THEMOVE - Lidl-Trek Denied Again & the Dolomites Loom | Giro d'Italia 2026 | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

 Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Paul Magnier's incredible victory on Stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia, which gave him three stage wins at this race and likely sealed the battle for the Points Jersey. They discuss the unexpected outcome, how it came to be, even with a tough climb before the finish, and preview tomorrow's Stage 19, the hardest stage of this race, and how it will shape the overall classification. See THEMOVE live in Belgium for the final Giro stage on May 31st https://www.myticketshop.be/event-details/wattage-festival-2026/777 Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team  

I think Vizma will control and Jonas will win his fifth stage, I think. And I've seen somewhere, I mean, it's a quote of an interview that said, you know, it would be nice to win six, two more stages. He said that. So that must be in his mind. And, you know, in this Giro, I would say the plan that Visma has before a stage, they usually accomplish it. They usually executed. Yeah. So I think tomorrow

Vingelg wins the stage and takes more time on all of his rivals. That's, I think, the most logical outcome of tomorrow's stage. Everybody, welcome back to the Moop Plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Bernille. We are breaking down stage 18 of the Juryd Italia as well

as previewing at stage 19, probably the most important, at least most difficult mountain stage behalf in the race. This is very unusual episode. I am in Brussels, Johan's home country, and he is at a wedding, a black tie wedding, and a tuxedo. I'm getting frame-mogged in this episode. I should have dressed up for this. Yeah, Spencer, so I mean, to all of our listeners and viewers, so I'm in,

I'm in Mallorca for a wedding. I just ran away from the wedding to the podcast. This is how dedicated we are to our move listeners and our move. audience. So full disclosure, I'm here already since this afternoon. I haven't seen much of the stage. I know the outcome. I know a little bit what happened. But, you know, for this time, Spencer, I'm going to have to rely on you a little bit about the details of the stage. But I think I have a pretty good idea of what happened. So I hope I can give you my opinion. Yeah, well, we thought it would be a boring stage. And we thought it would be a good one to be busy during. We were wrong. It was,

it was pretty interesting. And thanks to your country's got to be the slowest passport control in the known world. I had a lot of time to watch the start of this stage at the Brussels airport waiting to get my passport checked. It started, it seemed like everyone in the race thought it was going to be a breakaway day. Everybody, you rarely see this. Consensus breakaway. It starts, but everyone thinks it's going to be a breakaway to the point that it wasn't because everyone was waiting, waiting, waiting for the move, waiting for the move.

The move never really came. It's these flat starts, like 20K flat starts into a climb, so everyone's thinking, I'll wait for the climb, I'll attack on the climb. No one really wants to go on the flat. There's a Unibet Rose Rocket rider off the front. They get to the climb. It is hard on the climb, but it's so hard because everyone thinks this is the moment

the move's going to go, that the move doesn't go. Vizmo was kind of active. Caruso was in a move for a little bit. It was very nervy, very cagey. Eventually, two Pultes get away with an EF rider bridges up, and then an Alpacin rider bridges up, and everyone says, that's good. We'll let that move sit out there.

And then the sprinters teams are controlling, which is not what we expected. It was basically Inneson, Little Trek and UAE controlling for Jonathan Arbias, who needed to get a lot of intermediate sprint points, and he needed to drop the sprinters on the final climb and then win the stage, you get a high placing on the stage. We're going into the final climb. The break always getting caught.

It's kind of falling into a rhythm here. The climb comes around. It's extremely, extremely fast into the climb. I mean, like Nacompanyos went to the front, like it was the end of a stage, a sprint lead out. They get to the climb, but it's not so hard.

Like Jonas goes to the front with Vizma. It's still, like he's just trying to stay at the front, stay safe, everyone, all the GC guys catch up. And Paul Monnier and Jonathan Milan are climbing incredibly well. Like Jonathan Milan, I was stunned by how well he was climbing on this. It was 11.5% average. It was like the murder of week for a kilometer half. It's, but it's what we said especially yesterday.

You know, it's a three, three and a half minute effort, right? And so some of these printers, you know, they're going to get dropped, but not far enough to not make it back. And so that's what these guys were thinking. We could clearly see a little track really controlling it from Milan, bringing him in a good position.

The thing is also once you're in the front, you're already 200, 300 meters up to climb before the other guys can come. So there's only 700 meters left. Manier was the same thing. Even the Ubedreux rockets, they did the same for Kubis, who's a sprinter that goes

decently uphill and so yeah I mean I was surprised also to see that the sprinters made it I mean let's not forget you know sometimes we are quickly to say you know what it's a sprinter he's not made I mean these guys are really good bike riders man

yeah and a one point what was it 1.4 kilometers no 1.1 kilometers it may seem like an endless wall to us but for these professional riders man that's You basically, I mean, they can all do this. Everybody can get up that and, you know, decent speed.

Well, that to me, that's the message of the day is we think of these sprinters as one-trick ponies and they can sprint real fast in the straight line. These are incredible bike riders. I mean, like Marco Pantani out there. And it's like what you're saying. There was a GC group. Jonas probably wants to get over the climb to dissent, to pick his own line on the descent. So he attacks on the climb. But it's not a real attack.

He's just trying to get to the front. He's descending down. In a sin, I believe, is in the move. They have Corbyn strong up there. So they're pushing it, but there's nobody else really to push. So the sprinters are right behind. They catch back on. We're going into the final kilometer.

And Paul Manet was kind of out of position, kind of by himself. Jasper Stoivin comes up from behind and picks him up, says, hey, get on my wheel. Literally muscles his way through the field and does an incredible sprint lead out for Monier. Manier gets the shorter line through the final corner. Milan has to go around Stoeven. That's kind of the difference. Second place, that was not Milan.

It was Eduardo Zambanini from Barreinii victorious. And if you remember that name, it's because he got second on stage five of the Giraud Italia last year to Matt's Pedersen. And he stuck out to us as a really talented writer. He is an 25-year-old Italian. I guess he emerges once a year to finish second at the most interesting Jiro de Italia stage. But congrats to him.

Monnier probably seals up the points jersey because with this wind, he now has 195 points to Jonathan Narvaeus is 158. So even if Narvius wins intermediate sprint points in the next two mountain stages, he would need to win the intermediate sprint point and probably place ahead of Monier in the final stage in Rome, which unless there's a terrible mechanical will not happen. Johan, there's another one of these bottle episodes we had, It's an interesting stage, but it doesn't really have any bearing on the GC

and we're kind of in neutral waiting for the GC to kick off tomorrow. Yeah. I mean, you know, listen, we have to have stages like this. You know, today, I think today was a very interesting stage because yesterday we didn't really know if it was going to be breakaway or sprint. We had, you know, we had our doubts that these big sprinters could make it up that climb. I was, you know, I was more in favor of a guy like Tarweiss or a, or a. Silva, who looked really good.

But for a moment there, I think when there were like 10, 12 riders, Silva from Astana was up there, a strong rider. But finally, you know, the two first groups came together. It was not a bunch sprint with the whole Peloton. What was it? 40, 50 riders, max, probably. He was like 59 riders or something. 59 riders, yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, Little track had a few guys there. Suddaq Quickstep had four riders in that group. So they were really motivated and believing before the stage that Manier could make it up there. And that turned out to be key to have these teammates there for that leadout. Let's not forget also, Spencer,

the attack of Ulaalio on the climb. You know, really, really bold move from him after having crashed at the middle of the stage. It looked like he had heard himself pretty bad, but came back and then was really, really very courageous to attack, that was, you know, a good sign, I think, for him to show that, especially for himself, that he's still in good shape and that he can, you know, hopefully for him, defend the white jersey. His main opponent is now going to be Piganzoli.

So Paganzoli is obviously a better climber, but he has to do the work for Jonas. So, yeah, I think it's still very interesting. We all know that the GC for first place is over, right? But these other classifications are still going on. The podium is still very open. So we'll see what happened. I think today was a nice stage. It was a transition stage, but with an unknown outcome, which, in my opinion, made it much more exciting.

Yeah, one of the most interesting stages of the race. And then Ullalio, so he attacks on the climb. He attacked again going into the finish with Jonas Colset. from UNOX Mobility. I found out last night, do you know, Jonas Holset's father, CEO of UNOX Mobility,

kind of a funny, oh wow, funny coincidence there. I wonder how they got involved in cycling. Yeah. You know, we also found, well,

I also found out yesterday, Spencer, I guess you read it also. We, about yesterday's stage and Michael Valkrin, is that both Volgrin and Jonas Vigigelgo come from the same small cycling club in Denmark.

Isn't that crazy? And Jonas was actually a big fan of Vagrin when he started cycling. So, yeah, crazy. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,

Volgren was probably a big star by, I don't know, 2015, 2016 in that town. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Wow. That makes me feel old when Michael Vagrin is a, he's a, childhood hero of a veteran G.C. writer. Wow. The big thing we're left with is Paul Monnier now has three stage wins.

Jonathan Balland and Little Trek have zero. That's not what I expected. Marnier looks, he looks like a star of the future, a star of the present, really. I mean, this guy is the limit on what he can do. I was surprised. I thought for a moment, like a few stages ago, that he was washed. all that. Me too. The long efforts and, you know, the two weeks, two and a half weeks of racing already got to him.

But man, today he looked good. He looked good. I mean, he had to be really good to be there in that position. I think Milan was probably first of both over the, I mean, didn't make it in the first group, but shortly after. But, but Manier was five, ten positions behind Milan on the line. and so Milan's a great climber too

I feel like people forget that yeah for a sprinter he's definitely a good guy he's a strong guy you know he's a strong guy I really found it interesting Spencer to see that these guys know exactly what they can do and they know they can calculate

exactly okay this is the climb this is the percentage this is how long it's going to take us yes we can make it you know and that's exactly what these teams did and believed in So I think that was really interesting And something that personally I had not thought

that both Milan and Manier would make it over this climb Of course it also depends on the rhythm, right? And how fast they go. But you know what? At this point in the race, even the big guys, even the strong climbers, there is not that much power left. You know, even the good climbers were struggling on this wall

because it was hard for everybody And nobody really could make the difference. And then also you have to take into account, you know, it would be crazy for one of the climbers who is in GC to put his team there and make it hard on a one kilometer climb, knowing that you're probably not going to go anywhere and take into account that the next two stages are the most important stages to defend their GC.

So I think the combination of all of that probably contributed to the fact that some of these printers could make it over the climb. I mean, you had Felix Scull going over four seconds before Milan. So, yeah, it shows you that the power is probably not there. Does that happen if that's a one-day race, it's probably a bigger gap? They kept saying, so all quick stuff kept getting an interview during the stage. And they'd say, what's your, you know, what's your goal for the day? And they say, oh, it's not a Monnier day.

It's, it's stoivant. It's too hard for Monnier. And they said the same after the stage. Was that Robin McEwen thought they were messing with us? and that this was the plan the whole time. What would you guess? Do you think they were legitimately surprised by this? I mean, I don't know.

So they said that during the stage. Yeah, you know, they're going up and interviewing them in the car. And then they say, no, it's a stoivine day. It's not a Monnier day. Well, I mean, it's a really good way of getting out of your responsibility to contribute to the chase and trying to control the breakaway. So I'm going to guess, I mean, I haven't seen that part of the stage. I'm going to guess that Sudok Quick Step did not do any work.

Not really, no. Okay, okay. Well, there you go. That's a good way to avoid, say, oh, you know, it's too hard for money. So we're not interested in bringing the break back. And then, of course, if you get in that position, you know, you get four riders of your team that make it over the climb because they haven't worked. So it could be part of, you know, a strategy. Interesting.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hadn't thought about that. they did have more firepower than everybody else. At the end, that probably explains. Smart. Smart.

Yeah, smart, smart. I mean, Sidel Quick Step is back. Like, they got the swagger back. This is a dangerous stage winning team in a way they have been in recent years. Yeah. You know, they've been successful all year, you know. Obviously in the classics where we were used to see them dominating, that's not the case anymore. But other than that, man, they're very present.

They have a lot of wins already. you know, let's not forget they have, you know, one of the two, three strongest sprinters in the world with Merlir. Now, bit by bit, Manier is, you know, close to joining that select group of, you know, three faster sprinters in the world. You know, if we count Milan as one of the best sprinters in the world, and Milan hasn't won a stage here and Manier has beaten him three times already, you know, positions might be shifting soon, you know,

to be in that select elite group of best sprinters in the world. Yeah, and he's knocking on the door. Yeah, and I mean, is Dylan Van Barrel not on the team? He's on the team now, right? Yeah, yes. And he was, I mean, obviously there's a limit to what you can accomplish in one days right now if you don't have forgot Charvanderpuller while, but they were pretty good. I mean, he was strong, especially in the early, like the opening weekend classic.

So they're back. It's exciting to see them back. Monnier is probably going to win the points jersey now. So anything else from today's stage, Johan? No, not really. Not really. I think everybody's just, you know, listen, 85% of the Peloton is just, you know, okay,

please bring us to Rome. Please, you know, let's get to Rome and make a party. But, yeah, I mean, listen, today was survival for the most, the peloton, just the guys who thought, who would make it. I mean, 59 riders. He's still a lot of guys. But everybody's thinking now, I mean, the G.C. guys are thinking about, you know,

Friday and Saturday and everybody else is thinking, let's get this over with, you know, and go home. Yeah, and if people were not, you know, dying to get in the breakway, you'll know why when we preview stage 19, which we'll do right after this break. Okay, Yohan, so tomorrow's stage 19 today is whatever day you're listening. Stage 19 on Friday, 151 kilometers. Well, that's not that bad. First 45K are flat.

It's not so bad. Well, in the last 105 kilometers of the stage, there is roughly 4,000 meters of climbing. So it's a total of 49 hundred meters of climbing on the stage. That is 16 to 17,000 feet. And then this step blew me away, Johan. So we have had a total of 15, no, sorry, 15. kilometers over 1,500 meters so far at the Gioritaille. Tomorrow we have almost 50 kilometers over 1,500 meters of elevation.

That's a whole different game, a whole different game. I mean, you have mountain stages and high mountain stages, right? So yeah, that's different. Of course, it's more in the advantage of the real pure climbers. but of course we have to consider Jonas the best climber by far in this race so he won't have any problems it's more the others so sometimes you could see we can see probably guys who have been performing pretty well until now in those climbs until 15600 meters but once you go to 2,000 meters something different happens so we could

potentially see one of those guys really, you know, fall, disappear in the top three, top four, you know, it's a possibility. It's really different. If I had to circle a guy, I hate to do it, Tom. I'd probably say Ollalio is the most suspect of the top five. Yeah, when we describe a stage like that. Maybe he is just naturally an amazing high mountain climber. No, I doubt. No, no, no. I mean, no, I think, I think Ollali is the most logic potential victim. You know, today he attacked twice in the final,

probably also with the adrenaline still, but the crash from today will have more consequences tomorrow. And also allow you, you know, these kind of short climbs, that's his preferred terrain. We've seen him already in several races, be really with the front guys

in these kind of climbs. Longer climbs, he's a bit more struggling. But still, he will fight for it. I mean, he will fight for his five place, and he will especially fight for his white jersey. So I wouldn't count him out yet, although it's not going to be easy for him to stay there.

And so in the last 100 kilometers of the stage, we have six categorized climbs. It's crazy, including an HC climb, which I didn't even know the Gero had, the Paso Jiao. Paso Jiao? Paso Jiao is a big, a beast, which is the Chima Kapi, I believe is what they call it.

Yeah. The highest point of the jury. It's 2,300 meters, basically, very, very, very high. 10K long at 9.5% and at altitude. So that's incredibly hard. And they have two more climbs after that, including a final climb, if I'm reading this right, at 10% average for 5K. So 5.7K, I think. Yeah.

That's, I mean, this, if we're, if we're, being frank, this has Jonas written all over it. The odds are Jonas Vinegarre plus 110, Giulio Chocone plus 450, Wout Poles, plus 900, I under Rubio plus 1,000, Chris Harper plus 1,600, Coupes plus 1,800,

Julius Pellizari plus 2,200, Fielascault plus 2,200, and then it's just a wild card I would call out is Egan Bernal plus 8,000. This stage kind of yells Bernal at me if you want to go breakaway, but who do you think is going to win this and how is it going to play out?

I think, I think, Spencer, with, you know, 150-something kilometers, especially with the majority of all the climbing in the last 100K, I think it's D.C. I think Visma will control and Jonas will win his fifth stage, I think. And I've seen somewhere, I mean, it's a quote in an interview that he said, you know, it would be nice to win six, two more stages. he said that. So that must be in his mind.

And, you know, in this Giro, I would say, the plan that Visma has before a stage, they usually accomplish it. They usually execute it. So I think tomorrow, Vigegelard wins the stage and takes more time on all of his rivals. That's, I think, the most logical outcome of the moral stage. Yeah, I might run out and find a sports book.

Plus 110 is juicy. I'm surprised it's actually plus odds for Jonas on this stage. The books must, or I guess the money must think a breakaway could stay away. But I don't know. Even if I, as I say that sentence, I just think that seems so hard to imagine, right? So who's then, if you look at the betting on? Maybe Chaconne would be the break. It's like Chaconne Poles Rubio would be the, and Chris Harper who won the Queen's stage.

last year's sure yeah yeah yeah I mean it's a possibility but it's difficult um especially your Paso Jiao is is incredibly hard and then what's the next line that's not that's not so steep as it I think yeah I wasn't familiar with this it's the Paso fall like falls like F-A-L-Z Reggio regio oh's regia yeah and what's the what's the detail I mean it's still pretty hard it's It's five, it's only five and a half percent, but the last six K or six and a half percent. That's not nothing. Yeah. Yeah.

No, no. No. But I think with Paso Jiao and then that last 5K at 10 percent, you have to have a lot of time. You have to have at the bottom of the last climb. You have to have three minutes at least. And then it's still, you know, it always comes down to how much energy has it. for the remainder of the breakaway to stay ahead to have enough time and then you pay for it at the end. So the way I've seen the difference with Jonas Bingegar and his closest rivals,

imagine what it will be with a guy who's in the breakaway and has spent already so much energy. So I think it's going to be difficult for the breakaway to be up front and have enough time before the last climb. and what do you think happens that to me the big races I think we can pencil Yonison is being fine the big races Phyllis Gahl

Time and Aronsman Jai Henley are all within 57 seconds of each other how do you think that plays out that's gonna be interesting I still think Felix Gall looks good

Arnsman also looked good the other day, you know, when he Bernal, it's a really nice tempo, then he, Arnsman accelerated, but finally he got third out of the tree. I don't know, man. Listen, I've said for a few days already that I thought Jay Hindley was going to be the major candidate for the podium for the third spot. I'm having doubts now. I don't know.

I think Arnsman defended himself really well, but, you know, looking at their pure climber qualities, I'm still going to go to Phoenix doll, R.J. Hindley for Aronsmon. I mean, I kind of agree with you, but then if you think about it, Aronsvin potentially has a bigger engine than

Henley. And in the last grant tour he did, he was absolutely ripping it up in the third week in the mountains. So from breakaways, from breakaways. It's different. Well, was one not from the G.C. group? No.

Do you... I thought he went to the final climb. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, yeah. One was from the GC group and he attacked, he was not a GC,

but he was not... He attacked, but... Yeah, from the GC group. Exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was impressive. That was impressive. You have a main engine to do that. That's when...

Yon is 5th, right? Ziga Guard was on... on Pogachar's reel all the time. Yeah, I think. that was yeah that was it but um i think personally spacer on on a steep climb like this like you know five till under 10 percent it's more the pure climber than the big engine especially for a guy who's one as you're to tell you on a stage just like this exactly i would be a little worried if i was in front of him on gc yeah yeah yeah

but yeah i'm super excited to watch i think the points jersey i was excited to watch i think the points Jersey. I was excited to watch that. I think that's probably done. So what we have left is the podium. I think Yonis is going to win the stage, and I don't think it's going to be particularly close. I think he's, I mean, maybe timatically it could be close,

but it won't physically be close. He will be in control the entire stage. Do you have anything else? I think it's at least another minute tomorrow, at least. One minute is not going to be much. It's going to be more. Yeah, that could be like a last.

two kilometer attack, you know. And Spencer, and tomorrow we're watching the states together from Ostende, from Belgium. That's crazy to think about. Yeah, we will be watching the stage together. So, Pagachar, oh, okay, never mind. I was going to say, let's see what Pagaccha won the zero by and Yonis is going to try to beat that. But do you know what Pagacho won the year to tell you by? This is shocking.

more than seven minutes nine minutes 56 seconds wow jeez yeah yeah yeah could be on the table though if he if if Jonas really wants it he could probably do that over the next two days well how much how much does he have now five minutes

four minutes four minutes I'm not going to take nine minutes no no no he's not going to take five one just got to take two and a half minutes a day no no he's good I guess he would have been up enough. It just takes three minutes a day. It doesn't need to. He doesn't need to do anything.

He just needs to stay with his rivals. So no, I don't think he's going to win with that margin. But I would not exclude the sixth stage wins to make it even with Pogacchar. Well, I did hear today, if you're a gambler, this is relevant information, that he's choosing to start stages in jerseys that he wants on his wall. because like that's how that's how easy this is for him like he's not wearing skin suits on some of these stages

because he wants a jersey on the wall not a skin suit so that's how in like a race he's a racing he wants up yeah it's a race worn jersey yeah by the way one other thing Spencer before I forget about today's stage I don't know if you saw something I really don't really understand

why they did that but you know you saw four riders of Visma changing bikes yeah what was the deal with Well, and then they interviewed, was it, yeah, I think they, it was Adam Blight, actually, who asked Jonas on the bike. And so apparently they started the stage with a one-by, single chain ring. And they changed to a double chain ring in the final of the race. I don't really understand why they would do that on a stage like today. Do you have any more information about that?

I don't. But upon hearing that, my thought goes to, I wonder. if this is if this is a test for something later you know like I don't know like let's change bikes in a race situation and see how that yeah okay like you can do that we okay I can understand for example if if Jonas and and and Paganzoli do it but Campanars did it and another guy did it for guys I think that is weird I don't know it's I was, I don't know. There must be some, something, some thinking behind it.

I don't know what it is. Maybe if some of our audience have any ideas, leave it in the comments. Bezma's definitely the most interesting team in terms of, you know, just thought, like shower thoughts, we're like, hmm, what if he just sat at the back and a sprint stage and then they actually go and do it? It's kind of interesting to watch at times. Well, Johan, do you have anything else on the stage? that's it spencer i'm going back to the wedding and i'll see you soon tomorrow okay i'll see you soon thank you for making time for us johan okay thanks okay bye