And there was actually a point where I was thinking, oh my God, can this man be this good? This is actually ridiculous. He went away, but it actually turns out it was a soft and up process that he was working for his buddy, his friends, second in the sort of France, Primo Sruglich. And he was there really as a complete softman up for him in today's race. And that was going to the tactics you send, Pogacha long. Once you send Pogacha long, what's going to happen? The race has to respond because you send them long and you don't respond. He's just going to run away. We've seen it in the Vuelta last year. We've seen it in the tour this year on the stage, I've of a call to parachute. He's eroded a decline. He's eroded in time trial. So he'll get that separation and he won't see him again. So when Pagacha attacked Belgium had to spring into action and they had to start using, I talked maybe about how Belgium mightn't have a united front that it's possible that Belgium might have had leadership problems. And there was no sign that the two big deputies, Teaspinutes and Greg Van Avermert, they went to work on the front and and they went to bringing Pagacha back. There was no problem whatsoever with that. Pagacha was closed down quite easily in the end. And then the attacking starters, the attacking starters on the last client. And we eventually had a group of six, making real separation for themselves. Mark Hershey, toward the front stage winner, attacks the only people who can follow our Wiltfan Art from our world champion, Inio Sroyderciekoski, stage winner, the two are all. So Jakob Fugelsang and Roglage. And what's interesting is all bar fugel sign from that group wrote the Tour de France, which may be answers that question that we were wondering. Because this is at the business end, this is after 220km of race. We often wonder is this the tour of good preparation for something like this, is a week in between a long enough rest. But this largely answers your question. The guys at the business end of the race all wrote the Tour de France. So it does seem like it was a positive. Now I know it's difficult to draw a conclusive correlation from that because the most talented Reuters were sent to the Tour de France and if they had arrested and not done the Tour de France, the composition of the break probably would have been the same as well. But yeah, it didn't seem like it don't have Julian Alaphilippe any harm when he went over the top of that group of six and got separation over the top of the final climb. And I'll have to leave those, he threw the bike, he fucked it around corners and threw it down the descent, held at 9 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, back to 10 seconds and we had this last 12k of just drama where it was tuned and thrown, is it possible to get him back and then we had a point where it just seemed like the wheels were coming off the chase behind. This typically happens because you've one rider fully committed up the road, you'll be an alaf leap and then back the road you have five riders who are coin committed but then there's two things they start looking at. One, Wout Van Art, one of the fastest finishers in the world is in the group. So they think, well, I'm going to get second if I leave Alaf leap up the road because he's going to win. But if I work with Wout Van Art, he's going to win sprint and my best chance is second anyway. So my best player here is to maybe soft pedal and gamble a little bit, make Woutfaunar do a ridiculous amount of work, and if we do catch Alephleep, I now have a chance, because Woutfaunar is tired, Alephleep is caught, I'm actually racing for the win. This rarely turns out to be a good tactic, the only time we see a rotor like that who's fully committed up the road being caught is when we see cooperation from all parties behind. So this is where we have the interplay of trade team versus country. We have Reuters from different countries behind, Wout Van Aert, Hershey, Kiekovsky from Poland, Fugelsang from Denmark, Roglage from Slovenia. We have these Reuters behind, but also, they're on trade teams. Roglage and Wout Van Aert, roid for the same trade team. And Roglage has just had Wout Van Aert doing unbelievable work for him for three weeks around Is there a little bit of reciprocity going on here?
Well, this is where the start of the drama unfolds. We all know how the race panned out. Alifeliep wasn't caught. The group behind showed some level of cooperation. Look, it showed some cooperation, but when you're watching on the TV, you just don't know how hard rotors are going on through. And if they were fully committed and the Belgium TV have really picked up on this. But for me, I'll get to that in a minute, that drama between Wout Van Eart and the criticism of Rogliche that maybe he didn't work hard enough for Wout Van Eart that he owed Wout Van Eart after the Tour de France and he didn't pay that back. I'll talk through what the Belgian televisions are saying on some Belgian expros, but you can only do what you can do if Rogliche is on his hands and knees after 240 kilometers racing. There's fuck all he can do on the last 10k. You'd have to have legs to do it. But first, I think it's worth no. The race finished as Julian Alifleap, Woutfernart in second place, Hershey in third place, an amazing third place for him. Cave Cofsky Ford, Fugelstein fifth, Roglich sixth, and then Bling Matches winning the group behind for seventh. So I didn't get my prediction right. I think I had predicted Woutfernart, Mike Woads, and Bling. They were all there, they're about Wout second, Bling seventh, Mike Woads fourteenth. Look, you win some, you lose some Hershey, was a great each way bet if someone got him. I have to say I didn't see her, she put allofally. Just looking on the way he finished it toward a France, I wouldn't have taught. The bookies didn't think that he was up there, but he just seems to be able to deliver that kick in the teas to people when they're on their limits. He knows how to attack. But, without fan art, the big star had showed a heavy pre-race favourite. He's after pulling off something that not a lot of riders have pulled off. He is the second rider only in history to win a medal in the time trial and the road race in the same year. The two orders are Big Mig, Miguel Injurin, one of the greatest riders of all time, and Abraham Alano. So he's in good company, but listen to him after race, he said, I think it's too early for me to be proud of it. I came here with high expectations and a tire to accept two silver medals. Nevertheless, I was beaten twice by guys who are stronger guys. That'll make it easier to accept but I'm aiming for wins. It's been an exceptional year I think I've had really strong legs but I'm gonna need some time to be proud of it. I think that's fair enough. I think it's the nature of the athlete that you're not gonna be proud of second straight out the bat. Let's move across to this drama. Roglic was really happy with how to raise pam now for him and Pogacha he Taught they wrote great together. He remarked that they're not one day specialists. We raced it. We raced it well. I'm super proud of being part of it. And I'm even super proud of the great result. But the drama kind of started when the Belgian Federation president tweeted, that's Tom Van Dam. He tweeted not to be confused by Jean Claude Van Dam, for just throwing down beatdowns, more of a 90s reference to Kung Fu and martial arts. Probably has no place on a cyclone podcast. You're thinking, But that is what you get on this cycle in podcast. Right, that was a random digression. Tom Van Dam. Tom Van Dam. He said, I love Philippe owes Roglich two beers for his work in that chase group. He tweeted out, as if to say that Roglich was off pedaling and that he wasn't un-rubled because of the work that the work that worked on for three weeks from around France. But Roglich said, look, we just did everything we got. It was five strong riders working together, but Julian was the strongest in the race It's normal in the last 2k you start thinking about other medals, but before that we worked really well together I think everybody had been on the wheel at the top of the climb, but it was impossible. No regrets the strongest in the race won Sorry that was what they worked on earth talking about how we can't have any regrets on that, but it was Vanart's The media coverage from Sporza That's where they started talking about that held a suggest that Wout shouldn't ride another meter on the front of the bunch for Roglich ever again.