THEMOVE - Did the Future of Pro Cycling Just Arrive? | Strade Bianche Breakdown | THEMOVE

Episode Date: March 7, 2026

George Hincapie, Johan Bruyneel, and Spencer Martin break down Saturday's Strade-Bianche, which took the peloton through the rolling hills and white gravel roads of Tuscany, where Tadej Pogačar battled up-and-coming Paul Seixas to take his fourth solo victory in the last five editions of the race. The crew discusses how and why Pogačar can keep successfully repeating the same attack, and whether the battle for the podium showed us how this dynamic could be changing in the near future.  Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Babbel: Here's a special (limited-time) deal for our listeners. Right now, get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription – at https://Babbel.com/THEMOVE  

Let's not make a mistake here. Isaac Del Toro is a killer. And he was on the perfect position behind Paul Seyazas. If he was able to go with Pogachar, he would have gone with Pogachar. It's not like he held back and stayed on Paul's wheel just to make it more tactically difficult. If he had the strength there to go, he would have. I mean, it's just an indication of how much better Pogachar is than anybody else right now or has been for the last several years.

Nobody can touch him. first race of the year. No matter what he does, he can race the Tory UAE like he did last year, come to Strata Bianca and beat everybody. This year, this is his first race of the year. He's just been training up until now. A lot of these guys have all been racing, stage races.

So it's like you think, oh, maybe he hasn't raced yet this year, maybe he'll be a little bit weaker. Nope, doesn't matter. He can just come into the hardest race of the year thus far and just ride everybody off his wheel. So it's just, there's no stop in this guy. Everybody, welcome back to the Move podcast. I'm Spencer Martin.

I'm here with Johann Bernal and George Hincappy, both of whom are on the ground in Tuscany for the race. And we are breaking down Strata Bianchi, 26, won by, you probably could have guessed it before it happened today, Pagachar, solo win with Paul Sesh, second, Isaac Beltoro, Pagachar's UA, teammate, third, Roman Gregor, fourth, Gianni Vermeish, fifth. I'll just run through a quick run through of the highlights. and then we'll get your guys' take on the win and what this means for perhaps

hopefully more interesting races down the line. But with 90K to go, the TV coverage starts. It's kind of annoying thing about strata Bianchi is they don't start TV coverage until after all the action is started. So the TV turns on, we see UAE at the front. I believe Kevin Vermarka, Johann, you said he might be too busy early, but he was hammering that pace. There's a really tough, I think it's the strato six sector,

like 11K long, very hard. climb. UAE is lining it now already within 24 seconds of the early breakaway. And the significance of this is it tires Pagaccha's competition out, but also makes it very hard to get on his wheel because only a few riders can move up on that gravel. They get to the next sector, Storado 7, the Monte Santa Maria climb, which is where Pagata always attacks, which by the way, which by the way we rode yesterday, right, George? Yep.

Yeah, it's hard. It's hard, George. Ripped off the front. Johan actually attacked me on that section. The video proof of it. He's been doing this lately. You got to keep an eye on. We have visual proof that I

flew by George on the one summer. He did. Yeah, especially on those downhills, man. You're ripping them. But it was wrong. But, but, you A lines it up, but not a shock. We got your attacks.

It looks like Tom Pickock is going to follow him. last year, he was looking down at his chain. I couldn't quite figure out what was going on, but Piccock kind of falls back. Paul Sechoss bridges up, super impressive with Isaac Del Toro, who's clearly been briefed by the team to his one job, stay on Paul's wheel all day.

And Mateo Jorgensen is with them briefly, but we all know what's going to happen here. Eventually, Pagacha wears them down, gets away solo. He already has a 34-second gap with 77K to go. and then there's the two there's the del toros sessas group in between the chase group with jorgensen and a few strong riders like eventually waltvin art benhealy quinn simmons simmons though he gets a little worked over by by the numbers he closes a big gap he gets dropped with about 50k to go and pagach's lead

never really goes above two minutes it hovers between like 150 and 120 and the impressive thing to me is Paul Seychas was doing a lot of the work chasing because UAE had two riders in that group with Jan Christian and Isaac Del Toro. In every climb, Paul Seishas would accelerate. Deltoro would stay in his wheel. The others would, you know, they're fighting hard. Like they would show Pagatra's power. It was almost look like it was never below 460 watts the entire time he was away. And so, you know, wow, like Vautvinard, think how strong he is.

He's back there just fighting to catch back onto that chase group after every climb. Eventually, Paul Seishas attacks, get clear. gets clear. Isaac Deltoro doing a great job. Stays with him. Rides, though, 30 minutes to the finish line, pulling, like pulling alone, narrowing the lead. The lead gets down to about, it's like it looked like it was in like 115.

Like going towards a minute, he's asking Deltore to pull through. Obviously, Deltore is not going to do it. But then impressively drops Deltoro on the climb to the finish. Gets a second. I was blown away by that after he pulled him for maybe even over half an hour. and then there's a sprint for fourth and fifth. It's probably the most impressive

Roman Gregor are picking up the most impressive fourth place I've ever seen. I would say this is probably the most impressed of podium I've ever seen at this race. And I also think outside of Pagatra, we saw the future of the sport. We saw Paul Sey Shas, 19 years old, and 21-year-old Isaac Deltaro,

kind of leapfrog, everybody else in the sport besides Pagotcha. But Johann, George, Johan, you go first. What was your major takeaway from this race that you probably kind of saw because you were on the side of the road. Yeah, we were on Montsemarie where Pogacar attacked. I mean, he was gone.

He was already away. I mean, being there and seeing those guys pass and having written that section yesterday, it's unbelievable. It's, it's, those sections are a lot harder than what they look on TV, first of all, like a lot harder. And then, you know, the speed that, Pogacha came by and it was 75K to go, I think, on top of Montsamarie. I mean, he's done it.

He's done this already. But it looks to me like it's something that they have so much under control. The break, the nine-mind break away was never got more than what was it? One minute, one minute 30. They had the whole team pulling. And as we said yesterday, actually when George and I were riding yesterday, we explained to the guys who were here. So this is what's going to happen.

He's going to come in. It's going to be lined up. There's a climb and there's a downhill. It's going to be all stretch out. And then, you know, at the next corner, it's uphill again. Pogacra's going to go. It's exactly that way. He already did that before on another occasion.

And to me, it's really, I mean, it's mind-blowing how he has this exercise under control. He goes, takes one minute, and then just manages that minute. How many races have we seen? now of Pogacar since the world champion since before. He just takes a minute and just has it completely

under control. And as we said also, Spencer, it was going to be Sechas and Del Toro. Sextas obviously has impressed a lot because if the situation happened like we said,

right, Pogacar attacks, then it's Del Toro and Sejas. Del Toro sits on the wheel, so you logically would think he gets second. But yet Seksha's, was stronger in the end. That's impressive. But yeah, I mean, it is, I can hear, you know, there's a people say,

oh, you know, it's always the same, it's boring. I mean, I love this. It's, it's just beautiful to watch this kind of dominance and to watch this art. You know, it's like, it's art. Pogacar just has the mastered the art of attacking and keeping the breakaway. in any course, on any course, in any field. And you just does it. I mean, I was there in the Piazza, the Siena.

It's an amazing arena. And the excitement of the people and the atmosphere was just, just crazy. It was a very beautiful day. I mean, he's like a boxer. He holds them just like at arm's reach. I mean, I've never seen anyone do this. You're right with the world champion, world champion jersey going across Tuscany with the crowds. I thought it was, I think it's.

It's incredible. I could watch it all day. But George, what was your big takeaway from the race? Well, I mean, a couple things. Yeah, one can say it's boring because he just rides away from the best riders in the world with 80 kilometers to go. But as a former professional cyclist, knowing how hard it is to, one, keep a team together on these roads here in Tuscany, where it's just there's no, there's no straight roads. It's all up and down, windy, twisty, turny, very technical with the gravel.

But to see the whole team up there, Kevin Bermarck, turns out. since an American rider, like, really just leading the Peloton on some of these, some of the hardest, most technical roads in Europe is just super impressive to watch. You know, just to see these guys in formation, knowing that Pogachar wants to attack on that climb and getting them there to the front is already a victory in my mind as a team to get there all together. Super, super hard to do. And it was very impressive to watch.

And going back to your very eloquent brief breakdown of the highlights of the race, let's not make a mistake here. Isaac Deltoro is a killer. And he was on the perfect position behind Paul Saisas. If he was able to go with Pogachar, he would have gone with Pogachar. It's not like he held back and stayed on Paul's wheel just to make it more tactically difficult. If he had the strength there to go, he would have. I mean, it's just an indication of how much better Pogachar is than anybody else.

right now or has been for the last several years. Nobody can touch him. First race of the year. No matter what he does, he can race the Tory UAE like he did last year, come to Stradabionka and beat everybody this year. This is his first race of the year. He's just been training up until now. A lot of these guys have all been racing, stage races.

So it's like you think, oh, maybe he hasn't raced yet this year and maybe he'll be a little bit weaker. Nope, doesn't matter. He can just come into the hardest race of the year thus far and just ride every. everybody off his wheel. So it's just, there's no stop in this guy. And it's just, yeah, just it's, we're witnessed in history every time he jumps on a bike. It's, it's special to see how good he is, how good his team is. And how good the others are. I mean, Paul Seish, I was 19 years old. I think Johan said, you said he's going to turn 20 in September.

I mean, he's essentially still a junior years of teenager. Still essentially a junior rider. Yeah. getting second place, dropping Isaac Deltoro who just dropped the best riders in the world last week in UAE. I'm just really impressive stuff.

And maybe he won't get the attention he deserves because Boguchar still rode away from everybody, but it's still super impressive and really exciting to to see such a young kid beating the best of the rest of the world.

Yeah, I mean, if you look at SeSas, you know, and also, don't forget, you know, this guy's young and there's already a tremendous amount of pressure on him. Everybody was saying, okay, if there's one guy who can follow Pulachar and say Sass, okay, he couldn't follow him, but he stayed there for a long time on that Montsummery.

And what's really impressive is that afterwards he did the majority of the work, whether they were with two or with the breakaway or the group that joined them. He did all the work or the majority of the work and then still rode away. That says something about the engine of a guy. you know, he's a big engine. He's for the moment not able to touch Polachar, but yeah, I mean, there's not been any surprises in this race.

I think one of the questions was before this race, okay, we didn't have any indication because Pulachar hadn't raced yet, right? So we just have to go off what we saw on social media, you know, a training right, he did, he published his data, he did a record on Chippresa last week, I think. So obviously we knew he was good, but you know, how good is he going to be? And the question is, is he the same or a bit better than I'm going to go for the moment.

He's the same as usual. And that's already scary. Which is not a necessarily negative thing. It's already scary for everybody. But I'm not excluding, I'm not excluding that he's still going to be a bit better than last year, this year. It's interesting too. Sorry, it's interesting too how I heard on TV. like he will not be doing a stage race until

I think was it the next grand tour correct me if I'm wrong like he's no no no no he does tour Swiss no does he do this well I'm going to Tour Swiss to watch him so he better be doing it hold on a second now I'm feeling frazzled I think he's doing a spring one he's doing no you're right it's tour Switzerland I think I think it's yeah the next one and Tour Switzerland is now only a five-day race it's not like

the typical 10 day race so was he was enough Was he enough for Romandy? I swear he was on there. I swear, I remember him saying. I've heard that somewhere. I've heard Romano, Switzerland. I thought I sat in that room. It's still a different approach.

I mean, no stage races this spring, let's just say for most of the spring. And still arguably, probably win all the one-day races he does. It's just, it's a while that the approaches they take. Today I was with Johnny Bunyo in the car, right? And he said he is almost convinced that Polachar's winning Milan Sun Rainbow by attacking on the Chippresa. That's still, we'll get that.

We'll get to that after the break. Hold on. That is interesting to think about. But it's interesting you bring that up, George, because he's almost not a stage racer. His part-time job is stage racing. He's really a one-day racer. Like, that's what he's focusing on. It's like, oh, the tour's here.

I better go to Switzerland and get ready for that. and he's going to win the tour. But Johan and I were talking a few weeks ago. The reason people might be asking, what's the big deal? Get on his wheel, follow him, drop them, sprint him. What is going on? Well, if you looked at those power numbers, they were thrown up on the screen, when it's a course like this and it's this demanding, this much climbing,

there's no one else in the world who can put out the raw power and be as light as him. We're basically done. Like if you look at the one-day races that are this challenging, nobody can challenge them. It's not close. The only one we can hope for is Paul Sechoss in the future. Like he is monopolizing these Hilly one-day races. I just, I've never seen anyone be able to put out this much power.

I was asking, ask you guys this. So Paul Sechoss last week does, let's say, 465 watts for almost 20 minutes at 64 kilos. I believe that's a better watt per kilo than Lance Armstrong when he would do his modem test before the tour. Because was he about 7.000.

72 kilos. Yeah. Yeah. So not so easy to follow these guys. And that guy, and that's the guy getting second. So it's a lot harder than just saying like, hey, why don't you guys just follow the attack and drop them? Also, did you guys notice aerobikes on the gravel? Last year, UAE was not riding their aerobike.

They were riding it this year. And Cervillo is on an ultra-a-bike as well. Like that, I think we're in the air. of the aerobike. If they're doing it at this race, maybe they won't at Roubae, but I can't imagine there's any race where they're not riding it at this point. And A&O obviously helps the solo breakways.

Well, just going back to his power to wait, like yeah, nobody can touch his power to wait, and that's crazy impressive, but we already know that. For me, the most impressive thing is just how good he is at positioning and has no fear and staying in the front of the pelt. I'm like, these races are all about, like, how you can stay in the front

well save energy well that's not even a question with him anymore he's at the front of any section he wants to be at whether it's strata Bianca Paris Rubé Tourlanders Milan San Remo this is so much this is like one of the hardest things in cycling is like to be able to maneuver your way around the Pelotan

that is not even an issue for him he is there whenever he wants to be there and not only by himself with his whole team so it's just it makes it that much harder to beat him or to try to try to present a different tactic as a other team, like whether it's DeKathlon or Visma Lisa bike, like, what do you do to beat this guy? I don't think anybody has the answer. Certainly, nobody has the answer. Don't show up like Vanderpull.

Yeah. That's the best. No, I mean, the thing is also, you know, you could say, well, you know, why people say, okay, why don't they just let him go and then get organized behind? The thing is when Pogaccha, when the moment of Pugacar, when the moment is that he leaves, he takes off, Everybody's in the limit and everybody is already isolated. There's nobody left with teammates because the UAE has made it so hard that it just blows up and it takes a very long time to. I mean, now you could see he was by himself. And then first there was two guys together. Of course, it was only Seychelles.

But once there were four riders relaying, that's whatever they had left. They had nothing else left. It was basically everybody's on autopilot after the, it's a, and imagine this is a two. 200 kilometer race in a monument, it's even worse. Because that's last hour is basically, George, you've raised a lot of those. It's just, you know, dragging yourself to the finish with whatever you have left. And if you noticed at this race, the only time they made headway was when it was Seishas pulling it alone. The group is actually slower because with there's this many climbs, they're losing time every

climb if they're sticking together. So it almost doesn't help you to have a big group. It's why it's so difficult to put up a fight here. Yeah. 10 guys not as strong as the guy away aren't going to help you. Yeah, Pickock made a bit of a difference when he attacked. You know, you would think maybe if Pickcock, Sejas, and Went Ben Ars, Jorgensen get together.

But like Yohan said, these guys are running on fumes. They're doing everything they can. They can maybe cut the gap 20 seconds, but then Pogochar just keeps the same pace, and he just brings the gap back up to 140, 150. 52 minutes. Yeah. It's just, yeah, it's hard to imagine beating this guy in any way.

What was really impressive today for me to see like first hand was, you know, we were on at the end of Montes-San-Marie. And so we were watching it on our phone. And we saw Bogacha going and Seychas stayed there for quite a bit, you know, like 10 meters, 20 meters, then came back a little bit. And initially that gap was not. very big, you know. And basically two minutes afterwards, all of a sudden the cars are a day like really fast. I thought there were still three, four kilometers away. They were there.

And Pugacha comes a huge gap. I mean, crazy gap. Straight away. Yeah. And also Pagotcher, apparently said it before the end of the race that he was expecting Ezek to make the first move. And then they interviewed Isaac and he's like, oh, that's funny. I have not heard that. So he likes to play these little, He likes to play these little mind games with his competitors, his teammates, for instance. Because arguably, coming into this race, we saw how strong and how Dominic Isaac Deltoro was in UAE. So people might think, well, maybe he's as strong as Poca-Turar.

He did a faster time than Pocair did in the UAE climb. So, you know, there's that, there's a little bit of a sense of excitement. Like, well, maybe we're actually going to see a battle amongst teammates. But no, he's still head over and feels better than anybody. he probably is better than Pagachar at one-day races at that age, though. So there's still, these guys are coming. Seychas and Deltoro are coming. Pagachar at some point will not be winning these because of these guys.

Spencer, I think. I think you're Spencer, you might be right when Pagachar decides to quit to retire. But right now, I don't see that happening. I think the difference, though, the difference with Pagosha at that age is, it's very different. because remember when Pogaccia was 19, 20 years old, he was, he looked like a kid. Yep. He was absolutely not formed or optimized or, you know,

I keep saying, you know, let's not forget that Pogacar won his first tours of France not being absolutely 100% formed professional. He looked different. He was not, he didn't look. like a great athlete. I mean, he won the tour, but he, he, he, he transformed afterwards when he started, you know, he didn't have a nutritionist. He didn't, he didn't know he was doing in training. And I think that's the difference with, with, especially with Seychas and Del Toro, that they are

already like super top professionals at that age. Yeah. And Chard was not, I mean, he's, obviously he is now. And he, and he, and that's how he got so much better. But he managed to win two times a tour without being, 100% professional, in my opinion. That's what I, from, from, from, from the outside, that's, that's an observation. Well, no, I mean, we've heard that when he, he won two to Tour de Francis. Then he got beat by Jonas. And then like, then he really started focusing on his training. And since then we've seen the dominance, uh, where nobody can touch them.

So yeah, I would agree with you on. Let's take a quick break. And then I'm going to give you guys some, some crazy stats. And then we're going to talk about how, how can, this be stopped from happening next weekend but we'll be right back so yeah pagachar wins solo surprising not surprising probably do you guys know in the last 23 major one-day races and this is monuments world championships olympics and strata how many were one solo no but i'm sure you was about to tell us it's 21 of 23 yeah and what's the craziest of those 21 solo wins it's only

three riders, Pagacha van der Pol and Rencoevenopole. That's crazy, isn't it? Yeah, that is crazy. Yeah. And then these are Pagachar's solo major one-day wins since March 22, 90-minute long ago. So today, Strata Bianchi, 78K solo. I'll Lombardiaz, a 33, European champ, 75, World Championship 67 Liesch-Bless and Lége, 35, Tour of Flanders, 18K, Straada Bianchi.

Last year, 18K, Lombardia of the year before that, 49K,000, World Championship, year before that, 52K, GP Montreal, 23K solo, Leach, Basel Leage, 2024, 24, 25K solo, Strata Bianchi, 2024, 81K solo, Lombardia, 23, 3,000 K solo, Amstel, G, 2ndnders, 23, 17K solo, Straada Bianchi, 22, 50K solo. That's an average solo distance of 42 kilometers, just in the last three or four years. That is, that is unbelievable. And I don't think, I wonder if like Pagachar at some point will not be winning these but the performance from the two guys behind her day made me wonder like is this just here to stay

like when he's not winning them solo will somebody else be doing it or will we ever see a return to small bunch finishes at the end of one day races yeah I mean I'm watching today for instance I'm watching the second group and thinking this is this would be super exciting if they're yeah I was thinking that too

that's kind of like what we remember cycling to be like but I guess this is new cycling. Yeah. Yeah. And it's smart, I guess, because if you think about Peter Sagan would always get put in these traps and, you know, he flittered away a lot of one day wins because of that. It's like, well, if you're the strongest rider, just go from 100K out. Why not? Who's going to chase you down? And I worry, like, if Paul, I worry like if Paul Seych sees that, is he going to think, hmm, maybe I'll just go solo all the time and we'll never see a return to interesting racing ever again. having said that, I think the one race that can save us is Milan San Remo next week.

And I think it's become the best race in the calendar because it's a wide variety of people can win. You know when the action is. The end is, it builds up to so much excitement. Johan, you said your friend Gianni Bunoz thinks it's in the bag for Baguagia. I'm not so sure. What do you guys think? What are the keys to stopping pagachar next week at San Remo? Is it next weekend or two weekends from now?

Two weeks. Two weeks, because next week begins perishes. Yeah. Yeah. I think the key is the zone between the Chippresa and the Poggio and how they manage that. So Pugacar can get away on the Chippresa, yes. But Milan San Remo is a different race. It is a race where people can get back together.

It's completely different, you know. So even if he gets away on the Chippresa, I could still see some kind of, of organization behind him. And that section between the Chippresa and the Pogjo is complicated. It's going to depend on the wind also. The fact that he set a new record on the Chippresa means obviously that he wants to try there to go away. Last year, it was it, it was Funderpool in Ghana, no, who stayed with him?

Yeah. Yeah. Didn't drop him on the Chippresa. Was Ghana dropped? No, I don't think Ghana was dropped. and then he, you know, he used this gun of power to kind of at the top he got back on for the descent.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I think I think we'll, I think on Mars Arama, we will see if this is the same pogalajara as always or if he just got a bit better. I mean, I don't know. Mila Sarama, I would say it is not mission impossible. It is not mission impossible to get organized and get him back.

Yeah. Because it is the most accessible race for a lot of teams and a lot of riders in terms of, you know, having a good result and have your guys in the front. What do you think, George? Well, and we have to remember, it's just suppress a yes, it's a hard climb. Yes, it's after 230 kilometers. But it's about 5% an average. But we see Pokachar make a real different that like anything over 8, 9, 10%, he can usually just ride away from people.

5%. You see these sprinters now are like world-class climbers at 5%. And they could do the power. Like a Vanderpull, we saw him not only hang on to Pogatra, but also attack Pogacra. I think if anything under 5% is a completely different ballgame, this is what makes Moulin Remo so exciting. This is what makes Moulonza Remo so accessible

for some of these sprinters that can climb, some of these classic riders that can do the 300-kilometer distances. So I'm going to venture to say that he's not going to be able to ride away from guys like Vanderpola in San Remo, just in the hopes of an exciting race like we saw last year. So I'm going to, I think it's a different ballgame being that it's only 5% average climb. I agree. I agree. Yeah, I think it's a very challenging. I would not say it's in the bag for Pagotcha. That's a hard race for him to win. I'm excited to see it. Before you guys go, I think the middle class is in trouble, whether that be America or cycling, because if you're

Tom Pitcock, I don't know what your lane is now that these guys, a generation younger than you, are now coming up and then now they're better than you. That's not great. But who do you guys think when Pagotcha retires? Who of these two, Deltoro or Seshos, is dominating? the feature of the sport. You go first, Johan. I think it's early to say, you know, Seychas is super young. It all depends, Spencer, how much margin of improvement they still have. How much do they have to improve, though? Well, I mean, listen, I mean, they're, they're top of the world. So if they improve, it's not good news for their other rivals, right? Yeah. And I don't think they have that much margin of improvement left, but still, uh, I personally, uh, I personally, I,

personally think del Toro is I would say del Toro. Sechaz I don't know man. I don't listen Seychas is damn good also. He's incredibly good. Can time trial also? Pesars is a better

time trialist than Del Toro actually. I know. You wouldn't necessarily think that looking at him. Let's let's, I'm going to say Seychas probably advanced Seizas because he's younger and his team is improving incredibly fast.

They figured it out how to function as a team. They hire, they have a huge budget. They hire good riders, good coaches, good stuff. I'm going to say,

I probably like Del Toro more as a writer and as a personality, but advantage stays hush because of his young age. What do you think, George? Oh, I'm not going to,

I'm not writing off Piccock yet. I think he had a mechanical today during a really hard the section. It's like you had two mechanicals. He had two mechanicals. He had some really strong attacks with less than 25K to go. So I'm definitely not riding in the moth.

I think he's still one of the best in the world and we'll still continue to see him win races. But if you look at what happened today in the final, I mean, rewind until last year's Giro with Del Toro and Arr, Del Toro basically rode the last sectors on the front. And still almost won the Strata Bianca stage in the Giro was super dominant performance. And the opposite pretty much happened today. I mean, Seychas rode Del Toro for the last 30 kilometers or 25K with Del Toro and his will and still dropped him at the end.

So I'm going to go with the advantage to Seishas because Del Toro is in peak fitness right now. He just won tour of UAE in a dominant fashion and still wasn't able to be Seishas today and with Seychas doing most of the work. I'm probably screwing up the way you pronounce the name. I'm sure you're on. All of the work. All of the work. All of the work.

And he's 19 years old. Spencer, I haven't seen the images because I went at the finish line. But one of, I mean, maybe I'm completely crazy for thinking this, but did Seychelles actually drop him or was, was, was del Toro saying okay i haven't i haven't pulled a single meter i don't want to go for second it's a good question he's not going to sit i think he's not going to sit he's not i think a guy like del Toro is a killer even if he was going to give say shot second he would have finished on his wheel but he that's yeah i'm thinking i'm thinking he got dropped

and yeah yeah okay like joan said that not only that like yoan said the team the gasline we're seeing them at the front of you know opening weekend i mean they had four or five guys there in the final group. That team is emerging to be one of the, you know, the super top teams in the Peloton and they're only going to keep getting better and better. I mean, we saw Mateo Ricotelo winning in France. They're winning all over Europe right now. And when they're not winning, they're having several guys in the first group.

So I think the team is emerging to be one of the top teams in the Peloton. And Seychas is riding without fear. and although he didn't win today, wasn't able to stay with Pogachar, like 19 years old, that's super and super impressive. It's getting to be not funny. Last year I was like,

okay, yeah, French, next French hope. Yeah, right, guys. And that's like, oh my, like,

I don't know. This is starting to get scary. I thought he was too tall, frankly. Like, you know, the last time we had a six foot tall grand tour winner,

I thought we were past that as a society. But I believe it was Chris Fruman, 2018, Gilles was the last time we had a tall man went a grand tour but we could be going back

to that it's kind of unbelievable what he's doing I don't I I'm like you Johan I del Toro is probably one of my favorite writers he's my favorite

young writer I wanted to see I want to see him succeed but this I was really impressed with Paul Cichas but we had we had today we had a Mexican American on our group

at Estrada Bianca and he was I mean, I've heard the name El Toro all day long. Del Toro, Tolito, Torito, Torito. There's no doubt he's like incredible talent. He's going to keep winning races. But I mean, you got to think going to the Tour de France with the Pogatura, like he's going to be there helping him out.

You know, it's going to be interesting to see how the team dynamics work out. but so far Pogachar is still head over heels better than anybody in the Peloton and on his team. They work well together, I think. I'm impressed at how well they mesh and maybe their age difference helps that because El Toro can probably see a future where he takes the mantle at some point. He still has work to. There's still work to be done there. And maybe he recognizes that.

But George, you mentioned Pagatja's positioning and you're right. Like it's unbelievable where he can put himself. It does not help the other teams that he has. as potentially the strongest. Sometimes they, their seven or eight riders will be, you'd say, like eight of the strongest 20 riders in the race.

So that will help your positioning in some of these races, I would say. Yeah, we've never seen anything like that. I mean, even with our, you know, the Cancelara's, the Tom Bonings, like, yeah, they were really good at position. And they had good teams behind them. But to have the whole team knowing,

like everybody knows what Gautonautau is going to attack with ADK to go today and the whole Peloton knows that and they still can't do anything about it. Like we've never seen that. I don't remember seeing that ever before in this sport. No. I mean, we've seen dominant riders, dominant

teams, but this is so predictable, everybody knows it and nobody can do anything about. That's correct. And Strata, Estrada is a very unique race too. It's not, it's going to be a little more complicated when we get to the monuments later in the year. Should people run

out and put a bet on Paul Seychas to win the Tour of France after this weekend. I'm asking for a friend, the friend being. I'm not so sure. This year's two of friends. This year's two of friends. No, no, no. Yeah, this year I would say that, I would say that would be a tough one. What would you have said after Teddipagata finished 2020, did he even do Strata Bianchi?

I mean, the thing I just keep thinking about is, you know, like UAE Tour 2019, Pagacar gets, no, did you even do that? No, he gets like 30th at 2019 Strata Bianchi. I just would never in a million years have guessed he's going to win the Tour of France in 2020. So I'm always on the lookout for the next thing I don't expect coming. And I feel like this could change faster than we think. This was a really, I've never seen a teenage performance like I saw today. I think I'm safe to say this is the best teenage cycling performance I've ever seen in my life.

Paul, say Seishas is the second place today. Yeah, it was an impressive, impressive performance. Impressive performance. Now, speaking of the tour, you know, we have to give the guy some, we have to be patient. You know, I mean, he's never done a three-week race. Has he even ever done a 10-day race? I think Dauphinet is probably the longest race he's ever done. Yeah.

So, I mean, I'm not saying he can't do it. Well, are there intimidate races anymore? And if you think about it, this is a, you know, this is a long-term investment for a team like DeCathlon. He got eighth place in the Dolphine last year. Incredible result. He's got second place and Strata Bianca today. Like, they're happy with the brightest performance right now.

They're not going to pay all the pressure on the world on our 19-year-old kid to win the Tour de France this year. I think they're super happy with super regression. and they're focusing on the future of Paul Seychas. They're happy with the way everything is going. I wouldn't expect them to put much pressure on them this year. I think the Tour de France for him this year is about learning, using his team, getting confidence, and whatever result they get,

I think they'll be happy with because they're thinking long term with Falcetia. Yeah, I agree. Do riders, I know the team would be thinking that. Do riders that could ever think like that, though? Like, I'm just here to learn. I mean, they're impatient, right? Also, Spencer, we need to... Paul says Charles doesn't have that much to learn.

You know, he races like a true veteran. You know, he's in the front whenever he has to be in the front. And when he attacks, it hurts. And other than that, he tries to follow the big rider. So the learning, I think it's more getting his body used to. you know, multi-week performances. I think that's the learning he needs to do. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

I mean, they're all talking about the Tour de France. Let's give the guy the guy some time, right? I mean, we all know. Everybody expects sports age has to be on the podium. You know what? If he's on the podium, no big deal. No big deal. It's not a problem.

He'll get there eventually. Oh, yeah. I would say it's safe to say if a teenager does not make the podium at the tour, he's not a bum. We don't have to revive a mom. It's funny. It's also super exciting that like we have all these new podium contenders, you know, Paul Sejas and he's Zach del Toro and of course you got Remko, Jonas.

It's making the Tour de France a lot more exciting in my opinion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny you mentioned the Dolphina because he's 8th at 18. I'm like, well, that's pretty good result. Pretty good result. And then just how he's like the. Curves since then has been, he's significantly better than that result, which is to me that's the most impressive thing. How we improve from 18 to 19.

Like he didn't stagnate. You see a lot of guys stagnate when they get a result like that. But we also have pairing. I'm excited to see how this goes. I think we're seeing the first flowers of spring emerge from the Tadipagotra nuclear winter that we've been in. And we have Perrinis tomorrow with Jonas Vindegard versus Juan of you. So another interesting intergenerational. battle to watch and then

Johan will be back on Friday to discuss how that race is going. But thanks guys for joining. We'll let you get to dinner unless you have anything else to add before we go. I think that's it. Thank you very much. Well, thank you so much.

Enjoy your lovely Italian dinner or why I get a... Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow and all of our friends here ride the Stroudreterdam. Tomorrow, tomorrow, yeah, tomorrow we ride the Strada Bianca. Yeah.

How long? Do we finish in the, in Tiana? Yeah, same finish. Oh, nice. Okay. Same start, same finish. Yeah.

Awesome. Like 170K or something? No, no, it's 138 kilometers. What are you each riding? What's the machine? I'm riding a grapple bike with road wheels. 32, 35. The tires?

I'm riding 35 tires. George, what do you ride? Each tires do you ride? I'm running. I'm running my factor with 30-mill tires. 30 mil. Whoa. George is.

They were fine yesterday. George is still riding like the real cyclists. You know, it's just road bike, road bike, normal wheels, tire, road tires. You know, I'm going to comfort. I'm riding my Ventum GS1 single chain ring and a huge mountain bike cassette in the back with 35 millimeter tires. Well, when I was at the UAE team camp, they were testing 35 mils on the,

road so you're oh yeah you're you're you're right there on the trends yeah oh yeah okay all right well thanks guys and uh have a good dinner thanks for joining okay thank you thank you watch all you