THEMOVE - Vingegaard Shows Resistance Is Futile | Giro d'Italia 2026 | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: May 30, 2026

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin break down Jonas Vingegaard's dominant win atop Piancavallo Giro d'Italia to win his fifth stage win of this race and pad his overall. They dive into how the GC battle, which was raging behind, shook out, and what to make of Vingegaard's improving performances. They also preview tomorrow's Stage 21, a likely sprint in Rome, and wonder if Lidl-Trek and Jonathan Milan can finally get their stage win. See THEMOVE live in Belgium for the final Giro stage on May 31st https://www.myticketshop.be/event-details/wattage-festival-2026/777

Vizma made it clear that today they wanted to go for the stage win. Exactly what happened. Takeaway of today, the same way as we've seen in the last few mountain stages, is that Jonas is in a league of his own here in this Giro, and then it's the rest. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Bernil. We are breaking down stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia, the final mountain stage,

the final GC set piece before tomorrow's procession slash sprint in Rome. Jonas Finnegaard won the stage one minute and 15 seconds, potentially his biggest gap winning gap yet, Johan, over Felix Gall with Jai Henley coming in third. Stop us if you've heard that finishing order before on a mountain stage. Derek G. coming in fourth, incredibly strong ride from Derek G.

And time and arnsman with the ride of the day from Igan Bernal pulling him back into that group after they were dropped, saving his fourth place, stopping Derek G from going into fourth himself. and then another ride of the day, Afonzo Ullalio coming in seven, two minutes, three seconds down on Vinegard to save his young rider's jersey. That was to me the most surprising ride of the day because this was a seriously hard stage. And Ullalio finishes right up there with the top GC guys. The recap's going to be quick.

It starts. I still can't believe this is what they made these guys do this. It starts 10.30 in the morning, 133K of rolling to fly. flat basically. A breakaway goes, a five-ish rider break. They get about five minutes. They're sitting out there baking out there. It's hot. And Johan, I go for a ride after the start. I'm riding for two and a half hours. I come back. They haven't even hit the climbs yet. I'm settling in. They hit the first of two Piancovallo's. Fizma, as you would expect, paces up the first pass of that with Victor Campanards. They're bringing the gap to the breakdown almost faster, I think, than they

wanted to. They get it down to about a minute by the top. Vindigard talks to Chaconay says, chill out, bro. I'm going to let you get these K-O-M points so you can be the king of the mountain at this Giro. Chacone got it. Kind of doesn't save the Giro for his little truck team. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Maybe they get a stage one as well, but that's a big accomplishment for him and the team. They come to the second pass of Piancovalo. Vizma runs out of guys way faster than they, I think they expected. They had Bart Lemon on the front, tapping out a super hard pace. It drops Sepkous. It drops Paganzoli. So suddenly Yonis goes from having three guys to set pace for him to zero because then Lemon gets dropped at about 11k to go. On the climb,

Jonas does the Pagachar of, oh, I don't have any teammates. Let me just attack. And he attacks, Felix Gall follows him for, I'm going to say maybe 10 seconds and then says, I'm going to lose my second place. If I try to do this, he sits up, manages his effort. Yonis rides away, wins a stage by over a minute. Kind of interesting. the rest of the guys, like a lot happens. They're splitting up. And then by the time they get to the top, they're all going the same speed. They all finish about in the same time.

But what were your major takeaways from the stage, Johan? Yeah, Spencer, you know, as expected, stage 20 being a mountain stage, we have seen this scenario over and over again that is the strongest guys. There's no more surprises. It's whatever has the guys have left in the legs that do the talking, right? Visma made it clear that today they wanted to go for the stage win. Exactly what happened. Takeaway of today, the same way as we've seen in the last few mountain stages,

is that Jonas is in a league of his own here in this Giro, and then it's the rest. Today, again, he had to go with 10K to go, as you mentioned. That doesn't really bother him. I think when Jonas Wingergaard goes, he is basically, you know, just under threshold, can maintain that. He was again in time trial mode, very smooth and fluid. There's no contest on who was going to win the stage. He just gets away and then gradually without going full gas.

I think the hardest stages for Jonas Wingergaard in this Jiro were the first mountain stages where he seemed to be like more full gas trying to drop his rivals. The last three stage wins were not full gas. in my opinion. Still hard. I mean, don't get you wrong. You know,

he suffers, but it was very, very much in control. You know, the fact that Felix Gall was trying to follow in vain, as you said, five to ten seconds maybe. You could see the facial expression,

the difference in facial expression between Jonas and Felix. Yeah. It looked like he was on a cool down ride. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know,

that's the way we see it. I would think that you're, Jonas with Vingerard would disagree with that. It does, you know, listen, even if these guys win comfortably, it does hurt. They suffer, right? But they decide, let's say, the difference is with these guys that are so dominant, like Jonas Vingegaard, and Ziziro, Pogacchar, in almost all the races, is that they do suffer how much they're going to, they decide how much they're going to suffer.

Yeah, exactly. It's kind of a very nice position to be in. you know, a fourth time, Fort Mountain stage in this Giro that we have the same top three in exactly the same order. And that's why that's the podium. Number one, Jonas, number two, Felix Gall, number three. Jai Hindley. Those three guys are the podium.

And I think on, you know, on the second last stage, last mountain stage, usually it's the podium guys who make their statement. Not much else to say, Spencer, about this stage, you know, very hard. Also, I heard a writer, I think it was Walt Pools actually, who said that, you know, it's kind of hard to recover. Yesterday was a very hard stage, but there was a transfer and they got to the hotel at 12, 30 minutes past midnight yesterday. Yeah. And then, and then this morning, 7.30, they had to wake up. You know, these are all things we don't see, but it gets to you.

You know, the recovery is already super difficult in the third week, but, you know, with this logistical challenges, it's even more difficult. And that's also where the capacity of recovery of the real big stage racers comes into play. You know, people recover faster because of the efforts on the bike, but also with all the other commitments that. come with a grand tour. Well, I was thinking about that too because we stayed out, you know, late-ish because we were at the gala last night.

And then we wake up, go to breakfast. By the time we're done with breakfast, the stage is starting. I was like, man, like the Dolomite Summit finish. And then, yeah, they must have been up 7 a.m. eating and then getting ready to start today. That's hard. And here's my theory. I'm going to run it past you.

I was staring out at the North Sea, sketching down some theories right before you record it. But how do you, by the way, how do you? like the Belgian coast. It's different. It is different. I did not really know about it. It's incredible, but potentially deceiving because it's about the perfect weather you could ever have. I went to Bruges today and I was like, man, we should all be living in Bruch. This is the best city in the world. Yeah, but it's not always like this, Spencer. Yeah. It kind of looks like Miami out there right now. I don't know if it's always like that. But here's my theory that, and you really have to be careful when you look at like if we logged on Twitter right now we would see all these breakdowns of

Piancavalo you know yonnas did 6.5 watts per kilo that's actually less than he did on blockhouse on stage seven but what's happening is you know it's all relative because he's first of all I think he might have been sick in the first week like he said so we have to take that into account but everyone's fresher he's putting out big numbers on these climbs these guys are staying with him. But then why he's Jonas and he never finishes below second place in a stage race. And they're them is because over three weeks

he just deaf doesn't really get worse. And it's been a hot, really hot race. A lot of super long transfers. I think that wears people down over time. And today was his most dominant win. But if we looked at the numbers, it wouldn't be his most impressive performance. Like it would

probably look like a middling climbing performance. But in the context of the zero, it's really good. Yeah. I think I, yeah, you're right. You're right. You have to take two things into account.

First of all, I'm convinced that Jonas is not going 100% full gas. You know, the debate about whether he's at the top of his physical condition or not. I think that's difficult to, to judge. I think he's pretty close to his best physically where he can be. You know, I always take it with a big. grain of salt when they say, oh, you know, I'm at 80, 90% now I can still improve 10 or 15%. That's very, very difficult to judge. But I am, what I am convinced of is that today, for example, he did not go full out,

number one. And then number two, I think on these kind of longer efforts, because what was it, was it almost 40 minute effort, 38, 39 minute effort? Yeah, very long. You know, those efforts after three weeks are obviously going to be, you're going to have less power output than in the first week. That's normal. I mean, otherwise you're Superman.

And so, you know, it was not really, I think the condition of Jonas, Jonas Wingergaard is optimal right now. And, you know, he's going to win this Giro without any real rivals. And now his challenge will be. how to bridge this five-week gap to the Tour de France. You know, he's going to have to take some rest and then he's going to go to altitude. He's not going to do any more races. That's the challenge now, how to manage this, this time.

And that's, you know, in tier, you can say, well, you know, I'm here now. If I do this, this and this, then I should be there. Not then, but that's not the way it works. You know, sometimes it goes a bit differently. But I think, you know, take an altitude account, I think he's in a very good position. And now he's, you know, winning the Giro, which was a goal. And in really good condition. And, you know, his homework is done for the Tour de France.

It's just a matter of now, you know, not getting sick, which is also also always a problem after a grand tour. And you don't have that under control. You know, you're even if, even if, even if, even if you're not going to finish exhausted, you know, your body is somehow depleted. and that's when you're very fragile for all little little things that can happen to you. I'm not saying that's going to happen, right? But it's something that now they will have to really monitor very close. But yeah, I mean, listen, at the end of the day, I think this victory just shows that he did what he wanted in this Gero. And, you know, as we expected before the Gero, you know, initially, I very,

Remember when we talked about blockhouse, for example, you know, Jonas, you know, we don't know if he's strong enough. Felix Gall took time back in the last four kilometers. He took 11 seconds back. Big deal. You know, like back then, back then we considered it a sign, right? It won't, you know. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to say too much because we do want to unpack some of these larger trends tomorrow on our like, I don't want to burn all of our material that we're going to talk about tomorrow.

but that still is a little confusing to me because his numbers were so good on Blockhouse. I don't really get what happened. And then also the time trialing, I still have questions about that will be, obviously they don't matter for this race, but for the tour it does. But I really believe that he was carrying a little illness

in those four or five days there where he was not dominant. And then the time trial was, it was not a disaster, but it was definitely not what we would expect from Jonas Vingergaard, you know, the double tour de France winner, Velta winner, now Giro winner. You know, that's, that's a, I mean, we can talk about it tomorrow

when we, when we're on stage in Ostende with Bradley, but, you know, he's now the eighth rider only in, in history to win the three grand tours. And, you know, the names are pretty, pretty, you know, pretty significant, you know. Jacques-Ancquitil, Eddie Merckes, Felici Gimondi, Bernardino. Alberto Contador, Vinson Nibali, Chris Frum, and now Jonas Fingerguard.

There's only eight riders who have ever done this. Well, yeah, I was talking to a former Tour of France winner. It was like a week or two ago. And he was like, who cares? Why is Jonas here? What a waste of time. And I think you just answered the question, right? To be part of that group is pretty special.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I got to say, hand up. I think I was wrong. I was worried about the forum in the first week. I was going to save that for tomorrow, Spencer. I'm going to ask you the question. You'll ask me tomorrow.

We can talk about it now, but tomorrow on stage, we're in front of a live audience in Ostende. I'm going to ask you the question, you know, if you're still worried about Jonas's form and his program. Well, I'm going to ask Bradley about if he would recommend doing this year before the tour, but I would say from a distance, I think Vismas managed us perfectly. Like they've really thought this through. They did. They did. They did what they were planning to do. Although I have to say, you know, it doesn't have any impact on the overall objective and the overall result of Fisma, which was winning the Gero and now finally winning six stages with the team five of Jonas and one of SEPCUS. But today, Sepkos and Paganzoli have paid for their efforts. Jonas didn't need them in the end, right? But it proves that my theory of the bucket that gets filled up bit by bit, ultimately, can be very costly. And Sapkuz yesterday's, of course, spent a lot of energy to be in the break and then to get away.

Combined that with maybe some less sleep, the transfer, less recovery. P. Gonzoli also today couldn't. do anything for Jonas. Didn't need to, right? But today, if he would have had a normal day, he could maybe have done his job for Jonas and then maybe have a shot for the white jersey, which they can say whatever they want. Oh, you know, we're not interested. But it was, it was becoming a goal of Paganzoli to win the white jersey. You know, and then today he has a bit of a less day. And then you are unlucky that it falls together with a great day of O'Lali. And then what did you think about that day from him?

Pretty impressive. Yeah, that was pretty impressive. Yeah, I did not expect that. I was I was kind of worried about him. But man, today he showed that he's, yeah, he's very, very solid guy. You know, listen, I think it's well deserved for Paganzole, for, for O'Lio to, you know, to be fifth. And especially to win that white jersey, that's a huge accomplishment for him. So, yeah.

Hats off to him and Bahrain too for pulling that off. I feel like this Giro 2 is a lesson in. You could imagine American front office guy coming into a team and be like, why are we paying Jonas all this money? We got Sep Kuz. He won the Vuelta. And then this Giro showed us like, well, there's levels here. There's differences in what bodies can take.

And a great example of that is Bernal. So think all these guys are, none of these guys can distance each other. Like Chai Henley is a great rider. Felix call a great, great climber. They're stuck together. Bernal could have stayed with those guys. He drops back with Aronsman

and paces Aronsman through the steepest part of the climb. Pretty smart on his part to not surge, but keeps Aronsman there in the game through the steep part. They get to the last final 5K, which isn't as steep. And Bernal just rips through that gap. I mean, it was like up to 30 seconds at points. I mean, that was, that shows you he might not be a tour

winter anymore but the classes is still there yeah now he's solid you know solid and and you know class you can never discount or discard a guy with super talent and class they you know he may not be consistent anymore but there's always flashes of that super talent yeah come back at some point um you know he's been really inconsistent in this in this uh gero but today for arnsman he was worth his weight in gold. Obviously, Arnsman, I think, had expected, you know, to have a shot at the podium. It would also have to be a situation where Aronsman has a great day and Hindley had not so good day.

That's also not, was also not the case. But I think everybody's, you know, everybody's where they belong based on what they've shown. You know, there's nobody, I don't think there's anybody who can say, you know, I came for more and, you know, it's because of this, of this. Derek G, for example, he's in what, sixth? Sixth place, no? Fifth place. He passed to Laleo. Passed to Laleo, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, he passed him yesterday already, right? Yep. Yeah, because of that breakaway. And what's funny about G is behind Yonis, it's pretty tight. So G is 54 seconds behind Arnsman. And then he's just like a minute and a half behind Henley.

And then he's basically two minutes behind Gahl. Two and a half minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think overall, you know, everybody, everybody is where they, where they deserve to be based on what they have shown and what they have performed in those three weeks. So, so yeah, I think that's great. What did you think about, do you think G kind of got back on track in this third week after a tough 12 months?

Obviously, I mean, he was, he was definitely on a lot better level and a lot more consistent than he had shown, you know, in those in those other mountain stages. he was up there all the time with the best guys which in the first few mountain stages he was struggling shows a lot of balls about his engine you know that he has he has a really good endurance and he's a solid rider but i honestly think that this you know fourth that fourth fifth place that's the level of derrick g and for derrick g to be close to the podium there need to be circumstances still listen there's not many riders in the world Tour Peloton who can say that they are a top five ground tour rider. There's not many.

And Derek G has now done it twice. So that's where he is. Yeah, because it's not as simple as doing five times three. Is it twice or three times? It's twice. I think the third time in our head is a little confusing because do you remember the first time he came to the zero? He was just a stage hunter and he got something like six second places.

It was in every break. But he didn't go for GC yet. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, super talented writer. Let's take a quick break and then I have a few trivia questions for you and then we'll talk about tomorrow's stage if you don't have anything to say about.

Okay, we're back, Spencer. Before we get into your questions and the preview of tomorrow's stage, I just wanted to ask what was your experience yesterday on the Wheeler Wattash Festival, the show, the evening. I mean, you got to meet some of your idols, heroes, I think. Some really old, like Adi Plancard, we met and, you know, Patrick Lefevre, and you were next to Tom Bonn and Philip Gilbert, Van Avermont. What was your impressions about the way the Belgians set up these cycling related events?

Well, yeah, I was pretty blown away. Pretty cool to meet those guys. Also funny that, you know, Tom Boone and Gilbert, they're just a little bit older than me. But, you know, if you're 14 years old or you're 20 years old and someone's 26, they seem so much older than you. And I find out these guys are just my peers, basically. So that was kind of interesting. But the event was really, really impressive. Like, talk about putting on a show.

And if very cool to talk to Tom Bowen and Tom Bowen, big fan of the wider tires, Johan, thinks 32-mill tires and disc brakes have changed the game in pro cycling. And I tend to agree with them. But it was surreal to see all those guys. I mean, they're just sitting across from you. It was Patrick Lefebvre, yourself, Bradley Wiggins, Philippe Jolbert, Tom Boonan, Tom Dumillon, looking fantastic, by the way. Greg Van Avermanet, that was quite the lineup over there. But, oh, and Eddie Plancourt, obviously.

And it also, it was cool, too, they would play back their old wins. And it kind of remind, like, you know, Jealbert, Van Avermet, not that long ago, but it was pre-COVID and there's kind of a split of my mind. And there's all this stuff about their careers. You forget. You make, man, these are really, really good writers. And you realize, like, how rarefied the air is up there. But I was also impressed by, you know, Rubin and Neils was the other presenter's name.

Like the effort and the quality of production in the show was really high. I was blown away by that. Yeah. No, it was really nice. It was for me also, it was nice to reconsider. connect with some people that I hadn't seen for a very long time, basically everywhere, at the show, at the hotel, at breakfast. It was nice. So thank you, Ruben van Gogh, for inviting us. I mean, tomorrow, I hope we can deliver a great show. But that was really nice to attend. And thank you very much for

the invitation. I got to say, I'm just outside of being impressed with Flanders in general, Belgium in general, just very nice place to be. Great canals to ride your bike along. Big sport, like big respect for sports in this country. You know, like last night, cycling focused, apparently like a kilometer away, there was just another sports gala happening. And we were talking to your friend from the French Belgian TV this morning. And him and his son were, you know, I was vaguely recalling a game between the USA and Belgium and soccer in 2014. and they were walking me through like the play by play of the last 30 minutes of the game. I'm like, man, these guys are really into sports in this country.

Like they remember stuff quite vividly. It's been humbling to see how much they pay attention to the minutia of every sport, it seems like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was nice. It was nice. And so we went to Piancavalo today or the race did. Do you remember the winner in the last time we went to this climb? Theo Gaganhart, 2020.

which seems like yesterday, but this is basically where he won the race. And then do you remember the time before that? I know Panthani won there. I don't think that's the second last time. Was that the first time they went there? It's the fourth time they went.

I know. So Panthani was the first. Okay. I don't know who was the second one then. Well, a hint is we were sitting with one of the main characters last night. So it was 2017, stage 9.

19. Tom Dumont. Okay. He didn't win there, though. Mika Landa wins by... Oh, Landa. Okay, yeah, yeah. Minutes, like eight minutes in front of the G.C. group. And I'm thinking, this is the best climber I've ever seen in my life.

This guy's the next Marco Pentani. It was like, that just stuck out to me is one of the most impressive climbing performances I'd ever seen. I also heard Sepp Kus was only the 116th writer to win stages in all three grant tours. Did you know that? No. And then guess the last The stage is in all ground two. It's not easy.

Well, this is going to show you. Guess the only other American to do it. Think how many good American riders has been? The only other American. You're never going to get it. Because not Lance, because he never won his Euro stage.

Chris Horner would have been my guess, but it's not Horner. Tyler Hamilton? Not Tyler Hamilton. First name is right, though. Tyler Farrar. Tyler Farrar. Wow. I would not have guessed.

I would not have guessed that. If that was the million dollar question on who else to be a million, I wouldn't have got it right. Wow. That's pretty impressive. That shows you how impressive that is. Not a not a common thing to do. So tomorrow's stage, stage 21 in Rome, they already said they got out in front of the narrative, not be neutralized. So G.

G.C. guys have to erase this for time. 131K is pretty hefty. stage length for a final stage. They kind of start out in a business park in Rome and then ride out to the ocean and then come back to the middle of the city that they start doing circuits. It's beautiful. You'll love it. Turn it on.

Watch it. How do you think this is going to play out and who's going to win? Yeah. It has to be a bunch of Prince Spencer. Has to be. There will be people who try. You know, it's been proven that it works sometimes. But man, I cannot imagine for the life of it that.

especially, especially little track will allow that a breakaway has a chance to make it to the finish. They have to try everything they can to win this stage. You know, they have now secured the KOM. It's obviously a nice prize, but it's not what they came for, you know? And I mean, it would be, it would be amazing for Jonathan Milan to win the last stage in Rome as an Italian beating Paul Manier. not sure if you can do that though. Manier looked pretty, pretty impressive the last time I saw him sprinting. But it has to be bunch sprint.

I hope, listen, I hope for everybody that the weather that stays dry because let me tell you, Spencer, no matter what they say about not being neutralized, if there's a few drops of rain, it's getting neutralized. I mean, rain on the Rome circuit would be terrible. No, no, it's getting neutralized. And yeah, for sure. But anyways, probably it won't. won't. I hope it doesn't. But yeah, I think bunch print. And yeah, I mean, do you want me to tell you the last few winners before you give your prediction?

I know, I know Cavendish won there a few years ago. The first year they did this circuit, basically Cavendish won. Unbelievable in retrospect. With a great lead out from Grant Thomas. Karen Thomas on a different team. You know, it's, you know, I would watch that in the moment and say, what is he doing? Like, that's not the brief here. What are we doing? We got to respect our teams. And then, but that's the only thing I remember from, you know, when people go outside the box and you're like, they just do it because they're mates with somebody.

It's a very special thing. 2024 is Tim Rlerler over Jonathan Milan. 2025 is Olaf Koi over Caden Groves. Okay. And it's a very hard circuit for a breakaway. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to say, assuming, I mean, unless I haven't seen it, but I assume he's still in the race. I'm going to say Dylan Grunewagan tomorrow.

Is he in the race still? Hold on. It's a very important question. Let's just check. Let's just check. He has to have stayed in the race for this stage. This is, I mean, that would be huge for that team, huge if they won that. So he is, he finished today.

So unless he does a non-start tomorrow, he'll be in it. That's a good pick, I think. I mean, logic, logic would say Paul Barnier. He won all the sprints, every single one of them, I guess. But the real, the real pure bunch prints. And so he could get his fort. you know, he's in Chiclamino solidly.

But sometimes the last stage in a ground tour is different. So I'm going to pick. It's almost always different. Dylan Greenwich. I like that pick. I like that a lot. I'm going to go Jonathan Milan.

I mean, he was jumping in the breakaway today. He's got ants in his pants. I don't know what's going on there. But he looks good. Looks lively. I think he's going to win tomorrow. But Grunnevegan would be,

I personally actually would just like, I would like to see the, are the odds out for tomorrow? Probably not since it's so early, but let me check. No, they're not out. I'm going to guess that Manya is the favorite, like a plus 150. It has to be, yeah. Milan's going to be like plus 200.

Grunovagan would probably be plus 350. Grunovigan makes a lot of sense, actually, the more I think about it. The only disadvantage for a sprinter like Grunovigan is that he is the least good climber of all the sprinters. And that's how much he has spent a lot more to make it in the time cut or to make it to the finish than the other sprinters. That's true going against him. But, you know, pure sprinters on a flat circuit, you know, when they smell the finish line, it's different. And he has a great team for the leadout, man. Yeah, he does a very good team for the lead out.

Very focused team. How do they get to Rome tonight? Are they flying? Like right now? Yeah, they're flying. They're flying, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

That's brutal. Man, let me tell you. People don't realize how hard this is. Like, you know, you're, you've done just this double day super hard mountain stages. You're destroyed. You have to go on a plane. Sit uncomfortably. Everything hurts.

Yeah. No proper massage. You know, because they're going to get too late to the finish to the hotel. It is hard. Yeah. You'd be wondering, why are we going to Rome? Like, why don't we just go to Verona? What are we doing?

But anything else, Johan, before we take off? Nope. That's it, Spencer. Well, thanks so much. I'll see you on stage tomorrow. And we'll try. We're actually recording that episode before the end of the stage. And then we're going to try to record like a little bit on stage 21 when we get to our hotel tomorrow night that can go on the beginning of the episode.

Yeah. Yeah, sounds like a plan. All right. Thanks, Johan. See you tomorrow.