Tadej Pogacar on the Attack | Giro d’Italia 2024 Stage 1 | Lanterne Rouge x JOIN Cycling

In this episode Patrick Broe and Benji Naesen recap the first stage of the Giro d’Italia.

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welcome back to Lantern R cycling podcast for the juralia stage 1 2024 the race we all said was going to be one of the most exciting races of the year that’s what everyone’s been saying for the last two weeks this J is going to be so good this is one of the best opening stages to a grand tour I’ve ever watched like explosive stage this episode is brought to you by join cycling from venaria real to Torino how are you feeling this morning when you woke up Benji on Grand Tour day pretty good I wasn’t planning I thought jro diala here even if the racing could be boring every now and then I would still be like okay this is the jro I’m looking forward to this because there’s other stories than maybe the GC where I started off going in tunnel vision when it comes to pachar and maybe I’m still in that tunnel vision depending on what happens in the stage but this stage definitely overperformed that’s for sure that’s the thing I like I got like despondent three weeks ago and then the week we did the preview I thought you know what anything can happen in 3 weeks I kind of started to drink the Kool-Aid and today really anything did happen like unbelievable stage as I said finishing Torino very explosives sorry we just did a watch along so I was maybe shouting a little bit my voice a bit sore uh flat a little bit 44k flat start which meant that we’re probably just going to have the advertising breakway and then it gets hilly progressively more hilly starting with the 3K 5% climb with there a cat four then the first intermediate Sprint Benji reliably informs me that that’s for chick lamino points I’ve already forgotten that was at the top of a 1K 6.6% climb so good for someone like Groves then another bit of a 12K Valley then the supera not the hard side 8K is 4.3% then a step Descent of about 30ks before the intergo Sprint before the which I think was for bonus seconds and Chino who knows I’ll go over it once we get to the winners yeah who knows and then the Biv San Vito first rep that 1500 met 88.6% we got to see it see how narrow it was see the crowd and already when we saw it the first time we’re like that’s a pretty pretty difficult climb straight into the Melena no flat after The Descent 7.1k 6.6% before a longer descent bit of a valley of 10 12ks before they do the bivan Vito again for a descent to the Finish where really the only the last 600 met were flat they descending almost to 700 M to go and it’s a little bit of an uphill kick so good stage design designed to be explosive Benji and the Breakaway was pretty much what we expected yeah certainly maybe maybe some more teams try and I initially anticipated we saw Riders like EF trying to get in it very early but eventually a six-man break up the road was Lou B Frenchman Nicola Mar from cofes also a Frenchman of the good market we’ve got lilan Ki Jane from uh from France as well from Anto Mar gabir for little Tre pon for balti and feli who’s got a bit of a kick to be honest like kick in climb relatively okay for bani and I said EF was trying but they miss out on eventually and and I feel like when it comes to this breakway gab getting into this Breakaway like the five up the road he bridged that in no time just as UAE was trying to control what was happening behind because UAE was were the ones that were trying to control the Breakaway formation phase of this race for obvious reasons because they want to win the stage with pachar Bridge was really good so he showed that he was really good straight across but were you surprised that EF gave up so easily on trying to get in the break well I don’t know if it was like a hold CU I didn’t see many EF Riders jumping I kind of it made sense that they were trying to get in the breakway like with the honor but maybe he’s too good to be in the break I think it was the bod jumped and I then I was thinking maybe maybe just the bod is jumping because he personally wants to go for the malot adura and because that’s what Magnus C did in the Tour of France two years ago in Denmark but yeah it was weird cuz they jumped mhm Emanuel just bridged it and then they were like no other e RS jumped it was kind of surprising yeah that was a break vard ster starts pacing with the gap of a minute unsurprisingly that’s what he’s yeah supposed to do don’t let it out to be four or five minutes and then we just enter a status quo pH to be honest like even supera was paced by RI Oliva it really wasn’t too much going on except the first intermediate Benji was alberon really for Max points yeah exactly and to be honest we got a Bridget back for the kwm like fi beating budy and gab yeah but the intermediate Sprint so Sprint one CH lamino points bonus seconds and intermediate Sprint classification points because that exists as well in addition to the intergo points that are not present at this intermediate Sprint that’s won by feli head of Kalan and Petro Bon and like you said full Lead Out by Groves for the two leftover points cuz there a lot of breakaway Riders up the road so you ain’t getting much for that for that attack so that’s number one second K this is a a third cat climb we had a fourth climb in the first km gabri finishes in front of fi and Kon gabri showing that he’s one of the stronger riders in this Breakaway for certain and then I was thinking okay okay1 points we’re looking at this first climb we’re looking at the second climb the The Climb that’s coming to madalena at the end of the stage that’s that’s more points than these two combined because for some reason I think it was three points for a fourth cat climb nine points for a third cat climb and 18 points if it’s not the mountain finish for a second c clim yeah they tin it with the K as well so when it comes to km the km would be owned by the rer that finish on Melena first but that’s for later because once again next intermediate Sprint this is the intergo Sprint so now we’re playing with that classification Chino points again but also intergro classification points cuz that’s something for for some reason and ah when it comes to that okay my notes don’t even include who on that I don’t care who on that Lilian ker because because Emanuel went up the road yeah and then he didn’t probably I don’t even think he knew what injo was kajan just rolled ahead of him and then just rolled back and Pat him on the bum saying thanks and yeah he took the maximum into J fi also there was a group of fiorelli and somebody uh chopping off behind but before we get into the real action which I would say starts on Biv San Vito the first repetition with about 35 case to go a word on our show partner join cycling did a little 20-minute test yesterday Benji I’ve actually completed well I’m 100% the way through the Fabio yakobson Sprint plan yeah but I still have 8 days left relax relax I’m not uh but I’m just I’m overperforming and did a little you know when you wake up sometimes you’re like I want to do I just want to do a bit of an effort today yeah uh and that’s the beauty of join cycling flexibility was the last day of my three-day block cuz join cing usually works in 3 days on one day off last day of the block I was like you know I’m going to give give a little nudge for 20 minutes and I was pleasantly surprised re did a 20-minute effort happy with it maybe I under paste it didn’t go full probably but then join tells me okay here’s my new FTP so my FTP has gone up like 12 13 Watts I think uh Le the estimated FTP from join cycling using the fabul Aon Sprint plan so I I was pretty happy with that given that I thought it would just increase my efforts has it improved your Sprint it has actually I did a Sprint effort the other day a Sprint workout and it was like my fifth best ever 10 seconds oo but also the previous one was on a single set of stages power meter in like 2017 so you want to take the old ones with a grain of salt as well on the better power meter now but also but then I did it I did five of them no I I is six and I was like hit hit 10 10 seconds good power like really all in my top 20 all so my Sprint repeatability was really really good so I was actually happy with how that plan’s gone even though everyone thought it was a joke that I would have to do it um um but I’m looking forward to finishing it and starting something new but if you want to check out join cycling you can get 30 days free no strings attached through the link down below and then you get a six Monon discounted subscription offered to you at the end of that 30-day free trial many of you have enjoyed it and benefited from it so far and it’s fantastic to see so make sure you go check it out and they’re a big supporter of the show more news on them coming soon all right Benji the stage heats up BVO desend what did you think when you saw the actual climb the Breakaway on it honestly gabri was putting pressure on the break where he was dropping Rider by Rider and I thought at the top okay he’s dropped everybody but kjan actually came back into descend but that climb looked more difficult than I initially anticipated I was thinking okay this is going to be a bit like the the final climb in jro lombardia lombardia I’m using the old name IL lombardia and this clim was hard hard than that and then I was thinking okay this climb plus the S madalena clim Plus this climb again this is prime Pacha territory so we see that moving up in The Paton UAE starts to Pace well continues pacing technically because Langan was doing some early work in the stage here it’s through oliv at the front of the pelaton and I was welcomingly surprised about the positioning of ala FIP and Von because I was I was hoping to see some life in La FIP today you know and we saw that on this climb but what we also saw in this climb is that Ola just kept on bacing and from this climb just watching this climb you think the conclusion okay Yi is going to go to S madalena and there Bier is going to take over and there we’re going to see a proper lead out for Pacha either he attacks there which is early or either he either they Pace hard enough but have rid is left over so for the last beefy climb Bean Vito yeah to to have like a proper lead out and well that didn’t exactly happen yeah they I mean Alf it was good when you see see him Twitchy there like did you believe in Al Le when you’re on the first yeah I believ I wanted to believe exactly I did didn’t really matter whether it was true or not I wanted to be like yeah he’s on he’s on um but yeah I was UA went with the strategy of no hard Pace until completely nuclear Pace as opposed to like a progressively making it hard day you know what I mean like they still entered Melena it was like 100 deep right like the only people that dropped on the first Zan Vito were like Co and sprinters yeah um so I was in grto I thought bu I don’t know I thought they’d maybe do Novak on the first n Vito actually really but but not at like new just like a harder pace and then malalo not as hard but like to keep guys um unless of course they wanted to attack on Melena like you suggested might be possible but was there anything I mean I’m checking the parkour there might be some intermediate Sprint there was a crash there was a crash with with guessing with potoo or cof his rider that hit the deck quite hard but looked okay the bahin rider I think it was Toran Tron looked a bit worse because his one leg he couldn’t really put pressure on it I don’t know if he restarted from that point or not whether he’s still in the race we’re now going to the K madalen climb and this is the but POA came back yeah yeah he came back just at the foot of the climb and ow this ain’t this ain’t an easy climb met like it’s not the same as the previous climb it’s like 7.1 km 6.6% on paper you would say this is the kind of climb if you have it with 30 km to go in a Sprint stage AAS Pon might get over it depending on who Paces in that stage who sees value in in doing that but in this stage we’ve had the BVO clim before it we’re having a BVO clim behind it and Y was on it when it comes to trying to get [ __ ] done well we didn’t get showing them for the first kilometer because we were showing the breakway EM manual pacing Kaman but you can see on the ticker it’s gone from 146 to 120 and it’s on the 2% kilm and I was like I’m pretty sure I know who’s on the front and it was correct it was Mel B and he was absolutely ripping it on these sort of 20 minute climbs like we saw on or Don zong in the 2022 tour France on the per good stage like he he blew up the peleton there he’s so good on these sort of climbs I do feel like these gradings like the first the first K was 2% the second K was 8% yeah third K 5% so the first and the third kilom are Buck territory eight is kind of at the limit when it comes toj but he can do a a 10 to 12 minute TT effort he’s pretty fresh and he’s still doing like 420 450 Watts you know so it’s still going fast on on 7 8% but I agree it’s not 6% it’s not 5% but we saw trouble straight away for a lot of riders and not just when it comes to the competition but also when it comes to UAE because instantly we were looking at the back of the Pelon and yes rers were dropping you’d expect to drop here and then suddenly ano rder would be in there we’d be looking is it Ben Swift is it something like that Chef Damon idon yeah ver chef and like oh right well he wasn’t in great shape and then I’m like two number two arensman I was like surprised especially okay on viiva sanvito he gets POG attacks and he can’t respond yeah fair enough but on this sort of 20-minute climb with a ruler pacing I was very surprised and he he’s full dropping others Woods dropping B uh dropping as well is the most surprising to me actually B cuz B was like third favorite for GC uh great lbl a bit less at Alps yeah I think I overrated him at Alps um plaps sliding and then eventually dropping lip of it dropping he was there for a while and what we saw was bu just destroys this group it goes from 60 to 50 to 40 to 30 mic comes up and talks to pog the camera changes camera shot goes back gr shut is on the front Novak’s gone and bear in mind in the order in the order gr was before Novak Y and then GR is on the front Novak is gone and I’m like are you a sure what they’re doing here like cuz the only way this makes sense is if POG is going to attack on Melena because there’s a valley after this Novak yeah like B just ripped ripped him apart yeah the question is looking at this okay ber is destroying his own team by pacing like this the plan isn’t B this bace is going to destroy the team it’s this bace is going to destroy the others then our team can still continue so there’s an overestimation when it comes to the riders that came after I’ll be honest I expected more from Novak on this like he did nothing today and gr sh have pulled for like 30 40 seconds exactly but it’s like we’re looking at those Riders dropping away and then mik suddenly at the front and I’m thinking okay if these Riders are dropping on a stage like this I’m somewhat worried about other stages that are going to be much harder to control than the stage one where it’s not even like this climb is there but what happens after the climb well exactly because the only solution is if POG attacks because m m was unbelievably good M was excellent we all expected that he’s been so good for so long B was good in his role but yeah Novak and gr shner were not good enough and the problem was Benji M goes to front pogy’s half Wheeling him just they’re kind of like not doing too much mic slowing down it’s not like it would allow gr sh to come back he he full drops past arensman yeah after his pull and I feel like they pull you pulled the pin too late and like they exposed their team today and and then you’re thinking you bring Milano to and he can’t help on this to maybe win a Sprint stage against the best sprinters in the world but you could be costing yourself a stage with Pocky here or there um which we’ll maybe see later and then what ends up happening is mic soft not soft Paces but kajan attacks gabre he goes over Melina first takes full km points uh everyone else from the break I think is cool but we could see that M went the same Pace as K in the last K so he kind and and no one else was dropping extra I don’t think this does mean that Kon does take the malur because he was the winner on this climb but like you said Kon still goes ahead and M goes into the descend basing and I’m thinking okay Micah’s not the the craziest descender in the world on the flat afterwards he’s not the craziest K so it’s unlikely that well first of all him catching k ban look still looks good he’s still riding he’s SC M but I’m more thinking it’s unlikely that Micah can control what happens when the Descent stops yeah and that’s where [ __ ] really hits the fan because I think Honore attacked first on the left side of the road and he didn’t really get away Micah tried to try to close it to fix that it was actually no it was shockman that then goes and then onore goes to the wheel Micah tries to close uh second guy shakman no h hon and then stop and either isn’t able to or realizes if I do this I’m going to be completely [ __ ] for the next 5 km so those two Riders start riding away then eventually Ki Bridges to that so we got three Riders up the road mic still alone in controlling the group and I’m thinking okay what are the other riders in the group going to do because inel is there with Gana Thomas NV NV looking good on Malena looking good on the first B climb Gunner looked very strong today G was so good like I did not expect that yeah I mean not just this the next climb too but with this climbing his DTS yeah he Ghana looked really really like unbelievably good but this is the thing if UAE had really reduced it to 10 guys it’s less of a problem or eight GC guys all isolated the problem was they’ve got one domestique in a group of 30 and so it’s inevitable with people aren’t stupid like they’re not going to they’re not people are not going to go to bivio de San Vito with poy just cuz maybe his teammates underperformed side of Mah doesn’t mean he’s bad and so you’ve got so many teams with multiple riders that should be jumping and some do EF as I said uh Demari jumps for JA as he should Bahrain kuso jumps because they’re like well what what’s m going to do in the valley nothing and inios inos didn’t chase they and bodan jumps yeah and all these like other guy I mean this was the moment for tratnik and VTA jump this was maybe the moment for Gana to jump but this is the thing like inol Benji there’s a chance they put gner on the front to control Caruso but but today they were just I mean probably not but today they were just perfect they just everyone just everybody let Micah they hung him out to dry except except the St except the St for a little bit Yeah like we we we see some weird [ __ ] with the time GS but it’s also because that group that is ahead I don’t know why but they were not cooperating very well you’ve got an opportunity to win the stage to take the Mala if you’re kuso to take bonus seconds yes there’s an intermediate Sprint coming with 10 kilm to go yes kuso tries to get those seconds gets those seconds but I’m thinking my man like shakman wasn’t pulling is group needs to shakman wasn’t pulling and I’m thinking he he was like someone tries to go I think it was pelari that was like pacing shman on the wheel shockman doesn’t take over from that and I’m thinking okay like why attack in the first place if is it because in the group that you’re thinking all Denny Martinez versus kuso sorry but if you’re doing that then then we’re going to have to and you might as well not attack it’s how I see so all those attacks were happening Gap keeps expanding a little to be honest but not as much as I expected because of the cooperation yeah but but that’s I I don’t understand it I really don’t it looked like Caruso was hanging it looked like they didn’t believe they could win Benji that’s what I read it’s like Kuser thought okay I’ll get these little bonus seconds but ultimately I can’t win the stage but I was this is an opportunity to get ahead of POG and you just have mic chasing in a flat Valley and then this intermediate bonus Sprint 300 me 5% was it gets even crazier here a do a lead out scaroni attacks G POG looked like he’d given up on the stage we saw POG at the back of the group fully I disagree about having given up on the stage it looked like it was like why is he at the back though was what do you call this in in English like he the race happens and he depends on what happens in the race he has Mark at the front of the group that’s all he can do so at that point you might as well just sit in the group and let it play out and then see what you can do on but that deep and I inos for sure I think the teamcast saw him at the back proba and then on this 300 met kicker Gant Thomas attacks and that was not a my bingo Grant Thomas attacking on that CL is one was a response to scaroni who went for who went at the intermediate Sprint scaron is ahead thas is f r ring trying to bridge towards that and what makes the attack fail is the teammates of scaroni somewhat understandably lenko in the wheel of a teammate that is just behind Thomas and they close it down because of lenko and I’m not sure I would have done that from an aana basis I understand from lenko GC because unre realistically he can to GC here I mean why attack with scaroni if yeah I agree you know and G’s going to pull him like I yeah I agree you should probably let scaroni go there but in the end it’s brought back but I’m like wow G’s attacking and like that’s a this is the whole table’s been flipped and what’s most interesting for me is that Ki attack that also happens ahead which means that cooperation wasn’t there in group one so you’re thinking about Ki going attacking and then the corporation wasn’t still wasn’t there in that group too so you’ve got three groups on the road that matter at the moment Ki head 20 seconds on the group with the Aro shakman pelari exactly and then the pelaton is on a an unknown G because the I was like 1 minute 40 I gone backwards they I say we stop for a perre for a coffee no it’s not the case yeah the motorbike just went haywire and got out of the Gap but uh m m did unbelievable job here like pogy doesn’t get a chance to go for the stage win here unless mik M did the whole last bit of Melina pce the descend P the valley Michael’s unbelievably good uh but everyone’s sitting in not helping and we think when we’re thinking menji with Ki 20 seconds pogy’s got to go if he wants to win this stage he has to go and also we know Micah can’t do the hard lead out he there’s no way he can do the hard lead out if pogy has to go off his own pace camera changes and there he goes we see pogy going through it’s a narrow climb he’s we’ve got the the breakway dropping back so as he goes around a rider you can lose the wheel that actually that’s what happened to Al Philipe and we see two guys on his wheel Jonathan NV in the ecuadoran national champs Jersey and Julia Al Philip there and and ala Philip was like it was I mean eventually just dropped but it was great to see it yeah I absolutely loved seeing that and when pogy made that move I was thinking okay he’s probably going to drop everybody on this climb I I I did not expect what was going to happen I belied in Johnny I believed in every I was I was trying to believe in Johnny and Al F because then we have a race after this clim as well Ander kept on trucking and at the back of the group we see OK Conor getting in trouble which um I don’t like seeing that on this climb that’s earlier than a lot of people and then we see vter eventually dropping Keon as well on the climb a little bit and he Bridge there’s a lot of [ __ ] happening behind the scenes as well that is super interesting but at the front of rides it’s basically pachar narvas ala FIP trying to catch up with the breakway Riders one by one in the meanwhile ala FIP kind of gets as they pass the breakway rers he gets ahead of B Zari maybe one of the Breakaway Riders then if then behind that Breakaway Rider it is nise who have to come toip was stuck behind everybody I don’t think that would have the deci he would have been dropping anyway but bacha’s strength here he was stronger than all the other GC Riders Yeah by far but nerv was outrageous cuz he kept on sticking to that wheel one by one they called Riders Riders until they were at KI first Rider up the road and then I’m pretty sure Pacha went again with on the wheel the clown was a bit undulating and then at the end now it it really looked like what was the climb they started with last year in uh uh Ino Geto in t France stage one where and vard were there it really looked like that there was even a basque flag there today like narrow yep C to P it looked like that and and pogy on the flat section I was like oh is he giving up and then bang like gets back up to speed and attacks nav one last time and na like holding on uh but he didn’t really there was never that moment where a Gap open na actually really was glued incredibly Rive performance shackman actually is just behind them from the the sort of counter move in the valley we can’t we don’t get much coverage of the GC group because there not safe to have a motto in between but they’re not far though they’re not that far but then this full descent twisty we see from the h shot pogy’s going full Sha Na is a bit off the wheel actually through the first Corners he’s maybe surprised by how hard pogy hit that descent initially shackman comes back so quick on The Descent like luk and luk was thought he was going to crash I agree like there was a left-hander when he was just coming back he came in so fast to that left-hander but he makes it back and then you have pogy nav shakman and it’s like what does pogy do here you got the stage win 10 bonies and now group of two so you could the worst you could be losing six bonies you’ve got the GC group maybe you think between seven and 15 seconds behind you of to of Thomas what do you do realistically I think pogacha wants the mados after stage one I think that was in his head and that’s why he didn’t really keep pulling on the line all out he he was trying to keep the stage win as a as a possibility reality is he gets those bonus seconds so he can afford to lose he can afford to lose 10 seconds to the group behind and win the stage which then replaces those 10 seconds shouldn’t shouldn’t didn’t he push for too long then W I think it’s a perfect balance that he tried to be honest yeah the the the the major deficit is not that he that he pushed for too long it’s the fact that he needs to lead it out with who that’s the thing like Johnny is like he came fifth in the Guang XI Sprint fifth in 2du Sprint okay not the biggest Sprints in the world but like on the flat he’s legit fast he’s proper fast and also shakman in bass country was super impressive in the long Sprint he did uh I can’t remember who was behind or ahead of uh but you’re right it’s like pogy’s had to do the whole climb pce the whole thing himself he’s paced the whole descend himself and now he has to lead it out yes he’s got a great reduced kick but these guys are also legit quick and there’s only so much one man can do he opens it up we see the group coming back through the right hand at 700 me to go with it a sent uh and pogy opens it up the camera work then changes back really late we see nav overlapping the wheel and we already know Johnny is going to win Jonathan nais Jonathan nav sorry wins the stage in the national champs Jersey shakman second and patcha third bodat was actually bridging in between yeah takes the white jersey does he yeah okay um yeah he’s only 22 and and the group of GC favorites was actually 10 seconds behind led by Ki who was pacing Herman’s back actually vanon in there Tiber valta Thomas gner Caruso Martinez alter Brooks dunar Honore ala FIP Chavez okon pelari Rubio lenko Lopez lost another 10 so wow what a stage and like word on N Benji like to follow pogy when Al phip gets dropped and then win the Sprint incredibly impressive he’s won a jir stage before but in 2020 I think it was a break stage in the third week too another rider was it Pon that had a puncture yeah P well but also yeah he he came from the quickstep development team Clan constancia back in 2018 I’m guessing I think that’s a Vineyard company or something Clan constant anyway he then eventually goes to quickstep I felt like he never really pushed through in quickstep every now and then we’ see him in those one one chat GPT r I think cuz he’s South American and small but he’s not a climber yeah but I saw him a lot in those Belgian chat races for that team as well and then when he went to any El we started seeing more and more the he’s very versatile but the problem is if you’re very versatile you’re getting top 10 positions but it’s hard to win but Breakaway Victory already in the jro this Victory is his best victory of his career in my opinion like hands down Tak M like this he like you could say oh is this going to make I saw a question on Twitter is this going to make also jro harder who cares what do you mean harder I don’t I don’t he lose it tomorrow right n took a stage and the malos it’s the best possible way for it to start for and they wrote basically per I can’t note anything badly when it comes to today so except for aran’s performance yeah but that’s not really something the car could control um but also is yis failure today because let’s go we can call it a failure but pogacha took time on all the GC best he he showed that he was the best GC R he showed that on paper to me he he’s probably going to win the J like we said he’s likely to win the J like we said but the team itself showed weakness in controlling stages and in being able to even launch pachar yeah well they got themselves all in a pickle because M had to be used up before when he should be launching him yeah and normally I would have expected gr that does the hole of Melena after be and then with Novak and then Mah launches him halfway into bvan Vito and then if Micah does that Pacha wins If he if he doesn’t have to go from the bottom and he gets a lead up Pacha wins he would Gap them if pogacha is here with a team that can fully set him up to launch here yeah yeah or if these wiers like Novak and gr perform as let’s be honest Novak underperformed yeah gr under if they perform as relatively expected Bacher has a much more likely win ratio in this stage than than now he’s probably going to win this stage because he has that lead out which would have made the different against someone like NV against ala FIP who was able to follow for half a climb and that is because Pacha has to keep in mind at the bottom of the climb okay I need to be able to ride hard to the [ __ ] top there’s no point of like I need to stay behind this Rider and then launch from the wheel it’s the entire climb and it’s not like a it’s not a 500 met climb it was longer than I anti 5 minute climb so it’s uh it’s a proper performance that need set up for that so yeah pogacha is the strongest Rider when it comes to GC but his team showed weakness today that can be exploited in future sages and also like Novak is very strange he kept riding full gas behind the group maybe he thought he could come back and still help he finished on his own um only like a minute and a half behind Micah so other GC Riders though I think who who’s the GC guys that made it I’m looking through Tiber Thomas Caruso Martinez ooks dunar okona I’m going to put pelari actually in there for now no I’m not H he I and then luchenko and what is GC is it I’m talking I’m talking top 10 a pelar can get 10 for yeah yeah that’s what I mean I’m just literally AGC Rider okay um guys that lost time Juan 20 seconds to pogy or plus bonies uh store 47 stora 47 but I think he he should go for K kintana 57 B to B pla 57 arensman 217 lipitz 225 that is these are big gaps Sheffield 8113 OB he’s not really if baji finishing on 813 the typical baji thing he like he’s so inconsistent to the point that yeah you cannot you cannot trust on him in a team no when he go to a race you cannot trust that he will be the guy that will be there for you because this is the kind of stage where he should be relatively competitive and he’s completely not at all like Woods dropped also but we weren’t really expecting that a we weren’t really expecting him to be there I expect him to be there longer at least his performance this year haven’t been good so this is his terrain like these are it is but his terrain five years ago yeah or even last year in the tour on P doome Fair like I would say aelan Valentine per pantra a little bit surprising but then Boda overperformed aelan was a little bit further back okona I think came down I think he must have done a nuclear descent to come back uh yeah I saw gner in the group with Thomas people why didn’t gner pull it’s impossible like if you’re on a descent you cannot move up when when someone is is I presume Ki was smashing it for hermans you cannot move up like on that sort of descent it’s it’s impossible and then the last 700 met still someone was pining it for hermans we can say Okay move up in The Descent but reality is these Riders are also Gana is going to be gassed after that climb yeah so he’s coming back it’s going to be it’s not super easy to move up in a group like that that’s trying to spr for every corner that’s trying to catch right as mik is trying to step a pace on paper G faster but he has to put in the work to get there so I don’t mind that but I don’t know it was a really [ __ ] good stage such a good stage I would say um o Brooks really I would say overperformed I expected uh maybe he would be on 20 seconds with AP or even even 57 seconds with bade and Pla maybe gapped on the explosive climb but he entered the climb in really bad position actually the last climb and that’s very encouraging for oer Brooks cuz these sort of stages not the best for him uh Tober good obviously this and and Bahrain generally speaking were very very good hey Ironman out of well losing two minutes is great for tiber’s potential chances of a wide Jersey against e Brooks yeah exactly that’s he’s basically out of the white jersey competition um no no offense to pelari and bodan for now for now witht he’s back at Keon yeah yeah yeah but he maybe is so far out that he doesn’t try in the TT to conserve energy um shakman is clearly back at a much better level than in the previous two years that was shown in bass country and today he was excellent uh yeah he was very very good maybe he maybe if he pulls more no then maybe he’s Dro more I don’t know it was it was strange how that group behaved actually I was surprised uh AER in the end I think kind of stuffed himself oh luchenko made the group no that’s fine but luchenko wasn’t as good as I think they thought they they would be do you think UA would be regretting bringing ano Benji you already lose one stage because of him there’s nothing you can do now about it so you got to work with what you have you can’t think about regrets of who did I pick who did I not pick you got to work with the Riders you have and you got to now realistically think okay this F I had a weakness today is that a one-off or will Novak be expected to do this every single climb because then our order of our train must change for every climb so he he should be head a grow shot now he now trying to utilize the team they have in the best possible way because for example what UI also could have done in this stage is not climb on some some Alena maybe maybe from today they learn they shouldn’t hard paace that stage and just try it on the final climb alone but that’s what why did they hard paace s Alena because in reality but why Pacha goes into the stage thinking that he’s going to have to make the stage hard to drop all the chunkier boys like the climing sprinty boys like like py and beanie yeah like they were they were already dropped early on on the climb but I think B he just has one speed no no they say go pull and and and it’s it’s like full gas I’m going to try to drop everybody and in the end it’s really like you just needed to put a bit of fatigue into the pities and binnies and they maybe they don’t drop then but then they drop on bivy when like they they were never going to follow pogy on that climb on the last climb going into this stage I cannot blame you from hard pacing that climb yeah I still I thought they’d still have three domes after yeah so yeah I just expected them to have more strength afterwards which which they didn’t and they must now learn from that lesson and pull that towards the coming stages like talk about tomorrow yeah we look at Europa I’m thinking okay this team if I’m any other team I’m considering going in the breakway even though it’s a flat start have to stage two San Francisco alamp sario de Europa we’ve seen big performances Yan fly big performances from uh pantani on AA and also Duma dropped kintana here flat start as Benji said for the first 2 hours 93 km before a collection of Sprints which I don’t know the meaning of 161 km long but it is as Benji said flattish start then it’s medium mountains four medium Mountain climes getting progressively longer or harder like 7K 3% 3K 6% 5K is 5% and then another 5K is at 5 and a half Grans aren’t crazy they aren’t crazy but they’re B great do they put B there I wouldn’t after today and then you I start aopa with with all with all possible r I don’t care about the break winning tomorrow stage you don’t have the Jersey anyway so I let let another team control any else control the break if you want you’ve got any should not control the break for G’s GC they have to let Johnny lose the Jersey to the break on paper yes but hypothetically if I’m UAE oh yeah yeah role playing right now I’m UAE you are Breakaway Rider you go in the break Julia P are yeah you’re that’s not a breakway rider he GC Rider we selected him from they’ll see bani Jersey jumping and they’ll be like whatever he went for K1 points pelari oh he did he jumped yeah they’ll see the blue and white they were like oh it’s a Mickey Mouse team and actually could win km here to be honest in this race he’s strong so skinny man he’s he’s so young and improving would you rather win km at the jro or top 10 in classic top 10 if I’m an Italian top 10 if to get actually paid if I’m a 22-year old Italian climber I would rather top 10 for [ __ ] yeah but top 10 is not going to be from fth T is not going to be uh but back to a role play you distracted meor I’m UAE I go to the stage I don’t control the breaker I’m like anyos you need to do it because you’ve got the mosa if they don’t do it well who cares if the break wins the break wins we’re going to beat them on Paro anyway whoever’s in the break and bear in mind pogy still took 14 seconds today yeah but if I’m youi I should try and help control the breakway fromation to not let dangerous Riders go in the Breakaway so just let a break go and then let them go that’s how I see it yeah St Lang and B wait so you think UA should let the break win yeah I’m all for it I don’t care sorry and then just hammer it in the pelaton and they can’t are they going to control a 160 km stage you think they should I mean they can do it but that’s giving up very quickly that’s not giving up I mean they would have written down these two stages to Wi actually going to drop all all the rest on aopa anyway so you’re you’re trying to beat the GC Riders not not the breakway Riders you’ve got two gr you’ve got the tier to do and then a tour to do so they’ll save some energy somewhere and if the break wins and it’s the right guys he can still take the Malia Rosa tomorrow yes guys will have lost two minutes but there’s gonna be someone in there that’s closer okay maybe yeah probably like a bat like could be yeah I agree Benji if you’re any team you got to be looking break tomorrow like they the UAE guys can’t be confident I mean maybe they they say don’t worry we just had a bad day we be pulled too hard let’s do it a bit more I I still think if they do it a bit more sensibly then that doesn’t happen I think the the trth strategy adapting from what I said earlier is based on what happens in the Breakaway formation phase based on the the strength of the Breakaway that gets away then you decide whether you want to invest fully with your team on the entire stage or whether you feel like it’s too difficult a breakway that will be too hard but is manageable in the future of the ground tour so for example a ride that will lose eight minutes on partio all fine with taking that stage if it’s not really controllable and it will cost my entire team if it cost that much then I just focus on the last two clams potentially Europa possibly I would Milano can do some climbing on on the first two climb sorry you can do some work there Milano can do the the the second last climb I can do the should they try to let someone like store take the Mal Rosa by two minutes I don’t have an issue with that store is going to lose two minutes on in this ground T to Pacha that might be the sensible thing to do uh he lost 57 seconds today I mean yeah but then you still have to control it to the point that it’s only 2 minutes yeah but that is a lot easier because the Breakaway doesn’t people stop trying in the Breakaway who are behind store in GC and so it has a self-fulfilling effect of limiting that their game it’s if your plan shouldn’t just be this is the plan and we’re going to stick to that it should be if this happens we’re going to do that if this happens we’re going to do that so based on the breakway formation I control or not control if I’m UI these are who should be jumping in the Breakaway tomorrow in my opinion uh pelari if they let him although it’ll be tough on the flat uh stalk and Storer definitely and one of them was also not store one of them or myoffer uh train train if he’s not injured Ki keplinger lipitz why not lipitz as well because they know in the TT won’t be good Atilla valta and Robert think if he’s not injured Vima should be trying to go on the breakway I’m sorry Chris Hamilton for DSM and Kevin ver Marka woods with a tug buddy Philip oana uh kintana gabre gab again and Juan well BTO clamed really well today actually in the background W barter uh steinhauser Valentine Perry pantra and vendra like if you’re out a phip all these teams should be trying to get in the break if you go to Europa with the GC group pogy will win I don’t because Mike is also going to be more useful tomorrow Micah could reduce the group to 12 tomorrow he looked good what do you think about in should inos try to get in the Breakaway tomorrow with Chef or arensman if I’m inos and if I’m inos and I see what happened with UAE today I’m I’m going to make your life hell for 2 hours [ __ ] it like Gana is flying what if Gana starts doing tug Budd action to get them in the breakway what you think V St a Langan is going to bring Gana back on the flat I’m sorry not happening I didn’t think of it like that but yeah I mean anyos strike while the iron’s hot maybe the the UA guys improve in The Grand Tour like do we trust the steam to be able to control the breakway formation face as in no definitely not cuz langan’s reactions today it wasn’t wasn’t bad but he also was jumpy if that makes sense I never ber and Langan are not the best in that phase they’re like really strong but in terms of accelerations and and Recovery yeah I think inos should also try to make it difficult and I really think who who have you got do you think the break we’ve said all this Benji but you know I’m picking I’m I’m still picking pogy for the stage actually um no we got to do if pogy doesn’t win who wins come on GC group obviously if it goes to that then pogy will win otherwise um where did zanana finish today you and your zanana I’m going for Marco fro yeah man and he was good zor’s on 27 seconds just behind and Ja I think might haveo is fr and Dutch Flemish in FL Luke is just said in Flemish not in Dutch yeah we’re going to have a little Turf War here between the two of them fix your language bro the will PL go in the Breakaway I don’t know what did he lose cuz is this not the best scenario for youi to stock up to Europa have two little Riders and then attack Micah alone leading out pacher yeah from the Breakaway I’m picking Z I’m staying with an Italian and I think jco are going to go for it as well I think they should I think they’ll go for it um you can’t just you can’t not go you can’t go for the break not go for the break CU dumb Bar’s GC um Mai Maui looked really really good as well so with talk in Charney maybe exactly like this flat start this is going to be tug buddy Central tomorrow this is a ground tour we might have newer viewers so tug buddy is basically the kind of Rider that goes in the breakway with your with your tiny climber to help him get in that Breakaway and then helping help that group establish a proper gap on the pellaton especially when it’s a flat start so like for example you have a uh as Benji said chy for of Mari Mari is the least AO person created by man like he you know he’s sitting upright right so on a 90 km flat start you don’t on Mai trying to as well jumping out of the jumping from the Pelon on the flat is what kills your legs and you can only do it so many times so what you do is you put churny on the front and you literally do a lead out with the big guy and we have as well fan you have valide you have valide mesg get’s head burn you tried to rip it apart you rip it apart and and you put the little guy in the wheel and then hopefully you also make the break with the little guy and then you start driving it we saw this in the uh oh the Betty all did it with an EF guy they ripped it in the tour of FR before Grand Colombia there were some tuggers poers no yeah there was is good enough at that himself there was some tuggers in that Breakaway before gr Colombia and they ripped it on a descent so yeah that’s what we should see tomorrow Don Ola for GG gabir and Juan as ended with turns I think it’s going to be another good stage Benji because I’m hoping some DS’s go watch the tape tonight and are a little bit encouraged that this might not be a one-way Affair all three weeks yeah because on one end I’m still confident that Pacha wins the GC GC y but when it comes to Stage victories there’s so much more options now I I thought they would still win stage one and two but then I thought okay they brought this this is one of the easier to control stages yeah but exactly and then but then I was like okay this is clearly not the team you bring to control for three weeks to win 10 stages I still think they go for it tomorrow Benji um but uh yeah they might succeed definitely tune in for breakway definitely tune in to watch along where are we going to start at Benji oh bro well let’s do we’ll start the watch along uh before the NVA climb so in the valley before NVA in the descend towards the NVA climb so it’s 40K to go R 40 45k to go uh which will be about an hour and 15 minutes cuz I for po players if you don’t know what a watch to long is on YouTube we just had a live stream today of our reactions to the race commentating a bit live on the race basically with a with a ticker of the kilometers on the right top or left top of the screen so you can adjust your stream so you’re watching at the same time as us so we’re kind of your friends in the watch along so that’s kind of the vibe we’ve got going on so on YouTube you can find that on the lter cycling podcast channel uh otherwise just before we end I Grand Pre to Mor benoir KRA won the uphill Sprint against zangler and dele which is sort of perfect Sprint for benoa in the Welter espa feminina and by the way there’s been daily coverage I’m about to finish the p and do the highlight video of this uh Mariana Vos gapped everybody in an uphill Sprint she put two seconds into him so she is uh she is moving this year she looks much much better this year but fal’s punch surprised me Faulkner second also her punch the other day when she won the stage was very very good ahead of longer bini third uh in terms of GC the only change was actually fulna moving from 10th to 7th uh are races uh the surprise was at Ronda deard in on stage four Jorgen nordh haer didn’t start the stage who was the big favorite to win the stage the uphill finish at Plateau de Bay which is over about an hour and a half that way they use it in the tour of Francis see it by the way everybody knows what that way is right towards France North okay uh from Andor and and uh this is one of the big French before you know stage races the under 23s uh but he didn’t start I don’t know what’s wrong what was wrong but anyway Darren van Beckham won and uh but he does he does move into the GC League second yesterday was he Matthew Greenwood shout out to the Aussies the Aussie Fells third for Bridge Lane um but we’ll see tomorrow what happens on GC but that’s uh an important stage right Tomorrow there’s an up and down stage anything else any other news Benji before we get out of here not really I’m I’m enjoying the start of the J I hope it keeps kicking like it did today because that was a that was a great stage tomorrow stage I I I think it might be a little Tamer than today but I still expect interesting action you’re right I think like if the break goes U might just give up you know like they might just let it get to 6 minutes yeah it depends on the Breakaway formation what UA should do and they shouldn’t they shouldn’t just decide before stage what they do they should decide based on what happens with like a a flowchart if then yeah yeah but Ino should not control for nais he will lose Mia Rosa he will lose theal Rosa whatever happens on aopa so there is no point controlling for him yeah okay