The Tour in 10: Stage 7

We're back with another recap, this time of Stage 7 and a preview of Stage 8. The sprinters come out to play, and are UnoX engaging in some sporting mind games? Only one way to find out...

Transcript

Godsmedicinecycling 0:00

Listen, I'm about to change your life and blow your mind, and for anybody else who may be listening, if this makes our cut bagel, cream cheese, little dots of the Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo sauce. You're welcome Hello everyone, and welcome to God's Medicine Cycling Podcast. I'm your host Lauren, here with my co-host Hannah, and I just started this really, really fast 'cause we are about to recap a sprint stage

hannah 0:27

Speed run stage results. Tim Merlier clocks in first, followed by Soeren Birens, Biniam Girmay, Max Kanter, Jasper Philipsen, Phil Bauhaus, Hugh Carthy, Dorian Godon, Mads Pedersen, and Tom Van Asbroeck of NSN Cycling Team. They are all predictably on the same time because this was, what, a bunch sprint. Because this was a bunch sprint, our overall GC standings have not changed. Let me remind you where we are. Tadej Pogačar leads the race. Behind him, two minutes and forty-two seconds back, is Jonas Vingegaard. Then Izag Del Toro is in third, followed by Remco Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso, Paul Siksas, Florian Lipowitz, and Lenny Martinez eighth place. Then we have the little trek duo of Matias Skjelmose in ninth and Matias Vacek on seven ten. The KOM has also not changed because there was one KOM point on offer today. Tadej Pogačar still leads that classification with twenty-eight points, followed by Jonas Vingegaard, has nineteen points and will continue to wear the jersey on Tadej's behalf. The youth classification is also the same. Izag Del Toro remains in white. The green jersey competition has seen some changes. Who would have thought a sprint stage brings green jersey points? Mads Pedersen has two hundred and four points, continuing to extend his lead. Biniam Girmay has one hundred and forty-five points. Max Kanter has one forty. Tim Merlier really shot up the rankings with today's win, one hundred and thirty-four points. And Jasper Philipsen rounds out our top five with one twenty-six. For the, I believe, the first time in the race, our entire top five green jersey slots are now held by sprinters not GC candidates.

Godsmedicinecycling 2:06

How did we get here? Stage eight, Agenou to Bordeaux, played out pretty much as expected. As we said, flat sprint stage, small trade team breakaway in front, and a big bunch sprint finish. Baptiste Viestapa was, in many ways, the hero of the day. He went on the attack immediately alongside Caja Rural's Jakub Otruba. These two contested the intermediate sprint amongst themselves and also got competitive over the single KOM point on offer today because why not? It's a race. Let's race. Viestapa won both. In the group behind, we get to the intermediate sprint and Mads Pedersen launches himself quite early to snap up the MaXima remaining green jersey points ahead of Girmay and Cantor. He said at the beginning of the stage, today would be damage control, and getting all those points is a great way to limit your losses

hannah 2:57

We salute them for their service, but Weistraffer and Otruba were never gonna make it to the end today. The peloton caught them, and Uno X really animated run into the finale of this race. They rolled several attacks. They tried to launch Jonas Abrahamsson at least three times, I think, presumably to try and prevent a bunch sprint and, and sneak away with the stage win. It was fun to watch. It didn't work. Quick-Step and Alpecin were not having it, and they reeled Uno X back in. The full sprint trains showed up with around two Ks to go, and Alpecin looked pretty comfortably in control. They looked very organized. MVDP performed a signature blistering lead-out for Philipsen while Gaviria had tucked himself on the back of that train and tried to infiltrate the Alpecin team. However, Tim Merlier and Soeren Vaerbjerg surged to the front once MVDP peeled off. Merlier claimed the victory with the daylight between himself and Vaerbjerg and brushed his shoulders off as he crossed the line like the champion he is

Godsmedicinecycling 3:53

I said it once, I've said it before, I say it again, I'm a little bit afraid of Timmy Roelier. I respect him

hannah 3:59

he looked so just like stone cold crossing that line,

Godsmedicinecycling 4:04

Killer. Killer. Ki- what a celly. We love it. And I have to say also sometimes Jonas Abrahamsson was launching himself. Here's what I liked about his attacks, even though they didn't work. First of all, I don't care if they work or not. Sometimes you just wanna see something happen. He would launch and try and go out the front, and then as things were coming together, he would launch again. I was like, he needs two guys that are, like, on the same wavelength. Sure, it still wouldn't have worked, but, like, he is trying to, you know, play some tactics

hannah 4:34

wonder if a little bit of it was tactics, 'cause clearly Uno X was also prepared to have Varonskold contest the sprint, and by Abrahamson rolling so many attacks, Quick-Step and Alpecin had to spend some energy maybe earlier than they wanted to, to bring things back together, to bring

Godsmedicinecycling 4:50

I also think, I was wondering if that was a bluff in terms of, Verremsch clearly felt good today. And Uno X didn't really have the type of lead out, I mean, they, they don't have the team there that, like, Alpecin and Soudal have. That's not anything against them. They have other goals going on with Tobias Halland Johannessen. And I almost was like, are they trying to make people believe that Soren Verremsch is not gonna go for the sprint? And then he came in second.

hannah 5:20

Yeah, maybe, maybe. Yeah,

Godsmedicinecycling 5:22

you never know

hannah 5:22

Magnus Cort in the finale, but I didn't, I didn't clock too many other Unax guys

Godsmedicinecycling 5:29

Looking ahead to stage eight, we got a good old Saturday sprint stage. Everybody get your couches ready. We're going from Périgueux to Bergerac. It's a flat stage, over 180.4 Ks. We do have two categorized climbs on the menu, but don't get too excited. It's a category four, Côte de Domme coming in at 102 Ks, and then the category four, Côte de Buisson de Cadouin at 140 Ks. Sandwiched between these two climbs is the intermediate sprint, worth, as always, 25 green jersey points. There are another 70 up for grabs for the stage winner. The run into Bergerac is completely flat, but there are two 90-degree turns before a straightaway to the line, so this is almost certainly going to be a big bunch sprint

hannah 6:20

The likes of Mads Pedersen or Biniam Girmay could try to make an enterprising attack on that first categorized climb in order to try and grab the intermediate points without too much of a fight from the bunch. If he's feeling better, I think that Philipsen could maybe also try to get over that climb without too much trouble. He said on the first sprint day that he wasn't feeling great, and he said after the finish today that his level wasn't where he wanted it to be. So I don't know how he's feeling. Maybe he won't try to contest the intermediate points. Démare here in Alavco won't be too bothered by the cat fours, but they will probably wait for the finale to make their moves. Any breakaway that goes up the road early is, we already know, completely doomed.

Godsmedicinecycling 7:00

Somebody do something, perhaps it will be Pedersen, Girmay, or as you said, maybe Philipsen to attack for jersey points on the intermediate sprint. I mean, I think everybody knows now Mads Pedersen is going to come out to play for those points, so it will be a bit of a question of... I could even see teams trying to send people out, even if it's not their sprinter, to take those away from him. Obviously, I'd like to see Mads in the green, so

hannah 7:27

Yeah. No, I agree. I think Pedersen, he hasn't been finishing terribly in the bunch sprints, but I d- I have a hard time seeing him winning one of them. And he said today in his interview after that, you know, He doesn't like those kinds of finishes. At this point in the race, it seems very foolish to bet against... We already, we already know who it's gonna be. Weinstrafer to go back in the Trade team breakaway. He seems to really like it out there. I hope that he has another buddy when he inevitably launches his kilometer zero attack tomorrow. fast, too furious

Godsmedicinecycling 7:59

Yeah, and I honestly think Two people is great, but it would be fun if we had four or five, and the sprint teams aren't gonna be bothered by four or five. Why not? Let 'em go, let 'em go. Let 'em have a little fun, okay? Will anyone try and go for the single KOM point available on each summit is another question. We did see, we have seen people going for single KOM points this whole Tour de France. Could it be Lenny Martinez? Because he is the closest in the KOM points to Vingegaard and Pogačar. Or will we see Perry Pantra for that? I don't know, but it's really amusing to watch those guys sprint in the middle of the stage for one point, and I thank them for their service

hannah 8:41

thank you for tuning in to God's Medicine for the Tour in 10. We will be back tomorrow with our recap of stage eight and our preview of what we hope will be a delicious breakaway stage, stage nine, Malemort to Ussel

Godsmedicinecycling 8:53

When I read that for the first time, I thought it said Malort Like, if they were offering me a tangy Ken's blue cheese dressing, I'll be saying yes. Ken's, by the way, love your products. Love the Parmesan peppercorn. Okay, I'm in on the Caesar. If you want to sponsor us, um, it- I even would just take some dressings

hannah 9:15

Yeah, just send us a case

Godsmedicinecycling 9:16

Yeah. I mean, uh, just to be clear, when you start working with our back office team, they're gonna highball you. We're lowballing now, but you'll get high-balled, so don't, don't get too cocky.