Hello you beautiful cycling fans, I'm on the edge of my seat as I'm…
Hello you beautiful cycling fans, I'm on the edge of my seat as I'm sure a lot of you guys are as well. Did we just witness the greatest tour of the france stage in living memory? I don't know about that but it was definitely one of the most dramatic, definitely one of the most dramatic I can remember. Yeah, rocking my brain just before I came on air here to try and think of a stage that was more dramatic and I really can't take a one. So fortune favorite to brave today, a stage 19 was canceled. So I'm going to pick the bones out of that. I'm going to talk about the six-way race for the Tour de France that we had going into today. I'm going to talk about a favor, the bandit, and the French resistance failing apart on the stage canceled. This podcast could be nine and a half hours long and I still wouldn't cover all this stuff. But I'm going to try and be respectful of your time and keep it to roughly the regular length, 24, 30 minutes. So we're witnessing the Tour de France stage like no other. Today had no stage winner. That's right, no stage winner. So where to even start with this one? So I suppose the main drama at the start of that race was Tivo Pino. Tivo Pino clearly started the race with an injury. And he didn't get very far. He abandoned the Tour de France today and floods the tears. He got to be a pretty, pretty heartless person to not fail for Tevo Pino. So his director sport thief was saying that we knew the Tevo was suffering, but we tried to race on the Tour of French television. It's a muscle-tour problem which he got when he avoided a crash two days ago. He suffered yesterday, but today there was nothing he could do. That makes it the four times that Pino's failed to finish the Tour de France. He pulled out of Tour de France in 2010, pulled out in 2016, and pulled out in 2017. Obviously this year he also pulled out of Jiro in 2008, then when he got pneumonia. So really sad to see Pino leaving. He animated the race and I would expect it no less from today. So very sad to see Tivo leaving. He had a teammate with him as he abandoned and he hooked his teammate and he broke down and floods the tears, reminisce of Kelly breaking his collarbone and tears leaving the Vuelta or Wiggins 2011 with the collarbone break when he was yet to be crowned toward a France champion. Very, very sad to see. This year's Tour de France, no matter what happens tomorrow, it'll be remembered as a Tour de France that will live long in the hearts and minds of the French public for years to come. It may be the Tour that's reinvigorated and remotivated the Yuta France. Like imagine you're a French kid, every French kid on the streets of Paris and Bordeaux, a niece, they're pulling on the yellow jerseys, never attending their alaphiliebe, they're attacking clients, pretending they're Pino. Like it's brilliant, it's completely empowered, it's you know in Ireland here we had the Italian idea effect in football and you know one generation later we had our most successful football team who's decided this tour was not a catalyst for French you to really spring them and use the pinot and a la fleep as a shoulder system then and reach even further. But let's talk about what happened today. So I was called the lisron, Horace category climb, highest altitude of the race, team Inios Kiekowski and Moskon were brutal again, Dylan van Barreld on a ride on the front and Wolf Pel, he was actually up They brought him back and Walt Pels, set a good tempo. And it's the first time we've seen Ineos really take control of the race into one of these hard climbs and set a pace that was starting to put some decent riders in trouble. George Bennett from Lotto was one of the notable victims. He had a smash yesterday so that could have been affecting him too. Narrow Quintana wasn't able to handle the pace so that tells you how hot it was. The pace was hot, hot, hot. Dan, what else finished his turn and boom, like we asked for, Garan Thomas. We called for it yesterday. We said the L-Shaken Bake was the way to go. Old school shake and bake. Thomas went. Thomas went and everyone that we would expect responded. GC basically responded where we had, you know, Bernal, Thomas, Christwig, Buckman, all coming together. Lawrence de Plus was there as well. Plus Lawrence de Plus, I like that. was there as well. So it was a select group. You could see the first crack stand appearing on Alif Leap just as he was guarding his composure. Boom! The big part of her shake and bake tactic.
Bran Al goes. This time no one can follow
Bran Al goes. This time no one can follow. Bran Al starts gapping people immediately. Thomas and the boys respond. Boom! Alif Leap cracks. He goes out the back of Ritchieport and that's where the drama really started for today, Alif Leep, he fought all the way up the climb. But the top of the climb, Alif Leep was 45 seconds behind Bernal in the virtual general classification. He had surrendered the Yellow Jersey in the virtual classification at the top of the climb. Now maybe in Alif Leep's head, he has 60 seconds to make up on a 30 kilometer descent to come back to the Thomas Group contained in the rest of the GC favourites and then a forwarder minute ahead of that he has Bernal who's dropped he's dropped the eight over the climb and Yates has got back in on the descent. So then we get news on the descent from the race organizer that the race has been stopped. So the descent is perfectly dry the Reuters can't make any sense of what's going on. The group of GC favourites has Rigoberto Oran in it behind which Oran has done a ride and he's moving up GC as well and it's a few that allowed to have been caught in the break from Chinsor and Eebly and a couple of other guys who were in the days early break. So they're going down the descent, it's Bernal and it's Yates at the front of the race and then they get Nils from the Commissar. The Chief calm Gary McElroy gives him the Nils. race is stopped. What the fuck? A tour of Rand's stage is stopped, the Voigtle stage, the Queen's stage and it's stopped. Nobody knows what's going on. Commentators are in disbelief. Wiggings on the back and I'm out of voice in disbelief. The Reuters are in disbelief. Directors are in disbelief and I'm like I can barely drink me tea with the shock. We see pictures later of what it was like at the finish in Tina. To finish, it's actually sorry, we want it. The finish wasn't bad. We've heard Wigens went short on the motorbike and he said it was about 400 meters of localized, very bad weather. Now, it was very bad. Today, the big winner was global warming because it held it down. Roles were floated, landslides impossible. tweet the picture over there. If you're not following us on Twitter, shame is plug for Twitter, get on there and follow us at a 100 score coach on Twitter. Twitter's where all the cracks at isn't it? Twitter is like life's water cooler. All the other platforms are a little bit pretentious and take themselves a little bit too seriously. Instagram's a little bit look how cool my fake life is and Facebook's a little bit. I'm gonna rub all your data and I'm gonna sell it and then I'm gonna create some sort of world domination, labor coin. But Twitter's just, it's cool. Jack Dorsey's a cool motherfucker. If you haven't listened to it, go to episode of Joe Rogue and interview and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. That's pure fire if you're looking for something on your long ride. But yeah, so we tweeted a picture of it on Twitter and it the road's completely impossible. So in that respect it was the decision. Now I'm going to analyze this with the benefit of I'm recording this 40 minutes after the stage is finished. I haven't heard a lot of the reaction to what's going on so again I'm a little bit in a vacuum here but I don't think my opinions have been a million miles off what's been accepted as the majority are prevailing opinion. The last few days I had some controversial stuff but not and two wiles. So I think there will be an out call of people saying, and it greened with me here that it was a great decision to stop the race. You've got to prioritize rider safety. We had Saigon a couple of days ago talking about the CPA, those notin for a rider and they're not protected from the extreme heat. Chris John Prudon, the director of the Tour de France, he made a call, big boy shoe, big boy pants, they're big boy calls. He made the big boy call and he stopped the race. So hats off to him, you gotta give him credit for actually making the call. Was it the correct call now in the benefit of hindsight? I can sit down and I can pick the bones out of this and you can do the same at home, listen to this and we can have 20, 30 different media news outlets and articles. In form of our opinion he didn't have the benefit of any of this. The road looked really bad but as Wigan said it was isolated to a tree to 400 meter stretch. and then the climb was apparently quite clear to the top. Called they've stopped the riders in the tunnel, allowed them to get kitted, whatever, figured out a transport across the 4500 metre section and restarted them with the time gaps.
Don't know. I don't know. It seems like it would have been…
I don't know. I don't know. It seems like it would have been logistically quite difficult to do. I don't think they were prepared for this. I'm not sure how that would have worked. Yeah, I just don't know how it would have worked. I heard people talking about potentially that was a solution. I just don't see that really as a workable solution. It loses all the momentum. And again, where do we stop the riders? And I think that's the question. If you're stopping them and restarting them, at what point do you stop them? For me, when you decide to stop them and take times at the top of the climb, which is what they've ultimately done, they've taken the times at the top of the climb and used that to determine GC. It's a very arbitrary point to take times. Why not take times at the Bockman climb before the climb starts? Why not take the climb, take the times 15k down the climb? Where do you know a kilometer before the obstruction starts? Why not take times there? You know, Alifelib took 30 seconds out of the monitor descent yesterday, roll back up what he is. He's a minute behind today, but only 45 seconds away from being in Yellow Jersey. It's a 30 kilometer descent. At what point on the descent was the obstruction, could they have let the race run until the obstruction and stopped there? I think that's the crux of the decision and that's what French fans are really going to be questioned and French fans are really going to be disappointed with. I don't know where the best place, I don't know how you make that call and I don't know if there's a right decision. The The big winner today is Eigen Bernal on the elderly. Bernal, he's as weak as water when he's on the flat on his own. He can't descend for a shot. He descends like a 50p piece. He was going to lose time. Was he going to get reabsorbed by the Kreuzvig group? Kreuzvig still had Lawrence the Plus in there. I think Buckman still had a teammate in there. Rigoberto Rann was in there, Vincenzo Nibali was in there. It looked like a group. There could have been a fair deal of cooperation. Could we have seen them coming back up to Eigen Bernal's could we have seen Aleph Aleep coming back up to that group, you know, there's a minute separating both groups, like a minute from Aleph Aleep to the Thomas group, a minute from the Thomas group to Yates and Bernal could we have seen group all compacto into the bottom of the last climb? I don't think we'll ever know. We don't know who Aleph Aleep was feeling. He definitely looked like he was descended quite well. I don't know what the right decision is. Where do you take them times? It just seems like that everyone from what I heard and read everyone was just quite accepted in the fact that we take time to the top of the climb. I don't agree I think some people have strengths. Eigen Bernal, he's born in extreme altitude. His climbing is his strength. Alif Leib is a very very good descender. It's a skill as legitimate as climbing which takes training which takes walk. That's a very strong part of Alif Leib's skill set. So to prioritize Bernal's skill set and and dispossess allopfelip of his skill set. It seems quite arbitrary and something that I think needs further clarification from the organizers as to why that happens. If that's pre-ident, if that's in the real book, or if that's just a decision they've made on the fly, because yeah, I'd be very, very disappointed when I go home and reflect on that if I was Julian Alifelib. Did the cancellation save Alifelib's podium is another consideration we got to think about. We don't know what sort of condition Alifelib's in. He's dropped on the second last climb in the day. He doesn't get back on under the scent. The guy's walk in the valley and he cracks completely on the final climb. You know, do we have a podium that looks like Bernal Thomas Christwig? Do we have a podium that's Bernal Thomas Buckman? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think we'll ever know the answer to that question. It's possible, but it's equally as possible that he comes back under the scent like we seen yesterday. So just I don't know if speculation on it gets us anywhere I would like to think the decision to stop it to take times at the top of the climb wasn't completely arbitrary that it was backed from, you know, there's some precedent there or there's some UCI rule there because what it was, you know, if I had went the other way and they took it at the bottom of the climb, like, sorry, near the obstruction, they would have called it a hometown decision, they would have said, you know, Christian Prudan is the Frenchman, he's prioritized now with Leap.
Yet it was nearly a no win decision
So yet it was nearly a no win decision. So I would just amend them for making the decision. And you know, Brails first was talking after the stage and we get on to the logistical nightmare in a second that this whole thing is for teams and transport and recovery and all that type of stuff. But we had Brails for talking about Fortune favors the brave. as for it looks like the sort of man who he'd love this lap of 99 ice cream off his head. It just has a showing off. He said, I think first and foremost, there's obviously been a land sloed, quite a considerable land sloed. I think first and foremost, we need to make sure everyone's alright, you know, for fans and people on the road. So some of the images I've seen, there's boy gracing and then there's health and safety element. We just need to make sure everyone's alright, first and foremost, that's my reaction. Yeah, right, that's grants. That's not important. and then he said fortune favors to brave as we said this morning we're going to take on today we haven't been maybe as strong as we have in the past all race but today was today where we taught if there was anyone who could make a difference on the Isaran but it was going to be hard to get there I actually taught the guys road really well from Dylan van Baral getting in the break to cast her video on the guys they rode really well wall pedals obviously really pushing the tempo of the bottom of the climb we had a plan and we executed. Garan went forced again went over the top and and who knows what would have happened after that. To be fair, it was nice to get to the top where either in that situation. It wasn't what we were hoping for, but obviously it was quite a lot of downhill to come and another climb to come, but we don't control the weather. We don't control the circumstances. We're really happy in one way. I'm kind of slightly concerned for everyone else, if I'm honest. It's a bit of a mixed feelings really. Like what's he talking about? What is he talking about mixed feelings? They're after taking the yellow jersey with a decision that's put them into the yellow jersey. Fortune does favor the brave, I'll give them that. I think it was Rodney Shorter who said no, it was Derek Shorter. Good old tell boy said Fortune favors the brave Rodney and it's very true. They do deserve that because they played it but Soy clon fans have been robbed of that finale. You know if only there was another day that we could race. Another day that's normally just reserved for wearing green wigs and drinking champagne and roll an easy through the streets of Paris. No, that's completely unrealistic. Anyway, another man who absolutely got robbed today, Yates, he was gone for his hat-tricker stage wins and he was robbed. He's up front with Bernal, he's not going to give him a hunch of help on the way down in the valley or on the way up. He's going to sit there, He's going to smile and he's going to hop on with a couple of K to go and say thank you very much for my towards the edge when he's been robbed that so he must be one of the most disappointed lads today sitting home this evening. Then we have the logistical nightmare of this. These teams, all their buses are parked at the finish and they've cleaned the kit in that. their clothes in that, they have their recovery year in that and transfers back to the hotels are calculated from that point. So it's optimising their recovery for getting back and getting hot food and massages and stuff like that. And now they're stuck the cars, there's only two follow cars for each team. It's not enough space for all the riders. They don't have recovery bags in them, they don't have clean civis for the guys, they don't have enough capacity to transport all the bikes. So I'd say it's an absolute disaster playing out on in the Alps here today and where they stopped them the weather wasn't bad at the time but who knows if that weather front was going to shift down a little bit to the boys. Another man who didn't look happy was Rigoberta O'Ran, him and Nibali, saying to be having to go out with each other and Nibali and a very, this is one of the times I've missed video as a medium and a very Italian sort of two fingers in the tone pressing against the two fingers gesture at them didn't look happy around two of them having wards I would imagine Iran was keen to push on and then Jens I was trying to tell him look apart the whole point pushing on the races being cancelled just confusion rains confusion was king actually I'd give a confusion to joint stage win.
Confusion climate control, the joint stage win today
Confusion climate control, the joint stage win today. What else have we got going on? We had Brian Smith today listen to in EuroSport commentary, the Scottish lad. If anyone hasn't heard me yesterday talking about Brian Smith, he's wore the same t-shirt in a different color every single day. But Brian actually pulled out short today so that was well appreciated. It was a bit of a scandal short now. It was not a sort of style we used on Euro sport, out of bloid. Some pretty cool shorties being pulled now. The leadership debate on team Inyels, it's well and truly settled now. The leader of team Inyels is Eigen Bernal. Eigen Bernal is the Moyer-John in the Tour de France, 22 years old. Have we just entered the Egan Bernal era of cycling? You know who's to say he could have 15 years of absolute dominance to come. He needs to learn how to time trial but he's so potent in the hills. We haven't seen anything like it in a long time and as if he wraps up this Tour de France which I suspect he will tomorrow this could be the beginning of a very beautiful reign for Colombian cycling. Thomas is a solider, Thomas will fall into line. Thomas has put in some great performances through the years in support of Bradley Wiggins and then Chris Froome and Richie Porte. Thomas is going to do the same again. Thomas is going to fall into line and he's going to play the world's strongest domestic tomorrow. I don't expect We'll see Thomas make any bids tomorrow. Like we might see Ella Fleepe crack and in any else 1-2. But I don't suspect Thomas is going to attack an endanger. Bernal's yellow jersey tomorrow. I think Thomas is going to be quite happy and look on toward. It's quite a successful defence of his Tour de France title, especially with a team base taking the jersey. Look, once the dust settles on this, I don't agree. with the decision today to stop, to take the time, to top it a climb. I don't suspect a lot of the French cycling fans are publicly agreed, but I think when the dust settles and out of my year racing in France, so I'm going to claim myself to adopt the French son, I think if they're going to look back and they're going to see this was quite a magical tour of France. Like today was a bad day. You know, the birthday, I think, lost the King in the mountains, Jersey, Pino, Bandon, the Nala Philippe lost the Moir-John. It's a bad, bad day. French Soiklin has been well used to bad days. They have not seen a lot of success in the last decade. David Moncoutier, he was a great writer, big fan of Moncoutier. I was just trying to think back there to French writers who've brought them a bit of success. We're entering in here now. where they're potentially looking as, not more potentially, that's not strong enough there. Mokes probably looking at saying a lot of success. Should Alif Aleep, change should Alif Aleep become now a three week tour rider. If you can hold the Yellow Jersey for that long in the Tour de France, you're a GC rider. Now, do we wanna see him sacrificing the classics? He's on the Strata Bianchi this year. He will meet Milan Sanremo. He's a lot more to give on the classics, But he's also a lot more to give as a Tour de France or GC stage racer in three week grand tours. So we need to think, well, Alif Aleep needs to go away and think what does he want to be because the kid has the world out of his feet and he can be whatever he wants to be. Bit of a Peter Pan type character at the moment. So yeah, I think the French are going to look back and they're going to say this was a phenomenal tour entertainment voice, but it's a phenomenal breakthrough tour for France as well. We have the team in, you know, Steve Brails first. We painted them yesterday as the Pantomine villain. They are the team everyone loves to hate. We, you know, getting build up all the climbs, which, you know, I think is fine because you're allowed to be a partisan fander, French. And people are allowed. We don't like the dominant. We like to see the underdog. It's something in us. We like to see the underdog do well. And I'm no different. I'm not a team in, you know, as our team's got a hater, but it would have been nice to see Alifley Paulton on. would have been nice to see that sort of dominance challenged. But it looks like they're gonna do it again. They're four different Tour de France winners since they started the project. We'd obviously Wiggins in 2012 with an amazing season where he went to a tinky one to do he win.
Swiss Dauphiné, Criterium, Necrotarium Dauphiné, Tour de France and…
Swiss Dauphiné, Criterium, Necrotarium Dauphiné, Tour de France and Olympics all in the same year. It's a pretty part that he might even want. I think he's that year as well. I can't remember. It was a pretty mental year for Wiggins. Then we had the film here, Thomas last year, cap it off, his tour de France, went on the top of Alpe d'Huez. I was actually there, it was phenomenal. Just what struck me on that last year. And I remember thinking it at the time, true, a haze of beer goggles, and inhaling smoke from flares, and just an onslaught of Dutch corner of noise and just smell and just true to crowds as they parted kind of egg and burn out on the front. Like a mountain shirt by Gordon Thomas of the mountain and you couldn't help but think he's a future Tour de France winner. He was 21 years old and he was at the best in the Tour de France and it looks like he's going to fulfill that potential. So we wiggens from Thomas and now burn out all under the Braelsford project that look like they're gonna see it again this year. Tomorrow what's gonna happen, who's gonna attack? We've 130 kilometers from Alberville to Valthorin. We haven't gone up Valthorin that often, we treat climbs tomorrow and that culminates obviously in the Valthorin climb which we haven't used since 1994. Incidentally we had a Colombian winner up there last time we are up. The GC is sitting at the moment with Colombian, Aigen, Bernal, 22 years old leading Tour de France with the house voice favor Julian Alafleap at 45 seconds, Grant Thomas at 103, Kreuzwig at 115 and Buckman at 142. Who's gonna attack tomorrow? Look, I don't think Alafleap is gonna attack. I don't think he is... I don't think he's gonna risk because podium position. I think he's got to be looking there. Everyone's looking to maintain at the moment. I would think with the exception of Christwick. He's not a very attacking rider though. He hasn't much about him but he had Lawrence the Blue stare in the final today. He normally has George Bennett, arguably has the strongest team. Can he attack? I'd say his best chance of getting on the podium is Alifah Leib cracking tomorrow. I just can't see Thomas and I can't see Brannal being shifted. For me it's an Agan Brannal, Tour de France win. He's the Tour de France champion elected at the moment. It's his to lose. I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna call the podium. I'm gonna say it's Brannal Thomas Christwick. I think French hearts are gonna get broken again tomorrow. I think I'll leave it deep on the climb today. I'd love to see him going down Gunsblaze in tomorrow. I think every cycling fan would Imagine if we say an attack from illuminating the race. I would absolutely love it, but I'm just not too sure. And yesterday we even talked about Aleph Aleep saying if he did lose the jersey, he'd love to lose it to Tivo Pino, but you know, obviously with Tivo Pino, I banned them today. It's just, it's a double kick in the T for Aleph Aleep. And I'm gonna leave you with this one. Aleph Aleep said afterwards, I don't think I can get the yellow jersey back. It was a dream to have worn for so long. It was longer than I could have ever imagined. I push myself every day, and even today on the last climb and on the descent, until I ended up in the car. I want to thank all my supporters, I don't have any regrets. Julian Alifelib, Chappell. Guys thanks for listening to the A1 Show Tour de France podcast. Again, as I said yesterday, we don't have a show sponsor at the moment, so what I would ask you to do in lieu of me chilling show sponsor stuff to you is to subscribe to the podcasts, leave a review for the podcast, share it round, recommend it to a friend, and we're back tomorrow with more of these crazy tour de France insights. That was honestly phenomenal, and I'm just, I'm actually thankful to have these podcasts as an outlet event about today, because I needed to get some, which it is off my chest, as I'm sure you do as well. So don't be sure to start debates in the comments on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and I'll get back to as much as I can. Guys, thanks for listening to the rant, and until tomorrow, Be valator and be valor distance. Come on Alpha Leap!