan Bruyneel
I think Poacher is in this, like, to, to, to check out, check off little objectives, you know, so the Vuelta is the only Grand Tour that he's missing right now. He's won the Giro, he's won the Tour, he's probably going to win a fourth time now. So having the Vuelta as soon as possible, but obviously, check that box. And you know, what would be better than doing the Vuelta against his biggest rival? Right? I mean, if, if today goes to the Vuelta and Jonas is not there, well, then, okay, well, it's not, you know, it's not going to be a race. Yeah.
- [28:03]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah.
- [28:04]
Johan Bruyneel
But I personally think he's going to prioritize the, the Worlds.
- [28:09]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah. Speaking of prioritizing, I get the sense that today has had Mont Ventou on his radar for a while now, this last few days. And as we were saying on the main show, you know, there's, if there's one stage you want to have on your Palmares in the Tour de France, it's Mont Ventou, isn't it?
- [28:27]
Johan Bruyneel
One Vontu. It's epic. It's, it's, you know, it's, it's the monster of a climb. And, and as we said in the other, the other day, Bradley, you know, I mean, it looks to me like today has chosen the stages where he has been beaten to make a statement. Yeah, I mean, at least that's, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's, I think it's Vontu and Cold de la Luz. Those are his two main goals, in my opinion, because that's. He got dropped there from Jonas. I mean, didn't lose the Tour, but it was, you know, he was dropped and then called the laws, of course, that he lost the Tour there.
- [29:04]
Bradley Wiggins
So. Do you know what will be interesting, Johan? It's if he has indeed marked Monvantu and in the way he races and he has raced on these climbs all year. Dauphine the other day on Hottest Camp. If he goes early on Montvantou, and I'm, you know, we know how hard that is up to Chalet Renault. I mean, it's in average 10, something like that.
- [29:27]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah.
- [29:28]
Bradley Wiggins
I think, I mean, you can see the possibility of. How much time do you think he could take on 1 von 2 if he goes early, we could be talking minutes. Yeah, but, but it also suits Jonas this climb as well, we have to say.
- [29:40]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah. The question is, you know, is it necessary, it's not necessary to go early. Right. I mean, I've said Bradley since many months, you know, the way Pogaccia is racing this year and the level he has, if he races conservatively and makes no mistakes, there's nobody who can beat him. So I would definitely recommend him to not do anything stupid. There's no need to go from early on and set the fastest time of Ventou because it can backfire. Ventoux is a very strange climb. I mean, we've all done it, but. But to me, it's the climb that it's the most difficult to understand. You have. It's like 10 kilometers, 10%, 9, 10%. You get out of the forest and then you have. You have these seven, six and a half, seven kilometers, where with the wind.
- [30:28]
Bradley Wiggins
Depending on the wind direction as well.
- [30:30]
Johan Bruyneel
You can feel like you're riding against the wall all of a sudden. Yeah, right.
- [30:33]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, yeah.
- [30:34]
Johan Bruyneel
So, I mean, I have no doubt that he can win on Vontu, but he doesn't have to attack early on.
- [30:43]
Bradley Wiggins
He does, he does for our enter.
- [30:49]
Johan Bruyneel
No, I mean, listen, with this guy, it's, it's. It's. It's crazy. But anyway, back to. Back to Tim Wellens. I just wanted to point out also before, I mean, first of all, Tim Wellens win the stage Campenard. Second Julia a la Philippe. You know, he comes back very late, beats Walt Van Aert in the sprint and. And thinks he has won, which was strange to see. So afterwards we hear the. The director say that in the. Since the crash his RA was beat up and didn't have any radio communication anymore. But I mean, that's where you see how much these. I mean, and if you look at the images, right, no radio communication. So he's in that group. Wellens, for example. It's possible he couldn't have seen it, but Company Arts was just in front.
- [31:41]
Bradley Wiggins
No.
- [31:41]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, yeah, but he comes from behind Walt, so it's possible he didn't see him. I mean, what a comeback. I mean, he was. When he. You. You didn't see the. Did you see the crash?
- [31:54]
Bradley Wiggins
I saw the pictures afterwards of him like sitting on the floor. It looked like he did.
- [31:58]
Johan Bruyneel
Holding his shoulder. Yeah, I mean, yeah. But anyway, Tim Valens, I. I did a bit of research. So he is not the first rider in the first person in his family to win into the France state. So his dad. His dad is Leo Wellens. He was a professional cyclist, wrote for some Spanish teams. Then there's Johan Wellens, that's his uncle who was a professional. And then Paul Wellens was the best of the three. So his uncle wrote for Rally, the big rally team. His uncle won two stages in the Tour de France and also won the Tour of Switzerland and many other races. So he keeps the family tradition of winning Tour de France stages open. So anyways, nice, nice, super nice win. Bradley Anything else you want to add?
- [32:54]
Bradley Wiggins
No, no, I think I'm just looking forward to. To Mon Ventou. Now, that's going to be an exciting stage.
- [33:02]
Johan Bruyneel
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, you know, flattish. I mean, you cannot, you can never say flat, you know, because we don't know how. How, you know, up and down it is over there, but, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's. They call it Mono Puerto or Uni Puerto. So just one climb, right? Right. But what a climb. Yeah. I mean, and on top of that, I mean, in the Tour de France, the amount of people there are on the Ventoux. I mean, you. I'm pretty sure you remember the moment you take that left turn, what's it called, the little village, You. You take a left and it's like uphill, like straight, and with people, people, people everywhere.
- [33:42]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah.
- [33:44]
Johan Bruyneel
Before we talk about, I mean, tomorrow's arrest day, but let's do our daily Ventum trivia. Bradley, yesterday's question was about the Tourmalet. The queen of the Pyrenees needs no introduction. The Tourmalet is the most climbed mountain in what year was its first feature in the Tour de France? The answer was 1910. 19. So very early after, you know, seventh edition already went up the road to imagine, imagine what that must have been with those bikes. Bradley.
- [34:16]
Bradley Wiggins
I know it's hard to imagine. That's what's so great about the Tour de France, isn't it, that we still go over this pass and nothing's changed other than the road surface. It's what makes it such a great race. It's the same with one, two, you know, in two days time. Monvantou, you know, it's 60 years this year since Tommy Simpson won the world title. And of course, two years after he won the world title, he lost his life on Montvantou. So, yeah, you know, and we're going up it again, and the riders are going up in the same manner that Tom went up trying to do win the Tour de France. And he lost his life that day. And it's. That's what makes this race so special, is why we love it, is because of the people that have gone before us.
- [34:54]
Johan Bruyneel
Can you imagine in 1910 going up the Turmale with those bikes? So, no derail you.
- [35:01]
Bradley Wiggins
It's hard enough with the bikes today.
- [35:04]
Johan Bruyneel
I mean, it's crazy. It's just unbelievable. Yeah. Question for today, stage 15. Question. Which rider holds the record for the longest successful solo breakaway, starting from Carcassonne in 1940? 7. So in 1947, there was a stage starting from Carcassonne. Who's the writer? Who holds the record for the longest successful breakaway? There's four choices as it's a multiple choice question. A, Louison Bobet, B Albert Bourlon, C Jean Robic and D, Andre Maillet. So one of those four riders has the longest successful solo breakaway. Send your best guess to ventumracing.com themove and you can enter into this year's contest a grand prize of $5,000 store credit towards any Ventum bike you want to purchase. If you don't want to wait until the end of the Tour. Ventum is also offering a standing discount for the remainder of the Tour on the whole site. 10% off with the code the move. 10 and 20% off if you want to purchase an NS1 road bike with the code NS1.20. All right, Bradley, rest day tomorrow. I've heard in the show that you're going to ride up, up Independence Pass tomorrow with your NS1.
- [36:34]
Bradley Wiggins
We're gonna try on my Ventum NS1. Yes. Give it a run out. My only motivation for. My only motivation for climbing Johan is to enjoy the descent back down.
- [36:45]
Johan Bruyneel
That's good. That's good.
- [36:46]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah.
- [36:46]
Johan Bruyneel
Anyway, listen, anybody who has won the Tour de France will go up that climb. I mean, you won the Tour, so you know, as long as you're. You have time and you're not in a hurry, you'll. I'm sure you will. You will have me. You'll have a blast.
- [37:02]
Bradley Wiggins
Yeah, it'll be good.
- [37:03]
Johan Bruyneel
Okay, Bradley, we'll be back for the Monvantu tomorrow, the day after. Thanks. Thanks, man. Every day. And speak soon.
- [37:10]
Bradley Wiggins
Speak soon, man. See you later.