An Incredible Comeback Victory in the Dolomites | Giro d'Italia 2026 | THEMOVE+

But today man, he pulled it off. He won that stage and wrote "Spart" as very strong.

“He has now won stages in all three round tours. He's one of the few riders who has accomplished that now.”

Also, with today's stage, that's a huge one to put on your palmaris. Fifth stage with Vizvah also already. Everybody welcome back to the move. Plus, I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Bernier. We are breaking down stage 19 of the Zero to Talia, which just wrapped up one by SEPCUS. Who didn't see that coming guys? Been good all race.

With Derek G, coming in second after getting another break away, Julio Chocone, a third field of skull leading the GC group home.

With only 39 seconds behind, Johan is finnigar just behind him, with Jai Hindley, a few seconds back after tailing off. Time and armsmen who loses almost almost a minute.

“I guess just around a minute on Jai Hindley. So Jai Hindley moves into third field of skull still and second, Johan is finigar.”

Third overall, just like Johan's prediction for the overall podium yesterday. They finished high in the Dolomites. It was a beautiful stage. It was incredibly hard. 151 kilometers with almost 5,000 meters of climbing and all of that crammed into the last 100 kilometers basically. Johan, I'll just do a quick rundown. We watched the stage. First Spencer, let's put everybody up to speed. We talked about it briefly yesterday. We are in the same building, in the same hotel.

Yes, right now. We have a friend later tonight. All together, we'll be joined by Bradley Wiggins tonight and then tomorrow we have our usual normal podcast. Then on Sunday, we have the live show here in Belgium in Ostenda.

For the first time ever, the move is live in Europe in front of a live audience. So that's going to be cool.

“I'm excited about that. With Bradley Wiggins. That's going to be nerve wrecking.”

I'm not immensely paired for that. But yes, we had lunch. We watched the stage. We met the royalty of Belgian cycling. And so Johan, yeah, I'm very excited. It should be a great evening tonight and it should be a great show on Sunday. The stage started. There were no break away. Really went on the flat because it was just flat leading into a very hard long climb. The main takeaways were that it was what we expected. Julie Hachone had to get the move. So he, he's on the front of the peloton.

Someone's marking on like, "Vismo is behind him." And he said, "I'm just going to keep writing hard and tell you either all come with me and we dropped your team or you let me in the break." And that's not the move. He was up there with Dom and a Caruso, Derek and not Derek G. Was up Cooce. And then Derek G had to bridge up with the group with Michael's store. Gets up to the front of the peloton. Kind of notable because we've not seen. Vismo is not really let outside G.C. guys back into the race all day.

They, you know, they lost a rider, early trying to hold things together and then they send Cooce up the road. It must have just been a strategy of like, "Well, they're going to ride hard. Get Cooce up there." And then I guess we have a man up front. We can call him back if we need to. It kind of keeps, as it is on these hard stages, this situation stays as is all day. Because Chicone is going for the mountain points. He's sprinting at the top.

The peloton is cruising along, losing riders, but holding its form somewhat. And Eos didn't try what I suggested. They went to the front. They tried to drop field skull and descent.

Didn't work. He was distance a little, but he caught back on his team was there all day in force to Catholicen look amazing.

The notable thing from the breakway is on the second to last climb. There's a time bonus, so there's a Red Bull time bonus, sprint point. Derrick G goes for it's out, like Sprint's away, honor Rubio who's been setting pace is upset about this. I don't know if he was upset about Derrick, he's sprinting or he thought he's sprinted too hard and disrupted the pace. Maybe attack too hard, he's yelling at Derrick G, they get to the top of the climb with where the KOM points are.

Rubio's sprints for them and beats Chicone for basically no reason other than to say screw you little track for sprinting when I didn't want you to. Because he's third behind the Nagaritan Chicone, not even really close in the KOM classification. The Chicone gets mad, attacks on the downhill, gets away, leaves G, so like now he's probably hurt his chances of winning the day. And now G's not getting all the time you could, because this teammates up the road, it kind of looks like he's going to hold off the peloton when the stage and the final 5k climb, but then set KUS.

I mean, just a really controlled ride, he just started chipping away at the lead, catches him, attacks him, drops him, wins by 13 seconds over Derrick G, which he'd cone a 36 seconds back.

Yeah, I spent, for me, the takeaway of the day is the way Visma planned this stage.

“By, and you know, Sep KUS said it in his race interview, after the race interview, and actually Jonas mentioned it in the pre stage interview.”

That Sep KUS was going to be allowed to have freedom and if possible go for the stage win. And that's exactly how they did it, and textbook strategy, actually, of how you can overcome these last few stages if you're strong enough, of course, listen, I mean, Normally we'd say, well, Sep KUS is the third best climber of the Visma, you know, it's it's a good spiganzoli and Jonas, but you know, Jonas is so strong that he doesn't really need anybody anymore on that last climb. But what they did was was brilliant, you know, they sent Sep KUS in the breakaway.

You know, you're there, Sep KUS, of course, does not have any responsibility, does not have to contribute to anything, but at this point in a grand tour, there will be a lot of different interests in that breakaway. There was Chicona for the mountains jersey, it's clear that Visma and Jonas, they don't care about this at all. But it serves, it serves for another purpose, you have something going on in the front, Derek G was there, a really good move. I'm guess Visma didn't count on that, but that's not really their problem, it's other teams problem, mainly it's Red Bull's problem and they got to lose problem.

And so you create a situation where you're comfortable in the front, there's a lot of different interests going on, which none of them are a threat for you and you have other teams. A reacting to those threats that are for them for the podium, hiddenly, and the goal were worried that their D would come too close for the podium.

So it was really an amazing day for Visma, having Sep KUS there, and then, you know, once you get to the bottom of the last climb, you assess the situation and you say, okay, I'm fine here.

We saw it straight away, that Dekatlan was having bigger ambitious on that last climb to get rid of Arunspon. And so was Red Bull, by the way, because Arunspon is still isn't good attention, but today he lost some time that will be difficult to recuperate now for the podium. I think that whole strategy is fascinating, you know, being in the lead, of course, you have the strongest rider, you have the strongest team, and then you have one of your strongest riders in the breakaway. Not much can go wrong.

But it's still up to Sep KUS to be the strongest guy of the breakaway, even if he hasn't been pulling.

“But, you know, you need to be strong, until now, I would say, you know, we haven't seen the Sep KUS, we were used to see in the mountains.”

But today man, he pulled it off, he won that stage and wrote "Spart", was very strong, has now won stages in all three grand tours.

He's one of the few riders who has accomplished that now, also, with today's stage, that's a huge one to, you know, put on your palmaris. 5th stage went for Visma. Also, already, initially we thought okay, it's going to be 5 or 6 for a bingo guard, it's now with KUS, but it doesn't really matter, it's better. It's better for the team, because it's better for the atmosphere of the team. You could see how happy Jonas bingo guard was for Sep KUS's win. And then it was also super nice to see that Sep KUS's mom was waiting at the finish line.

So, she came into the post stage interview to say hi to him in congratulations. So, yeah, great day for Sep KUS and great day for Visma today. Yeah, so pretty impressive. And I guess at first I thought, well, it's, you know, because Jonas runs out of guys when he gets all these dropped and I'm thinking, it's kind of risky, but I guess a Jonas is not going to need help. Frankly, like he looked, he was celebrating crossing the finish line in the GC group as everyone was going as hard as they possibly could to distance each other.

“So he was always going to be fine, but I guess you can always drop KUS back, right?”

Like, once he's up there, it then turns both sides. I mean, at that point, you don't really need anybody anymore. On climbs like this also the cars are there, right? The cars are there on that last climb, because it was already a big selection before that. I think also, I mean, it's a great job today by Dick Atlone and Felix Gallo. They took it on. On that last climb, big confidence in him, it paid off.

Hindley initially a little bit, but then could stay with them and when Hindley saw that Arnsmond was in trouble.

He had Pili Jari who came back from the front group and do an amazing job for Jay Hindley. All this while Jonas, basically, was smoking his cigar in the wheel of Pili's Gallo. He was very comfortable and everything was under control and he was just waiting to pass the finish line to be able to congratulate SEP. KUS did not sprint for bonification, doesn't need to. So, perfect day for them.

“Yeah, it was, that is a great example of using, like, you know, why are they putting these riders in the breakaway?”

They're never going to use them on these steep climbs and then it actually turned out they did.

They did need Pelazari because Hindley was dropped. They caught him at just the right time and then Pelazari put an impressive turn of work in to. Yeah, who knows. I mean, I guess, what do you think they're going 20k an hour on its 10% climb? So, they're probably is a draft effect and then also just mentally having a teammate there. You immediately gets to the front of the Peloton starch hammering. Great for Jonas couldn't be better for Jonas because they're trying to distance Arnsmond.

“So, Kudos to Beesmond. They interviewed Jonas before the start of the stage and they're like, "Hey, do you want to win another stage?"”

And he's like, "Oh, you know, I'd prefer my teammate, like, SEP KUS won." And like, "What are you talking about?" Like, we've not seen anything from SEP KUS that would suggest he could win the hardest stage of this race and then lo and behold it happens. So, it was clearly a thought they had. I mean, were you surprised to see KUS turn this around or at this point this is kind of what he can get. He can modulate his form seemingly throughout a grant. He has done it before, but, you know, as I said, you know, until now in this zero we haven't seen anything that would indicate that there was a guarantee that SEP KUS would be the strongest climber in the breakaway.

And that was a strong group, you know, men's tour was there. There, G was there, Chicona. I mean, really strong today. Also, I mean, great end of the zero for DERIGG moves up a spot, passes with value, is now in fifth. He is a minute behind R&M now for fourth place. That's not going to be easy after today's effort, but still, this is what DERIGG is supposed to be.

“He was fourth last year. He's fifth now. Didn't have a great start of the zero, but, but I think after all for GC, I think this is good as they can hope for a little frack.”

Of course, you know, they wanted more. They wanted probably podium and a few stage wins, but, you know, it's not always working out that way.

The only battle that I still see when, okay, R&M is now off the podium, right? So it is a minute 30 behind Felix Gallo and a minute 29 seconds behind Gai Hindley. Tomorrow can change, you know, it's the last, the last mountain stage everybody's tired, but usually, you know, what we see in the last week, these little tiny little differences are an indication of where everybody is. So I think this is the podium, finger guard, gol and Hindley. And then, the battle for the white jersey is still interesting, because Zoli is now one minute, three seconds behind Elalio.

So tomorrow, that could be an interesting battle. Yeah, I'm just, it could be, it could be. And it's a fun, well, when we preview the stage, we'll talk about it. It's not to totally straight forward how to, you would attack that, but I'm curious to get your thoughts on it. Derek G, this is a great way for him to finish the race. Did he ultimately not get anything out of that move though? Was that, did he like, I mean, assuming he would have stayed in the GC group, I guess he still would have jumped up above Ullalio into fifth place.

So at the end of the day, it's one of the most impressive moves that didn't technically move them up in the GC. Yeah, well, I mean, I don't know, I mean, Alalio did not do that. He was only dropped, did we say that right on the final climb, which I didn't expect he'd have to break. So Alalio, while Alalio finishes 16 to two minutes to any five down, so he finishes a minute, or is it a minute 35 minutes 40 behind the three guys from the podium. So it's to be seen if Derek G would have been there. You know, with these guys.

Yeah, maybe they're not even finishes with the orange men and then exactly. He's not far enough in front of Alalio.

He's all which it kind of like goes through the level of Ottoman and eggumber now. Yeah. If Chikani doesn't attack, it's he is he knocking on the door at the podium. If he has a guy to pull on all the way to the bottom of the final climb. No, I don't think so.

“No, the podium's quite a bit out of reach, I think, right, he is six.”

Well, he basically needed up to a minute and a half, it's a minute to art and smile and a minute and a half.

No, but I don't, I mean, Chikani, I don't, I mean, listen, Chikani's Chikani, right, he's a great bike rider. He has a lot of temperament gets upset a lot. He does some things that like in the heat of the moment with the adrenaline. He wanted to go for the stage when that's clear and for the KOM. When G was there, you know, he was once Chikani was in front there, G couldn't drive drive the break anymore. He had to sit on and wait and then ultimately attack, but I personally don't think it would have changed that much.

Okay, and then so Chikani loses 10 KOM points because of the getting picked by Rubio, so he now is up by 200 or she's up by 57 points.

“So it really comes down to what Vindigar does tomorrow.”

Yeah, if it's another break away day, he could win KOM. And it was also my break points. If Chikani is in the break Spencer, and he gets the points, the first time of Bianca Malo. I guess he has it. No, he has it. Yeah, it's really all about getting in that break. Yeah, getting in in these breaks, if you can get in the break again tomorrow, I mean, that is so impressive.

After everything he gave to Dave today, and he's doing it very much every stage. He has the legs. He has the legs. It's you know, it's for a reason why we always see the same.

You know, we're, I'm tired of saying it, but every ground tour we say the same thing, you know, like the last 10 days, the last week. Okay, it's going to be a break away stage tomorrow. Okay, who's going to be in it? The same guys has today. It's the same guys. Yes, exactly. Yeah, well, it's, it's deceiving you look at this Pelotoni think, wow, there could be 50 guys competing for this stage today. And it's really 10, 10. You know, there's just not that many with the legs, especially on the day like today. Anything else on this stage before you preview tomorrow?

I don't think so Spencer, I think we've, we've covered all of it. You know, I mean, it was a stage with a strong break away, but finally, you know,

I mean, the fact that Seb Kus was in front is the reason why there was, why did, like the GC guys didn't, didn't have the opportunity to fight for the, for the victory because.

“And the only way that this, that the guy from the break away would not win was if you're not with attack because he's the only guy who can make that gap and close it fast.”

I mean, if you can see that the, the rhythm and the tempo of Felix Gaul and Jay Hintley are kind of equal with the best climbers of the breakaways. Yeah, they don't get back much time. The only guy who couldn't get back time back is, is you know, it's being a guard thing. Obviously, he was not going to attack today. Yeah, it is. I don't know if we've said it enough. It's an impressive finish of this race for territory. Like, all year, things have not looked good for him. You met the last year. He was just in a really stressful, uncertain situation.

And now he's, he's back, maybe even more impressive than he was at the end of last year's year. You know, not going to the door fourth place, maybe third place. So it is like today was a monster effort. Like, I don't mean to disparage it by saying he didn't gain anything. And it, maybe he did, maybe he wouldn't have gotten enough time to move up into fifth overall. But the fact that he's fifth after the first two weeks that he had is very impressive finishes really well. Yeah. So it's a quick break. And then we'll preview tomorrow. Everybody, this episode is about you by him's when your hair starts thinning. It's not just your hair that takes a hit. It can change how you feel day in and day out.

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Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monoxidil and finaster ed. Okay, you're on so tomorrow stage twenty two hundred kilometers and no gifts from the race organizers not for these guys 200 kilometers three categorized climbs the problem is the last 70 k is basically two a sense of yankovala of 14 and a half kilometer long eight percent climb. They go up they go down they go back up and they finish when they come back up it's really it's like a stage split into it's a hundred and thirty three kilometer sprinter ruler day and then a seventy kilometer mountain stage.

Tags another the end of that how do you think this is going to play out and who's going to win this. Maybe break away maybe break away you know it's the last listen the success of the break away is first of all the pending weather visma what the visma wants to do if is my wants to say one last time okay we're controlling this.

“We can control this last part and you're not wants to make a statement when the last mountain stage in the big jersey then that's what's going to happen.”

And then it depends off who's in the break away if the what I think personally is that it makes it difficult for the break away because almost for sure that's going to be somebody from the top 10 in the break away. And and and that will obviously compromise how far they can get before two times up young cavalo and because another team will pull if it's not deck at long it's going to be red bull or even. I think that's it's going to depend on who's in there.

I do foresee a scenario where the break away and somebody from the break away can win it because ultimately everything's going to fall into place.

And then who's going to win it from Visma no I don't think it's my will to I don't know. It's a Chicona looks good he can win. I know Rubio has been trying all the time all the time would be nice to see him being rewarded for once for all his efforts in this year. But you don't know there's a lot of guys who can be in the break away there's not many guys who can win from that break away. Yeah, I feel like put the rubio's mind is not where it needs to be.

I mean he was probably the strongest climber on this stage that Michael Baldwin was but he was closing everything down you know he like was not patient up and then today. It's just I I still can't believe that I key to get in that fight with Chicona and then we have a stage on the line here guys what are we doing. Also, we should mention subcoups all day was sitting in the back saying sorry guys I got my team leader behind so that was a doubly good situation for Visma since Cus could sit on up in the breakaway.

I think I think it's Chicona don't you. Yeah, yeah he was so strong today without without Cus there he still wins the stage even after everything that happened.

Yeah, because he maintained I mean he's he's he got in third place today so obviously he kept pushing for the points it's not easy for Chicona to get points on the last climb of a mountain stage.

“Chicona has to be in there to to get points on the first time over Bianca Valo if he gets those points. I mean I would have to do the map but I think that that's pretty safe for him to to then win the mountains jersey.”

It's pretty obvious you don't have to care about it. He said he didn't like the call that that type of color Bruno at some point he didn't like it. I think when he was wearing it's on behalf of it's not a great color he's right about that. I agree let's go for Chicona tomorrow. As you were talking the only other person I could see is his pellets are.

I don't know if it was illness or just exhausted but today he didn't get it really good. And they'll probably have to get away on the flats this year loves this loves making climbers get away on flat ground I don't trust the pellets are to do it. I know Chicona in little trek and figure that riddle out though quite easily that's probably helps them quite a bit compared to other teams.

“Yeah yeah for sure any idea I mean for podium do you think this holds tomorrow?”

Yeah I think I think I think it's just you know a preview of what we're going to see tomorrow it's the same thing. Bianca Valos also hard climb it's it's better it's a better climb for the other spend and today's final climb that's for sure. But now you know he needs to make up time which was already a challenge right one thing is holding on to it but you know but hey man. One day is somebody strong and the day after they're feeling a little bit I'm sure everybody gave a lot today. And I think obviously pushed it hard at the end because he was you know riding for that third spot and it could well be that tomorrow he pays the price for that we never though but I personally think that this is the podium.

Yeah I agree with you that it's better for armsmen it would be way better for him to defend on versus having the time and then they start to get a little difficult to imagine. Yeah I don't see it happening. It almost if you were asking my you might honest opinion he'd almost have to win the stage and get the time bonuses to get enough. It's like like how much is he distance handling by like I don't know maybe 20 seconds and then. Yeah that's okay.

“And then we also you also need to have a really good day at the other one needs to be a okay day like just a normal day.”

Yeah you basically need almost usually by now. All the days they have that they're pretty pretty like not so good. Everybody. And I mean I'd have to go back and like put all the giantly performances into a spreadsheet but he doesn't I don't ever recall him when he has something on the line G.C. wise being. Randomly bad in the third week.

Yeah maybe I'm wrong but just thinking about it he's he's always pretty consistent when everybody else is having a harder time.

But we're excited to watch at you on it's is our last G.C. day and then we have the procession in Rome on Sunday. I'm curious to see who wins it. I don't think Jonas is going to go for another win. Did you hear that he didn't shave his legs for this he doesn't shave his legs of the zero. That's how serious he was taking it.

What's that about it's like is that like assigned that okay I'm just here for training. I kind of think that's what. Yeah it's like not not a warning shot to you to Taday but it's like this is how seriously I'm taking this training at the zero. I've got another step to go to the zero like I've levels to go to that you might see. I hope so.

I hope we get the great battle in July. But let's first try to finish the journey. Thought yes Spencer. So we'll be back tomorrow. You know it also just could be I don't who knows trying to decipher some of the city the hair situations at Visma is a fool's errand.

You got camp arts saying you can't have facial hair then he's got a mustache.

You never know what's going on over there.

Yeah company not says he he says a moustache is okay but everything that makes your face bigger bigger. Yeah does not work and then you have you know one of the two best time prowess in the world. One of the most arrow guys who has a full beard all year long Philippo Ghana. Yeah that's he said the beard does a beard slows you down. Yeah yeah yeah yeah I did connect that then Ghana seems to be doing fine.

Maybe he'd be doing it without the beard.

“Yeah yeah yeah that's what that's what Victor would say.”

Yeah you know he's good but he would be better. It could be gamesmanship coming from Victor maybe it's the other way around he's trying to get gone in the shape of the beard.

You never know that has camp and I guess but I all see you soon we gotta we gotta go to an event.

We have to get dressed dressed very nicely and then go to the wheeler wattage dinner tonight. So it's not too funny. I'll introduce you to some more cycling celebrities tonight perfect. Everyone else is going with their significant other and it's me even wiggins.

We're special. We'll stand out.

“We will be back tomorrow to break down stage 20 year on see you then.”

Okay thanks Spencer. Bye.