BEN & VENTOUX A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN – Tour de France Stage 16 | EF Pro Cycling – RaceTV

Let the record show that the tactical change between recorded meeting number one, and described meeting number two is presented as factually as possible, and caught us by surprise as much as you. Don’t get me wrong, we all knew Ben could probably pull out a great ride on Ventoux, but a plan is a plan and we only saw meeting number one going into the stage. So, when Ben rolled by me in the first spot with less than one kilometer left in the race? I jumped up and ran the 600m straight up the moonlike surface of Venoux to the finish line as fast as I could. Apologies to that one photographer I might have bumped into.

It wasn’t to be, but WOW, what a day, and what a tour from Ben and the whole supporting cast.

More Recipes from Oatly: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWDKOMvyuUltmNAC6rJjqSHajYgTrsbpS

Watch more RaceTV: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSpqFb_mCwQGLJAxd-1ozrhDL2Aj-YsTm&si=do9rhT6qES3cnB9Z

—

About EF Pro Cycling
58 riders, 22 nationalities, 17 languages.
This is pro cycling, reimagined.

Follow the team!
Instagram: @efprocycling and @efeducation.oatly
TikTok: @efprocycling and @efeducation.oatly
X: @efprocycling and @ef_oatly
Facebook: EF Pro Cycling and EF Education-Oatly
Website: https://efprocycling.com/

MB01P1MFC0DVAGL

It’s a mythical climb in uh in France and uh and for the tour to France also. It’s hard. It’s long. It’s super steep for 20k. You never have a break. It’s windy. I mean already the mountain dominates the whole area. It’s like a pretty strange looking mountain. There’s no vegetation and you can see it from miles around. The words you’re going to be looking for are moonscape. Epic giant of pvenants. It’s like a mythical climb. You know, just this one climb in the middle of nowhere. It’s it’s it’s history, right? The site of uh Tommy Simpson’s death. Iconic, a biblical climb inside. It’s standing with great names uh who won the bike race, one of the top. I raced it once in the tour. I I want to say I’ve raced it three or four times as a rider, three four times as a sports director. It’s always been somewhere that I think ranks like as high as say the Rubad drone. Pantani is one up there. JV is one up there and also Juan Margarate our sports director. And today uh I’m sure another big name will be added to it. Yeah, it’s another climate. [Music] So I asked the massers to put your Brooks running shoes in your wet bags today in case you have to get off and run. So just call for the car, but Tom reminded me you have to take your bikes with you, right? Can’t run on your own. So that’s the plan. Big day today. Uh meaningful day, right? It’s Monontto. Lot of prestige on the line. When we got ready for the race, the three of us, we categorized the stages, all of them, into three different categories. 0, one, and three. Zero were races that we had no interest in. One was like we could do well, but we’re not expecting to win. So, a fifth or a sixth place could be interesting. And three was like all in, right? We’ve hit all of the threes so far and we’re doing a great job with that. We’ve done great on the ones. When I planned this, this was a zero, right? And I know that goes a bit against the prestige of the race and everything, but today I’d still give it a zero, right? What better way to restart than attacking the giant of the province 171 km stage. every man for himself on the legendary climb to the finish. I I I I I believe uh once you’re up there and it’s your first time, you will see I I think doing the whole episode in in in black and white TV is not colored, right? And uh do the darker bits even darker and I don’t know how you call that in changing the brilliant uh brilliancancy of of of of the setting. It’s spacey up there, right? It’s like you think you’re on a different planet. Very cool. [Music] The moonscape, which I only found out uh courtesy of Jared and Ashley, uh never existed before. Oh, it used to be full of trees, like thousand-y old trees, and they cut them all down to build ships and then never replanted them. That’s that’s a fun fact I’ve only heard I’ve only learned about today. It starts at the beginning of Janu or less and we came here at 1. Special because we are living near here. So actually we arrived like two days before because the road is just closed and so we need to park our uh van here. So we sleep two nights already and we do the climb and the down and every day just to check like well which spot we going to watch the the game. So that’s very exciting. Um I’m a school teacher so today was one of my first days of holiday. So it’s like what better way to like start y’all than to punish you up a really big mountain because the the moment is the the best of place. I mean the last time is 2021. So it’s already many years they didn’t pass the year and all the memorable the experiences happen here. So that’s the best place for me. That’s why we choose come here like two to three days before to wait for them. It’s it’s insane. Yeah. It’s so different than when you’re watching at home. There’s a lot of waiting, but like it’s good fun. Like the atmosphere builds and everything. It’s really good. It’s actually the first time I’ve ever done two meetings. So, we did an original meeting the normal way. And when I planned this, this was a zero. And then I was having my sandwich and we had a bit of a chat with Andreas and Tom and we started to think actually there was a few more scenarios than we expected. We’ve hit all of the threes so far. We’re doing a great job with that. So 10 15 minutes before the start, we went back on the bus and talked to the riders and uh kind of opened their eyes that things might not actually be as locked down as we originally thought they would be. [Applause] Whenever you can, Ben, you need to attack these guys from behind and get alone because they’re playing silly games. [Music] Last kilometer is steep. Remember Ben, last corner, 100 m to go. Head pin to the right. Very steep. He to the right. 100 m to go. platform [Music] superh. [Music] Second Balance Valentino keep fantastic pure drama. We lost the TV coverage up here in the screen so we didn’t know what was happening. Came across the second. That’ll do. That’ll do. [Music] [Music] Well, actually, we had a bit of a sneaky meeting after you guys. So, uh, yeah, the the the plan was actually if I could jump into a big move, you know, without really spending too much. And, yeah, that was definitely going to be be a nice thing. And, uh, yeah, we managed to make it happen. And, yeah, we the UAE thankfully didn’t really race for the win today. So, yeah, it meant the breakaway was able to fight for it. And, uh, yeah, I I think I played it really, really nicely in the break and never really touched the wind once until von two. And uh I hit von two and I wasn’t too sure how my legs were so I took it steady at the bottom and kind of went a nice pace you know it’s it’s an hour long climb and uh yeah then I think I I started to realize I was actually feeling really good today and uh yeah we we definitely could have raced for the win which we which we were and yeah just did a little bit too little too late I think cuz then this this top section being a bit shallow and then a headwind was just uh yeah too hard, too hard to break Valentine today. And uh yeah, I tried to get the jump on him in the finish cuz I knew he was more explosive than me on a finish like this. And yeah, I did my best, but didn’t quite get him. Oh yeah, let’s go. Amazing. [Music] The crowds were crazy. The the whole 20k hub was full of people. So yeah, amazing. It’s special cuz it’s Mu and uh some some moments in the climb you could see like you couldn’t could not hear anything. It was super loud and uh yeah, it was uh it was crazy. [Music]