THEMOVE - Did Blockhaus Provide More Questions Than Answers?| Giro d'Italia 2026 | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down the Giro's first major GC showdown, the Blockhaus summit finish, and discuss what Jonas Vingegaard's win and the surprisingly small gap over second-place Felix Gall mean for the future of the overall classification at this race. They go through what the stage told us about each top contender, then preview tomorrow's Stage 8, which features a tricky transition with a tough uphill finish. Listen in to see what the duo thinks of the stage, how the action will play out tomorrow, who will come out on top, and which riders present the best betting value. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Rugiet Ready: Over one hundred fifty thousand men have already made the switch to Rugiet. Getting started is simple. Rugiet connects you with a board-certified doctor online and your treatment gets shipped discreetly to your door. For a limited time only, head to https://Rugiet.com/THEMOVE to get 15% off your order.  

Other than Felix Gall being 13 seconds back, Jonas Vindegarde winning his first career at a Trio to Tally stage, getting the sweep of stage wins in the Valta tour in the Jiro. The big story is Jai Henley, beating his teammate. Pellazari getting fourth 105 back, probably a little too eager to follow. But Johan, what was your takeaway of today's stage? Well, Spencer, you said it all perfectly.

I think the takeaway, I mean, we were expecting a victory, stage victory of Jonas Fingerguard today. That happened. He attacked more or less where it was to be expected on the hardest part of the climb. For me, what really stands out is the performance of Felix Gall. It's probably not going to matter in the end, but for me, it's nice to see that after the first big mountain top finish and a really hard climb, the race is not over. The race is not, you know, let's not decide it. Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus. I'm Spencer Martin.

I'm here with Johann Bernal. We are breaking down stage seven of the Giro Detalia, a monster, 244 kilometer long stage, Toblockhouse, won by, you guessed it, Jonas Findergarde. Roodle Summit finished 13 kilometers long, 8.5% average. Vindigard sets the climbing record, beats Narikantana's time, I believe, by over a minute. Felix Gall surprisingly comes in second, 13 seconds back. Jay Hindley, a minute and two seconds back and third, Julio Palazari as

Red Bull teammate in 105, Ben Connor with them. Matthias Rondell, the French writer on Tudor at 129. Julio Chocone, confusingly in seventh, we'll talk about why is he going for G.C. when tomorrow's a perfect breakaway stage for him at 140.

Just to give people a quick primer of what happened before Johan and I break it down. The stage starts, it's extremely long. It took them six hours, and I was surprised that It only took that. I thought it would take longer. But a breakaway go is pretty much uncontested with Jonathan Milan,

trying to pick up intermediate sprint points. Nicholas Zucowski on Q36.5. Jardy Christian Vanderli on EF. Tim Nabriman on Picnic Post, Enel, Diego Pablo Sevia, on Pulte Visit Malta. They get up the road. They get a gap of around six minutes. Bahrain and Visma are controlling the gap.

Bahrain, they have the racely, but I was surprised at how eager they were to control it. especially since no one in the breakaway was threatening their leaders jersey. The gap by the time they get to the base of the climb is down to 238. They quit. Red Bull goes to the front, not Visima. So right there, kind of interesting, strange. Red Bull's on the front for four-ish kilometers.

Victor Campanards from Visima's dropped key support rider. That's interesting. Davide Piganzoli from Visma takes over with 9K to go. Paganzoli, he pulls for three kilometers. Pretty impressive. And then we have Sepkus who pulls for about 900 meters. Jonas Vindigard attacks with 5.4 kilometers to go, followed by Pellizari and Felix Gahl. Phyllis Gull drops back, is dropped, unclear about a couple hundred meters later.

Pellizari follows him. Gahl, a kilometer after Vindigard's attack, is 17 seconds back. A kilometer later, he's 25 seconds back from Vindigard, but Pellizari has been dropped. Gull sprints by Pellizari, pretty savvy move from him. and then in the last 4K kind of an unusual thing we saw Jonas Vindigard continues to press on but is losing time

to the chasing Gaul so by the time he finishes he is 13 seconds in front of Felix Gall who is right like right behind him like he can see him right there meaning Vindigard lost 12 seconds in the last 4 kilometers to the Austrian rider I would say the big other than Felix Gaul being

13 seconds back Jonas Vindigard winning his first career at Giro to Talia stage getting the sweep of stage wins in the Welta tour in the zero. The big story is Jai Henley beating his teammate. Pelazari getting fourth 105 back, probably a little too eager to follow. But Johan, what was your takeaway of today's stage?

Well, Spencer, you said it all perfectly. I think the takeaway, I mean, we were expecting a victory, stage victory of Jonas Wingergaard today that happened. He attacked more or less where it was to be expected on the hardest part of the climb. For me, what really stands out is the performance of Felix Gall. You know, it's not going to, it's probably not going to matter in the end. But for me, it's nice to see that after the first big mountain top finish and a really hard climb,

the race is not over. The race is not, you know, let's not decide it. Although it might be decided, but, you know, Felix Gall is in the game, you know. I think it's very, very promising that he took his own pace. made up some time against Jonas. To me, that means that either Jonas was stagnating a little bit or both. FedEx Gal is in amazing shape. I think it's both.

Great performance from Felix Gall to be up there and to be coming back on, you know, the second best stage racer in the world. That's pretty impressive. And so, yeah, to me, Gull's performance was really the fact of the day. You could say, well, you know, the race is still open. I don't think so because Gull is not a good time trial. He may lose. What is it, 41 kilometers, 42 kilometers, the time trial?

Bad luck for Phyllis Gull that they decided randomly to throw like an old school time trial in this race. That's, you know, conservatively that may be. two minutes, right? For Felix Gall against Jonas. But still, the race is not over. You know, in other circumstances, we could say, well, Jonas just blows everybody away and wins this with two and a half minutes on the second rider, which could have been a possibility.

But, and even Pellizari, you know, Pilidzari, he, I think he made the mistake of trying to follow Jonas. He actually admitted that afterwards in his interview also, that that was a mistake. He learned from that. He's now going to focus on the podium, which may make it interesting. The fact is that I think from now on probably Gall is going to try to follow Jonas with newfound motivation to be so close. But yeah, it's still open, it's still tight. If you look at the GC,

what is, what is, what is, what, 13 seconds separated from Fredik Scal, no, in the GC? Slightly more, right, because of the time, 17 seconds, because he got the bonus differential. Well, listen, after the first mountain stage, if, if the second real GC rider is only 17 seconds down, that's a win for everybody, is for the fans, especially. And yeah, I like that.

I like that. Super hard mountain stage, by the way. We also should mention Afonzo Ullario, our race leader, retained as racely by three minutes and 17 seconds, getting dangerously close to defending in that stage in time trial. Who knows? He could hold them off by three minutes. You said that a couple, couple things to catch up on here. So with 4K to go, the chase group was 52 seconds back. So no, no, sorry, 57 seconds back.

So that's like Henley and Pelazari. We're not really Pelazari. Henley and others, it would later become Henley and Pelisari and who else was with them, Ben O'Connor. And then at the finish, Henley is 102 down. Pelisari's 105 down. O'Connor's 105 down. So that would tell you that Vindigard was not pulling out a ton of time against them over the last 4K

as Phyllis Gull was pulling him back. Phyllis Gull, I don't want to spoil this race for anyone. he's probably not going to win the race, right, against Jonas Finnegard. But today was a big, you said it didn't matter, but it matters for the podium because he gets time on Henley, Pelazari, O'Connor. All those guys, maybe except Jai Henley are a better time trial than him. But now he's in the mix. Like, this guy could finish second or third overall if you can get through that time trial.

So it was a big step for him in terms of finishing top three, which what do you always say? Like, let's not talk about stages. Let's talk about stage. Like, if you want to win a grand tour, let's not. talk about the podium first. So I think that would be a big step for Felix Gall. Yeah. Yeah. He's never finished. He's finished fifth in the tour, right? Fifth or fourth? Yeah, fifth. Fifth last year in the tour. Very good ride. So, you know, it's kind of, you know, logical that he should be considered, you know, a podium candidate. If you look, I mean,

Belizari has never been on the podium of a grand tour. I mean, he's young, of course. Who else is up there? Come on, Pelazari. You're a bum. Never finished on a podium? It's only his third year pro. And he did finish top six twice and two grand tours last year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But so, yeah. I mean, I think, I think, and then we, I'm curious to see Jay Hindley, how he's going to be involved. I thought that was super interesting. Hindley is, his writer, you know, he's, he comes into a grand tour. It doesn't make much noise, but, hey, first big appointment. he's there, you know? So I think they're both probably on equal grounds now, Pilitzer and Jay Hindley in terms of their chances for the podium,

although Red Bull may and will probably back Pilzari rather than Hindley because, first of all, he's in Italian, he's young, he was the designated leader, and then also have seen rumors that Jay Hindley may be on his way out in Red Bull to another team. I think that's probably for the best. I mean, it's a little too crowded over there. Looks like Vizma is in pole position. That would make a lot of sense, actually.

Replacing Simon Yates. Yeah, and then open the zero. That's how it works. It's perfect. I mean, I felt like Visma kind of missed Simon Yates today. I think they got a little lucky with Red Bull leads into the climb, polls for the first 4, 5K of the climb, and then Vizma.

Kampan Arts has dropped while Red Bull's pulling probably to do with his breakaway and one of the hardest stages anyone's ever raced two days ago still unclear to me why they did that and then Paganzoli does a very good turn of work for them like he he kind of bales them out because he pulls for 3k basically so he Gonzoli is going to be the key writer I think for Jonas so if you look obviously sepkus is you know he has the this the pedigree of the ultimate teammate in the mountains and he was the last man to lead out Jonas. But Paganzoli, if you look what he did already on stage two for Jonas on that shorter climb, he was the only guy and he was super strong. This guy looks like he's in really, really good shape. This guy comes from Pulte. Yeah, what a pickup in the off season.

Yeah, it comes from Pulte. Yeah. Last year. Yeah, really good rider, really good rider. Why did he, so this is a thing Vizma does. He pulls off with, what did I say, 6K to go, 6.3K to go. And he's fighting hard. Middle of the goods gets pushed out of the way by Felix calls the Cathlon teammate.

Finishes the stage in 16th, two minutes, 55 seconds down with the pink jersey, with Egan Bernal. Sep Kus. Sepp Kuz kind of always does this. He finishes two seconds later. Why is Visima doing this? Yeah, well, Dave, it's not the first time, Spencer. We've talked about this in the tour already. You know, they just, you know, the guys who were doing the work in the mountains, they keep,

going. You know, they don't, they never sit up. No. I don't know, man. I'm not a fan of this. Is it to be able to use them, you know, to keep them close enough that when a big group goes, they can put them in big groups and they're a threat for GC? I mean, listen, if you have a leader and, you know, the number one and only favorite

to win this race like Jonas Wingergaard, you don't need to do that. You just, you need to have confidence in the strength of your team and know that you're going to be able to control, you know, basically the whole Giro. It costs energy. And, you know, we also see at Visma sometimes that, you know, the guys who have to be there logically are not always there, you know, but they kind of switch. You know, when one guy is not good enough, then another guy comes in. It has a great day.

But it's, yeah, it's strange to see that they let these guys. I don't know if they allow them. if they actually tell them. I'm going to guess it's the second. It's an instruction. An instruction, you know, to, okay,

you have to keep going. You have to keep going. Why? I have never, until now, I have never seen a situation in the tour or in the Giro or in another stage race. In smaller stage races, maybe,

you can say maybe, you know, because the difference is smaller. But in a big, a big tour, I've never seen a situation where Visma actually could play, play that card where they could take advantage of the fact that they had one guy decently placed in the GC and could use that situation having that person in a

breakaway and put pressure on the other teams. I don't know. I mean, listen, FP Gonzoli is, you always have to think, you know, okay, if you're number two or number three, you're number four in, in, it actually, it did happen. once. Seppkuz won the Vuelta like this. So is it since then that they're doing this? Is it since

then that they said, okay, let's try this? You never know. But, you know, like Paganzoli, if he keeps going, I don't know where he is now in G.C., but let's say he's five minutes down or six minutes down.

He's down for a reason. He's not up with the first guys for a reason because he is not of that quality yet. I mean, the guys can still improve because he's a young writer, no? But yeah, I'm not a fan of this tactics.

I think you should, you know, especially if it's a three-week stage race, you have to manage the energy and the strength of every teammate. And when their job is done, it's job done. And that's, okay, then it's everything on reserve. try to, you know, spend as less possible energy and make it safely to the finish. That's, in my opinion, still the best formula to keep your team together and have your guys

recovered every day you need them. Is it possible they're doing it in case Jonas has a mechanical and they have people close to them? It would be the only thing I can think of. That's, listen, that's not, you know, it's not, it's not, it's not. Yeah, I've not taught them. It would actually be, if you think about the like, that would actually be more useful probably than there's a scenario where Pagan Soli, it only gets in a breakaway. And the problem with, yeah, I mean, it could.

You're right. It happened with SEP Kuz, but you start to get into magical thinking territory. You're like, so he's in a breakaway with no other GSI rider and then holds everyone off to win the G.C. You don't see that so often, probably. No, yeah. No. Let's talk about Jonas's attack. So I counted one time where he left the saddle.

He was completely, he was seated the entire time he was attacking. And we know he must have been going hard because he was, they distanced this group so fast. Like we said, Gaul loses all his time basically in the first K of the, he is something like 19 seconds down in the first kilometer of the attack. He pulls back 12 seconds on Jonas in the last 4K. So we know he's going fast when he's seated.

He stands up with 4.6K to go. And that is when I clock Pelop. as are he cracking. So maybe he stood up to crack him. His power, I've estimated, this is even a little conservative, 385 watts for 38 minutes, 26 seconds. I knocked a little bit off because it just looked high to be. But Derek G, we have his power in front of us as real power. He did 40 minutes on the climb 433 watts, 6.1 watts per kilo. We have Vinegard at 6.5 watts per kilo for almost 40 minutes. That is, that's like a Tour de France level climbing performance. So we know he was good. It's not like he's struggling here.

So that makes it even more impressive that Gall pulled it back. But what do you make? I have a lot of people riding me with theories about the seated phenomenon we've been seen. But what do you think about this? I mean, I wouldn't look too deep into it. I mean, it's probably they tested this. It's his most efficient way, especially on longer climbs. On shorter climbs, you can, you know, I think you can get out of the saddle.

and not pay for it. But, you know, I mean, if you get out of the saddle, your power goes up dramatically for a very short period of time. And I think they've discovered or calculated that, you know, staying seated, you can distribute your power more evenly, and especially for, you know, a 30, 40 minute effort. You know, a lot of people say, yeah, you know, Pugachar does it. Now, Wingerard does it.

It's the new trend. I think it depends. from rider to rider. I think Jonas is a typical, I mean, before already, he was not often out of the saddle. Is it because we focus on it now? I don't know.

I feel like him in Pagachar. You used to see them. Jonas, like, you know, he had this vision in your head of him when he was winning tours. It'd be out of the saddle. Do you think it has to do with the shorter cranks? I mean, someone's similar to theory that if you have a really short cranks,

it can mess you up to stand up? And also, I mean, listen, if you have shorter cranks, you can maintain your cadence easier than you have a long of time. I don't know. What is the oldest now? Is it mean, because I mean, there's, we know Pugacchar is 165, right? So I've seen last year, I seem to remember that at some point he was on 155 and then went back to 160 or 165. What's he writing now? 155 seems extremely short to me.

Seems very short. I would want to go to a race and measure this. Yeah, which. But I think, I think, you know, the shorter cranks do allow you to stay seated and maintain your cadence more comfortably than if you have longer cranks. But also, I mean, Spencer, it's not that. I mean, it's, listen, it's more efficient. That's for sure. They've done the tests.

They know the science behind it, right? But it's not that big of a difference. You know, 165 or 170. It's five, you know, it's half a centimeter. But if you've gone down from, let's say, 170 to 150. 55 that's 1.5 centimeters. Is that right in the metric system, something like that? And imagine if you like raised your seat 1.5 centimeters, you know, it would feel drastically

different. So yeah, but that's not the same. You could like, if you're standing up, it's like changing the center of your gravity quite a bit. It makes me wonder about short cranks and sprints, actually, the more you think about it. But whatever he's doing, he's putting out a lot of power. It's working. It does drive me crazy at times with gall. I was like, just stand up.

Like, let's go anaerobic. man. You could catch a golf cadence is amazing. He was rising like the smallest gear he had the whole time and just flying out. He's not the example of what biomechanically looks, you know, correct. But for his,

for him it works. You know, he's not aerodynamic at all ever. You know, he pedals with his knees out and but you know, he goes fast of those climbs, but it works for him. And he's very, steady, you know, he's very steady.

You know, he doesn't have any ups and downs. It's, he's incredibly steady. And so, I just have a list here. You tell me what you think, right or wrong. Very simple. Good, medium bad days. Good. Jonas Findergarde, probably safe to say he had a good day, right?

Wins his stage. It doesn't take the race lead, which is good, right? Now, he still has Ulario and the race lead still has Bahrain as a friend. That's fantastic. Felix Gall, good day. He gets, he's probably, I feel bad. The guy had probably the best climate performance of his career, really incredible climate performance. And we're saying, oh, he's not going to win the race.

What if he goes on? He could. He could. Maybe he does, but you probably won't. But for the podium, this is big. So good day for him. And then Rondell, Matthias Rondell from Tudor Pro Cycling. I thought that was a very good day for him.

Two days ago went through the back window of the UAE car, by the way. Yeah, which we didn't see, but we saw the broken window. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good climber, man. A young rider, he's been, he's been at some races already, came to the forefront. Yeah, a really good day for him too. I would say Belizari, medium day, you know, we can't say it's a bad day.

You know, he's, yeah, I agree. He's third in the stage, no? Fourth in the stage, right behind him. One minute, one minute down. So it's not a bad day. obviously he expected more but all is not lost definitely not for the podium so good day for j hindley also really good day um all in all not a bad day for red bull i mean i still spencer i mean i still question what they were doing at the bottom of block how it's 13 and a half kilometers and and

And Visma only comes to the front with 8K to go. So that means that the first 5K were, you know, it was Red Bull in command. Was it necessary? Probably not. At the same time, you know, you could also argue, well, you know, we have, we have three riders on the team. And there's nothing else they can do than just ride these five kilometers here at the bottom of the climb. But, you know, normally it would be on Visma to already start using their riders there. And I mean, on the other hand, you could also say, well, you know, if Visma starts straight away,

then maybe Yonos attacks earlier and we lose more time. I think if Jonas would have attacked earlier, probably we could have seen a scenario where Phelix-Gal actually comes in together with Jonas. if Jonah starts his effort earlier. Yeah, or passes him. I don't know. Now, this is in high tide, right? Yeah, but it'd be hard.

Because they were stronger, they're quite a bit stronger than Vizma to start at the climb. Let's say they don't pull. Then Vizma's going to have to go to the front, probably, most likely. They're going to burn their riders earlier. Jonas attacks earlier,

but is the attack off a slower pace? Does that give people? Is it easier to follow? I don't know. I just don't, I'm never a big fan of pulling. pulling if you're not, if you do not have the strongest right, if polling at the bottom of a climb when you don't have the strongest climber in the group. I don't.

It's also, also, you know, the first big climb is also also a discovery of how is everybody, right? I mean, how strong are they really? Now, everybody could say, well, you know, we're, you know, Visma's incredibly strong. But you know what? Let's test them. Let's see how strong they really are. Turns out they were maybe not as strong as they thought because they only had P. Gonzoli and Seppcus with Jonas. Yeah, the pushback to what I'm saying, my criticism, the pushback to it is, you're right,

sometimes you want to test them because you don't know, because I think it was, I want to say, the 2017 tour to France, the Paragu Summit finish. They let Team Skyride the front. They let Christopher sit there. And then Roman Bardea attacks at the end and Christopher explodes. And you're like, well, maybe someone should have tested them earlier. You would have found that out. So there is something to be said for that.

And they did find out that maybe Vizma is not quite as strong. If Vizma has to defend the jersey through the third week, I would, like, I'm not full of confidence in them after the stage. Am I crazy for that? I mean, they're already, they're also, they're one man down. Let's not forget that. And it was a super important writer, by the way. Calderman would have been probably the fourth guy in, you know,

because they have Timokilich, they have Campanarts. Who else do they have? I don't know. I don't know. Tim Rex. So, yeah. They, normally they would have had Kelderman, right? Who would be there just before Piganzoli.

Um, I think they're strong enough. Yeah. I mean, Pekanzoli was impressive today. I got, that guy really impressed me. That's just, yeah. I just can't get over that pickup, you know. I would imagine he was quite available. If you're on Pulte visit Malta, you probably would go to a lot of teams and they signed them.

Well, they picked up two Italians, who everybody said, you know, this is a surprise. The other guy just wanted to raise. Fiorelli. Yeah, the guy who won't throw Broleon, you know. He's like 30 years old from a 31 years old. It comes from Gardiani. So, you know, they must have had information from, I don't know, an Italian writer on Afini, probably on the team. who said, hey, this guy's good.

And then, you know, they must have had data to back it up. And for the moment, these two riders, it's proven that it was a really good pickup, good choice. Shout out, Patrick, bro. Good job. And so to finish, medium, I had Henley, Pelazari, Arnsman, Storer. And then bad, I hate to do this. Enric Moss and Ian Bernal, I would say had bad days. Yeah.

Yeah. I guess we should say good Ulario. We should put him in the good bucket because he defended. Yeah, I mean, listen, I think it was to be expected. I said, you know, two and a half, three minutes turned out to be three minutes to be expected because let's not forget this guy two days ago was he was 240K in the rain in the front. That took a lot of him. We don't recover from that so easily.

He's a good climber. Listen, he's a good climber. he's probably going to have the jersey until maybe after the time trial still there is still another summit finish before the time trial so I guess he could lose a minute on that I don't know though maybe maybe less yeah if he holds it after the time trial it starts to get the story becomes interesting I don't think he would actually hold it until the end of the race but he might hold it until stage 14 almost the second rest day so we can we can take a bet spencer that you know he's never he's not going to hold it till the end of the race

you want to bet on that or no to win the jirinitalia that would be impressive what if they never pulled him back and he's just losing 10 seconds every summit finish I don't think that's I mean even stage 14's not even the hardest day of the race and you look at it looks like a tour to france like serious mountain stage and they're not even at the hard mountains yet so no I don't think he's going to hold on And I was going to mention one of the things. Oh, okay. So Enric Moss, this is not great.

He gets dropped with Egan Bernal. Bernal finishes in the group with Ullario. Not great. 257 back on the stage winner, Jonas Finnegard. And Rick Moss more than five minutes. And Enric Moss was almost six minutes back surrounded by his movie start team. So that's really not good. No.

No. And, you know, they came in with, I mean, I've seen a few interviews. I mean, he did not race a lot. he had this you know this uh physical problem i had a surgery for something i don't remember what it was for the iliatic artery i believe wasn't it i don't know okay i don't think so it was something to do with the veins oh like the varicose veins or something yeah something like that i think uh but but but you know he sounded really really confident that you know everything was in place and he would you know he came in good shape he was going to improve during the

during the Gero, but shows that you never know. You know, I mean, today was obviously not a good day. He looked pretty good until now. It was always up there. The day that John Christen attacked, he was actually the last guy who brought him back. Close the gap. For Luis Ola. So, you know, I mean, shows that, you know, a writer like Enric Moss was a climber.

when he's up there in finals of those kind of stages, he's probably in good shape, you know? But today, man, there was no hiding. This, you know, it was, if you don't have it, you don't have it. Eghamer and all the same, you know, I mean, I just saw a little interview from him. He had no explanation, didn't feel good. He said it was too fast when Visma was pulling. And that was it, you know, he had no excuses.

Well, you said that on stage, what was that stage four, that his heart rate was at 190? when he got dropped. It's quite high for, I mean, I don't know if that's a dehydration issue or it almost sounds like AFIB. I don't want to diagnose someone with AFIB, but it's like, I don't know. Yeah, that's not, that's outside of just, ooh, this is hard and I'm getting dropped. That would tell you there's like some sort of hydration thing or his body's not recovered

from the first few stages or travel. But, I mean, today, actually, he was better than stage four. but it's probably not going to be a GC4 so the team's probably all in on our instrument. No, no, this is this is no. I said already on stage four, I said that if this happens now, you know, it doesn't look good for the next next two weeks. First big appointment, you know, blockhouse. It's not, I mean, he didn't really break down. I mean, he's only two, what is he, two minutes, something behind today?

Yeah, he's not. He's not that far behind, well, 247 behind the stage winner, Vinegard. So he was in front of, he was in front of Uraliou. He was, sorry, 257. So he's two seconds behind Ullario. Okay, okay. He's kind of noodle and a line at the back of that group. Yeah, not good.

Aronsmon was okay, I think. You know, Aronsman could limit the damage. But, you know, if we talk about Aronsmann, we're talking about maybe a top five, right? We're not talking about the podium. The only pushback is, I'm even looking now, and maybe he's too far back. How is he as a time trialist compared to Jai Henley, Felix Gall, Ben O'Connor Pelasari? Would we say he's good? Yeah, so that's where it gets interesting.

A lot better, right? A lot better time trialist, yeah. So he could, if he stays. I mean, that's why today was like, you know, maybe lost a little bit more than he wanted to. But if he stays close and then they go into that time trial, they could be a good stage for him. Yeah. But I thought he looked like he was hurting before Jonas attacked, which is not great if you're going for the podium. A Hardensmann always looks, you know, don't get fooled by his style.

You know, he's all over the bike. He never looks like he's comfortable, but, you know, he's a good rider. And then I thought. Let's not forget, this guy won two stages in the tour last year. Yeah, that's pretty impressive. Derek G. West, kind of a good day. Eighth, 142 back, putting out 433 watts for 40 minutes. Not bad.

Yeah, but, you know what, these numbers don't mean, listen, you can push whatever you want that's the result that counts, you know? It's like, okay. But he's another guy. Great numbers, but you're not in the top three of the stage. But he's another guy, though, that the time trial is going to favor him. way more than yeah like potentially he's going to take back more than he lost just today in the time trial on gall hindley o'connor pelazari we'll see but he's probably the best time trial

besides yonis of this gc group don't you think yeah i know how this one yeah yeah so now for the time trial that way to go julya that maybe not a terrible course design but let's take a quick break and then i have i have a question free about julio chaconne and then we're going to preview the next stage because they go hand in hand. Everybody, this episode is brought to you by Ruggiat. Life comes at you fast between work, relationships and everything else on your plate. You want to know you can show up when it counts and that includes the bedroom. If things aren't working out the way they used to, you don't have to accept it.

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Before we preview the stage, which is, let me make sure we get this right. It's a pretty interesting stage, stage 856 kilometers, flat along the coast, slight uphill start to get to the coast, and they can climb out of this little valley therein, flat along the coast for 95 kilometers. And then we have three climbs, right, four, four climbs. One of them, the finish, sorry, five climbs. One of them, a finishing climb, super steep section of it, like 13% for almost a

kilometer with pitches of 22%. Then you go up to the finish and you have a 10% pitch right before the finish. What I'm describing would be perfect for Giulio Chaconne. Instead, he will not be in the breakaway because he is only. he's in fifth place overall. He's a minute, like a little over a minute behind Jonas Finnegard. So he's not going to be in that breakaway. He was great on the day.

He finished seventh on the day, 140 down. Why did he do that? What is going on here? He said in the interview. He's an eight in GC, I think, Spencer. So we both messed that up. Yeah, yeah. He's an eight.

But if you look amongst the favorites, he's maybe in fifth. But yeah, he's too close. to be able to go in a breakaway. Was that going to be your question? Why is he up there in G.C? Well, he said in the interview after the stage that he wasn't here for G.C. Tomorrow would be perfect for him. All these things cannot be true, right?

Because why would he have done this if he's not here for G.C.? Yeah. If he's not here for G.C., then today it was probably not a good idea to hang on. You know, if he loses three, four more minutes today, tomorrow is an ideal. stage. Now the question is, is it going to be a breakaway day tomorrow? We don't know, right? To me, it looks like it's an ideal stage for a breakaway, but maybe the peloton decides differently. Well, do you know who would be a big stake? It's also possible that Julia Chaconin is just a very good guy and wanted to help Derek G. Like, be there for Derek G. Like, I guess we should explore that

possibility. Yeah. But another theory I have is that Little Trek does not want this to be a breakaway day, that they want it to be contested from the peloton so chikone can win. That's also a possibility. Yeah, could be. But, you know, that's ultimately not going to be little trek. Who decides on that. It's going to be Vizma and Bahrain. And Bahrain.

And Bahrain? Who decide on that. Yeah. The Bahrain's the, they control this Peloton. This is their peloton. They were very eager to work. I think maybe we weren't recording yet, but you thought maybe there was a deal struck, with Bahrain and Visma because Bahrain was really helping out all day.

This stage, super interesting. I'm quite curious to watch it. It's not that long, 156 kilometers, so just under 100 miles. And it has these long stretch, 100 kilometers basically, of just flat along the coast. And then it gets into, you know, short, short-ish mountain passes, like 10K long and 4%. It's the first one. then 5K long at 6%. A bonus second, a Red Bull kilometer sprint at the top of a climb that is 11% average.

And then we have these tough climbs up to, it's one of these a Roman hilltop towns, Fermo is where the finish is. Who do you think wins this thing? I still, I mean, like logically it should be an ideal stage for a breakaway. It's very difficult to predict Spencer. It's a wild guess. but if it's a breakaway I'm looking at names like for example Alessandro Pinarello

from NSN he's been in good form this year we haven't seen him yet in this Giro and then Lorenzo Milesi who was a young writer on Movistar and did an impressive performance that day that Movisstar did the selection on that climb

for or Luis Oler. I'm just throwing those two names out there, but it's a wild guess. But I do think that it's an ideal stage for a breakaway with a very hard finish, with a very hard final. So it needs to be a rider who

can, I mean, you need to be the best climber of the breakaway. Yeah, right? So yeah, you got to be, you have to be far enough down in the GC to get into the breakway and then you have to be the best climber from the breakway and you have to get into the breakaway on terrain that's not suited to climbers.

So it's not so easy. So win that. When you think about it like that, I like your picks. I really like Alessandro Penerello. He could win this. I'm going to go Darren Rafferty on EF. EF's going to be in that move.

They've been in every move the last few days, right? So EF's going to be up there. He had an incredible bridge. What was that on stage five? And so I think he's a good enough climber. I think he could win the stage. And then Jean-Marco Garofoli. on Sudol Quick Step, I think he could win too.

Mm-hmm. Okay. What we're doing is we're just picking the top six from stage five, which is not a bad, not bad because that shows you who are the strongest climbers that can go in breakaways. Mm-hmm. And we don't think, obviously Ullario is not going to win. That would be unbelievable if he got in the breakaway gained three more minutes, one stage.

Probably not going to be Thomas Silva, probably not going to be Igor. Areta, right? You don't see a double up. Areta, I mean, you know, UAE probably, they're going to be active tomorrow. A guy who lost quite a bit of time today is, I think, young Kristen. Yep. Did he not lose a lot of time? He got dropped very early on the climb. Let's look where he is. Yeah, he's in 23rd place. Okay. So, you know, Jonathan Nervais. UAE is going to be active tomorrow to get to be in the break, I think.

Nervaius, I think maybe that stresses even his ability. That would be for him to be able to outclim everybody on those climbs. I don't know if I can see that. Short ones. I mean, especially in the final, they're all short ones and steep ones. I think he could do it. The problem with Jan Kristen is he's 750 back. Does he get in the break and then people start freaking out and chasing him?

Probably not, right? Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, there's, listen, after the first mountain stage already now, everybody knows a little bit where they are. There will be people already starting to think that not just about the wind, the podium, the top five, the top ten. Yeah, like two to work. Yeah. Yeah.

So, so in that case, young Kristen would be a threat for some of those people. Well, so I'm, we like our guys. I like your pick of Alessandro Penarello. I think he could win the stage. I think Darren Rafford, he could win the stage. But I also, as I said, I don't think it's impossible that it's not a breakaway day because it's such a difficult. It's not easy breakaway formation terrain. And it could make it really weird.

You could have a breakaway go late after the flat part. And when the climbs begin, we just don't know. And Johan, do you have anything else on today's stage or the preview for tomorrow? That's it, Spencer. That's it. All right. Well, thank you so much. And we'll be back to break down stage eight tomorrow.

Okay, thanks. Okay. Bye. Oh,