The Greatest Race in Modern Cycling? | Milan-Sanremo 2026 Breakdown | THEMOVE

Van Gogh was there right at the end, uh, had a bad moment on the pojo, still lined it up

“eight to place. Um, but also came back from a crash, which is such a hard thing to do. I mean,”

yes, Poketron made it look easy, then aren't made it look easy, but I just, I just, I, as somebody has done the race so many times, I just, I'm, I'm so in awe, and so much respect to what these guys are doing right now. Everybody, welcome back to the move. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Georgetown Kappie for a very special post-racidition of Milan's Henry Moe, Tadipagotcha. I just

wanted his first career addition of the race after a crash right before the Chopraza,

all the plans as UA plans up in smoke came back, one of the most impressive victories we've ever seen from him, and personally, I've ever seen from anyone. It's the worst monument for him. He crashes and still makes it happen beats Tom Pickock in a two-up sprint finish, thrilling sprint finish on the video Roma in San Remo with Wab and our

“coming in four seconds later for third, Mads Patterson fourth with a super impressive”

fourth place. Come back after breaking his wrist and collarbone in different arms, Corbin Strong fifth, Matthew Vanderpool, went with the group, the Pagotcha Pitcock group, was dropped on the Pogio. Lots of cover here. George is like the parents are at a town and the teenagers are left at home for the weekend. Johan Bruniel, he's tied up at a bike race currently, Lance Armstrong's on spring break. It's just us holding down the four, but what did you think

of this fantastic win from Pagotcha? Well, it's kind of funny because you're on text to me and typical Spanish darling, well, 30 at 19. I'm middle of nowhere Spain and I don't think I have a bike. Can you cover on my, because he's at his sons race and I'm like, well, I'm in the same predicament. I'm in Belgium, but fortunately we have a lot better wifi watching my son race his race here in near Bruniel, but yeah, kind of funny. We're all over the place, but we'll

still get it done. Yeah, I got to watch the race and we're actually super exciting race. I mean, that's one of the most exciting Melons Henry, most that we've seen in a long time and no, we're going to break it down. But I, I mean, cycling just continues to surprise me,

everything that we've been seeing as of late and it's just incredible what these guys are doing

and super fun to watch for sure. Well, you, you won this race with the team. So in 2009, you were on HTC Columbia, you, your teammate Mark Cavendish wins. And in what I thought then was the most thrilling finish of San Ramot ever seen, you'd then say maybe the Kia Koski, it was what was that as the three up sprint with Sagan Kipkoski and Alephili, that was incredible. This might have topped it, but it is wild to think Mark Cavendish got over those climbs when you did you

look at these climbing times today on the Trapessa. I, I clocked at 840, which is almost 20 seconds faster than last year, which was the record of 859. And the pogeo was 542, which was significantly faster than last year. These climbs just get faster and faster every year. But pogeo's had to change the race in order to win it because this was a sprinters classic. But last we forget just a few, like a decade ago, it was considered the classic for the sprinters. Now we have the world's best

climber winning it. It is incredible. I mean, I, who did you think was going to win when they came

down for that two up sprint? I thought for sure, Pitcock had it and was going to take the biggest win of his career and kind of validate, you know, he's one two, you know, two Olympic mountain bike champs. It's incredible. But there's just like he's paid a lot of money. One of the highest paid riders in the sport. A lot of turbulence around is, you know, steam change last year goes

“over to the small Q36.5 team. I, I think I said out loud, like man, it's sunny day in Italy,”

he's on a Pinarello on his own team. Like life's pretty good for Pitcock. And then I thought for sure he was going to win that two up sprint. But what were you thinking when they came into the final few hundred meters? Yeah. I actually, I was sitting with a buddy in mine on a cafe, you know, Ruth and I said, Pitcock's got it. I mean, he was riding super smart. He missed a couple of polls leading into the podium. You know, and of course, he pulled through on the

sand, which you're not really spending much energy. But for sure, I thought he added, but going back 30 K to go, I actually said I need to recover tire from the podcast in business because I don't know if ever, if we ever witnessed somebody crashing with 30 kilometers to go, not only one guy, but like two guys in the top three were 45 seconds behind before the start of the podium or this is the suppressor sorry. Yeah. And pound Man is to claw their way back. I don't remember ever seeing

that. And I'm not as like a student and cycling history as you are Spencer, but if you can remind me of somebody crashing 30 kilometers to go in Melissa and Mimo and still winning, please remind me

of it out of the Georgia. We used to see if you crashed his the fastest part of the race. It's a

“mad dash to the suppressor. It used to be game over for right. You have a little, little problem,”

positioned wrong. You're done. These guys are standing on the side of the road. What you're doing, bikes. You're done. I mean, as a, as a fan now, as a spectator watching the race, you don't quite get to appreciate how hard they're going up the cap of Mela, the cap of Meli, the cap of bird date. Like they're going as hard as you can possibly imagine in a group of a hunter guys. Like you're doing more washing you ever. You can imagine doing. And then you

just said down the Kevin Meli, you're heading down to the suppressor where it kind of narrows down. And everybody wants to be the front. And then poker char us up and ground for me that race was over. Like poker char is not winning this race at 30 K to go. Based on my experience, there's no way I can physically imagine somebody coming back from that. And then you see, you see, and clawing his way back. Brandon McDonnelly, VIP of the race in my opinion,

bringing him back, getting into the front is the press setting the pace. I mean, it was like the most exciting, the same remote that I've seen in a long time. And I just, I just don't know how these guys do it. I cannot sit here as an expert podcaster and tell you how they did it. It was super incredible to watch and witness what they did today. You're just really weird is the last we've seen the last two years that they are,

they're a yard sale on the suppressor. You a can't get it right. You know, they just think,

they're never positioned correctly. But got your left alone at the front. It's almost like

“the scratch helped them because they're coming from behind. Del Toro, key, does not sit up.”

He stays at the front. He struggles with positioning more than anyone in the elite group of that team, which means he's already at the front when Pugotcher gets up there. He doesn't have to fight for position as much. And the pace kind of came off. They were helped by that. In the ost and jaco were at the front. Like, ah, what are we supposed to do here? We're waiting for UA to attack. Now, no one's attacking. Pugotcher zooms up the side and he's, yeah, with

McNulty was key because McNalties with them, they get they're moving up so fast. They hit the right at the suppressor. Like, right where they want to be at the front with Brandon McNulty. One of the shrines guys unbelievably strong with him, leading. He's not even the last lead out because then they have Del Toro there who comes in. It is almost like it worked better for them the last few years because of the crash because it shuffled the deck. Let them move up at their

own pace versus trying to fight for position at the front. It sounds weird because you think chasing would be worse. But they came into that climb as so much speed versus the blob at the front. It looked like it was stressful to even look at and that looked like they were almost going slower versus the group at the back and when I, I said that the time on this press, I clocked, Pugotcher at that because he went in slightly later. But just to, to back people up, I said

to my preview, do not watch this race before 30 K to go. I should have said 40 K to go because that's when it started. But just to give you like a feel for how hard they're going leading to this. One 30 K to go, Alpsons on the front, poor Sullivan Deliate. The man must have been on the front the last few years combined like seven hours at this race. He's at the front for Alpsons and Premiere tech writing. I would guess 380 watts for three and a half hours at a time. The gap to the,

you could tell there was nervousness going in the, to the Torchino mountain pass. It's like the biggest mountain pass tops out about 120 K from the finish. There's nervousness coming in there and the gap is quite small to the break away. UAA is threatening, you know, they're like sitting, they're hoping team right behind Alpson. It looks like they're going to make it hard, no, it's a fake. They go back, the gap blows out to the break away with, you know, 109 K to go. It's

five minutes with 50 K to go. No, 81 K to go. UAA finally comes to the front with no, no,

no, back and the gap is at seven minutes. UAA gets the front so hard. Like with 50 K to go, they feel it feels gross, sharpener pushing 460 watts. Just like that's the pace you set none of the front. The gap goes from seven minutes to one minute with at the, at the cap of Burtha with 40 K to go. It's down to one minute. So it's like cut in what the course of 40 K,

“it's cut by six minutes. That's how hard they were going. And then as you say, yeah,”

forgot your crashes. Well, this is, they're done. Van Arts on the ground. And then if you noticed, I didn't seem to go down, but Matthew Vanderpool's hand was all cut up. So he must have gone down as well. He chases back on. They get to the depressive. Uh, Pagotcha gets to the front. He kind of gets back to where he wants to be. Del Toro launches them with like around 24 K to go. Pagotcha goes, where you shock by the gap between it was Pagotcha, Pidcock, and Vanderpool, where the three of

the front. And it looked like the rest of the group took a wrong turn. The gap was so big. I could not believe it. Yeah, it's, it's these guys that Pagotcha's head over heels, different level

the Sylvan Diliate, like, what he did, people are like, always following the front, like,

he has been preparing for this all-season thus far. Like we saw, I was in UAE with my team. He was in the breakaway every day doing solo, like crazy breakways. And he's like, I'm just training. Like, why is this guy in the front of the race? Well, he just training for moments like this where he can hold a breakaway of seven guys within four or five minutes on his own, essentially. But then you watch what how UAE came together there in the finish, it was just,

well, we put in the, on the suppressor. I actually cannot explain how they can use you, you mentioned it's been so, how they just, it might have been better. But I'm not sure I agree with you because

“I cannot physically imagine doing the race. I've done the race 15 times. I didn't remember that”

you pointed that out. But there's no way, no matter how fit I was, if I could start in the back of the suppressor, I would get to the front. There's just no way. Like, I just can't imagine because it's such a hard climb after for the American viewers, 160 miles, like your legs are done at that point. You can move up through the peloton of a, at that point, 60, 80, 100 guys, relatively easy. I just, I can't envision that. And then attack. It's like, it's like, they planned it. But at

the same point, I just, I can't imagine the strength of these guys the way they do it. I mean, they just do it. It makes it look easy for the spectator for the average fan. That's watching it. Like, it just looks easy. But as somebody that's done the race that many times,

I just cannot imagine how strong these guys are. It's incredible what they're doing.

If you, I think Adam Blight, there's someone who was saying on the commentary that Sylvan Dillier, the work he's doing is physically changing his rider profile. Like, he'll, he'll be able to ride sub 400, like right below 400 watts forever, right? He's going to be right at that. He's like almost permanently damaging his ability to go higher or lower than that though. Like,

“that's how, like, that's how serious you have to be about setting pace like that. Like,”

that's now the rest of his career. He can't go back to being a different type of rider. And then, as you say, with 50 K to go, I think you can turn the TV on and say, oh, they're just up there. They're just setting pace. It's like, they're going almost 500 watts on the front of this peloton. Like, they're following. And it's not the, it's actually not even starting.

Yeah, and Sylvan Dillier is going home tonight. No, and that he did the most amazing

job for his team. His teammates are super appreciative. They know how important his role was. And the fans will be like, well, Sylvan Dillier, what'd you do? You just pull for $150, like it don't really care. But like, somebody who's been in the war and his teammates that were there, they are like, so happy with the job that he did. Because they know it's on an easy job one. They know it's a very selfless job. What he did. But as somebody who's done the race,

know that it's a super important job to have somebody like that. And that's his only role. And he's on a bet on one of the best teams in the world. He's getting paid super well to do his job. He has won, and his, he's won his job. Like, he did the most amazing job today. And he gets super, like, he should get super a ton of alcohol accolades for what he did today.

“Why was he doing it? Is it because Vanderpool was technically the favorite for this race?”

And Alpeson just doesn't want the gap to the break to get so big. Like, should they have forced UAE to do that work, basically? Well, they probably cannot, they really, they won last year. So that it's kind of their responsibility to think they won the last three years, right? Yeah, they won the last three years. It's their responsibility. It's their role to sort of control that that break away from get away. And yeah, you, you can question whether or not

UAE should have done that. But I don't think it would have changed much. I mean, they have such a deep roster that they probably could have put one guy would still be deleted. But they didn't and that sort of the tactics that the calls on the road today. But they took the race, the bull by the horn, so to speak. And they did a job. And Vanderpool was there right at the end. Had a bad moment on the pojo, still ended up eighth place. But also came back from a crash,

which is such a hard thing. I mean, yes, public chart made it look easy, then aren't made it look easy. But I just, as somebody has done the race so many times, I just, I'm so in awe. And so much respect to what these guys are doing right now. And Andy, so talk about the bad moment from Vanderpool. Let's get a little context for this. So Pagotra gets away on the Tupessa with Vanderpool and Pitcock. It looks like they're managing their effort. But if you looked at their power files,

they're going all out. Like really pushing it. They crest the climb. They get to the bottom of the descent. They have 30 seconds on the peloton. It's not over yet. Like it, you easily could be lulled into thinking it's over because they have from 18 K to go to like nine K to go is a flat run

have here because they have little trek behind impressively intact with these machasing on.

“So little trek is mad, better so much. I've no freaking idea. How's mad's better so who is a”

late entry into this race? Who's been getting it surgery on his wrist and collarbone, different arm, different arms. Couldn't wipe his butt. He said just a few months ago. Now he's in the front chase group at San Ramot. But they're 30 seconds back. So they have to rotate the three of them at the front. If you looked at their power when they were doing this, Pagotra was pulling at 460 watts was sitting in at like 410 watts. So those guys, so Vanderpool's doing even more because he's bigger.

Those guys were going all out in the front. But also having to think what we still have one more climb is Pagotra going to attack us. What do we do? The gaps coming down because little tracks do in a great job. It's 22 seconds with the 11 K to go. Start of the pojo. 9 K to go. It's down to six seconds. Like the peloton is right there. And as you said, I mean Pagotra can Pagotra are really paying attention. Like they were doing the minimum amount of work while not

“getting caught because all they need is a little gap at the pojo because no one's going to pull back”

six seconds plus than some on that front group. Vanderpool's dropped with the eight and a half kid to go because of what we just like because the Chaprasa was written at a record a cent time and then it was not like easy time on the flats. They were cooking on the flats. The plan works. You guys plan to kind of write that your press all out. Force Vanderpool to do a lot of work in

between. He's dropped first obstacles done. Pagotra attacks with seven K to go and he'll get

him steeper on the pojo. Can not drop Pagotra. The gap is like 20 seconds but you can see that peloton snaking right behind him thrilling stuff. They get over the top. I was surprised. Pagotra. Pagotra go first on the descent which to me was a big advantage to Pagotra because now Pagotra the best to sender. Maybe in the history of the sport. Can't press it. But Pagotra seemed all in on the sprint. He got into the front for a little bit on the descent but then push

Pagotra back through did not seem like he was trying to win the race there. Frankly, I thought he was going to win at this point because he's managing his effort. Well, they go into the, you know, it says downhill run through the city. It's like flat to downhill and they have just enough time like they're both really paying attention to the gap just enough time. But they are like burning all the time they have because they're not neither of them wants to overexpose themselves.

Pagotra pulls into the last K and I thought, oh, this is a mistake. And then Vanard attacks from behind. So you have pressure from behind. Vanard is cooking in that chain like the one man chase group staying up in front of the peloton. Then Pagotra leads to the sprint out. I watching it. I thought he lost it but he wanted a bike throw. He is torn up by the way. Like not just a crash. I look like a bad crash. And then he beats Pagotra who doesn't win.

But it's, I would say, one of the most impressive results of his career. And then Vanard

with a pretty impressive third place considered an egisad surgery on his ankle earlier in

2026. But I thought that they both, like last year, I thought Pagotra did too much work with Vanderpool. Did you think he was doing it? Like as it was happening in Georgia, do you think he was doing a good job of managing his effort and kind of, they were using that cushion they had pretty smartly. And they used pretty much all of it because they only won by four seconds. Yeah, I mean, at that point when you commit on this is a pressa, like you got to keep it rolling

and from experience, like the section between the suppressor and the bojo, I mean, it's not easy. I've finished in the front group for the malancer. Maybe 10 times. And I don't think I've ever

“remember being in the wind between the suppressor and the bojo. Like you're trying to save as much”

energy as possible. And like trying to soak it all in, like fall on the wheels. And that's, that's a good one. It's a dead flat, like it's kind of, a little bit rolling, but super twisty. But like you get a lot of advantage on the wheels. So when I saw like track baron behind chasing pull guys, they're going to get caught because the guys from track, the guys from baron that were chasing, like their finish of the race was the start of the pojo, where the guys in the

front, their finish was at the finish line. Matt Peterson, all these guys were, the finish was actually at the finish line, where you have some of the best riders in the world chasing the full gas. And they can just sit up on the pojo and go these easy as they can. Yeah. And they still didn't close the gap. But they brought them from 30 to like what you said, six seconds. But like for me, in typical racing, like you closed that gap is going to be closed, but these guys were so strong

and are able to manage their, their walk in their effort. So diligently, more than we've ever seen

and cycling history that is actually changing the game is changing the tactics. I've never seen

able to roll away on the pojos. It's just, it's really hard to predict what's going to happen, but it makes it super exciting at the same time. Yeah. It's a very good point. It's a little tricks finish line was the bottom of the climb. The last climb. Yes. And the other guys

“had to manage their effort and they still got there. That's why you don't see many people right”

clear on the trip. So we've seen it the last two years. Before that, I believe it was Johnny Boonio, perhaps. I don't know. It was like in the 90s, was the last time I happened before last year. But let's take a quick ad break, George. And then I'm going to throw out some stats and we're going to talk about if this is maybe the best one we've seen from the departure. This episode is brought to you by Raggin Boon. You stepped the shoes between jeans that look great and jeans that

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limited time, our listeners get 20% off their entire order with code the move at Raggin Boon.com. That's 20% off. Rag dashbone.com with promo code the move. When they ask you where you heard about them, please say us to support the show. All right. Let's get back into it. Okay, George. So we're back. Pagochar has now has as early. He wins this sin Rambo first career sin Rambo win. I would say this is the classical least. The monument least suited to him. So now a sweep looks like it's possible.

All all he needs now is Perry Rubey. What's the big deal? Just one Perry Rubey. But Perry Rubey

actually, for a guy that is that powerful and that good at biking lane, he just needs like an

off day from Bandit or Paul and he can win Rubey. I thought sin Rambo presented the most problems because as we were just talking about, sure you can attack further out, but then you got to work on the flat and then you have a group pulling behind. It's not that hard of a race. So you have a big peloton chasing you. Well, he cracked that. Let's just assume he does Rubey. He gets the he gets the sweep. Now is 11 career monuments. That's second of all time. The only rider with more is

“Eddie Merch with 19, I believe. And he's winning them at a pace of like two and a half a year. So if you”

figure, let's say he has 13 by the end of this year, then he needs six to tie Merch's. He could have Merch's tied or beaten by the 2029 season. Assuming he keeps winning at this rate, I thought that was an impossible record to be already second and still be easy. He's at the age I believe in Lance won his second two to France. So like we're talking about a guy that's got maybe some tread on the tires. It's impressive. I think though, just setting the numbers aside, I think this is the most

impressive win I've ever seen from him. Maybe even more than the 2022 to France, because there's no pressure on that, right? He's at the show up and do that time trial. He does a win. It's not a

big deal at all. What an amazing result for a 21 year old. This is a lot of pressure on him. Everyone's

looking at him. His team is a plan. He crashes. He gets dinged up. That was not a light crash. And then he comes back and wins. And someone texted me right after he crashed like a few, I texted like he's going to win like he's going to win now. And they're like, this is the most impressive win I've ever seen if he does. And he does it. I mean, we're talking like the stuff of that you would not think it's possible. He's not doing on a routine basis. Do you think this is the most impressive

Pagotcha win you've ever seen? And do you think it's the most impressive one day win you've ever seen? Setting aside your gut willful gun win. I would have to say a hundred percent. I mean, going back, it's not like it was a weird crash like he just crashed on his own. He crashed with the favor to the right. It's being a gourmet egg while Ben and Art. I think I'm cracking it from around uh, Vanderpool was in that crash as well or a guy. Yeah. Yeah. So like the favorites of the race

except for Tom Pickock were in that crash. And like I mentioned earlier in the show,

work from from basically the bottom of this press after Brendan McNolty and he's actually called Toro pulled off to the finish line. And we talk about like how do we change the title, how do how do the riders change the tactics? How do the team change the tactics to beat him? Tom Pickock did the absolute perfect race. Actually, in fact, I texted the owner of their his team. He was riding

amazing like you can't ride a better race than what he's doing right now. He's kind of missed a

couple of holes going into the photo and the photo. Um, only did the work on the downhill, which are not spending much energy. Has one amphal gold race against one of the best printers in the world, well, been art. So he can have an amazing sprint. So he was going in super confident. Like there's nothing different that he could have done to one that race. And poker chart still wins it with a crash. Um, so it's just I just don't know how you can beat this guy. Like he is just

essentially unbeatable. I people were saying that that well, wait till San Ramo. He's going to get beat at San Ramo. I really thought that we should shout out, uh, Johan Bernayl. He said in the preview, he said, "Pitcock is classy. You rarely see a rider like this and he's on form." I said,

“I don't know about that. Tom Pickock on climbs is shallow. I think he doesn't have the power.”

Johan is right because as you say, Pitcock, with like he was riding the perfect race. He looked unshakable. Um, I would say they don't win, but Pinaretto Pinarello Q36.5. You're your good

buddy. Must feel good because this is a big result for a non, there are second division teams.

Same division as your team. I mean, imagine if monitors got seconds in. I mean, like the result. Um, they are, they are a very well-funded second division team. This isn't like a mom and pop shop. But that's huge for them. We should also say, "Wow, Minart. It's his first monument, uh, podium, since 2023." So this is a big result for a while, even though he doesn't win. I mean, actually was a few, like he was a few decisions from the front to away from potentially winning this race.

I'm still in awe of how him and Petmaid's peterson did at this race coming off injuries earlier the spring where I kind of wrote them off for the monument season. And then I would say Vanderpool eighth place, like, this is probably, I don't have, it should have it pulled up. It might be as worst resulted in a monument for like a long time. But that's more of a testament to Vanderpool because we've gotten used to him winning in or finishing on the podium of every monument. He starts.

But George, how do you feel going in the next? We kind of have a little bit of a break with fast-country and then we go into the, the cobbled monument. It's like, if you're a pitcock,

“if you're in art, if you're Vanderpool, what are you feeling as you have to go up against this guy,”

who seems like he can win anything whenever he wants? Yeah, I mean, just let's back up a little bit. Matt Peterson, what, like he said, I mean, he has essentially has not raised his bike for six months. He did in one race in Spain, broke his elbow hand. Yeah, first race of the year. First race of the year, getting fourth place in Santa New Year while the whole team behind him, I mean, total rock star, right? He's got

to come out with confidence. The team has got to come out with confidence. I mean, they lost John Demalon due to illness a couple of days ago, who could have probably most likely been there as well. So they're going to go into the next block of the cabler races with a ton of confidence, knowing that they got mad to back. The short Jonathan Milano will be back. Robin Art was also in that crash coming back, getting third place. He was with Mateo,

European scene. I mean, the team really came together to bring them all back, where was,

“like, you should not be able to come back after crash like that. So all these guys in an incredible”

ride, but as you said, I mean, probably sure, just just continues to impress. And it's like we can keep saying the same thing. Like, this is the rider, the best rider we've seen in a long time, or maybe perhaps in the history of cycling. But what he did today, I don't think we've seen something like that in cycling. And I don't remember I've ever seen anything like that. I mean,

30 K to go once every, we'll come back and win in the race crashing is incredible.

Cut up in the world champion jersey. It's one of these things that you read about, you need to read about from them many times. And you think, well, it doesn't sound right. Or how is that possible? It's like that we watch something like that happen where you would not think it's possible. And it happened. I mean, I would say it's maybe it's a good thing. You know, it doesn't have Wi-Fi because virtually, I think there's no debate anymore. I think this is,

I think this is the best of all time. I mean, you can't, it's almost without a doubt. Not only that, but like the calls I've got to go on in the race cars when that happens. Like, okay, the authority you're staying at front, just in case you can hang with the best guys, keeping McNulty back with you. Keep a couple of teammates back with them. And just sort of

I still remember super vividly like the train station on the left turn on the left when you

got to take a right turn to go to the espresso. Like, that's like what you keep an eye out for. And you're going to 60k an hour after a cap of melody to get to the espresso. Like at least 60k a lot, you probably can look it up. But the average speed from the top of cap of the melody to the bottom of the espresso has to be way over 50k an hour. So the fact that he's behind there and trying to work his way back. I mean, think about his speed, think about his power that he's put in. Before he actually

“gets to the espresso and is able to attack halfway up to the espresso, I don't ever remember seeing”

anything like that. And they keep it, the crazy thing to me is they keep a teammate up there. They talk about confidence. Like, he's like, don't even come back. Because he's going to make it stay up there. That was kind of the key, too, because we were talking about that little they had a little bit of a gap going into the pogeo, not mainly. But it, it definitely was a factor that Del Toro was in the chase group. So he was rotating through and he would rotate through,

sit up. It just kind of disrupted the chase a little bit. I mean, Del Toro was super impressive and you think, well, someone's as good as put out char. That's not great for everybody else. And then you're like, well, guess what? They have a writer that's five years younger, six years younger that

is almost just as good. And he's going to be in the second group. If everyone day race,

coming up your chase, good luck with that. Very hard to beat that. We should say that. Yeah, you mentioned little track. I must think a little track. It's crazy. It is, it is almost the team of the day. I could not believe how well they did, how well they got over the Trapessa. And if you notice when those three went away, I mentioned the big gap, it's almost like that. That was pre-plan. It's like, don't even follow them. Like, don't lose the team manage the effort. And then

write as hard as you can in the value or the coastal road between the two climbs. Yeah, I think once we get to the the Belgian classics coming up here in a few weeks, like, you got to put, you got to put a lot of confidence in Mads Peterson. I mean, not racing for six months, essentially, and getting fourth place today in a 300 kilometer race. And he's about to hit his arguably like what he's really good at in the classics at the Belgian classics.

It's going to be a big battle between Mads Peterson, Vendipol, and Poguchar as well. Yeah, I agree. Let's take another quick break and then I have a few a few random shoutouts for people I was surprised we're in the front group and I do want to get your thoughts in a few

“of the couple classics before you have to run. George, we're back. You mentioned the”

couple classics. I do think today I would say the most impressive victory I've ever seen. So that that's that's on one side of the the Tallymark. The other is I would not say I predicted our Yohan and I did a prediction show before 2026. I predicted the Poguchar would win every monument of the year. That is a possibility, but I would come away from this race, yes, on one hand, Poguchar is amazing, almost unbeatable. The other hand, we have better competition than I thought,

because Pitcock looks like he's on career best form. He's finally he's what 26 years old. I thought today was the biggest, I know he's one two world Olympic championships, they send the road the biggest day of his career, anyone on out to us. But that going toe to toe with the best guys being undropable. That is something, Tom Pickock is up there now.

Wild Van Arler's good, Matt's better than looks good, but Matt the bandipoles are always going to look

good. That guy's unshakable. I mean, yes, we're still even in seventh as well. You actually have a lot of strong classic contenders here. So let's say we have a little bit of a break. We have bass country and then early April, where at flenders and then a week later, where at Rubeye. Who would you pick from this group? I guess we also have Gettemovogam E3. Who do you think is going to shine in those cobbled races later in the year? That's a tough one, but I'm going to see what Matt's

Peterson did today and his first race back. Arguably, one of the most technical races in terms of fighting for position. Long as world cups of the year and coming out of essentially no racing, I'm going to put my money on him to be super successful in the next three weeks. I was going to say if I take a walk down to the local bookie and maybe put a little bit of money on Peterson to win Rubeye. Yeah, because they had four or five, maybe five guys there before

“the pojo and their team is super strong. Yes, they didn't come away the win, but I think they're”

going home tonight and going, okay, we're ready. We're ready for the big classics coming up. Yeah, and I don't know about the classics, but this guy has been everywhere this year. To buy a slew and Anderson finishes their team from the front group, from the Catholic good

Pagatron, Pagat. Like he is, I think he already has three world tour wins this year. That that's somebody to keep an eye on. I mean, look at his race schedule. He's doing, he's doing the full, the full flander in, no, he races up to the dwarves or flander in, but all these pre flander's races keeping on him. Also, do you know who finished in the front chase group like the front group? I couldn't believe it. Mr. Primo's Roglic. Where did that come from? That's even started this race

before? Yeah, I was surprised. I saw him early on with like 200 K to go sitting there in their front. I didn't really realize Primo's Roglic was doing this race, but yeah, another guy, like does continues to impress for sure. Yeah, I assume it's part of some, well, I said to someone earlier today, I was like, you know, I think Peterson just doing, he's just trying to get race miles

“in his legs. That's what I thought. That's why I thought he was starting this race and then he”

gets fourth, but I just assume Primo's, I guess a lot of these guys to live in Monaco, race finishes close to home, not too much of a heavy lift for the travel, but I'm coming away with this, thinking yep, Pagatron is probably the best we've ever seen. This is unbelievable, but we're going into what I think is going to be a great, great, cop-a-classic season. All right, Greedon, I mean, if I'm in Vanderpool, like, let's not just count, he also crashed. He came back and was able

to make the break with the final moves with Pagatron and Bogotaur and then still sprints for a place after the cop-a-lip on like most people don't want to stand like, what it takes to actually get caught. Your dead 300 K into a race and you're still sprinting for top 10, I mean, he's going to

have an incredible classic campaign as well. The crazy thing, too, he's setting probably

personal records on all these climbs. So you're doing these climbs faster than you've done them when you won the race. And you're just like getting swept up by a group, like, what is going on here yet? And there's still be sprinting for it. There's probably a point of pride on if you notice,

“but Jasper Phillips and the last, so it's been Philips, it's been Vanderpool, Philips and I believe.”

Yeah, Vanderpool Philips and Vanderpool, and then Pagatron this year. So I said that backwards. It's 2023 Vanderpool, 2024 Philips and 2025 Vanderpool, and then 2026 Pagatron. So Albison, Premier Tech, has won this race the last three years before this. Philips and we won it in 2024 was the one doing the work to pull Vanderpool back into the group after a crash show. He kind of sacrificed his chances to compete for the win, to get Vanderpool up there. That's

much confidence that team has to them. I was pretty impressed by that. I got who won the race just a few years ago. Who would have fed a decent chance, probably, if that came back together. So cool. We're going to we may even start seeing like scenarios where what we saw today were the strongest guys in the race Vanderpool, Bogunchar, Pagatron, make this selection. And they still have 30 K to go or whatever, 20 K to go to the finish of the race.

We may start seeing scenarios where there's not going to work anymore, where they'll have a guy like the loops in behind or let's say somebody from tracks in that selection and they have a

guy like, "Masperes Me Vine" behind. They're not going to work anymore to guarantee their third place

because they know they might not be able to be Bogunchar, they might just sit on his wheel. Like so we might see scenarios where these guys will not work with Bogunchar if they're with them. If they're able to hang with them on the second or last climb or the second last hard section, like teens may start saying, "You know what, if you make the selection exposure, you cannot work with them because we have to give our other guys a chance because you might not be

able to beat them." I don't want to let them turn. I'm glad you bring that up because I'm sure people were screaming during the race and screaming at us during this podcast. Like, "Why does anyone work with them? Don't work with them." Well, let's talk through that. So those three get away. Pagatron, Vanderpool, Pagatron,

Pidcock, kind of has to work, right? Because even if he gets second, that's the biggest

result of his, one of the biggest results of his career, one of the biggest recent results of his career, and he has a decent chance to win. You know, in a sprint against Pagatron, like, you can't, the team has no other option. So he kind of has to do work. Vanderpool, I was thinking,

“like, "Hmm, what if Vanderpool just sat on here?" Like, "What do you think would have happened?”

If Vanderpool wouldn't have worked with those two?" Well, I mean, I'm saying as it from a director's standpoint, from a writer's standpoint, if you make it through, like, the stress of positioning and actually making that selection and your guaranteed, essentially guaranteed at top three, you're going to work. It's like, you're going to want to work to get guaranteed at the top response. But directors and sponsors may say at some point, like, "There's no way we're going to win

this unless we take a chance, sit on and give it our guy, our sprinter, behind the chance."

is there's no way to beat Photoshop. Yeah, yes, I do agree with you that from a high level,

like a team strategy level, they might start pulling out. And you see this in other sports as well,

“like, in the modern game, people, I think of the wars with Steph Curry. It's almost hack it to the”

point to the most extreme point. And you just have to do a ridiculous stuff to stop it. Yeah, having Matthew Interpol not poll in the front group might be one of those things, probably hard to convince. And part of the beauty of cycling, though, is Pitcock and Vanderpool, probably when they're in that group, I believe in their hard-a-hard side. Well, I'm going to smoke this guy. Yeah, I got better than forgot charged today. So managing that is probably difficult

for a team as well. I agree. I agree. I'm just saying we might start seeing those scenarios. But I had my money on Pekak when I saw that breakaway when I saw how smartly he was writing and kind of sort of missing goals here and there. And you know, with the sprint that we all know he has, I had my money on Pekak, but didn't happen. Yeah, I thought as I thought so too. I thought that was about as good as shot as you're going to get it, Pekak. Yeah. I mean, if we really think about

what do we do to beat this guy, he seems unbeatable. Today actually was a good scenario. It's not, it's not like strata Bianchi where it's just like we're going to line up and he's going to ride away from us. I thought Pekak had it. I thought he did everything right. You could see Pekak are looking back. He was worried about the chase group. He was working quite a bit to make sure, because as you say, you don't want to go through all of this to get away and get caught. Because then

you're not going to beat Pettersen. You're not going to beat Van Art. These guys who didn't Corbin Strong's going to beat you because he didn't make the effort to get away. So you kind of have to

“stay away. I thought Pekak had it. Chapo to him, though. Great race. Did you notice, though?”

Perfect race. Italian monument, the two bikes. First, Colnago, second, Penarello, two classic Italian bikes, top two steps of the podium. Yeah. Good point. Yeah. Pretty cool to see it actually up there. But so you're over and you're up. You're in Belgium for Enzo had a race today and then your team's racing. What's your next big race on the calendar? Yeah, we have the vote of the Catalonia starting Monday. So I'll be flying from Belgium back to Spain on tomorrow night

and we start off on Monday morning. Nice to do here that best of luck. You guys have been doing great. Been great to see. Also, do you see this guy? Jonah Curie. You're on it. We're talking about

him on the show today. This also might be tampering. What we're doing right now. But I'd never

heard of this guy. American writer has only been on French and it's like French and Belgian club in continental level teams and he was last man standing in the break. Yeah. He was the way with one of my guys. Sean Christian. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was I was actually quite surprised myself and I really excited to see another American writer up there. Jonah Killie is his name. Yeah. We shot it about the other last episode. Let's shot him out again. That was super impressive.

That's a hard career to take, by the way. Yeah. But did you hear that it's a Remco available supposed to be going to Catalonia to face off again? He's stuck in the snow. I'm out teed. Which is not normally have snow. So might not be seen a show down there. Well, maybe that's one spot further up in the G.C. We can finish if he doesn't show up.

But obviously, we want the best guys there. Yeah, lock in second place. Yeah.

I mean, it is actually an exciting story. It starts on Monday. Uh, Jonas, been a guard. Remco available. Maybe, maybe not Joana made a Tom Pickock J Vine Oscar on Lee. Brandon McNulty, Julia Chicone and Lenin Martinez. Very stacked field. I'm excited to see

“that best of luck George anything else before we take off. I think this is maybe the first time”

we've ever this pairing of the move has ever happened. Yeah, I know. I think you're right. Yeah. No y'all on today. He's he's somewhere in southern Spain without Wi-Fi, but yeah. No. It's exciting. Today I got to say today was super exciting. I mean, the best rider in the world won, but we didn't really know it until the last 50 meters of the race that he was going to win. It was down to the wire. And I think it was more exciting than

the last world called Steve Watson. Hopefully we'll get more of that excitement in the next next race is to come. Yeah. I hope people don't because there's this narrative like, oh, we got chairs making racing boring. Today was one of the most exciting races ever. I see that was unbelievable. And what he's doing is he's raising the level of the rest of the sport. Like, these guys are riding better than they would if he didn't wasn't there because they have to

have a chance. So that's cool to see as well. Yeah. And they go home back. I know I mentioned it earlier. We're seeing guy like Brandon, we know the American guy like working his way through the peloton and making it happen a massive impact on Bogotá's win is for me super exciting to win to witness as well. That was huge, huge turn of work from Brandon. And to have, I don't think people

thoroughbred, unbelievable writer. Yohan was telling me on the previous show. I said, I don't

“mean, no, I'll see. He could play a part on that you press a Yohan set out as his handleings. That”

good enough. He's not going to be there. Well, he proved he proved Yohan on there. He was there. I said,

this guy, he's legit. But also like we saw at Tiger Woods and golf and you see it often with

“tennis and whatnot. Bogotá will, he will become a victim of this at a certain point. He is”

increasing the level in the sport. So the point that it will come back to bite him basically,

because everyone's getting better. He's going to have a down moment and he's going to get

“swamped by all these writers who have gotten better because of him. That's kind of the cool thing about”

this. I agree. Yeah. Well, thanks so much George. Best of luck at Catalonia and we'll have Yohan back on this show next week to give his Belated Thoughts Uncentremble. And Lance, we're going to have the 18 lineup. We're going to have like Lance, George, Yohan on the upcoming monuments as well, like flanders and rebates. So get excited for that. Awesome. All right. Talk to you later. Thank you. Bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]