Brad welcomes back Bernie Eisel to talk over how the blue touch paper was lit on the Col du Portet for a statement victory from Tadej Pogacar over his nearest General Classification challengers on Stage 17 of the Tour de France.

In the company of Graham Willgoss, the pair discuss how Pogacar's UAE team are finally showing themselves to be the strongest in the race: "UAE isolated Richard Carapaz, and we expected it to be the other way around," says Brad.

"Pogacar wanted to put a mark on it: 'I'm here to win this Tour,'" says Bernie. "And it makes it easier for the team in the coming days... his team just took it on. It was great to watch, and it was the first time they had to do something in the mountains."

But was Pogacar, at one point, going to let Carapaz have the stage? Brad thinks that might have been on the cards, but after Carapaz refused to pull his wait on the front, Brad wonders whether Pogacar called his bluff, "got pissed off and went for it himself". 

The 2012 Tour de France winner also asks: are we seeing a change of mentality at Ineos?

"They're kind of smiling and accepting that some of their riders aren't up to the standard," says Brad. "And it never used to be like that. Sean Yates would come off afterwards and he'd want answers as to why you didn't do your job."

Brought to you by Zwift, where fun is fast.

The Bradley Wiggins Show is produced by Pete Burton. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.