THEMOVE - Does a Shortened Time Trial Reshape the GC Battle? | Vuelta a España Stage 17 Analysis & Stage 18 Preview | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Giulio Pellizzari’s breakthrough win atop the brutal Alto de El Morredero summit finish, and analyze what the performances from the GC group reveal about the race’s final outcome. They then preview tomorrow’s time trial, which has been drastically shortened from its original route, discussing how it could reshape the GC battle and who is best positioned to take the stage win. Manukora: Go to https://MANUKORA.com/THEMOVE to save 31% plus $25 worth of free gifts Fabric: Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at https://meetfabric.com/THEMOVE. Policies issued by Western-Southern Life Assurance Company. Not available in certain states. Prices subject to underwriting and health questions. Use our special link to see where you can bet in your area and claim the best sign-up offers https://nxtbets.com/betoutcomes/

So, Johan, 27, wait, do I have the right? Did they redo this? Hold on a second. This can't be right. Well, if you, yeah, no, it's 27. Wait, no. For safety reasons, the time trial has been shortened from 27 kilometers to 12 kilometers. Oh, my goodness.

Oh, wow. Whoa. That changes everything. Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Bernil. We are breaking down stage 17 of the Valta, Spain, won by 21-year-old Giulio Pellizari, with Tom Pitcock, second, Jai Henley, third, Yonas Winigard, fourth, Shvalu, made a fifth.

Pitcock, looking pretty good, holding off that surge from Jai Henley. We'll also predict tomorrow's time trial, key time trial, and the G.C. stage 18. And, Johan, before we get your thoughts on how the stage played out, I'll just go back and get people up to speed. the race started pretty simple race starts breakaway goes vizma says we want to win the day with yonis vintagart so they hold that gap extremely tight they get to the final climb they catch the breakaway time it perfectly they're going up to climb jay vine whole whole uae support team dropped pretty early zrel made is alone but yonis fendigard has multiple teammates and then tom pickock and jai henley are like it

It was weird because the two top G.C. guys, Juala Meda and Yonis Vindigard, looked the weakest of the front group, immediately was selected out to be Jai Henley, Tom Pittcock, Jonas Vindegard, and Ben Tullet. And also Matthew Rickettel, who's up there in the G.C. But Ben Toulat offering key domestic work for Vindigard, especially when the Pitcah Kynley attacks were going. Vindigard could just fall. It was a headwind on the climb, so it makes it easier to follow. Vindigard could follow his teammates. Juala Mata was alone, but he did get back into the group. And then when there was a calm moment, Julio Pellizari attacks Red Bull. I mean, what an advantage having two GC riders up there. He attacks. Nobody wants to chase rides to his first career professional victory. And then Tom Pidcock, after being attacked by Jai Henley, looks really impressive. Comes over the line 16 seconds back, two seconds in front of Jai Henley.

So we're reversing the time losses. He's been suffering. And then Yonis Vindigard comes back 20 seconds. behind Pellizari with Juala Mata, two seconds behind him. So these guys kind of looked like they were limping through. Matthew Rickettello, 26 seconds back, doesn't look like he's going to get the white jersey. Pelazari looks too strong, but I guess we'll see in the time trial tomorrow. But, Johan, what was your takeaway of the day from today's stage?

Yeah, well, takeaway of the day is that Vizma, in my opinion, wrote the whole stage to win the stage with Jonas to prove they kept it at 140, 150 all the time with two riders. Impressive. Wilco Kelderman and Dylan van Barle have done. I don't know how much kilometers these guys have been riding on the front in this Vuelta, but it was clear that they wanted to win this stage. And once the selection is made amongst the favorites on this incredible, hard climb, the last time

Alto de Moradero. We see that Jonas has not attempted one single time, neither to win the stage or to drop Joe Almeida,

who was in trouble at some point. So that confirms what we have been saying for a number of days now, that Jonas is, obviously he's in red, he's in the lead. It's highly likely

he's going to win this Vuelta, but that is, this is not the, the, the, the, the, 100% Jonas Vingergaard, a vinger guard who's in great shape, even the vinger guard from two years ago in the Vuelta, where in Cepcuswon would have, in, with that kind of shape, he would have attacked and dropped on Meda today when he was in trouble. He didn't. It was headwind on the last climb, but, you know, it was also very steep. So, you know, the wind is a bit less of a factor. But the wind was incredibly, incredibly strong. There was actually reports this morning rumors that it was so windy in the morning that they were actually considering of putting the finish line when they were putting up

the barriers in the morning early. They were considering debating whether they would put it three kilometers lower, just at the end of the extremely steep part, because you can see on the images, it was extremely open on top, and the wind was amazingly strong. So that's a bit what I take away, a part of, of course, the incredible victory for Giulio Pellizari. We could talk about him a little bit later, but I would say Jonas and Almeida. Ammaida definitely not on a good day today, limited the losses.

I actually feared that Almeida would lose more time. when I saw him getting dropped like on the lower slopes when I guess that's when Jay Vine did his first attack you know Amadeh was in trouble and he came in his interview he said that he knew that that pace was too fast that they would not be able to maintain that and then he took his own pace which he did but I don't know I I feared that he would lose more time he came back on his own pace but was never able to make any attempt. And every time there was an acceleration, he was on the ropes.

Jonas, not to the same degree, but in my opinion, he was also suffering. So the two big favorites were actually not the strongest guys of the league group today. Yeah, it was almost inverted where the further down you are, the stronger you looked on the climb. I guess part of that is because you need to look, they needed to take time. But it's clear we're dealing with. Jonas Winigard below his best because with the time trial tomorrow going in and now he's chipped back.

He's got 50 seconds. Still, I mean, I think we talked about this. The last, they've done, Almeida and Vinnigard have done this course before, this time trial course, 2003, I think Almeida took 28 seconds on him. So it's not an Almeida stronger now than he was then. So Vindigard would have taken time if he could. As you said, they paced back the breakaway. They were going for the stage when.

He just wasn't feeling good. enough, we're strong enough to do it. I also thought, I was worried about Joe Alameda myself. I thought he looked okay, like pacing himself back. I thought he could have used the teammate, kind of like Jonas Finnegar had with Ben Tulett. And if you're telling me that Jay Vine is not as good of a climber as Ben Tulett, I don't know if I'd believe you. So I think he should have been, you start to see the toll of these breakaways, I feel like. For sure, for sure. I mean, that's also something that I remarked today, Spencer. I don't know if it would have made a big difference or not. But, you know, it cannot be that Vizma has four riders and then Almeida is isolated.

Soler and Ayuso were nowhere to be seen on that last, even in the lead-up to that last climb because they said the climb was 8.8 kilometers, but it actually started way before like a 12k ago already. There was like a two-kilometer steep climb where everybody got dropped. I also got dropped way before that. I guess Soler got dropped on that stretch. And so Vine was still there and Groschakner were still there, but they were in the back. And as soon as they got to the steep parts, I checked, Jay Vine lasted 800 meters on the last climb when it was 8.800, 8.800 meters, 8 kilometers, 800. He was dropped at 8K to go.

You know, I think he spent so much already, you know. I mean, the only guy that actually was always where he had to be, and probably today had a bit of a worst day, was Groszartner. He's always been next to Almeida. He's been amazing. But J. Fein today should have been, I mean, he should have if he didn't have, if he didn't waste all the energy in the other stages, you know. So Visma was obviously a.

in a better situation. Again, I repeat, on a steep climb like this, you know, if you have the legs after two kilometers of really steep climb, then it's the five, six favorites and there's nobody there. I mean, at the most, maybe Wingergaard could have Seppkus, maybe, right? And in that case, Groschartner and Jay Vine wouldn't be there anyway because they're not in the five, six strong as guys. but still I think it's also a mental advantage if you see hey you know I'm now by myself

everybody's on the limit and there's still four three of these yellow guys with the red guy right yeah that doesn't mean that's not a good feeling great pickup Ben two let for Visma man yeah riding themselves into a different tax bracket probably with oh yeah for these performances yeah I mean so I mean I I mean, I don't, we kind of brush past it, but Julio Pellizari, 21 years old. If he sounds familiar, it's because at the 2020, I'd never heard of him before, 2024 is here to tell you. He is off the front.

He's on the VF group, Bardiani, CF, CSF, Fiazani team. He's off the front. It looks like he's going to win a stage. It's a terrible day, terrible weather in the breakaway. And then Tata Pagotcha like emerges from the GC group, mows them down, like seems to pull back 30 seconds in the last 100 meters, wins a stage, gives him a jersey, and then he signs a world tour contract, shows up to, that's when he's 20 years old, then shows up to the zero to tie this year, finishes sixth overall. This is his second grand tour of the year,

and he wins a stage. One of the hardest mount stages from the GC groups are super impressive from Pelazari. Yeah. As you say, you know, first pro win, second grand tour already also. you know, sixth in the Gero, now most likely going to be fifth. You know when his last victory was, Spencer, as a cyclist? Oh, was it like? 2003, he won the last stage of the Tour de Lovineer. Second was he was escaped and he beat him in the sprint. Isaac del Toro.

Pretty good win. Yeah. Third was Junior LeSurf also here. Archie Ryan was fifth. Archie Ryan was there on Kristen. And then the final G.C. was Isaac Del Toro and second was Giulio Pellizari.

And fourth was Matthew Riketello. So they meet again two years after. Rickello was actually in the lead until the last day, I think. And then El Toro did an amazing ride. So, yeah, I mean, obviously, listen, this guy, I mean, we spoke quite a bit about him, I think, in the second part of the Giro,

if I remember correctly, that he looked like probably with the best three climbers in the Giro in the second part of the Giro. Fun fact also, I heard today that Pelizari del Toro and Antonio Tiberi live in the same apartment building, everyone on one store in San Marino. They share the same agent. So the agent obviously has set up their residence there. San Marino is a small independent country, which I think also has great tax advantages. It must, yeah. I don't know if that's a coincidence. But yeah, so he may have been witness of the cat shooting.

Oh, we wouldn't bring this up. Yeah, or we don't. we don't know what he knows about that crime but uh that's the first thing i thought of when you said they shared an apartment building it's somebody yeah yeah but i mean this is kind of if you just pull out a little bit kind of like red so red bull borough hans grow has julio pelizari jai henley looks back they also have we don't remember him but florean lippowitz like another gc young gc writer and they're getting remcoe of napole and they have primos ronklage kind of like it's an interesting conundrum they have next year with all these emerging gc talents

it's not looking bad at all um yeah hindley obviously looks like he he's back to his you know like when he won the gero i think he's on that kind of form problem yeah um and so yeah um it's going to be interesting to see you know between hindley and pitcock uh the time I'm proud tomorrow is going to be decisive, I think. That doesn't look like they can drop each other on the climbs, especially Pitcock today. I mean, Pitcock today was really, really good. He was very, very good. Hindley was good, but I think Pitcaught looked amazing also.

Pitcair would maybe the best have ever seen him today. He was flying on that climb. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the gap's probably at least for tomorrow too big for Henley to overcome Pickock. guess if he takes time and then it's not that big you know how much how much is it well it's 36 seconds and hindley is not an amazing time trialist that would be a lot to yeah make up tomorrow i mean the big one is vindergard 50 seconds in front of joal ameda looking like he might be sick

frankly but then amade is not making up 50 seconds in 27 kilometers spencer but if he gets a little chunk tomorrow then it's actually all open until saturday you know yeah yeah but if you're if you're vizma you're thinking well he doesn't really have a team to put us under put us under pressure i just like i think this is showing like maybe they went a little crazy with the breakaways we'll talk about it tomorrow but j vine's the second favorite we'll talk about it when we talk about tomorrow but j vine's the second favorite for the time trial so that that that's like predictive of anything and they are actually using riders tomorrow in the time trial that shows that they have they have no focus whatsoever on this gc because they need to be conserving everyone now to try to put vinaigard

under pressure the last few days that's what logics that's what logics should would say right but uh there's not so much logic anymore in today's cycling let's talk a bit about um mattho riconello uh i think i think he did an amazing ride today you know at some point when when really when it was going hard. Omeda was dropped. And there was only four riders left. So it was Hindley, Tom Pitcock, Jonas and Mathieu Recitello. And then I think Almeida was with Pelizari. Almeida brought Pelisari back. But there it looked like it looked really good for him there. And you know, obviously the headwind hindered the collaboration a bit. First of all, Jonas did not collaborate once. And I I think Hindley and Pitcock did most of the work or the attacks.

But, yeah, I think, I think, unfortunately, I think that he made two mistakes today, at Yurikitello. First of all, when they were, again, those five or six riders together, he's one of the first ones who attacks after that getting together again. So, and it was still quite far. I mean, there was no way he would make it to the finish by himself. Maybe he was trying to put Pelizari in trouble because he was dropped. You know, he had done that tempo for Hindley already and then he got dropped and then Omeida brought him back.

That attack, I think, was a bit too over-excited, I would say. And then secondly, you know, and he's actually said it in the interview also, but he should have reacted straight away, you know, on Pelliger. he had definitely he had the legs to follow him yeah yeah i yeah i mean that's easy for us to say but he definitely should have because yeah easier says the most you know he is the most to lose by that um and once he was away you know then he's with a bunch of people who don't care about reeling him in except for him so then you're in a really bad well he said he said that he thought you know since visma had been doing all the work that jonas would actually yeah bringing back and try to win the stage, but, you know, things change, you know, once you get to that last climb and there's

attacks and then that's actually the first time you're close to your limit, right? If you're one of those favorites, it's only then that you can say, hey, okay, I don't have it today to attack and stay away, you know? Yeah, I think by then, Jonas was in preservation mode, especially with, yeah, with Henley and Pickcock looking so strong. I think he was just holding on. It is pretty interesting. We're going into the last. few days and our top two guys looked this bad I mean like relative not not what I expected at all so I am also also to come back I mean like one last thing Spencer on Matthew Rickettello you know I got this information that he was only added at the

last moment to the Vuelta school he actually did the tour of Poland yeah they were not going to take him to the Vuelta because he's leaving the team he's it's I think it's public. No, that he goes to Decathlon AG2R. I saw it in the Dutch media. Yeah, I think it's public information. And so they actually said they came up with some kind of explanation that the climbs in this VELTA were not suited for him. I think it's going to be very difficult to find a better course than this year's Vuelta for a writer like Matthew Rickettello. Yeah, you couldn't come up with the better course. And then he only He only gets on the start line because Derek G has the spat with the team at the last second.

So then they have no choice but to bring Matthew. And now he's going to finish seventh, maybe sixth, but Felix Gall is fading fast. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I mean, he's definitely top 10. So top 10 in a grand tour is, I mean, you know, easier said than done. There's not many riders who can say that after their career, they have top 10 classifications in grand tour. tours no i mean if you look at this top 10 just the not many like felix skull remind like

that guy's fading and so it you could say vindigard as well like you can see the tour affecting like having a fatigue effect on these guys for sure for sure not many riders from the tour doing that well here i mean the white this is interesting too the white jersey normally the white jersey mimics the young jersey mimics the gc we have pelazari first ricotella second a minute and eight seconds apart below them junior leserf eight minutes back so big drop off then fourth is abel balderstone abel balderstone 20 minutes back and then if you go to 10th it's finlay pickering an hour 15 minutes back so it's actually like interesting to see the white jersey totally decoupled from the gc yeah yeah and it's and it's a two man race you know it's a two man race

after today i mean initially i was kind of hopeful for um for ricketto to get white but after today i think it's difficult especially in pelizari now with this stage when man i mean he's obviously in great shape yeah you know to do what he does after doing the work and the leadouts and the preparation for the attacks of j hindley it's pretty impressive yeah it is impressive um yeah i i heard a pundit say before the race like oh he's not a good climber and i'm like i don't know if that's true and i think today proved that he is a pretty good climber because that was a brutal climb yeah yeah no true no trees because of the i live in an area that actually looks similar to the burns car they rode through the day and it was uh it was it was pretty bleak

that i mean i i guess they didn't have a choice they it seems safe to run it up there but i i was I was pretty shocked at the landscape today, Johan. I assume those are recent wildfires. It looked really grim. I mean, I was not aware. I mean, I was aware there's been a lot of fires this summer in Spain. I mean, even close to my house, there was really, there was wildfires. And it's pretty scary.

But there, I mean, it looked like half of the mountain burned. Yeah. Yeah. I did not remember. I mean, this morning, I did some research. And I, I mean, it came back when I, saw the results in 2006. I think that's actually one of the last times that they went up Alto Moradero. I don't know if the last time, but in 2006, our team Discovery Channel, we took

the back then it was the gold jersey. Before the red jersey was the gold jersey in the in the Vuelta. We took the gold jersey there with Yanni Braikovic 19 years ago already. Wow. Yeah. But I did not remember. It was so. open. I had a different and a different vision about a different view of it in my in my mind. Well, do you have anything else on the stage before we go to predict tomorrow's critical time trial? Yeah, no, that's that's about it, Spencer. Yeah. I mean, luckily, luckily the the stage could go on today, no no incidents. Yeah. I've have got information that for the last two stages in Madrid, so for Bola del Mundo, which is in the

Madrid area, and then the last stage, that Madrid plans the highest security since the NATO summit in 2022 when it was in Spain. There's an extra 500 police and guardia civil agents that will be on duty for the last two stages. So it looks like, I mean, measures are being taken to to preserve the safety of the riders and to make sure that or make sure, I mean, do everything they can to have the Vuelta finish on Sunday evening in Madrid. Yeah. I mean, today I think they were helped by, it was so remote and so narrow. I don't think anyone could even get up there.

And it's easy to keep people from going up to cause problems. Yeah. I kind of think the authorities have been a little lax on like. Yeah, yeah. Because on Saturday, Sunday, I think the risk is extremely high. I've seen folders, like, how do you say that, like flyers? Yeah. Where they actually are advertising to advertise the protests and they, you know, they ask people to come.

I mean, and there's like implicate, yeah, I don't know. If you, if they're too lax on it and then you start to wonder like, well, anytime anyone has a grievance, do they just come shut down the final stage of a grant tour? it's actually kind of a bleak future for professional cycling if anyone can just come out and shut a race down it's so fragile because you know it's it's open on open roads you know and there's whatever 150 200 kilometers of roads you can't you can't control everything you know and it's accessible for everybody except some some areas for start and finish it could could be you know difficult to get because you need credentials and stuff but other than that you know it's accessible for that's also the popularity of the sport of cycling of course you know that it's accessible

it's free and everybody can go um you know it's it's it's i think it's the only sport in my opinion where you actually can touch the riders uh you know or in the when you're in the mountains you can hear them breathe yeah you know and um this is now obviously the weak point of the tour of Spain that it's so accessible and anybody can I mean if you think about it Spencer okay we have obviously now we have these protests and stuff but if you think about it in any big bike race you know anybody any champion the yellow jersey in the tour can be taken out at any moment by just one crazy person Well, haven't we seen

Matthew Vanderpals come under attack two years in a row at Rubet. In Pari, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so, yeah. No, I mean, it's happened. Like, when we talked about Giuseppe Guerrini on up the west in 1999, I remember when I was a child, it was a major, yeah, disaster in Belgium when Eddie Marks got hit in his, on his side by somebody. and then he had to abandon, I think, a few days later.

So, I mean, it's obviously, it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, the riders are not protected, you know, I mean, they're in a bubble, of course, like the race cars in the front and you have the lots of police and security and then you have the peloton and then the car's behind it. It's a bubble of whatever it is, five minutes, 10 minutes of, of passing through, right? So that that bubble moves and it's impossible to have protection over the five, six hours of race all the time. Well, I think it's going to be, we'll talk about this time trial. I'm a little worried about the time trial.

But let's take a quick ad break and then we will get back with our predictions. Everybody, this episode is brought to you by Manu Kora Honey. Are you looking for something simple and delicious to add to your wellness routine? well look no further i'm doing i'm taking monochora every morning just a spoonful when i come down to watch my vault of stages it is rich creamy and frankly the most delicious honey i've ever had has a slight smoky smoky taste which i love it's ethically ethically produced by monochora's master beekeepers in the remote forest in new zealand it contains powerful nutrients to support immunity and gut health and the bees collect the nectar from the manukititri in new zealand the nectar is packed with

bioactives and the honey that is produced has three times more anti-dioxidants and prebiotics than your average honey. A special antibacterial compounds called MGO also comes from the nectar of the tea tree. Manukora third party tests every single harvest for MGO and makes these results available through their QR system. It's a complete game changer. All you need is one heap teaspoon each morning like I'm doing to get the most out of the amazing bioactives in Manuka. Additional usage throughout the day is completely fine, and in fact, it's encouraged because it helps you cut out other sweeteners. It's easier than ever to try Manukora honey. Head to monocora.com slash the move to save up to 31% plus get $25 with the free gifts with

the starter kit. It comes with an MGO 850 plus manuka honey jar, five honey travel sticks, a wooden spoon, and a guidebook. That's manukora.com slash the move to save 31.000. 1% plus $25 with the free gifts. All right, back to the episode. Everybody, this episode is brought to you by Fabric by Gerber Life. Running a household with kids is chaos. Podcasts, racing, coverage, travel, it can be a lot. And while we plan for the day to day, the truth is you also need a plan for protecting

your family if something unexpected ever happens to you. That's where Fabric by Gerber Life comes in. Fabric offers term life insurance you can get done today, made for busy parents like you. all online all on your schedule right from your couch you could be covered in under 10 minutes with no health exam required and here's the thing if you're young and healthy now is the time to lock those rates in even if you already have some coverage to your employer that policy likely is not enough and it might not follow you if you switch jobs fabric makes it simple and affordable with flexible high quality policies that can fit in your budget like a million dollars in coverage that for less than a dollar a day this is something i personally think about a lot, especially if you are a cyclist. We don't like to think about it. We don't like to talk about it. But if you have kids and you're out there on the roads, you might want to think about term life insurance. So your family is covered in case you don't come back. So join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family apply today in just

minutes at meetfabric.com slash the move. That's meetfabric.com slash the move. M-E-E-E-T-Fabric.com slash the move policies issued by Western Southern Life Assurance Company not available in certain states prices subject to underwriting and health questions so Johan 27 wait do I have the right did they redo this hold on a second this can't be right well if you yeah no it's 27 wait no for safety reasons the time trail has been shortened from 27 kilometers to 12 kilometers Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow. Whoa.

That changes everything. Everything. Yeah. So I was worried. I was just about to say, I'm really worried about this time trial. And so clearly was the Volta, Espania, they shorten it to 12K. Mm-hmm. Do we have a route?

It looks like it's the same map. So we don't know where the 12K is, but we still have the little tiny climb, 500 meter climb, 7.5%. Fairly straightforward, but it is kind of technical. It's in a city, which also makes it harder to control the safety aspect because there's more people there. All this off the favorites, this does change how we're going to approach everything. This is wow that this is happening live. Philippa O'Gana, this is on Fandual in the U.S.

might be different on Unibet. Philippe O'Gana, minus 1,95, J Vine plus 500, Alec Sajant, plus 900, Juan Uso plus 1100, Dan Hul plus 1400, Stefan Kuhnkung plus 2,000, Chihuahameda plus 2,500. Jonas Finnegard plus 2,500 goes on and on and on. We'll call them out when we need to. If you want to bet, check out nxtapets.com slash bet outcomes. You'll see where you can bet where you live and the best sign-up bonuses and prices on each book. Johan, who do you think is going to win this now shortened time trial?

Yeah, well, now that it's shorter even more. I mean, I was going to always pick Philippe O'Granna, but. Yeah. From 27 kilometers to 12.2 kilometers, now I'm going to pick Felipe O'Gana for sure. On Unibet, he's, I mean, I got him at 176. Maybe it has changed now since they changed the route. I'm going to put my bed in right now for him because I'm worried it's going to change because of that news.

This should be like a layup for Ghana with this because. with actually i'm in texas right now maybe i can't bet um but gana is you know he he should win this 12k he's been waiting for this assuming he's not carrying an injury or illness we don't know about i'm going to go gana as well he's minus one ninety five on fanduel in the u.s so that's what i'm going to get about if i can just checking here on unibet and right now they're they just took everything off and i guess they're redoing the numbers oh boy there's no answer There's no odds up right now on the event. Crazy.

For the moment. This is, I mean, what time is it in Madrid right now, Johan? It's almost 10 p.m. That is a late alteration to the course. Wow. Yeah, I just saw it came out 40 minutes ago. So, yeah, listen, that changes a lot. Of course, it's not safe yet for Jonas, right?

But it's obviously the advantage Jonas. the less time time clarometers the less sees in at risk to lose to almeda if he uses at all right so um i think this is definitely good for yonas this is huge for yonis it's also huge for tom pittcock a lot less surface area to lose the to lose your podium spot for sure for sure if you're onus vinaigard yeah i'm afraid this probably seals the devalta for yonis i'd assume they're gonna that's let's not underestimate the last stage, Spencer. It is, it is in terms of vertical meters, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the most difficult one compared to I think we said on the four, I mean, I think we said stage three or four, but it's, it's like 10 meters more on Saturday. They go two up, two times up, uh, Navasera and then the last time they, they keep going another three kilometers. Um, the last three kilometers of Saturday stage are much harder of what we've seen today, much harder. I mean the problem is if it's harder almeda and vinaigard might get dropped together

I don't know if I don't know if they're going to be leaving each other behind at this rate I think I don't think so I still think they have the two best climbers and so if henley's looking at least inley looks good top pick up looks good too so if gana doesn't win do you think there's a wild card on this shortened course I mean I was going to pick someone you know in case the wind change or something, you know, I mean, it's difficult to pick someone else. I mean, I see that Jay Vine was the second favorite. Honestly, Spencer, I cannot imagine, even now with the change scores and, you know,

the reduced distance, I cannot understand if, and tomorrow will probably talk about it, if UAE allows Jay Vine or anyone else. on UAE, except Jaya, to go full gas in the time trial. I can, I do not understand this. Honestly, I do not understand. You know, tomorrow, the seven other riders just need to take it easy and just, okay, now even more than ever. You know, it's, it's all or nothing on stage 20. So nobody of UAE should go full.

I've heard people say that they think Juan Yusu can win the time trial. I mean, that would be something. That would be something. That would be borderline unprofessional, though. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Well, like it should not be a surprise if it happens, right? I mean, it's, yeah. For me, it's just the fact that the team allows this.

I mean, I would say, okay, guys, listen, this is the situation. We still have a chance to win tomorrow or tomorrow morning, this hate to the riders today. everybody except Jiao has a rest day. Simple. Yeah. I mean, what do they care? What do they care? I mean, today they won number 82.

They won victory number 82. Isaac del Toro won Giro de Toscana in Italy. 82nd victory of the year. So I think it's safe to say they're going to get to 85, you know, pretty comfortably. Yeah. Someone wrote to me, someone wrote to me and said that he had heard that they want to win 100 races this year. Well, that would explain this madness that we've been seen. If they go hard in the time trial, I mean, it's just because they've been absent when actually Almeida's needed them.

And then if they win, if one of them wins the time trial, that's not a good look for the team. It would be state's win number eight. you know yeah i mean at some point it starts to look bad yeah so anyway because we have to take is pick another one i'm going to pick alex seyart he's plus 1,000 or he was plus 1,000 when i saw the the odds he starts pretty early also um and he's a pretty good time for all this um you know there's there's there's people gone now there's stephen kung there's segart there's Don Hool. Those are the specialists, I would say, right?

The specialist, time trials that are still in the race. So I think we're going to have, I mean, especially now that it's shortened, I think we should definitely pick one of those. I'm going to pick someone that is on a different timeline than Ghana, because Ghana is 137th overall. Just in case the win changes. Like remember we saw Dan Hul, Dan Ull, win an unexpected TT stage recently. I'm going to go Bruno Amorrile plus 8,000.

He got fourth at the first time trial in the Tour de France this year. He's 19th overall, so he will be going at a different time than Ghana. I'm going to go with him for my wild card, just in case something funky happens. Yeah. It doesn't seem, it doesn't seem, Spencer, that the wind is going to be strong. And so here, I mean, on the information I have at seven to nine kilometers. an hour um and it doesn't seem like the direction is going to change either uh coming from the same direction so i don't think that the change in wind will be a big factor but you never know i mean

you never know so we know we know we don't well then if you really want to start to to play this out to game this out you start to i mean Ghana is actually maybe fine because he starts so early but you start to think well if Ghana is disrupted by protesters or the stage starts and gets canceled halfway through. What do they do? I mean, do they just like, Ghana's already gone. Is it going to be just no result? Well, I mean, this is another thing we forgot to say.

This morning, the riders met together with the organization. And there's a decision made that at any point, if there's a protest and the race has to be shortened or shortened. yeah there's the race is neutralized there's not going to be a winner okay this is a decision that's we made this morning all right so interesting well man well so like what if what if there's a flag sticking out gana hits it crashes does that constitute a protest no no no yeah so it is it might be smart to pick throw a little bit of money on someone that's not gana because you just never know what's going to happen this is one of the weirdest grand tour are overseen yeah in terms of various variables yeah well anything else johan on tomorrow's

stage no i mean yeah short time trial wow that's a bummer i mean it is a bummer it's a huge bummer especially if like yon what if yonis loses like 10 seconds yeah man like what would have been yeah i mean you know it's if it's let's say if it's a second per kilometer could be 12 seconds it could have been 30 seconds i know yeah and then And then you're actually within, the thing is, if he would have taken 30 seconds back, he's 20 seconds down, imagine he wins the final stage. And the gap actually doesn't have to be that big to overcome that. But now it's completely different because of the shortening. But anyway, that's just in, you know, the supposition.

We suppose that Jonas has been the most time. He could take time, you know. You could take time. He's a good time trialist. He's a good time trialist, you know. He has produced a few good time trials, you could say. I actually rode that the 2023 T-T-Course where he destroyed Pagachar, and it was shocking. You know, it looks short.

When he does it, you're like 40 minutes. What am I going to be? 42 minutes. And it is shocking how much slower you are and how long those courses are. So, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's a pretty good time travelist. Yeah. Well, thanks, Johan.

Okay, Spencer, we'll be back to talk tomorrow. Thank you.