"He must have been embarrassed" - Armstrong, Wiggins and co. on Evenepoel's Peyragudes time-trial; Pogacar and Vingegaard's performance
Cycling
Stage 13 of the Tour de France delivered more fireworks and differences in the overall classification, as the climbers went up to Peyragudes with different bike setups and with a wide spectrum of results.
Lance Armstrong, for The Move podcast, began his speech by taking it for granted that there is little left to talk about with Tadej Pogacar doing his thing and beating Jonas Vingegaard again: "Tadej Pogacar won the time trial as expected. It's his 21st career Tour de France win, his fourth this year. There's not too much to say about Tadej, it's just Tadej doing Tadej things."
But there was a lot of focus on Remco Evenepoel, perhaps the loser of the day as he finished outside the Top10 with a struggling performannce. "There were some very good performances like Tadej's and some not so good like Remco's. Another tough day for him".
Armstrong went on to delve into how badly Evenepoel must be struggling: "Jonas managed to pass Remco, the Olympic time trial champion, so he will feel better. For the Belgian, the lights are going out for him quickly in this Tour de France, he's having to be very demolarizing, you always see when you're going to get caught and I don't think he could have expected that to happen."
Hincapie agreed with Armstrong: "Yeah, he doesn't look like he's having fun, he's slowly sinking. Tadej chose to ride a normal bike and still took 5 seconds off Jonas on the flat part, we were shocked and scared. In a start like that it's normal to get 5 seconds per km on a road bike."
In the same vein Bradley Wiggins continued: "Remco is a winner, he carries the weight of a nation on his shoulders. There's a lot of pressure on him and he puts a lot of pressure on himself. This has been his main goal all year and, well, he must have been embarrassed today. He is a time trial dominator and even if it was a time trial it still hurts. The thing is, he's still on the podium".
"The main drama and the main action in the remainder of the Tour will be in the fight for the podium. Remco, a world and Olympic champion who has won many time trials throughout his career, we can safely say that he has never been lapped in a time trial in his life," replied LAmstrong, who couldn't believe what had happened to the Belgian on the Pyrenean ascent.
Spencer Martin gave him the punch line: "He just lost a minute to Luke Plapp, a good time trialist, but not an overall man, and he's still on the podium, that's the crazy part. The problem for him is that there's only mountains left, there's no time trial left, Lipowitz is only 6 seconds behind him and he looks like he's going to hunt him down."
"Do you think he might end up withdrawing?" asked Martin to his colleagues. And Wiggins was very clear about it:
"I'm not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets off the wagon because he seems to be completely demoralized. It's hard to stay in the Tour when you have nothing to fight for. How much left in his legs to fight for? When they don't go, they don't go."
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Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- On a positive note, you maybe notice turning this topic into a discussion has the benefit of eliminating certain participants who do not see how they can turn it back to their sole interest ;-)Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- People see what they want to. I am actually the opposite of your accusation, probably more of a rebel than most of you who don’t get the big picture. The difference is, I don’t go moaning publicly about the consequences of my transgressions, I understand the need for rules and I take my OWN responsibility when deciding to ignore or break them or doing so involuntarily. I will also not hesitate to state my case or argue vehemently when relevant, sometimes it works, sometimes it makes things worse but that’s the price to pay for principles and having character.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- That may be but that was unknown to others and nothing says that’s the whole truth. Again, don’t try to misinterpret, it is a call and technically it is correct. Besides, even if there is a valid reason, that does not disqualify the ruling or punishment as far as the rules have been developed. I don’t think they’re as far as in football where for handball there is a distinction (in some ways and specific cases) between intentional or not. And football can be just as harsh and people live with it, eg the offside rule, also judged to within tiny fractions but often wrong or ignored. It’s the nature of every collective organisation and sometimes I wonder if our rebellion against it isn’t seated in the feelings we carry from the injustices we’ve felt personally, like being flashed driving 1km/h too fast when we are explained limits are just a security measure but we are absolutely certain not to have endangered anyone with our transgression. The problem is, nobody has better solutions and no 2 people have the same interpretation of where a limit should be.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Because for you deviated implies the other rider MUST have been made to fall and fail to finish ??? I don’t know if you ride a bike but next time someone carves you up or drives dangerously close, just hold back from those feelings of changing something, reporting or filming or even complaining. Everyone will just say, hey you’re still here undamaged, doesn’t seem like anyone did anything.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And we, what are we doing?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- And yet, it attracts people, even you. What’s more, it attracts the rival fanboys to fill cyberspace with endless pointless my hero is better than your hero blabla that’s all been heard before and only helps sell the site as an advertising platform. You know what the solution is but most can’t resist. No different than women who follow and discuss celebs through gossip magazines.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- he is doing 460 watts for 35 min to achieve 7 w/kg with VO2 at 96 , just unreal numbers.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just do it, and put up with the consequencesJumpyjohn08-11-2026
- "was a headliner at the Tour de France" Nobody cared about Piddie. Only rivals that were there for Pogi, Jonas, Remco, Sexias, Lipo, Del Toro and they were all expected to lose. Piddie was not even in any conversation.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- exactly, he had an amazing season, but with these overstatements they don‘t do him good.Ketterechts08-11-2026
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