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- [00:00]
A
Back in the day, Spencer Lance, the minute his, his lightest weight in the tour was 72 kilos, Ulrich was probably heavier. Ulrich is a lot taller. Ulrich is tall. He's a lot taller than Lance. You know in The Rhine was 78 kilos. There was a lot of riders, there was a lot of. Anyway, Indurian is an exception because he was, he had so much power that his power to weight was, you know, didn't really penalize him a lot his weight. But yeah, no, the build of the professional cyclists have changed, you know, I mean today, in today's cycling, if you're 70 kilos, you can forget it. You can't win the Tour. You need to be a 65 kilo rider.
- [00:51]
B
Everybody, welcome back to the move. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Brunei. We are breaking down stage one of the Giro d' Italia which just kicked off today in Bulgaria. And then we'll predict stage two. We'll get Johan's take on who's going to win, how it's going to play out. But before we do that, Johan, quickly I'll go through what happened today. It's not going to take very long because it was a very straightforward opening sprint. Stage 147K long from Nesbar to Burgos along the I guess the Black Sea coast looked fantastic. I was impressed with Bulgaria. But we had, we had a classic two. A classic zero day with it was two riders from small Italian teams. Bardiani, CSF and PTI Visit Malta were a two man breakaway easily reeled in, easily controlled by the peloton. The big notes from back in the peloton were in the intermediate sprint for points. Jonathan Milan wins. I don't know if you saw this, Johan. 1900 watt sprint for that intermediate sprint. Maybe not the best decision in retrospect. And then the Red Bull kilometer, which isn't really a kilometer, I don't really get it. I think it's just a timed sprint point that they've sold as a kilometer so they can have multiple Red Bull markings to increase impressions. That Red Bull gets was, you know, I guess this was, I should say it wasn't won by Milan because the breakaway went over the intermediate sprint points out of the peloton. Milan wins and gets third. Same thing with the Red Bull kilometer. The breakaway gets first and second. Antonio Morgado from UAE gets third. So he soaks up the two second time bonus that was on offer. Shows that UAE is pretty dialed in on the GC and try already trying to take time bonuses that The Adam Yates rivals could get coming into the final kilometers. I don't know if you noticed this but Visma sitting at the back, like really far at the back kind of in their own little peloton. I thought it was a good idea keeping Jonas vinegard out of trouble. Realistically, are you going to get tailed off and lose three seconds to click over a like a time gap? Probably not. That was vindicated because there was a big battle for position coming into the final few kilometers for the sprint. Unox was looking in control with like 3k to go decathlon. And Sudal, Sudal quick step, move up, Little Trek moves up and we go from big road to a small road and then we get a crash because it's probably the road was a little too narrow. Really bad crash. Almost looked like an AI. Like when you see these fake AI crashes, it was that bad. It was just complete blockage of the road. And then Little track was leading with Max Weisheld. Sudal Quickstep was right behind him. Sudal is almost. They were all kind of surprised cause the bias. Lund Anderson from decathlon comes up, he, he's out of position a little bit, then comes up on the side. Monier follows him. Milan tries to follow but just doesn't look like he has the speed. And then Paul Monier comes by him for his, his first career stageman. Just 22 years old, French rider on a Belgian team already has 27 pro wins. But this is the biggest of his career by far. Also significant for Sedal Quickstep. It's their seventh win of the season. The biggest win of their season so far. In their first win since they lost Remco. Having a pole to Red Bull over the off season. Kind of a new beginning for the team. But Johan, what were your takeaways about this?
- [04:06]
A
But you, you summed it up. Spencer. There's not much more going on, right? Short stage, you know, 147km. It was not hard at all on the riders. I just saw a quote from Vingegaard. He said this was like a three and a half hour cruising training ride. You know, it was very, very predictable. There was going to be a bunch print. What I take away and what I was surprised was the way this final was designed and you know, you know, let's say 99.9% sure this is going to be a bunch sprint, right? So this, this going from bigger roads. It was, there was some tricky roundabouts and. But all of a sudden this narrow last kilometer was, was not good. That's not A good decision at all. That's one. And then secondly, I don't know if you saw that, but you know, before the last 3, 400 meters it was fenced already, but these were like super old fashioned prehistoric fences with you know, like metal and then a little, a
- [05:16]
B
little
- [05:18]
A
thing that sticks out on the road. Yeah, I'm not saying the crash was caused by that, but you know, in today's cycling, man, that should not be allowed anymore. They did a good job on the last three, 400 meters because those were bigger fences and they, they were covered. They were covered with like publicity. So you couldn't crash because of, of those fences. I mean you can always crash because if it gets too narrow you can, you can get stuck into the, the fences. But yeah, that was, that was not, not great. I'm not saying that it could have been avoided, but it could have been avoided if it was not so narrow. I mean if you know on beforehand that this is going to be a bunch print, then don't make it so narrow in the final. That's, that's, that's my take. But anyways, listen, great win for Paul Manier. I think his team Sudal Quickstep did an amazing job in the, in the lead out. There were still four riders up there. Four riders who were in front of the crash and I think in total, what was it probably 15, 20 riders maximum before the crash? Even less.
- [06:25]
B
Yeah, maybe, maybe less than that.
- [06:26]
A
Yeah, so, so you know, they were definitely in control then. What I also saw is that Milan, who was the big favorite, got out of position, lost the wheel of his teammate Max Walsheit a few times, had to spend a lot of energy to move up by himself and finally got into a great position. Walsheidt started the lead out and he kind of got a little gap, but that was actually not bad for Milan because then the Soudal riders needed to close that gap and Milan was actually on the wheel of Paul Magnier. So I think he was, he was an ideal position. I'm just gonna think that Milan didn't have, I mean his timing was off for sure. But also then if you look Spencer and we keep saying, you know, we keep saying the level keeps going up and up and up. I just saw a stat here on Villain. You know, they always have these, these great stats and the teams that are part of Villa on have these transmitters on the, on their bikes. So Milan and this is good for fourth place only. Top, top power output in the sprint 2010 watts. Oh my.
- [07:37]
B
Oh, I want to calibrate let's calibrate that power meter. We were talking, I didn't, I did not know that's the power he put out. We were talking in the pre show and you, because I, like you said in the preview, you're like, Milan, he's not, he's not shown us the same form as years past leading into this. Maybe he's not going to be great. I didn't believe that. Really. And then I was saying, yeah, he looked, he looked like he wasn't making up ground in the final few hundred meters. And to find out that's the power he was putting out.
- [08:07]
A
Yeah.
- [08:07]
B
Is pretty crazy.
- [08:08]
A
There's this picture on, on the villa, on social, on Instagram, and you can see Milan next to him is Manier. And we've talked about this already in the past, you know, when talking about Milan, I mean, he's, he is so big, but he's also not aero, you know.
- [08:26]
B
Yeah.
- [08:26]
A
You can see Manier is, is, you know, bend over, really makes himself smaller. And Milan is, you know, catching a lot of wind. So obviously you need to develop a lot of power to stay up there. But anyway, 2010 watts, that's. Yeah. Gives you a fourth place nowadays in the sprint in Giro d'. Italia.
- [08:46]
B
Jonathan Milan, man, come over and do some criteriums in the US that power you could probably do okay, I'd imagine. But the crazy thing about Milan is, you know, we're talking about him being Unaero. He's putting out this amount of power. Not only can he do 2000 peak watts, which is like track sprinter power, he can climb pretty well, so he must have a pretty high threshold power.
- [09:05]
A
That is, let's not forget, Spencer, this guy is world champion pursuit. Yeah. And has the world record over the four kilometer pursuit. The fastest rider ever to do the four kilometers. You know, this is not just a sprinter, this guy is a really complete rider.
- [09:23]
B
Yeah. I guess we should just give some love to Paul Monier because he won. Won the race. But you kind of called this too. You, you called him out in the preview show. I thought, ah, Paul Monier, he always wins these small races. But, you know, when's he gonna win the big one? And then today he's like, definitely won the big one. That was an impressive one.
- [09:43]
A
He's still young. I mean, how old is Paul Magnier?
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B
Let's see, he's only 22.
- [09:47]
A
22 years old. I mean, come on, he said he won 20.
- [09:50]
B
When's he gonna win the big one? Come on. So come on, Paul.
- [09:55]
A
No Manier is. Yeah, the real deal, man. He's. He actually, I think if I read somewhere, he's actually a lot, a lot better rider than, I mean like, not just a sprinter. He can, he. I think he has a mountain bike background and he was actually in the, in the youth categories. He was a pretty good rider on the really hard course, hard courses with lots of climbs in mountain biking.
- [10:20]
B
Wow.
- [10:21]
A
Yeah. The thing is, you know, he's, he's, he's tall. He's 187. He weighs 70 kilos. So I mean he's not super heavy. Not super heavy for a sprinter. 70 kilos. That's okay.
- [10:33]
B
I can't believe we're. I can't believe that, that like what, what was Lance weighing when he won?
- [10:41]
A
Listen, I mean back in the day, Spencer, Lance, the minute his, his lightest weight in the tour was 72 kilos, Ulrich was probably heavier. Ulrich is a lot taller. Ulrich is tall. He's a lot taller than Lance. You know, in The Rhine was 78 kilos. There was a lot of riders. There was a lot of. Anyway, Inderian is an exception because he was, he had so much power that his power to weight was, you know, didn't really penalize him a lot his weight. But yeah, no, the build of the professional cyclists have changed. You know, I mean today, in today's cycling, if you're 70 kilos, you can forget it. You can't win the Tour. You need to be a 65 kilo rider.
- [11:29]
B
I mean we're talking about a 70 kilo rider winning a sprint with a guy doing 2000 watts in it. Yeah, it's. Yeah, I would say it's the number one thing. When you go to these races and you stand on the side of the road, the number one thing you notice other than the speed is how skinny everybody is. Wouldn't you say? Like it is shocking. And then you.
- [11:48]
A
Milan, Milan, Milan. Spencer. So, so we say Beaumanier is 187, whatever that means in your weird.
- [11:59]
B
Pretty tall.
- [12:00]
A
Calculating in the United States. 187 and 70 kilos. Jonathan Milan is 194. So he's 7 centimeters taller, but he weighs 84 kilos. He weighs 14 kilos more than Paul Magne.
- [12:14]
B
Wow.
- [12:15]
A
You know, I mean, obviously you need to generate a lot of power's power is probably going to be somewhere around 1750 or something, which is a lot
- [12:25]
B
for a guy that's 70 kilos. You're moving pretty quick. If you're like, that's not that heavy. We should also shout out Tobias Lind Anderson. I thought a little out of position and then I don't know if he surprised. It was about 200k to go. When he went, it almost seemed like he surprised Milan and Monier as well. But Monier was just right on his wheel. I think Lund Anderson said, if there was anybody else, my wheel, I would have won. But Paul Monier was too fast, came around. But I thought that was a pretty good sprint from him.
- [12:55]
A
Yeah, yeah. And also Ethan Vernon, third place. You know, he's having a pretty good season. You know, he's up there. Not going to be easy for him to win a bunch print. But, you know, in the Giro sometimes, you know, we've seen stranger things happening. Anyways, you know, this was a great way to start. I mean, great way. No, because there was a crash, obviously. I. It doesn't look that there's a lot of people who are seriously hurt. I saw some reports about. So Dylan Grunevigen and Kaden Gross were both involved in the crash, I would think, you know, if you're involved in that crash, that means you. You're at. At around 20th position, which is probably too far at 600 meters or 6, 800 meters from the finish would have been difficult for them. But anyways, hopefully, hopefully everybody's okay. It looked spectacular, right? But it was so narrow that there was like five, six riders went down and then everybody else was just, you know, had to stop. Nobody could get through. It was. It was too narrow. Man, that's the, that's the. You know that this cannot be allowed when, when, when. With speeds that are so high. I just saw a little, A little clip there, you know, like, you know, X of the Unox bikes, they're on SRAM and they all rode 56 chainrings. So they're 56, 56, 10.
- [14:26]
B
Yeah. I mean, that's a huge year.
- [14:28]
A
Those. I mean, you get to speeds like this. I mean, it's great. I mean, speeds, speeds nowadays in sprint, Spencer, it's over. It's 70, 72, 73 kilometers per hour sometimes. And on top of that, you know, I mean, the. Obviously they all know the course. They've been in that area. So the sprinter teams have gone and recon this, this final. So they know that the last 5K, you know, all the roundabouts and they know that this is like, you know, a bottleneck. So the nerves in the peloton to get to that last kilometer are unbelievable. It's kind of, I'm not going to say normal, but it's to be expected that they go down when it's. When it's so narrow. There's too many people. There's too many people in a too narrow road at speeds that are incredible.
- [15:19]
B
They look like the finish on a mountain stage, you know, like where you descend down into a alpine town. Yeah, I can't believe it was that narrow. Also shout out this guy. Mattis mickels on EF. 22 years old, was by himself, no team support, gets fifth in the sprint. Really impressive.
- [15:35]
A
He's fast. Doesn't he come from picnic? Picnic Postnl, I think
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B
a team adjacent to that Inter Marche.
- [15:47]
A
Oh, Inter Mar. Okay. Yeah.
- [15:49]
B
Came over to ef, but probably, I would assume started to see the writing on the wall at that team, that it was not going to last forever, and then went to ef. But if he had some help, man, he could be up there with Monier. I want to ask you about nerves, the narrow finish and how it affected gc, but let's take a quick break and then I'm gonna ask you about that. Okay. Johan, we are back. I'm sure you noticed it. You're just talking about the finish that. I think if you previewed the finish, you would have guessed. Yeah, there's probably going to be a crash here. If you're a GC rider, you don't want to be in that crash. So maybe be at the back. And that's what Visma did. They were. It was Jonas Vinegar with like, let's say 17k to go, was at the back with Julio Pelizarri, who was probably thinking, hey, if Jonas is back here, I'm safe back here. But then even with 10k to go, Pelizarry and Red Bull started to move up. Like this is a little aggressive and Visma didn't. They just sat in the back in their own little group. What did you think about this?
- [16:46]
A
I mean, it's not a. It's not a bad strategy, you know, it's. It's. It's a risk in, in that from that point of view that if there are gaps because of a crash, but you don't go down yourself, you can lose time. Right. But on the other hand, sitting there, you save so much energy in terms of, you know, you're not, you're not moving up all the time, plus, you know, stress, energy, you just can sit there and relax. You don't have to be stressed out, which is also energy. You know, it's often overlooked, but it's, it's very important. You can't do it every day, though. You know, you have to anyways, they've, they've seen the course and they probably knew that, okay, if something happens, it's going to be. It's going to be a crash. Once you're in the last 3K, you kind of know that whatever happens, there's going to be a crash and you're going to be stuck behind and you're going to get the same time. I'm not against it, especially for stage one, but, but it's not something that they can keep doing every day. They have to really look at the course and decide when to do this.
- [17:55]
B
Yeah, I thought it was super interesting and it. I was also shocked by. You always talk about the Tour's different. The Tour is a different race. Just the sharpness and the pace and almost the intensity of the race was far different than you would see stage one of a Tour de France and a sprint stage. So at the back, yeah, even if you have an issue, you're probably going to catch back on. And now, you know, I think it, what was it, two, three years ago, they went from the one second rule. So now you, you have to be three seconds behind someone to be counted on a different time. But if you're going 70k an hour in the final of a race, three seconds, that's like 50 meters, if not more. So the odds that a gap would be that big are very small.
- [18:41]
A
Yeah, probably. Yeah, yeah. Listen, it's, it's, it's something that, you know, and especially if, if he was there with his whole team. Yeah, I don't, I don't see any problems with that.
- [18:55]
B
Also the advantage of having a whole team behind one goal, because a lot
- [19:00]
A
of these this year, they do not have, they do not have a sprinter. There's no sprinter on the team. So it's all in for the gc. You know, last year, Visma, okay, Jonas was not there, obviously, but they did win the GC with Simon Yates, but they had Olaf Coy also on the team, so. And who, I think won two or three stages in, in the Giro, right. Koi last year, definitely two, at least
- [19:26]
B
two stages, if not more.
- [19:30]
A
And so they, they had to divide their team, you know, between gc. I mean, it was not the same. They did not, they were not banking everything on the GC of Simon Yates. Ultimately, he won, but that was not definitely not there. Their conviction at the start of the Giro because they had Bernard going for stages, they had Coy going for sprints, and then Simon Yates going for gc and they all won stages,
- [19:58]
B
except one of them did not win a stage. So Coy wins two stage. Simon Yates didn't want a stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's worth. Yeah, it worked out for him. I think they're happy with that. But, yeah, it was. It is very different than last year. Like, even think of Felipe Ozana, we heard, is going for the GC here on Sudal, but his team is not, you know, they're at the front contesting the sprint, so maybe he can't sit at the back because then you are in big trouble if you have a problem, you don't have the team to pull you back on.
- [20:29]
A
Filippo Zana is not Jonas Wingard. You know, it's Philippe Zana goes for GC. But what is, what is GC for Zana and for Suzhou Quickstep. That's a top 10, right? Top 10. It's a goal for some teams. You know, I mean, if you have, if you don't have the, the, the, the. The power to have a guy who. On the podium, I mean, a top 10 is always nice, but you can't make that your only goal and sacrifice a whole team for a rider who's maybe going to be top 10.
- [20:58]
B
I'm a zonest, so I would, I would go all in for Flippo Zana. Just a couple, like, weird, like Alexander vlasov, Red Bull, 16th on the stage. Like, why is he up there?
- [21:10]
A
Well, he was lucky to be in front of the crash.
- [21:15]
B
Well, I'm now wondering was he behind the crash? And they just, it's just the way they filtered through the crash, but I don't know. Yeah, like, if I was a GC guy, I'm. I'm sitting in the back on these stages. Well, do you have anything else on this stage before we move on to previewing?
- [21:30]
A
There's not much else to say, Spencer, you know, as. Yeah, I mean, typical start. Two riders, you know, the two small team, two small Italian teams. How many, how many of these teams are. Have invitations? It's, it's, it's Bardiani and, And Balti and then it's. I guess that's it.
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B
Right.
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A
And then. And then the Rockets.
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B
The Rockets. So the. It's harder than it used to be because you have to be in the top 30 to get invited.
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A
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [22:00]
B
So the Rockets were the only other eligible team.
- [22:03]
A
Yeah.
- [22:04]
B
But it definitely could change the race because the Rockets. Well, assuming Groenvegan's okay, they're focused on other stuff. They're not going to be sitting out in these breakaways on these sprint stages. So I am slightly worried they're not going to have enough riders up there pulling the peloton along. But also something to keep in mind. Bulgaria, not on Central European time, as I learned. So the stage starts an hour earlier, finishes an hour earlier for the next couple days.
- [22:30]
A
Oh, that's why it was early today. Okay.
- [22:32]
B
Yeah, I was really thrown off by that. And then I was like, wait a second, that could be a different time zone.
- [22:37]
A
I didn't even know. I didn't even know that.
- [22:40]
B
I was like, why is it starting it three in the morning? What's going on here? And yeah, that was, that was all I had for the stage. Are you ready? Should we move on to tomorrow?
- [22:50]
A
Yeah, let's talk about tomorrow.
- [22:51]
B
Yeah, let's take a quick break, then we'll talk about tomorrow. Okay, Johan. So, second day in Bulgaria. Quite a different type of stage than we had today. So 221km. That, that would be a long one day race. And it has multiple categorized climbs. 1, 2, 3. The most significant being the last one because it's a tops out roughly 10k from the finish. And then the final kilometer is uphill as well. It's the last climb. It's listed at 4K at 6 and a half percent. A little deceiving though because the first and last kilometer are not very steep. The middle three kilometers, well, let's just call it a, let's call it a 5k long climb. The middle 3km are quite steep, so if someone wanted to attack there, they could. I don't know why you would if you were a GC favorite, but could happen. Kind of reminds me we're going back of stage two of the 2019 VTA, which was long. Had a climb like this at the end and we did see some GC action. I think Nairo Kintana won solo after a late attack from there, but there's no betting odds up at the moment. But do you want to tell us how you think this is going to play out and who you think is going to win?
- [24:03]
A
Well, long stage, so obviously there's going to be a breakaway. Then the question is who is in there and no matter what happens if there's a breakaway or if the breakaway is closed and can be reeled back in, or if there's no breakaway, there's going to be a fight for position amongst the GC riders on that last climb. And so I think we're going to see a separation there of the GC riders, if you say it's the middle 3 kilometers or around 7, 8%, I think that's hard enough to make a selection. The sprinters can't make it. So, you know, on a climb like that, there's. There's no sprinter who can get over that or be close enough to come back for. For a sprint. But. But yeah, I don't know if it's breakaway or breakaway could make it. All depends on. I personally think teams of GC riders, they will work especially before that last climb to keep their guys in position, but it would be quite early to already start chasing a breakaway down. So it depends how far the breakaway is ahead before that last climb. I think a breakaway could make it, although we do see that less and less. I'm going to pick a rider who can win. You know, in both scenarios. Giulio Ciccone don't think Ciccone, he will go in the breakaway, but I could see a scenario where there's a break. You know, it's hard on the last climb, they catch the breakaway. Ciccone is maybe not there with the three, four best climbers, although he can be there on a climb like that, and then he wins in the sprint. Of all the favorites. So Chicon is my pick tomorrow.
- [25:57]
B
That's a good pick. Very good pick because he could win from either one. I hope he. I put money on him for the klm, so I hope he's. I hope he's out there getting KLM points. Come on, Julio, we need you. I worry if he tries to get in the breakaway. You and I are of the belief he is not a Grand Tour GC rider because he's never in his craze, in his 30s, and he's never finished inside the top 10 in a Grand Tour. Overall, probably a decent level of evidence there. I'm worried, though, that others will be worried about him being in the breakaway and giving him time. Maybe they wouldn't let him in. And I'm very curious to see how that plays out, though.
- [26:32]
A
You know, if he gets in a break, he's a threat, right? I mean, once he gets into a
- [26:36]
B
position
- [26:38]
A
he can defend, but, you know, it's. He's not a threat for the podium. He's not going to be on the podium. The other riders who are there for a top five or a top ten, you could say, oh, Chicone is in there. You know, we can't let him go. But at this early in the race, I don't think that should be an issue. If Chicone Is in a breakaway. Yeah.
- [26:59]
B
The question a little hard. I don't know. How many breakaways do we really see make it first two stages of a grand tournament?
- [27:07]
A
Not many. Not many.
- [27:08]
B
Yeah, but. But now you have me thinking also
- [27:13]
A
because, you know, the peloton is fresh, you know, at the crucial points, there's still a lot of power. Everybody wants to be in the front. So automatically, you know, a breakaway who has three, four minutes, you know, in an approach towards a climb, you lose one minute just with the stress of the peloton and bring teams without chasing teams bringing their people to the front. So, yeah, I think it's going to be difficult for a break, but not impossible. Yeah.
- [27:43]
B
And like, let's just say there's, you know, action on the final climb, GC action, then they could. They could make up even just positioning on the climb. There could be like a minute or two gone. Here. Here's the one.
- [27:57]
A
One of the. Also. One of. One of the reasons also that a breakaway could make it, Spencer, is, you know, is the fact that. And you. You often tend to see that. And especially in the first stages, you know, there is only one big favorite in this race. Right. And he brings a strong team. Jonas Winkergaard and Visma Elise Bike. If Visma decides that, okay, we're not chasing this down. This is not our issue. Who else will? Who else will? I mean, who else will chase it down? Because they all have their own ambitions and they all want to save a little bit. And, you know, Red Bull, they have Pilizari and Hindley, but they also want to save their strength and, you know, they just want to keep their guys in front. So if it's a. If it's a decent breakaway and Visma is not in the mood, then what will happen? Who else will chase?
- [28:56]
B
Well, I think tomorrow people would chase, but you are bringing up a good point of, as we get further into this race, what happens if Jai Hindley's in a move, you know, like, what is. Who's going to work other than Bisman needs to work? You know, we said this is exactly what we saw with, remember, Rimco and sudal with the 20, 23 Vuelta, where, you know, Sepkus gets in the break and everyone's staring at Sudal and the gap just blows out. Like, there could be a bit of work they have ahead of them. So the odds on Unibet just came out. The favorite for the stage is Corbin strong at 6/6 50. Morgato is second at Corbin Strong. I would be surprised if he Makes it over.
- [29:39]
A
I mean, listen, he's not easy. I would not count him out. You know, he's a strong. He's a strong rider. He could make it. He could make it over there. I mean, or he could come back. He will. You know, I hadn't thought about him.
- [29:57]
B
What about. So it's, it's Corbin Strong, Morgato, Andrea Vendrame. He could win Ciccone, Lund Anderson, Ghana, and then Jonathan Narvaez. What do we think about that?
- [30:10]
A
Well, his first race back after his crash in. In Down Under.
- [30:17]
B
I believe so. Right. He broke his back and down under he broke something. Is that right? So he got really hurt.
- [30:25]
A
Yeah, we're playing. Yeah. So first race back, we don't know how. How he is. Also, you know, how motivated he is. He. I'm hearing rumors he changes teams, goes back to where he comes from apparently. I mean, net company now.
- [30:46]
B
Yeah.
- [30:47]
A
So, you know, that's always a factor. Also, you know, if the rider, obviously he has trained, otherwise he would not be at the start of the Giro. He's trained properly, but, you know, what's the motivation? You know, has he signed the contract yet? Probably, yes. So those are things to take into account. But this in Narweis is definitely a profile of a rider who can, who can win the stage. Yeah. At the same level, if not even a bit higher than Ciccone.
- [31:19]
B
I mean, some of the Vendrame. When's the last time he won though? You know, in Tirreno.
- [31:25]
A
No. Didn't he win a stage in Tirino or. He was up.
- [31:30]
B
He was up there twice.
- [31:33]
A
Yeah. He didn't win. He didn't win though.
- [31:35]
B
When's the last time he won? Usually the guys that win are guy. Are riders who win. Like that's. I went, I was going through, you know, Jonas Fingerd. So he doesn't win every race. He does, but do you know the. He's almost never lost to anyone other than Tade Pagachar.
- [31:53]
A
Well, he's. I, I just saw a stat of his, of his Tour de France participation. First participation, who was 40 something. And then he's not been out of the top two.
- [32:03]
B
He's not in the top two in
- [32:05]
A
the last seven years. I think.
- [32:08]
B
I don't. I think the only time he's been out of top two in any stage race he's done that. He's finished is that, you know, the ones that he did before he was a GC rider and then the. Remember that third place at Paris. Nice.
- [32:20]
A
Yeah.
- [32:21]
B
But he lost to Bagachar and David. David Godu. What happened there, man? What the heck? But it shows you.
- [32:32]
A
And then. And then he lost.
- [32:33]
B
A subcous but not really a loss. Right?
- [32:35]
A
Yeah.
- [32:36]
B
Gifted that one to him. So you, you start to see like the riders that win are the riders that win. You don't want to over complicate this. I'm going to go with Jonathan Arvas. I trust that he's, he's motivated even though he's probably leaving that team.
- [32:49]
A
Yeah.
- [32:50]
B
I also would keep your eye on Mark Solaire. If there's a breakaway, Mark Solaire is going to be in it.
- [32:56]
A
I was surprised to see him at the start of the, of the G road.
- [32:59]
B
It's weird.
- [33:01]
A
It seems like he's not going to make the Tour team.
- [33:04]
B
There's no way.
- [33:05]
A
Right.
- [33:05]
B
If they have him here, this is so out of his wheelhouse. Like, why would he be here if he's going to make the Tour team? Pretty surprising because the guy is pretty strong across a lot of terrain. But.
- [33:17]
A
Yeah, but you know, there's a lot of strong riders on uae. Competition is fierce there to make the Tour de France team.
- [33:23]
B
A lot of strong riders. I mean, think of what Brandon McNulty did at San Remo and he's been out of the Tour team for years, so.
- [33:30]
A
I've heard. I've heard. I mean, I've seen indications that he might be on the Tour team this year.
- [33:35]
B
He should be. They've missed. They've at times missed a writer like that too. Just a big rider that Pagatra can sit on for a long time, doesn't have ambitions of his own at. At the races that Pagacha are at. I think it's too early, though, for Solaire. It's not breakaway time yet. I'm going Narbonne.
- [33:53]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [33:54]
B
I'm excited to see if there is any GC action, but this is an interesting little stage. I thought today left something to be desired, perhaps, but, you know, we're easing our way into this Grand Tour and tomorrow should be pretty exciting.
- [34:06]
A
Yeah. Long. It's going to be long. I'm. I can tell you. I'm not going to watch it from start to finish.
- [34:10]
B
Don't watch it from start to finish. It's on hbo, Max. Both in Spain and the US they actually.
- [34:16]
A
They don't. They don't broadcast from start to finish. No.
- [34:19]
B
I don't know. I think it is. I looked at the schedule and it comes on in the US at 2 in the morning tomorrow. So that must be the start of the race, right?
- [34:26]
A
Oh, that's crazy.
- [34:28]
B
Don't get up for that. Just catch it. Catch it when the climbs start. Or maybe just the last climb, but we'll be back tomorrow. Johan, thanks for joining us.
- [34:37]
A
Okay, thanks, Spencer.
- [34:38]
B
Okay, bye.