Has Pogačar already won the Tour? - Domestique Cycling Podcast

How EF Are Surviving the Tour - Domestique Hotseat with Ben Healy and Michael Valgren

Ben Healy and Michael Valgren sat down with us on the first rest day of the Tour de France, nine days into one of the hottest editions in memory. The result is an honest conversation about racing in temperatures that have barely dropped below 35 degrees, and what it takes for a team like EF Education to keep chasing wins in the heat. Healy is refreshingly open about his biggest weakness. The heat, he says, is a real Achilles heel, and it is stopping him from performing at his best when it matters most. He explains how the team manages his cooling, why it did not fall to him in yesterday's breakaway, and why his teammate got the nod instead on a brutally hot day. Valgren talks through his own rest-day form, the world-class company in that breakaway, and why EF keep backing themselves to be in every move that reaches the line. We also get into the numbers behind the cooling effort, the bottles, the ice socks and the soigneurs working late into the night, and how a rider knows when their body is starting to overheat. Then the tactical picture. With UAE locking the race down and seemingly fixated on the team classification, we ask both riders how you even beat a team riding like that, where the real chances are in the final two weeks, and what they made of Sean Quinn's standout Tour so far. Healy and Valgren also reflect on what Richard Carapaz brings to the team beyond a GC result, their goals for the rest of the race, and the small moments that make the Tour worth coming back for.

Why Jayco aren't racing for GC - Domestique Hotseat with Gene Bates

Gene Bates, Sporting Manager at Jayco AlUla, joins the Domestique Hotseat with Aidan Burgess on the eve of the Tour de France in Barcelona. We get into the team's plan to hunt stages instead of riding for GC, Michael Matthews' comeback from two broken wrists, Mauro Schmid's move to Q36.5, and why Bates thinks nobody can stop Pogačar this July. He also opens up on managing Ben O'Connor after a huge 2024, how Jayco keeps its Australian DNA while becoming a truly international team, the stage 1 team time trial, and why they will happily pat a departing rider on the back rather than leave him at home.

Damiano Caruso on retirement, the Giro Miracle & Pogačar vs. Vingegaard - Domestique Hotseat

Damiano Caruso is riding his eighth and final Tour de France. Before the start, he joins us to talk about Paul Seixas' reported €13 million contract, why he thinks it puts unfair pressure on a 19-year-old, and why he'd always choose a team that feels like family over a bigger paycheck. We also cover Bahrain Victorious' chaotic run to the pink jersey at this year's Giro d'Italia, his prediction for Pogačar vs. Vingegaard, and why, heading into retirement and a new role as directeur sportif, all he wants is to arrive in Paris without any regrets.

The Big Tour de France Preview! - Domestique Cycling Podcast

On Saturday the 113th Tour de France rolls out of Barcelona: 21 stages, 3,333 kilometres to Paris, opening with a team time trial for the first time since 1971. For the sixth year running it comes down to Tadej Pogačar against Jonas Vingegaard, and this time the Dane arrives off a crushing Giro win with his cleanest run-in since 2023.  But two new faces are forcing their way into the picture: 19-year-old Paul Seixas, France's biggest home hope in decades, and a rebooted Remco Evenepoel at Red Bull. In this big preview episode we go through all 21 stages one by one, from the Barcelona team time trial and the explosive Montjuïc finishes, through the early Pyrenean double of the Tourmalet and Gavarnie-Gèdre, the Bastille Day return to Le Lioran, the new summit finish at Plateau de Solaison and the Lake Geneva time trial, to the brutal Alpine double-header that ends on Alpe d'Huez twice.  We talk through the green jersey rule changes and why they hand Tim Merlier a real shot, the Seixas pressure and that reported €13.5m contract talk, and Pogačar's chase for a record-equalling fifth title. We then work through the start lists team by team, UAE, Visma, Lidl-Trek, Decathlon and Red Bull, including the Affini fitness question, Lidl-Trek's crowded leadership, and Red Bull's two-leader puzzle with Evenepoel and Lipowitz.  We finish with our predictions for the GC podium, the surprise names and breakaway riders to watch for three weeks, and our picks for yellow, green, polka dot and white. Tour de France 2026: Saturday 4 July to Sunday 26 July. Barcelona to Paris, 3,333 km, 54,450 m of climbing, 21 stages, rest days on 13 and 20 July. Five summit finishes, with Alpe d'Huez featuring twice in the final week. We're also launching Domestique Predict for the first time at this Tour. Pick one rider each day to win the stage, you can only pick each rider once, and we run it as a GC, so the rider's time counts, not their position. The overall winner takes home a Santini Tour de France yellow skinsuit. Sign up at debate.domestiquecycling.com/predict Read all our previews on domestiquecycling.com: Route, stage-by-stage guide: https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/features/tour-de-france-2026-stage-by-stage-guide/ [https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/features/tour-de-france-2026-stage-by-stage-guide/] Analysing the 2026 favourites: https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/news/analysing-the-2026-tour-de-france-favourites/ [https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/news/analysing-the-2026-tour-de-france-favourites/] Full team-by-team guide: https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/cycling-races/tour-de-france/2026/news/ [https://www.domestiquecycling.com/en/cycling-races/tour-de-france/2026/news/] This episode is fuelled by MNSTRY. Fuel your body actually recognises, no artificial flavouring, no artificial anything. Use code DOMESTIQUE20 for 20% off your tasting box at https://mnstry.com [https://mnstry.com] Subscribe for race previews, reviews and analysis every week, and drop your yellow, green, white and KOM jersey picks in the comments. We love reading them, and sometimes making fun of them.

Has Pogačar already won the Tour? - Domestique Cycling Podcast

Three-stage races, one clear message: the Tour de France is coming, and the favorites are flying. Tadej Pogačar turned his Tour de Suisse debut into a public training camp - a 69 km solo on stage 1, a time trial win by four-hundredths of a second over Mathieu van der Poel, and a mountain win to finish. Three stages, the overall, and not a rival within six minutes. We break down the stage-1 "glitch", Narváez's 90 km breakaway raid in a thunderstorm, Van der Poel's surprising time-trial form, and what Primož Roglič's quiet week says about the twilight of his career. In Slovenia, Red Bull ran the show - Florian Lipowitz taking the overall and two stages, Laurence Pithie two more, in a near-perfect rehearsal 12 days before Lipowitz chases another Tour podium. And in Belgium, the Tour's sprinters sharpened their knives: four bunch sprints, four different winners (Girmay, Merlier, Kooij, and Philipsen), with Philipsen climbing well, walking off with the overall, and looking like the early green-jersey favorite under the new points rules. Then the big one: Wout van Aert is out of the Tour, and the morning's press points to a surprise replacement at Visma. We react to the Piganzoli reports, why Bram still wishes it were Ben Tulett, the back-to-back Grand Tour burnout question, and what it all means for Vingegaard's bid to chase down Pogačar. Fuel your body actually recognises. No artificial anything. 👉 Code DOMESTIQUE20 for 20% off your tasting box Order now! [https://mnstry.com/en-in?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=domestique&utm_campaign=260126_domestique_partnership-2026] https://mnstry.com/en-in?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=domestique&utm_campaign=260126_domestique_partnership-2026 [https://mnstry.com/en-in?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=domestique&utm_campaign=260126_domestique_partnership-2026] We've launched a free space to take a position on the biggest questions in pro cycling, rate other perspectives, and debate the community respectfully. No paywalls. Join at debate.domestiquecycling.com. [https://debate.domestiquecycling.com]