Jonas Vingegaard Shows His Best Form Yet Ahead of Tour de France

I think Yonas is giving himself the best chance possible. I think this is the best in inbound Yonas into the tour to France. Granted, we still are a month out. He's got to stay healthy. He's got to recover. He's got to polish it off. But this is you look at the past few years, this is the best he's been. This is the best we've seen him over the past few years. and not just from a physiological level, but also from a place of calm, a place of peace, a piece of a place of knowing his role in the sport, finding why he's riding and what means something to him. I'm putting Paul I mean, I don't think this is crazy, but at the same time as I hear myself say it, I think it's crazy that I'm giving

Okay, if I'm crazy, just call me out, man. I'm thinking Paul is like a strong guy to be second place to Tatty at this point in time. Is that nuts? Welcome back to Beyond the Podium. We're into the month of June and that means the men's jerro de Italia just wrapped up. Women's Jurro still underway, but we've got lots to unpack and review from the big three weeks of racing in Italy. What do we learn? What does that mean for the Jirro? And specifically, what does that mean for the big rendevous at the Tour to France coming up still in July? With me to do all of that and more, Christian Vaneld. Christian, good

to see you, man. Uh, nice to link up back here on Beyond the Podium. I think you've been globe trottting and jet setting all around the year, all around the world. I saw you up in New York City living the Flash life up there. So, uh, it looks like you're back down in South Carolina. Glad to see you back. How was the trip up to New York? It was great, man. Uh the city's on fire. I had an absolute blast up there. And actually, you know, previously to this conversation we're going to have here, one of the questions in Pelaton before we kicked off one of the rides was, you know, who's going to win the tour to France, Tatty or Yonas? And I just looked at him. I said, you know, and he put his head down. He's like, yeah, I know. And so, I

mean, that's always the conversation no matter where you are in the world, especially at this time of the year. We got the ramp up going into the duro just folded just yesterday and now we're looking to the tour to France. Especially in the states, right? There's there's the one race and for a cyclist, did you do the tour to France? Are you a real well that's pretty much the only race they know. This guy who asked me that question probably didn't even realize that Jurro was finishing that day when he asked it. So yeah, it's all the focus that is truly, let's be honest, Brent, you know, for the it's a top step. There's nothing close to it.

Um, we're going to talk about what happened to the Jurro. Jurro's always great. I love the Jurro. There's no shade on the Jurro, but there's only one tour. Yeah, absolutely, Christian. I was thinking the same watching the Jurro the past few weeks and thinking, man, I did love riding this grand tour. I loved the passion of the Italian fans, the mountains, the Dolommites, especially that Queen stage, that Sephus one that we'll get into in a second, but just the breathtaking scenery. Um, just a bike riders paradise. And it just it the Jirro just screams pure bicycling and bike racing to me. Whereas the tour is like something else off in another planet of

like a grand phenomena beyond the sport of cycling. But so much good bike racing we just had to unpack at the Jirealia and we can't go through all of it because it was 21 days. I don't know about you, I caught a lot of it. Um I've had a broken wrist so I've been a little slowed down and um a little more bike racing to watch as I'm not riding my bike unfortunately. But uh it was a good race to watch and Yonas Vingigo, we got to start on the top of the result sheet. Yonas Vingo coming out with the goods. Uh the much anticipated program change for Yonas. He said he wanted to add the Jire Italia to his Palmer becoming one of the few riders in history to win all three and really executed and performed flawlessly.

And we can talk about his competitors as something else. And the course and what that means for the tour is something else. But first, give credit where credit's due. Visma Lisa Bike, Yonas Fingo, just true perfection. Bucket of stage wins, winning in pink, winning in his jersey. And honestly, like the entire time I watched him, he never once looked to be off a step, missing a step back. like the couple visuals I have in my head of Yonas of Tatai taking it to Yonas at the tour where he's kind of starting to come apart at the end and really pouring his heart and soul under the pavement to not hemorrhage another second. I didn't see that Jonas at all.

He never got brought to that level. So, just a real confident, emphatic win. Uh and one for the record books, too. Like we talk about the history and greatest of all time, this and that all the time these days, but let's also give some credit to that. This is uh this doesn't come around all the time where we've got another champion in the triple grand tour club. No, that's a great point, Brandon. Yeah, you always have to a win is a win, especially this day and age, especially for a grand tour. You just it's not a layup no matter who you are, where you are. The Jurro is hard that things

happen. I think there was one point in time that he did say that he had gotten over. So he after he was feeling good again, he said, "Okay, I was sick." Yes, that's true. I wasn't as sharp as I was. So that was the one time where he wasn't just tomahawk slam dunking those guys in the mountains for a little bit. That's when G was a little bit closer to him. But I think the only thing that truly matters is usually especially you're going for two grand tours in one year is how you are in that last week and how you're coming out of the grand tour. And if you're feeling like you're still on that ups slope or you're feeling like you're on plane like a boat, then you're good. It's the guys who are falling

apart and just being able to keep it together in that Saturday stage and thank God it's a flat sprint stage on Sunday and go home and put your feet up for a week and a half. So, you know, if we're going to talk about what Yonas, the biggest question was, was he going to have to struggle? Was he going to have to really push himself like he just said? And I'm I agree with you. I don't think that he was ever under the pump at all. And if you look at Felix, you know, how good he was in that first 10, 11 days versus where he was at the end, he wasn't as good. Either he got a little bit worse or Yonas got better. I don't know which one that is. I think by the numbers, Yonas was pretty standard

throughout and he didn't really have to go too crazy. Even though, let's again point, you have to give credit where credit is due. He went from distance quite a few times. Maybe just to give himself, you know, that momentum, that confidence, give himself a team. So I think if anything else like let's take away all what he's saying, you know, cuz there is a little bit of a magic sauce on there saying that you're better in your second tour. There's a lot of variables that go into it. Let's be honest there. But the one variable that is true is confidence. And if you have confidence, you're going home and you're excited to get on your bike again.

You're excited to make those sacrifices. You can't wait to get to July because you got that, you know, you have that momentum behind you. I think that's a variable that we definitely need to talk about and is deserving of talking about. Everything else I think there's so much nuance involved. Like yeah, anything could happen, man. Of course. Like, but is Teddy training? He's probably flying training at home. We just saw Paul Sex's break the record of Von 2 yesterday on a training ride, bro. 90. He I think by 30ome seconds in training. I mean, like that's insane. It's going to be Yeah. all sorts of uh good data points to hype us for the tour and it's going to be I think one for the ages for sure. But yeah, going back to

Jonas, I like the mention of confidence and even you know referencing that to Jonas and the mode we've seen him at the tour to France in recent years. I got a lot of self, really strong self-belief out of Yonas. Like he truly did and does always genuinely believe in himself, his abilities, the strengths and qualities he brings and his team brings unique to him and that squad as he really believes their strengths. But the confidence, the confidence sort of being the amplified version of self-belief where we also have this hard evidence to also like grab a hold of, tap back on, sit on, sink our teeth into that. The Jirro is absolutely that for him and it just it never whether he was sick or not or what that was it never was really tested. It never

wavered. It was really just kind of unwavering just cumulative building and building. And I like it that confidence I think that he gained and got out of the Jirro. It did once again come from that self-belief. It was classic Yonas in terms of very like calm, metered. Um he wasn't he wasn't necessarily pointing for the fences saying I'm going to attack here and smash him here. He respected all of his competitors. He those first few attacks when him and G were going at it, he was very interested of like how is he cracking him? Is am I going is he where is he at? Where's he at? He wanted the info from the radio and then yeah, you looked at that last week

just cracked it open. 10K out just full send. So absolutely when is as good as he ever could have imagined it going. I'm just happy he also came out of it safely. You know we look at the Jurro is just filled with drama and crashes uh every year like many races in pro cycling these days. But you we talked Tad Pagotcha team UAE. What a tale of two teams in terms of the Jirro de Italia and their GC ambitions wiped out in the first week for team UAE. And I got to say when Yonas talked about the Jirro, how it's good for two grand tours and he builds and he gets stronger, well, we don't even have to debate that.

My first worry was I just I don't know if he's going to make it out safe. There's just so much that can go wrong in a in three weeks of racing, 21 days. So yeah, really um template perfect version for Yonas coming out with confidence and yeah, I can't imagine a better scenario for him going into the tour to France whether or not that's going to allow him to meet the challenge of today Pagotaa. We can talk about that and debate that, but up to now couldn't have gone any better. If he was going to script the season to June 1st, this is it. It's looking great. Yeah, I agreed. Well, let's talk about UEIE a little bit or you know with that big crash happened in stage number two.

I believe it's stage number two. It seems like a year ago. It was pretty much a month ago, but uh that was I mean it was a high-speed crash. You know, going to that righthand corner. Half the team just went down hard. Narvas went down hard as well. Jonathan Narves who went on to do have an incredible jur with three stage wins. Um what a stud he is. Really just flying the flag for UEIE afterwards. But unfortunately Jayvine and Adam Yates being taken out of the race from that crash. And so that's another aspect as well. We never got to see Adam Yates in full flight. That would have been a guy who would have been up there shoving uh Vingo a little bit at least on paper. Pelazari

got sick as well. So we never really got to see him. And in fact, I'll go a little bit deeper on Pelazar. I think that I don't think he should have finished the race. You know, I think that with a young talent like him being at half mast for more than half the race, I mean, what are you accomplishing here? Of course, you're trying to get on the podium with Jai Henley and they did that. So, that was fantastic. But, um, I think when you have those younger guys, you have to keep the winning mentality alive in your head. And, you know, there's enough time in your career where you get your teeth kicked in, but if you have those generational talents, you have to keep them fresh and evergreen. you know, like that you could win at all times.

Case in point, the conversation we're having about Yonas here, having that confidence going into the tour to France. Anyways, that's another talking point later on. And then, uh, but you with UEI there, they did a great job. I mean, but to your point about being safe, that was the biggest question going through here. I mean, you take a risk in everything you do. So, if you if you don't do the zero, then you have to train so much harder. And are you going to be on the same wavelength as Ted? if and if you need to change something. Obviously, everything else wasn't working over the previous couple years.

You need to change something at some point in time. So, I applaud them for taking that risk to go and racing a very archaic grand tour. One of the most archaic grand tours there is. And so, they got through it and he's got his triple, which is can't be said by too many people out there ever. I mean, the greats of all time. Um I was actually it was crazy to see the list of people who have done the triple you know and how you know it didn't happen too often but then in the last couple years you know with Froomi Alberto um Nibi as well so it's been a decent amount of people at least since we were in the sport um but anyways it hats off to him like you said and then everyone else though I mean was there any

surprise Derek Gene was caught in that crash as well that was unfortunate for him. Dererick did a fantastic job coming all the way back and speaking of the triple and well let's talk about him for a second. Seuss man, how cool was that? Okay, we're 1 million% biased on this one, but it was so cool to see him up there and his mom just got I want to say she got out of the car off the airplane straight to the finish line and then you see your son with your hands up going across the line. So, you know, when seeing Steph and doing that very emotional interview afterwards, I was just like, just let it go, man. You're obviously just on the brink of tears, when's the next time you're going to be

winning a grand tour stage that your mom happens to be at the finish line of. So, really cool to see that. Incredible. I love it. I Oh, I so love that. Yeah. One of my racing memories um from racing with Seb on the national team at Worlds one year is his mom also being there and her telling us just gushing over her Sepy and how proud she was of him and how she just couldn't believe he's racing the World Championships and um yeah just so heartwarming and lovely to see parents connect with the sport and the their children and what they've all like invested in this journey they've been on. And that finish line interview from Se was it was really heartwarming.

It you know speaks to the sacrifice and the time away and but still like at his core how much that family and those friends mean to him. So yeah what a moment for Se his family his mom her and uh yeah and what a stage to do it in too. I mean that profile of that stage through the Dolommites Christian. Oh my gosh. Like you cannot craft a more twisted stage for the third to last day of the Gro de Italia. And in true step fashion, just back there chilling in the break almost. I feel like almost the announcers and the commentators and even myself as a spectator almost kind of forgot about him in there. He just was so stealth and just floating back there and then right

when it matters, the big show on the last climb just Yeah. Because Chicone wanted it so bad and he's so passionate. He's blowing his hands up in the air full Italian style and you know he's desperate which is pretty much what he was you know and I get it you know and that to your point earlier about the difference in the jurro it's so much passion going on there I mean it the most passionate racing you'll ever see and that's when you get into that side of it that's really cool that's what you don't get to see where tour France is a little bit more business you know this is the highest level of sport it's business we need to make them we need to execute where this is

for the love of the game Man, this is street ball. We're going all We're going deep in this one. But back to Seth. The reason I brought him up, which I neglected to say, the reason I brought that up after I said the trip with Yona, same thing goes with Seth. He ticked that boxer having a stage win at every grand tour as well. And this is a dude that you give him the green light and he executes almost every single time. All right, we're going to give you one chance to get up the road and go for the win here. Got it. Just today, coach. I'll do it. I'll get it. And he does it. I mean the one remember this stage in the tour to France beating Valverie of all people.

I'm like oh this is not good. He's you got to drop Valverie hand on the descent all the way. No problem. I got this in the bag. And then of course what he did in the VA. Uh we'll never forget that of course. And then I think all the way back even in the Dolphin I think after Primos crashed out. Give me the rock coach in wins again. I mean this guy it doesn't happen. You always think like oh well Brent crashed out Christian you go for the win now. Wait, wait a second. That's not part of the game plan. I didn't train for this. And then Seth makes it look easy, but it is definitely not easy. We see with sprinters all the time. Okay, now we'll go for the lead out guy. It's not how it works. It's not

a video game, you know. So, it's it's really fun to see SEP get others. Very emotional. It was really cool to see him do this. And he's a guy who's going to be in the tour to France as well. Um, what do you think about his, you know, as far as the team in Vizma? You know, you think of I'm thinking of three guys in particular with who are going from the Jirro. I'm thinking about Yonas, of course, Victor Campards and Seth Cous. And really that team bonding of all those guys as well and knowing that you could rely on these guys and they're going to be there when you truly need them at every time. Um my only hindrance is that, you know, this is a great team, but I always seems like UEE is even

better, you know, like almost every time. I mean, case in point, like half the team crashed out. Even Jonathan Narves, it was pretty funny, not funny, but like when they had a big crash, man, he had no fabric left on his butt. And the TV camera kept on showing that I was like, "Oh my goodness, this is only in this sport can you see this, but you know that he dusted himself off and did a fantastic drill, showing how good he could be on any kind of terrain." Um, so anyways, reason I'm asking this, what do you think about their team going into supporting Yonas versus UAE? Yeah, you know, if I had to, as you're saying that, Christian, I'm like kind of crystallizing the picture. If I had to create a generalized sort of like image

or assessment of those two teams, I think Visma Lisa Bike in terms of their group and cohesiveness and this almost like more like sentimental family facet of the team and really feeling it, wanting it for each other. I'd argue that even the adversity they've been through having been defeated at the tour to Fran to France the past couple years has even made this recent experience at the Giralia even more rewarding. Um, and I think that's becoming even more and more like their strong sort of characteristic and their strength if any. It's really uh it's it really seems like they're very much there for each other. And I'm not saying the UAE riders are not. And where I see UAE that vision of that

team is sort of crystallizing is just the firepower, just like the raw talent. But I don't necessarily detect or I'm not hearing the same sort of like emotion and togetherness um and camaraderie there. united by, you know, arguably TAD, the greatest of all time, which is a pretty sweet point to be rallied behind and a big budget. They're all professionals. Um, so like the tale of the UAE at the Jirro is a testament to their depth, right? Like lose like, you know, three of your best riders on the team, four of your best riders on the team, doesn't matter. We still got a handful back here that can just assassin one man show and just start stomping stage wins. So such depth, but I think Vismalisa

Bike and Yonas' team is right there with the talent and ability and maybe even a little more there in terms of the cohesiveness and togetherness, but I still don't know. I still don't see Yonas beating TAD head-to-head. I only see Tade winning if the tour beats Tade somehow. Um, but that's yeah, we're there's there's weeks and weeks we're going to be bashing out that conversation. But yeah, I like Visma Lisa Bike right now in this momentum that it gives them uh really strong position. They can really have a real quiet for everything that they invested and that energy they had to spend and that focus they had to invest into winning the Jirro. Well, then now they get to really reap the benefits of

it and they get to just let everyone sort of calm, really meticulously, you know, calmly select their tour to France squad. And TAD like we're going to see them racing again in June. We got, you know, Adam, Jay Vine both piecing themselves back together, recovering from injuries. So, little more um more variables at play with UAE right now, but obviously still just so stacked. I mean, they could just close their eyes and grab seven guys off the roster to support TAD and be like, "Huh, yep. World class, like best of the best, like, you know, hard to match them anywhere." So, yeah, they're they're both going to be there and ready.

Yeah, we almost have five weeks still to go until July 4th, that kickoff in the team time trial. So, you got a long way to go to your point. Um, speaking of teams though, we talked a little bit about Felix G. First of all, fantastic ride. Didn't really ever see him being contender, especially when we had the show on before. We didn't talk too much about Felix Gol going into the Jirealia. I think he surprised a lot of people. Um maybe not internally inside his team. They most likely knew what he was capable of. He was one of those guys. He was almost like a you know one hit wonder at times, you know, just incredible one day in the Alps or

in the Pyrenees. You're like, "Wow, this guy, he's good." And then he would not be there. would falter a couple days later and just not be at the same level that he was or coming out of a breakaway and just dismantling everyone in the breakaway. Um but he said that he trained harder than he ever has. Obviously the team has stepped up big time over the last couple years and now with Pelus who I mentioned earlier uh this team is getting better and better. Um obviously you just like there's been a lot of emphasis put on legal trek as well. I would put them in the same boat maybe even a little bit higher. I mean Le had a rough juro.

Let's let's not say that they did not. Yeah, they were trying very hard many times. Jonathan Milan, thank goodness for everybody's sake. He got that W just yesterday in last stage of the zero. Uh but yeah, I'm looking and I'm excited to see what DAL actually I just ran into one of my French friends in Manhattan, Jean Francois, and we were talking about Pal sexis and he's like, man, the hype is real over there in France. everything everyone that's everyone's talking about you know when you're on the cover of Lee and all the sports magazines and the newspapers it's always a big deal and so yeah it is uh it's a big deal I that's if I think of anything negative about Paul it's about how much scrutiny and

pressure internally in France is going to be so if they can protect him and the French people actually protect him uh so that's that's what I'm excited for what do you think I mean I was talking to Bob yesterday on the way to the airport and I was I'm putting Paul, I mean, I don't think this is crazy, but at the same time as I hear myself say it, I think it's crazy that I'm giving, okay, if I'm crazy, just call me out, man. I'm thinking Paul is like a strong guy to be second place to Teddy at this point in time. Is that nuts? It's It's wild for how young he is for being an untested rookie at the Tour to France. Yeah, I think this is uh he's on the fast track, no doubt. What I like about Paul Sexs and what he has going

for him is the team. You know, we talk about Dathlon, there's definitely some there's some Frenchness and there's some culture and there's some roots in there, but arguably, no, but I think for him as a French rider, it's good. Usually, it is a negative. Like we talk about a lot of the recent French phenoms where this t this hyping and touting of the next great French hope um has sort of gone poorly or buried these guys a little bit. it often is within these hugely French a little more traditionalistic organizations that I feel like don't have the support and sort of scaffolding erected around these guys to provide performance support and resources but also sort of temper the Frenchness with

an international blend and I like what they've done with Felix Gaul in that they have developed him they have they essentially took him from a rider that always was just off the charts physically physiologically had the climbing engine, but as you said, a little like a little lacking in consistency. Um, needed to probably improve his time trial, needed to improve his racecraft, his tactics, his aggressive riding, and absolutely did. And he just comes out with second at the JRO. And thinking back to the first week, listening to some interviews that Hinrich Castler, one of their directors, did with the cameras, they were backing him by then. They were really saying team switched on. Everyone's rallied around him. were we're here for

Felix riding the podium into Rome and they did it. So I like that. I think that also bodess really well for Seas in terms of a tour to France GC bid in the first year. But that said, you know, Christian, just once again like contrasting Jirro tour, the tour to France is just a beast unlike anything else that Yeah. even yeah like t taking like attacking tat in a one day race like start Bianca you know riding to the line with them cleaning up uh another world tour pelaton is a totally different beast than showing up to the tour to France so I'm excited for it and I think he's he's going to be in it and I just hope that I hope the French public can also see him for more than just that like because he is a he's almost like a young kid and I know all

these riders are getting more professional and more into it every year. But so much career ahead of him and the worst thing for him would just to be to feel the weight of disappointment or failure from the nation of France. But I like at least that he has this international um organization around him and has really risen to the occasion and shown themselves, you know, worthy of this role as one of the best teams in the Grand Tours along with Yeah. along with UAE, along with Red Bull, Bora, along with Trek. Um these are the teams that seem to be putting the pieces together. obviously have the talent and they have the budgets. They're scooping up expensive highv value riders, but they're also figuring it out how to support these guys and

Derek G even fifth place maybe not the full potential ride that they would have thought for him, but you think of everything that he went through and all the resources they invested into Milan through the full three weeks too also also really solid. So yeah, you still put UAE Visma Lisa Bike clear at the top of the GC podium, but under underneath it, I like what we're seeing in terms of the competitiveness of these other squads. Um, we need that. Yes, absolutely. We need it. Um, which I is, and speaking of them, Red Bull Bora also on the podium at the JRO, Jai Henley, I think, delivering big on the leadership opportunity there and co-leader like you said with Pelazari uh

through the first half of the race, first two weeks. But that's a strong ride like really confirming of Jai. But I'm looking at the tour to France with them and I'm kind of still like scratching my head like how's this going? Like Rem there's the Remco factor and we got Leap of Its and like it just it's still to me that team looks a little messier than Decathlon even than Trek um and for sure than UAE and Vismal bike. But what do you think about the other team that we put up there in the upper echelon of this GC discussion off the Jirro and into the tour? Yeah, I mean I like talking about what they're doing over at Red Bull. Um that's a project, you know, just like in many other teams and you're thinking

about taking an a foundation of riders and growing them within your organization or using your paycheck, using the checkbook. Um, and that's a little bit of the latter with Red Bull, obviously, because they're they're starting up and they have massive injection of cash and then they have the backing of an incredible organization to help and foster this talent when they get him in. Um, but it's different, right? I mean, when your leader is Remco, he's an incredible bike rider. He could do amazing things. Obviously, the time trial, one day races these days, he's got some punch. The biggest problem is like when you're seeing these kind of times and numbers on these clims, I just don't see how Remco could be able

to do that. I just don't. I mean, no shade on Remco at all. It's just that this is just any other era earlier, he probably would have been able to do a lot more with it. But right now, it's not going to be easy for him. So, I don't care what kind of team you have, you can't push your leader up the climb when these guys are firing off big attacks. So, yeah. I mean, the team's awesome, and I think it's going to continue to grow and get better within that organization, especially with now that they have the younger, they got the junior team, they got the under 23 team, and they're going to be able to bring all that talent up into the ranks, and they're going to foster that kind of

talent like we were talking about earlier. Um, but I think they still need a minute until they find that next and that's going to be the biggest hindrance with a lot of these teams or you know if you do find that a prodigious talent like Paul Sexus early on, oh man, you got to hold on to them with all your grip because everyone's going to try to come after him big time. So that it's a weird place to be in cycling. I talked about the NIL money in college football and not even going to high school, you know, every recruitment. The same thing goes with cycling these days. You're looking at guys through Instagram and social media trying to get in touch with these 16, 17 year olds, just making sure that you get

your grip on them before somebody else does. Um, so I'm I'm excited. I'm the end of the story is that the more teams that we have on the same level, the better the racing's going to be and the better the product is going to be for us watching at home. We don't want to just see one team walking away with it. You don't want to see just the Yankees with the best lineup ever. Um, we don't have a salary cap. We're most likely not going to have a salary cap anytime soon in cycling. It's all found money. So, you don't want to put a cap on that either. And UAE has risen the bar for everybody else. Brent, your team was a problem back in the day. BMC, you guys destroyed everybody. You had a

massive checkbook and we're like, what are we going to do now? And so, and but everyone had to come up. And so in hindsight, you have to really thank big organizations like that because without that, we'd still kind of be stuck here and everyone had to keep on raising the bar and we're seeing a big raising the bar as of late. So we'd love to see that. We would love to see Inos raise it even higher again. They've been kind of just being beat up sideways in the tour to France for the last couple years. So we'd love to see them come up a lot more than even we saw in the JRE. They had a great race. They did good with Aaron's men and it was good to see Aen Bernal back up there in the top 10. But we

needed a couple more steps to be where they were in the Froomy and Agon and everything. How everything was going perfectly for them. True. Yeah. I think Yeah. On the way back, but again, like we talked about what we're carrying out of the mo momentum out of the Jirro, not looking back as much as we are looking forward. I think for Inos it's also quite strong and Demon Arnman putting together the real consistent three weeks like having a bit more of the I guess like just a consolidation of that leadership role and shouldering it nicely and yeah the tour to France is a

whole other beast but they're also coming I think out of this like encouraged I you know I look at all these teams especially these teams in the top five six as it pertains to the tour the momentum that can be built or the m momentum that needs to be created. A lot of them are in a good place and they're they're trending really nicely and looking really strong. Um the other that one of the teams NGC that we haven't talked about Christian the sprinters one of the revelations of this JRO and Paul Manet were you expecting this? I felt like I was sleeping on this a little bit. I into the Jirro I would have said like I think he's good for a stage but this is another one of these like how many like he's still on.

He was just the smoking red-hot onfire sprinter card as we see these sprinters catch fire from time to time. But tell me you were more queued in and you would have called him for more than one. Yeah, I would not have called him for more than one. I thought a lot of it was going to be Jonathan Milan show yet again. Um but the way he raced immediately like woo these guys are in trouble. This guy's going to be a problem going forward. The way he just his poise in the last couple kilometers and his sound bites as well. I think we talked about that last time uh with this TJ, I forgot which one it was. It's been it's been a minute, but what he said about being able to sprint, giving him

the ability to like open the doors a little bit, but and maybe wasting a little bit more energy than some of the others would who are the pure sprinters, the Dylan Grona wagons, Milan who sit on the wheels a little bit longer. They have 500 more watts underneath the hood than Paul does. But it doesn't matter if there's somebody in front of you or boxed in where Paul's already sprinting. you're got your hands on the brakes or you have to go around a guy and stop pedaling for one second, he's gone. So, 22 years of age, man. Um, he's a killer and he's going to be a killer for a long time. You know, he reminds me a lot of Aleandro Pitakei. A lot of him like not necessarily like the

most wicked fast guy you've ever seen, although they're both very quick. There's no doubt about that. But he's always there. He can get over some hills. Um, and he's going to be here forever. I mean, I'm for the tour to France. Unfortunately, he's not going to be there. Tim Miller is going to be there. But Tim's 12 years older than him, man. He's a lot I mean, that's a completely different generation, all within the same team, having big talents. And I think Tim's going to he's going to seal the deal in the tour to France as well. I got a lot of confidence in that guy. So, I think Quickstep is kind of going back to their roots, the Tom Boon era, you know, going for straight up sprints and they're they're looking at that and, you know, that's great and I'm glad they

adjusted as quickly as they did. I was pretty scared for them, you know, after Remco and investing a lot in some of the GC riders, bolstering their squad, at least for some climbing guys, and then, oh, what are we going to do now? Now Remco's not here. We got more cash, but we don't have the riders. So, I'm glad that they adjusted so quickly. Um, and the sprinters, it's not easy. And I would say that's the one thing in the judia, the sprinters, there's always a pretty stout field there as far as sprinters goes, even though they didn't get the opportunities. and even the opportunities. There's some suspect, let's just say course selection going on there of what was going on in the

finales. But that's a Jurro. That's a Jurro on your toes. I But yeah. I'm I'm excited about this guy. I think he's going to be around for a long time. He showed himself and as far as, you know, our conversation, ongoing conversation about confidence going forward with sprinters, it's everything. It's even more so than uh GC riders any day of the week. So if you have that swag about you, you know that you could do it and you know execute on the day, then this guy's going to have an incredible next 10 years of his career. Yeah, absolutely. On fire right now. It'll be interesting to see him evolve into this now when he goes into any sprints really. I think from now on this was he's won a lot of races

before but really the a big coming out party for him and now he's going to have the bullseye on his back and other sprinters are also going to be racing against him in the future analyzing his weaknesses looking for any flaws just not trying to do their best sprint but trying to beat him specifically as that happens with all the great sprinters you have to figure out how to beat this guy not just do your best sprint so yeah that'll be the next evolution of Paul Magnier but uh what a coming out party at the Jirro. That was uh that was something and the youth. Yeah, it just blows my mind. Just Yeah, the Pelaton is not getting any older. That's for sure. It just seems to be

French Renaissance, my friend. French Renaissance. It's cool to see and going into the tour to France. I mean, the biggest question though, I mean, about everything else is like first of all, you stated like it's a different animal, the tour to France, no one's going to question that. And the difference in the tour to France is always this the drubbing that you take before you even get to the mounts. How hard it is to get into the breakaway, the average speed before that, the pressure, everything that goes on outside the race as well. Um it so it's really hard to compare any other race to the tour. It's it's in its own category. And there's riders who perform better in these other races. And there's riders who don't

can't perform that well in the Jurro who always do really well in the Tour to France who always come up. Um, but the biggest question is like is this going to be a benefit or a negative to Yonas? You know, I mean, we talked about Yonas maybe dodging some big jabs there or at least the issue at hand of going headto-head with Tatty at the Tour to France. Uh, I did acknowledge, as you did as well, that you can't continue to do the same thing year after year as preparation goes and expect that you're going to be better. So, I do applaud them for going and taking that risk and coming out with the W. So, I mean, it's already a win. I mean, if your training

camp is winning the jural, wow, that's pretty great, you know. So, whatever happens at tour to France, you know, but it does give him a little bit of built in excuse. So, I'm asking you, do you feel that he truly is better and he's going to be able to raise the bar just that little bit going into the tour to France? I'll try to Yeah. beat around the bush here. Um, I think this is I think Yonas is giving himself the best chance possible. I think this is the best in inbound Yonas into the tour to France. Granted, we still are a month out. He's got to stay healthy. He's got to recover. He's got to polish it off, but this is you look at the past few years, this is the best he's been. This is the best

we've seen him over the past few years. and not just from a physiological level, but also from a place of calm, a place of peace, a piece of a place of knowing his role in the sport, finding why he's riding and what means something to him. Those we saw some tears from him on the podium interviews in Rome yesterday. I don't think he's that good of an actor. I think those were those were real authentic emotion and I love that out of the guy. I love that he found he this maybe I don't know if it was like that in the beginning. I don't actually think it was I don't think in the beginning he went to this team and was like guys it means more it's going to mean so much to me if I can do this. I think there was some

massaging and some tactics about also in context of the tour. Let's do something different like you said. But from that commitment developed a lot of passion and he really did well with that. He honored it executed on it really well. And if he can stay with that, carry it into the tour to France and also have the freedom of like his life, his career is not defined by winning the tour, I think that actually in itself for him is a strength. He's got the Jirro money in the bucket. He's got the Palm Marius of the triple elite company. Tade hasn't even done that. That's that's one of the first times we can say that about this rivalry in recent years. Jonas does something that TAD hasn't. All right, let's go. Like so I like where he's at

and he's still going to be up against it hard as we all know but it's as good as it's been in recent years for him in the showdown with what do you think Christian Jonas clip that's our clip right there Brent it's the best inbound Yonas that we've had in years and that's that's that's a truth and there's nothing you could say about that isn't true I mean you think about the crashes the hindrances that he's had in the last couple years the concussion he had at Perry Nice wasn't as bad last year but two years ago with the massive crash that they had in pass. So yeah, you I think that's spot on and I don't think you could say too much more about that.

You know, whatever happens now starting July 4th. I mean, you could go and you just recover at this point in time. I mean, I've done I don't know if Have you done the Jerro double before? Have you done that back to back once? My first year grand tours. Oh, your first year. Oh, that's great. Um, I mean, I did it one when I was going for the GC and it worked well, you know, but I never went for the general classification, so I'm not even coming close to comparing myself and nor was I good on the podium. So, I got fourth place in the tour to France. These guys are going for the win. And so, I didn't have that kind of pressure. But, it does work really well if you are on the

upswing. You know, you go straight to altitude afterwards. You do another big exposure altitude, come back down, and then it's just fingers crossed, man. You know, is the body going to react or isn't going to react? So, um I have no reason to doubt that this plan is going to work somehow and I think you brought some great points up. Um that this is the best inbound and I think that's we could leave it at that, buddy. I mean, that's that's all we could hope for. We all want a good fight. I mean, we have some other guys. We're going to have Ramco, we're going to have we talked about Sexus, you know, Tatty, of course, and then Yonas are usually the ultimate

though to talk about. I mean, this is a rivalry that's been going on for a minute already. I mean, you we haven't had rivalries like this maybe ever in the sport that go on for so many consecutive years. Um, so we'll see. I mean, it will not be as much of a rivalry though if Ted wins again this year. Then it's it's more that's it's just straight up competition. Rivalry means that you're going trading back and forth and back and forth. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Well, then Yeah. Then Jonas is just going to be parading out his red jerseys from the Vulta, which Tad doesn't have yet. And he'll be

saying, "You gotta go make it happen in Spain, buddy." But yeah, first things first, we got a big month coming up in July. And we got a few weeks till then. We're going to see TAD back in action at Tour to Swiss. And we're going to be catching up on all the race action, the speculating, the hype building, the uh form debriefing every week here on Beyond the Podium. And we're also going to have the Dofane um live on Peacock every day. I think it's renamed this year. It's not the doofen technically anymore, but Christian, you and Bob are going to be bringing us some of the action from the DOA. So, when is the DOA going?

Already? It's this Sunday. Six days to go. Yeah, this Sunday. Six days till the D. And more importantly, we got Paul Sexes to see exactly what he's going to be made of. I mean, he just did a ridiculous training camp up in altitude. I saw some of his numbers and he wasn't so far off of the meters climb in the jurro by himself while he's up at the top of the mountain. So, he puts some massive work in there, you know, and this is part of the risk as well, like we were talking about. You go race, you go train, did I do too much? Did I do too little? You know, you just never know. Obviously, he's flying right now considering that K by himself going up too that I mentioned earlier. So, it' be

fun to watch him go out there and race again. We always get so hyped up about who's flying in the Dolphin. They come in over the Giratalia. I'm getting ahead of it this year and stopping that because I always have to remind myself it is not the same. It is not even close to the same. The tour to France is a different animal compared to any other bike race out there. And you see that day one. There's nothing like it out there. And I'm reminded on the motorcycle as well. Um but yeah, we shall see what happens. But I think that Paul should be able to go and dunk on him pretty hard. Dunk on everybody else. But you is a big name

that I'm looking forward to. We need to our point earlier about the guys or the teams I should say who have not been at the really tip of the spear that we need. And so we'd love to see a flying IU. So Matteo Jorgensson who elected not to do Perines this year and changes more to the Italian side and do the Ardens Classics who crashed out in Absol race. We haven't seen him since he broke his collarbone. I'm sure he's going to be going good again. Um, so yeah, we shall see some. It's a really hardcore sprint. I went and looked at it and I was like, man, am I getting first of all, I know I'm getting old, but at the same time, that looks atrocious. Like every day was just nasty. There maybe one sprint stages.

Yeah. And then they do have some things that always I like doing that race going into the tour to France because they always have a stage or two that mimics the same thing that you'll be encountering in the tour to France. And of course the team time trail. Obviously, it's not going to be on j week, but at least you can go through the motions of doing a team time show. So, I like that. And it, you know, it gives you that confidence. It takes maybe a little bit of the nerves down because these days you don't get too many options to do the team time show. What is it? Like we did in one Mayorca like that was in January and then again here in June and then good luck Yeah.

No pressure. No pressure guys. Just go and get it together. Millimeter from your teammates's tire at the tour to France. Stage one. I'm I'm getting excited for it, Christian. All right. Well, we're going to be tuning up ourselves, our commentary, our anal analysis, excuse me, between now and then. We're going to be listening to you and watching you at the Dolphin. Christian, it's been a pleasure. And to everyone else, thanks for joining us on the Beyond the Podium. We'll see you next time. All right. No more monkey business on the Mumbike. Okay. And be a good boy.

All right. Wheels on the ground. All See you. For all your cycling content year round, subscribe to NBC Sports YouTube page. We got it all.