THEMOVE - Did This Weekend Change the GC Hierarchy? | Paris-Nice/Tirreno-Adriatico Breakdown | THEMOVE

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Spencer Martin and Johan Bruyneel break down the past weekend of stage racing, from Isaac del Toro's overall win at Tirreno-Adriatico to Jonas Vingegaard's dominant ride at Paris-Nice. They discuss what to read into Del Toro's effortless win in Italy, Jorgenson's strong ride for second, and Mathieu van der Poel's destruction of the peloton while training for next weekend's Milan-Sanremo. They also wonder what to make of Jonas Vingegaard's win at Paris-Nice, and what his failure to drop Lenny Martinez on the final stage means for his Grand Tour ambitions later in the year. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Henson Shaving: Visit https://hensonshaving.com/themove or use code themove to receive 100 free blades with the purchase of a razor (over 2 years supply). Just make sure both products are in the cart for the code to take effect. Hollow Socks: For a limited time Hollow Socks is having a Buy 2, Get 2 Free Sale. Head to https://Hollowsocks.com today to check it out. #Hollow Sockspod

And you see Lenny Martinez high-fiving this guy while Jonas is trying to drop him. So that says to me that Lenny was pretty confident and quite comfortable and knew that he was not going to get dropped. So anyways, you know, Jonas didn't need to drop him. Let's start with that, right? But if he would have been able to drop him, he would have done it. Everybody, welcome back to The Move. I'm Spencer Martin.

I'm here with Johan Bernil. We are breaking out in the final two stages, the final weekend. Perry Nice and Torano, Adriatico, are two twin stage races, week-long stage races happening before the classics get serious with Milan, San Remo. Coming up this Saturday, Johan, I'll just quickly run through what happened on the final weekend, who won, and then I'll let

you pick which race you want to talk about first. But at Perry Nice, the race from Paris, Denise, and France, Jonas Vindigard won the overall. No surprise. Wins by four minutes, 23 seconds over Danny Martinez, who impressively salvaged that second place. We'll talk about that after crashing. And Yorg Steinhauser from EF, the young German, I believe Yon Oryx's nephew, six minutes back.

And the final stage was won by Lenny Martinez, the young French writer impressively followed Vindigard on the tough final stage in Denise and out sprinted him, out sprinted him for the win after following the attack. Stage seven was shortened. It was supposed to be a mountain stage, I believe. it ended up being a 47-kilometer sprint stage up the valley from Nice to the town of Isla, which is not the ski resort of Isla 2000, won by Dorian Godin from Inios.

Kind of a weird stage. The riders weren't happy about it. Nobody seemed happy. But I would say kind of picturesque because they finished in a snowy, alpine-looking town. It actually played pretty well on camera. It looked cold, looked miserable for the riders. At Torano, it was won by Isaac Deltoro from UAE, his second world tour. stage win of stage race

of the year so far. Mateo Jorgensen moved into second place on the final stage after stealing a three second time bonus at an intermediate sprint. Julio Pelazari, the young Italian on Red Bull, gets third at 42 seconds back. Tobias Holland, Johansson, probably the most impressive non-podium finish of the year

so far, one minute, 14 seconds back, and then Primos Roglich in 5th. Probably not what he hoped for, but Primo's still out there keeping us entertaining. keeping us laughing. We can't criticize them too much. And the final stage,

Del Toro won stage six, tough summit finish. Stage seven was won by Jonathan Milan, a sprint stage. I'm not quite sure why Torano does a processional sprint stage on a seven-day race at the end. But Matthew Vanderbilt kept it interesting by doing what was almost a 30-kilometer pole up the,

it was the one tough climb of the day. He kind of ripped the group up. And then he just kept going and kept pulling. dropped his own teammate. Yasser Phillips and it came back together, though. Look like he was just getting a workout in for Milan San Remo. But Johan, which race do you want to talk about first? Let's talk about the most interesting one, Spencer, Tireno.

Although, you know, we knew that del Toro was the big favorite before the state race. But, you know, there was a few times change of leadership, the leader's jersey. And I think we, we, it was also a very strong feat. field, I think. You know, if you take away Polachar and Jonas and Remko, I think everybody else was more or less there in Tireno. And so I liked what I saw.

The course was good. There was not a real mountain stage, but there was a lot of stages which had the elevation of a mountain stage. I think there was two stages of more than 4,000 meters. But not a real mountain top finish. like a long climb, which always makes it interesting because it becomes tactical.

The strongest rider still wins, but it's much more entertaining. So I liked the fact that Pellizadi was in really good shape. Local rider, I think the second last stage was in a hometown, actually,

where he's born. And, you know, he went for it, full gas, took the leader's jersey off off del Toro the day before, right? with that we commented on that already in our former podcast. So, you know, we didn't really know until their total on stage seven, really, I mean, stage six already, but it was, what was it?

I don't remember how much, I mean, second it was, but anyways, the last, the second last stage, Del Toro was quite dominant, won the stage. you know, I think the attractiveness of Tirino compared to Parinisi is that the gaps were so small and that you actually never knew who was going to win. We already knew after stage, what was it, stage three or four in Parinise, that the race was over when Yonos took the leader's jersey with two plus minutes and then, you know, basically extended that leap. So I like Tireno and yeah, we saw some interesting, interesting racing for the GC.

for stage wins. You know, we saw sprints. We didn't comment the other day on the victory of Anders, what was it, Lundt, Lundt? Yeah, Tobias Lund. Tobias Lund, yeah, from now DeKatoon was formerly in,

if I'm not mistaken, was he not in DSM? He was. I thought he was in DSM. I mean, what was it called? Picnic Post and El, sorry. Yes. I think that's a reflection of how much winning Picnic Post and L

has been doing that we can't remember the name. It's also his second World Tour win of the year, right? After. He won a stage in Down Under. Third World Tour win. Cadell Evans' Greater Ocean Road Race as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. So that was interesting. And then, yeah, Milan, winning the last stage, as usual, third year in a row to win that stage. You said a procession. It was not a procession this year, Spencer. Matthew van der Poul made sure that it was not a walk in the park. he had other ideas, wanted to really do a last super intense workout, put the herd on the peloton.

Yeah, I have information from within the peloton that his condition is scary, really scary. Like, never seen before. I'm not sure I've ever seen a poll quite like that. He didn't attack. He just got to the front and he said, I got to work out. Hey, guys, I know you're racing. I've got to get a workout in here. And he just shredded the field.

It was pretty impressive. Yeah. And he's going to need it, though, to stay with Pagacha. You know, this isn't like he's not being flamboyant or showing off. Like, he's going to need every bit of that speed to stay with Pagachar next weekend. We will talk about it in a couple of days, Spencer, but I will predict already now that Vondra Poul will stay with Pogachar. He won't be able to drop him.

I almost don't want to say too much, but I don't totally disagree with you. We will talk about that, though, in our preview to Lonson-Ramo. And were you surprised that I loved it, but Jorgensen kind of stealing, not stealing, he earned it. But I thought that sprint, it wasn't even really close with Wild Bernard leading them out. And then I don't quite know what Primos was doing, but he was sprinting for it. They kind of, he lost Pellazzari and those guys didn't really stand a chance in that intermediate sprint. for second place. Yeah, I mean, it was to be expected, you know.

I mean, second is better than third. They're both on the podium, but I think it was fair and square. Walt Von Art leading out Jorgensen. You know, Van Art also, I've seen him coming to, I mean, he's improved his condition. You know, he hasn't raised that much, you know, started in Grand Prix Samaire and then had the puncture. He was sick before. He came in really good shape, I think, you know, didn't get the results.

but from what I saw, his condition is in Clicendo. It's growing. And I expect him to be ready for the classics. But yeah, to come back on that sprint, Spencer, I think, you know, Belizari expected that. It's only normal that Jorgensen would sprint for it. I'm surprised that Jorgensen took those bonus seconds, by the way, because Pellizari is not slow.

I know. He's probably punchier than Jorensen. Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah. So I don't know if he was, you know, surprised or caught out. But it was a really good lead out from Walt Van Ard. And we saw that Mateo Jorgensen is in really, really good condition. He was the only one who could stay with El Toro when it really mattered several times. You know, we can only ask ourselves the question, you know,

what would have happened if he didn't have that crash on that gravel stage? I think the result would still have been the same. The gap would have been smaller. And it would have been more suspense because, you know, he was able to follow Del Toto. And then on top of the clamps, two times he was able to pass and take a really nice pull, putting Del Toto on the limit. But del Toto is just punchier in those final two, three hundred meters of an uphill finish. So, yeah, I mean, what a rider, right? I mean, he delivers.

He gets his chance. he gets the responsibility of the team. It's a big responsibility to be, you know, to have to deliver in tour of UAE and in Tireno. And two times he does it. I think it says a lot about the qualities of El Toro as a rider. And we should say, I mean, UAE, they had some misfortune, Kevin Vermarker crashed.

But they were thin at times. The end of stage five, end of stage six. Both those stages, uphill finishes, Del Toro was isolated, had no teammates, did not panic, handled it well. I saw some criticism from other podcasts that shall go remain nameless. Why weren't these guys attacking them? But you saw on stage five, whenever Del Toro put his foot on the gas, they were done, right?

So they couldn't. It was too hard. Like they were just hanging off in your life. Most questions of why are they not attacking? You know, I don't know which podcast is you referred to, but I can tell you, you know, if they're not attacking, it's because they're on the limit. Yeah. Very simple.

Tactics are not that complicated, guys. People tend to overcomplicate him. You know, like isolate him and attack him. Well, first of all, if you want to isolate the second or third best rider in the world, it's going to mean that you're isolating yourself. You're isolating yourself, yes. And so then what are you going to do, attack? By the way, if you attack with your second rider, that rider's already back in GC anyway.

So it doesn't really matter. And now, Toro played this perfectly. you know he even when even when pelidari attacked on second last stage he gave him some room you know knew exactly until where he could let him go something tells me that i mean and you know going off his reaction in his post race interview like he it kind of felt like he wanted to give the stage to pelizari i thought for sure he was trying to gift it you could tell he was doing everything he could to not catch him. He even sat back and

UnoX came to the front to pole. And if you see him after the stage, he was like, call me. He like gave him a call. They're good friends. Penizade. That's his hometown. You know, I think he would have wanted

Pelizade to win the stage. But, you know, then when Jorgensen and Johannison are there, then, you know, of course he's going to try to win himself. But I had that impression. And, you know, the interview afterwards, you know, I have mixed feelings. you know, hinting that, you know, he, he, uh, he, uh, he kind of felt bad to beat his friend

in his hometown, but it's sport, you know, it's, uh, and, and I think, uh, yeah, I mean, I really like Del Toro, man, he's very likable, you know, has, you know, is, is an attractive rider, you know, he, yeah, his way, his style is, is super nice, uh, his way of racing, he looks good, you know, he has a strong face, head, you know, like, looks like, looks like a chance. You know, has that aura around him that I think cycling needs more of certain riders. It kind of sounds funny. We're sitting around talking about how a young man like looks on a bike. But he also, he looks like an athlete.

He moves like an athletic person, which to me, and I couldn't tell you why, always helps my enjoyment of a rider. There's been riders who've won a lot in the past that have not looked athletic on the bike. And I probably don't enjoy them as much as I should because of that. But on stage 5, I only noticed he was back. The race was kind of on and he's back going to the bathroom at the back of the Peloton. And someone's like, oh, if Roglitz attacks, he's in trouble. It's like, Del Toro's not worried about Primos Roglitch attacking.

He can pull that back. No problem. We saw a man completely in control of this race, even though the gaps were numerically small. I don't think he was ever really concerned. We also saw just something I want to point out on stage 6, I thought was really weird and really interesting. UA did not really have to hit the front until like the last 40K because two-door pro cycling was at the front doing the hard yards early in the race of the pace setting.

They had Michael Storer in 15th place. They, I guess, had to protect that. What was going on there, Johan? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't understand that either. Maybe they thought that Sturor could win the stage because it was a la Philippe, right, who was doing all the hard work

when it was up to. So, I don't know. It shows you. Michael Stur is a strong writer, but for him to win the stage, a lot of, a lot would have had to happen.

I mean, I keep saying, Spencer, and I know you think the same thing, man, Michael Sturr, do something about your position. He's like the least aerodynamic rider. And it, you know, it's probably, the way he, I mean, okay, it's easy to say. That's probably the way he feels best on the bike.

But man, he needs to look into that, man. It's like he, it looks like he has this really wide handlebars, which, okay, Matthew van der Pooh has wide handlebars. As I told you the other day, 42 centimeters center to center, which is very, you know, unlike today's Peloton. But yeah, Michael Stur is like the, the sum of the least. aerodynamic rider, strong rider. So I guess that was their goal to try to win the stage with Sturter because other than that, I can't really see what the thinking was behind that strategy. Because UAE, it was in UAE's benefit to let the break win because the time bonuses don't help

them. They're nothing but trouble. So I guess it does show you, though, in modern cycling, no matter how hurt your team is, how bad your team is, if you're leading the race, there's often, if not always, a team willing to come forward and help you. We've seen it time and time again, and you almost don't have to worry about it anymore because someone will come forward to defend their 15th place at Torino.

Yeah. Listen, I mean, in the case of you just mentioned, you know, if Primo's Rogelich attacks and El Toros isolated, guess who's going to pull? Uno-X is going to pull. In Visma, yeah. Protect Jorgensen's back then third place, you know, podium. It's very simple.

So it's true. He was sometimes isolated, but never really felt like he was in trouble, in my opinion. And whatever happens, Spencer, you know, like most of the guys, like if there's, if when when del Toro gets isolated, there's normally going to be what, 10, 15 riders, maybe at the maximum, right? Then he only needs to look at two or three riders. everybody else they may attack but they can only attack on the flats and they're going to get reeled in on the climbs anyways because there's a reason why they're in 15th position it's because they were not able to follow on the other on the other clients so uh yeah don't

overcomplicate it guys it's it's quite simple well uh what's his name uh richard carapace he was i don't know if he was trying he should get the yeah well i i want to talk about that what was that when Vulgarine like I mean amazing amazing stage win we already talked about this is back on stage five he comes back from very far but what was Carapas doing

he was so he attacked when his teammate was in front and you know the gap was not that big no then he launches del Toro well I mean did you see how del Toro passed him I mean like I got like flashbacks

from you know there's certain memes on the social media like, you know, in Spanish. So, you know, it's funny. Like, Del Toro just flies by him and, you know, there was, you know, in Spanish, like a reference to the Giro of last year. I don't know, man. I saw, I saw a comment of Mati Braschel, who's the DS of, of EF at that race. And he was extremely unhappy with that maneuver. You know, it's not like that attack.

was the purpose was not to destabilize the organization behind Valgrin. And they came really close at the end. Yeah. I have to say, Spencer, you know, and as you know, I don't really care too much. Sometimes I say what I want. And this is going to make me unpopular in Latin America, certainly in Ecuador. But man, Carapas, I don't know, man. I saw an interview of him.

You know, they do these interviews. where they ask, you know, who's the best classics rider? Who's the best GC rider? You know, who's your favorite domestic? Blah, blah, blah, blah, you know? And then they say, who's the best climber? And he said, Richard Carapas. I said, come on, man.

Dude, that's like, okay, no. You know, like, no, you're not the best climber. You know, he's a great rider, but he's not the best climber. So that was kind of, I don't know. I didn't really, I didn't really like that too much. So I'm not a fan, man. I'm not a fan of Carapas. I thought it was a really strange move because, yeah, he almost cost Valgrin that stage when I didn't see it discussed that much.

He's trying again on stage six. In Carapaz's defense, because we have to defend him because there's no, there's no group more vicious than Carapaz fans. But he will look so helplessly out of shape. You're like, what are you doing, man? What are you doing? And then he comes around. Like sometimes this works out in his favor and he kind of has his process. he's not in bad shape, Spencer.

He's just not in great shape right now, which is totally understandable. So, you know, he's, and I think it's just in his DNA to attack, attack, attack, he's just, he's a fighter, right? So he constantly keeps attacking. That's what he did on that stage, but, you know, almost at the expense of the stage win of his,

his teammate. And then also, you know, I saw after the stage, you know, it was, Valgrin was there. And then Ben Healy went straight away to congratulate him. And Carapas, it took a while before he went up to Valgrin to congratulate. First he took care of himself, you know, like towel, you know, drinks, whatever, ketones, whatever he took.

And it took, I mean, there was already other teammates that came in who were behind him, who were all over Valgrin. And then finally Carapas went to congratulate him. So, anyway. Anyway, Mati Breschel was not happy. So that's for me to take away. That was not the right move from Carapas on that stage. It was crazy watching Del Toro go past him and think that they were equals at the

zero last year, that these were the guys that were locked on an hour long climb. The thing is, Spencer, you know, we know that Carapas takes a little bit longer to get into shape. Whenever he goes for an objective, he's ready. Yeah. I don't know what his program is. If he's going to do the Gero again. if I would be him

I mean yeah I mean Vingeguard is racing now so I don't know maybe he has to focus on the Vuelta I don't know Is that he was on his schedule And I Okay well he's gonna be ready for the Gero Yeah he's gonna be ready He's not he's not like you were saying with Vanderpul

He just shows up to win That's kind of the trend now Carapeth isn't he's more of an old school guy He uh yeah I did see it some criticism of not criticism of Deltaro but like what do we take out this win. Will he podium at the Tour de France? Was the question posed to somebody? And the person was like, well, there was no big Alpine climbs at Trano. So we don't know. Like, whoa, whoa, we just saw

win UAE tour, which is nothing but big climbs. And he just got second at the zero last year. I'm feeling pretty good about Del Toro as a G. C. writer coming out of this. Oh, yeah. I mean, listen, he's he's one of the next the next guys to take a big tour. In the Tour of France, as I said, I mean, I think it's going to be difficult for him to podium because he's going to be the last guy with, I mean, normally, without any, you know, unforeseen situations and problems. He should be the last guy with Bogacchar. So it depends.

But yeah, I don't think, I don't think the Toro should focus on the podium. He should focus on, you know, being his best possible in the tour and use that as a learning step. to develop as a cyclist. But yeah, this guy will definitely win a ground tour in the future. Yeah, could be, I guess it won't be this year, maybe. I guess the year, I still can't believe you lost that zero. I've got to get over it, but I still cannot believe that.

You don't want to throw those away, but he will win a grand tour at some point. I think that's a safe prediction. Well, I mean, we say that, right? I mean, he has it in it in him, you know, because how many times have we seen a rider you know, coming to the forefront, especially like in the Tour de France in the past, right? You know, okay, shows up, you know, wins the tour at the young age. Oh, you know, he's gone for five or six in a row, you know, in a row, never wins it again.

It has happened. I know. Yeah. It does happen. More than you think, actually. He's good, though. That's what was good. That's my takeaway from here.

I wouldn't be shocked if he podiums the tour. I wouldn't be shocked if he has the room to focus on that because Pagetra's, so far ahead. We'll talk about Perrinis in the back half of the show. But I think Pagacchar is probably going to cruise to the tour win. Deltoro probably will have the room to chase the podium. I'm curious to see if you can do it. What did you think of?

So Mateo Jorgensen does not win Peronis for a third time. He's one of the last two times. He's at the wrong race. He was a slight issue, not at the start. He gets second at Torano. I'm going to come out a really hot take. I actually thought this was his best. race of those three. I was super

impressed with Mateo Jorgensen at this race. Yeah, I think, I think yeah, for sure. I think when last year he won, Jonas crashed out. He was strong. And then the year before, did he win against Remko the year before? He did. I think so. He did.

worked him over. Yeah. So yeah, I think, I think Jorgensen right now, I mean, I don't know if we if he would ask him, he would probably confirm that. I think right now he is on a higher level now than when he won Parinis last year and the year before. I think it's safe to say. He was really, really good in Tireno, really good.

And he really just has that. He probably is going to lose to Latoro no matter what happens. But if he doesn't fall, it's closer on stage two on the slippery gravel corner. And then to recover and get second after. He was there really doing teamwork. did a big load of teamwork for Van Hart too. So it wasn't just chasing GC. Yeah.

I agree that it's maybe the strongest I've ever seen them. I also, we shouldn't mention, you remind me with the Remko mentioned, Del Toro is now one more major seven, like there's seven major one week stage races. Del Toro has more wins in them than Evanapult does in his career. So it is a big. Well, I mean, that's what he, how many did he win one? Just one. Yeah.

Remco's number one. I didn't win a single one. That's what I keep saying. I mean, we'll see now in Catalonia, right? I mean, he's going to show up in Catalonia after a month. Altitude training camp. I expect Remko to be really, really good. Tertoro's not going to be there.

If I'm not mistaken, Jonas will be there. We'll see if Ayuso is there. Probably was not on his schedule, but maybe he changed. I don't know. But we'll see. But yeah, it's time for Remko to win one of those. And several, he should win several of those. races. He has it in him. So now is maybe the time. You know, he's usually very, very good when he comes to

a race of three weeks or a month altitude training camp. That's usually when he's at his best. I mean, it's an uneniable trend that when the top grand tour winners show up to these races, they normally win them at will like Yon just did at Pernan. So slightly, it's a slight concern if you are not winning them. Like Del Toro passed a test. winning this. Like I now feel better about him as a GC contender. Even if you, you might not think that they're one, one, one versus one comparisons. These one week, these major one week races really are predictive of success in Grand Tours. Yeah. Yeah. What did you think? So Matthew Vanderbilt took a real long poll yesterday, dropped everybody, including his teammate, Gasper Philipson.

I think we both agree he's just training for San Ramo. This was a race pace effort. He was getting on a climb that's like the Trapressa. Chris Horner was not too happy about it on his on his, his post race debrief. What do you have a defense of, of Vanderpul for this? I personally do. I just want to hear your take on it.

I mean, the defense is very simple, Spencer. Vanderpul is first of all, he's the leader of the team, the undisputed leader of the team. They are there to, I mean,

they want two stages already with Vanderpul. Yasper didn't have his best. sprint on sprint one when Lund won. And he, his, I mean, this is definitely something that Van der Poul has said in the briefing, you know, like, okay, guys, listen, I need to do like a really intense workout today. This is what I'm going to do. Are you guys okay with it? Everybody will have approved it.

The director, the trainer, even Philipson. And it's up to Philipson to stay in the bunch. And when it comes, and it was very likely to get back together. to sprint for it. And, you know, unfortunately, he couldn't prove it because he crashed. You know, like, would Chris Horner's criticism be, have been the same if Philipson doesn't crash and wins the stage? Yeah, exactly. You know?

So let's, I mean, my take on it is that winning the last stage was not the main objective for Alpasin Premier Tech and not. not for Vanderpoul and also not for Philipson because let's not forget Philipson won Milan San Bramo two years ago and he was here to prepare for it just in case it comes back together which it's always possible. So I think Philipson is in good shape. Hopefully he didn't hurt himself too much in that crash

but he looked in certain stages. He looked really strong. Philipson is one of those sprinters who can get over those climbs and maybe it was also part of Philipson's plan to really hurt himself in the last stage to do a last general repetition for Milan San Remo. I mean, I can find out, but that's probably my takeaway from it.

So whatever Van der Poole did, it was agreed upon by everybody. This is not just something that comes up during the stage and say, oh, by the way, you know, I just feel like I need to do a little effort. I'm not going to say anything to anybody. I'm just going to go apeshit in front of the peloton to drop everybody. not the way it works, you know. Everybody was aware of what Fatherpool his plan was. Yeah, and you know the, you know the guys that run that team.

Like, you're not, there's no freelancing. Like, it's, it's been discussed in the pre-race brief. They, uh, I mean, I was just going to say the same thing. You know, who needs to practice really fast climbing and then chasing on in a group is Yaspur Philipson because he's going to have to do it at San Ramo. Also, when Vanderpil's doing that, it's hurting, Philipson's an amazing climber for a sprinter. It's hurting every other sprinter more than Philipson. So then it's benefiting him for the final sprint.

We don't know if he would have won or not. Maybe he wins and it looks like a genius plan. But I didn't hate it. I kind of liked it, actually. I think more sprint teams should think about that. Like, sure, our sprinter is getting dropped, but he's hurting less than the others. Because you roll to the line and Milan's probably going to beat you.

Yeah, Spencer, the main goal of Alpacin Premier Tech was not to win the last stage. it was to get that workout in and to make sure that, you know, both Vanderpoul and Philipson knew that they went away with the assurance that they're ready for Milan San Remo. And I think they both are. They both look pretty good.

I mean, I know Philipson got dropped, but he looked good for a long time in that climb. Anything else on Torano before we go to Perrinisse? I think we covered everything, basically. All right. Well, let's take a quick break and we'll be back for Peronis. Everybody this episode is brought to by hollow socks as I get ready for my next trip to Europe to cover some bike races. One thing I'm going to be wearing, I'm going to be making sure I'm wearing is hollow socks.

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Thank you. And let's get back into it. Okay, Johan, we're back. Jonas Vindigard wins Paranis. No surprise. What is the surprise is I think Lenny Martinez winning that final stage. I don't know how much is stage seven you saw the Saturday stage. I kind of liked it.

It's like a mini. That's the one that Godon one. They go down one, yeah. I just saw the last 10K. I saw that there was unhappiness from the riders, even from Jonas Vingergert, who said that they should have started on a different place because apparently there were a lot of crashes,

not just in the final, but before also. I think there was three main crashes. Yeah. And 47 kilometer route. So it's not. fun to race like this. You know, they were all wrapped up, you know, lots of clothing. If you look, Codont was printing in his rain jacket. He's the, he's the French champion. I know he's his jersey. If you know that you're going to have a chance, uh, you want to go for it in your

French champion's jersey. He didn't even bother to take it off. It was that cold, that wet. But anyways, nice victory. I mean, great. Listen, uh, I think, uh, did a great, race. You know, they won, the two stages, no, the team time trial and Godot. Stage seven,

yeah. Yeah, two stage men, a Perrinise. Fourth place overall, I believe. Nothing to sneeze that. Yeah.

Yeah. And Oscar only crashed out. Like, one of their best place riders. So still salvaged a lot. Is that one of their best, I was thinking about this? Is this one of their best transfers in recent years?

At least from a production standpoint point. Who Godon? Or, Godon? I kind of forgot that he changed teams. The guy is strong. The guy is strong and it looks like, you know, he was already strong on Decathlon. You know, he won a lot of those Cup de France races.

I mean, I saw him win the French championships. There was not even, I mean, nobody had a chance. He's strong on these uphill finishes, you know, like I think, was it last year in the, in the, in the Gero? That there was an uphill finish and he was, and he had won it already in the past. he was up there again. Yeah. And it was a hard finish. Yep.

So he's strong on those kind of, and this was not, this was not really uphill. But yeah, I mean, listen, it's been a few years since they had riders who could win races at Ineos. And who's, by the way, if I'm not mistaken, before the Tour de France is going to be called differently, right? Net company total energies, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. that's going to take a while to get used to that. I know.

We'll see what happened with the colors. It's going to be completely different. So that's going to be a big change. But yeah, I think it's a great transfer. So is Vokalain, by the way. Vokalang is a strong rider, very all-round rider. I mean, finished fourth was called out in that stage where the crashes and the crosswind happened and lost a lot of time there.

But yeah, I think they're rebuilding, right? They're rebuilding and now with new money and the existing money of Ineos and total energies. Their plan is to get back up there. I think first what they need to accomplish and I think they're in the process of getting there is that Ineos needs to become a team again where riders want to go. You know, because it's very trendy, right? like a few years ago, everybody wanted to go to Visma. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But at first, everybody wanted to go to Ineos. That was like the team. Okay, if I go to Ineos, I'm going to make a big step. Then it was Visma. Now it's UAE. Visma all of a sudden, I mean, there's still writers who want to go to Visma, but it's not the, you know, like the hot, sexy team anymore where the youngsters want to go, you know, like the big talents, right?

I mean, with all the respect for Visma, I mean, they're one of the top teams, you know. but so I think in aos or net company in the future they need to work on that on getting that attraction factor back and I think they're doing a good job it is interesting how that waxes and wanes because UAE is the everyone wants to go to UAE now but if you think back a few years ago they had a hard time getting people to go it was not a sought after place but uh that that's where everybody wants to go now like I was thinking even though like like Bahrain victorious is that a being giant. You know, they win that final stage at Paris Nice. I'm thinking, I never, I never really think about that team, but pretty, pretty good roster. It's something like Lenny

Martinez is a very good rider. Yeah. I mean, Martinez, look, I mean, he wins the last stage, uh, won a stage in Parisese last year, won a stage in Dauphini last year, one a stage in Romandy, Romandy last year, you know, he's always up there now when the race is also. Also, we see those one day races. He was always top three, top five. Super talented rider. But to me, it seems like he is that specialist to select those specific stages and then go for the stage. As a GC rider in a one week race, yes, in a grand tour, I don't see it.

I don't see it. He's a great climber. And he can time draw also if he's in good shape. but something seems to happen always. So he's like this pure lightweight climber who gets caught out in crosswinds or got sick, for example, in the tour last year,

was dropped on stage one all the time. So it looks like he made a step forward this year and he's on a great level, but for ground tours, I'm still cautious. We're going backwards. So we'll end at Jonas Vinegar. Second place, Danny Martinez.

If you just looked at this results, you would not understand how impressive this is. He's second four minutes, 23 seconds back. He crashed with, what do you think? 50, 60K to go yesterday? Hard. Yeah. Flew off the road at really bad luck.

He was moving up. His teammate was looking for him and was looking left, drifting right, pushes him off the road into like a ditch, a concrete ditch. Looks like he has broken ribs, perhaps. gets back on his bike, super impressive from Red Bull. They do not panic. They do not even try to catch the group.

They just ride at a pace that they know they can salvage second place because they have multiple minutes buffer because on stage four. They raced in a way where they maximize their gap to third place, did not worry about trying to overtake Yonis Vindigard for first place. That proved to be the winning, not winning decision, the second place decision. Save them a podium finish at Pernanese, which is a big result for the team and for Danny Martinez. Do you think this is a trend where like we will now see teams just trying to max, like riding in a way that maximizes their chances of results versus instead of like all or nothing for the win? I mean, you know, that we were, we were, some people were critical of their way of riding. What's it stage four?

Stage four, yeah. The rainy cold day. You know, they pulled all day and, you know, they basically rode with Jonas on the wheel until one K to go. but, you know, as we said, you know, it's a way of assuring a podium, first of all, which is not easy, especially with with these guys who are dominant like Jonas, like Pogacchar. And it turned out to be the right call. You can look at the two ways.

You know, you assure a podium, which is already not easy. And then you're in a position. You never know what's going to happen to that leader, especially in these races here you know lots of riders crash in the beginning of the season because of the bad conditions parinise particularly is not I mean I've raised

both of those races as a pro never enjoyed parinise it looks like the most miserable race they call it the race to the sun but man let me tell you to get to the sun it's sometimes a nightmare often and yeah I've never enjoyed

parinise And there's always things happening in Pyrenees. I mean, Tireno is the set. I mean, there's crashes, but usually the weather's a bit better. I'm not saying it was great weather in Tireno, but still it was better. And, you know, less crosswinds. Then Tereno is also different in the way that, you know, the roads are a lot worse. You know, you get into those villages where it's very tricky.

navigating the narrow roads and, you know, the arch is where you have to get through. But it's different. It's different. So, yeah, I mean, I think that that way of racing is not, it's not stupid, you know. It's, it's a way of, okay, they got into a position where they had majority. They had, did they have four guys initially with the Von derange brothers and Martinez? And there was another guy or? I thought it was four.

it was kind of hard to tell because everyone was bundled up. But I believe. But hold on a second. They had the vast majority. I mean, there was no other team that was represented. No, Nico Denz was the other guy. Nico Dens exactly.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's a big engine also to make tempo, you know, on the flats and on the roller. So I think it was, I think it was the right way to do it. And, you know, the end result shows that, Danny Martinez and Red Bull Boda, Ansgrove, got second place thanks to that maneuver. So nobody can say that that was not a smart tactic. It's another nail in the coffin of like raid style racing because Jonas Vingard, he's isolated,

doesn't have to work because another team works for him. I think we're just going to see more of it. I don't know if that's what people want to hear, but Red Bull gets a big second place. Danny Martinez gets a big second place. They're rewarded for the conservative racing, and I think it's just going to be a trend that gets more and more common. So let's get the Jonas Finnegaard. The winner, Moos not going to be happy with me

about saying nice things about this win, but he potentially was vindicated because I'm talking up Jonas. I think he's doing great. You're saying, oh, we're both saying that we feel good about him at this year to tell you based on his double stage wins. attacks yesterday on the final stage, which was different than in years past, I believe, because of local elections, they couldn't finish on the promenade. They finish in like an industrial park by the soccer stadium.

Not as good. Hopefully they go back to the normal finish in years following this. But Lenny Martinez, it kind of was an awkward attack if you go back and watch it. Victor Campanartz pulls off. It's almost like Yonis was caught off guard by that. He doesn't attack right away. He waits, then goes, it lets Martinez. is getting the wheel. He doesn't, he never stands up. It's a seated attack. Martinez is easy

following him. Does not look under pressure at all. And then he's pushing it on the descent. And then he, Yonis lets him lead into the final corner. Lenny Martinez is a quick rider, though. And then he opens up that sprint. Maybe is a like a tribute to Julian Al-Filippe sets up way too early to celebrate. Almost loses it, but he holds off Vindigard who's sprinting behind. Well, it looked different from the front, right? I mean, if you if you see the helicopter shot, I'm going to, you know, dare to say, Spencer, that there was an agreement between Jonas and Lenny for the stage win. They spoke, you know, they, they, they collaborated both of them. At some point, I thought, you know, what, they're, the two of them

are together, they're going to, you know, look at each other and they're going to come back in the back. I was thinking about that when they had 15, 20 seconds. But as soon as they got, after the downhill and they spoke to each other, they rolled boat full gas. I think Jonas didn't try 100% to win the stage. What I saw on the last climb, Spencer, to say by that Mo, our friend, who's, you know, who has inside information about Taday and UAE a lot of times. I think he has a point by saying that Jonas is not, I mean, listen, he wins, he wins, but he needs with more than four minutes, so he's in good shape.

I think that's good enough to win most of the races where today is not. But it's not, I'm not impressed, especially because Lenny Martinez looked comfortable, never looked in trouble. It wasn't really visible on camera, but I caught a little glimpse of, and it was strange, you know, like Jonas was pulling, he didn't attack,

but, you know, he usually, you know, he should drop Lenny Martinez. It was not a long climb, right? It was, what, was it six, seven minutes, max? I think it was basically a nine minute effort, eight minutes, 55 minutes. Okay, but, but I saw Lenny Martinez

high-fiving a fan. That's crazy. You see the guy without the shirt? Yeah. Do you think he knew him or what was going on there? I don't know. I mean, I saw a video of the guy actually, like the guy filming afterwards. It's on social media.

I saw it. So the guy filmed it. And you see Lenny Martinez high-fiving this guy while Jonas is trying to drop him. So that says to me that Lenny was pretty confident and quite comfortable and knew that he was not going to get dropped. So anyways, you know, Jonas didn't need to drop him. Let's start with that, right? But if he would have been able to drop him, he would have done it. Then also if you look afterwards, if Jonas would have dropped Lenny Martinez,

Lenny would probably have caught him in the downhill anyway. You know, Lenny is a good downhiller. Normally Jonas is also, is he scared now after his crash on training? It was sometimes dry, sometimes wet in the corners. You know, he was very, very careful. But, you know, he put Jonas under pressure in that downhill. And so, so yeah, I mean, listen, Jonas really good, but but not impressive. This, let me tell you, this Jonas Wingergart is not going to beat this Teletbukachar.

I agree. I don't know if I, maybe I was joking and I said that and somebody believe me, I just want it on the record. I do not think Jonas Vinegard is going to beat Teddy Pagachar in the future at a three-week race. I think he's looking fantastic for a second place at the Tour de France. I think that's, we're seeing him round in a form to be second again at the tour if nothing happens to Pagaccha. Spencer, let's not diminish, you know, the level of Jonas as a cyclist, as a champion. You know, like if everything goes to plan, normally he should win the Gero, right? you know that's that's two two wins in the in the in the in the tour one win in the

Vuelta and one in the Gero he still has to win it but the chances are high that he becomes one of the guys who wins all three grand tours which is unique you know there's not many riders who are able to have been able to do that so if you're in that list that brings you to one of the top riders in the world and I think we have to pay tribute and respect to Jonas Lingerard for, you know, he still needs to win the Giro, as we said. But, you know, if he does, he gets into a select club of riders who won all three ground tours. And that's not nothing. And he's a freakishly, the most impressive thing about Jonas, to me, it's freakishly consistent. It's like what we were talking about Remco struggles to win these one week races.

Jonas shows up to these grand tours. It's second or first, basically. It's rarely finishes below second. That's not many riders in history have ever done that. for people that want numbers to know how hard these efforts were. And I usually don't like to do sub 10 minute climbs. You just like you'll see big numbers. It's not always like that instructive. But the final climb eight minutes, 55 seconds for Jonas, estimated watts, 440 at 60 kilos. So 7.3 watts per kilo.

Sounds like a lot right. But if you go back to Falunardesh, Pulsei Shas did that for 16 minutes, right? So almost double the amount of time. it's a good effort. It's probably, it's not, it's not going to drop Taday at the tour. We should also say, though, he already had the race wrapped up when he, like, who knows what was going on. Like, he might have just been managing his effort.

We don't really know, like, what was going on. And also, Spencer, you, let's take into account, you know, the last day of racing, you know, the cold. Yes, the cold. It's not easy to produce these numbers, you know, there's factors to be taken into account to, to look at these numbers, you know, in their, in their right. So it's still a really, really good performance. I think the impressive performance was Lenny Martinez to be able to follow Jonas so comfortably.

That was for me the most impressive performance of Padilla. Yeah. And it does show like Lenny's a part of Dan Hohler in the team time. Yeah. Yeah. The real real heads know the ride of the race was Dan Hola in the team time trial back on stage two. I mean, just to give people an idea about how much the sport has changed. I'm just clicking over to 2020 in my spreadsheet.

Pagachar, his winning ride to win the Tudor France on that 16-minute climb in the time trial was just below 7 watts per kilo. And now we're scoffing at a 7.3 watt per kilo effort to seal up pari knees. But yeah, the level just gets higher. We talked about it on Friday. And it just seems to keep going up. And also Spencer, you know, Pagatchar's ride is on the second last day after three weeks, which is not the same. Well, and also we should say at the end of an all-out 30-minute time trial effort. Yeah, exactly.

And then you start to climb. Yeah. And that's like what you want to keep in mind is Perrinice, you're never going to have great numbers because it's, you're freezing. You're a popsicle for the, the icicle for the first, like, half of the race. It was, they were in the snow on stage seven, the racing on stage eight. It looked nice. It probably wasn't as nice as it looked. You're just never going to see, like, record-breaking efforts at Peronis, in my opinion.

I don't feel good about Jonas for the Giro. Probably the sport has not been ruined by Jonas Fendergarde, as was feared on Friday. I think that's way, you know, like before the Giro, he does Catalonia, which is pretty soon. So that's going to be interesting to see him against Remko. That's going to be an indication, you know, of let's, I mean, normally, normally Yonah should take it. if the potential and the qualities as a GC rider are respected. But let's see. We will see there what his level is.

Danny Martinez and Georg Steinheuser are not riders that you would name in your top five if you would go and predict a grand tour, although Danny Martinez has finished second in the Gero already. not forget that either. Pretty recently, actually. That's two years ago. Pretty mind-blowing behind a pretty good performance too. Something, you mentioned Catalonia, Florin Lipowitz,

keeping eye on him at Catalonia. I'm interested to see how he does. They were both Ramco and Florian Lipowitz were both on the training camp on the Teda, so they're going to both show up sharp and ready to fight. It's kind of funny that Yonis is doing all these stage races and then Tad is just, I think we talked about it last week with George, but his next stage race is Tour of Switzerland, I believe. Is it not Romandy? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, I don't think he is going to Romandy. Oh, well, I know.

No, it's on a schedule. You said that and then that popped on a schedule. Maybe they listened to you. Initially, initially, I think they announced Romandy and tour of Switzerland, yeah. Yeah. That's fine. That's perfect for him. That is perfect. He doesn't need any preparation. One of the thing I was going to ask you about. Hein Udobrooks. What is going on there? Kian. Kian. Move to Mobystar in the offseason. Broke his wrist. Broke his wrist. Yeah, broke his wrist in, where was it? Was it Valenciana? Yeah, to dole Valencia, yeah. Broke his wrist. So I don't know. I mean, he's recovering obviously so we can't say right i don't know when he's going to reappear he's on the star list for wednesday at a milano torino okay okay well that's that's good news that's good news uh and then

matz peterson uh looks like he's going to start the the spring classics not milan san ramo but the belgian classics so that's uh that's pretty crazy that's unbelievable yeah you know broke his collarbone on one side and his wrists on the other side yeah yeah yeah And that was also in Valenciana. And yeah, he's training and, yeah. On the schedule for E3. All right. Well, anything else, Johan, before we take off?

No. We'll be back soon to predict preview Milan San Remo. Yeah, very excited. I mean, this is all, this was all fun, but he starts getting serious on Saturday. When you have Vanderpola and Pagach are going at it. It's the monument. The monuments, there's nothing like. Like there's the monuments and the ground tour Spencer.

That's, you know, those races cannot be erased and are there for a reason. And there are races that are becoming rarer in cycling that you don't quite know who's going to win, right? You have San Remo Flanders, Rubé, liege, we don't talk about. Maybe that needs a reworking or something. But those three races. Leage and Lombardy, it's if today starts, he wins. Pencil them in, yeah. It's not fair.

But those first three truly a wide variety of riders can win. And then also one race I really look forward to also Spencer, which is, you know, like a more open race is absolute cold race. Yeah. Yeah, you know what? That is the most, I'd say like Democratic of the big races in recent years, partly because of the course, partly because of where it is in the calendar. If you've done Roubae, I don't believe anyone's ever won Rubet and Amstel Gold in the same year

I think we have to go back to maybe Eddie Merck or something, I don't know. It's just so taxing to try to back up. Jan Ross. Maybe it is. You know who Jan Raz is? Yeah, I do only because of that. I think I've maybe looked this up before and he was the only got to win. Before they used to call it Amstall Gold Ras instead of Amstrel race.

Like five or six times. Yeah, 1982, Rubet. And he did win Rubet. So one of those years, he must have won both, I think. So 1982, he wins Rubet. Yep. And then one week later wins Amstel Gold. Exactly.

He's my old boss, by the way. He was the general manager of Rabobank when I went there. Oh, crazy. I didn't know you were at Rabobank. What year? 96, 97. Wow. And then that 97 was your last year?

No, 98. Oh, yeah, 98. And then 99 you were a manager. Yeah. Crazy. Well, we got to get that special, that podcast out. Talk about a transition. I was on Visma, basically.

I was on Visma. That is, yeah. Visma is the theme. It's Rabobang from the past. That is true. Interesting. That's why you're such a Vizma fan. You're always talking about.

All right, Johan, well, we'll talk soon for San Remo and get in the moment soon. Okay, bye.