Tour de France: Unchained (2023–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Episode #1.4 - full transcript
The Granon stage.
It's a blank slate.
The mountain is the Tour legend.
On a mountain ascent,
pain shows you who you are.
That's the reality.
And if you're able to go the extra mile,
suffering and sacrificing,
then you might have a chance of winning.
TOUR DE FRANCE: UNCHAINED
ATTACK, COUNTERATTACK
STAGE 7
It's the seventh stage of the Tour,
between Tomblaine
and La Super Planche des Belles Filles.
And the first time at high altitude
in the Vosges mountains.
Today, it's stage 7. It's supposed
to be like 27 degrees. It'll be hot.
And it can be mega, mega steep.
Wout, how was your final day in yellow?
Painful.
It was definitely not, uh,
how we hoped things would unfold.
Yeah.
THE DAY BEFORE
STAGE 6
Wout van Aert
is about to lose his yellow jersey
to the reigning champion, Tadej Pogačar.
He has a team
that's fully supporting his mission.
There are no interim goals
within Team Emirates.
It's all for Pogačar.
And Pogačar gains
his first victory in this Tour de France.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
YELLOW JERSEY
The yellow jersey now sits
on the shoulders of Tadej Pogačar.
Pogačar!
Pogačar has really shown
he wants to stay king of the Tour.
But who can dethrone him?
Be ready that Pogačar
wants to go for the stage again.
Most likely, there will be 20, 25 guys
coming to the last kilometre,
and then it will explode there.
When we come to the mountains,
you'll see what suffering means,
and how hard it is.
But we truly believe
that we are strong enough as a team
to compete, um, on every terrain.
- Good?
- Yep.
- I'll take some too, Wes.
- Yep.
Jumbo-Visma
are desperate to win the Tour de France,
but they've had serious bad luck.
STAGE 5
Oh, Roglič crashed!
Accident with Roglič.
Roglič has had a crash!
Primož Roglič in the crash.
A catastrophe
for the Jumbo-Visma formation.
The cobblestone stage was a disaster.
Roglič was injured.
And now all the pressure falls on
the shoulders of a kid, Jonas Vingegaard,
who has never won a stage in the Tour.
Vingegaard.
He doesn't realise how good he is.
And maybe he's starting to realise that,
but it's a guy, we say,
"If he sees his bike,
he's already riding fast,
he doesn't have to train."
The goal is
to win the Tour de France.
So it would be a disappointment
for us to finish second again.
Of course, there's nervousness.
But I'll just try to do my best.
And we'll see.
It's amazing
to see my partner and daughter.
They support me the whole way.
I would never have been able
to do this without them.
It's amazing.
It's his first Tour de France.
I started cycling because
I was having kind of
a hard time in playing football.
I was not so physical.
People were a bit hard on me.
- Hi, Jonas.
- Hello.
- Here it's celebration time.
- Yes.
- Funny moment. Ten seconds.
- Okay.
- Looking at the camera.
- Yes.
Ever since I started cycling,
I was dreaming
of being a professional cyclist
and doing the Tour de France.
Okay.
But the first eight, nine years,
I was actually not so good at cycling.
Living in Denmark, it's not the best place
to be a good climber.
There's not a lot of mountains.
I was working at the fish factory.
Jumbo called my old sports director.
They were talking about another rider
on the team that I was on.
And he said,
"Maybe you have a look at Jonas."
He said I had some potential.
Of course, you have to dream,
but at that moment,
yeah, no one knows what it can be.
Six, five,
four, three, two, one...
They're off!
It's the seventh stage
of the Tour de France
and the first test for the climbers
as they reach
high altitude for the first time.
The pace has been high
since the start of the stage.
Almost at the climb now.
Come on, we fight there. Come on.
You need to be there
where it hurts, and where the hectic is.
And not everybody,
not everybody is capable of doing that.
The yellow jersey,
it is the jersey everybody wants.
And there's Pogačar,
the yellow jersey
surrounded by his teammates.
Everything is possible for him.
When your legs are hurting,
you have to keep riding,
try to not think about the pain,
try to ignore it.
Rafał Majka gives way
as if saying to Pogačar,
"Go for it, mate, it's down to you."
Come on, Primož, Jonas, fight.
How do you say it?
You also kind of like the pain.
Jonas, fight
for the line, huh, come on.
Come on. Huh? Come on, Jonas.
We can do it. Come on! Come on!
We've reached
the section with the steepest incline.
And an attack! Jonas Vingegaard attacks.
- Go! Go!
- Come on, go!
Vingegaard in front of Tadej Pogačar.
Lennard Kämna is about to be overtaken.
- Come on!
- Come on! Go!
Less than 50 metres to the finish line,
and Vingegaard still in the lead
with the yellow jersey on his tail.
Go!
Come on Jonas. Come on Jonas. Go! Go! Go!
Tadej Pogačar,
the final push for the Slovenian
who is trying to take the lead
in the very last yards.
Victory for Tadej Pogačar!
Damn it! I can't believe it.
Fuck!
I actually thought I was going to win.
Yeah, I... I was feeling great.
But then, in the end, he just came with,
I don't know, with 50 metres to go,
and I couldn't answer.
- You went a little bit early?
- I went too early.
But I didn't know, I mean...
I thought... I saw the sign 250 to 200,
and I was like,
"Okay I feel good. I try."
Super fucking stupid.
Cycling, as a whole,
is very psychological.
There isn't a kind
of an ultra-endurance sport
that's at a professional level
like cycling, where it's also tactical.
Most ultra-endurance sports
are individual.
They're not team tactics.
You're not playing chess on the road.
It's war games, basically.
STAGE 8
So far,
Tadej Pogačar has no need to worry.
The last climb, I... I kind of liked it.
- Enjoy the podium. Thank you.
- Thank you so much.
Tadej Pogačar
is the clear favourite.
How can he be beaten?
That is definitely
what all the teams are asking themselves.
STAGE 9
For now,
no one can question his place
at the top of the general classification.
When you wear the yellow jersey,
you're in first place,
you're the leader, the captain.
You're king of the world.
But you're also everyone's target.
STAGE 10
Pogačar sprints
to break away from Jonas Vingegaard.
Pogačar easily retains his yellow jersey.
To beat Tadej Pogačar, you'd have
to go beyond pain, beyond suffering.
You'd have to dig
really deep inside yourself
to find something
to destabilize him psychologically,
then go in for the kill.
Were you very impressed
by the performance of Pogačar?
Of course, he looks strong,
but yeah, I also believe in myself
and I believe my strength
is in the high mountains.
So, hopefully, I can be up there with him.
Tadej Pogačar is king of the Tour,
who can challenge him?
Vingegaard is weaker against
the clock and not as technically good.
And he's never actually secured
a major Grand Tour victory.
The only team that
might benefit from this squabble
is INEOS Grenadiers.
It's the most professional team
and, above all,
the team with the biggest budget.
G., mate,
I'd get a grand
for that, I reckon.
What do you reckon?
I'd get a grand, maybe two for that.
eBay immediately.
Do what you can, when you can,
with what you've got. That's all we ask.
Mandela said that.
It's quite cool, I think.
INEOS... It's like this massive
bowling ball just rolling down the road
that's just, like,
you know, smashing houses and cars.
To beat them, you can't stand in front
of them and take them on head-on-head,
you have to sneak around the back
of the massive bowling ball
and stick a stick of dynamite
underneath it, or something.
Geraint Thomas is a tough guy.
He has years of experience.
They are in the top three
in general classification.
And the podium goes to,
and there he is, Geraint Thomas.
Geraint Thomas,
you've won the Tour de France.
I can't believe it.
It's, uh, it's insane.
- Biggest emotion of your life?
- Uh, yeah...
Um...
The last time I cried
was when I got married.
And, uh...
I don't know
what's happened to me. I've, uh...
You've just won the Tour de France.
I still find it weird now.
If I think back to myself,
running home from school when I was 12,
if you'd have told me then
that I'd win the Tour...
Uh...
Yeah, I don't know what I'd do.
I'd definitely,
I'd probably laugh actually.
- What are the plans of your team?
- Try and, uh...
Be right up there in the mix
and get the best result possible. Uh...
A lot can happen,
so, uh, yeah, we'll see what we do.
Geraint Thomas has won
the Tour de France, that's true,
but he's 36 years old now.
It will be hard for him to compete
with the 20-25 year-old kids,
the rising stars.
He's clearly part of the old generation.
I think a lot of people
have been writing Geraint Thomas off,
writing his career off.
That he's not going
to be a serious contender,
that he's not
a realistic podium contender.
Geraint has a shot,
we've seen him do it before.
He's perhaps not the favourite,
but it's a bike race,
and anything can happen.
Obviously, I'd love to try
and, uh, reduce
that gap to Jonas and Pogačar.
But there's a lot of other guys
in the race as well. You know?
Can't just get solely focused on them,
and you get overtaken from behind as well,
so it's just taking it as it comes,
seeing what we can do as a team.
As I've got older,
I've sort of learned to...
take it a bit steady at times.
I think the main thing
I've learned is when to take the risks.
It's... I wouldn't say I take less. Um...
My wife definitely
doesn't think I take less.
You gonna show
where your ramps are? Yeah?
- They're this way.
- They are, aren't they?
- You come down here.
- Yeah.
We're going that way.
- How do you feel watching racing?
- I find it stressful.
GERAINT THOMAS' WIFE
And... you've had
your fair share of crashes.
- Mmm.
- Um...
There was one that kind of sticks out.
I was watching, and you just basically
went off the side of a cliff.
And I was actually working for S4C
at the time,
the Welsh language program and, um, yeah...
I just... I started crying on air,
because nobody knew
what happened to you, so...
Since that point I was like,
"I just can't really watch it."
Um... So, yeah.
It was a good clash, that one,
because there was nothing wrong with me,
but it was really dramatic and I...
- You didn't half play up to it.
- Yeah.
Scrambling back up
the side of the mountain.
Basically, there was this netting thing
that stopped me falling any further,
which was pretty good, obviously.
I climbed back up and got back on my bike.
I only lost 30-odd seconds or something.
Like, how fast do you go downhill?
I do over 100 K an hour, sometimes.
So, yeah.
Constantly 80, 90 K an hour,
probably on average.
One person makes a little mistake and...
everybody's down, so...
Yeah, I just... I'd rather...
Most... most wives I know,
or girlfriends, they do watch it.
Whereas, I'd just rather find out.
You'll text me at the end of the day.
If something happened,
someone'll let me know.
Yeah. Come on then, show me the way.
Geraint Thomas,
he's in the twilight of his career.
There's no doubt.
I mean, he's at that age,
he's had a long career, a great career.
EX RIDER
He is the underdog.
Max, we go this way?
This does feel like the last chance saloon
for him to prove himself
and to show the world what he is,
because he is a great, great rider.
It's the queen of stages
today in Les Hautes-Alpes.
Getting through
the mountains is obligatory.
This is where you see
who wants to win general classification,
who wants to win the Tour de France.
You have to like suffering.
If you don't suffer, you won't progress.
ROGLA - GANA - GO!
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
YELLOW JERSEY
Tadej Pogačar,
looking strong in the yellow jersey,
this is his time to be able to exploit
this obvious weakness
that we're seeing within Jumbo-Visma.
The mountains are
the perfect hunting ground for him.
I still think Pogačar's
the strongest rider in the race,
but it's probably the best chance today
for Jumbo-Visma to try to
play the team card to sort of dupe him.
Whether Jumbo are actually aggressive
and confident enough to do that,
I don't know. I haven't seen that yet.
I hope all of you
are ready for a really big day.
Stage 11, Albertville-Col du Granon.
It's super, super hard,
especially the last seven
and a half kilometres.
Most important, what we want to do,
putting pressure on UAE,
make them work
and attack the yellow jersey.
Jonas, you follow Pogačar
and attack him in the final kilometres
when he's worn out.
Hopefully, today we really...
First, kill his team,
and then get him to work.
That last climb will be so hard
and so long. It will be very, very hot.
Cooling, hydration,
nutrition will be crucial.
I don't think you can beat
Tadej Pogačar alone.
You definitely need your team.
To win a mountain stage,
you always need help.
The plan is definitely to...
to try and win a stage with Jonas.
I think for Jonas,
if you stay with Pogačar,
really stay calm,
because the last climb is so hard.
Yes.
You're always one step ahead
if you're in his wheel,
and you can still kill him
on the last climb up.
At the moment it's still there.
Jonas is really a strong climber.
Not so many riders
can maintain a high pace
for five minutes
or for ten minutes, uphill.
You know, while climbing,
which is needed to create a gap
and to maintain that gap.
That's his main weapon.
Let's go. Good luck.
The thing is, with stage 11,
it's the sort of stage that Tadej Pogačar
will have seen and been excited about.
And that's what everyone's terrified
about Tadej Pogačar because
the more sadistic it is,
the more he looks forward to it.
Because he is...
as much as he's a masochist,
he's a sadist as well, the way he races.
To challenge him,
we're gonna have to do something
that is courageous.
And also, it's gonna be
a roll of the dice because
you don't wanna poke the bear.
And Tadej Pogačar,
if you poke him, he's gonna react.
Pogačar is looking pretty amazing,
but we are still quite close behind.
Today is the day, and we have a chance,
and we want to attack Pogačar today.
Yeah, we have to go for it.
One, two, three.
Hello, everyone, testing Radio Tour.
Good luck for today. Big day.
They're off!
The 11th stage of the Tour de France,
the stage full of dangers,
with four climbs,
and perhaps the toughest pass
of the 2022 Tour de France.
Télégraphe. Galibier.
And Granon. 151 kilometres in total.
If you had to sum up
the nature of today in one sentence,
what would it be?
"Welcome to hell."
And this is
the Lacets de Montvernier ascent.
3.4 KM ASCENT
ALTITUDE: 782 M
The peloton is still being led
by the UAE Emirates team riders.
The yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar.
Tell me
Primož is asking
when are we going to attack Pogačar?
- Yeah.
- He's said he's feeling really good.
Primož, I say it's really
up to you, follow your instincts,
and let the others know what you do.
When I saw Pogačar,
I asked him a question.
"If you were a Jumbo-Visma rider,
how would you attack Tadej Pogačar?"
He said, "I wouldn't attack him."
11.9 KM ASCENT
ALTITUDE: 1,566 M
I suspect Jumbo may try
to anticipate the race
a little bit earlier than the final.
So, we need
to be ready on, uh, Télégraphe.
The yellow jersey peloton
reaches the top of Col du Télégraphe,
with Primož Roglič attacking.
Acceleration from Primož Roglič
on the descent.
Come on, now we try, huh. Now we try.
The goal is to isolate
Pogačar from his team.
We want to keep Pogačar by himself
and really try to make them
use extra energy.
Tadej Pogačar, the yellow jersey,
asks for support on the radio.
The yellow jersey is isolated,
trapped between three Jumbo-Visma.
You are with four guys with Pogačar,
also Thomas is there.
Everybody else drop for the moment.
Five riders in the descent.
Three Jumbo-Visma riders,
including Roglič,
Pogačar, the yellow jersey,
and Geraint Thomas.
Tadej Pogačar looks around.
Just 59 kilometres from the finish line,
Pogačar has no teammates at his side.
Pogačar, he will not give up
and settle, uh, for second,
because he's trying
to keep the yellow jersey.
So, I think tiring out Pogačar
is our best option.
A huge attack
from Jonas Vingegaard!
Geraint Thomas tries to keep close.
If your opponent is alone,
then you can start attacking
one after the other.
Geraint Thomas giving the space.
And attack now from Roglič.
Pogačar straight away onto the wheel.
Another attack of Roglič.
Jumbo-Visma are trying
to rip this Tour de France apart.
Pogačar goes across.
And there he goes!
He says, "Right,
if you're gonna try and get rid of me,
then I'm going to rip your legs off!"
Tadej Pogačar attacks hard.
Tries to get rid of Roglič,
tries to get rid of Vingegaard.
He may well have got rid
of Geraint Thomas,
who is hauling his way back!
Vingegaard gets ready.
He's on the wheel, and we're not even
halfway up the Col du Galibier.
Races aren't
only won like a marathon.
You have to have the pain tolerance
of a marathon runner.
But then you also have to be lucid enough,
because this isn't
a sport of just pushing yourself.
This is also a chess game on wheels.
You have to be reading the race.
Should I save my energy
for the next hill, or is this the hill?
You have to be constantly thinking.
You've got to be
absolutely willing to risk everything.
It's Jonas Vingegaard's turn to attack.
Tadej Pogačar makes the effort
to catch up to Vingegaard,
with Geraint Thomas on his wheel.
They're neck and neck.
It's been years since we've seen
anything like this on the Tour de France.
Primož Roglič accelerates.
One after the other,
the Jumbo-Visma riders
are trying to destabilize Pogačar.
This is really hurting him, huh?
Doing a great, great job.
Come on Jonas, Primož.
For now,
Pogačar is holding his own,
but for how long
will he be able to stand up against
the Jumbo-Visma steamroller?
Just like a boxer who's been hit,
you can see him wavering.
Oddly, in that situation,
you no longer feel tired.
You want to end it.
You want to smash him,
hit him harder and harder
until you knock him out.
It's exactly the same in cycling.
- Take the water, huh?
- Take the water.
You must take the water. Good job, man.
Ice.
Take a shower. Take a shower, huh?
Ice, ice for Jonas.
Ice, Jonas.
- Ice.
- Take some ice.
Get me water.
Pogi was begging for water now.
Pogi was begging for water, huh.
You really have him under pressure now.
You really have him under pressure now.
Cycling over the Alps
is some of the most gruelling
and some of the hardest cycling
you'll ever do.
The mountains are hellish.
It's slow. It's long. It's hot.
You're suffering through the whole race.
At times, it feels never ending.
To win in the mountains,
bottom-line is,
you've got to be one of the best climbers.
That's no mean feat.
The yellow jersey team
is regrouping on the descent.
Pogačar needs to gather his strength
before the day's
final ascent, Col du Granon.
A climb that is likely to be brutal.
11.3 KM ASCENT
ALTITUDE: 2,413 M
The highest finish
in this 2022 Tour,
an altitude of over 2,400 metres.
A worrying reprieve
on this highly challenging stage,
with the Télégraphe, the Galibier,
and finishing with
the fearsome Col du Granon.
On altitude in the mountains,
you discover some kind of new feelings.
You have to be physically super ready.
Primož Roglič takes the lead
from the start of the Col du Granon climb.
The ten toughest kilometres
of the Tour de France 2022 have begun.
Suffering is unavoidable.
It's at the heart of racing.
You have to suffer,
and you have to be able
to get through what other people can't.
Looks like Primož Roglič
seems to be in trouble.
He's falling behind.
Roglič is dropped.
Primož Roglič is dropped
from the yellow jersey group now.
Pogačar and Vingegaard
are now neck and neck.
You have to try to find
your competitors' weaknesses.
I know when Tadej is feeling good.
Maybe he is suffering.
- He doesn't look good, huh?
- Who?
- Pogačar. He looks like shit.
- No.
Come on, Jonas, you can do it,
steepest part now.
And it's really hard all the way
from here to the finish. Come on.
This is my chance.
Now I just have to go
flat out to the finish line.
And another attack by Jonas Vingegaard.
The Danish rider turns to look,
and this time Pogačar can't respond.
The yellow jersey is on the ropes.
Come on, Jonas! Come on!
Pogačar's not reacting.
I said, Pogačar is not reacting.
He's not reacting.
Come on. You're the best.
Vingegaard closes the gap.
They're killing each other!
Vingegaard already
has a 39-second lead over Pogačar.
Pogačar doesn't have
the strength to respond.
And the yellow jersey can't match
the acceleration of Geraint Thomas.
Being able to perform at altitude
is one of the key things to win the Tour.
It's just if you can put up with the pain.
Jonas Vingegaard leading alone.
Vingegaard is going through so much pain
to try and secure
the yellow jersey for the first time.
- Come on, Jonas! Come on! Come on!
- Come on, Jonas!
The red zone is very simple.
It's all the signals
your body sends you to tell you to stop.
It burns. You're out of breath.
Your brain is telling you to stop.
You just have to be able
to keep going past all the signals
your body is sending you.
Your head hurts, your neck hurts.
Then there's the psychological pain,
mental pain.
I have to keep fighting,
to keep believing in myself.
Don't be afraid of the pain.
Keep pushing yourself.
It's Jonas Vingegaard day of glory
as he wins the stage
and the yellow jersey.
So, so, so proud of you, little one.
Great job.
Jonas!
And Geraint Thomas
crosses the finish line!
Tadej Pogačar is in trouble.
He lost close to three minutes
in the Col du Granon ascent.
This is what I dreamt of.
A stage in the Tour and...
now the yellow jersey, is incredible.
Fuck!
- Super hard.
- Yeah.
For Jonas, it was amazing.
That was the moment where we thought,
"Okay, but this might really happen."
"We might be able to beat Pogačar
and win the Tour de France."
It's very emotional
to take the stage.
I won it for my family,
for my girlfriend, and for my daughter.
Thank you, sweetheart. I love you so much.
Yeah, obviously, uh...
Jumbo were on one today.
Incredible ride by them, really.
They outnumbered us.
They used it.
And we expected it, but... wow.
Hey man, what a ride.
- Thanks.
- Congrats.
To beat Tadej Pogačar on stage 11,
you'll have to do something very special.
And that's exactly what Jumbo-Visma did.
And not just Jonas Vingegaard,
but what the team did.
It was perfect.
We made a plan
from the start of the day, and, uh...
we wanted to make it super hard.
But I'd never have done that
without my teammates.
I really have to thank all of them.
They were all incredible, strong today.
And I would never have done this
without them.
The yellow jersey
is something you achieve in the Tour
that brings the team
a lot of joy and credit.
It's a little nugget of gold.
Because if you stay
on that cloud of victory too long,
the next day is a disaster.
Because the peloton doesn't wait for you.
The peloton keeps going and it's cruel,
because it keeps moving forward.
I just didn't expect that.
- What, you mean...
- Pogačar, cracking like that.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Same can happen to Vingegaard.
I need to snap him at some point.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
YELLOW JERSEY
Jonas Vingegaard
is the new leader of the Tour de France.
How long will he hold on
to the yellow jersey?
NEXT ON TOUR DE FRANCE: UNCHAINED
Winning the Alpe d'Huez
is every rider's dream.
Sometimes you want those younger riders
given that opportunity.
An American rider on top of Alpe D'Huez,
that's prime-time, baby.
This is gonna be
the stage where I can do it.
Come on!
A rider has pulled away from the peloton,
he's descending at extreme speed.
The goal is
to win the Tour de France.
There's a crash in the peloton!
One of the main domestiques
of Jonas Vingegaard
has abandoned the Tour de France.
Fuck it!
It's a blank slate.
The mountain is the Tour legend.
On a mountain ascent,
pain shows you who you are.
That's the reality.
And if you're able to go the extra mile,
suffering and sacrificing,
then you might have a chance of winning.
TOUR DE FRANCE: UNCHAINED
ATTACK, COUNTERATTACK
STAGE 7
It's the seventh stage of the Tour,
between Tomblaine
and La Super Planche des Belles Filles.
And the first time at high altitude
in the Vosges mountains.
Today, it's stage 7. It's supposed
to be like 27 degrees. It'll be hot.
And it can be mega, mega steep.
Wout, how was your final day in yellow?
Painful.
It was definitely not, uh,
how we hoped things would unfold.
Yeah.
THE DAY BEFORE
STAGE 6
Wout van Aert
is about to lose his yellow jersey
to the reigning champion, Tadej Pogačar.
He has a team
that's fully supporting his mission.
There are no interim goals
within Team Emirates.
It's all for Pogačar.
And Pogačar gains
his first victory in this Tour de France.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
YELLOW JERSEY
The yellow jersey now sits
on the shoulders of Tadej Pogačar.
Pogačar!
Pogačar has really shown
he wants to stay king of the Tour.
But who can dethrone him?
Be ready that Pogačar
wants to go for the stage again.
Most likely, there will be 20, 25 guys
coming to the last kilometre,
and then it will explode there.
When we come to the mountains,
you'll see what suffering means,
and how hard it is.
But we truly believe
that we are strong enough as a team
to compete, um, on every terrain.
- Good?
- Yep.
- I'll take some too, Wes.
- Yep.
Jumbo-Visma
are desperate to win the Tour de France,
but they've had serious bad luck.
STAGE 5
Oh, Roglič crashed!
Accident with Roglič.
Roglič has had a crash!
Primož Roglič in the crash.
A catastrophe
for the Jumbo-Visma formation.
The cobblestone stage was a disaster.
Roglič was injured.
And now all the pressure falls on
the shoulders of a kid, Jonas Vingegaard,
who has never won a stage in the Tour.
Vingegaard.
He doesn't realise how good he is.
And maybe he's starting to realise that,
but it's a guy, we say,
"If he sees his bike,
he's already riding fast,
he doesn't have to train."
The goal is
to win the Tour de France.
So it would be a disappointment
for us to finish second again.
Of course, there's nervousness.
But I'll just try to do my best.
And we'll see.
It's amazing
to see my partner and daughter.
They support me the whole way.
I would never have been able
to do this without them.
It's amazing.
It's his first Tour de France.
I started cycling because
I was having kind of
a hard time in playing football.
I was not so physical.
People were a bit hard on me.
- Hi, Jonas.
- Hello.
- Here it's celebration time.
- Yes.
- Funny moment. Ten seconds.
- Okay.
- Looking at the camera.
- Yes.
Ever since I started cycling,
I was dreaming
of being a professional cyclist
and doing the Tour de France.
Okay.
But the first eight, nine years,
I was actually not so good at cycling.
Living in Denmark, it's not the best place
to be a good climber.
There's not a lot of mountains.
I was working at the fish factory.
Jumbo called my old sports director.
They were talking about another rider
on the team that I was on.
And he said,
"Maybe you have a look at Jonas."
He said I had some potential.
Of course, you have to dream,
but at that moment,
yeah, no one knows what it can be.
Six, five,
four, three, two, one...
They're off!
It's the seventh stage
of the Tour de France
and the first test for the climbers
as they reach
high altitude for the first time.
The pace has been high
since the start of the stage.
Almost at the climb now.
Come on, we fight there. Come on.
You need to be there
where it hurts, and where the hectic is.
And not everybody,
not everybody is capable of doing that.
The yellow jersey,
it is the jersey everybody wants.
And there's Pogačar,
the yellow jersey
surrounded by his teammates.
Everything is possible for him.
When your legs are hurting,
you have to keep riding,
try to not think about the pain,
try to ignore it.
Rafał Majka gives way
as if saying to Pogačar,
"Go for it, mate, it's down to you."
Come on, Primož, Jonas, fight.
How do you say it?
You also kind of like the pain.
Jonas, fight
for the line, huh, come on.
Come on. Huh? Come on, Jonas.
We can do it. Come on! Come on!
We've reached
the section with the steepest incline.
And an attack! Jonas Vingegaard attacks.
- Go! Go!
- Come on, go!
Vingegaard in front of Tadej Pogačar.
Lennard Kämna is about to be overtaken.
- Come on!
- Come on! Go!
Less than 50 metres to the finish line,
and Vingegaard still in the lead
with the yellow jersey on his tail.
Go!
Come on Jonas. Come on Jonas. Go! Go! Go!
Tadej Pogačar,
the final push for the Slovenian
who is trying to take the lead
in the very last yards.
Victory for Tadej Pogačar!
Damn it! I can't believe it.
Fuck!
I actually thought I was going to win.
Yeah, I... I was feeling great.
But then, in the end, he just came with,
I don't know, with 50 metres to go,
and I couldn't answer.
- You went a little bit early?
- I went too early.
But I didn't know, I mean...
I thought... I saw the sign 250 to 200,
and I was like,
"Okay I feel good. I try."
Super fucking stupid.
Cycling, as a whole,
is very psychological.
There isn't a kind
of an ultra-endurance sport
that's at a professional level
like cycling, where it's also tactical.
Most ultra-endurance sports
are individual.
They're not team tactics.
You're not playing chess on the road.
It's war games, basically.
STAGE 8
So far,
Tadej Pogačar has no need to worry.
The last climb, I... I kind of liked it.
- Enjoy the podium. Thank you.
- Thank you so much.
Tadej Pogačar
is the clear favourite.
How can he be beaten?
That is definitely
what all the teams are asking themselves.
STAGE 9
For now,
no one can question his place
at the top of the general classification.
When you wear the yellow jersey,
you're in first place,
you're the leader, the captain.
You're king of the world.
But you're also everyone's target.
STAGE 10
Pogačar sprints
to break away from Jonas Vingegaard.
Pogačar easily retains his yellow jersey.
To beat Tadej Pogačar, you'd have
to go beyond pain, beyond suffering.
You'd have to dig
really deep inside yourself
to find something
to destabilize him psychologically,
then go in for the kill.
Were you very impressed
by the performance of Pogačar?
Of course, he looks strong,
but yeah, I also believe in myself
and I believe my strength
is in the high mountains.
So, hopefully, I can be up there with him.
Tadej Pogačar is king of the Tour,
who can challenge him?
Vingegaard is weaker against
the clock and not as technically good.
And he's never actually secured
a major Grand Tour victory.
The only team that
might benefit from this squabble
is INEOS Grenadiers.
It's the most professional team
and, above all,
the team with the biggest budget.
G., mate,
I'd get a grand
for that, I reckon.
What do you reckon?
I'd get a grand, maybe two for that.
eBay immediately.
Do what you can, when you can,
with what you've got. That's all we ask.
Mandela said that.
It's quite cool, I think.
INEOS... It's like this massive
bowling ball just rolling down the road
that's just, like,
you know, smashing houses and cars.
To beat them, you can't stand in front
of them and take them on head-on-head,
you have to sneak around the back
of the massive bowling ball
and stick a stick of dynamite
underneath it, or something.
Geraint Thomas is a tough guy.
He has years of experience.
They are in the top three
in general classification.
And the podium goes to,
and there he is, Geraint Thomas.
Geraint Thomas,
you've won the Tour de France.
I can't believe it.
It's, uh, it's insane.
- Biggest emotion of your life?
- Uh, yeah...
Um...
The last time I cried
was when I got married.
And, uh...
I don't know
what's happened to me. I've, uh...
You've just won the Tour de France.
I still find it weird now.
If I think back to myself,
running home from school when I was 12,
if you'd have told me then
that I'd win the Tour...
Uh...
Yeah, I don't know what I'd do.
I'd definitely,
I'd probably laugh actually.
- What are the plans of your team?
- Try and, uh...
Be right up there in the mix
and get the best result possible. Uh...
A lot can happen,
so, uh, yeah, we'll see what we do.
Geraint Thomas has won
the Tour de France, that's true,
but he's 36 years old now.
It will be hard for him to compete
with the 20-25 year-old kids,
the rising stars.
He's clearly part of the old generation.
I think a lot of people
have been writing Geraint Thomas off,
writing his career off.
That he's not going
to be a serious contender,
that he's not
a realistic podium contender.
Geraint has a shot,
we've seen him do it before.
He's perhaps not the favourite,
but it's a bike race,
and anything can happen.
Obviously, I'd love to try
and, uh, reduce
that gap to Jonas and Pogačar.
But there's a lot of other guys
in the race as well. You know?
Can't just get solely focused on them,
and you get overtaken from behind as well,
so it's just taking it as it comes,
seeing what we can do as a team.
As I've got older,
I've sort of learned to...
take it a bit steady at times.
I think the main thing
I've learned is when to take the risks.
It's... I wouldn't say I take less. Um...
My wife definitely
doesn't think I take less.
You gonna show
where your ramps are? Yeah?
- They're this way.
- They are, aren't they?
- You come down here.
- Yeah.
We're going that way.
- How do you feel watching racing?
- I find it stressful.
GERAINT THOMAS' WIFE
And... you've had
your fair share of crashes.
- Mmm.
- Um...
There was one that kind of sticks out.
I was watching, and you just basically
went off the side of a cliff.
And I was actually working for S4C
at the time,
the Welsh language program and, um, yeah...
I just... I started crying on air,
because nobody knew
what happened to you, so...
Since that point I was like,
"I just can't really watch it."
Um... So, yeah.
It was a good clash, that one,
because there was nothing wrong with me,
but it was really dramatic and I...
- You didn't half play up to it.
- Yeah.
Scrambling back up
the side of the mountain.
Basically, there was this netting thing
that stopped me falling any further,
which was pretty good, obviously.
I climbed back up and got back on my bike.
I only lost 30-odd seconds or something.
Like, how fast do you go downhill?
I do over 100 K an hour, sometimes.
So, yeah.
Constantly 80, 90 K an hour,
probably on average.
One person makes a little mistake and...
everybody's down, so...
Yeah, I just... I'd rather...
Most... most wives I know,
or girlfriends, they do watch it.
Whereas, I'd just rather find out.
You'll text me at the end of the day.
If something happened,
someone'll let me know.
Yeah. Come on then, show me the way.
Geraint Thomas,
he's in the twilight of his career.
There's no doubt.
I mean, he's at that age,
he's had a long career, a great career.
EX RIDER
He is the underdog.
Max, we go this way?
This does feel like the last chance saloon
for him to prove himself
and to show the world what he is,
because he is a great, great rider.
It's the queen of stages
today in Les Hautes-Alpes.
Getting through
the mountains is obligatory.
This is where you see
who wants to win general classification,
who wants to win the Tour de France.
You have to like suffering.
If you don't suffer, you won't progress.
ROGLA - GANA - GO!
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
YELLOW JERSEY
Tadej Pogačar,
looking strong in the yellow jersey,
this is his time to be able to exploit
this obvious weakness
that we're seeing within Jumbo-Visma.
The mountains are
the perfect hunting ground for him.
I still think Pogačar's
the strongest rider in the race,
but it's probably the best chance today
for Jumbo-Visma to try to
play the team card to sort of dupe him.
Whether Jumbo are actually aggressive
and confident enough to do that,
I don't know. I haven't seen that yet.
I hope all of you
are ready for a really big day.
Stage 11, Albertville-Col du Granon.
It's super, super hard,
especially the last seven
and a half kilometres.
Most important, what we want to do,
putting pressure on UAE,
make them work
and attack the yellow jersey.
Jonas, you follow Pogačar
and attack him in the final kilometres
when he's worn out.
Hopefully, today we really...
First, kill his team,
and then get him to work.
That last climb will be so hard
and so long. It will be very, very hot.
Cooling, hydration,
nutrition will be crucial.
I don't think you can beat
Tadej Pogačar alone.
You definitely need your team.
To win a mountain stage,
you always need help.
The plan is definitely to...
to try and win a stage with Jonas.
I think for Jonas,
if you stay with Pogačar,
really stay calm,
because the last climb is so hard.
Yes.
You're always one step ahead
if you're in his wheel,
and you can still kill him
on the last climb up.
At the moment it's still there.
Jonas is really a strong climber.
Not so many riders
can maintain a high pace
for five minutes
or for ten minutes, uphill.
You know, while climbing,
which is needed to create a gap
and to maintain that gap.
That's his main weapon.
Let's go. Good luck.
The thing is, with stage 11,
it's the sort of stage that Tadej Pogačar
will have seen and been excited about.
And that's what everyone's terrified
about Tadej Pogačar because
the more sadistic it is,
the more he looks forward to it.
Because he is...
as much as he's a masochist,
he's a sadist as well, the way he races.
To challenge him,
we're gonna have to do something
that is courageous.
And also, it's gonna be
a roll of the dice because
you don't wanna poke the bear.
And Tadej Pogačar,
if you poke him, he's gonna react.
Pogačar is looking pretty amazing,
but we are still quite close behind.
Today is the day, and we have a chance,
and we want to attack Pogačar today.
Yeah, we have to go for it.
One, two, three.
Hello, everyone, testing Radio Tour.
Good luck for today. Big day.
They're off!
The 11th stage of the Tour de France,
the stage full of dangers,
with four climbs,
and perhaps the toughest pass
of the 2022 Tour de France.
Télégraphe. Galibier.
And Granon. 151 kilometres in total.
If you had to sum up
the nature of today in one sentence,
what would it be?
"Welcome to hell."
And this is
the Lacets de Montvernier ascent.
3.4 KM ASCENT
ALTITUDE: 782 M
The peloton is still being led
by the UAE Emirates team riders.
The yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar.
Tell me
Primož is asking
when are we going to attack Pogačar?
- Yeah.
- He's said he's feeling really good.
Primož, I say it's really
up to you, follow your instincts,
and let the others know what you do.
When I saw Pogačar,
I asked him a question.
"If you were a Jumbo-Visma rider,
how would you attack Tadej Pogačar?"
He said, "I wouldn't attack him."
11.9 KM ASCENT
ALTITUDE: 1,566 M
I suspect Jumbo may try
to anticipate the race
a little bit earlier than the final.
So, we need
to be ready on, uh, Télégraphe.
The yellow jersey peloton
reaches the top of Col du Télégraphe,
with Primož Roglič attacking.
Acceleration from Primož Roglič
on the descent.
Come on, now we try, huh. Now we try.
The goal is to isolate
Pogačar from his team.
We want to keep Pogačar by himself
and really try to make them
use extra energy.
Tadej Pogačar, the yellow jersey,
asks for support on the radio.
The yellow jersey is isolated,
trapped between three Jumbo-Visma.
You are with four guys with Pogačar,
also Thomas is there.
Everybody else drop for the moment.
Five riders in the descent.
Three Jumbo-Visma riders,
including Roglič,
Pogačar, the yellow jersey,
and Geraint Thomas.
Tadej Pogačar looks around.
Just 59 kilometres from the finish line,
Pogačar has no teammates at his side.
Pogačar, he will not give up
and settle, uh, for second,
because he's trying
to keep the yellow jersey.
So, I think tiring out Pogačar
is our best option.
A huge attack
from Jonas Vingegaard!
Geraint Thomas tries to keep close.
If your opponent is alone,
then you can start attacking
one after the other.
Geraint Thomas giving the space.
And attack now from Roglič.
Pogačar straight away onto the wheel.
Another attack of Roglič.
Jumbo-Visma are trying
to rip this Tour de France apart.
Pogačar goes across.
And there he goes!
He says, "Right,
if you're gonna try and get rid of me,
then I'm going to rip your legs off!"
Tadej Pogačar attacks hard.
Tries to get rid of Roglič,
tries to get rid of Vingegaard.
He may well have got rid
of Geraint Thomas,
who is hauling his way back!
Vingegaard gets ready.
He's on the wheel, and we're not even
halfway up the Col du Galibier.
Races aren't
only won like a marathon.
You have to have the pain tolerance
of a marathon runner.
But then you also have to be lucid enough,
because this isn't
a sport of just pushing yourself.
This is also a chess game on wheels.
You have to be reading the race.
Should I save my energy
for the next hill, or is this the hill?
You have to be constantly thinking.
You've got to be
absolutely willing to risk everything.
It's Jonas Vingegaard's turn to attack.
Tadej Pogačar makes the effort
to catch up to Vingegaard,
with Geraint Thomas on his wheel.
They're neck and neck.
It's been years since we've seen
anything like this on the Tour de France.
Primož Roglič accelerates.
One after the other,
the Jumbo-Visma riders
are trying to destabilize Pogačar.
This is really hurting him, huh?
Doing a great, great job.
Come on Jonas, Primož.
For now,
Pogačar is holding his own,
but for how long
will he be able to stand up against
the Jumbo-Visma steamroller?
Just like a boxer who's been hit,
you can see him wavering.
Oddly, in that situation,
you no longer feel tired.
You want to end it.
You want to smash him,
hit him harder and harder
until you knock him out.
It's exactly the same in cycling.
- Take the water, huh?
- Take the water.
You must take the water. Good job, man.
Ice.
Take a shower. Take a shower, huh?
Ice, ice for Jonas.
Ice, Jonas.
- Ice.
- Take some ice.
Get me water.
Pogi was begging for water now.
Pogi was begging for water, huh.
You really have him under pressure now.
You really have him under pressure now.
Cycling over the Alps
is some of the most gruelling
and some of the hardest cycling
you'll ever do.
The mountains are hellish.
It's slow. It's long. It's hot.
You're suffering through the whole race.
At times, it feels never ending.
To win in the mountains,
bottom-line is,
you've got to be one of the best climbers.
That's no mean feat.
The yellow jersey team
is regrouping on the descent.
Pogačar needs to gather his strength
before the day's
final ascent, Col du Granon.
A climb that is likely to be brutal.
11.3 KM ASCENT
ALTITUDE: 2,413 M
The highest finish
in this 2022 Tour,
an altitude of over 2,400 metres.
A worrying reprieve
on this highly challenging stage,
with the Télégraphe, the Galibier,
and finishing with
the fearsome Col du Granon.
On altitude in the mountains,
you discover some kind of new feelings.
You have to be physically super ready.
Primož Roglič takes the lead
from the start of the Col du Granon climb.
The ten toughest kilometres
of the Tour de France 2022 have begun.
Suffering is unavoidable.
It's at the heart of racing.
You have to suffer,
and you have to be able
to get through what other people can't.
Looks like Primož Roglič
seems to be in trouble.
He's falling behind.
Roglič is dropped.
Primož Roglič is dropped
from the yellow jersey group now.
Pogačar and Vingegaard
are now neck and neck.
You have to try to find
your competitors' weaknesses.
I know when Tadej is feeling good.
Maybe he is suffering.
- He doesn't look good, huh?
- Who?
- Pogačar. He looks like shit.
- No.
Come on, Jonas, you can do it,
steepest part now.
And it's really hard all the way
from here to the finish. Come on.
This is my chance.
Now I just have to go
flat out to the finish line.
And another attack by Jonas Vingegaard.
The Danish rider turns to look,
and this time Pogačar can't respond.
The yellow jersey is on the ropes.
Come on, Jonas! Come on!
Pogačar's not reacting.
I said, Pogačar is not reacting.
He's not reacting.
Come on. You're the best.
Vingegaard closes the gap.
They're killing each other!
Vingegaard already
has a 39-second lead over Pogačar.
Pogačar doesn't have
the strength to respond.
And the yellow jersey can't match
the acceleration of Geraint Thomas.
Being able to perform at altitude
is one of the key things to win the Tour.
It's just if you can put up with the pain.
Jonas Vingegaard leading alone.
Vingegaard is going through so much pain
to try and secure
the yellow jersey for the first time.
- Come on, Jonas! Come on! Come on!
- Come on, Jonas!
The red zone is very simple.
It's all the signals
your body sends you to tell you to stop.
It burns. You're out of breath.
Your brain is telling you to stop.
You just have to be able
to keep going past all the signals
your body is sending you.
Your head hurts, your neck hurts.
Then there's the psychological pain,
mental pain.
I have to keep fighting,
to keep believing in myself.
Don't be afraid of the pain.
Keep pushing yourself.
It's Jonas Vingegaard day of glory
as he wins the stage
and the yellow jersey.
So, so, so proud of you, little one.
Great job.
Jonas!
And Geraint Thomas
crosses the finish line!
Tadej Pogačar is in trouble.
He lost close to three minutes
in the Col du Granon ascent.
This is what I dreamt of.
A stage in the Tour and...
now the yellow jersey, is incredible.
Fuck!
- Super hard.
- Yeah.
For Jonas, it was amazing.
That was the moment where we thought,
"Okay, but this might really happen."
"We might be able to beat Pogačar
and win the Tour de France."
It's very emotional
to take the stage.
I won it for my family,
for my girlfriend, and for my daughter.
Thank you, sweetheart. I love you so much.
Yeah, obviously, uh...
Jumbo were on one today.
Incredible ride by them, really.
They outnumbered us.
They used it.
And we expected it, but... wow.
Hey man, what a ride.
- Thanks.
- Congrats.
To beat Tadej Pogačar on stage 11,
you'll have to do something very special.
And that's exactly what Jumbo-Visma did.
And not just Jonas Vingegaard,
but what the team did.
It was perfect.
We made a plan
from the start of the day, and, uh...
we wanted to make it super hard.
But I'd never have done that
without my teammates.
I really have to thank all of them.
They were all incredible, strong today.
And I would never have done this
without them.
The yellow jersey
is something you achieve in the Tour
that brings the team
a lot of joy and credit.
It's a little nugget of gold.
Because if you stay
on that cloud of victory too long,
the next day is a disaster.
Because the peloton doesn't wait for you.
The peloton keeps going and it's cruel,
because it keeps moving forward.
I just didn't expect that.
- What, you mean...
- Pogačar, cracking like that.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Same can happen to Vingegaard.
I need to snap him at some point.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
YELLOW JERSEY
Jonas Vingegaard
is the new leader of the Tour de France.
How long will he hold on
to the yellow jersey?
NEXT ON TOUR DE FRANCE: UNCHAINED
Winning the Alpe d'Huez
is every rider's dream.
Sometimes you want those younger riders
given that opportunity.
An American rider on top of Alpe D'Huez,
that's prime-time, baby.
This is gonna be
the stage where I can do it.
Come on!
A rider has pulled away from the peloton,
he's descending at extreme speed.
The goal is
to win the Tour de France.
There's a crash in the peloton!
One of the main domestiques
of Jonas Vingegaard
has abandoned the Tour de France.
Fuck it!