Tour de France: Thomas' predictions, Brailsford's astonishing press conference - Podcast

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After the final Tour de France rest day on Monday, the race shifted back into gear with the first stage in the Pyrenees and a finish in Bagneres-de-Luchon. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) took the honours after Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) crashed while leading, and the GC battle flickered but never burst into flames.

Earlier in the stage the race was neutralized after police used pepper spray on a group of protesters - with some of the chemicals reaching the riders and forcing a break in proceedings.

In this Tour de France podcast, brought to you in association with Prendas Ciclismo, Pinarello and Floyd's of Leadville, Daniel Benson and Ed Pickering hear from Yates, Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Heinrich Haussler (Bahrain-Merida) on the stage, and take a look ahead to Wednesday's decisive 65km mountain stage.

We also wind the clock back 24 hours to Team Sky's press conference and play the recording from Dave Brailsford's almost 10-minute question-and-answer session. During the press conference, Brailsford was asked about Gianni Moscon - thrown off the race for punching a fellow competitor - the DCMS report and the hostile environment Team Sky have raced under during this year's Tour.

Brailsford responded by saying, "It's interesting. We raced in Italy, and Chris' case was open when we were at the Tour of Italy, and the Italians were fantastic, to be fair to them. The Spanish, fantastic. It just seems to be a French thing.

"It's like a French cultural thing really, isn't it? That's it. I'm not sure that they would have liked their football players spat at in Russia [at the World Cup - ed.] I'm sure that there would be a word or two about that. But it's OK to spit on us and our staff."