Stage 20: Nantua to Pontarlier (184.2km) looked to be a break away stage and it didn’t disappoint.
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[Music] [Music] Massive number of people have been upgrading. Yes, there you go. You see the graceful that you were talking about before race we’ve got yet again and a victor then goes victory to an American Andy Hampton go bike. He looks at the Colombian rider. How are you doing? Straight past Santiago Fero and he’s coming up to Pantani. [Music] Armstrong is consund meters as we come towards the finish of this monumental stage in Arm as we start to approach the line now. Pantani gets his teeth and accelerates and over the line is going now to win stage number 15. Septus. An emotional finish from Durango in the USA. Septus wins. Welcome Between Two Wheels podcast. This is Tyler Yonke. We’re going to do stage 20. Tom’s in the house. Tom Perea. I don’t know how to say your name right. Welcome. I hope everything sounds good. Last night there was some weird stuff. Victor usually comes in here and tells me I hope we’re all good. I I Tom um I’m going to go on your show tomorrow. I’m looking forward to that. Uh remind me to tell you some story a story because I used to do uh my friend Kurt and Chris. We our podcast they just kind of don’t show up anymore. Um partly because it’s in my house. But we used to we had uh press credentials for tour California and other things. And we’re at a rate. Remind me to tell you a Tad Pragate story. The year he won it. I want to say 2019. Um, we we blew it. We blew it. Sounds good tonight. Okay, good to hear. Um, yeah, once again, go check out Tom’s show. I link it and myself. I just uh people that like cycling, especially in the US, we’re just we’re just trying to push everything. There’s such vast different um analysis or just shows. And I I love the fact that they just do this recap, this 35 plus whatever it is minute recap. Um, so go check that out. Um, I enjoy it. Um, yeah, I just can’t get enough of the tour when it’s coming out. But I’m I’m I’m almost at tour fatigue. I I’m gonna say at this point, I think I’m done. I’m almost done. And honestly, when you we’re going to recap this, you know, after the race is over, maybe the next week or so. Uh, and I think we’re going to look back and say one what what Vismo is doing. I get it. They’re trying to wear Tatai down. I think it worked, but I think it blew everyone. And then the the way that this route was organized and and designed, Terry Guveno, I think is who kind of did that. All these HC somewhat finishes and not very much many sprint finishes, I think it just wore everybody down as well. And so it’s I don’t know. I don’t know. I I love this kind of stuff, but also at the end when you have two fighters that just can’t throw punches anymore, which is where I feel like we’re at. Um I I would like some some little bit more action honestly still coming into the final. Um I also didn’t like how they didn’t have the big weekend. You know, two big mountain stages Saturday, Sunday didn’t happen last weekend, this weekend. You know, typically Saturday can be a sprinter or sometimes it’s a time trial coming into this. We’ve seen that ponchville flee a few years or 2020 when TAD uh demoralized Rogich coming in there. So, um, today was a little h tomorrow though. Tomorrow might be something. I’m holding cross my fingers for that. So, let’s take a look back here. Oh, by the way, um, uh, Tom had said something earlier about my interview because I said about I I interviewed um Tyler, a vegan cyclist, and I can’t find the but I found my old storage, so it’s probably but it should be up on my list of things. Uh I interviewed him at Chico Stage Race a few years ago and then we’re going to do a big kind of a collab thing together and didn’t work out. But anyway, um I’ve seen him multiple time. By matter of fact, um let’s do this with this intro video here. No, not this one. This one there. Sorry. This one here. Um right, uh there’s a there’s a scene here between two wheels. This goes through here and then there’s going to be a scene here where it shows uh a guy heavily breathing at the end. That’s the Chico stage race there. That’s Tyler right there in the in the middle. We caught him after the a race. Uh he was tired. He he actually bailed. He didn’t finish it. Anyway, um we can talk stories later. Okay. Um browser. Here we go. So, this was yesterday’s. Once again, Ironsman won. I think Jonas blew it, but you know, this is where we talk strategies on here. And um putting Tad in there to to do the final climb. That’s that’s what uh Jonas wanted to do. That’s what he should have done. He shouldn’t have taken the front. Force him to take the front finally. Uh, you know, you’re you’re not doing the work for him. Tat didn’t have to take the front, but then there would have been some sort of stalemate, but he did. And but then Jonas didn’t kick early enough, and so you deserve to lose, and you did. Arensman wins that. We talked about that. So the GC doesn’t change. 424. This is the first day though that Yonas had actually taken a time bonus or made any time up on Tad since the start of the tour, but he did it with a time bonus. Not much to go off of there. Uh the points I think Jonathan Milan you just you have this in the bag no problem. King of the mountain that’s in the bag for uh Pagotchar although you know you could have come in through these stages today. Maybe maybe Jonas will no he won’t. Why not get a jersey? Get a jersey. Go get go up there and get some points. Nah, it’s just not worth it for him. Uh the youth that’s likely going to be Lipawitz. We’ll see what happens tomorrow in the team jersey or the team competition which no one cares about is probably going to go to team Visma Lisa Bike. There you go. Okay. So here is the the the stage for today. Today we have Noua to Pon Tarlier 184.2 kilometers. Uh it’s heading this is over in the Jura Mountains just right close to that which gets close uh they’ve done those before and they start getting close over there to Germany. Uh so we’re just going north working our way up hopefully to uh France which I sorry Paris which is where they’re going tomorrow. And you can see this is lumpy all day. Cat three at four. Uh the sprint point coming after those two. So, you know, Jonathan Milan’s either got to get up the road or just hope everyone else goes up there. Then this cat two and then this four. Uh I said yesterday, especially you saw how the guys finished the race yesterday, this is not a GC day. They are going to do everything they can to let things go up the road and let everyone fight it out. But we’re we’re we’re going to have teams that haven’t got anything, right? Um we we walked through a few of those yesterday. Uh Bahrain as an example in Marshy movie star uh multiple teams and I was like okay maybe Quinn Simmons Matteo Jorgensson is one we talked about of like he keeps talking about getting in the break this would be ideal for him here comes into the finish likely it’s not going to be a sprint so we didn’t really care about all this little mixup here you can come through in the break a little bit popped up at the finish but not much to worry about. There you go. Uh let’s not worry about the fines in there yet. Uh, okay. So, oops. I’m already I’m already spoiling it. Who is going to get the win, but it was So, today was nasty weather. We’re kind of getting some gross weather in here. Um, the breakaway formation was interesting. And you’re seeing EF do their things where they’re trying to get guys up in the break. Okay. And, you know, this is one tour that we didn’t have a lot of uh Nilson Palace. He was, but the EF does some things. Sometimes I I shake my head at the way they work and then other times I’m like, “Oh, you’ve got some some method to your madness,” which is to get guys up in the break and sometimes in their break formation they are doing good things here. Now, we saw a few weeks or a few stages ago Tim Wellins getting in the break, not doing any work with Quinn Simmons, Quinn getting mad about it. Uh but he didn’t. Okay, so what are you going to do about it? You’re either going to take him off the back and and you’re both going to sit up and cause us, you know, to to lose or you’re going to just let him sit on There’s different reasons why different riders do different things in the break. And some guys sit on and they shouldn’t. And sometimes they sit on and they should. As an example, if you’re going up the road, but you think it’s a sprinter’s day and your sprinter is behind you. You’re like, I’m not taking a pole. My sprinter’s behind me. I’m just sitting here kind of to nullify this break. Makes sense. Or if you get in a breakaway with a bunch of sprinters and you’re not one, it’s like, why am I working for this? So, there’s different reasons why you may or may not work. And Tim Wellins is like, “Well, I’m not going to work with you, and I’ve got the GC rider back there. I don’t really have to do that.” And they’re like, “Okay.” Um, and then they allow him to sit on and then he snipes him at the end. Is that going to happen today? Well, Tim Wellins ends up getting himself up the road today. Bad weather. Um, but EF was not going to be deterred. 162 kilometers, already 20k into this thing. Uh, EF is working their way. Uh, Jorgensson is coming up there. You’ve got Jake Stewart. You’ve got some uh movie star writers. Uh Kaden Groves is up there. Ivonne Romero, uh the movie star time trial champion from Spain. Like I said, Wellins and a Frank Vandenbrook. Uh last year riding for postal pick. Well, they were different named team last year, DSM. Um he gets in the break stage one with Roman Bard. They work like beasts. They stay away. Barde gets the win. He gets second. And I was doing um Tour to France Fantasy and I’m like V Frank Vandenbrook. I went and bought him because I’m like that dude is he just powered that whole thing. He did nothing the rest of the race. This race though, he’s been doing some decent work for his team leader uh who is uh fourth Oscar only on on GC and you know he did some actually really good work yesterday coming back to him keeping him up there in the mix. He gets in the break. Uh but coming over the first KOM, it’s Lewis Louie Beret uh with followed by Romero second. Remember Beret the few days ago got in a real nasty wreck and was torn up. Uh the rest of the group comes through there once again. XDS Astana gets up the road. It’s just bad weather. I think this is the that was the Italian. Let’s see if I can see what his name is here. Uh for XDS, do I show it? Um yeah, Simone Velasco. And evidently um another guy that gets in this break is Tig Jat. Now he is 11th on GC going into the day. Let’s take a look here uh for the GC race going into the day. Jordan Jagat of Total Energies at 3842 just four minutes back from Ben Oconor who jumped over up into 10th place here uh on the cold de Lao stage. So Ben’s like I want to protect this and Jac gets in the break and it does cause some trouble. Uh once again, there you go. Jagat’s up there. It’s troublesome because uh it’s he does keep going up and at and in the you see the break or the the pelaton Jac is going to do something about it and then they end up just like saying, you know what, we’re fine where we are. Um anyway, Wout tries to make some moves up there. It’s all for not uh because the main move goes up the road. EF’s got Sweeney up there and this group is motoring on up the road. Sweeney once again tries to make some moves. Uh, from what I saw, Kaden Groves was always taking polls. Now, Kaden Groves few he’s won a stage in the Jurro. He went to the um, uh, the Valta a few years ago in wins. I think it was six stages himself. That’s that. Let’s take a look here. See if I can go through Caden Groves. Um, he the Valta he’s won seven stages at the Valta total. Um and I think it was 20 I want to say it was 2023 he won seven stage or six stages at the vault itself. So let me see um he wins going to the vault here. He wins stage four five six no four five and 21. So he won three stages there. Okay. So maybe not. Um what was the other one? 2024. How did he win 2024 with the Valta? uh Devalta, he won one, two, three, three stages there. Okay. So, he didn’t win six in a row, but you know, he’s been he’s been flying along. So, um he was looking really good today. I was Ivon Romero was Jake Stewart’s up there in the break. Um and they are they’re this thing is going back and forth. They’re attacking each other, then they’re riding well, but it’s bad weather, but always Kaden Groves is looking good and up in the moves. who’s disappointing me and not quite coming through to fruition here is uh Jorgensson. Jorgensson at one point um kind of he and Wellins look like they’re kind of did the thing of like, hey, you take a poll. No, you take a poll. Now Wellins had been doing that earlier and Kaden Groves takes him and Wellins wasn’t coming through. So Kaden Groves just sits up and and to the point where they’re both coming off and and Kaden Groves is like, “Hey, I’m going to force him to to take some polls.” Wellins conceded, goes back up there because Kaden Groves was taking pulls. Now you think about it. It’s like what why why should Kaden um I’m sure why should Wellins be working with Kaden Groves. You take him to the finish, you do work with him, he’s just going to beat you. Yeah. Well, anyway, they start moving up the road. The break goes uh from the break and it’s uh Romero, Grego, Groves, uh Velasco, and Vandenbrook. They all take up the road and they have 32 seconds over the Jorgensson group which has Wellens in it. The Pelatons’s back there at 508. But this group comes around this corner and Romero crashes out. Now we’ll show you a picture of how bad he looked afterwards. You can see him sliding and then bam hits his whole frontal like the ribs and whatnot into this curb. Greg Wah can’t miss it. He goes down as well. Uh the XDS rider Simone Velasco, he ends up going just straight. Puts his foot off. Meanwhile, Kaden Gro Vandenbrook is is makes it around the corner. Fine. Groves does. I know. At this point, I’m like, “Oh, this is going to be enough where the Jorgensson group is going to come back.” Now, uh Jorgensson said in an interview after um that he just didn’t have the legs. He’s like, “I was cooked. I tried, you know, did a lot of work early on in this stage to get up there.” He goes, “Kaden Groves looked super strong the entire time he was taking poles on these clims that were putting me, the Jurgensson, in trouble.” Okay, that’s that means look, Jorgan just didn’t didn’t have it. But he does keep working back there with Wellins. This group kind of tries to regroup. You get at least two of them going up the road, which is Vandenbrook and Jake Stewart. And then then they start to play another game here. We’re going to get up here. There you go. Well, they kind of missed the move, but Kaden Groves is up there with these guys. They’ve only got 11 second. You can see this 11sec lead of on Icorn for Sudell. 27 seconds back to Jorgensson. is after this crash and and Kaden Groves just takes his poll. Jake Stewart wants once again these games this worked with Kaden Grove doing this to Wellins just sitting up like okay then I’ll sit up if you’re not going to come through and Wellins you know acquested and he came through at this point Jake Stewart Vandenbrook’s up there with Jake Stewart who can sprint he can legitimately he’s been leading out um for uh who has he been leading out for this oh gr no not grown away I’m not sure I’ll take a look here but uh as maybe but He should be sprinting in his own right for uh Israel Primitech. Okay, he’s got a kick. He’s beaten with Jonathan Milan before in field sprints, but he’s up there with Kaden Groves, who once again we’ve said he’s won seven stages at the Valta before. He’s won two of them at the Jurro, and now he’s won another one at the um at the two Well, are we going to spoil it? He’s won a bunch of sprints. Let’s just put it that way. He’s no he’s no uh he’s pretty good at doing that. So, why would Vandenbrook want to work with these two? Let’s take I’m going to work and take two sprinters to the line and see how that works out. Yeah, it doesn’t work out. So, Jake Stewart tries to call his bluff and uh Vandenbrook’s like, “No, I’m not going to do it.” It totally makes sense um you know to just for Vandenbrook not to pull through at this point because why are you okay a third in the tour? Okay, maybe. But, you know, his team needs a win. He wants a win. He’s a pretty strong rider and he can probably outduel him. So maybe with 16k you do pull through but he didn’t do it. Kaden Groves goes up the road and it’s uh seeing the showers see in the douches as they say. Uh Kaden Groves just extends his lead over Frank. Now Frank ends up getting rid of Jake Stewart at some point. So you know got maybe you argue was that wise? I don’t think you would have been able to get rid of Kaden Groves at all. So you know you do what you got to do. Kaden Groves comes in for the win. He said it was the first time he’s ever won a race off the front. He’s only been able to do those um and and by the way, this this review here uh doesn’t have it, but there was a little wreck right in front of Tatty coming into the finish line um because it was a little wet and uh but he he made it safe. Made it safe. Tatty Pagot. So, there you go. Kayen Groves. Uh Frank Vandenbrook 54 seconds back. Pascal Einhorn at 59. Simone Velasco back there at 104 with Greg Wah, Jake Stewart, Jagat, Tim Wellen, Sam Matteo, and Harry Sweeney. And then um Matteo Tren Trenton who was in the break at one point. Uh he was another two minutes back. Then the Kofidus rider Euan Constitu and David Balerini brings in the entire big field at 704. They just dragged across the line. Now any fines? Let’s see here. Were there any fines for today? No. No problems on the day for the fines. That’s That’s good to see. How about uh let’s take a look at the complimentary results. Lewis Ber takes the first KM. Tim Wellins takes the second one, the cap four, the sprint on this on the uh the 20 points today. Goes out to the break. Perfectly fine. Jonathan Milan didn’t need that. That just helps everybody else. Harry Sweeney on the second and the K Cat too. Greg Wall on the sprint on the fourth. And um Kaden Groves all the points at the finish. Jonathan Milan doesn’t have to worry about that. Combative writer of the day, Harry Sweeney. He was moving it out there with EF Education. There we go. So there’s the results. GC doesn’t change except for Jagat moves up one place over Ben Oconor. That kind of stings. Ben Oconor now into 11th. Uh two minutes back from him. I don’t know that could really be taken care of. So now your French rider, you get a French rider up here. Well, Kevin Bakalon as well in the top. So, he’s not even the top French rider. So, okay, what was the point of all that points? Once again, Jonathan Milan, he’s going to, I believe, take take those all the way into Paris. Shouldn’t be a problem. KOM goes to TAD. There’s a few points on offer tomorrow, but we’ll see how that goes. Youth jersey to Lipawitz a minute over and once again, the team the classification still for UAE. Oh, I’m sorry, Visma over UAE. Um, let’s take a look. Here’s Romero. Here’s a picture of Ivon Romero um coming into the finish. Now, this is, you know, someone’s kind of doctorred this photo up here, but that is brutal. Um he got just torn to shreds. Uh feel bad for him. Uh obviously, I hope he recovers a bit. Um let’s see. I had to Did I have any other items I wanted to show? This was a This was a little bit of an update from this guy the other day that got uh beat up at the the finish line. Uh, the spectators received an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a 5,000 sw eur euro fine, a $500 euro fine. The man has also been banned from attending sporting events for five years. Okay, I’m not sure how that goes to there. Looks like uh to Okay, that’s uh Oh, this was interesting. Um, this is Benji uh for the Lantern Rouge podcast. He puts this out. He goes, “We care about safety of the writers, but then watch the director here of uh maybe we go and do this one. the director for uh the tour to France come flying by these cyclists, almost hits them. It’s just crazy Crazy. All right, Victor’s here. Says, uh there’s Tyler. Yeah, thank you for liking it. Uh we’ve got tomorrow’s stage. Let’s just look at the profile and give a little maybe prediction of what’s going to happen. I don’t know. Um but this cat four, cat four, those are nothings. Then you got a sprint and then you come up though the but montto marte and you hit those three times. Now this was this this is the we they had featured this in the Olympics. Remco gets away remember now remember Tad did not do the Olympics because his girlfriend Erska was not selected by the Slovenian national team. So he said well screw you. I’m not going to go then either. So he didn’t do it. So he didn’t hasn’t have this uh I don’t know if Jonas did it. I know uh Jorgensson came in there fine form and he ended up uh top 10 on the Olympics uh but Remco did solo away uh for that. So uh keep this in mind because it is a little bit uh brutal before they come into the Shams or they do they come into Oh, and then they do two laps of that and then one lap and then Okay, so they I it looks like they hit it and they come through the Shamsa. I don’t know. This will be an interesting one. I don’t think I I mean it depends if they’re trying to have champagne while they go up these these little climbs here, then it will be a mellow day. But um I’m all for making like last year. Last year was a time trial um from Monte Carlo or to to Nice. They went over there. I loved it because there was actually something to watch on the final day rather than just this stupid ceremonial stuff and you finally click in and then you’re like, “Oh, okay. watch the last lap of Shamz and then the sprinters go off there. Now, I will miss that or maybe they’ll have it still tomorrow. They should if it still has the same sprint finish where they have the camera bike going on the side on the little alleyway uh filming the the sprinters. So, you get to see it’s like a you know dog track where you have the the camera right there where the dogs are. Well, this is right there where the riders are. You don’t always get this. So, it’s fantastic to see the camera and the speed and the sprint itself. Uh, so I will look forward to that. So, anyway, that’s stage 21 tomorrow, then we’re done, and then we have four weeks right up. Yesterday, I looked it up. It was four weeks in a day to the Valta. The Valta tomorrow maybe we’ll talk about who’s going to the VA. I don’t know if Tatty is. He seems real just I hate this right now. Uh, Jonas likely is going to go. Septus is gonna go there and you know about the last grand tour of the year which I always enjoy. Thanks everyone for joining. Um Tom, I’ll look for those interviews and get them to you. All right guys, we will see you I’m going on Tom’s show tomorrow uh 4:30 uh central. So do the math for your area. We’ll see you then. Bye. [Music]