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Where Will Juan Ayuso Race in 2026? | Vuelta a España Week 1 Recap | THEMOVE
00:46:33
Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Jonas Vingegard's dominant performance to win Sunday's summit finish ahead of João Almeida and Tom Pidcock with well-planned and aggressive tactics from his Visma-Lease a Bike team, and what it means for...
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- [00:01]
A
Sorry, sorry. Breaking news. Breaking news. While you're reading the ad. So I'm going to read, I'm going to read this. I just got this. Here it is from Daniel Benson, your friend. Not my friend. Not my friend.
- [00:17]
B
I do like Daniel Benson.
- [00:19]
A
But, but, but he does, I have to say, he does have really good information. And a news flash just came in. Breaking news. Juan I USO on the market. Little track in the frame. Spanish rider is set to move after UAE team Emirates agree to let the rider leave. We're still awaiting official confirmation from all parties, but we understand that Juana Yusu will move teams at the end of the year as several sources have informed us that UAE team Emirates will allow the rider to explore his options on the transfer market.
- [01:01]
B
Everybody, welcome back to the move. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Brunel. We are holding it down at the MOVE headquarters while, while our colleagues are away enjoying their post Tour France vacation. But we're here watching the V every day and we are doing a podcast about it. You can find us on this feed on the move. Plus, we break down every stage and preview the stage before. We'll do a similar format today and then. But we'll talk about some bigger picture themes from the first week. What where we think this race is going, where is Juana USO going potentially? What is going on at uae? Why is Visma so good? All these questions will be answered and then we will Preview tomorrow stage 10. But first, before we do that, let's take a moment to talk about some of our partners that make this show possible. The first one is AG1. I am using AG1 every day, the daily foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole body health. I gave it a try because I was tired of taking so many supplements and wanted a single solution that supports my entire body and covers my nutritional bases every day. I wanted better gut health, a boost in energy, immune system support, and I hate taking pills and vitamins. I, I just won't do it. I'll fall off the wagon. And I wanted a supplement that actually tastes great. I do it every morning. I wake up, first thing I do, I grab my AG1. Sent me a nice little canister. It's in the fridge. I put it right in my little AG1 beaker they sent me. I have it and I get on the treadmill, get, get a few, get 20 minutes of running in right after my AG1. I feel fantastic and I'm covering my nutritional basis for the day. And it's, that's Good because I probably will not eat my greens and I can do it all with one small scoop with water and drinking it right when I wake up. So if you want to try it. Oh also AG1 is leveled up with their AG1 next gen. It's an upgraded formula that has clinically shown to increase healthy gut bacteria by 10, 10 by 10 times. All for the same price of less than $3 a day. Head to drink ag1.com themove to get a free welcome kit including a bottle of vitamin D and five AG1 travel packs a 76 value when you first subscribe. That's drinkag1.com themove Our second sponsor is Ridge Wallet. I hate big clunky wallets. Wallets, I cannot stand them. I, I had one for years though and then I researched the best one to get. What I found is Ridge was the best option. It's uni and modern, has a modern design that holds up to 12 cards plus cash. It comes with premium materials like alum aluminum, titanium or carbon fiber so your wallet can match your bike if you want it to. It also has 50 colors and styles to choose from and they all the products have a lifetime warranty. And right now Ridge is doing a legendary sweepstakes for the only the fifth time ever and it truly is insane. Two lucky winners will get to choose between a $280,000 Lamborghini stock, a hundred in addition to a hundred thousand dollar Hennessy Velociraptor so everyone will think you're a pro surfer or $100,000 in cash. I'm going to be honest, I wish I said this the other day. I wish I, I wish I was the car guy. I think I would take the cash, just invest it, let that grow. But if you want to be cool, you, you take the Lamborghini because there's only 1500 of them that exist. And when you're driving that around town, people will know you're cool. I actually did see someone driving one around town recently road Lamborghini and it looks pretty cool. I said that that guy's probably, he's probably pretty unique if he's got one of those cards cars. So if you want to get on in on this, every dollar it gets you one additional entry. So grab a rich wallet, a power bank, phone case, whatever you need and rack up those entries. When you're ready to upgrade your wallet and maybe a ride for a limited time only, head to ridge.com and use code the move at checkout for 10% off your order and a Chance to win their sweepstakes. No purchase necessary to enter, but every dollar you spend gets you more entries. That's ridge.com the move. And after that you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Say us. Say the move. Because it will help us out. All right, Johan. The VA Stage nine. The. I would say the most impactful GC stage so far. By. By a long shot. We thought nothing would happen. We thought breakaway, some muted GC action because it was a steep final climb that went into. It was like steep for the first half, 8%, then went into like 4 to 2% for the second half. So we thought, well, that's not a great climb for GC action. But no. Little trek pigged it back. I guess. They thought they had a chance of the stage win with Julia Ciccone and then Jonas Finnegaard. He's pretty good, right? He's won two Tour de Frances for a reason. At the bottom of the climb, he said, hey, guys. Hey, Visma, can you lead me out? Think I can do something here? He attacks immediately. I mean, that they. Visma does this genius thing where they have Mato front Jonas second, and everyone else is behind Jonas, so no one can get on his wheel. It means by the time he attacks, he's got 10 seconds immediately. Almeida, of course, not a wizarding positioning wizard was a little out of position, didn't have great team support. He had J Vine, but that was kind of it. Initially loses 10 to 14 seconds. And then by the top of the climb, pretty impressively. Actually. It's impressive that Vindergaard held them off for 10km. It's also impressive that Pitcock and Almeida, the two riders that I guess rose above the chase group, only lost 10 additional seconds after that first surge over 10k. They lost nothing in the last 5km. But Vinegard finishes. 24 seconds in front of Pitcock, Al Maida, 102 in front of Felis Gall, and 146 in front of the chase group of the GC contenders, oddly led by Mark Soler. Almeida's teammate Torsten Train was in that group, though. Try and train. So he's still leading the overall by 37 seconds over Jonas Fendergaard, 115 over Joelameda, 135 over Tom Pitcock, 214 over Felix Gall, with Julio Ciccone kind of sliding down into sixth at 242. But, Johan, what was your take of the day on. On Sunday stage nine? And then what's your big picture take of this race so far?
- [07:02]
A
Yeah, well, I mean, I have several takes on yesterday's stage. First of all, that we were wrong in. In predicting that it would be a breakaway and that the. The climb was probably not steep enough to make differences in gc. That was. That was not correct. Little Trek was actually doing all the work the whole stage. So that was definitely a surprise. They had high, high hopes for Chicone. Turned out that that was a mistake. And then. Yeah. Visma launches Jonas with. With 11k to go before that. Actually, my. My. My surprise. Maybe not my surprise, but still, you know, I. I kind of expected it, but still, it's not until it happens as you actually believe it's happening is Juana, you. So Juana, you saw is just sitting in the bunch, not doing any work, knowing that he's out of gc. Almeida is on good form. The whole team knows that. And the guy just doesn't bother. It's, you know, he just. At the bottom of the climb, he sat up with. With. With sprinters. There was probably 50, 60, maybe 70 guys left. When Almeida, when. When I used to set up didn't try, that was a surprise for me and also a disappointment, I have to say, because, you know, I think. Are you. So as we said, you know, we have. We are not questioning his qualities as. As a writer. What he showed on that stage when is obviously was obviously very nice and also prove that he's not in that terrible shape as he says. We could blame our. You. So, you know, we. We are kind of part of this, you know, exterior part that criticizes Are you so for his behavior. And we don't know exactly. I don't know him personally. We don't know what's going on within the team. But what I do find disappointing is that uae in the situation they are with Joe Almeida and whether he can beat Jonas or not, that's irrelevant. I mean, at least they need to try to stay close as possible. And. And I'm surprised that they do not have the implant influence or impact on a rider like a. To tell him, Juan, okay, today there's no stage win. Today I need you to be. During the first half of this climb with Almeida, even an Ayusu, which is who is not 100% in shape, can do that. The proof is that there were many others of other teams who were there. You know, even Jay vine was there, Grossartner was there. There was other writers there. So that's a disappointment to me. And so I'm. I'm a bit. I'm a bit lost in what's actually going on. Is UAE in the position that they don't have the influence on him or the authority over him? Is Ayuso creating them him this himself to kind of enhance the situation? What everybody thinks that he's not a team player and he wants to leave. We don't know. But for me that was. I mean we saw Jonas winning the stage. Almeida and Pitcock did a great race. But for me the event of the day was the, the attitude of, of Almeida. Of are you so sorry. Yeah. Are you so. And you know, there's a lot of information flying around now. We don't know exactly what's accurate or not, but it is a known fact that, and we've said this already many times here that, that are you so wants to write for himself? I think that's safe to say. We've seen many, many occasions already and, and this is another one, another example of okay, I want to. I want a stage. I want to win another stage. Whatever happens to the team, I don't care. That's one thing. Then does this actually fit into the narrative of does Ayuso really want to create a situation that puts him outside of UAE and they actually let him go? I'm starting to die. I mean a few podcasts ago I said, you know, I don't think are you so is going anywhere. I am starting to have second thoughts on that. I did hear, I mean there are some rumors around that little track may be interested in Iuso as a GC rider. We all know that he has a long term contract and that there's a huge buyout clause in the contract. The fact is that until a few months ago, the agent of Juana you saw was his dad and that a few months ago he hired Giovanna Lombardi as his agent to represent him. So then my thought is if you are a useful, you have this probably really good contract and you have this long term deal until whatever 2029. Why do you need an agent now? You don't need one because everything's supposed to be set already for the next few years. So I think there's something cooking there and I think that what's. So it's difficult to say whether this behavior of a user fits into his desire to leave. If that's the case. If that's the case, then I'm disappointed in the direction of UAE at the race. The guys who are in the car, even the management, they need to. I mean if, if this is really the case that a user wants to leave, I would Send him home. I would say if you don't, if you, if you don't follow these instructions and we are here as team UAE and we want to try to win the Vuelta and I used to behave like this. He's going home now. Maybe Spencer, Sorry, this is the last thing I'm going to say about it. Maybe he will prove us wrong by being an exemplary teammate in the next two stages or in the next mountain stage. I doubt it. But maybe he proves us wrong. Right. So. But for the moment, that's, that's a little bit my, my take on the situation with you. So I think it's, it's, you know, we saw the interview. Actually, the interview he did after the, after the stage was telling. First we saw Almeida being disappointed. He said, he said, literally, I missed my teammates today. But it is what it is, end of quote. Are you so said, well, I didn't have good legs. I'm not in the G. In the GC anymore, so I don't see why I should push it. Just to push it. And at the question of if he could have helped Almeida, he said, push it just to be there five minutes longer. Doesn't make much sense. Literally. Quotes. So, I mean, that's okay. It is in the heat of the action. It is right after the finish, but still, it's, it's. No, it's, it's ridiculous. So I saw Almeida trying to calm the atmosphere afterwards with another quote saying, okay, well, it wouldn't have probably made a much, much difference. But what was telling was that Almeida was super disappointed right after the finish. That's when there's no filter. That's when he really says what he thinks and what he feels. So I think it's not a great atmosphere in UAE between. Are you so. And Almeida.
- [14:34]
B
Well, I woke up this morning out of this big question queued up. I was going to say, johan, would you send Juana you saw home? But you already answered that I would send him home. I would definitely have someone home. Yeah, he's not offering anything if he's not going to work for gc, if he's not in gc, they don't need another stage win. They might as well send him home, like, make an example of him because you have Mark Solaire back there pulling for other riders now.
- [14:54]
A
Well, it's also. Listen, Spencer, the bigger picture is even different. You know, UAE is the best team in the world. Of course they're in here in it to win bike races. But UAE can take the luxury to say, you know, what we don't, we don't want. If we don't win this VTA or if we don't have the podium, who cares?
- [15:14]
B
Exactly.
- [15:14]
A
It does not matter. It does not make any difference. And they are in a position to make a statement to say, hey guys, listen, this is the deal here. If you don't follow the instructions of the team, this is what happens. It would probably, how would I say, they're in a difficult situation because on the one hand I think, and I'm going to say it's probably Martin who got a user to the team who is Spanish, who has a very close relationship to him. He's in between two fires. Right. But, but as a team, I think somebody needs to put their foot down and say, okay, this is, this is the deal. Whoever doesn't want to follow this, that's, it's, there's no place for you and then just see it as a business and say, okay, are you, so you want to leave? Okay, fine, this is, this is the price. And then negotiate. That's what I would do.
- [16:06]
B
And the reason that quote caught me so aghast is the five minute part of that quote because Xiao made it. So he's what, 40 seconds down on Jonas Vinegard after, in going into the first rest day of the vault. If you told him that at the start of the race, they'd bite your hand off to have that deficit to Jonas Vinegard.
- [16:25]
A
And I personally think Spencer, a guy like Ayuso can definitely do. Even if it's. Listen, even if it's one and a half kilometer, one kilometer, it would make a difference. First of all, plus for a user's image and for the atmosphere in the team, that kilometer is worth its length in gold or length in whatever.
- [16:46]
B
Yeah.
- [16:47]
A
And you know, it would be a statement. So yeah, I'm guessing, I'm guessing what's going on. But yeah, from the outside it doesn't look good. And I think the responsibility is on both, you know, but if you know already that you have a rider like I used to, who is an individual rider and, and you know, given he, he also gave a lot to the team. Let's, let's not forget that until, if I'm not mistaken, Spencer, until the last stage of the Tour of Catalunya, Juana, you saw, won almost all of his races since the season started. And then he, he lost the Tour of Catalunya in the last stage. Then, you know, failed at the Giro. Now is not 100 in the tour, but in the Vuelta. But it's still a good rider. But. But I think they. They are. Yeah. I'm disappointed in, in the lack of authority of, of the team management over the situation.
- [17:47]
B
And yeah, I, I am like shocked actually at the lack of management. But you say a kilometer? That's all Almeida needed. That's all he needed because all the damage was done in the initial attack. If he's. If he has a teammate that keeps him on Jonas's wheel and then Jonas is up there on the. On the bumper of the motorcycle for.
- [18:07]
A
Not even, not even this. Spencer, I think, you know, you can understand that Almeida initially loses that time because it's the steeper part. He loses the 10 seconds. But if, if, if a. Stays with Almeida and drags him for a kilometer, when the. The steep part is finished, he just does 1km and Almeida's on the wheel. That's enough to give him that breeding room to make his search, as Almeida can do. And once he's on Jonas's wheel when the steep part is over, he's not dropping him anymore. Yeah.
- [18:41]
B
And in fact, he put up. He put 10 seconds into Jonas in the last kilometer.
- [18:45]
A
Yeah.
- [18:45]
B
Which. Imagine if they go into that together.
- [18:47]
A
Okay, listen, Spencer, we're analyzing this as of today after this stage. Right. Let's not forget that ultimately it will probably not matter because there's so many steep climbs that the way Jonas is going now, I think it's going to be extremely difficult for him to not win this Vuelta and it won't matter. Right. But as for now, we're nine stages in and this is the situation. And I think it was a mistake from Ayuso and a mistake from the team management to not have the authority over a rider like Ayuso.
- [19:18]
B
I. Yeah, I have some thoughts about Jonas in this race and where it's going, but we'll do that after an ad break. But before we do that after. I thought that was one of the most impactful first kilometers of a climb I've ever seen for a writer's career. Because after that, you can never take him to the Tour de France with Teddy Pagacha. Right. How could you? I don't trust him.
- [19:38]
A
I don't think they're gonna ride together. I think after the 2024 Tour de France was last year. Right. I think that's, that's, that's over. They're not going to race together as long as Bogacha is going full gas for the Tour. I don't think. Are you so will be in it unless he. I don't know if he's. Whatever signs with his. I don't know how he has to sign anyway. Even if he signs it, I don't think it would. It would matter.
- [20:06]
B
I think he has to leave then.
- [20:08]
A
Right.
- [20:08]
B
You can't really have a rider like that on your team who just can't race with your best writer. And also think about Pagacha. Do you know what Pagacho is doing at the 2024 0? This is the best rider of all time who was trying to win the race. And he was leading out his sprinter at that race.
- [20:23]
A
Yeah.
- [20:23]
B
While he was juggling gc. So in A's mind, he even exceeds Pagatra's level of protectedness, I guess. Which.
- [20:33]
A
Yeah.
- [20:34]
B
I just don't know how you could have someone like that on your team.
- [20:37]
A
It's not just. It's not just in the actions, Spencer. I mean we've seen Pogacha already do really nice things for teammates, but it's also in the behavior and the attitude. You know, you saw how unbelievably worried, forgot and. And given it's for his own interest also because he needed Almeida in. In the Tour. But he was so preoccupied by the state of Almeida. You know, how he was after the crash. And I have never heard words like that from a. The. As we said already, his interviews are about him on whether he is bad or if he's good. It's not often about the team. And that's. That's the big difference.
- [21:24]
B
Why would UAE hold on to him? That's the part I don't fully get. Like, what's the downside of just.
- [21:29]
A
I think it's. I think it's Macin. You know, having discovered a. I mean discovered. I mean it's not. There's not really much discovery because he's been. He's been great since he started racing. So it was clear that he was. He was. But it's his. I think it's his personal relationship with. With Ayuso and with his family, which puts him in a difficult spot. Not easy to manage. But still, you know, when you're in that position, you're at some point you have to take or make difficult decisions and I think this is one that they should make.
- [22:02]
B
Yeah, I agree. And where do you. Where would that landing spot be if he leaves?
- [22:06]
A
Well, it looks like it's Little track. If I can read, if I can believe the, the. The social media and the reports, it would make sense. You know, Little has definitely invested a lot in. In cycling. A lot more they're wanting to become one of the two, three super teams, which there are already. That would make sense. Now. Does that mean that they can. They. Can they manage him? We don't know. So, I mean, are you. So is definitely a writer who's interesting, but how manageable is he and which team is willing to take that on?
- [22:48]
B
And you're going to spend a lot of money taking them on is the. Is the problem.
- [22:52]
A
Yeah. Well, I think it's only one. There's only one. And I don't think. I don't think. I don't. There's not going to be any. Any buying out. I think it's. It's. It's just a matter of are you so. Or. Or Lombardi finding is out and then another team if. If there's a negotiation in buying him out. I don't think that's gonna happen. No, that's gonna. That's not gonna happen.
- [23:18]
B
Yeah. I mean, my personal. I don't know if he thinks he's playing a clever game like I'm boycotting work until you let me go, but I have to imagine yesterday was not helpful to his market rate like that. If you're little Trek and you're thinking about investing a lot of money into them, that would concern me. Here's an interesting thing because you say ice is really good. 8th, 8th and pro wins this year. And he basically didn't race all summer. That's really impressive. Little check though, as two riders win more than him.
- [23:47]
A
They've.
- [23:48]
B
They have Mads Pedersen in third, Jonathan Milan in seventh. It's not exact. It's like this team isn't exactly hurting for riders that can win, but they're not.
- [23:56]
A
They don't have that kind of ride. I mean, Chicona is similar, I would say, but a use is probably a more complete rider than Tikone or at least you know, he has the potential.
- [24:08]
B
Theoretically. Yeah, that's. That's the thing. It's like, well, you haven't finished a Grand Tour since 2023. He did finish on the podium. The problem I have is do how many top GC riders have had a point young early in their career where they've just like they let the rope go, you know, like even Mika Land is at this race, like fighting for gc. The guy could easily sit up and go for stage wins.
- [24:32]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [24:33]
B
So that. That concerns me. But let's take a quick ad break and then we'll talk about Visma, we'll talk about Tom Pitcock. Some of the bigger gc implications. But this, this partner is one of my favorite products I think in the world. Elements spelled Element T. It's a drink mix for hydration. Drink mix with electrolytes, 1,000 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, 60 milligrams of magnesium, no sugar, no gluten, no artificial ingredients, no bs. The real deal, it is fantastic. I cannot recommend it enough. It was getting us through these the sweaty days in the basement in Aspen during the Tour de France. They also have the Element sparkling, a bold 16 ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water. It has very few calories, no sugar. It tastes fantastic. I think this could be everyone in the in the world should be drinking this can. It's delicious and it's good for you and Element. If you, if you want to try it out, you can because they offer a sample pack for for listeners of the move with their most popular flavors. Citrus salt, raspberry salt, watermelon salt, orange salt. Two packs sticks of each, two pack two six stick packs of each flavor. This offer is available for new and returning customers and it's exclusively available through partners like the Move. And the best part is they offer no questions on refund. So if you do, if you do order this and you don't like it, you don't even have to send it back, they will just refund you. Just give it to a friend right now. You can try this out at Drink Element spelled out like the letters lmnt.com themove find your favorite element flavor or share it with a friend. Be sure to try the Element sparkling. And again that's drink element.com the move the next partner Helix Sleep As I said on the last show we did, I don't even know the days of the week, maybe that was Saturday. Helix. I have a Helix mattress. I got it through the Helix Sleep quiz. So you think man, they've got a lot of mattresses. I don't know which one to get. We'll just go onto the website, take the sleep quiz. It will tell you exactly what you need. But I was away from home all summer not sleeping nearly as well as I do on my Helix mattress. I got home and my Garmin told me the sleep was back to extremely high quality. I was excited to be home. It was, it makes me want to get back from vacation center. That's how good a Helix mattress is. And right now it's labor day and you can take advantage of their labor. 27 off orders on the site go to helixsleep.com themove. Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. That's helixsleep.com the move. All right, Johan, I was thinking after this stage, I was like, wow, Jonas Vinegar's pretty good, huh?
- [27:14]
A
Spencer. Sorry, Sorry. Breaking news. Breaking news while you're reading the app. So I'm going to read. I'm going to read this. I just got this. Here it is.
- [27:25]
B
From.
- [27:27]
A
Daniel Benson, your friend. Not my friend. Not my friend.
- [27:31]
B
But I do like Daniel Benson.
- [27:33]
A
But, but, but he does, I have to say, he does have really good information. And. And a news flash just came in. Breaking news, Juana, you saw on the market Little Track in the frame. Spanish rider is set to move after UAE team Emirates agree to let the rider leave. We're still awaiting official confirmation from all parties, but we understand that Juana Yusu will move teams at the end of the year as several sources have informed us that UAE team Emirates will allow the rider to explore his options on the transfer market. Contrary to some reports, the rider has not signed with Little Track, although the American team are very much in the market for the stage. Rating specialist Auso has a contract until the end of 2028, but a 100 million euro buyout clause was in place. It is unclear, but also very unlikely that UAE team Emirates will look to enforce this clause. Earlier this summer, Ayuso recruited the services of Giovanni Lombardi in order to help facilitate a possible move away from UAE Emirates at the end of the season. Right now, it's understood that while Ayuso is free to move, he still has officially to sign a contract with Little Track or any other team linked to his name. Movistar and Astana are also in the running at this point. So that's just. That just came in while you were reading the ad. So.
- [28:59]
B
Interesting. Interesting. Daniel tends to have very good information. Is. I don't. I don't want to. I. I think he has very good relationships with the. With a lot of agents, which means it's. You sometimes have to read between the lines, but this is pretty clear. I think he's probably right. Is this. Who won it? Like, did he win? Did he make UAE say uncle? Or they just decided this isn't gonna work?
- [29:24]
A
I haven't, I haven't. I mean, I haven't seen any. This just, just came in, so. I don't know.
- [29:30]
B
Crazy. It's wild. That happened as we recorded. I'm glad we picked this recording time. It didn't miss that. I have to say, I'm not shocked. I wonder what the rest of his schedule will look like. Like, will he race?
- [29:42]
A
He definitely. He goes to the Worlds, so I think he's racing. This is another. This is another thing that I could foresee, Spencer, is that Juana, you does two weeks of the Vuelta calls it quits to prepare for the world championships. Not excluding that at all.
- [29:59]
B
Do you think he's going to go to Lombardia? Because P is going there, presumably.
- [30:03]
A
For sure not.
- [30:05]
B
Okay.
- [30:07]
A
He'S not going. If Bugacha is riding, he's not going.
- [30:10]
B
Yeah, I don't think so. Interesting. Well, well, there. There we have. It looks like he's going to. I am curious to see if he ends up at little track Movistar or Astana. I would not rule Aston out. That actually would be. I would like that move for them. They don't really have a writer that fits that profile. But Jonas Vinegar pretty good. He just dominant dominates here. The thing that most impressed me is this wasn't pre planned. He came up with this on the fly. He saw all the. All the pieces in place. Like steep launch point. If I can hold. If I can get a gap, I can probably hold him off. My biggest rivals, Rala Maeda, not great at positioning. I just saw Juana, you so sit up. I think he doesn't have anyone to help him recover from this attack.
- [30:52]
A
He.
- [30:52]
B
He asks over the radio, can someone. Can someone lead me out? Mateo goes right now. He goes.
- [30:58]
A
Yeah.
- [30:58]
B
And then they. They do it. It works. He just looks incred. He looks better than everybody else here. Unscientific analysis, I know, but he's just very good and he's better than the rest. And he doesn't even look physically a key. That looks physically good. Right. But doesn't look like on another planet, like Tom Pickock finished 24 seconds behind him on a summit finish. And he's just able to use the. He's like Jason Bourne. He can use the resources around him to fend off and attack whenever he needs to. But did you know, I was thinking, I was like, wow, Jonas is. He's pretty rider. Do you know how many Tour de Frances there wins there are in this peloton? Besides, he like, he has two. Do you know how many more there are sitting out there in this group?
- [31:43]
A
Well, I know at least one other one. That's Bernal.
- [31:52]
B
That's it. It's just the one. Yeah. So he has double the amount of Tour wins personally than the rest of the peloton combined at this race. And there's only Three other Grand Tour winners in this peloton. And I thought it started to show at the end of that first week. Like there's winners and there's the rest. And there's a reason the guys that win Grand Tours win Grand Tours because they're just better at taking advantage of moments like that. Yeah.
- [32:16]
A
So one of them, One of them is Jay Hindley, who won the Giro. And who's the other one?
- [32:20]
B
Yeah, it's actually, it's fun. Little thing to think. I couldn't get it right, by the way.
- [32:23]
A
Let me, let me, let me guess.
- [32:25]
B
Bernal's one.
- [32:28]
A
Yeah, Bernal. Bernal's 1. J. Hindley is another one.
- [32:31]
B
And it's right in front of your face. It's. I. I couldn't think of this one. I had to look it up. He's on Jonas's team.
- [32:42]
A
Oh, Sepkus.
- [32:43]
B
Sepkus.
- [32:44]
A
Yeah, Sepkus. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [32:46]
B
So there's four Grand Tour winners at this race. Not looking back with the predictions, it's like, maybe Jonas was a pretty good pick to win the overall. This guy's very good. Having said that, I don't know if this is over because as we talked about, Ameda was really good, you know, and, you know, I don't think we've talked about him yet. Tom Pitcock, what a ride from that guy.
- [33:07]
A
That's. That's the right, that's the right of the Vuelta for now. I mean, in terms of, in terms of GC aspiration. I mean, Pitcock said before the Vuelta that, you know, his ambition was to be top 10. Right now he looks, I mean, yesterday he was able to follow Almeida and, and even closing in on Jonas. The question is, you know, how can he maintain it during three weeks? The Vuelta is different than, other than, than the Tour and the Giro. You know, once you're there, it's about the form of the moment. Right? I mean, it's. There's so many guys who, who are there just, you know, to be there. And that's looks good for Pitcock, man. I mean, I have to say, hats off to, you know, like, make a statement like that. He never done it before. He's never. Has he ever been top 10? I don't think so.
- [33:55]
B
No, he's never been top 10.
- [33:58]
A
And so. And on top of that, I would, I would assume that he didn't follow a specific, or at least not a long term preparation to get ready for this Vuelta. You know, he did mountain biking a while ago, World cup race, and so, yeah, he looked good. Man, he looked really good. He's looked good since the beginning of the, of the Vuelta, but he looked specifically good yesterday. And, and yeah, and you're right, Spencer, you know, to, to get a little bit of hope for the rivals of Jonas. Right. Not that it can change, but you know, yesterday, you know, the, the obviously it's a pure, it's a net WIN For Jonas, 24 seconds, I think, in the end. But he only took 14 seconds in the last 10 kilometers. Yeah, he got, he got that first gap of 10 seconds in that one kilometer surge and then he only took five seconds in the last 7K and he lost time in the last 5K. So, okay, that's something that as a rival of Jonas, you would say, okay, this is something to grasp a little bit of positive hope on it. It may not matter in the end, but it's not that dominant as we could expect. But also, you know, the climb was hard in the beginning and then was more rolling at the end. Ayuso and Pitcock were two riders. The Garak versus Jonas by, by himself.
- [35:29]
B
So it took Pitcock a while to be able to. I don't think he was holding back. Almeida was yelling at him. But it's like this. You could. That guy's on the limit.
- [35:37]
A
No, he was on the limit. I think he took a pull whenever he could. It's normal that I use. Almeida is frustrated. That's in the heat of the action. But I think, I think bitcoin did what he could whenever he had the opportunity to take a pull. He did.
- [35:53]
B
Yeah. And these gaps are, I mean, also Torsten Train still in the race lead. I mean.
- [35:58]
A
Yeah, let's talk about him. Spencer, I have this. We can, we can put up this picture here of Thorsten Train. Gabriel can put it up 20, 22, being in the hospital after surgery for testicular cancer. Three years later on the podium in the red jersey of the Vuelta Espana. That's quite something. I mean, it looks a completely different guy also, I mean, like three years ago he looked like a kid.
- [36:25]
B
I know.
- [36:27]
A
And, but yeah, what a story, man. I mean, listen, he's not, he's obviously he's not going to win the Vuelta, I think it's safe to say, but every day is a bonus for him. And yeah, the way he's defending and the way Bahrain is reeling around him and supporting him is quite remarkable. Yeah.
- [36:46]
B
And I heard, I'm kind of in disagreement. Someone said yesterday, oh, it's not like a good, it's not indicative of climbing form. There's a tailwind. But I kind of thought yesterday was like a laboratory because you couldn't hide at all. I think we're looking at the best riders. I think it's Jonas Almeida Pidcock and then Felix Galls a little bit behind them. And then everyone else is bunched up, including Torsten Train. I have to imagine Visa was pretty excited that he's in the leader's jersey on the first rest day. I even. I don't think this was intentional, but you could see, like, Sutku's taking polls in the Train group. I'm like, is he trying to keep him in the race lead? Like, this is. And Visma too. I mean, I can't say enough. Like, it was obvious yesterday. You just look at Visma versus UAE and you can see why Visma has had success at this race in uae, at least in the GC sense. Maybe not doing the best they can.
- [37:40]
A
Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
- [37:41]
B
Yeah. And on the other writers, like Julia Chacone that he. I don't think we said this. He responded to Vindegaard. That was impressive and shows bravery. I think he paid for that quite a bit on the rest of the climb. Because he did.
- [37:56]
A
You see, it popped.
- [37:57]
B
It was like.
- [37:58]
A
Yeah. No, he exploded completely. And. Yeah. Paid for it. And lost. Lost a considerable amount of time. It's the proof that, you know, you don't know how good you are until it really matters. And you know, if. When you're 95, you're. You feel great and then all of a sudden you're 99 and you say, oh, this. This is not good.
- [38:19]
B
Yeah. And I mean, he's kind of. He's already in sixth. I think we tipped him for the podium. Maybe we got excited, but started to look.
- [38:28]
A
It starts to look not so good anymore.
- [38:30]
B
No. And we have a lot of the same. So, like, it's steeper climbs going forward, but it's a lot of these stages where they kind of roll along, they go to a climb, they climb up real fast, and then we have a time trial near the end of the race. I think we saw the three strongest riders in the gc and we'll continue to see that.
- [38:49]
A
I agree. Felix. Felix Gal is up there also with those guys.
- [38:52]
B
Yeah. Kind of lurking and.
- [38:54]
A
But. But that thing is that it's not.
- [38:56]
B
A great time for him.
- [38:58]
A
The Tour, you know, Pitcock should be fresher. So, yeah, I think it's going to be those four guys.
- [39:07]
B
Yeah. And then you have quiet. A quiet competition. Giulio Pelizari, 27 seconds in front of Matthew Riccatello for the white jersey. That's interesting to me because I've put money on Riccatello for the white jersey. We know him, we know his family and he's American.
- [39:24]
A
So I still think Cricutello is getting it. On the steeper climbs he's. He's in the advantage.
- [39:30]
B
I agree. And then I guess that time trial. But I think he's going to be heavily advantaged on these steeper climbs. He's built specifically for it. His team has him targeting this race because it makes sense for him. But anything else, Johan, before we go to predict tomorrow's stage, I think we've.
- [39:48]
A
Covered pretty much everything.
- [39:49]
B
No, Yeah, I think it did it. I just can't say how surprised I was that it exploded so much on a stage that I didn't think it would. And a part of that is little Trek controlling it for Visma. We will talk about that in the preview, but we probably won't see that again for the rest of this race.
- [40:09]
A
Yeah.
- [40:10]
B
Well, our last partner of the day before we get into the prediction, Johan, is a product used by Team Visma, Lisa Bike, who we've been talking about, and that's Ketone iq. Visma has been using it to boost athletic performance as well as increase and optimize their recovery, which showed yesterday they just looked better than everybody else. And in placebo controlled studies with trained athletes, they found that boosted average spin power by 19%, peak power by 13%, cut fatigue by 10% and spiked blood ketones five times in just 20 minutes and aided faster recovery. That looks obvious looking at them. They have two key products that I would recommend checking out. The Ketone IQ classic shot. High performance energy, 10 grams of ketones and no sugar or caffeine. And if you need a little bit more, the Ketone IQ plus caffeine shot. Five grams of ketones. Ketones with a hundred milligrams of caffeine from green tea. We were using both of these during the tour and as Gabriel, our producer noted, he did not feel tired after using them, which that mid afternoon wall will hit you. Coffee will not help you out of it. That's where Ketone IQ can really help. So take your shot, get 20% off your order@ketone.com the move and use code the move at checkout for 20% off. Well, Johan, tomorrow more of the same. This would be really annoying. I feel like you got a rest day. You have a summit finish. Rest day. Oh, guess what? Another summit finish. It's just a Little bit harder than the one you just did, and you don't know how your body's going to react. 175 kilometers. We were not in the Pyrenees on stage nine, but now we're going back to the Pyrenees. Is that correct geography, Johan?
- [41:52]
A
I mean, yeah, kind of.
- [41:56]
B
That's what we're shooting for.
- [41:57]
A
It's. This is. These are climbs that are not known. I mean, I. I had not heard about this climb yet. I don't know if they've done it already in the past, but. Difficult. Difficult to predict. Spencer, you know, we. It. It looks quite similar to yesterday's stage. We predicted a breakaway. I'm gonna think the same. You know, it's. It's not in the interest of. I mean, as. As long as Jonas is not in red and Dorsen Train can stay in red, it's great for them, and a breakaway would serve that purpose.
- [42:37]
B
Yeah.
- [42:37]
A
So I'm gonna go breakaway. I'm gonna go breakaway. Difficult. Difficult to. To. To predict the breakaway, but do you want me to.
- [42:46]
B
To read the odds and then you can tell us who?
- [42:48]
A
Yeah, so, yeah, go ahead.
- [42:49]
B
Jonas Finnegaard's the favorite, plus 350. I criticized that last time. His favorite status. I won't do that again. The rest of the race want to use a second. Plus 500. Jay vine, plus 800. Tom Pickock plus 1600. Joel. I made a plus 2000. Pablo Castrillo plus 2000. Julia Ciccone plus 2200. Then my favorite, Marco Frigo, plus 2500. I. I agree. I think it's breakaway, but who do you think is going to win from this breakaway, man?
- [43:18]
A
I mean, imagine I usually goes in the break. I was just gonna say that it's. It. It is. Yeah, it is likely. I'm gonna go Jay. Fine. All right. Jay vine, you know, king of the mountains, still needs it. Still wants to gather some points. So, yeah, Jay vine for the win, plus 800.
- [43:40]
B
I. I don't hate that. I think that could. Could very well happen. I'm going to go Juana, you. So I think. I think he's going to be in this break. I know we've. We've done the ISO. Vine 1, 2, and it's not worked out. I think it's going to work out tomorrow. So you're going Vine. I'm going. I use. So one of those two guys.
- [43:58]
A
If.
- [43:59]
B
If they're away on that final climb, it's hard to imagine anyone else beating them. So I. I think that's a safe bet. But if Someone else does beat them. Who do you think it could be?
- [44:09]
A
Jonas from the. From.
- [44:12]
B
From the G. And I think it's a steeper climb. I do like to pick quite a bit because it's steep all the way. It's actually not steep in the final kilometer.
- [44:20]
A
So I think if Visma wants to win and Jonas wants to win, he's winning tomorrow.
- [44:28]
B
I. I agree. Or. Yeah, I think he probably wins out of the G. I think he. He probably puts time into GC guys again, I do think it's hard to imagine because if they pull it back, it's been a hard day. Hard, fast racing, and then it's going to be hard on the climb. Jonas can probably drop everybody and win. I was humbled a little bit yesterday watching him. I was like, yes, guy is really good at racing bikes. Maybe we should pick Jonas Vinar more often. But I'm gonna go wild card. Marco Frigo, plus 2,500. He was the only. The only people who could even remotely match Iuso the other day. He's. So I'm gonna go him. He's due a win here.
- [45:04]
A
Plus 2,500. That's. That's. That's pretty good.
- [45:08]
B
Yeah, I. You will get stages where guys like Marco Frigo win. It's just a question of if it's tomorrow. And do you. I mean, it's such a unique situation Visum's in because they're putting time into their rivals and not taking the jersey. Like, how rare is that? Where. Yeah, it's like Train is the perfect guy to have that jersey for them.
- [45:28]
A
For sure.
- [45:28]
B
They might not press it and take it back tomorrow. I mean, now they are getting to territory where they don't really have to do much for the rest of the race because they have a lead going into the time trial. Maybe they want more padding, but it's. There's not a lot of pressure on them for the rest of this race.
- [45:45]
A
Yeah.
- [45:47]
B
All right, Johan, anything else before we take off?
- [45:49]
A
No, that's it. I'm my last day. Last day in Belgium, as you see, Very nice weather. It is very, very nice tomorrow going back to Spain. So we'll be back tomorrow. It's going to be a bit late later than today because I travel in the afternoon and then we'll have to do it in the evening, but we'll be back tomorrow with more.
- [46:09]
B
I think you're safe just watching that final climb, but I will be monitoring the race, letting you know if you missed anything, and we will speak tomorrow.
- [46:16]
A
Okay, thanks. All right. Bye.