Stage 15 of the Tour de France saw victory for Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious), a duelling Jonas Vingegaard v Tadej Pogacar – minus the motorbikes, a break full of French VeloVoices favourites, Wout Van Aert Wouting big style and my absolute favourite UAE Team Emirates Marc Soler being PEAK Soler, for reasons unknown.
Kathi, Midge, Luke, Issie and Euan pull apart the first full week of Vuelta action and ask:
Plus all the things you don’t get from your other cycling podcasts like the architecture of Milton Keynes, the correct pronunciation of Hawick and a Go Fund Me for a worthwhile cause.
Vuelta a Espana 2022 : Stage 4 – Rojo Rogla takes the stage and GC lead
Vuelta a Espana 2022 : Stage 5 – Soler steals the stage, Molard moves into red
Vuelta a Espana 2022 : Stage 6 – Rain and mist cover Vine’s victory while Remco is rojo
Vuelta a Espana 2022 : Stage 7 – Jesus Herrada takes the day for Cofidis
Vuelta a Espana 2022 : Stage 8 – Jay climbs the Vine to second stage win
Vuelta a Espana 2022 : Meintjes triumphant; Remco redder than ever
Wow! I bet no one was expecting UAE Team Emirate’s Marc Soler to grab victory on stage 5 of La Vuelta a Espana. To be honest, I’m still not sure I can explain it! In true Soler style, the mercurial Spaniard chased like crazy to get into the break, got dropped in a finale backloaded with climbs, somehow made it back, shot off the front solo on the Alto del Vivero, held his advantage on the descent and sailed over the line, arms aloft with four seconds to spare on his chasers. With Jumbo-Visma happy to let the race lead go to someone in the break-of-the-day, Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) played his cards – and Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) – perfectly to move into the red jersey for the second time in his career.