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What a week of racing at the Tour de France! It’s safe to say that with Jonas Vingegaard’s unfortunate abandonment, the race for the podium has been blown wide open! I gave EF Education EasyPost DS, Tom Southam, a call to go over everything we’ve seen in the second week of the Tour and preview what’s coming up.
Kicking off with a recap of everything that’s gone down both in and around the race last week, and it started with a dominant victory from Pogačar in Le Lioran. Some amazing instincts from Søren Wærenskjold saw him win the bunch sprint on stage 11 to continue Uno-X Mobility’s success, before Tim Merlier reminded everyone that he’s the fastest sprinter in the race with his third stage win of the Tour the next day.
Stage 13 saw Mauro Schmid power his way into the mega break and grab a stage win for Jayco, so who better to chat to than his team mate, and regular “guest” on the Pod, Durbo. It was great to hear from Luke as he enjoys a well-earned rest day, and he gave us a great scoop on the team’s tactics and how their game plan played out pretty much perfectly.
The two mountain stages on the weekend weren’t the only drama - a 2 am dope test for Jonas and Pogi had the media buzzing, so I had to ask Southam what he knows and what he’s heard from the ground. Is it a bit of a flex from WADA, or is there something going on?!
With Jonas’ abandonment, and a mountain TT coming up, can Remco Evenepoel bag another stage win and close the gap to Pogi? Will Del Toro finish on the final podium? What about the green jersey battle between Pedersen and Philipsen? There’s still so much to come, and I can’t bloody wait to see how it plays out.
Guys, it’s a rest day, so pull another shot of espresso, sit back, and join me and Southam - dialling in live from EF’s rest day Chateau - for some Tour de France chat.
Cheers,
Mitch
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