Spencer Martin (2:58)

Well, you know, as you say, Spencer, we nobody really knew if it was going to be too hard for these guys that I've seen a lot of comments to say, yeah, it's going to be too hard. I had some info from, from within the peloton that both Visma and Pedersen were highly motivated for today's stage. And we saw from the start that both of their teams together with Q 36.5 for Pitcock, those were the three teams that did all the work in the stage to keep the breakaway, which was six, seven guys. It's more difficult to keep under control. So it was clear that they had big plans right then that they believed that their guys could win. I have to say though, you know, when you see the finish, I think the profiles were a bit exaggerated. The ones we looked at yesterday. Yeah, but it was still very hard. It was still very hard. And you know, these two guys, I mean, we all know Petersen is on extremely, extremely good form. Vanart seems to get back to really good form. And these two guys, sprinters, slash punchers, are the two only ones in the peloton who can actually challenge the, the, the climbers on a terrain, on a finale like this. And so, yeah, I mean, I think that the, the display of power of Pedersen was incredible. He had to fight hard to stay in contention. He, he was in trouble at some point when I think that the, the fact of the day, in terms of part of the finish is that Ineos attacked with about 50k to go on that harder climb of the day. Many riders were in trouble, including Vanart, because of, I mean, somebody went out of the corner. Vanart was held up and also Pedersen was struggling. We kind of knew they were going to make it back because it was still far to go. But these kind of efforts really take their toll. And the fact that both of them were still up there in the final NR1 2 speaks volumes about their potential. These are two massive engines, right? Pedersen and Vanart, and they're more than sprinters. They're. They're really complete riders. And, yeah, I was happy to see. I mean, I would, I would. I would have preferred. I mean, I. I like Peterson, you know, but this is his fourth stage win already. Van Aert won a stage, but it would have been amazing for him to win another stage like this. He was close, but he was just beaten fair and square by a guy who was stronger today. But it's nice to see him back up there. You know, he's. He's, he's getting back. It's not the world one art yet that we are used to see in July, but the way it's going now, I think we will see that guy in July. Yeah.

Johan Bernille (6:00)

So Mads Pedersen, he's now seventh over. He's seventh for Grand Tour stage wins amongst active writers, which is impressive because he didn't win a Grand Tour stage until 2022, and then since he's won his first one, he's second. If you take it from 2022 forward, only Pagatra has more stage ones than him. Phillips and Kaden Groves oddly tied right behind him at 9 and 9. You don't really think of it, but Kaden Groves has a mini Grand Tour stage win since 2022 is yes for Phillips. And the only caveat there is Phillipson's or almost all Tour de France stages. And Groves doesn't have a single Tour de France stage because he's never started the tour. But Wilde 7 since then. So actually more than you'd think, considering that's a struggle, period. I too was a little disappointed, if I completely honest, but I didn't. The thing is, I didn't think W Benart would even factor in this finish. So kind of pleasant surprise. I mean, both of them we were talking about before we recorded, I think they looked like, because it was so hard leading in and because it was a hard finish. Everyone else in the front is small, like, because they have less weight, but it looked like Pedersen and Van Art were big kids racing against, like, illegally racing against little kids that they weren't supposed to be competing against. Like, that's how much bigger, more powerful they were. And when they step on it, I mean, they are Just pulling away from that field. You see, Del Toro is the only one who can put up any sort of resistance. And even Del Toro, like the man of this Giro so far, gets humbled by.

Spencer Martin (7:24)

Oh, yeah, yeah. You could clearly see that the power is not there with these guys. You know, I mean, they have obviously, you know, power to weight. They're incredible. But if you. If you talk about real power, and we have this stat from Velon, as they usually do a great job in publishing certain Data world. Von Aert's power output for the last 1 minute 20 is 840 watts. Over a minute 20. And with a maximum of 11, 10 watts, we can see here on the picture. That's impressive. That's impressive. Especially take into account how much he had to work already. You know, he said. He said in an interview that he felt the effort that he had to make to come back after that mishap. After missing that corner with about 50k to go, he said he spent a big bullet there, which he missed in the final. It's not an excuse because Peterson was also struggling and had to do a huge effort to come back, but still, I agree. You know, you could clearly see the. The difference in pure power of these two guys compared to the other riders. I mean, maybe with the exception of Dorian Godo, who's also a tall guy who was fourth today, who actually won here already on this finish in El Giro Del Veneto in 2023. So good. Good climb for him. Good finish for him. But all the other riders were GC guys, right? So. And still that there was a lot of doubts about Peterson and Vanart, but you see that these talented guys, they're super class. They can do this. They can do this. And, yeah, the fact that they were believing it so strongly before the start means that, you know, they. They knew they could do this.

Johan Bernille (9:20)

Yeah, I mean, if.

Spencer Martin (9:21)

If this.

Johan Bernille (9:21)

If you're watching the stage and you're thinking, oh, seems like Philippe Chaubert would be great on this stage, it's because he won the last time they were here against. Who did he win against, Johan? Alberto Contador. Pretty good. Pretty little finish there for Contador. That's second on a stage like that. But just to circle back on this 840 watts for the last minute 20 is absurd. Like, I saw this, and in my notes, I even wrote, like, would love to see Pederson's power file, because that must be crazy, and that is crazy. 840 watts for a minute 20. Like you were saying, we were Looking at our own power files before this, trying to put this into context, and you're like, oh, you shouldn't compare yourself to a professional. But in this case, like, professionals shouldn't compare themselves to Van Art and Pedersen because there's probably not many pros who can do almost 900 watts for well over for a minute and a half. Basically. Like, that is unbelievable.

Spencer Martin (10:14)

Yeah, that's impressive. That's impressive. Well, you know, I, I, I still, I still say, you know, nobody even, even riders who have raced and how retired for a number of years should never compare themselves to the actual professionals in, in the peloton, unless you are called Alejandro Valverde, because he's, he's still up there. He's still up there in the, in the stats on Strava. But that guy. Yeah, that guy's special. No, but it's just, it's, it's just unbelievable. Normally, Normally, Spencer, whatever. You know, I, I figured it out. You know, like, I've, I've done a few rides and like, at my age, for example, it's always double whatever there is. If it's a time on a climb or if it's the, Whatever my best, it's always double. That's, that's, that's a good, good goal. So, you know, if you're 10 years younger, 15 years younger, you can go from there. But me, I'm 60, almost 61. I'm half, half the speed. And still, that's pretty good for me.

Johan Bernille (11:24)

It is actually surprising, like, even if, if you take cycling seriously and you go out and you do the tourmalet, like, he'll probably go hard, he'll probably do it in twice the time that, like, Pagatra would do it, which sounds ridiculous, but that's still a pretty good time. So someone wrote in there asking, like, oh, what do Johan and Lance and George do power now compared to when they're racing? And it's, I guess half, like, half would be a lot.

Spencer Martin (11:49)

No, no, George, George is different. George is different. George is, George is still a professional cyclist, Spencer.

Johan Bernille (11:55)

You know. Well, there was a point where George owned a professional team, and I think he was probably stronger than many on that professional team.

Spencer Martin (12:03)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, I mean, these, these values are impressive power output, but, but listen, I mean, 1 and 2 again, PEDERSON and, and, well, Von Art. Same result as stage one, by the way.

Johan Bernille (12:21)

Also first to where we began.

Spencer Martin (12:22)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. On different terrain now, but yeah. And then Del Toro third, as expected. You know, he's the best of the rest, he's the best of the GC guys. I keep saying, Spencer, you know, we're going to have to wait until he explodes. If he explodes. But for the moment, man, if you look at the way he rides, the way he. Especially the way he's positioned, he was the best positioned of all the GC riders. That's for a reason. It's because he has amazing legs. You know, I don't know if I use the term already. Diamond legs. He does have diamond legs in this Giro. Looks. It looks easy, looks smooth. I know I repeat myself, but I. I'm. Yeah, I've said it yesterday. But I repeat, he's a serious contender to win the Giro.

Johan Bernille (13:24)

Yeah. So he just to give people. He was crazily well positioned today.

Spencer Martin (13:29)

I.

Johan Bernille (13:29)

They were saying on the commentary as a mountain bike background, which would make sense because he looks easy in that peloton. Easier. There's no. No disrespect to Juana uso, but the way del Toro sits and moves about in the peloton, he just looks a lot more relaxed than Juan and.

Spencer Martin (13:44)

And Primo's roglic. He looks more relaxed than Primo.

Johan Bernille (13:48)

That's. I don't know if that's Prim, but you actually do notice, like, obviously, Primus is amazing. One of the best riders ever to ever do it stage racing wise. But it's like you learn it late and you never quite have the same level. Exactly. As someone that came in at a younger age.

Spencer Martin (14:07)

I heard an interview today of. Or I saw an interview of Isaac del Toro when he was 15. He presents himself, I may Zag del Toro, very shy. And he was talking already then about how many years he had been racing. So he started really, like, early. Like 11, 12 years old. He was racing already?

Johan Bernille (14:30)

He looks like it. I mean, the guy looks unbelievable. Just a couple stats on him. So he has a bad time trial that's back on stage 10. He hasn't really put, like, let's say, real gaps into people, but he's increased his lead up from a. From 25 seconds to 38. It's pretty good, considering it's almost all bonus seconds. And then Roglich has gone from 118 to 135. And you. You think like, well, as two seconds really matter, but it's like, well, 118 to 135. That's actually quite a bit different. So he's kind of slowly pulling away from. From. From them. But I will say this, and I, I would. I love the Del Toro experience would love to see him win. I was thinking today, and I'm. I'm also. The power is power, man. Like, I think power. Doing power, high power is good, whether you're on a climb or you're on a flat or you're on a hard finish. I was thinking these efforts are very different from the efforts they're going to do in the third week. So just being like, wow, he's up there in the sprint, it's like, well, okay. But they're getting like. It almost feels to me like Primos Roglic is the only one who's looked at the race book like this third week is quite a bit different than this.

Spencer Martin (15:38)

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it looks to me like if you look at the footage, right, that Primos is just looking. And for example, today, the intermediate sprint, the Red Bull kilometer, he didn't even try. He was there, he was up there, but he didn't even make an intent. It looks like it's deliberate, but it also could be that he just can't. That for the moment, he's just forced to follow and try to get better and hope that something. I mean, the way I see it now, Spencer, especially in. In the case of Del Toro, Primos needs to have a great last week. He needs to have two really great stages and explore. The. Del Toro needs to explode. He needs to blow up, which is very possible. I mean, you know, it's. There's hard stages, so, you know, one. What is it now? 135.

Johan Bernille (16:40)

135. I mean, stages are very hard.

Spencer Martin (16:44)

Yeah, it's nothing. If you have a. If you have a bad moment, 135 here, you lose it in a heartbeat, you know, on those. On those stages. But it. He needs to count on the fact that Del Toro will fade and have a hard last week. And that's normally what should happen. But again, I say this guy takes it day by day and he is extremely strong and he could hang on to it. I'm a bit. A bit in doubt about today because it looked like in the bonus print, Del Toro was going for it. And when he saw Ayusu coming, he kind of let him pass. So. And he keeps saying, even this morning at the start, the leaders of the team are Ayuso and Adam Yates. I think the Adam Yates, he should leave that out because there's no way Adam Yates is still the leader of the Tour, of the Giro, of. Of uae. But it is. It is clear that ayuso is the leader. If you, for example, if you look at the team car and you see the order of the spare bikes, Ayuso's bike is on the place where the leader has the team, his spare bike. That's the easiest accessible for the mechanic.

Johan Bernille (18:01)

Which makes sense because del Toro. 21 year olds winning Grand Tours, not a great history of that. And the way you're talking about it reminds me a lot of the way people were talking about Simon Yates in 2018. You know, just so easy in the second week. So easy. And then, if you don't remember, he did not win that Jira tag.

Spencer Martin (18:21)

Yeah, but, but I think, I think, you know, to the contrary of. Of Del Toro. I mean, we'll see what he does in the last week. Right. But I even think at the beginning of the last week, Simon Yates did some attacks when he was in pink, which were completely unnecessary. I think even. I mean, I think he even. I don't know if he won it, but the stage two zone colon. He did a big attack, was out there for a long time and then, you know, took some time on. Who was it? Was it. Who did he lose to? No, who did he lose the Giro to?

Johan Bernille (19:03)

Oh, overall.

Spencer Martin (19:04)

Yeah.

Johan Bernille (19:05)

Christopher Froome.

Spencer Martin (19:07)

Was it from. Yeah, that.

Johan Bernille (19:09)

Because from one on the Zonkalon, he. He dropped Yates by six seconds. And you think, well, it doesn't matter because Froome is three minutes back.

Spencer Martin (19:16)

Yeah.

Johan Bernille (19:16)

But then the, the. I. I watched this on the. I had a plane delay last night, so.

Spencer Martin (19:21)

Because I was in the lead when. When was in the lead. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Johan Bernille (19:27)

And the cracks formed on stage 19. And then it's stage 22. No, sorry. Stage 18 and then stage 20 at the Finestra.

Spencer Martin (19:34)

Yeah.

Johan Bernille (19:35)

Where he blows up. But if you think about, like, let's just build a logic tree for Primus Raglage, save your energy, because the third week is hard. Isaac Del Toro is really strong. He's so strong, in fact, it actually doesn't make sense to contest any of these sprints against him, because if Del Toro is this strong the whole race, it doesn't matter. You're not going to pull that back anyway. So you might as well just go all in on the third week strategy and save all the energy you can, because if Del Toro doesn't get weaker, it doesn't matter if you, like, get a few time bonuses, because he's just going to hold you off anyway.

Spencer Martin (20:09)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. At this point, a guy like Roglic, he has no other option, you know, that's his only chance. And he has done it in the past. He's, you know, he's come back from, from behind in the last week. You know, for the moment, I have to say, except the time trial, he did a really good time trial. Roglich of all the GC guys. But other than that, he has not impressed me. You know, he's been good, but he's not been impressive. I've seen out there somebody who gives his opinion on social media and has this theory that, that Roglic is here to train for the Tour. That's, that's, that's.

Johan Bernille (21:02)

Wouldn't there be much better ways to train for the Tour de France?

Spencer Martin (21:06)

I mean, you can, you can listen, you could try to save yourself as much as possible and then still go full gas in the last week and then still go for the Tour. But he's not here for training. He's here to win. That's. That's for sure. But. But yeah, I mean, another thing, another thing, Spencer, I don't know if you noticed, you know, there's little details you can see. So obviously Del Toro, great, great position for the, for the final climb, finishes third. The best of the GC guys takes time plus bonus. So good day for him. Right then the other two favorites are USO and Primos were both badly positioned, which is already not a good sign because normally, you know, if you're strong, you should be well positioned. I also just has to stay at the wheel of, of Del Toro because he has has teammates keeping them in the front. Primos maybe not so much, but I could see there's. There's a little improvement in some of the Red Bull guys. I saw Danny Martinez a little bit better. Perizari was there, Alioti was there. So there's a slight improvement. So we'll see what it gives in the last week. But both of them were not good, well positioned. Primos fights his way up slalom, strugg ice and finishes where they finished fifth or sixth. Sixth. No finish in six.

Unknown Sponsor (22:41)

Right behind.

Johan Bernille (22:42)

God, yeah. So good recovery.

Spencer Martin (22:45)

Yeah. Sixth. Ayusu, on the contrary, was positioned two places, two positions in front of Primos, but instead goes backwards. That's because you're on the limit. It does happen sometimes on climbs, on explosive climbs like this that you know, you feel okay and then all of a sudden you know you have to give it all and your legs are blocked, but it's not. Today was not a good sign for. Are you. So even if he got the bonification, he got four seconds right.

Johan Bernille (23:19)

Which Maybe he shouldn't have if he was. Was hurt. But then he got gapped off his own teammate on the final climb, so should he have saved that energy?

Spencer Martin (23:28)

Those. I. I think that. Those. Those. That bonus sprint was more a way of positioning. The UAE was leading it out anyway, so they were. They were second and third, and. And so then they. They just, you know, pass their own teammate. But. But I also passed Del Toro, and.

Johan Bernille (23:51)

We should know that he had stitches in his knee.

Spencer Martin (23:54)

Yeah, he's not. Yeah, that's. That's one of the things. So he. He got stitches after the gravel stage, it got a bit better, but then he said that after the time trial, it got a bit worse again, that the stitches opened again. Uh, it's hard to recover from this, you know, in a. In a. In a. In a Grand Tour, in a stage race, especially in the. On the knee, it's bending all the time. So, yeah, it's definitely not an advantage. It's. It's. You know, it needs to heal. Hopefully it doesn't get infected. You never know. Normally you should stay quiet for a week with this. Right. But they have to keep pedaling.

Johan Bernille (24:35)

Yeah.

Spencer Martin (24:35)

So that's obviously having an impact on his performance. It affects everything. Your. Your recovery, your. Your sleep. You know, your body needs to spend energy focusing on recovering that part of your body, so that's obviously energy you can't use for pure recovery. So, yeah, that could be one of the reasons why he's a bit on and off in certain stages. But still, you know, he is. He is second in gc and he remains one of the big favorites.

Johan Bernille (25:07)

Well, we didn't even mention the big thing of the day. He got dropped mid stage when Ineos.

Spencer Martin (25:14)

Yeah.

Johan Bernille (25:14)

The pace up, and he's the one missing.

Spencer Martin (25:16)

I think dropped is a big word. He was. He was not in great position. He was probably on the limit, and then, you know, there was a gap. Couldn't. Couldn't close the gap and. And then had to rely on. On others teammate, I guess. Was it Micah who closed the gap?

Johan Bernille (25:34)

Yeah, I think so. Have you noticed this uae? Someone told me it's to hedge their bets, but they ride, like, not together in the peloton. They ride, like, scattered around. So it'd be like Del Toro is perfectly positioned, but then they're not all together. So then I. USO is just on the wrong side of that split. But you think. I mean, I don't know, maybe that's.

Spencer Martin (25:54)

Hedge their bets in case of crashes.

Johan Bernille (25:56)

Yeah, I remember, like, omi op, like Took down the whole VISA team. Yeah. So if there's another OMI op situation, they don't all go down. But here's my big question for you, Johan, before we move on. Why is anyos doing these attacks? Yeah, where are they going? I don't fully. It's fun to watch. I don't really get it.

Spencer Martin (26:13)

Yeah, well, it was obviously at the request of Bernal. Bernal feels good. He does feel good. You know, he didn't. I mean, he lost time in the time trial and, and got dropped from, from Del Toro on the gravel stage after, you know, doing a lot of work, of course. But he does feel good. Yeah. An attack like this doesn't really bring you anything, you know, you're not gonna go anywhere. I don't know, maybe he, I don't know, maybe he thought Ayuso was in trouble or he. They mean they see things we don't see. Of course, you know, they're next to each other, they hear them breathe. So I don't know what he was thinking, but it was way too far. He should save himself. I mean, listen, his terrain has to come. It's. It's the last five stages. Right.

Johan Bernille (27:04)

I'm sure you, you've ridden in this area. Like when you're not on climbs, it is pancake flat. So it's like INEOS would then have to be rotating through and holding off a chasing Ayuso. That seems a little hard to listen.

Spencer Martin (27:19)

Against, against this UAE team with Del Toro. And I also, if you attack with 50k to go, you. There's nowhere to go. You're not going to get anywhere. You're going to get reeled in. So, yeah, it was a bit of a. I mean, it was nice to see. It was, it was chaos in the peloton. There was bodies everywhere. But ultimately everything comes back together. That's a bullet you wasted for nothing.

Johan Bernille (27:44)

You know, I wonder if like Marvin like slipped a 50 in the, in the window of the team car. Like, thanks, guys. You made it exciting. People like the course now and it was exciting.

Spencer Martin (27:54)

Like, it's funny, it brings me, it brings me back. Back. There's, you know, it's a very long time ago, but there was like back in the days at the, like, I think it was late 80, probably 88 or 89. 89. I was on a small team and we were able. We were invited to do the tour of Switzerland, which was a huge race for us. Back 10 days. Then it was 10 days race and there was this race director, his name was Set Vugli, Swiss guy, very authoritarian. You know, like big guy. He was in a big Mercedes, open roof, standing up, standing up, you know, like waving. And he had this habit of, you know, like the invited teams, they got money to attack. And then when the breakaway went. Then. And this. I'm not kidding that when the breakaway went and. And there was the. Sometimes there were situations where the peloton wouldn't make it back. Then he went with the big car in front of the peloton and drafted the peloton to make it back. So those things have happened in the past.

Johan Bernille (29:06)

Just light race fixing, match fixing. When I hear people complain about wild cards not attacking, they're just waiting for that cash payment. Oh, it's not that hard. All right, just give them some money. Well, Johan, let's take a quick commercial break or quick ad break and then we'll predict stage 14, everybody.

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Johan Bernille (32:42)

All right, so tomorrow's stage 14, or today, whichever day you're listening to. It starts in Treviso, in the Veneto, rips right through Friuli. We have a few climbs at the finish because they're on the border of Slovenia. Actually. It starts to get a little bit more mountainous and then we have a finishing circuit in Nova Gorcia. I don't know how you would say that in Slovenian, but it's kind of a tight, technical city circuit. It's 195 kilometer long stage and even though we're going to Primoz Ragli's homeland, I do not think he'll be contesting this stage. I'll list off the favorites on Unibet and get your take on who's going to win. Olaf Coy, likely sprint stage favorite. Plus 175. Kaden Groves. Plus 375. Mads Pedersen. Plus 400. Wout Bernard. Plus 1000. Casper van Uden. Plus 1400. Paul Monnier. Plus 2000. Isaac del Toro. Plus 3300. I don't know if I see that. Matthias Vatsack. Plus 3300. Milan Freton Plus 3300. Sam Bennett. Plus 3300. Ben Turner. Plus 4000. Corbin Strong Plus 6600. That goes on and on. But how do you think this is going to play out and who do you think is going to win?

Spencer Martin (33:52)

Definitely Bunch print Spencer. Technical circuit at the end. Two times 13 kilometers, little climb cut four, but, you know, not for these guys. It should not be a problem. I'm going to follow the books and predict Olaf Koi, especially with the confidence of yesterday. A great Walt von Art to lead him out. Great team. They have Afini, who's super strong. Yeah. Even at plus 175. All off. Coy for the win. For me, it's hard.

Johan Bernille (34:29)

It's hard to. To argue with that. I'm gonna go just because you picked Coy and I want to swing all the way the other way. So coy's plus 175. Casper van un. I don't really get this plus 1400. Like, he was quite good yesterday.

Unknown Sponsor (34:45)

He would be my pick.

Johan Bernille (34:46)

Obviously, I'm. I'm conceding that Koi will probably win, but van hooden at + 1400, that's a. An interesting option. Also, did you know they're the same age? Coy is only 23 years old. That is shocking how.

Spencer Martin (34:58)

How they have these two. I heard an interview of. Of Koi after von Uten's win, and they know each other very well. They. They were racing in juniors together already, so they. They know each other since a very long time.

Johan Bernille (35:11)

And we were talking about how, like, really good cyclists actually sometimes are. They don't. They're very. I don't know how to phrase this. They might not be the best at, like, understanding the mentality of the normal writer because they're so good. But Lance Armstrong once told me, he's like, when it. When your countryman starts doing well, you start doing well because you see that guy doing well and you want to be better. And it's like, well, I think if you're not as talented. That actually gets more complicated than that. But I'm going to invoke that logic right here. Van Uber Uden is gonna, he saw Coy win and he now they have this rivalry between them. I think actually he could do quite well tomorrow. He's still plus 350 for the podium, which seems like a really good price.

Spencer Martin (35:49)

Yeah, yeah, no, listen, he showed the other day. He won a stage already. Then the other day he almost got it, did a great sprint started. I mean, I'm not gonna say too early, you know, it's difficult to win against Koi. I think he did the right thing.

Johan Bernille (36:03)

Yeah.

Spencer Martin (36:04)

Tomorrow is definitely a stage for him. So yeah, I, I, I like that.

Unknown Sponsor (36:08)

Choice when he shows he's not afraid.

Johan Bernille (36:11)

Right. It's like, yeah, a lot of guys are they sprint afraid. It's just like, I'm gonna go, no.

Spencer Martin (36:16)

He believes in his own power and his own possibilities. Yeah, for sure, for sure. My second choice is going to be Kaden Grove. Spencer. I think Kaden Groves gets better through a grand tour. I was, I was surprised to see him up there today until very, very long he actually thought he had a chance was the least the lead out was, was impressive by his team and especially Blancart. He did an amazing job. He didn't, he didn't notice or hear that Caden Droves Groves got gradually dropped and he was in the lead I think until 400 meters to go. But game Groves, I'm gonna pick him because he has a great lead out train, probably with Visma, probably one of the best lead out trains. And there's some guys on this team who are here only for this. It looks to me like they're missing that, that last guy with, with big speed. But still in this 0peloton I think Alpecin is gonna bring Kaden Groves in a great position and he has a good chance because he has shown already some incredible speed.

Johan Bernille (37:30)

Actually when you start to think about who has the speed to come around because a lot of guys have the speed to be there, like Ben Turner. But like who has the speed to come around and win, it probably is Coy, Groves, Van Uden. It's hard to find a fourth one. Yeah, I, I mean just even look in this list you'd say Paul Monier maybe. But what is he really, has he shown us at this year that he has the strength two, two and a half weeks in?

Spencer Martin (37:54)

That's the thing, you know, it's, he's young, isn't obviously not fresh anymore because if you're that young. I mean, listen, Koi and Vadudin are young too, but it, it's, it looks to me like they have more racing in the legs already. But yeah, Paul Magnier, listen, he's fast. He's fast. Why not? Why not?

Johan Bernille (38:20)

Well, how would you rate many A vs. Milan Fritton? The only problem with Balan is he shown us that he can get around anybody at this zero.

Spencer Martin (38:30)

Yeah, he's been up there. You know, he's had a good season so far. I'd probably go for Milan.

Johan Bernille (38:42)

Just even mathematically too. Looking at this list, it's like he's plus 3300. He's below Vodsek and equal with Bennett, which seems a little incongruent with what we've actually seen on the road. Like I would rate him one of the top four favorites for the stage, but he's buried down the list. So I would pick him just because of that, because of his office.

Spencer Martin (39:01)

Okay.

Johan Bernille (39:02)

And before we go, this is not the only world, I guess like world class level race happening in Slovenia this weekend because there is a mountain bike race race in Novo Mesto, World Cup, Novomesto.

Spencer Martin (39:14)

Yeah. And we will see the reappearance of a certain Matthew Vanderpool who I've been told is in really good shape. I mean, I've seen some little videos. Man, that guy is unbelievable. Technically. It's crazy how you can be one of the best riders in the world on the road and then just jump into mountain biking and, and this is a technical course. There's you know, descent with lots of rocks. The way he flies over those, those rocks is crazy. That guy can do anything on a bike. So curious to see, you know, he's getting in the middle of the season into the circuit, the mountain bike circuit, we all know. And he has told publicly that his dream is to become world champion mountain bike, which is a big goal of him. For the rest of the season he's going to do the Tour de France as his training camp. I guess.

Johan Bernille (40:13)

That's absurd by the way. Don't no one else. I bothers me so much that he uses the Tour to train.

Spencer Martin (40:23)

But, but, but yeah, I mean, no, he's not. I mean obviously he's a professional that he's gonna, he's gonna try to win a stage. He's gonna do lead outs for Philipson as usual. So. But yeah, also in Slovenia, I think tomorrow is the short, short race and then on Sunday it's the, it's the big race, I guess yeah.

Johan Bernille (40:43)

On Max in the US I believe both. Both are on Max. I'm not getting paid by Max to plug that.

Spencer Martin (40:49)

Yeah, interesting.

Johan Bernille (40:51)

I mean this whole thing is ridiculous. He's raised only 12 days so far and then he's already switching to mountain bike. But he basically won every race except for Flanders that he wanted to win. And I actually don't hate it because the world is such a goofy Worlds. He's not going to win. He's not going to even compete at Worlds because it's so climb heavy.

Spencer Martin (41:11)

Yeah.

Johan Bernille (41:12)

I can't road worlds. So it kind of makes sense actually that this would be. If you want to go for World Mountain Bike, this is the year to do it.

Spencer Martin (41:19)

The problem Matthew has is obviously that, you know, compared to he's a road racer. He's paid a lot of money by, by Alpacin. Also by Canyon. For Canyon. Obviously it's great because you know, he's multi disciplinary rider so it's great for them. But you know his team pays him a big contract to race on the road. Right. So it's not ideal compared to the real specialists, mountain bikers. But I'm sure he has it figured out of how he gets, how he's going to get ready for, for the mountain bike worlds.

Johan Bernille (41:55)

Well, like in, in this week in Rude Hooves. That's like one of the impressive things about what they've done with that team is it's like they're not, it's not like, well, Vanderpoel's not going to be fully focused on the Tour. So we have nothing. It's like they have all these other riders.

Spencer Martin (42:07)

Yeah.

Johan Bernille (42:07)

They can contest stages. So yeah, it's really impressive what they've done there.

Spencer Martin (42:11)

Yeah. Plus they have a full off road program, both men and women, cyclocross and also a mountain bike because Peterson is also one of the. I mean she's actually, I mean she won the Bastonia. She won the Bastoniers. No, she won. No, she won Flesh. Well, I'm sorry.

Johan Bernille (42:34)

Yeah, yeah.

Spencer Martin (42:35)

Baston Liege was the girl from Mauritius.

Johan Bernille (42:39)

La Court, I believe.

Spencer Martin (42:41)

Yeah. But anyway, Puck Petersen has been in front in all the, all the big races on the road. Now she's also switching to mountain bike. I saw a video of her. She's really interesting to follow on social media. She does these recons, she films everything. And today she recount the course together with Matthew van der Poel. They're on the same team. They're both on Alpecin. I. Yeah.

Johan Bernille (43:03)

I mean clearly to go back to where we started. It helped Del Toro today positioning so it's not like they're wasting their time. And it's like Puck is probably help. Like I saw Puck Peterson doing like 40 second wheelies on climbs on a training ride like holding it for 40 seconds.

Spencer Martin (43:18)

So she's, she is, she is better than I would say 80% of the professionals. Men on a bike in terms of skills is unbelievable, which does help you.

Johan Bernille (43:31)

So I guess it's, it's nice that they have. Yeah, both, both programs. Well, Johan, anything else on stage 14 or the world Cup?

Spencer Martin (43:40)

Watch, watch the bunch print tomorrow and let's see what Matthew Vanderpool does on his mountain bike.

Johan Bernille (43:47)

Yeah, no, it's actually perfect. They've not done the most exciting weekend at the zero, but it lets us watch both races before we buckle down there next week for the insane third week.

Spencer Martin (43:56)

Okay, well thanks Johan.

Johan Bernille (43:58)

We'll talk tomorrow.