THEMOVE - Giro d'Italia Stage 3 Analysis & Stage 4 Preview | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Mads Pedersen's ride to win Stage 3 of the Giro and retake the race lead before diving into a few of the day's tactics, like Redbull-Bora-hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek sharing pacesetting duties, and how Lidl-Trek made it so difficult for any other teams to attack or disrupt their plan inside the difficult final 50 kilometers. They also preview Tuesday's Stage 4, and predict who they think will win, how the action will play out, and which riders present the best betting value.   Join Cycling: THEMOVE listeners get 30 days for free. The link to access that free trial is here: https://join.cc/themove Hims: Start your free online visit today at https://hims.com/themove for your personalized hair loss treatment options. Results vary. Based on studies of topical and oral minoxidil and finasteride. Prescription products require an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. 

They were all fighting for the wheel of Mats Pedersen. But then at the last part of his lead out with about 150 meters before he dropped off Mats Pedersen, he had the ability to accelerate still, which was the key, in my opinion, to win for Pedersen, because that really took care of the fight in Mats Pedersen's wheel. And the guy, there was nobody next to Mats Pedersen. They were at his wheel. And once Pedersen goes, that's already a bike lane. And to make up that bike length against Pedersen with 250 meters to go is very difficult, as

we all know. So yeah, my conclusion of the day is that Little Trek is the team of the beginning of this Giro by far, the most impressive one. Everybody, welcome back to The Move Plus. We are breaking down stage three of the Giro d'Italia. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Bernil. We're going to get his take on Mads Pedersen's second stage win

in three days, taking back the leaders jersey, Corbin Strong coming in second and Ulaar from Movistar coming in third. Johan, what the day I'll just quickly recap the day. It was 160 kilometers last day in Albania. Stunning scenery we should say. That's the real winner of this day was the scenery of mountainous Albania. It was kind of, I mean you would look at these results and say, well, it's a group of 85 riders. So it's a sprint stage. Is that, can that be right? I don't know. It seemed like less than that,

but there was a hard climb with topped out around 40 K to go. Little Trek paced on it. UAE comes over the top, controls things just seems like they want to be in the front for the descent. There was kind of a mild split on the descent. So that was important. And then little track easily pulls in the riders who attacked on that final climb, set up a sprint, great lead out from Matthias Vejcek. Mads Pedersen wins just barely over Corbin Strong from Israel Premier Tech. Pretty impressive ride from Strong, even though he didn't win. But what are you thinking about Mads Pedersen taking it's a win win for everybody. Mads Pedersen's happy because he won. He's got the leaders jersey.

Primus Roglic is happy. He does not have the leaders jersey anymore. It seems like everybody is happy after this stage, but what, what was your main takeaways? Yeah, I think the stage played out the way we thought it would play out that in the sense that the real sprinters got dropped, mainly Keaton Grove, Sam Bennett, Olaf Koi and others. And I think that was obviously the intention of Littletrack. And on top of that, Mats Pedersen, yesterday after the time trial, as soon as he lost the big jersey, he made it

clear in his interview that their goal was to win the stage and take the jersey back today. He also gave an interview before the stage today where he didn't really know if he was going to make it with the first guys over the last climb, but at least he felt confident enough that his team would reel around him and bring him back to be in a position to win the stage or to sprint for the stage. And let's, you know, even for Mats, if he didn't win, if he got second or third, he would still be in pink, right? So I think it was straightforward. I have to say though, hats off to Little Trek. They are riding incredibly strong.

For sure, they have focused on the beginning of the Giro. They know that these three stages, or at least the two stages, stage one and stage three in Albania were very, very beneficial for Pedersen. It's not real sprint stages, which is his preferred terrain. But man, the way they controlled and the way especially they control the final of the race is impressive. Stage one was impressive today. In my opinion, it was even more impressive. They still had five guys there on the last climb. And then, you know, I've said it already in stage one, but this guy, Matthias Vácek,

is incredible. The way he took over in the last kilometer, I think he got in the front with about 800 meters to go. He took over from Csíkoné. You would say 800 meters is a long way to the finish for one rider. And you know, he did it perfectly. He set a very fast tempo.

There was nobody coming really to fight for position. They were all fighting for the wheel of Mats Pedersen. But then at the last part of his lead out with about 150 meters before he dropped off Mats Pedersen, he had the ability to accelerate still, which was the key in my opinion, to win for Pedersen, because that really took care of the fight in Mats Pedersen's wheel. And the guy, there was nobody next to Mats Pedersen. They were at his wheel. And once Pedersen goes, that's already a bike length.

And to make up that bike length against Pedersen with 250 meters to go is very difficult as we all know. So, um, yeah, my, uh, my conclusion of the day is that, uh, little track is the team of the beginning of this, uh, Jiro by far the most impressive one. They're incredible. I mean, the vibes in the team must be amazing. You can almost feel it exuding out of them. And yesterday we were talking about why did Dan Hool

and Matthias Weitschek go so hard in the time trial? Maybe they were just warming up. Maybe they didn't go there. Maybe they held back and they still almost won because they get to that climate. Hool starts the climate. It's just a casual 473 watts. You can see it on the screen.

And the climb is harder than it's harder to manage than you'd think because they have to go hard enough to deter attacks, but not so hard to drop their own guys. Yeah. And I was a hard, I mean, listen, then 10 and a half kilometers at seven and a half percent average. That's, that's no, not an easy client. I would have even expected that the group was, I mean, there were little groups came back, right? But, uh, I said, nobody was at ease on that climb. Nobody. We saw how, uh, Walt Van Aert got dropped, um, with about three kilometers into the climb.

So it's clear that Walt is not, hasn't, hasn't started this Giro at his best. So the news that he was sick is definitely having an impact on his condition. Knowing him, he will fight through this and he will get better with the days. But today was not his day. He said after the stage that he felt he was not going to make it. So he prefers to really take it conservatively and just try to get better. I think he already felt that after yesterday's time trial, he was extremely disappointed after the time trial yesterday. And I actually accepted that the illness has gotten to him and that he's not firing on all of his cylinders. Yeah, I mean, he's getting worse on all of his cylinders. Yeah.

I mean, he's getting worse every day. I guess, which would speak to me sick, but I mean, think about stage one. That was so hard and didn't get dropped. And then time trial, the time trial was disappointing. Not terrible though, to finish where to get in the time trial. You gotta be doing pretty well, but he's kind of lucky here because he's got a rest day tomorrow, stage four sprint stage stage so he can go as hard or easy as he wants. Stage five uphill finish.

He's not going to contest that stage six. Now there's been stage stage seven summit finish. And then he might not even be called back on duty until stage eight. So with us with a rest day in there. So it's kind of there is hope for him to rally here. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, but other than that, you know, it was, it was the typical stage, you know, breakaway of six riders. We saw straight away that, um, uh,

little track and Red Bull Hans Grover controlled, uh, with one guy only. Um, so, um, I think this was, you know, we, we spoke was... We spoke about this and, do gentlemen's agreements still exist between teams who have a common interest? I'm going to say yes. If we look at this picture here, there is a conversation going on between the two teams, between Little Trek and Red Bull. And for sure, this is just something that they're discussing during the race. This is at the end of the stage. But there was an agreement made on beforehand. And in the sense that Pedersen wanted to win or wanted the jersey back and Primoz wanted to get rid of the jersey. And then you would say, well, okay, if they want to get rid of the jersey, why do they help?

Right? This is a bit contradiction, contradictionary, but you know, the way this works, it's quite, it's quite classic. If you look at a stage and you are in the, you have the leaders jersey and you want to avoid to work for the whole stage just by yourself. This is what Red Bull did. They started straight away as soon as those six guys were up the road. Straight away, they started to set a tempo and never... And with the help of Little Trek, because this has been agreed before, but still, you never let the breakaway get more than more or less 3 minutes. This way, you make sure that there's always going to be in the second part of the stage, teams who see an opportunity to win the stage. If, for example, Red Bull says, okay, you know what, we don't care about the breakaway. Let them take 6, 7, 10 minutes. There's nobody in those 6 guys

who is a threat for GC in week 3, right? You can say, okay, let them, 10 minutes. There's nobody in those six guys who is a threat for GC in week three, right? You can say, okay, let them take 10 minutes. Then you get to a situation where all of a sudden, none of the teams is interested anymore because they have gone too far away already. And you're still with your team having to set the tempo, probably slower than usual, but you know, riding for 160 kilometers just with three or four of your guys wears you out. So the trick is to go hard from the beginning or harder and make sure that the breakaway always is feels within reach for the other teams. And there's gonna come a point where other teams are gonna join you.

In this case, it's maybe not an ideal day to talk about this because it's clear that this agreement between Little Trek and Red Bull was agreed on beforehand. They've talked on beforehand. And so I think it's a win-win because to control the breakaway of six riders, they only used one rider each.

I don't remember who it was in, in Red Bull it was Moscon, right? And I think in Little Track it was Jakub Moska. The freshly, he has a fresh haircut. I don't know if you saw that, Spencer. Got a fresh haircut. After stage't know if you saw that, Spencer, got a fresh haircut. After stage one, apparently there was a bet and Mosca must have promised that if the team or Peterson won stage one, they could shave his head and what they did shave his head,

but they shaved it like just in the middle. So and Peterson did it. Jako Pomowska, by the way, is the husband of Elisa Longo-Borghini, who was, yeah, unbelievably watching on video Patterson shaving her husband's head. So that was funny, but didn't take away any of his powers. He was, he did a great job. So Red Bull and Little Trek, they used one guy to keep this breakaway within reach. So that was fine. And then once you're there, you keep it at three minutes. You don't actually have to increase the speed that much to bring it back because once you get to the difficult parts, the nervousness

of the race and the stress of the race automatically increases the speed naturally of the peloton. And they got within one minute without even chasing. So as soon as that happened, we all knew that what was going to happen, that the breakaway was not going to make it to the finish and that little track was going to take control. And they did on that cat 2 climb. Once again, they really took control. And I guess their pace is probably dictated by Mats Pedersen. Whatever he feels, I'm not going to say comfortable, but you know, uncomfortably at ease. I would say, uh, he knows that that pace is too hard for the sprinters.

They all got dropped that he was still there. Uh, he's also suffering, you know, it needs to, his Peterson needs to be suffering a bit for the other guys to drop, but they did it perfectly. Yeah. So yeah, just to recap, because I, you could imagine someone saying, why is Red Bull working? It's a waste of energy. Don't waste your energy. This is a long race. Why do they care at all? It's like, well, it's like a bank loaning a company a bunch of money. Yeah.

If they loan it so much money and then it goes bankrupt, the bank's going to care. Red Bull is the major creditor here. If they just, if the gap goes out to 25 minutes, you, we've seen it happen. Like we've seen teams lose grand tours because breakaways get out of hand. It's just, it's way easier. They use one rider to keep it close. It keeps other teams incentivized to chase. You end up using less total energy. So you use energy by doing it. It's completely logical. It makes sense. It's not like, oh, they're not respecting the Jersey. They're just trying to save energy and that's what they're doing. Yeah. On the final climb. It's, yeah, it's gotta be hard, but not so hard that

you dropped the lead out. But we should say Mads Pedersen. Oh man, he's good. Like I'm sure he was hurting, but like just to give people perspective, like when Dan Hull is doing 475 watts at the start of that climb, like on the 12% gradient, that even at Dan Hull's weight, that's still about six watts per kilo. And that's just what they're starting at, you know, like medium hard pace. So that's really difficult.

Yeah, no, it is difficult. And, you know, I want to take advantage of this piece of information, Spencer, the 475 watts of Dunhull to talk about this comments about, why does nobody attack? Why do they bring a little track to the finish without making it difficult? You know, there's certain people who give their opinion on social media. There's this a few, but one in

particular, you know, I call, I call these people the keyboard PlayStation gamer. Easy now. Keep it simple. Okay. Key keyboard, keyboard PlayStation gamer, couch potato directors. You know, and they think they can, they give their expert opinion, you know, and what tactics of teams, you know, calling everybody who doesn't try losers directly. They call them losers or this guy calls them losers. You know, this is a three week state race, you know, it's a three week effort. And on top of that, if you look at this specific stage, you see how hard this climb is. You have a guy like Dan Hool, who's not even the strongest of his team. He's the fifth strongest of the team. There's four guys who

are still stronger and who will increase the pace whenever they have to. You can try whatever you want. I mean, it's still 40 kilometers to go. So if you know beforehand that Pedersen needs to be in contention for the sprint, whether he wins the stage or not, most likely if the sprinters are dropped, it's going to be top three and take the jersey. This was the main goal. Why would you waste energy on this climb if you know that with 40k to go, you are never going to make it. You're never going to make it. So you need to wait, save energy. It's day 3. It's 3 weeks. Anybody who has ridden a bike several days in a row knows that the fatigue accumulates.

So I can't understand why certain people say, why don't they attack? They write for, they don't, they don't write to win their losers. Why doesn't whoever was, why doesn't Red Bull attack or make it hard to make it hard on Juan Ayuso? I've seen somewhere they call them the ropey leader of UAE. Ropey means like not very good. I mean, I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing.

I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing.

I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing.

I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. I think that's the thing. Yeah. You would have to be sick to get dropped here. Yeah. Yeah. If you were GC leader, not any, right? Well, I could see at the end of this climb UAE, they were pretty comfortable. They, they made the, the, the climb they, they finished on in front. They had four riders around their ropey leader, Juan Ayuso and they, uh, they looked pretty good today. They, they looked a lot more organized, by the way, than on stage one. So it just doesn't make sense. You have to see the stages the way they are. You have

to know what teams, what their objectives are. And you have to accept that in certain occasions there's just nothing you can do. You can't attack for the sake of attacking and putting on a show. I mean, they're all professional writers. They're all professional teams who have sponsors who pay a lot of money. And there's basically no teams of relevance in the Giro who attack for TV time.

Those are the invited teams, right? Like the Bardiani or whatever they call the, but they can't do, they can't, they cannot do the damage on the, on these, on these stretches of the, of the course. So it makes no sense, you know? So I just wanted to get that off my chest. Uh, I've been called an old guy who wants to stay relevant. Anyways, no, I don't care. I think what I say is, um, backed up by a lot of people within pro cycling who know a little bit about bike racing.

And I still consider myself to know a little bit about bike racing too. And like these stages are mirages. You look at the stage, you look at that climb. It's too far from the finish. Like anyone that is anybody in the GC is going to catch back on because their whole team's going to drop back to pace them even if they get, even if they get dropped. And I mean, we should say like, I, people that watch cycling and they have, they have opinions about it.

That's fantastic. Everyone should be posting, but I just want to encourage everyone. And I did this before this episode. If you say, Oh, wow, this is boring. Why is no one attacking? We should say Pellibabal and Fortunato. Lorenzo Fortunato attacked. Like that's awesome for them. And two very strong climbers who went, you know, with the ambition to stay ahead, they had no chance, zero chance. Yeah. And, and it's what little Trek wants because they, they go over the top of the climb with about 45 seconds.

So that means no one's going to attack from the G from the Peloton, because unless they can bridge that gap, they need to pull them in before they can attack. And it's not so far that little Trek's not going to reel them in before the finish is the perfect scenario for little track. They probably wanted that to happen. But you have to remember, like if Dan Hool is doing six watts per kilos, if you're a lighter rider, you need to do well more than six watts per kilos, because they're

not racing up 90% gradients, like watts per kilos isn't some magic number. Like if it's 7%, you're gonna have to go like 6.3 6.44, 6.5. So I went out before this and I said, okay, I'm going to do six and a half watts per kilo for as long as I can do it. And then you know what? It's pretty hard, Johan. How long did you last?

How long did you last? Oh, I mean, maybe three minutes. Okay. That's already, that's already, that's already impressive. It's shocking. If I had to go seven watts per kilo, I might be like sprinting for a minute and a half, two minutes, like it's people forget like, Oh, why is no one attacking? That's my, that's my, that's my frustration.

You know, that there's people who are out there and especially, you know, it's, it's not just, okay, you can give your opinion, but don't call these teams losers, you know, they're, they are professional riders. They have no, I, these people have no idea how hard it is, how hard pro cycling is and what it feels to suffer on a bike. And then when, you know, when, when, listen, what when art got dropped with seven K to go, he's not just anyone, you know, he is a damn good bike rider. Uh, so if this guy gets dropped, how will you attack as a team to put. Whatever. Juan Ayuso in problems.

No way. You know, there's no way. Yeah. And I mean, I just saw people and this is the worst content you could ever do. I saw people on Twitter saying this, but just, oh, why isn't Q36.5 pressing issue? It's like, well, cause they can't because he's little track is strong. They're the, they're one of the strongest teams on this climb. So no one is in go press the issue.

Pitcock made an attempt, but you know, by himself, where is he going to go? Nowhere. You know, it can be, Pitcock can be the best writer in the world. He's not going anywhere. So, I'm running away from a prison that's on an Island in the middle of the ocean. Like you're not, you can't go anywhere. Um, they, they have you sequestered, but you know what, Johan, there's a perfect opportunity to talk about our new partner, join cycling. These guys are pretty strong to, to be able to do these, these wattages on the climbs. You'd imagine they're pretty good. They probably trained, I guess, to get that fast. And guess what?

You can all train too. And you're in luck because join cycling is offering every listener of the move. 30 days free join is a dynamic cycling training app that creates personalized flexible training plans based on your goals, fitness level, and weekly availability. It adapts in real time when your schedule changes, helping you stay on track and get faster without over training. The real time, I guess,

dynamic changes that can make are big because if you're traveling, like it's just not realistic to stick to a training plan, a rigid training plan all the time. I'm pretty bad at it generally, but, you know, if you go to Austin for an event and maybe only have time for a run that day, they also do running. So you can say, okay, I had a two hour ride plan, but I only have 30 minutes to run, generate me a new workout and it will change your workout and give you a 30 minute run. It's super helpful. And then you can just export that run to your Garmin head unit, your watch, and then it's right there on your head unit. You just have to follow the steps. I'd be lying if I said

I'm the world's best trainer step follower, but I have been using join and I've been noticing that it is a lot easier to stay on top of things, especially with the dynamism helps a lot. Cause if you have a two hour ride and you're like, I don't have time for that. You probably just won't ride at all versus just being able to say, I need to run. And then it gives you a run. It's, it's really helpful. It's built by pro level coaches and trusted by riders around the world who want to train smarter, not just harder.

The inner and the interface is incredibly clean and the plans are clear. The move listeners, as I said, get 30 days for free. The link to access that free trial is join.cc slash the move. That's join.cc slash the move spelled out like T H E M O V E. And that link is in the show notes. Johan, any more thoughts on, on this stage? UAE, as you said, UAE, you looked pretty strong at the, at the top of that climb. I, I, I, I kind of thought they might have,

maybe they will have problems later in this race, but almost like a chilling display. I was, I was, I think it was, I think it, wow, that Roglic is in for a fight here. I think it was purely out of safety to be in front, to be at the front of the Peloton and the beginning of the downhill. You never know what's going to happen. So it was more out of precaution. Yeah. I mean, what else? The fact that Primos is probably also very happy to not have the jersey right now. No press conference. If you're in pink, or if in the leader, you have a guaranteed doping control every day. It's just time. The press, the podium, doping control, it's an extra

hour at least, sometimes longer. So that's obviously a benefit. Plus the fact that I think Pedersen and Little Trek, they will probably be a few days in pink. They will do everything they can to keep that. And it might be until stage six or seven. So it's at least three days of benefit. And for sure, there's some kind of agreement that says, okay, we guys help you get the jersey. You guys need to compromise that you're going to defend it as long as you can. And if needed, we're going to give you a little hand. We're going to put one guy if it gets out of control. We will see that in some stages. Now with the three next stages, when, uh,

when there's a breakaway and then little track all of a sudden runs out of people, that's going to be a rebel coming to the rescue. Is this technically sporting fraud? Perhaps, but it's smart. And I don't think it is. I don't think I've thought about this a lot. If you read the UCI rules, it's not clear that you're actually supposed to help other teams. Well, you know, you're, you're defending your own interest because if, if a breakaway goes, uh, you never know what's going to happen. So, uh, if it's, if it doesn't stay within reach or it doesn't stay within reach of your

own objective as even if you're not in the lead in the leader's jersey, you still have to manage the difference with breakaways thinking about week three. So now it's absolutely not a sporting fraud, but these kind of internal agreements, it's, you know, they have the same interests, you know, I mean, sometimes you see the same thing. If it's a sprint stage and there's one clear favorite sprinter, then why you'd say, why would these other teams, the team two and three with the sprinter who is less of a favorite, why would they work together? But first of all, to have a chance to come to a sprint, you need to be all together.

The breakaway cannot be in front. So if the team of the big favorite sprinter can't do it, there's going to be help from other teams. Yeah, yeah. I'm still assuming Wout van Aert in Belgian court for giving away 2023 level gem. That was disgusting display of sporting fraud. And I am a hood restitution for that, but yeah, I thought you,

a looked great red bull. It's a great situation for them. Great situation. It's the best situation possible cause now they don't have to do anything on stage four stage. I'm still, we'll preview these other stages when we get there, but I'm curious to see how they play out. Um, there's one more thing. We wanted to mention, Oh, Astana. Do you want to talk about that right now? Probably because we're going to go into the preview for the next stage. Yeah. I mean, if you look at it, I mean, Astana, we haven't, I mean, but they are, they keep

accumulating points here in the Giro today in the race in France. Last Sunday, they got a thousand points in one day. What everybody thought was impossible before the season, they had a deficit of more than 5,000 points to remain in the world tour. Today, they got within four points of not Kofiidis, who we thought was going to be their main rival to stay in the world tour, but Picnic picnic post and L I think that's what they called. We, they changed sponsor so many times, but anyways, they're not having a good season and a star. I think tomorrow maybe tomorrow,

not because there's no race tomorrow, but the next race, they will find a race. They're going to local, the next race, they will be in place 18. And yeah, picnic post and L they need to turn this around. It's still possible, but I don't know with who, I mean, Roman Bardek can have a great Giro, but it's not easy.

It's not going to be easy. And so this battle for the World Tour 18 spots is going on and Astana is doing amazing. I thought initially, at the beginning of the season, they started out the first two months crazy. Like points after, I mean, winning races always in the top five, sometimes three guys in the top five. And I thought by myself, well, they keep, they can't keep this pace for the rest of the season. They're doing it. They're doing it. And it looks like they're going to stay in the, in the world tour. I've have heard have heard information. It's not rumors. I think it's facts that the agreement that they've signed with XDS, the Chinese carbon manufacturer, is actually dependent on their place in the world

tour. So I think it's a multi-year deal, but I think there's a provision in there that if they don't stay in the world tour, that XDS would have the possibility to not honor the contract. So, uh, they know what they're racing for Astana and they're doing a very good job. And every team should do that. It's like, sorry, if we don't make, if we don't finish in the top three sponsors pulling out because like today's a perfect example. You didn't, fortune onto attacked. He gets caught. You don't really think about Astana for the rest of the day. You look up at the end of the day, they have 45 UCI points from Scaroni and ninth and Ulysses and 12th picnic posts and L picks up 10. So right there, it's like on a nothing day,

they're just falling behind every day. And then I've been watching these coupe de France races and I thought, Kofi says like, well, they're not doing that great. Today, they pick up 45 points at the Giro. That's good. But I thought, oh, they have all these French races. It's a lot of surface area to score points, but they've not been scoring points at all. And you know who's been scoring points at those races is Uno X. So we might have another

relegation battle happening that I thought, I thought the relegation battle was over at the beginning of the season. We might have two teams lose their spot. Yeah. Well, I've seen an interview of, uh, the manager of, uh, go for this, uh, Cedric Vassar a few months ago, maybe one and a half months ago. And he was asked, you know, about if he was stressed out and nervous about them staying in the world tour. And back then they still had 2000 points. And they were already asking the question, okay, do you think, you know, because Astana has

already made up 3000 points of their 5000 point deficit. And he said, no, 2000 points is a lot. I would not want to hear him answer that again today. I think it's down to 400 or something now. Yeah, with Kofidis. So, you know, maybe they're going to be lucky if Kofidis, if Picnic Post and L doesn't pick it up, but I'm guessing that, you know, X I haven't looked at the exact points, but they're coming closer too.

I think they're also within five, 600 points from Kofi this. So, and that's a team that they know how to execute. They have good writers and they score a lot of points sometimes. So let's take another quick ad break, and then we will preview stage four, which is happening. Remember on Tuesday, on Monday, don't try to turn it on tomorrow.

It won't be on, but we'll break right here. Everybody, this episode is brought to you by HIMS. Close your eyes for a second and picture yourself six months from now. Does your hair look the same? Now picture it thicker, fuller and healthier. That's what's possible with hems. A lot can happen in three to six months. You could start a new hobby and realize you're not exactly natural.

You might knock out half your New Year's resolutions or hear me out. You could actually regrow your hair. Hems makes it simple with doctor trusted clinically proven treatments like finasteride and minoxidil, which are shown to regrow hair in as little as three to six months. You can choose from chewables, sprays, serums, whatever fits your routine best. The best part, it's a hundred percent online. No office visits, no awkward pharmacy pickups. Just answer a few questions and a licensed provider will determine if the treatment is right for you. If it is,

they'll ship it straight to your door free of charge. No insurance needed. One low price covers everything. The treatment shipping and ongoing medical support join hundreds of thousands of guys who've already trusted him to help them get their hair back hair and confidence back and look like you belong in this Peloton. Cause if you've not noticed Tadej Pagato, wow, but our Matthew Vanderpool, these guys have amazing hair. So if you want to look like them, try HIMS today. Start your free online visit today at hims.com slash the move.

That's hims, h i m s dot com slash the move for your personalized hair loss treatment options. Once again, hims.com slash the move. Results vary based on studies of topical and oral minoxidil and finesters finasteride prescription products require an online consultation with the healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply see website for full details and important safety information. All right, back to the show.

So Johan stage four, this is on Tuesday, 189 kilometer stage. We're back. We're on the mainland. We're back in Italy or we're in Italy in Italy for the first time finishing in Lecce. I guess the riders have taken a short flight over and then everyone else has come with the cars on a ferry, a long ferry, longer than I thought. Apparently oceans are big. It's like eight hour ferry, but there's, I guess there is a categorized climb at the start,

but it's a net downhill for the first 40, 50 K of the stage. There's a little hill with the bonification sprint, and then it's rolling to flat all the way down to the coast for the finish and not quite coast actually. But I think this is sprint stage. I'll read off the odds, the favorites, and then we'll get your take on who's going to win Olaf Coy the favorite at plus 175 Mads Patterson plus 450 Sam Bennett plus 650 Milan Freton plus 650 Matteo Muschietti plus 750 Paul Marnier plus 1100

Caden Groves plus 1600, Gerben Tyson plus 1800, Makal Zalab. I don't know if I've ever seen this person on here plus 2000, well, then art plus 2,500 tough, tough beat for, for Vinart being below Zalard, but I won't read past there, but Yohan, who do you think is going to win the stage? Assuming it's. The sprint is going to be a sprint stage. It's going to be a sprint stage because there's, you know, there's, there's few real big sprinters and they have to seize their opportunities. Um, you know, the first, the stage one and stage three,

a sprinter one, but the real top sprinters were not there. So they have to, they have to go for stage four. Um, yeah, I think I, I'm going to follow, I'm going to follow the books and, uh, Olaf Koi. I think, I think he's probably the fastest. I mean, if you look at, you have Koi, you have Sam Bennett, you have Caden Groves, who in my opinion are like the most pedigree sprinters in terms of their palm-arist. Then you have others who are close

and the Giro sometimes can produce some strange sprints, but I'm still going to go for Olaf Coy. What is he? Plus 150. Plus 175. 175. Okay. Yeah. It is a strong, it's a very heavy favorite. It's the third, what third day in a row we've seen where it was Tarline was like 125 and then Pedersen was 175 yesterday and then Coy plus But what, what, one thing to note, the books not been wrong about any of those sprinters. No, no, no. So all of course, the favorite also, they, you know, it doesn't look like they're going to have somebody, um, I mean,

Simon Yates maybe, but you know, Visma needs to go for stage wins and on Tuesday, this is a great opportunity for them. Does Wilt lead them out? Yeah, for sure. Okay. Um, but probably, right. I assume he'll be well enough to do that.

He could probably do that in his sleep. Wilt is a great teammate, you know, and especially when he feels like he doesn't have a chance, he's at the service of the team always. Yes. Mads, I'm going to go Mads Pedersen. I mean, keep the, keep the vibes alive. It's 450. I mean, this is a tough Pedersen against someone as,

what'd you say, the pedigree as fast as Koi. It's, it's a little, it stretches the imagination a little bit, but we are seeing Mads Pedersen at a level. I've never seen him at, I mean, certainly above, even when he won the world championship. So he's an amazing shape. He's an amazing shape already. I mean, I'm thinking back to Paris, Nice Spencer. I mean, what he did in Paris, Nice was just incredible

in terms of his physical fitness, the way he went uphill, okay, on stage four, that's not needed, but he's in he's in great shape. And he needs to sprint. He needs to sprint because I think one of his goals in this zero is obviously the points Jersey. So he needs points. I mean, you say it's, it's not needed, I guess, technically, but being able to climb well is really helpful because you're less tired when you get to the sprint. So much of sprinting is about just not being as tired as the other people. Apparently he's, I don't know if this is true, but I heard it.

So I'm going to say it. Apparently he'd never done an altitude camp before this year, which kind of explains the jump, but I was shocked to hear that. Has he done one this year? I think he has. Okay. Yeah. And he moved to Monaco. Maybe these are all just loose rumors. I don't, I have no idea. I don't know where he lives. I don't know where he lives. But I think I saw somewhere that he was not a fan of altitude camps that he,

he preferred to prepare the classics, the old fashioned way. I definitely think they help. I think the, I might try one of those if I was him, but Kate, I'm going to also, I can't believe this. Caden groves plus 1600. Like, yeah, I was shocked to see that. I would, I would have him as a wild card just because I can't believe there's a rider that good. Koi is probably a better pure sprinter, but Caden groves wins a lot of grand tour stages down there in wild card money territory. So I would look at that one.

Yeah. I mean, he's already, he's won seven grand tour stages already. Again, I think he has one stage in the Giro and then six in the Vuelta. So, yeah, I mean, there's not many writers in this race who have won that many stages in grand tours. And then obviously, you know, as we said, the top, top, top sprinters in the world are not here. My wild card is going to be Paul Marnier, a young rider, French rider on Soudal Quickstep. I think he's plus 1100, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. 1100.

He's fast. The team is now completely, uh, going to be around him because, um, unfortunately Mika Landa had to go home and he will have a great lead out guy in the American rider. Luke Lamparty. You say Lamparty or Lampperti? Oh man. Lamperti. Lamperti. Luke Lamperti is probably how people say it. But yeah, cause like Matthew Riccatello, I think that's not how is,

that's how he says his name, but I actually don't think that's how his name is said in Italian. So you get probably probably will be, well, I don't know. I don't know. Like Riccatello. Riccatello. I don't know. Uh, like richetello. Richetello. I think it's Ricky Tello. It's also because it's lecky also. It's not Leche the, the, the finishing base. Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. Um, yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't know. It's, it's, it's Luke, Luke Lamperty. That's good. That's perfect.

Yes. Um, I'm looking at Paul Marnier, one is first race of the season and then third second, second, second, and then Torino Adderadico big sprint. He finishes fourth behind Olaf Coy. So, yeah, well, I mean, he's young. Um, but, and you know, if you would say in week two or three, I would say probably not, but he's still fresh.

So, uh, first year young rider like that, probably still has the top speed. And Luke is a really good lead outrider. I mean, that's like, uh, he's fast itself. I mean, he can win bunch prints himself. He showed up to, uh, like these are big crits. Tulsa tough is like one of the biggest pro races in the U S like I can't tell you how hard it is to even just to stay in these, in these pelotons and he won like in zone two, it was unbelievable. So yeah, he's clearly a good bike handler, good sprinter, good fitness. So that that's he's in good hands, but anything else on,

I assume, I assume the GC won't change hands tomorrow. If everything goes well. Yeah. On, on Tuesday, Tuesday. Oh, no, we are listening to it. It's, it's, it's, it feels strange. You know, we're on Sunday and we're talking about the rest of the day or early tomorrow. I mean, it's good. Would you point it out, Spencer? I think in early on, I on I said, I, I thought that everybody was going by ferry, but I've got some information. So the riders, eight riders and five staff go by plane and then the rest of the staff

has to take care of the vehicles and go by ferry tomorrow. Yeah. I heard that how long the ferry was and I thought, I cannot imagine like, Mads Pedersen at the cafeteria on the ferry does not seem like that's going to be how people want to spend their rest day. But no, I had no idea. It was so long. I didn't. I was shocked. Yeah. I guess it makes sense. It's kind of, it's a big ocean. I guess that you have to go across. You know, I mean, if you, I mean,

sometimes I've taken the ferry to Mallorca sometimes from Valencia and that's four hours. And it seems like close. You can basically see it from Valencia and that's still four hours. So eight hours makes sense. All right. Well, we won't have a show tomorrow, but we'll be back on Tuesday to break down stage four and predict stage five. OK, well, we won't have a show tomorrow, but we'll be back on Tuesday to break down stage four and predict stage five. Okay, thanks, Spencer.

Speak soon. All right, bye.