Vingegaard Attacks The Crosswinds | Tour de France 2025 Stage 1 | Lanterne Rouge x JOIN Cycling

In this episode Patrick Broe and Benji Naesen recap the 1st stage of the 2025 Tour de France.

*Exclusive deals from our trusted partners* 👇

🚴‍♂️ Want to reach your goals with cycling’s smartest training app? Get a one month free trial of JOIN Cycling, no strings attached! 👉 https://join.cc/campaigns/lanternerouge

⚡ Fuel like the pros with Maurten, trusted by some of the fastest riders in the peloton. Get 20% off your first order with code LRMaurten2025 👉 https://www.maurten.com

🧬 Want to upgrade your performance, recovery and sleep with evidence-based supplements? Use code ROUGE for 15% off PILLAR Performance at https://pillarperformance.shop/ or, for North American listeners, https://thefeed.com

*Other ways you can support us* 👇

Like and subscribe – it helps us grow!
Leave us a tip: http://www.ko-fi.com/lanternerougecyclingpodcast
Grab a TugBuddy shirt: https://shop.lanternerouge.com
Find us on your favourite podcast player: https://shows.acast.com/lanterne-rouge-cycling-podcast
Find us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/LanterneRougeCP

*Meet the team* 👇

🇦🇺 Patrick Broe – Host: https://www.youtube.com/@LanterneRougeCycling & https://www.instagram.com/the_lanterne_rouge_/ & https://www.twitter.com/lanternerougeyt
🇧🇪 Benji Naesen – Host: https://www.youtube.com/@BenjiNaesenTV & https://www.instagram.com/benjinaesen/ & https://www.twitter.com/benjinaesen
🇳🇱 Luc Grefte – Producer: https://www.twitter.com/lucgrefte

Some links in this description may be affiliate links, meaning we earn a commission if you make a purchase through them. This helps support the podcast at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Welcome back to Lantern Rouge Cycling Podcast for stage one of the 2025 tour to France. And as expected, a really, really exciting stage. We do not have boring stages anymore when it’s the big guns all lining up together. This episode’s brought to you by our show partner, Join Cycling. The flattest stage we’ve seen in a while to begin a tour of France. Just three category 1 climbs around the little metropol area in the northeast of France. Good weather conditions in terms of rain. No rain, but maybe wet roads to start, but then windy all day. There’s a few cobbled one cobble climb, a few few hills, but it’s the last 45ks is flat pretty much all the way to the finish. But Benji, what forecast did we have?
Well, you look at the parkour, then we say pancake fat parkour. But it wasn’t that simple today. There were quite high winds projected, but like on the edge where you’re like, okay, there’s echelons possible here. But are people going to pull the echelon? That doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter if echelons actually have consequences. The consequence is already there. You’ve got a very stressful pelaton that sprints for every roundabout, every corner, especially the ones where there’s open zones behind. We’ve got roads that might be a bit more narrow, maybe wider roads, but if there’s no villages or cities around it, then it’s very open and the wind clashes with the riders more. And if it’s especially crosswind, cross tailwind especially, then it can split. And that’s why the Pelaton was super stressed today and why we saw quite a few crashes in the run-up to such moments. But also just in general a very stressful Pelaton which leads to some teams attacking each other on the road not physically but verbally about okay why are you moving into my position stuff like that. Lots to talk about in today’s episode that is for sure. But shall we talk about our games team first of all because we had a we each selected one rider in our games team that could go in the breakaway today. Who did you pick? Oh yeah, it’s not not a free ad by the way. It was we were discussing it this morning and you got to pick like one really bad rider and you got to try to figure out whether he will be a breakaway merchant on these flat days and gets told to go on the TV breakaway. And one of them that I picked I this is his job. Matis Leair for Arcade. He makes the breakaway. There was also Benjamin Tomar, Yonas Ruch, Bruno Armarell of Dathlon and Matteo Verse of Total Energies. And this breakaway didn’t make it halfway through the stage. It was it was given a very short leash of maximum 2 minutes 20 by uh Albuson Dernik. So the teams controlling were them and Little Albson put Silandier. Little put uh Quinn Simmons. The gap was kept 220 but was mainly shorter. It they were hap they basically you could clearly could see they were told by the directors pegged at 2 minutes. Yeah.
Um, and then that’s what happened. The first K sprint though, Benji, was kind of funny because they launched like 2 minutes early and then just all died.
Like it’s not necessarily that we saw like a a 200 300 m sprint that does all the KM. We saw the entire group just attacking each other for the entirety of that first climb. The the C notam and eventually there’s one survivor at the finish line on top of that KM. It is Bamma of Coffus who takes the first points here. So he was virtually in the lead of KM after that first climb. But then we already see the first few crashes in the Pelaton. We see the stress already being there to be honest with 140 km to go. We already see the Vismal subs UAE of the world trying to fight for that front position, trying to keep themselves in position. So I’ll quick step a bit more to the back of the Pelaton is what I felt like at that phase of the race. And we see a crash. Actually, we didn’t see it. There was a crash. It happened behind trees on the helicopter view. Philipp Gunnar hit the ground and on top of that Sean Flynn. So two riders hitting the ground the first crash of this tour to France and immediately it looked like Gunnar wasn’t feeling too great about it. He did get on the bike but a bit later he abandoned the race. That is a a serious loss for the team of Inos. He obviously was a candidate for the stage five time trial but on top of that that’s a super important doique if you want to keep certain riders safe in flat stages which we’re talking about one right now. Well, yeah. I mean, these sort of crashes always actually do happen whether it’s a good parkour or not. I mean, guys are just going to come together. But I was
I thought Ganon was okay actually, Benji, cuz you’re always looking to see, are they crossing their arms after they’ve crashed? Are they going for their wrist, for their shoulder, um for their collarbone? And he didn’t seem to be going for any of them, but he was in a lot of pain. And so he must have landed really hard on his back. Who was uh And then who was the next crash?
Well, the next crashing involved Bisiger and I was going to say it’s Sven Nice for a second there. People were nice. That would have would have been a mistake. And we saw a bit of a difference between the two crashes of Gunner and Naz there. The fact that Gunonna was drafting behind the team car for 5 seconds before the jury commisser came to him and said, “No, no, no.” And then we saw Nay doing the same and there was no jury commisser around. So that’s the the downside of on paper it’s a good thing that the jury says to a rider, okay, don’t drive behind your own car, but on the other side there’s no consistency here possible.
It was it was ridiculous. Like I know I know what the rules say or whether they’re enforced or not, but on stage one of the TDF Ganers crash on his back to be getting barged by the commisser straight away like that was really really tough. And you know he had to spend a lot of biscuits to come back in
and then T-Bone same thing happens and he’s just behind the car which is also like yeah fine it’s a crash. I mean
it just seemed really really harsh on Ghana. Bisager also tried to he looked really hurt. He had to sit on a spectator’s um plastic chair for a bit and he eventually abandoned the race. So, two guys are out of the race. Ghana and Bissa, both time trial specialists. Both would have been targeting that 33k absolutely flat TT. Both very important for their team in general. Ghana would have probably been hoping for even a reduced sprint on some punchy stage coming up and they’re out. I mean, they prepare for months and they’re out. Stage one didn’t, you know, make it even to the crosswind section. So I guess before we get into then the positioning battle and what happened with the breakaway a word on our show partner join cycling I just don’t have time that’s the most common thing join here we here I say to myself have said to myself and maybe it’s the it’s the honest thing you’ve got commitments things going on in your life your schedule’s chaotic and then guilt creeps in because you think you’re missing real training oh I didn’t do that session so I may as well just throw it all a if you’re trying to stick to a rigid plan. But the truth is riding when you can counts for a lot. And you just need those rides to count more. It doesn’t have to be 5h hour grind fests every single day. And that’s where join comes in. It’s smart training that adapts to your life. If you miss a cycling session, join adjusts. If you’ve only got 30 minutes, they’ve got a workout for you and it makes it count. No guilt, no punishment, just consistent, intelligent training that fits into your actual week. And the availability feature lets you tell Joint exactly how much time you’ve got and it automatically adjusts your plan around it. So, you’ve got permission to train without the pressure. You just need the right tool. It worked for me. I was that sort of person. If I have a strict plan, miss a couple of days, I just get really demoralized and can lose focus. But yeah, join cycling. It’s adaptability really works for me. Try join for free using our link in the description. And finally, ride in a way that works for you. And after that, the annual plan, you even get a sneaky discount for under €10 a month. Breakaways caught Benji. They they tried. There was already crosswinds. You could see the positioning went from 2 minutes to 130. Yeah.
Then there was like a reaction to the positioning. It goes to 1 minute. Yeah.
Then Vizma pushed. It goes to 30 seconds. Then UAE fully tried to split it at like a 100ks to go.
Yeah, we saw just the effect coming to its full potential here of what today’s stage could be cuz UAE did cause a little bit of a split there. We wouldn’t classify it as a proper echelon. We had a discussion about the definition of an echelon today. But there was one echelon later in the race that we’ll get to later. But about this specific phase, I want to talk about the positioning of each GC team for a second. You’ve got Vizma and UAE being very active at the front of the Pelaton. We’re talking about every roundabout we see Vizma Lisa Bike and UAE fighting to get to that roundabout to the right side of that roundabout. Cuz for example, if a roundabout the right side is shorter than the left side, the Pelaton will pace themselves to that accordingly. They will try to get to the good side of the road to take that roundabout by the side that is the fastest. That is the plan of these teams. And we see Viz Malisa Bike and UAE doing that. but also to every stressful corner. We see the pelaton sprint towards that and okay those teams do that. We see a small difference between the two. Visma Lisa bike was more as a team in these moments while there were moments where Pogachar disbanded his team basically at the front abandoned his teammates and was even in the Visma train for a second there. So he’s still freewilling between sometime use the team sometimes we use my own ability to freewheel to the pelaton. That was the the Pogachar moves there. But we were also looking at the other teams there and Ren Quinnpool and Sudal Quickstep were notable in the fact that during this entire last 120 km of the stage, we saw Sudal Quickstep not necessarily taking the forefront of the Pelaton. And we’ve had this discussion a lot. The perfect positions to be in when it comes to avoiding crash in the pelaton is either bubbled by your team near the front of the pelaton or at the front actually especially exactly at the front or at the back with a buffer around you so that you can react to potential crashes ahead of you. The worst place to be is in that washing machine effect of teams trying to move up into position in doing so squeezing other people. That’s why Rogich in that washing machine effect is a scary rider to look at. But
especially as they don’t have the full team committed to him. Yeah.
If you got one ruler,
say you got one and a half rulers dedicated to you at the start of the stage.
Yeah.
How are they going to keep you in front position in this stage for 200ks?
Yeah.
It’s literally impossible except for maybe a fine. So you your only option then is to be at the back with the ruler and then if there is a problem they’re fresh and they can they can solve it for you. But about that that’s a whole different situation a stage like this in the watch along we we know to live that okay Remool sure he’s choosing not to be at the front of the pelaton with his team. They’re choosing to take not the back of the pelaton, but in like the the the lower belly of the pelon, I would say, with a buffer around Remco. For crashes, great stuff. For echelon zones, very dangerous position to be in cuz if someone tries to split it at the front, you are doomed. You’re fully doomed. Well, yeah, and that’s the problem also for Malier and and Van Leber and the whole Quickstep team just wasn’t on it today. I mean, Shakman was on there up there for a bit, but then they switched off and maybe
maybe they went into a false sense of security, Benji, because Yeah, the Pelon does switch off,
mate. They listen to Luke.
Yeah, they listen to Luke’s European. I don’t know what the European model is. I think maybe you’re reading a Vogue magazine or something, but the the Pelaton relaxes. Yeah. Lenny comes back. Simon Yates was looking a bit suspect in the crosswinds, too. Anybody under 60 kgs today, bad day. Except for Vingard. Bad day. Dumbar, Yates brothers, Lenny, you name them. They were struggling today on the pedals and the crosswinds. But it eases off. It comes back. Poll came back with the mechanical. Lipitz comes back from his mechanical mechanical.
And this was after the intermediate. Oh, it we should do the is we should talk about the mechanical of Lipovitz first cuz you’re talking about Lipovitz coming back from a mechanical. To me, it was surprising that Lipovitz has a mechanical during that whole stressful Pelaton zone before the intermediate sprint. He’s riding solo behind the Pelaton trying to come back. He doesn’t necessarily have cars around him at the initial point and we don’t see a Red Bull Bora rider going back to get him. That is insane to me cuz Floren Lipovitz going into this race is a co-leader with Primos. If the team does not see that, they are brain dead. Well, the it’s because it is coming back. So, like he’s not out of the race, but he has to spend so much extra energy closing this himself. Like, why don’t you drop a rider back? Um, yeah, I really didn’t understand it, frankly. We’ll get on to more of their their resource allocation in a second, Benji, at the finish. But then the intermediate sprint, uh, we saw Little Trek on the left hand side. Alison kind of made a dog’s breakfast of it. I would say they it well actually both made a dog’s breakfast of it. So, Tre dominated. I said, “They’ve already got it. No worries.” It was I can’t remember, maybe Simmons, Sturvin, and Consani.
Yeah.
Uh Luke said, “Vanderpool looks strange.” And I was like, “What?” And then all of a sudden Vanderpool basically gets dropped doing the lead out before he’d even started doing it. And he flicks Groves to like go on to Milan’s wheel, but they were decelerating cuz MVP’s leadout was so poor.
Yeah. It kind of looked like little track had the upper hand. Stan Conson Milan and Vanderpool is indeed trying to move Alvisin up and suddenly he’s gone and then Gross has to figure out okay it’s too early for me to go. So I need to go to the Milan wheel but then I would have to launch from that wheel on wheel. So then Gross basically decides to put Philips in in the wheel of Milan which probably is an okay decision here. It’s not the ideal place to be in because ideally you’ve got your own lead.
It also doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter. A point is a point, but intermediate sprint gets kicked off. There was also a bit of incoherence in the little track train where Stan it felt like we didn’t really know which side he wanted to go off at the front. Cons was clearly shouting at him change. Milan was saying change and they Conson didn’t know which side Stern was and then he changes late left. Cons has to restart his momentum does 3 seconds and Milan’s like [ __ ] it. I’ll just launch. Yep. and he did and he won the intermediate sprint and because there was no breakaway left there’s 20 points for Yonathan Milan and I’m pretty sure that Kokar who is then on the left side of Milan Philipsson tried to move in between of them he couldn’t there was there was no gap there
it was a curve and Kokard takes accelerates earlier he takes Milan’s wheel fairly
and Philipsson then puts his hand off his bars which technically is not allowed during a sprint but he does it to like give Kokard the pat on the back of like mate I’m here don’t kill me
that kind of It wasn’t aggressive
to me. It didn’t seem like it was Philips trying to shove Kokar out of the way. To me, this was normal in this situation. I’m okay with what Philips did there. I’m okay with what Kokar did there. And I think they finish in that order actually. Milan Kokard and Philipsson. Bidium tried to come around on the left side as well if I recall, but I don’t think he came past Philips at the intermediate sprint, but um he looked relatively on point as well. I think he beat he might have beaten Phillips.
Um and and Philipsson just didn’t come back in time because Philipsson’s got 63 points which suggests he got took 13 at the
and it’s 2017 153.
Yeah. So um at the end of the day like the IS’s are important to contest. They’re important to consistently be in the top five.
It’s really the final stage positions that are very very important. So it doesn’t matter in the end what feel I mean yeah when you see this we get to the end of the stage results the is not the be all and end all but clearly this is why I changed my mind
sorry LRCP preview tour friends preview listeners
I I I did some reflection um no did I pick Philips for green
no you picked them for green
no
I don’t know who you picked for green I don’t remember
I’m not that I would
you definitely did not pick Milan I I think you might have picked him early year. Anyway, I did some reflection. I thought about it more and I became very very convinced. And you know why? It’s because I saw the ups and train which in my defense was not announced. So we should mention it.
The ups and train and team was not announced before the preview.
Mhm.
This train is ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. Rickard Vshringa who’s another Urakai replacement. Um Dillier. Then you have Vanderpool and Rudolph wouldn’t say this morning, but they’re using Vanderpool as the setup at 700 800 and Groves is the final lead out man. That’s ridiculous. And they saw that from Ker Brussell Kerna this year. If you have Groves launch Philips on the barrier at high speed, he cannot lose pretty much except maybe to a Melia jumping early. But
yeah, or me in his wheel also has an opportunity. I think he has a chance but dropping at 100. Anyway, that I was like, wow. And Philipsson’s consistent. He’s going to go for the points and indeed he takes a he’s up there at the is uh if the pelon stops stops after the intermediate sprint. Verse goes again starts a new breakaway with Benjamin Tomar
without Lee. So the guy you picked for your vell games got zero points today cuz he got called before the amount of kilometers you have to be in the breakaway. I chose Gashinar which didn’t get in the breakaway. But clearly a good decision cuz he didn’t waste energy today so he can go in the breakaway tomorrow. That’s That’s the idea behind Gashinar,
maybe. Yeah. Um I was like, Arca director, you got to be screaming for some TV time. Come on. Um this is where Simon Yates joins Lenny Martinez in having a horror last 90 minutes. They have a horror last 90 minutes. He has a flat. He has a rear flap.
Yeah.
As it’s kick, it’s about to kick off on the crosswinds. Just comes back in the convoy. He then gets back. There was some crosswind nervousness. He’s in the front. Drops after that. comes back again, drops again, and he eventually Simon and Adam Yates both lose six minutes today. Six minutes. They’re dropping in the position in the positioning fight before possible echelons. Benji, Dez, guys dropping. Yeah,
that’s how hard they’re pushing on the flat today. So,
and we saw that because even riders like Yaspin who are strongers, you see that they’re suffering trying to keep their position at the front. You see that? So then you can already guess how how much harder these these lower kg riders are suffering because at the end of the day when it’s on the flat it’s not about what per kilo it’s about your absolute watts and those lighter riders cannot push the same absolute watts as the big guns can do
especially if they’re not if they’re not a bullet like Remco or Vingard are quite arrow the Yates brothers the Lenny’s traditional sepusers of the world
you know that they’re sitting up in a more traditional relaxed way and you lose time.
That breakaway gets a bit of a gap and we see the fight on the epic Mon Castel. I think that’s the same client where Magnus scored I think a couple years ago at the to France try to get K1 points. Might be wrong, might not be wrong, doesn’t matter.
It’s in the it’s in the Dunkerk. Every year there’s four days which is six days of Dunkirk to have the Monasel finish. And on the Moncastel, we have a fight between Toma and Verse for the K1 points. And Toma in the last corner already kind of closes the door, but I was like, okay, it’s not completely closing the door. Okay, I’m okay with it. Maybe on the line, we see them both sprinting side by side on the cobbles. We see their wheels kind of going left and right because cobbles are not necessarily the ideal terrain to sprint on. Spoilers. And we see Ve being in front to bike trolls to try and get past him on the line and in doing so loses complete control. It hits the deck, crashes Ve in the process. They’re both on the floor. 20 seconds behind them is the Pelaton storming up this climb. 17 motorbikes on the screen at the moment. They’re trying to get through, trying to get out of the way, etc. Verse was clearly angry at Baja. In my honest opinion on that finish line, that bike throw, I don’t think Bajamat Tom did anything wrong.
I think he just tries to bike throw his rear tire, hits a cobble at a funny angle, and it bucks his bike. And we don’t often have sprints on a cobble section. Yeah.
What cobble race finishes with? Except for the mockel finish.
No.
Yeah. No. Yeah. So maybe Tim Molier wouldn’t have crashed in that situation, but yeah, it was a mistake. It was strange. And then that’s the last breakaway where you see Jonas Vingard come to the top of the K.
Yeah.
Afterwards and take or the next climb take maximum points. And so Vingard was clearly trying to stay in position all day. He’s looking around. Where’s my team to lead this descent but not comes back up and now the nervousness just continues with a constant fight. Well, not really a fight I would say like all the teams UA on the left side.
Yeah. Vizma Trek with Scoins Alperson with Dillier and Vina were still active.
Bora never really got to the front stayed there.
They didn’t stay there but they were at the front a few times in the last 25 km. I I saw them moving up trying to take position across certain teams across Vizma etc. But they kept losing that position and that’s where the problem lied when it comes to Debor Bora in this final. But we get to this segment. We we clearly see that some teams have a plan here in the last 20 km with about 16 17 km to go. Signates off the back. I see Vizma going to the front. Immediately think, okay, they’re trying to drop Simon Yates. That’s not the truth. The reality is that they see something potentially happening after the next corner. So they’re sprinting to that corner with Malisa by setting it up. We get past the corner. Yonas hits the front and he splits the pelaton. Now got to say that was pretty epic. I won’t lie, seeing Yonas Vingo, the second favorite of this tour of France, going to the front right of that five years ago, well, I’d say three years ago, he isn’t that old either. You’d classify as like one of the more pure climbers in the Pelaton. This dude splitting the Pelaton right there. You got to be pretty bloody strong for that. And it’s splitting in a point where it’s not just 10 riders, 10 riders, 10 riders. It’s a pelon in two. Straight up in two. And we start counting who’s at the front. Pogot was in a good position in the run-up to this. most likely not behind. No, he’s there. He’s got teammates in the likes of Wellins. So, Pogacher is fine. Isma would have liked to see Pogacha off the back, I think, at that point, but did not happen. But we start thinking, okay, who’s the other GC riders in this race? We’ve got Remapool. I don’t see no golden helmet. I don’t see a single Sudal Quickstep. De Mier is also not there. Then I look at Bura Hans. I don’t see many of those in that group. I don’t see their sprinters. I don’t see their GC riders. Roich and Lipovitz also together with Remco in the second part of the Pelaton. On top of that, number two from UAE, Jo Almeida also in the second group of the Pelaton. And then when it comes to the sprinters, we said Marier is not there. Where’s Little Trek? There’s one rider, Stan. He’s not their sprinter. Milan is also behind. Yord Deos is also behind. So it’s suddenly creates quite an incentive from riders in that front pelaton to keep on pacing cuz especially opposite
it it’s it’s the perfect composition to stay away because you have the strongest ruler squad with their sprinter with the two sprint favorites not there. Alison do not care if you X maybe have some strong guys left there at the end. Yeah, they care Milan and Mia are not there. If they’re not there, Philipsson is going to win the sprint and is the quickest. The GC guys, Enrich Mas makes it with En with Ivan Garcia, Cortina, and Olivivera. Uh Johannes for Uno X makes it. Visma make it with Jorgensson and Vingard. Poggy’s got villains there. And then there’s also I don’t know Ben Oconor for example but they they sort of save for in fact I actually don’t know why the Jacob guys weren’t pulling cuz I thought Gronovan was there but he wasn’t
it was me gets
so why was me get just sitting on the back
anyway
well they weren’t pulling because they maybe wanted to come back
okay but
you could go for that yeah I mean Kevin vocalize there so you have all these GC guys who think okay if I just roll through And it’s also the most efficient to roll through in this echelon.
Yeah.
And I can take time on Renco and Almeida,
I’m gonna do it. If I just have to work for 10ks or do a bit of work for 10ks, you have to do it. And uh that’s what these teams do. They put Afeni to pace. They put Valance to pace. They put
um Garcia Cortina to ride
for Mos who Moar did a pretty good job today. Even when it comes to early on, Nelson Olivera and Garcia Cortina were positioning relatively perfectly in this stage. I would say there were moments where they weren’t able to keep them at the front, but you have to choose your moments. And for the most important moments, Moistar was in position and they made the echelon.
Mistar were very, very, very good for the right corner. They were there with three guys.
Now, we said Alpas is there with Philipsson. Binyam is also there as a sprinter. So, those are two pretty fast men in that front group. And I’m starting to think, okay, a lot of incentive to see this Pelaton going. We see that. We see that incentive on our screen. You said it. All these teams are putting riders to pace. And Afini looked like he was ordering his coffin already cuz that man looked like he was dead, but still pulling. And we see oppos also pulling a lot. But there’s some change in the last 15 km. Of course, the echelon started, etc. helps in riding riding like crazy to keep it going including vulnerpool including gross turning or the sprinters turning a little bit as well but with about I don’t know what kilometer maybe 9 8 km to go we see two Alpasin riders going off the front a third Alpasin rider talking to his radio 5 m behind with a small gap on the other part of the the group but not with those first two riders of Alpasin and those two Alpison riders including much of the pull I’m pretty sure start pulling and we see a gap open up between those three riders and the pelaton behind. What do you think was happening?
So for the sprinters team like Alperson, they don’t care if they win by 10 seconds, 30 seconds or a minute. Once the gap got to 30 seconds, Alperson change from pull this gap open mode to we need to make sure everyone else is doing their fair share of work and we make sure we win this sprint by still having a lead out. And they got Murdiser was in there. Um, Murda, Vanderpool, Rickart, Groves, Phillips, and five guys.
Yep.
They So, they switch to that mode. Bernard’s not going to pull. Vinegar’s behind. And then Villain goes across, sits. He’s not going to pull. Patch is behind. And then UnoX or Jorgensson closes it and it starts going. But you were saying, “Oh, what are they doing? They’re messing about.” But then you look behind Benji. Boro were pulling with a van Djk and maybe a pity. I see one of the van Djk or whoever it was off and gone.
Yeah.
Mayos and Van Pop are not pulling. Trek are pulling with one and they were pulling. So you’ve got basically three guys behind who weren’t the strongest in the first place pulling against Rickard, Afini, Gia Cortina, Vanipul, Pagata himself, Vingard himself. Like there’s way more guys that were pulling in group one because also like EF, they got Vandenberg up there with Sweeney. They’re not going to pull. They were blocking group two. They’re happy with this situation. You know, they got a chance to sprint for a tour to France win. And um it comes back together, starts pulling again. The gap goes to 40 seconds.
But I mean, the front group comes back together, not all two pelons. The front group comes back together after that little ups and for the last 5ks, unfortunately, there’s a crash. Uh, Tudtor Rider comes across. He then hits uh, Vandenberg. Vandenberg goes down. He doesn’t care about the 5k rule. Thankfully, there’s a 5k rule today. He doesn’t care. He wanted to sprint for the win.
Yeah.
Gone. Ooponet down. He gets the same time, but never ideal to crash after especially making the first echelon, which I was, you know, it’s good for him.
Yeah.
Kaden Groves full uh, what’s it called? Lenoli in B in skateboarding. Tony Hawk Pro Skater on on uh uh what’s that old portable PlayStation thing from like 20 years ago?
PSP Pro Skater was goated. A nollie is when you like go on the phone.
Oh, an ollie.
A nollie.
Hold on.
An ollie exists. Not sure nollie exists. Yeah, he did a nollie. Yeah. So,
or an ollie?
Nollie. It’s a nollie.
What’s the difference?
It’s a nose ollie. Oh yeah. And he fully does it. He does it on the front wheel and then hops over the his fallen Australian compatriate um and Vandenberg. And I’m like, [ __ ] I I was beginning to think a late attacker was going to win Benji. Here’s why. Arson are losing control a little bit. Pogy’s just got Wellins.
Yeah. Vizma got no sprinter. Unoex have numbers, strong guys, but not the quickest sprinter. I was expecting a Jonas Abrahamson fly because I thought that was their best chance to win.
Did we not see see a move by Jorgensson at some point in this moment?
Yeah,
it wasn’t necessarily the most vibrant move. There was no real separation cuz too many people jumped to his wheel, but he definitely tried something there,
but you said it. Gross was off the back at this point. I’m like, okay, Groves is gone, right? We get a bit later in the in the last two kilometers. Obviously, that crash was already in the last 2 km, but with about 2 km to go, we see the opposite train on the left side, the Uno X train. very strong on the right side of the road with four riders. Abraham Hamson, Fredim, Wen Skull, and so forth. Johannes there, too. So, four strong riders. I’m like, okay, it’s between these two trains. Binam doesn’t have the the the riders around him to do a lead out. So, he’s going to try and follow the wheel of someone else. We see those trains lining up and Groves is right there. He found his way back.
I was like, what the [ __ ] So, Enriky came back quick. I think maybe Garia Cina had to wait for him. And you know that like Mastar with um they’re they’re a classic traditional team. They don’t give a [ __ ] about a top three stage result. Mastar a GC team. Yeah.
And um they probably Gia Cortina probably had to do a little bit of work to bring in and Ricky B. Groves are right there. Lead out starts. Unex set up the full train. They got Johannes there. Then they’re going to go Fredheim for Varnold. Abrahamson. There’s a corner. I was like let that wheel go. They don’t. Abrahamson has it. They always go early, you know, where strong train, but I don’t think they use them the best
because Alisonson just freeload off Abrahamson and then 800.
It’s a reduced group. So like you can’t box in another lead out on this wide road, not a K to go and Albertson after Abrahamson pulls off, Rickard just goes opens up and washes over them. But I want to bring it to you know X here because during Ricard opening it up on the left side of the road for us when we’re looking at the screen we see Abrahamson pulling off and then Fredheim doesn’t really know what to do and he starts talking to Wenko and they keep talking to each other for the next I swear 300 meters they’re talking to each other.
He should have done later.
They’re watching a full movie in these three minutes.
I I really was seeing it in the women’s pelaton. It’s what Cavendish said. is like if I’m the quickest or equal quickest sprinter and I have the best lead out Yeah.
and it drops me at 150 to go fresh without fighting, I will win. So just fighting for my wheel
is a futile endeavor and the only way for Vishnold to win is somehow Fredim crosses Vanderpool who didn’t look I wouldn’t say I was that impressed by Vanderpull’s two leadouts today. He did his job,
fair,
but it wasn’t like a spectacular um bit of work. I would say Groves and Recart were equally as good.
Yes.
Chris Nland’s launches at 400 on a late fly on the other side of the road. They ignore him. Groves does his lead out. Philipsson’s there. Varus Golden Benny’s in the wheel and Philipsson wins by two bike lengths. So yeah, the only way to win was someone else doing their lead out. I mean at the end of the day once we saw Philipsson once this echelon was created with the Albuson Urukai around him I couldn’t see any other winner really talking about Urukai I also feel like we can expand the definition from just Alperson between brackets NPCs being sent to Paris Rebay and then suddenly performing very strong I’m sorry but Amal Vishing has had a fantastic season he’s climbing very well got I think top 15 maybe 16th in the mountain time trial of of um Swiss Then in LBL got a top 15 as well. But I did not necessarily expect him to be the guy that goes to the front of the pelaton and keeps Alison at the front between kilometer 40 and 20. That is strong. Yeah. Um they just make him different at Alperson like they’re just going to you know they’ll lose riders next year who go to other teams and they’re going to bring in center censions and center that saps up to a role like etc. It’s going to keep like these guys, they’ll just do it. So, and that’s how they work with their budget and it’s it works. I mean, they win again.
But if they find out that they can climb
Oh, yeah. Emil Stringer, he got to stop climbing so well cuz then they’ll cut his contract. So, um the they win again. Philipsson’s 10th tour to France stage win. It’s uh it’s impressive. And you can say, okay, is he quicker than earlier in Milan in a straight line? No.
No. But as a unit in that structure, not missing opportunities
like Albison don’t miss. They they didn’t miss in Britain East stage three three uh in 2021. They don’t miss today. And
that’s also a skill. Merier and Quickstep weren’t in position. To be honest, Little Tre have no excuse. There’s no excuse for Tre only getting one rider in this echelon.
Yeah,
they they rode with Simmons, I grant you. But that team has firepower. They should be in better pos. I mean this is also with all due respect 40 guys made the front echelon
including Okconor
including Okconor including no offense to Ben
including Joseph Blackmore including and Ricky M
and Ricky M in including Nicholas M incl you know and to to make it with with one or and you can’t say oh is Tison he does it himself does it himself so
but that’s poor
if we then look at the whole grand scheme of things yes we see little track missing that front group take on sprint for the victory. They also got scale mosa who I think got involved with a crash but we didn’t see him crash but
yeah so soy had a flyer or a newsletter leaflet in his drivetrain that because we could see the helicopter at the corner we saw Solair coming through and then slow like someone’s crashed or something and the the building’s blocking it and Pl was definitely held up but maybe Schelmo was too Benji
I I feel like yes because then a teammate brought Skill Moza back to that part of the pelon but I’d expect based on the fact that Stan is the only little track rider up there in the first pelaton that Skellos is in the second one. And at what point does a GC team or a team with a GC rider switch from protecting their lead out in the second pelaton to trying to get their GC rider as close as possible to the front group cuz that same exact story goes to Red B Hanser and Sudal Quickstep as well in this because if we take a look at those two teams sorry but Red Bull Ba Hanser what Vonoplan me at the finish line that is insane to me.
So yeah I’ll do the results. Philips and wins ahead of Binium Gay. Var gold third. Tis fourth. Binny’s actually goes into the white jersey. Benji, he’s that young still. The green jersey winner of last year. And not just Shar goes into the W jersey. It’s crazy. Veris fourth, Trentin fifth. Um, I gotta say I think like it’s a very MLB reference, but yeah, back in an old elite 99 a 99th percentile pitcher who is like still got control and is hasn’t been injured at 40 years old can still pitch. These old classics dogs when you they know where to be. Trent knew where to be and he’s there and he comes fifth at what is he 36 and he’s 35. Tyenberg he was in front in the front group with Jorgensson. So I feel like these old classics guys get written off too early. Clear Russo another one good positioning sixth. Penway seventh. Jurgensson eighth. Myhoff ninth for Tudtor. So they sprinted with two. A little bit odd. Samuel Watson 10th. Think got boxed. And then to Benji’s point leading the group behind on 39 seconds. Johnny Milan with Dele. There was a lead out by Danny Van Poppel or Jordi Mayos. I mean,
bro, what the [ __ ]
Yeah. I mean, if you’re Rogich
or Lipovitz
or Lipovitz seeing that and I understand if the echelon is at 50ks to go and the gap is 5 seconds and you’re about to turn into a headwind section, maybe you save the lead out and the sprinter.
When this gap normalized at 30 seconds at 10 10ks to go,
yeah, this is never coming back. You can limit the damage, but group two was never coming back. And to sprint for 40th place with Rogich and Liit, that’s that’s village [ __ ] That is absolutely insane to me. Popo and May sprinting instead of helping Rogich and Lipovitz not losing as much time. That is ridiculous to me. At least Merier, who was in that second Pelaton, had had the the brains to not be seen sprinting at the front of the Pelaton there.
He still sprinted,
did he? No, not with full commitment, but sort of. Yeah,
there’s no points available anyway. Why the [ __ ] are they sprinting? There’s no green jersey points. There’s no UCI points. It’s like
disgusting. They’re not They’re not even French. Kard’ll allow it. By the way, three French guys in the top 10. So French guys good in cross wins. Clemon Russo good in cross wins.
I’m sorry but it’s you said it already. If you’re Rogich, if you’re Lipovitz, even if you’re Ramco at Merier, you got to be a bit unhappy about the fact that not your entire team is helping you when you’re 40 seconds behind in echelon cuz how much time does Ramqu Lipovitz Almeida lose today? It’s about 40 seconds, right?
They lose 39 seconds. That’s a lot of time, Benji. 39 seconds. That is Renco might not be in yellow after the time trial amount of time. Probably not cuz what if Pogy takes a Pogy takes a few more bonies.
Exactly. In the next two stages two and four. Yeah. And he’s on 50 seconds and like Quickstep finish with five in that group. Five. And I understand when you go into a Grand Tour split ambitions, it’s really tricky. Like Vanard 2022, Tour to France, it’s tricky. But once the stage win is gone, then the guys who were sort of there for stage win like Bert, like Malia, the deal is they also then have to pull for Remco.
This is inexcusable to me.
And and I don’t know if they were if they were pulling,
they weren’t pulling like Afeni cuz Afeni gets his ass dropped.
Misa gets dropped. Villains was nearly getting dropped. They weren’t pulling to the point of getting dropped. So it’s Yeah. If you’re if you’re Remco and I saw on Instagram a post um of him looking a bit annoyed at the finish just to fight. He also wasn’t in position. Yeah. But that’s what we said earlier. The fact that he’s positioned in the buffer at the back to avoid crashes results in him being in a [ __ ] position when echelons kick off. So in a stage like this, you can’t afford to be in that safer position at the back. You have to fight for that safe position at the front and you have to risk crashing doing so. That’s the the sad reality of the sport that you have to risk to be able to come out of the stage with no time loss. And he chose the safe option of being with that buffer around them at the back of the pelaton. And that’s great for not crashing, but it’s [ __ ] for losing time when it comes to echelons. And losing 40 seconds is part of that.
I mean, he says what we said, Benji. What we said. I’m now seeing an interview from Sportser. I think there’s some writers who after UA put the gas at 100. Yeah.
After the intermediate,
I think they thought it was no longer going to split. And he cuz he says, “We let ourselves be lulled to sleep. I didn’t think it was going that fast.” Bro, that’s this is on the directors.
The directors of Mastar told they said, “You put Enrich [ __ ] third wheel
with 20ks to go. 25ks to go on and it has he has to be Visma were there. Wells was there with with Pogy. Um
but how much is that experience in a team car and experience of like a road captain style rider
cuz how much is Fvaka missing in a situation like this? I’m not sure Vak is solving this but it’s
Moscon.
You can blame initially yeah maybe you can blame initially the director. Yeah,
for the pre-stage and in the radio. But then like you say, an experienced road captain sees Alperson suddenly with five or six coming to the front and they’ve not been in five or six in a line before, sees UAE pushing, sees the drag race and like
Luke Ro at Team Sky would notice
Luke Rogue like something’s about to kick off. Yeah,
I don’t know why or when we’re going to the front and that didn’t happen with Ramco and Mier and they lose time and the chance to win the stage. So um and yeah the GC gaps Almeida lose and Remco lose 40 seconds as well as I’ll go to their group Roglitch loses 40 seconds. Lipitz as well Carlos Rodriguez Oscar Onley Felix Gull I mean Felix go on 40 seconds. I think they’ll take it frankly. Um could be worse. Vanvelt that man has not made the first echelon at some point in his life.
These poor guys. as the crosswinds have been chasing them around in the desert and now here.
Uh Steph Cross, but two riders lost more.
The collective Yates family loses more than 10 minutes today.
Yep. Yates brothers lose six minutes on average. Aa Rubio 5 minutes, Christian Rodriguez 5 minutes. Agita, uh Gregoire Sto Dunar lose five minutes. Sto was struggling.
Yeah. So the guys who were Michael Woods 630, Alf Phelipe 630, I don’t like that. Um,
yeah, I I don’t care. Alaf, he he he did look like he dropped because he was fully gassed. Yeah, that’s the thing.
The the other reason if I just look at the time gap, I don’t care about an Alip style rider losing that time because I don’t want him to go for GC. So it’s more that the fact that he dropped looking fully gassed. That’s my issue with Alfa Phippe today. Anyway, uh Lenny comes in alone on 911. Um today, yeah, not good for Lenny. Uh tomorrow’s stage finishing from Levant Pling in Levant Pling in BL S long stage 210 km. Uh it’ll be nervous again. And tomorrow we have hills, so it’s going to be nervous crosswinds. It’s a hard stage.
Do we do we know why Jorgensson sprinted at the finish line? UCI points. That would be an epic reason.
Yeah. Kim. Oh, I don’t know. Um 209ks. We have uh two category 3s. Category 4, but they’re much more pivotal tomorrow. So, we have rolling hills and then the K hood pish 1.1k is 9% that’s with 30ks to go the crest. Then 20ks more or less of flat slash downhill. Then 1.1k is 9.4% 4% the Ku to Santi or more and then straight into another Kod 800 m 8% then another short descent and then uh a more gradual climb to the finish like 500 m 6% and it’s flat at the top I mean the breakaway has a bigger chance tomorrow Benji because the yellow jersey is not on offer and Roman Gregoire is on 5 minutes Philip’s on six minutes maybe it was a masterful
brothers
Simon Yates maybe it was a masterful gambit from Alfa Phipe to get in the break.
How much does the effort of today of every do League fighting for their lives to keep their leader in the first position? How much does that affect stage two already? To me, this affects stage two a lot. The the Tibo now has crashed.
Yeah. I if you’re tre you can’t pull, right? No way you pull for Milan.
You can you can hedge you can put Simmons in the breakway instead of pulling, therefore forcing other teams to pull next to the finish line. That that’s the way to work. I think
I think N crashing and them getting um rolled in the win today makes Trek a bit more gunshy tomorrow.
I think Alperson will pull should pull for Viper. But if he looked a bit suspect today, Benji,
is he confident he can win? I think the break’s got a big chance. Who’s controlling? Laurance got dropped in the crosswinds today. Well, Inos wasn’t going to Lun is kind of right away where you don’t pull for anyway. You you have him there just in case and then he then he tries to compete for it. So, Alison was a team I look at on a stage like this to do that pulling. And I got to say I’m still confident they will, but I’m struggling a bit when I’m looking at the rest of the start list looking for those riders that will also be pulling with them. So, Luke saying Vanderpool wants yellow from his teammate. I agree. I think Alperson will definitely pull. I I have no doubts about Albertson pulling on the stage. It’s It’s either pulling or putting Von to pull in the breakaway, which he did on stage two last year. Yep. One of the two.
I don’t think Albertson want to pull all day if no one’s going to help them. Although,
what else is Sand Dillier going to do?
Yeah, Dillier can just control it, right? And then and he doesn’t have to pull all day. He’s got to pull for like 90 minutes and then Vizma and UAE are going to drag race and that just controls the break.
Yeah. Um still feeling Bellaton for some reason. I I think Albson’s going to control it. I’m feeling France. I’m feeling Victor Lefay vibes stage two the other year. Yeah.
And he made the front echelon today with almost no teammate. I’m going Kevin Vocal. He’s not the favorite, but this is a good parkour for him. He can sneak away whilst Vizma and UA look at each other if he makes that split cuz like Benji for Renco’s record by the way.
Yeah,
he doesn’t think this is a sprint. Like Quickstep should know this ain’t going to be a sprint finish. You’d hope so.
Like you’re looking at last three climbs, we’re talking 1.1 km at 9.4% is the is the third last climb. And then you’ve got the second last climb being uh 0.8 km at 8% and then there’s the uphill finish line. Like the combination of those three is attack territory. That’s terrain on which Thunderpool can make his move where people respond to that. They’d have to ride it really passively for this to become a group sprint. I don’t see it. The way they’re racing is way too aggressive. It’s going to kick off. I mean from the Pelaton. Yeah, I understand that Vanderpool’s the favorite followed by Pagacha, but I’m just feeling some some Kevin Vocal, so I’m going to go with Vocal.
I don’t think Vizma is going to pull for WA.
Not after today.
Well, today he didn’t make the first Pelaton, but also on top of that, I think he stated it before the stage.
You can’t be confident. Why would you pull in ahead of UAE? Well, that’s the whole point. If you look at this finish line, then you say, “Okay, it’s an opportunity for Pogacha to take bonus seconds. So if anything you want the breakaway to win a furisma.
I think after today with the big splits with the the appropriate riders Gregoire Ala Phipe losing time I think the breakaway fight will be bigger than I initially expected.
It will really depend on the appetite of Alperson. If Albert do not commit to controlling the breakaway can win this stage especially it’s not an HC climb. Yeah.
Like they don’t need to start that last 10ks with a huge gap. Um, you know, one minute could be enough.
If Pelaton, I stick with my guns. Pogachar.
Okay. Solo or sprint?
Uh, sprint. I don’t expect him to drop everybody.
And then
I am a bit worried about positioning for Demco, which was a problem
cuz it’s also Benji. It’s it’s flat into that that 1k climb.
So, you’re going to have to fight when it comes to trying to position their their GC rider.
I am a little bit worried there, but I do expect him to make it in this stage for some reason. I am if it goes Breakaway. Oo, cuz you’ve got Vulcan from Breakaway, right?
No, he’s in he’s he’s taking yellow tomorrow from the Pelon.
No, I’m saying he I’m saying there’s Vizma UA vulnerable and he does a Lefay attack. Oh, okay. That’s fair. So, you don’t believe in the break winning?
Oh, I think it’s like 30%.
Okay. Okay. All right. And then you have to pick Alfip Gregoire. Yeah, I would have Gregar from Breakaway, but I’m going for Pagotch from Pelaton.
Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah, Breakaway has a chance. I’m keen to watch the start of this stage and then maybe if there’s wind, I don’t know. I haven’t checked, but 210ks. That’s a longass stage. So, it’s a hard one already. Guys struggling today after a hard stage on the pedals. Great, great start to the tour. Thankfully, I was glad there was echelons. It made the finish maybe a bit safer. Um, and tomorrow is going to it’s going to kick off again. I think we’re going to see GC gaps again. Yeah.
And Ramco’s got to be in position, Benji, or he’s going to lose more time.
Yep. Same for Red Bull Water Bounds growing.
Yep. Okay. Thanks for listening as always. Thanks for joining cycling and we’ll see you maybe with a watch along live on YouTube tomorrow uh during the last hour and a half of the stage. to learn tutorial.