The experiment of broadcasting snatches from team radio conversations on this Tour de France had been an underwhelming one up to this point, with viewers gleaning little insight as they eavesdropped on the most banal of interactions between directors and riders. And then, on the upper reaches of the Col de la Loze, came an unexpected moment of arid truth.
8km or so from the top of the climb, where the gradient stiffened towards 9% and where the outcome of the entire race was about to be resolved definitively, the radio finally crackled into life with something of substance: Tadej Pogačar's admission of defeat.
