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Welcome to Beyond the Coverage. I’m Chris her and today’s edition, I’ll call it part three. Why not? There was already part one, a part two, and I saw some of the viewers left in their comments that, “Hey, Chris, are you biased to Tad Pagotch? Part one and part two were giving stories on how Tad Pagotch could lose the tour to France if the three other big teams from Rimco, from Yonas, and from Primos, Rogich work together.” Now, those comments said, “Why don’t you do a part three that helps Teddy Bagotcha?” Well, first off, you don’t need a part three to help Todd Pagotchar because if Todd Pagotchar is wise and he is getting wiser as he gets older, but if he is wise, he looks at part one and part two and he says, “Hey, don’t be a knucklehead. That’s all I got to do. Thank you from beyond the coverage.” Chris her, I appreciate that help. I won’t be a knucklehead. I won’t tack from a 100 kilometers out and try to win one of the stages like stage nine of last year’s 24 Tour to France. I’ll keep my powder drive and dry until my teammates bring me into closer to the final. the last 10 15% or something like that of a cl of a stage and then I’ll go up on the final mountain stage and I’ll win the tour to France kind of like Chris Froom style right but we all know that’s a little bit boring so we love knuckleheads there’s no doubt about that but if you’re a viewer and you left a comment that says I’m biased to tell you pagotcha well you’re wrong because stages because part one and part two like I said if you got any kind of racing intelligence you understand that part one and part two was set up to help the three teams there battling against UAE team emerg Gotcha. But you just flip flip the switch. Flip the switch. And if you’re tied up, a gotcha, you go, “Oh, okay. Don’t make those mistakes. I’ll be good.” Okay. So now today’s part three that we’ll call it will be UAE team Emirates. They got a team of eight riders showing up. Five are super doses there that can climb into the mountains for Totty Paga. But some of those five when we’re looking at the favorites. Almeida the super doastig just got done winning tour to Swiss won Roman and won the bass country here in 2025 but I’ll use his words when we describe his form from Tor of Swiss because he says his form is not at his top top level so I’ll use that so no one can argue with me because he said it himself and I’ll agree with Almeida to say to Swiss 2025 was not a spectacular performance and I’ll go back into 2024 to Swiss where him and Adam Yates Yates both delivered spectacular performance where they dropped the whole Pelaton stage after stage and Adam Yates and Almeida split wins. Now remember, you can’t leave me a vicious comment about his form being not not a top top form for Almeida because he said it himself. So I’m disagreeing with him. But let’s dissect the 25 Tour of Swiss. First off, stage one I’ve brought up in parts one and two. UAE team members were a knucklehead and they messed up the tactics and they let brakes go up the road. Cameras came on, two riders in the back group getting dropped already when the cameras came on as a short stage. 130 140 km if I remember correctly. Two riders dropped early. One rider Gartner in the front group. One rider crashed. Yan Christian Swiss rider and would have been a super domestic there for Almeida if he hadn’t crashed. But with the one up and the two in the back and one crash and that’s four out of seven riders doesn’t leave much help for Almeida. They didn’t pull Gartner back and they slowed the group down way for the two to get dropped and come back. So, UAE ET Emirates made a mistake there and let that group get out there with Ben Oconor in it who in stage one, you never know exactly what kind of form Ben Oconor has. Ben Oconor has done some remarkable racing in Grand Tours when we go into tour Swiss, he kind of fell apart. He didn’t deliver good. But the big mistake from the other teams, well, they didn’t do what I said to do on part one and part two, which was to race against UAE Emirates. So if you look at Almeida there to Swiss, I saw FDJ pulling Almeida around. I saw post picnic NL pulling Almeida around. Seen him win some stages too against Almeida too, but it was a sprint finish uphill sprint finish that they won when I’m talking about Oscar only. So they spent time on the front pulling Almeida around and they spent time pulling on the front when Almeida dropped everyone on stage four solo and gained some time back. So after you start seeing that stage four, maybe from stage one you say, “Well, maybe it’s not on the sharpest on form.” So maybe FDJ riding the front controlling the stuff trying to keep things together for Roman Gregoire. That’s a reason to do it. You’re a small team. You’re not going to win to Swiss most likely and you can keep the race leaders jersey for a little bit. But the other guys pulling around when we start looking at K Sam started looking at post picnic l we started looking at Julian Alfleet two door cycling. I remember seeing Julian Alipe on the mountain stages. He put his team on the front. They were drilling it on the front. And Julian Alflee hasn’t climbed with a rider called Almeida or a writer like Almeida since a long time. Leaz best Leaz years back after he crashed. So that was a knucklehead move for multiple teams. Maybe not quite knucklehead, but it wasn’t the smartest of moves because you don’t want to pull Almeida around. So Almeida won tour of Swiss and he won solo in one stage in a dominant TT performance. But still, I agree with Almea’s assessment that he’s not 100% on form. So why did I bring that up? Well, he’s the one of the main lieutenants, if not the second lieutenant, because Adam Yates is on the team, too. But one of the main lieutenants is not on his top top form, which means what? It means when we leave Tor Swiss, you only have 10 days to get ready, plus some of the first week of the Tour to France to sharpen your form up a little bit before we get into the mountain stages, which means that Almeida might not be at its best. Now, we look at Almeida and it’s question mark. I believe he’ll be at his best. So, you know, but he’s not there yet. So, there’s still some work to find. And believe it or not, guys, it’s a little bit harder than sitting on the Chesterfield when you’re trying to find your 100% absolute best form. Even though you’re arriving at the tour to France, it’s not that easy. In fact, Almeida’s form, I think, was only his best form when he won the Bass Country. Bass Country was really good. Romany didn’t didn’t even win a stage at Romany, but still won the general classification with consistency. and at Taurus Twist. Well, they pulled him around a ton and helped him win the stage and he had a couple good days. There’s no doubt about that. But again, he’s not on his best. So, there’s some question marks there for UAE team Emirates. And of course, when we start looking over at Vizmissa bike, there’s some question marks there with a rider like Sept Cus that should be their first, if not their second Super Doo there. So, both teams, Vizmissa Bike and UAE have question marks over riders that are supposed to be their best doses arriving. Although I take Almeida at this point in time cuz you know Taurus Swiss wasn’t that bad. So I love Almeida. You know I do. The diesel engine is fantastic. So let’s go into UAE members and look at who could be their first or second because if Almeida is not their first well that means their first has to be Adam Yates. Now, Adam Yates, same scenario and even more less on form, at least at the last races when we’re talking about the Jurro Deaya. He did the Jurro and on stage 20 called the Finesta when it was EF Education drilling it at the start of called the Finesta, it was male honore on the front, the classic writer. Adam Yates was dropped and all of the all of UAE team members were dropped with the exception of Del Toro who was able to follow the attack from Richard Carropaz. But what I’m saying is when we look at the Jurro, you have to remember Adam Yates was supposed to win the Jurro or he’s supposed to battle for the victory there at the Jurro along with Wanao and both their leaders came up short. Wana I believe might have had some winning quality form but he crashed. Adam Yates had some other issues with not being able to find his top top form there to Jurro. So that’s why I’m trying to explain how difficult it can be to come into the tour of France with your best form. But Almeida says he’s not on his best. And Adam Yates we have not seen his best. In fact, the only thing throughout this season was Tor of Van that Adam Yates won. So we got some question marks around UAE team members, they’re just not very big question marks, but they are question marks because when we look at the Jurro, when we look at the form of Adam Yates at the tour to France, it is the cream de la cream. So this is the highest level. And if you’re getting dropped on stage 20 of cold defenses at dejiro, of course you had four or five weeks to get ready for the tour to France plus the first week of racing at the tour to France. But we haven’t seen him on his top form. That’s how difficult it is to find. So we want to look for that throughout the first 10 stages all the way until we get to that stage 10. Then of course there’s super climbers like Almeida and Adam Yates. We’ll see if they’ve reached their peak peak form once we get on stage 10. And certainly by stage 12 we’ll know better. But we look a little bit deeper there at UAE team emerates at their other superd domestics. Tim Wellins has to be the rider that is clearly on his best form when he left Dolphin A. I have never seen Tim Wellins climb consistently as well as he did at Dolphin A. Yes, I’ve seen him at Milan Center Arena drilling out on the front of the Pelon blowing the whole field up. But here at Dolphin A in 2025, Tim Wellins was at the front in places where I thought he wouldn’t be. So much so that when we look at the first mountain stage, stage six of Dolphin A when Tim Wellins got dropped from the attacks of Viz Malisa bikes where Sept Cush starting them. It was Jorgensson following up and then of course we see that it was Yonas Viggo in there along with Tyd Pagotch up there. But no Civacov up there. It was Tim Wellins and I missed it so much that I thought going up that climb that it was Civikov’s not Tim Wells the whole time. I didn’t even recognize it while I was sitting on the Chesterfield till they got in the valley. Civikov came back to the front and started drilling and I was like, why do they have Civikov on the front through the valley and I had to back the film up to realize that it was Tim Wellins who was climbing exceptionally well. So Tim Wellins could be their third best climber here. Now normally you would think it was Civikov, but you look there at Dolphin A, which wasn’t too long ago and it was Civikov that was having some problems on the climb. So we see Civikov’s having a little bit of climbing problems. It’s going to be a question mark to see whether or not if he can get up there by stage 10 and stage 12 of the Tour to France, but it’s not a question mark on how well Tim Wellins will ride. And the other plus side with Tim Wellins is he’s a classic style specialist, too. So, he should be good for Todd Pagotch on the first stages of two, four, six, and seven, and so on. Those classic stages in the first 10 days. Tim Willins will be a remarkable teammate there for Todd Pagotch. We look at Neils Plet’s the only non-climber on that team. Neils Plet will do the flat stages and of course the classic stages, the first 60 70 80% of those stages depending on what the competition is or what is formed up there in the breakaway that they’re chasing. But Neil Plet looks solid and of course has always done his job and that job is a bit easier to do at times because you can control the amount of effort you need to put on the front of the pelon there assuming you don’t have a star studded break up there that’s going away. Then of course Neil’s plet’s got to go deep and you can’t control that. But there’s always somebody back there that wants to help back there. Even though I told you the first the three main teams that aren’t called UAE team members should never be working there, of course with you with UAE team members, Ty Bagotcha. Okay, we go into Jonathan Narve. Jonathan Narve is a writer that I think will perform much like Tim Wellins where be a classic style specialist, but he can get over some of the bigger clims. And we saw at Dolphin A was having struggles a little bit when we’re getting deeper into the penultimate climbs there at Dolphin A, but he still was able to find his way back on at crucial moments and pull through the valley like we saw with Civikov. And then Tim Wellens went back to work for Todd Pagotch until he lit everybody up. So UAE Emirates are coming in with what of course is going to be a big big team. But when we look at the last rider on the roster, it’s Solair. Thus, Solairism is making the tour to France appearance here for Totty Pagotch. Again, we look at Solair at Dolphin. Well, he was pulling early in those stages. So, he was dropping off when we’re coming into the penultimate climbs, of course, because he had done a huge percent before. Normally, Solair would be a rider that you would save a little bit towards the middle and then into the finish of the stage. So, this tells me that Solair might not be on his best climbing legs there at Dolphin A three weeks before the Tour to France starts. And when you factor in the team list that they have the eight riders total and you see that Todd Pagotch has Adam Yates has Almeida the one and two super do mystics depending on their form and then you start looking at Tim Wellens you got to believe Solair is going to be riding much like we saw at Dolphin a little bit earlier in the stages then they’ll have Jonathan Narve and Tim Wellins come into play and of course saving Adam Yates or Almeida to do the last part of the work. I would expect we see Almeida doing the early parts on the final climb so that he can use his diesel engine real effectively for Tad Pagotch which is just going steady and hurting all the legs back there and then Adam Yates for an explosive acceleration before we see Tad Pagotch throwing attacks on the three big favorites back there Yonas Primos and Ram Ko. So TD Pagotcha looks like he has the team, but there is some question marks still around UAE team members on whether or not if all these members are at 100% of their best form. Okay, we’ll go back into some of the comments that the viewers left. I want to bring up one other thing where all the commenters say, “Hey, the three riders that are not from UAE team emerites, they’re not just going to work together and help someone get second or third.” Well, guys, if they were to work together and let one of the let one of those three riders go up the road, if you’re able to follow Tad Pagotch from behind, how many times do you think Tad Pagotch is going to give the front rider up there, whether he’s named Yonas, Ramco, or Primos Rogot? How how much time do you think Teddy Pagotch is going to give those guys? So when you guys keep leaving me comments to the mention of the fact that well they’re just not going to let Rimco go up the road and Yonas and and Roguch going to sit back there doing nothing while he gains time. How much time do you think Rimco is going to gain if Yonas Viggo and Primos Rog is sitting on the back wheel there of TD Paga? It’s not going to be five or 10 minutes. That scenario is not going to happen. Tade Pagotcha will be forced to chase. So if you’re Yonas or if you’re Primos Royal got you rimco nipples going up the road or if you want to flip it and throw one of those two up the road the other two are sitting on Talia Pagotch’s wheel. Do you think I’m sitting up here saying that that rider is going to be given five minutes? I’m not cuz Ta Pagot is not going to give anyone five minutes. So clearly that will help those two riders if they’re sitting on Teddy Pagotch because he’ll have to pull up the front and then if those riders got any legs left but after sitting on the back wheel there of UAE team Emirates or Tad Pagot himself while he’s climbing well you can’t lose that much time to whoever’s going up the road. So don’t panic about that if the three riders work together. One other thing I want to bring up too has to be the fact that when we’re talking Yonas Vigo and you’re attacking a rider like Tad Pagotch, we saw it last year on Plateau to Belfi. Jonas Vigo made a tactical mistake on that stage. Now I know what he was trying to do. He’s throwing everything into the hardest stage there of last year’s tour to France hardest mountain stage. Yonas is a smaller lighter weight rider than TD Pagacha, less muscular. So he was trying to throw in that on that big stage where you’re going over multiple mountains where they hoped the lighter rider would benefit more when they hit plateau to to bay. They thought that Yonas Vigo would be able to drop Tad Pagotch. They hoped. I don’t think anyone thought that, but they hoped that. The mistake that Yonas Vigo made is they rode too long on the front. If you’re attacking Tad Paga, you have to get in front of Tad Paga, of course. But if you’re staying in front of Tad Pagotcha for more than a kilometer or two, most likely you’re not going to drop the Slovenian because now all of a sudden he’s in the draft longer. Do not ever pull Tad Pagotch longer than two kilometers on a climb. Even if it’s a last ditch ever to try to drop the Slovenian. All that will happen is exactly what we saw there on Plateau the Bay is that Jonas Vingo will get out there. TD Pagacha will start to feel better as Jonas Viggo’s energy will start to drop and Tai Pagotcha will light you up. In the past when Tadi Pagachar has lost and been dropped on to France stages it’s always pretty quickly into the attack of the rider. Yonas Viggo if we go and call the gran he was not riding for two three four five kilometers in front of Tad Pagar when the Slovenian finally popped. He threw an attack and the Slovenian popped. That is exactly what you would need to see if you are attacking Tad Pagotch on the last and final mountain stage of any stage of the 25 Tour to France. the Slovenian will come off quickly and if you’re riding on the front longer than two kilometers, you know for sure that that’s a mistake and Tad Pagotra is going to make you pay for it. So if you’re one of the three favorites, I’ll go back into the benefits of part one and two where we’ll go into favor the three favorites here on part three even though I said he wouldn’t. If you can’t drop him in two kilometers, back off the throttle or he’s going to make you look silly real quick because he has never been dropped with one of the favorites riding on the front. Even if we go into the 23 to France stage 17, I’m dead. I’m gone. When he’s talking to his boys there on the race radio, it’s not Yonas Vinnie on the front. It’s Vizmissa bike on the front. And that moment, you know, he’s just having a spectacularly bad day that started at kilometer zero, which tells us what? It tells us Tad Pagotch had bad legs that day. It doesn’t tell us that attack from Yonas Vanigo is what delivered the bad legs to Tade Pagotch. It means he was bad that day. And you don’t need Yonis V and go on the front for four or five kilometers to drop TD Pagacha that day. A super domestique will do it. So never pull TD Pagotcha for longer than 2 km even if it’s a Hail Mary. Like and subscribe. I’ll see you guys on the next edition. Beyond the coverage real soon to 25 to France’s just around the corner on Saturday. Like and subscribe.