THEMOVE - Is the Giro Revealing the Sport's Newest Star? | Giro d'Italia 2026 | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: May 10, 2026

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Paul Magnier's perfectly-timed sprint to win his second Giro d'Italia stage after a straightforward day before Monday's rest day. They then preview Tuesday's Stage 4, which takes the Giro back to familiar ground in Italy. Listen in to see what the duo thinks of the stage, how the action will play out tomorrow, who will come out on top, and which riders present the best betting value. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Shipstation: Try ShipStation free for sixty days with Full access to all features, no credit card needed! Go to https://ShipStation.com and use code themove for sixty days for free! Sixty days gives you plenty of time to see exactly how much time and money you're saving on every shipment.  

Unfortunately, Adam Yates did not start. Apparently the consequences of a concussion. So stage three and already three UAE guys out of the race. Adam Yates is out. Mark Schiller, who by the way, we now know he was the first rider to go down yesterday. Apparently he has a pelvic fracture and then J. Vine, also a concussion and an elbow fracture. Poor J. Vine, man. Yeah.

That guy has no. luck. But anyway, so they're down to five riders after three days. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Moop Plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with the Ohembrunil. We're talking about stage three of the Giro de Talia, won by Paul Manier in a sprint finish ahead of Jonathan Milan, Dylan Gironavagan in third place, a very close finish finishing in Sofia, Bulgaria, our last stage in Bulgaria of this Gero. Quick stage recap, we had, again, no fight for the early breakaway. They're letting these breakaways go. And for the third consecutive day,

Diego Pablo Savilla was in it from Pulte Vizumalta. He had a teammate, Alessandro Tonelli, and Manuelette Torzoli, Torzoli, from Bardani, CSF. These guys were pretty impressive. Three riders in the breakaway, their gap is like never

massive, but it was harder to pull them in than I thought. The teams of the sprinters each had a rider up there pretty much all day, keeping it in check. The Red Bull kilometer goes by, they don't catch them. So those guys soak up all the bonus seconds. I would assume the GC teams were happy about that. They don't have to fight for it.

Tudor missed the opportunity to try to take, I guess attempt to take the Maglia Rosa with Florin Stark. But another question if he actually would have been able to sprint to get it. And then we go into a sprint finish. Milan and Little Trek were up there early. Sudal quick step brings up Paul Manier going into the final few hundred minutes. meters though it was all about unibet rose rockets they were up there they had grown a vaguenberg in perfect position milan overtakes him at 200 meters to go mannay's right on milan's wheel groanobagin's on mannay's wheel they take a left it was weird weird finish because milan has to start his sprint before he can

see the finish line they turned left onto these brick cobblestone they were loose like you could see how loose they were Milan's slipping all over the place manier looks unfazed pretty impressive of like ride from this guy. And he sprints around, wins the stage with Dylan Gronovagan, close behind in Milan, um, overtaken. We looked at the power data, Johan. Manier actually had the lowest power, which tells us he probably managed the draft and the timing of that sprint the best.

Milan was putting out massive watts like 1900 watts, uh, like peak in that sprint. And then Grona Vagan was slightly more power than Marnier, exact same speed though, was showing us that Manier really won that sprint between 300 and 200 meters to go. But what were, and no change in the G.C. What were your takeaways from the stage? Yeah, well, Spencer, as expected, you know, typical, yesterday we predicted bunch sprint. It was clear, you know, like same guys, same two teams again in the breakaway as every other day. So three days in a row, the same two teams, no.

Well, actually, you know, yesterday was two riders from one team, right? from Palti. Yeah. But man, Diego Seville, three out of three. I mean, yeah, he can take, he needs a rest day. This guy needs a rest day tomorrow. And they only got reeled in in the last kilometer, really, today. I mean, that was.

I think 500 meters, they were still ahead. You know, one day, they're going to miscalculate and it's going to work out. But, but yeah, you have to, you know, as a rider, on those teams, obviously it's their objective, right? Palti and Bardiani, it's not a coincidence that it's always those two teams who are in breakaways. I think it's probably part of the deal. The expectation is, okay, guys, you know, we invite you, but every time you have an opportunity,

you are in the breakaways. It's great for the sponsors, also for their sponsors. Lots of TV time. But yeah, then other than the race, Spencer, You know, we can be brief about the race, but I think interesting to know, unfortunately, Adam Yates did not start. Apparently, the consequences of a concussion. So stage three and already three UAE guys out of the race. You know, Adam Yates is out.

Mark Scholar, who, by the way, we now know he was the first rider to go down yesterday. Apparently he has a pelvic fracture. and then Jay Vine also a concussion and an elbow fracture. Poor Jay Vine, man. Yeah. That guy has no luck. But anyway, so they're down to five riders after three days. Also, Vendrame, the Italian rider, was also in the crash yesterday.

He did not start. He finished the stage yesterday, same as Adam Gates. But I've read that he has fractured several vertebrae, which is something very serious. So yeah, I think I just wanted to point that out before we start to talk about today's stage. I mean, other than, other than, you know, what happened in the breakaway, there was not much else going on. I mean, I haven't watched the whole stage. I just saw the final. I just saw that on that long climb, the cat two climb, nobody was really in trouble.

Arnold DeLie was a bit in trouble. Yeah, one guy was in trouble and that was about it. Yeah. I mean, we know Arnold Deleu has started. I mean, he barely made it to the start of the Giro. If I'm not mistaken. So the purpose of Dele being at the start is we all know that he was out after a few races in the spring. They decided, okay, you need to stop racing. There was something wrong. He trained. Came back last week, his first race. He won straight away in Wallonia. so everything indicated that he was back on track with a decent condition and the purpose of him being here they announced already he was going to do 10 stages or 9 stages because I think after 10 days

it's a rest day again but but with the purpose obviously to get some competition in the legs get some good intensity but unfortunately we had got the news after this race in Walloonie in Belgium that several riders on Lotto Intermarche and other teams were hit by this bug, stomach bug, due to debris on the road in that area in Belgium. And the Lee was one of them. They had to, I think they had to pull out one rider and bring in another rider the day before the Gero.

And that the Lee barely made it to the start. So he's obviously weakened. it because, you know, nobody got dropped, so the lead normally shouldn't get dropped either. Let's see now with the travel day and, you know, with a rest, if he can recover and at least finish another seven stages. So he can get some form again. But other than that, I think it was, yeah, go ahead. What's the benefit of keeping him here versus, like, do you just hope he gets better and can, because he can't compete for a stage and the condition he's, in right now.

Are they just hoping he's better by like... Don't count him out. It's, you know, if he recovers from this, from his stomach bug, things can change. You know, I think, well, first of all, I think he needs competition. I don't know the Lee personally, but from what I can gather, the team is probably feels better about the Lee being at the races than being at home training. that's my take. So they know that he's going to train and do the work.

Of course, you know, you need to be in an acceptable condition to be able to use races to get some rhythm. And I think he was in a decent condition, but now he's obviously, I think he had fever. You know, he had stomach problems, had to vomit. That's not a good way to start a grand tour, right? Even if those first three stages were not very hard, it's still, it's not good. And on top of that, you know, the weather's not great. So far from ideal. But I'm confident that if he can turn it around, he's still going to, you know, be able to get a bit better.

And then work towards some other races before the tour. Because I think the purpose for the Lee is to race the tour of rounds. Don't really know what's going on with him personally, you know, because. everything points into the direction that he's not staying at lotto intermerche that there are several interesting offers for him for him i read about red bull i read about sudao i read about alpacin but apparently all of those three are not in the running anymore and in full position is now two door uh which is probably potentially ready to make a really really good interesting offer for him So then the question is, where is the Lee mentally, right?

Is he thinking about his next contract and knows, everybody knows that the Lee is super talented. And if everything is right for the Lee, that he can win big races, he's shown it already, right? He's shown me, I still remember vividly that win in Canada. Was it, where was it? Was it, was it Monterey or Quebec? I think it was Quebec. It's the easier than two, but I was thinking of the same thing. I vividly remember this.

Probably one of the most impressive sprints I've ever seen from anybody. Because, you know, coming from where he came and winning against some really good riders, that's the potential of the Lee. So that potential, everybody still sees that potential. He's young. So there will be a very, very interesting contract offer. then of course the risk is you know is that now his main occupation thinking about where I'm going to write which contract I'm going to sign I'm going to sign a great deal for three years probably

then you know it depends on the state of mind of the rider right how hungry is he to really perform or saying okay you know what don't really care they want me anyways you know I'm going to sign a great deal I've seen these type of situations in the past. That's why I'm not saying that's Dele's case, but it could be. What we do know is that De Lee needs guidance. And, you know, if he gets everything, if he's healthy and he trains properly, he can win great races. The potential's there. My question is, why doesn't it happen more often?

There's a reason for that. So that's, I hope we can find the answers, you know, on those questions pretty soon. There's a team in the U.S., the Miami Heat basketball team, and they have like heat culture. So they test your body fat once a week, and then they write the percentage on a t-shirt, and you have to wear that T-shirt around to practice all week. And they're known for turning, you know, they get people like DeLei and they kind of turn their careers around. It's pretty interesting to watch. I feel like Alpison is that team in cycling.

Maybe he should have explored going to Alpacin, feel like that would be the best place for him. I think the thing is, you know, I think that for the moment Alpacin, Premier Tech, you know, they don't have the financial leverage to compete with other teams. To Doer, obviously, it's not a World Tour team yet, but they do have a great budget. Yeah, they got Porsche's is their team cars. So, yeah, it's setting the tone with that. I saw the other day they were at a race and they definitely had Porsche's as their team car. It definitely gives off an air of we have money.

It's kind of like Switzerland in general. You're not quite sure how they have so much money, but there's money. They've got money. I mean, listen, it's a great project. And they have a mission also to grow. They've gotten already to a very high level in a very short time. Because, you know, they're not World Tour officially, but they are World Two level.

like organization if you look at them you know if you look at the image of Tudor it is a top level world to a team it's all really really nice and you know so that's obviously

very attractive also to a writer so I mean if I can you believe the rumors that's where the Lee is headed I mean hopefully I'm wrong and we can still see some great results I mean if

if the manager of the two-door which is Fabian Cancelara is and he is pretty smart there's probably incentives

you know like okay and his agent is the brother of Mathe von der Pooh David van Rappu I think so he's also pretty smart guy

so there will be incentives for the Lee for the remainder of the season And if you do this and this and this, your future deal increases. So let's hope that that works. We need him like, he needs to get a sleeping bag and just start living in Vanderpull's garage. So just follow this guy around to whatever he does. That's what we got to go on a Vanderpull boot camp.

You know, that's not always a great idea. You know, I mean, you have these, like, Matthew Vanderpull is such a big adjunct. That's a very good point. Yeah. There's not many riders who can train with him. I mean, the riders can train with him, but they usually are dead after three weeks. And we have to rest able to compete again. Now, I don't think DeLi would actually suffer from that because that guy is strong, strong, strong, strong bull.

So he could maybe benefit from him. So on the sprint, you pitch Paul Marnier. He wins. I mean, this guy, this is what we thought DeLie would be French writer on Sudolk Quickstub, second stage. in three stages. Really impressive. Did you think Jonathan, well, I thought Dylan Gronavigin had it.

With 300 meters to go, his team's on the front. He's in perfect position. It kind of flip-flops, 200 meters to go. Now Milan's in the front. Manet. We missed how this happened. The camera missed it. Monier is behind Milan.

Grosan's behind Monier. Looking back, that reshuffling is where the race was won because Grunovic can never overcome because they turn and then they don't have that much room to sprint around each other. Who did you think was going to win this? How did you feel about Manet winning it? Well, I thought Manier was in great position. You know, so initially the Unibet Rockets did a great lead-out.

And then so there was two riders from Unibat Rockets, and then Brunewa was in third position. I think Grunovigan gets surprised a bit with Milan coming at a higher speed, and he loses the battle for the wheel. of Milan to Manier. That's where the sprint is won. That's where the stage is won, I think. When Manier gets the wheel of Milan,

yeah, yep. You know, Milan started early. Some people say too early. I don't think so because, you know, it was very close. Yeah. And if he's in top shape, no one's coming around him. Yeah. There's no way.

But also, you know, he did lose a bit of traction twice on those, you know, bricks. I don't think that really, that's not the reason why. he lost. I think he lost because Monnier was just faster. But anyways, there's improvement for Milan. It was closer today.

It was very hectic. The lead out into the way they came into that last kilometer, Spencer, it was crazy fast. It was slight downhill. I've seen speeds like not at the sprint, but just before the sprint on, you know,

like 3% downhill is 75 kilometers per hour. before the sprint started. It's almost 50 miles an hour. Yeah. And then, no, the sprint was 68, 69, 70K an hour. So, you know, I mean, there's not much, there's no room for any error. I mean, you can't go all of a sudden three kilometers per hour faster at those speeds.

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised that Manier wins, you know, as I said yesterday, great motivation, you know, the team is unbelievably behind him. Second win, man. Second two out of three. It's a great start for young Monnier, who, by the way, we found out, is French, but was born in Texas, Laredo, Texas.

I don't know where Laredo is, but doesn't sound like that. It's right on the border. It's a border town. It is not. So he moved when he was four years old. He moves back to France with his family to Grenoble. Okay. Just imagine the inverse of Grenoble.

However amazing Grenoble is, think of the opposite of that. He was four years old, so he won't remember. He won't remember. Apparently, his parents were working at the time in Texas, and then they moved back to France. His dad, by the way, was also an ex-cyclist on the track. I've read somewhere. But, yeah, I mean, listen, Manier,

we've talked about him for two years now already. you know today his 28 victory in his very short career and there's many many more to come yeah i mean that's super impressive from this guy first texan to win a giro stage someone asked me a listener asked me do we think so probably right probably yeah uh yeah yeah i think so yeah lands never won a stage at the gero um and other would be like loss and cradack or something but i don't think he ever won a stage of Giro. He did. Lawson did. Wasn't that Chodhaga?

Oh, yeah, Chad Haga. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who I don't think is a Texan, but I can't say that. Okay. Yeah, I don't believe he is, but I don't know. No, no, he's from like Colorado Springs or something. So we had Kevin Livingstone. We, I don't think he's a real Texan or an adopted Texan.

I don't know. That's a good question. I always thought of him is from, remember this guy, Chan McCray. Was he from Texas? Probably did Giro. I don't think he won a stage. So no, that's going to be the first Texan ever. We got to get this guy in the U.S. national team if he's still a citizen.

I mean, you got to pay the only thing he's got to pay income tax to the U.S. no matter where you live in the world if you're a U.S. citizen. But we got a nice tax treaty with France, so he could be okay. As a French, I think it's more or less the same. Well, yeah. By the French riders don't live in, don't live in. In Monaco. Monaco, yeah.

Yeah, they're in the same bucket as us. They can't run away from that tax service. But actually, I think they can actually. I thought I looked into this because think of all the French cyclists and all the French F1 drivers. They never live in Monaco. But there's a few, quite a few that live in Andorra, though. It's good. I know maybe there's not a tax treaty with Indora though.

Monaco and France have a, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I'm just like blown away by this. And not just in grand tour stages, but for classics in the years to come. I would watch. He's not a big, he's not a big one-dimensional rider.

He's a very nim, lighter, nimble rider. This is the ideal future winner of Milanson-Ramele. Yeah. Absolutely no doubt. This guy can win Melanchon Ramos. And do we think, I feel like Siddal quick-st up, a little bit of a page turn here. They kind of have their stage win mojo back. This is not even their best sprinter.

That's the really impressive thing. They have Tim Raleer waiting around for the tour to France, presumably. So and kind of similar sprinters, you know, off-road background, very good bike handlers. They can handle a lot coming at them, even though they are very fast in straight-line sprints. Yeah. Question for you. Where is Casper Van Uden? Did it, was he taken out by that crash with Picnic?

Like, what's going on with him? No, no, no, no. No, no. There was actually a rider, wait, oh, wait, wait, Van Uden, Van Uden, yeah. Remember he won a stage? the Giro last year? He was not taken out. He was not taken out. But yeah, I haven't seen him. He just, he won a stage just a week before the Gero in two of Turkey, no, I think? But anyway, two of Turkey and the Gero is not the same thing. I mean, it's all, the answer is it's all

positioning, right? If you don't have the team to get you up there, as you said, the speeds are too high. You can't make a ground. It was extremely he happened because it was so fast, so wide. it's in a fraction of a second of a hesitation and you're out of the top 10 and there's nothing else you can do you can't make any ground up at those speeds but I think I thought I thought Grunovagan you know Grunovagan did a good sprint he himself was disappointed he said you know obviously we came here to win the stage today he was you know he was in there did a great came back he had a lot of speed at the end

did exactly the same sprint as Monnier in terms of speed, but he himself said that he, you know, he blamed it on himself by waiting too long. But, you know, third place so close to the victory, I think Runevig can win a stage in this year. A great lead out from Univet Rose Rockets, first grand tour in the team's history. What they've done in the first few stages,

I mean, today they were the dominant team in that lead out in the final few hundred. meters. So, I mean, kudos to them. Not easy to do that. Little Trek. I mean, this is this is the season from hell for them. They were third and wins last year. They currently only have eight wins, six of those coming from Jonathan Milan, two from Juano. Wano Yuso, not having the season he wanted to have. Milan got most of those wins in the Middle East, has only won one time since coming back to Europe. This is, and Derek G. West losing time, crashing yesterday, not looking to himself even outside of that cannot be where little trek wants to be right now.

Definitely not. I mean, that's, you know, but things happen, you know. They have they have Ayuso out with a first with a crash in Parinise then an illness, I think, when he came back in, was it Catalonia? Yeah. Yeah. So he crashes at Parinise and then. When he was in the leaders, Jersey, he wins Algarve. Yes.

Things are looking great. Al Garve wins Al Garve. Carve, goes to Paris. The leader says that he crashes out and then comes back. And I mean, yeah, let's get, let's wait a bit. Let's wait a bit, right? So he came back to Basque Country and then what happened? What happened there?

He just didn't look good, right? He was sick at Basque Country. Do we know? Actually, it was the past country where he came back. Yeah, and he just looked off, right? He's 38th in the first-time trial. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did we ever get an answer about that?

He did not do Catalonia, you know? No. I don't think so. No. It was the Basque where he came back after Parinese. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, you could see straight away he was out of it in the tight trial and then just after three stages, I think he called it with.

But, yeah, let's wait. Listen, I mean, things happen. Look at UAE in this, in this, in this year here. Let's see what happens with them now. You know, after three stages, down to five riders, man. That's going to be a long three weeks. Lots of opportunities. lots of opportunities for some riders, but they have to, you know, switch the, switch off now

and see what they do. For some reasons, for some riders, it could be a great three weeks or whatever is left, two and a half weeks left with many opportunities, but it does not always go the way you want, right? I mean, already before this Gero, we already talked a few times. that UAE was unbelievably hit by bad luck and injuries and illnesses. They had like at some point they had 12 or 13 riders not available. Well, I add three more to that list now with Yates and Soler and Vine.

So. Well, one of them is there was always the same rider. So Jay Vine was presumably part of that list. He's now just going back on to the injured list. I mean, that is, I think it's his third straight stage race that he's, crashed and broken a bonus? Not great. Like really bad luck.

Yeah. Well, listen, yesterday there was nothing he could do. They go down in front of you and it's, you know, he was obviously in front and great position and just, you know, bad luck. I actually want to ask you. Let's take a quick break. I have a question for you about you when we come back. Everybody, this episode is brought to you by Ship Station.

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exactly how much time and money you're saving with every shipment. That shipstation.com. Use code the move for 60 days free. Okay, Johan, so we're going to stage four. We have a day off tomorrow. We do and the race does because we, they transfer back to Italy, Italy. The riders left for UAE at this point. Igor Areeta, Mikhail Berg, Jan Christen, Jonathan Narvaez, and Antonio Morgato, kind of interesting from, if you imagine those guys have no responsibilities anymore and they just go for stages,

that is kind of, I'm interested to see what happens. I assume they'll be very aggressive and breakaways. They could actually win multiple stages, even though they've had this terrible start to the race. Could be, yeah, could be. I mean, like a guy like young Kristen is very ambitious. This could be, you know, this could be some great two weeks left for him. Orgado also. Yeah, who probably came thinking he was working for GC. And then now it's like, well, yeah, go out there and win as many stages as you can.

Well, I'm always, you know, like winning stages. I don't like to hear that. You know, let's try to win one stage, people. Winning one stage, but some riders or some teams, oh, we don't have anybody for G.C. We're going to try to win some stages. Well, this is the one team that can maybe back it up.

They can. They can. Yeah, that was the stage winning was not the issue at the Vulta last year. I would say everything else was the issue. So they are transferring. I'll go through. Well, go through tomorrow's stage in a second, but something I noticed after the stage today that I didn't really think about. First of all, some teams didn't have a bus at the start.

So, like, EF is just sitting on the side of the road because their bus is already driving to stage four, 22-hour drive. Also, imagine the gas bill. It's going to be like a $30,000 gas bill. Holy smokes. Can you imagine me the one getting that assignment? Hey, buddy, you're going to drive 22 hours. I've also heard that there's some teams. I mean, not everybody's doing it.

There are some teams, for example. that from today on they just leave their big vehicles there. They have other vehicles already waiting in Italy. And those are teams that also participate in what's coming now, the tour of Hungary. Oh, that's interesting. That's a good idea. They actually go from Bulgaria to Hungary. Yeah.

With the vehicles that are for the moment over there. But listen, logistically, it's a nightmare for the teams and the staff. and the riders. It's, you know, it's not a rest day. I'm assuming they've traveled tomorrow. I bet the riders are fine right now,

don't you think? Okay. Get it done and then. That would be good. That would be good. I don't know if that's the case. Actually, I don't have any inside information on that.

Yeah. Well, we'll ask around. We'll see what happens. But something I didn't really account for and Yens Voight was trying to interview mechanics after the race. And none of them were like, hey, man,

we can't talk because they were hacking the, bikes up into boxes like cardboard boxes that is a lot of work a lot of work it was pretty shocking to see yeah because you know so those are probably the teams that leave their trucks there and they basically fly with the with the bikes with the bikes yeah and i guess even if you i mean yeah maybe you could drive all the trucks if you left now you could get there by the end of the day of the rest day but I wonder if everyone just flying with those bikes. That is a huge amount of work. I also heard last night that,

so you're not supposed to do two foreign starts in a row. The Euro kind of broke that rule, did it. The teams, though, asked for they all got almost like an extra 100,000 euros from RCS to do this, because they're all losing money on it. I mean, think of the money involved with what we just described. And,

but that's almost like two million euros over. So the people sell an extra 100,000 euros? Well, it was like they, You normally would get a 40,000 euro allotment. This is from Daniel. This is reporting from Daniel Freiba. It's a good reporter that normally it's 40 and then this year it's $120,000 for the three days from the race organizers. There's a lot of extra money.

It's a lot more than they get at the tour. The tour of France is around 50, $60,000 for the last 25 years. It's never changed. I mean, listen, the fees, the expense fees. that teams get at those grand tours, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I mean, if you would know the cost, the operation costs of a team which comes on top of what the organizers pay because, you know, like we know that all the lodging, all the hotels

and the food is paid for for riders and staff. But that's also limited. You know, the way it works is that especially the Tour de France, I think they pay for whatever like 20 people, 23 people. Teams nowadays, they bring 45 people to the race. Yeah, with everybody, you know, everybody extra. So it doesn't even cover your gas expenses, basically, with all the vehicles you have running around and driving around

and big trucks, big vehicles. So listen, I mean, that's good. I mean, I didn't know that, but, you know, 120 instead of 40, that's pretty good. I mean, it tells you they must have got. gotten a really good offer from Bulgaria. Exactly. Yeah.

Otherwise, they're not going to pay that. That's not going to work. Yeah. I don't know. I don't even know if the story's true. I heard a crazy story that, remember the UCI evacuated these people from Afghanistan? And then they relocated them in Albania. And part of the deal with Macron was if they got, if they took the people, he would consider

having the tour start there. They said, no tour, but maybe the Gero. And then that's partly how the GERR. got to Albania. But funny stuff like that does happen. I can investigate. I always like to investigate little things that the UCI is sneaky with. So I'm going to try to find out.

Something's afoot here because you would just never see two foreign starts like this. It's very unusual. If normally it's not allowed to have two foreign starts in a row and it happens, first of all, you know, it's always the same. You know, like they always make exceptions for the power parties, like, you know, ASO, RCS. If a team asks for an exception, it's never granted. No, no, no, no. We can't do it.

It's in the rules. Sorry, not our call. I will. My bigger issue, though, are these courses. So stage four tomorrow, or sorry, on Tuesday. No show tomorrow, by the way, everybody. 138 kilometers. There is a mountain.

Category 2 mountain, 14K long. Sounds hard. It's probably not going to be that hard because it's about 40 kilometers from the finish. It's a descent. They have the Red Bull kilometer. It is, I think where it's going to be a sprint, but it's uphill, which would be kind of interesting, like a 4% final kilometer uphill. But man, the Giro just loves these. It feels like the tour and even in some ways, the Vuelta, they don't waste kilometers.

They don't waste days. Like, everything is important. The Giro, you get the feeling, you're like, is this just another stage? the one we just saw. I'm like frankly not that excited about it. And then they're like, okay, we've gotten that out of the way. Now it gets interesting around stage five, six or seven. But how do you think this is going to play out tomorrow and who's going to win?

Yeah, I think it's going to be sprint again, Spencer. Same scenario as today. The climb comes, you know, like a little bit after the middle of the stage. It's short stage, 138K. So that could be in the advantage. of a breakaway, but it needs to be a decent breakaway.

So I think sprint again, finish slightly uphill, so it's going to be a not very high speed sprint. And unfortunately, I mean, unfortunately, I mean, or fortunately, I'm going to pick the same winner. I think Monnier wins again. Yeah, I like that pick.

I'm going to pick, I'm just on the record. I like that pick. If you're going to bet money, Paul Monier looks fantastic. The guy looks unbeatable. I'm personally going to bet on this guy, Mattis Mikoz from Estonia, 22 years old was fifth on stage one, was fourth today, has no lead out. There's nobody really helping him from EF.

He's in there doing it by himself. I think the uphill finish could give him, it could penalize him less for that. And if you go back, he has three wins, his first pro win or like pro-serious win is Deutscheland Tour, stage three, 2023, uphill. he beats Danny Van Popple and that. So maybe he's an uphill sprint specialist. I don't know, but it's going to penalize him less for having no teammates helping him. Yeah.

And, you know, I mean, if you could, that kind of sprinter, you actually can wait, you know, and try to find the deal. It's less likely to get boxed in when it's a slow sprint because it's going to be the strongest, right, the strongest sprinters at the front. I mean, to be getting to be getting top five in these ultra high speed sprint. with no team support is really impressive. Yeah. Yeah, that's a big. Okay. Well, the odds are not up.

They'll be up tomorrow by assume Manier. Off the top of my head, let's say he's plus 200. Yeah, Manier plus 200. Milan will be about plus 200, and then Mattis might be like plus 3,000. So I'm going to go with him. I would not be shocked if we're standing here. And Paul Monnier is one.

You don't think that, do you think anything else is going to happen? no GC action because it gets pretty serious at the end of this coming week. So I would imagine people will just wait. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, on Tuesday stage, there's nothing to do. You can't do anything. What about the breakaways?

Well, there's been no contest to give him. Diego Civia is going to be breaking. I guess you figure on a stage like, because it's flat, it's basically flat. We're in the, it's the south of Italy. So it's Cantazaro to Consenza, Konseza. There's two cities in southern Italy. Very featureless first 100 kilometers. And then you start going up that long climb to send down.

With no real texture like that, it's probably too easy. No one's going to go in the breakaway because it's too easy to pull you back at will, I assume, especially with this many fresh riders. Yeah, I mean, somebody's going to go on the break. those same teams. Even if they know they're going to get pulled back, they're still going to go. And the Peloton is going to let them go.

But, you know, same scenario, I think. Two riders, three riders, four maybe. And of course, I think Sudok Wickstap is going to be in charge of bringing it back because, you know, if you want two of the budget prints, then the responsibility is on you. there's also a lot of teams that think they could win from the sprint so there'll be more teams to pull you back less teams that want to spend riders in the breakaway like just suit all quick step little trek unibet e f xeus astana uno x jaco alula decathlon bardiani has a sprinter here so they might not even be up the road tudor mow v star like all these teams can squint and in sn imagine themselves winning a stage from a sprint so they'll the I'd be no appetite for a big breakaway. No, for sure not.

No, no. Well, thanks, Johan, and we'll be, enjoy your day off, and we'll be back on Tuesday. Tomorrow, you're going to write tomorrow, Spencer, because, I mean, for the, for our followers who have, were, I mean, I don't think you mind if I bring it up, Spencer, but. Yeah, yeah, don't bring it up. I'm kidding. We have our, you know, our yearly challenge and let me think, let me look. I think you should definitely take advantage tomorrow to ride because let me check if I have 1,100 kilometers of advantage on you.

I got to do a thousand kilometer day tomorrow, ride to Kansas City from my house. You've been riding a lot also. You've almost have 4,500 kilometers. I have 5,500, almost 5,500. almost 5,600 already. So. What's your weather

look like the next few days? Tomorrow, let's see. Tomorrow should be okay. Let me see. Yeah, tomorrow I'm definitely riding because it's raining on Tuesday. So tomorrow I'm riding. You're on pace to beat your

distance from last year by like 4,000 kilometers. That's my goal. That's my goal. It'll be interesting to see like can we actually cheat the system or are we destined to ride the same kilometers every year no matter how hard we try. I'm curious to see what happens here. It feels so hard to actually get ahead of where you were the year before. It feels harder every year. I've been riding a lot, I have to admit. I have been riding a lot more than last year so far. Well, you look thin,

you look in shape. We were joking before. We were talking about a big rider weighing 78 kilos. and I was saying if we showed up weighing 78 kilos, people would think we were sick. Like, are you okay? Where do I sign? Where do I sign? Well, enjoy your day off. Don't ride too much, and we'll be back on Tuesday.

Tomorrow's minimum going to be 100K, so. Minimum of 100K. That's when you're not in a race, that is very hard to do. All right, we'll talk to you on Tuesday, Johan. Okay, Spencer, thanks. Okay, bye.