THEMOVE - Giro d'Italia Stage 12 Analysis & Stage 13 Preview | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Olav Kooij's sprint win on Stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia, where Wout van Aert continued his comeback by providing an incredible leadout and Isaac del Toro ...grabbed two more time bonuses to extend his race lead. They discuss a few takeaways from the stage, before previewing tomorrow's likely uphill sprint on Stage 13, predicting who will win, how the action will play out, and which riders present the best betting value. NordVPN: Get your Exclusive NordVPN deal here → https://nordvpn.com/themove It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee! Maui Nui - Maui Nui offers the only 100% Wild-Harvested meat that's completely stress-free and responsibly sourced. It's perfect for anyone looking to elevate their meals with delicious, high-quality protein.   Maui Nui Venison is offering THEMOVE listeners a limited collection of our favorite cuts and products. Head to https://mauinuivenison.com/themove to secure your access now. 

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Starting point is 00:00:00 My concern here is actually not a concern. This will be fascinating to see. Like, what if they can't get them? But I use I use so can. And then we're with like a VALTA 2023 situation where the only writer capable of mowing you down is your own teammate. What then happens like that? Then I use was doing it.
Starting point is 00:00:20 So sure. I use was going for it. Yeah, he's he's the it. He's the winner. He's the leader in his mind. He's winning in his mind. If he has the legs, trust me, he's not going to be told, he's not going to be told,
Starting point is 00:00:38 hey, Del Toro has to win because he's in pink. No, Ayuso is going for it. Everybody, welcome back to the move plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Berniel. We are breaking down stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia, which was won by Olaf Coy in a sprint over Casper van Oden and Ben Turner.
Starting point is 00:00:58 And then we'll predict tomorrow's stage 13. Before we do that, let's walk through not the most action packed stage of the race. You'd say started off with some climbs came out of the Po Valley around Modena. And then we raced towards Via Donna. The only action really along the route was Isaac del Toro taking a third in the Red Bull kilometer sprint, right as they caught the breakaway. It was kind of early to catch it, like 30 something kilometers.
Starting point is 00:01:28 No one else even really contested it telling us that Primoz Roglic and Juan Uso are probably racing against each other while, while Del Toro picks up these time bonuses. Then they come into the final kilometer. While Van Aert is on the front, you think, well, he's there a little bit too early, but no, he pulls Koi all the way to the point where they get jumped by Casper Van Uden, ends up being the perfect lead out for Koi, who comes around Van Uden for the win. Kind of pretty straightforward, probably the most straightforward stage we've had of the
Starting point is 00:01:58 Giro so far. Johan, what were your major takeaways from the stage? Yeah. Well, as you said, Spencer, a typical three man breakaway, very easy for the other teams with sprinters to control. So we saw Alpecin and Visma and Decathlon basically control the three man breakaway, each with one rider.
Starting point is 00:02:20 It doesn't take anymore. The next thing is what happened basically is, yeah, as you said, Del Toro jumping for the sprint. As I said, I've said it already a few times, but he has unbelievable legs. Everything goes smooth, easy. Yeah. It doesn't mean a lot, you know, what you did today. But and you can say, you know, why waste that energy?
Starting point is 00:02:48 He didn't waste that much energy. You know, I think he came out of a corner and then was by himself and nobody else followed. So it's only two seconds. I just, I just think that this guy becomes more and more, you know, it's probably not going to win, but man, I don't, I don't exclude it anymore. A guy, I mean, he's only 21. He takes it day by day. Nobody knows how far he can get. He doesn't know, but the fact that he takes it day by day, he grows and grows and grows into that pink Jersey. And the easiness with which I see him ride on climbs through the Peloton, fighting for position.
Starting point is 00:03:35 Yeah, he's becoming a serious candidate. Egan Bernal said that the Toro can win this Giro. This guy has already won the tour and the Giro, right? Of course, I think they have some relationship. They're both Latin American. They obviously hang out in the Peloton. I mean, whenever they can. Today, for example, was a great day to hang out in the Peloton when, you know, when this
Starting point is 00:04:07 is three-man breakaway and in the Peloton, it doesn't go that fast. But I saw the reporter presenting Bernal's statement to Del Toro. And he said, huh? Wow. You know, Bernal says that he's my idol. You know, he's, when he was like a junior, he looked up to Bernal, you know, he was his idol, probably a guy he had posters in his room.
Starting point is 00:04:37 And now this guy- This is weird because he's not that old. It's like, how is this happening? Well, no, but Spencer, listen, if you're, if you're, uh, if you're 15, 16, then, and Bernal must have been 21. He's right. Yeah. He's like eight years older than, yeah. Uh, Bernal was winning the tour with 22 years old. Wow. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, so, so, uh,
Starting point is 00:05:08 so yeah, he was surprised and he said, oh, wow, that's great. You know, I said, I don't want to be too ambitious. Uh, I'm here, you know, we ride as a team. Um, but man, day by day goes by and we've seen it in the past. We've seen it in the past. Remember, for example, um, uh, what's his name again? Damio Cune Damiano Cuneo, uh, long time ago, similar situation, you know, was also very young, 22, probably 23, maybe, but you know, he was, uh, in the pink and
Starting point is 00:05:38 he just kept growing and, uh, when it became stronger and became unbeatable actually in this, in the Giro Iwan, I remember. So we'll see. We'll see. This Giro, of course, there's still a lot of mountains to come. And then, yeah, then the sprint. That was the next thing as expected. Great win for Olaf Coy with an unbelievably strong Van Aert and Eduardo Afini. If you have
Starting point is 00:06:08 those two guys, that's basically a whole team as your lead out training. Afini, he lives there in that area. He did a really, really good pull. And then Van Aert, when I saw Van Aert come to the front with one K to go, I said, wow, that's too early. That's too early. But man, he went so fast. He went unbelievably fast. He went through that corner with Koi. There you see how Koi is a master at positioning himself. Initially, he was not on the wheel of Van Arte. He was like, there was two riders in between. And just before he went to that, to that wheel, Van Arte accelerated a little bit. He looked back. And it was basically single file from then. And then on the first 10 riders, there was, there was almost no
Starting point is 00:07:00 fighting for position in the, in the, in the, in that corner, uh, coming out of the corner of an art accelerates and takes it very, very far. Uh, I have a stat here. We have, we can put up the picture, uh, which was published by villain. Um, the last 54 seconds of an art or 760 Watts average, uh, with a turn, you know, with the zeros from the turn, yeah average with a turn. Yeah, counting the zeros from the turn. Yeah, with a turn in there. So yeah, the last kilometer was average power, 760 watts, maximum power, 1320, average speed, 57.7 because of the turn and maximum speed 65.
Starting point is 00:07:45 So not one of the fastest sprints. The real fast sprints are 78 and above, 73, 74 if it's really fast, but that's in ideal conditions. This was a pure sprint and Visma was the only team with a lead out and they did it perfect. Perfect. It was lined up. Everybody else was fighting for the wheels. And so, yeah, I mean, well-deserved and great to see Olaf Koi win again. His 40th victory for a 20, 23 year olds, 23 year old guy, 40th win in professionals. He's leaving, right? He's going somewhere else.
Starting point is 00:08:25 He is leaving. And it's not confirmed, but unofficially it's Decathlon. Nice pickup. Yeah. I had stayed to even like spend too much time on this because there's almost no lessons to be learned because what, wow, Venard did, by the way, a horsepower is like 740 Watts. So then Art did more than a horsepower for the final minute. When you're training, it's like the, it's called the stallion club if you can do more than a horsepower for a minute.
Starting point is 00:08:51 And like most people you just, you like build a month around hitting a horsepower for a minute. Van Aert's doing it at the end of a stage in the middle of a grand tour, which is super impressive with a turn in there, but he hits the front with the K to go too far, right? I thought the same thing, Johan, you're like, well, this isn't going to work, but it was smart because he almost used the turn as his end point. Like I just have to get to the turn. I go faster the turn.
Starting point is 00:09:13 They use it to their advantage because him and Koi created a gap during the hair pin. And then after like, you know, what is it? Two, three seconds of rest. Then Van Art's like, okay, I'll give it a little bit more Casper van Uden. There's a gap. Ben Turner actually doesn't get gapped from any of us, which is why he ends up on the podium. Casper van Uden like sprints into this slipstream and then goes around them. I think the right decision, even though it was a little far out, like 250 meters out. But anytime you have a chance to sprint into a slipstream like that,
Starting point is 00:09:44 you probably should go around because you're traveling so much faster than the other people. When you get by them, Koi comes around them, but he holds on for a second. It's pretty good. Could have won that stage if Koi wasn't Koi, he wins that stage. And also Spencer, if Van Uden is not, because Van Uden was on a gap after the turn. If he's, if he's not on a gap, he could have, I mean, if, if, if, right. But it's, it's true. What do you say he did the right thing because he had to sprint to the wheel.
Starting point is 00:10:14 So he came with more speed and then you get into the slipstream. Then you have to go, um, listen, this guy, man, um, it's a guy, it's a name we need to remember because he has a sprint of 300 meters, incredibly, incredibly steady. Once he goes, he doesn't slow down. He's beaten by Koi because Koi was just faster. But to go from this far and still finish second against guys like Pedersen and Groves and Frétein. Yeah, that's, it's also still young, you know, he's also 23, I guess.
Starting point is 00:10:52 Yeah, really young. Kasper van Uyden, yeah. And he gets a second, which is a big deal. I mean, just a big deal in general. I don't think he, I think that's only a second world tour podium of his career, but then it's also big for his team because that's a lot of UCI points.
Starting point is 00:11:05 So going early and as we've seen at this year, it's usually the rider that goes first, the winds, so no shame in doing that. We still have this run of it's not rocket science, the rider who's positioned in second wheel with a really strong lead out rider in front of them tends to win these sprints because they're not fighting. If you look at the last K like Pedersenen and, and, uh, Caden groves are just fighting, you know, fighting for the wind, for the wheels. They're in the wind. It's like, that's going to hurt your sprint. So yeah,
Starting point is 00:11:33 get a really strong guy like Matthias by check or well, Van Art to lead you out and you'll win sprints. That's, that's, that's what we have learned so far. Not exactly useful to a lot of teams, but I thought it was, I mean, super impressive from Van Aert. Like he's back, he's over whatever sickness he had. And also, you know, see how happy he was. It was the plan, you know, it's always great if you can execute the plan exactly as it's talked about
Starting point is 00:12:01 in the bus in the morning, right? Or in the evening, I don't know when they do their meetings, but normally before the stage, in a stage, in a ground tour. And they executed it perfectly. You know, they had one rider, was it Krausweg? Krausweg, who helped these other two teams. And then they had Afini and Van Aert. A little thing, I mean, it's a funny thing. I mean,
Starting point is 00:12:26 it's actually ridiculous that a writer, I mean, in this case, Van Aert had to think about that. So you have the sprint, right? Van Aert was on the right, completely, not minding his own business, didn't bother anybody. And so he was looking to when, when, when, um, Koi raises his arms, when art wants to raise his arm and he's, and he, he, he put it down straight away, thinking about the fine, thinking about the fine that the UCI gives to teammates who celebrate the victory of a teammate. It's ridiculous. Um, so, um, even art was, was very professional.
Starting point is 00:13:03 He, he was excited, but straight away he said, he said, okay, I don't want to pay 500 Swiss francs. Well, it goes out of the pot. They got, they got a built. It's like, you see these breakaways like today. You're like, why is anyone up there? It's like, these guys are making money. You're getting cash every time you go through those checkpoints.
Starting point is 00:13:20 You got to get that, that kitty up by the end of the race. But just my thoughts on the GC, you were talking about that earlier, clearly two seconds is not going to decide the race. So those, the sprint is kind of insignificant, but we're getting to the point where he's racking up a lot of bonus seconds. He has 30 so far, Primoz Roglic has two. Like, is there a chance he beats Primoz Roglic by 28 seconds? There is for sure. Like he is racking them up quite substantially.
Starting point is 00:13:50 And like the, another thing I'm thinking about, he's 33 seconds. So it's like, oh, he's only 33 seconds in the lead. That's not that high, but he's 69 seconds to the next non UAE rider. Like that's starting to get significant. 111 to Simon Yates, 126 to Primos. My concern here is actually not a concern. This would be fascinating to see like, what if they can't get them, but I, I used to can. And then we were with like a welter 2023 situation where the only rider capable
Starting point is 00:14:19 of mowing you down as your own teammate. What then happens like that? Then I used is doing it. For sure. Ayuso is going for it. Yeah. He's the winner. He's the leader in his mind. He's winning in his mind. Yeah. He's not gonna, if he has the legs, trust me, he's not gonna be, he's not gonna be told, Hey, Del Toro has to win because he's in pink. No, I use his going for it. I kind of liked that. I mean, I like to see the best rider winning, but it's generally not a great look when you're, I mean, you know how that was crazy. Like the fanfare around when Primos and Jonas were dropping Sun,
Starting point is 00:15:01 who was in the, in the Jersey at the vote, the like did not not go over well. So it would be fascinating to see that. And I mean, obviously if Del Toro gets second at this race, that's a really big deal. If he gets fifth at this race, it's a big deal. The guys never had a significant GC result in the grand tour before. So, right. It's only, it's only, it's only, it's only his second. What's going on. You finished 36, the one grand tour at the age of 20. Geez. All behind Pagatra already. But any other thoughts on this stage before we move on? I guess that's it, Spencer. Not much else to say. It's one of those stages,
Starting point is 00:15:35 you kind of know what's going to happen. It was a great sprint. Yeah. And I think, I think Koi is probably one of the three fastest sprinters in this, in this race, maybe one of the two fastest sprinters in this race. Uh, and so it's, it's only right that he, he wins. He, I mean, not that, not that I think it's going to happen, but he stays in contention for the points Jersey. Uh, you know, he, he reduces the difference with Pedersen a bit. So Pedersen cannot, uh, cannot slow Uh, you know, he, he reduces the difference with better son a bit. So Pederson cannot, uh, can not slow down. You know, he does have a good cushion, but, uh, I mean, there's, there are stages where Pederson is going to score points and coy
Starting point is 00:16:15 doesn't, but, uh, that race is not over. You know, it was really not, I mean, kind of hurt him is the Napoli stage, cause there was no points at the finish there. So like Pedersen crashed on that stage, who knows how he would have sprinted. Koi got a pretty high finish on that day, but he doesn't get any points from that. But yeah, you're right. He does close that gap quite a bit. Um, another thing to note is Benard's max power seven, 13, 20. So like, when you look at these lead outriders, like that's a lot of Watts,
Starting point is 00:16:46 like go out tonight and try to do 1300 Watts on your, on your little evening ride. It's not easy to do. Like it looks like you're not going that fast, but never in my life can I get that. What's your maximum power Spencer? You know, my, my right now, or I mean, probably at my best like 15, 1600. I, uh, I didn't know how to look for this, but my son, my son showed me, uh, let me see. Uh, Oh man. This is bad. 904.
Starting point is 00:17:32 It's hard to do go out and do 900 Watts right now. It doesn't. Listen, I'm almost 61 years old. I think it's fine. I don't, I don't have that. I did more once in my life. The thing I find that become like, I could probably get close to 1500 if I really had to right now, but you know, I used to be able to hold like 1300 Watts or 15 seconds, but now I could probably do it for like four seconds. That's unless you really work on that. Let me tell you, when age catches up with you, it's, it's, it's depressing the numbers.
Starting point is 00:18:02 It's better not to look at them. 900 Watts. Yeah. In your sixties, that's gotta be world-class. Well, anything else on this stage? You know it was an action-packed stage when we're going through our max watts from pre-sim water rides. I need to check your stats on Strava, Spencer. I think I'm catching up with you a bit.
Starting point is 00:18:29 This has been a, yeah, I've not been riding much this week. But you're going to ride a lot in the summer, I suspect. So, yeah, but we're there. I'm not too far off. I'm not too far off. We'll keep it close until, until December. I have to hope that swift bike is in the studio. Rack up those miles in Watopia. Um, anything else on stage 12, Johan,
Starting point is 00:18:54 before we move on? No, no. All right. So let's take a quick ad break and then we will predict super hard to predict stage 13 kind of an interesting stage that I hadn't quite noticed until recently. Everybody, this episode is brought to you by NordVPN. No doubt you've heard of VPNs, but what the heck are they? Well, a VPN is a service that helps you protect your internet connection, privacy online. VPNs create an encrypted tunnel for your data and they protect your online identity by hiding
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Starting point is 00:22:31 don't wait. Head to MauiNuiVenison.com slash The Move to secure your access now. Again, that's MauiNuiVenison, M-A-U-I-N-U-I-Venison.com slash The Move, or there's a link in the show notes. All right, back to the show. Okay, Johan, stage 13 tomorrow is 180 kilometers. It's through the Po Valley from Rivonio, or Rovigo to Vincenza. And it's like really flat area, but they find seemingly every climb they can along the way.
Starting point is 00:23:03 So there's a few categorized climbs, but the highlights are this final circuit at the end but they find seemingly every climb they can along the way. So there's a few categorized climbs, but the highlights are this final circuit at the end where they have one, two, three categorized climbs with one that seems to be uncategorized, but is 2K long at 6.6% average and has bonus seconds at the top. They do the final climb twice.
Starting point is 00:23:20 They go up and over the first time, then they finish at the top on the second time. It doesn't look that hard when you just glance at it like okay a kilometer at seven point six percent But when you when you zoom in on it the last 700 meters averages ten percent with the twelve percent Max so what went from what I thought would be an uphill sprint stage starts to get a little bit more interesting in GC terms The closer you look the odds have been changing as we've been doing the show. I'll read this is from Unibet in Europe and there is some slightly different prices on us books. I'll call it when I need to, but Isaac del Toro is the favorite at plus 400.
Starting point is 00:23:56 Mads Pedersen plus 400 as well. Well, Venard plus 500, Tom Pickock plus 1200, Primus Roglic plus 1400, Juana Uso plus 1800, Mateus Vacek plus 1800, Giulio Cercone plus 2200, Eduardo Zambanini plus 2500, Andrea Vandrame plus 3300, Corbin Strong plus 3300. It goes on and on. We'll call them out when we need to. But Johan, how do you think this is gonna play out
Starting point is 00:24:20 and who's gonna win this thing? Also Spencer, no thing. There's a 20 kilometer circuit at the end. And I just looked at the map. It looks kind of twisty. So it's going to be fast. First of all, they're going to come up the finishing climb and then they do a 20 kilometer circuit.
Starting point is 00:24:40 I mean, yeah, I think it's 20 kilometers. So it's going to be stretched out. I mean, first of all, the first time of the climb, it's 10%. The sprinters are not going to be there anymore. And UAE has such a strong team that in my opinion, they will set a fast pace. So I don't think anybody has a chance to really get away. Maybe in the Taka La Richard Carapaz or something could be an option, but I don't think so. This is going to be UAE drilling it with the strength they have. And I think, you know, on the last climb, it's going to be
Starting point is 00:25:26 amongst the GC guys and some punchers. Personally, I think it's maybe a risk, but I think a guy like Pedersen has a chance tomorrow. You know, one kilometer, 10%, he can do that. Um, you know, one kilometer, 10%, he can do that. Um, I mean, he's the second favorite on the books, uh, for a reason. So I'm going to, I'm going to go for Matt's betters and tomorrow to win the stage. Yeah. It's in true, in true Giro fashion. It kind of the, the gradients appear to change depending on what book you're
Starting point is 00:26:04 looking at. So one of them has it at 8.9 with a 4.6% grade before the finish. So it starts to seem like that could suit Mads Pedersen a little bit better, which is probably why the odds are changing so fast. I don't disagree. I think he could win the stage. Um, the only thing is the multiple climbs, the twisty running, as you say, I'm looking at it right now. Just with that, I mean, it's tough. This is a really tough one to predict.
Starting point is 00:26:31 I think I would probably go easy. Del Toro, the co-favorite plus 400 just because I mean, man, the uphill finish, she didn't win it, but the one where he got second on stage 11, it looked so easy to him, like that was, that was wild. That was a harder stage than tomorrow was going to be, but just being with his team, probably at the front. And then it's going to be a lot easier for him to be where he needs to be than Pedersen, who's going to have to give everything just even get to the final few hundred meters.
Starting point is 00:27:01 But I'm not saying that Mads Pedersen can't win, but I would just give the edge to Del Toro because I think it is going to be a hard run in. It is, you know, if you look at, I mean, I look here at the, I don't know if it's the official road book, the Giro road book profile, but yeah, it's like a 2%. When you get into the last kilometer and then it's 10%. There's a maximum of 12% at some point with about 500 meters to go. Um, yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:34 Uh, isn't if there's one guy who beats better, is it still total? Um, yeah. Cause even if you start making the math on this, so 700 meters at 10%, I mean, what, what do we think that is time wise? That's like 20 seconds, 30 seconds. Right. What do you mean? Like how long is that going to take them or 40 seconds to come?
Starting point is 00:28:00 Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. It's going to take them a lot more sponsor. 700 meters at 10%. That's, uh, that's two minutes. Two minutes. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, even at two minutes. So yeah, like what's the two minute power differential between Pederson and Del Toro. Pederson can probably put out a lot of power for two minutes, probably enough to overcome the watt per kilo disadvantage. Yeah, but still, you know, it's, they, they do it twice. And then this, this climb before, um, in the middle there, that's, uh, that's not easy,
Starting point is 00:28:35 you know, uh, I think that's going to be, that's going to be, um, what's better since problem. Um, the, the Red Bull, the Red Bull climb, especially because there's a sprint there, is this what's it called? Arco. Arco. Arco. Niano. Arco. Niano climb. So that's two and a half kilometers. Average 5%. But there's one kilometer in the middle, which is 9%. And there's bonus seconds on top. So I think that's the difficult part for Mats Pedersen. The words also difficult for Del Toro
Starting point is 00:29:15 is if he sprints for those seconds, then he's sprinting twice. He's so strong right now. It doesn't matter for Del Toro. Del Toro can do this. That is crazy. Yeah, he's very good. I do think Mats Pedersen is probably one of. LeToro can do this. That is crazy. Yeah. He's very good. I do think Matt Spetterson is probably one of the only writers that can challenge him.
Starting point is 00:29:30 I know we just talked about Wout Van Aert. I don't know about Wout Van Aert on this. This seems, this would be ridiculous if you like, this is so hard and against a writer like Del Toro, I guess he technically beat him, but that was a much easier final pitch than they're going to have tomorrow. Yeah. If you, you know, if you think about the world of an art, we have seen like the, the, the prime world, when art of the tour, the frowns, I'd say no, absolutely no doubt he can win this, but this is not the same yet. You know,
Starting point is 00:29:56 he's, uh, he's still improving. Um, and yeah, no on a climb like this, I think it's going to be very difficult for a lot of an art. Um, my second choice, no, on a climb like this, I think it's going to be very difficult for Wout Van Aert. My second choice, it's also a risky pick. But especially because he's shown already some unbelievable form, is Matthias Watzek. Especially because he's plus 1800. And he can do this. Um, he has the power to, to do these one kilometer climbs at 10%.
Starting point is 00:30:32 Yeah. I actually, I think at plus 1800, that's kind of wild. He's down there. I do think he could win. I do kind of worry. And we don't really know like where he is right now. I think at some point does he have to pay the toll? Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:30:46 You're right. So yes, you're right. These guys are going to fade. You know, they came in, they came into the first week like all guns blazing. Yeah, it's gonna, it's gonna fade away at some point. Their power and their punch. But man, you know, that stage where he bridged up to those riders, to those three riders, yeah, it was the gravel stage, no? Stage nine.
Starting point is 00:31:16 That was impressive. He was strong there, man. He was so strong. In the uphill, he was strong. He paid for his big effort, you know, because he had to chase really hard. But if he still has a little bit of that left, he could, um, yeah, I mean, that's a guy who really would deserve to win a statement. Well, you almost could see Patterson leading him out. If he feels good, um, because also, I mean, it would be stage with number five, whether Patterson or Vatsenk wins for for little track is maybe a bit too much.
Starting point is 00:31:48 Come on guys, settle down. It's too much. I think I, in this, I'm, I'm hesitant to even pick them, but Tom Pickock, just cause he's plus 1200, he's plus 1000 on bet through 65, 1200 on Unibet. That's a pretty good price for someone. He wasn't, he's not like, I, the thing I worry about Tom Pickock is, is he just going to always get to these finales where someone else is faster like del Toro or Peterson. And then he can't,
Starting point is 00:32:14 can't get in solo breakaways because he's still up in the GC technically. So, but the thing on Pickock is eventually, I just feel like eventually he will win a stage. And this is like, well, this would be the perfect stage for him because if you're Mads Pedersen, maybe it's a little too hard. If you're del Toro, you're focused on other things like the bonus sprint, and that might leave enough room for Tom Pickock to come through. He's extremely talented writer and it's not like he's not in terrible shape if he's still high up in the GC here. So yeah, I'm, I'm going to go. Pitcock is my wild card. Okay. All right. And nobody funny.
Starting point is 00:32:50 Nobody picks Primos. I think why there's like an Andreas clear quote. He's like, it's just been stuck in my head for 20 years where he's like, we do our race, not writing now. It's like, I think Primos wins the race, not writing now. I don't think the uphill finish on stage 13, it's a little explosive, even for prime Primoz, it's a little like sprint D against some really fast guys. I don't think, I don't think he wins this. Yeah. Okay. We'll see. We'll see. I mean, maybe, yeah, I don't know that you say like maybe prime welta, like think of 2021 welta
Starting point is 00:33:25 primos. Does he win this? Maybe, but some of these guys are so fast. Yeah. And also, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a hard finale, but the rest of the stage is not hard. So, you know, it's not going to be like everybody gets to the final, uh, worn out, you know, which is in the favor of a guy like Peterson and Vatsik actually, because the state, the rest of the stage is not super hard. Yeah. And I, if you, you remember this last, I was just going through it last night.
Starting point is 00:33:53 I'd kind of forgotten some of it. The last year he won, he was so subdued through a lot of that race and, you know, just kind of trusted that the time would come and it seemed like he understood how hard the race was going to be at the end. And maybe other people didn't fully understand that assignment. And I think Primos thinks the same. I'm just looking at this third week right now. This thing is brutal.
Starting point is 00:34:17 Like I think Primos is in a little bit of hibernation mode. Yeah, I agree. I agree. He's banking everything on the last week and he knows what he's doing. Are you on anything else before we take off? That's it for me, Spencer. All right. Thanks. And we'll be back tomorrow to talk about how the stage plays out. Okay, thanks.
Starting point is 00:34:36 Okay, see you.

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