TOUR DE POLOGNE 2025 STAGE 1| TOUR OF POLAND LIVE NOW

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#TOURDEPOLOGNE2025 #YELLOWJERSEY

These are the devils. I down. Hey, hey, down. My angel wings. I told the devil. Let’s devil. Outside. my angel wings. I told the devil down. Down. My angel wings. I told the devil. Let’s do that. outside. Outside my angel wings. I told the devil. I don’t know what Heat. Heat. Get down. My angel wings. I told the devil. Let me tell you outside. My angel wings. I told the devil ain’t got the devil. Heat. Heat. My angel wings. I told the devil. outside. Outside my angel wings. I told the devil me. Down it down. My angel wings. I told the devil. Let me devil out. Outside my angel wings. Ain’t got the devil. down. Count my angel wings. I told the devil. Let me demons out there. outside. Outside my angel wings. I told the devil. Ain’t no way. Down it down. My angel wings. I told the devil. Let me devil. outside. Outside my angel wings. I told the devil. ain’t got the devil. down. Yeah. My angel wings. I told the devil. Let’s go. outside. My angel wings. I told the devil. I know that the devil’s down. Take it down. My angel wings. I told the devil. Let’s go. where he’s looking to test his form and see where he comes by the end of it. He has the the also on his program. So, a busy a busy six weeks coming up for for Max and a few of the guys that are over there in Poland this week. Yeah. Matt there has mentioned the welfare coming up. Have got a few riders in here. I’ll go through them gradually on the provisional start list for the welfare. We’ve got quite a lot in this field and about 15 20 of them in total that’ll change in a couple of weeks. But um we do also have three riders who did start the tour to France in this field. They are Marion and that’s all three of them called Jack. Big crash on stage seven in the back leading to that fully sparkly. You have seen the aforementioned Rapal M the Polish National Road Race Champion fairly newly crowned having an adjustment probably by the looks of it Matt to maybe radio or some wiring down his down his tummy. Yeah, it looks like a radio there. Oh, he’s got a zip issue. He’s got a zip issue. Oh dear. Yeah, I think the zips on those kit open from both the bottom and and from the top, but it looks like the the bottom zip there is uh yeah, maybe a little bit stuck or caught on something. So, uh trying to get that issue sorted. Otherwise, he’s going to have a cold stomach by the end of the day. Looks like he’s done. I’m sure the mechanics have all done their zip training as part of their get asked to do a bit of everything, don’t they? Unfortunately, holding you in the back of the car, then you never know what your next task might be. Indeed, Rafa Mer getting back in. I’m absolutely certain there’ll be at least one day this week where we see him at it. This looks like Magnus Sheffield if I’m not mistaken. Um, making his way back in. Yes, it is. He general classification last year. One of those returners from the top 10. And with the time trial at the end of the week should be a good week for Shira as well in a pretty strong looking team this week I have to say. Uh Matt looks good to me this this team they’ve got. Yeah they uh like you say it’s a it’s a nice team and I think kind of got some uh young talents in there that’ll be also looking to uh go go the distance. Maga Sheffield um is a rider that’s kind of really uh been developing well over the past couple of seasons and they’re they’re going to be looking to try and support the 23y old possible. Sorry, I can’t watch this. It’s got very large pair of scissors. Um not quite sure what you cut the zip. It doesn’t look like it’s good. It almost looks like intestinal surgery we have going on here. Umbilical. Umbilical. That mechanic is ready to uh to work in the the the what do you call it? The the natal clinic of a hospital cutting off the umbilical cord. He’s already done the training for it. Poor old rapper Mic. I’m not sure what you cut for anyway. To be honest, makes me win a little bit because uh you have to hit a pothole or something and go drastically wrong. So yeah, normally as well the the commissers don’t really allow the mechanic to be out of the window of the car. Certain occasions they’ll turn a blind eye, but they also if it carries on they’ll ask him to stop and uh and fix the issue at the side of the road from a safety point of view. It looks like it’s fixed now, I think. Oh yeah, maybe. Yeah, I I could see them maybe putting his scissors back, but I can see him. Yeah. So, I I’m not sure it is fixed. I think he’s being given a different jersey or something. They can see it still. And uh I think I think you correct me if I’m wrong, Matt. You see, don’t mind me saying probably more of these guys stripped down than I do, but I think most of them now tend not to wear see Dario Frigo going through tend not to wear under jerseys, you know, like like they were used to. Yeah. It’s uh on a day like today um with it being flat I it’s also the temperature is still quite warm there. So they they get away with not wearing it. But when the temperatures a little cooler than this then they would normally run an under vest. Um but it’s it’s above 18° today even though it’s wet. And also with a a sun forecast later then uh they opt to to not use it. Um but yeah in this situation now it’s difficult because that’s it is uh definitely broken and uh some guys will uh oh dear wild conversation there about Z first crash in the race something we don’t ever want to see but slight corner it looks like there possibly a curve on side that’s my suspicion is probably where it’s yeah road doesn’t look like too big of a corner there. Um just a little bit of a sweeping right bend, maybe a little bit of oil on the road or coming together. Um it’s also when the pelon’s quite relaxed as it is 160 km to go that’s where sometimes these sort of crashes happen and unfortunately the crashes where you see people do get injured from but quite a few guys involved. the Furbo Tyson we’ve just seen down and one of his teammates there as well. I’ve also seen Natal Tespas off the right hand side down on the deck. Yes, lots of riders involved in this. Everyone back on their feet though which is pleasing to see very quickly as well. The paramedics out as well running changes. That looks like it might be Maxim Vad Hills there getting a bit of help from two teammates. Um Maxim Hills probably riding in the uh in the Tibet style this week looking for some of the uphill finishes which we do have plenty but we’ll need to hang on a little bit deeper to make sure he’s making the most of them. So Paul of the Red Bull Bora has to go right is Van Hilts on the left there despite the fact we can’t see his race number. He’s down in amongst them and will be paced back in. Of course we’ve got 160k to go. So thank you. No great panic by the looks of it. Yeah, no great panic at all and people will just take their time, get back on and uh yeah, they’ll uh they’ll not have any issues to come back to the Pelaton here. Um it’s more probably quite a bit of frustration there for for some guys. It’s a a crash where yeah, it’s uh it’s just a touch of wheels coming together, a little bit of oil on the road, number of reasons it can happen and it’s one of those situations where there’s no danger in terms of what it’s going to do to your result, but just frustrating to crash and take some skid off. Also, extra work for the mechanics that in the evening there’ll be a few uh at least one broken bike in there. I’m sure when when you see that many number of riders come down and but the pressure on the front of the Pelon still stays on a little bit cuz you look at the time gap to the breakaway it’s only a minute it’s come down from 2 minutes 15 from when Quick step really started to ride a little track there just asking the Visma rider just to to knock it off a little bit and help on to egroup maybe he also wasn’t aware of the situation when all your riders were okay you actually don’t know necessarily how big the crash is or what the crash looks like. So yeah, the rider there from middle saying, “Oh, can we knock it off for a couple of minutes? Let’s get everyone back in and uh and then we’ll continue. We’ve got enough time to catch this breakaway when it’s only a minute advantage.” Jacob Moska was there to leave the track, one of the older statesman of the Bellon. Much respected, just trying to get Steven Price right to knock it back a little bit. It is interesting actually don’t think I recall seeing any Bismissa bike riders down either. There’s at least three of them near the front there as well, including the big tall figure of Nicholas Barons. So possibly that’s why Fike hasn’t switched off the front. He’s not getting it in his ear to say we’ve got riders down, but I could buy Stin’s riding alongside him. The tour rider for Sudar Quickstep possibly just having a word as well. Everyone looking like they are going to calm it down a bit. That was just good. Yeah, you also see though now the team cars have just started to come back and the the race dire the chief commissairs car also only just got back to the pelon there. So it was quite a hold up in the road and there will be there’ll be quite some riders here two or three licks behind. So, it’s a yeah, it’s a sensible decision. Just knock it off. And normally when there’s a a crash in the Pelaton like that, the the commissair will say in the radio tour, crash, big crash in the Pelaton. Um directly there, probably the sports director is asking, “Guys, are we all okay?” There’s been a crash. And when you hear, “Yep, yep, all okay.” Then he just continues. He doesn’t know if it’s one one rider or or 10 riders that come down. Um and yeah, that’s the kind of the communication process. Obviously, when you have a teammate come down, then you know about it. Um cuz there’s discussion in the radio. Um this rider has crashed, I need a bike or bike’s okay. Um and the teammates be talking to each other, making sure that they’re organized, especially if it’s a leader or or someone like that. Yeah. And um these three out front, they probably heard about it, I guess, in their radios, but it didn’t worry them at all. just press on and look to and they are just gradually extending back up. As Matt has said, they did have nearly 2 and 1/2 minutes. They now have 118. They’ve just dipped under a minute, under 60 seconds for a while. They’re just starting to extend a little bit more. We were talking earlier, Matt, weren’t we, about the unwritten rules, and I was asking you whether the the kind of gentleman’s agreement and the pelaton still exists there. It was kind of tested in front of our cameras a little bit with Steven Price being asked to knock it off a bit. And it seems like uh it’s a sensible thing to do while these guys are picking up that hard. Yeah, exactly. No, uh there’s no stress there. The the breakaway it’ll also not really affect anything that the breakaway does. They’ll just continue in their vein that they’ll win themselves 30 seconds. Um, but when it’s three riders, they all they also know they’re only out there for scoring in the intermediates, picking up a jersey along the way and uh yeah, seeing what what prizes they can take. Getting a lovely look there at Donovan Grovan’s uh Celeste Bianke. Super aggressive looking aero machine, aren’t they? With a very, very low kind of stack height to the stem with a great lift on it as well. Rapper Micah I think might have a new jersey on there. that that Polish national champion jersey had a spare jersey. Could even be his rain jersey. I don’t know. But it looks like he’s he’s filled that hole, so to speak. Yeah, he’s potentially put a a cape on or a gabber or something, one of those type of jerseys over the top uh just to cover the hole. Sometimes riders do carry a full spare kit in their in their rain bag in the back of the car. Uh but yeah, to change that one, he’d have to stop and get fully changed. We do often track ahead in this race. This is looking at Schroda Schlashka uh a little bit further up the road in front of us. Shot in sunny at times. Um you’ll be able to see for yourself to say we’ve got some lovely sunny weather yet to come this week. It’s really only today that it should be gray and a bit damp and in fact that’s to be said across much of Europe this week as well. Um, even if you come back in the UK where Matt and I are talking to you from, it’s going to be lovely. Across the course of the week, of course, we get we’re stuck indoors with you lot the whole time, so we don’t get to enjoy it, but we will be seeing it on our screens as you will all the way through to Sunday. And um, yeah, we we’ve mentioned how potentially measily the Pelaton is being with the break on this expected script stage, Matt. in the long one long line. Maybe maybe partly because of the crash, but also because of more tempo being scratched at the front of the pelaton. It’s it’s gone out into one one line by the looks of it. Yeah, it’s uh again it’s not really Sometimes you can see when the pellet when the pressure is really on the pelon, it goes one line. Other times the pelatons can just be one line just because it’s everyone’s just sitting in a wheel. And on a day like this when it’s a little bit wet and it’s only kind of like around 18° there’s there is that I guess lull at this part of the race. Also probably why the crash happened where everyone’s just a little bit relaxed ticking by the kilometers and when they get to 70 60 70ks to go then the brain really switches on and and and then you’re in the race. But you see that those right hand corners there, they’re approaching the next sprint point which I’ll pan over and let you talk through. But the you just see the corners and they’re a little bit greasy sometimes and that’s where very quickly you can you can get those incidents in the photo. This is Shodda Schlomska second of our lead point as Matt has said and by the looks of it is Patrick Stor who wants this one. The Polish rider from the Polish national team who’s in the breakaway wants to make sure he might be in the Mar jersey. The most active riders jersey at the end of the day. It’s Groan is going to give him a run for his money. Has Gondan timed this one perfectly? Let’s see. There’s the orange gantry. Looks like Sto has gone a little bit soon, but he’s hanging on well. It’s going to be close between these two. Now, once again, I have known Scooby-Doo who got that, but it could have been Patrick Scotch actually. We wait to see the graphic. Matt, what do you reckon? Yeah, that was I think that was a close one. I’m not quite sure. They’re also a little bit looking at each other there as to uh do I they’re not running with the motorbike in front of the breakway, which again is players a little bit to their disadvantage. They’re not getting, but it also means we don’t see the the sprint picture. So, I don’t know. No. Is it a good thing for the race though? Maybe, Matt, not having a camera motorbike right in front of them. bearing in mind the number of times we’ve discussed that on this network. Yeah, I mean it is a big discussion and you see the there’s a camera bike there on the on the left side of the pelon there are not actually riding behind that at the moment but it we can discuss that all day and it’s it is a thing that is being discussed a lot at the moment and yeah I I can understand both both ways. We need the pictures. We want to see the race. you want to see what’s happening in the race, how the riders looking, how the pelaton is looking, but it it does have an effect and it can have an effect. And we saw it a few times in the in the tour of France. It was also spoken about by a few riders um when when the moto’s there, you uh it it can it can make a little bit of difference. Yeah, indeed it can. Second of the intermediate strips underway. Just one more to go today. That third and final Most Active Riders intermediate sprint point for the blue jersey comes with 60 km to go in for. So, so far 6 seconds have been given away in time bonuses. Highly unlikely to make too much difference to the general classification. Let’s just watch it again. And that was the point at which uh the Polish rider Sto went for it. And then Kondan just timing it in the end. Last B despite how quick he’d looked at the first one choosing or opting or finding he’s not going for this one on this occasion. Got three points in the bag already for that blue jersey. The next of three points watching that the line is a little bit um vague should we say on the road. It’s not entirely obvious from here. can just see it there as well. I say that it’s fine when you’re directly over it. We’ll wait to have it confirmed and there it is confirmed for us. So, Jonathan Kban um the Frenchman getting the 3 seconds and three points for the most active riders jersey. Writing these down as we go whenever you notice me. By the way, folks, I’m as well whenever we’re seeing them. The reason I go quiet sometimes is I I cannot I’m a man after all. I can’t talk and write at the same time. So, I’m writing down the results so I know over the coming days I can keep tabs on who is doing what where. That was um Patrick Stor of the Polish national team who has to say rides from the BSA ATS continental team in Poland. One of at least a couple of Polish uh continental UCI teams. probably best known of those is Masipolski which has been around an awful long time in the red kit. Most of the best uh young Polish riders seem to come through that team as well. And they’ve got a couple of their team riders riding in the national team here today. Good. Uh by the way, Matt, you you’ll know what I mean by this, but good to see all of the world teams here. It being a world tour race, all of the world teams are supposed to be here, but it’s not always the case. Sometimes, you correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s a process by which a team can say, “I I know we we’re meant to be there. Can we have this one off?” And that does happen every now and again, but all 18 here. How does that work in your estimation? Yeah, that’s um it’s down to when the race was established. So, when it’s a new newly established race in the last two years, um then there’s an option to opt out of one or two. But um an established race like this of Hareno uh all the world sorcerers have to have well it is so far a world team world tour team dominated front end of the pelon with Arostein’s Belgian rider consistently there at the front a suit quick step and um they have I haven’t mentioned the wind so much today but it’s only about um 9 to 10 km/h. It is a slightly helpful cross tailwind as they go westward along the southern border of Poland here. Um, it should, I think, according to my fellow viewer, be helping them a tiny little bit, but we’ll keep an eye on that. There’s the T-Rex rip on the shoulders of Pico Bastings Belgian Rider in that change kit for this week. I quite like that look on that. I haven’t yet talked uh the um kind of look of kits with you, but what do you reckon of that? Oh, I tell you what, Matt’s just taking a very short break thrown to him as he’s just disappeared. He’ll be back. Don’t worry about that. And I will look to get his thoughts on that kit. We can see some of the after effects of that crash. And uh thankfully, by the looks of it, as far as we’re aware, all the riders back up and running from that. This is Nicholas Vinarov, Kazak Rider, son of team boss Alexander. Of course, he is right at the back. The XDS Astana man here. Also just about there as well, K Alig. Kagal, who will probably be part of that final protection team for his team leader, Stanowski. And do expect to see the 28-year-old Polish sprinter involved in a sprint finish here today. So we’ll be super motivated for it. That is for sure. Gap now under the now increased pressure of Steven Spike just coming down a little bit more. 1 minute 1 second right now as we look back at the back. We again at the back not yet getting any information that anyone is uh is out. There must have been somewhere in the region of uh maybe 15 20 riders down in that early crash on that very gentle right hand sweeping bend. So was hoping everyone’s okay. It’s definitely still raining there now. We were thinking it was drying out a little bit more. We’re back to the breakaway. Ferden the Dutchman yet to win a professional race, but uh plenty of wins if you like below that level. Um we will often have a debate about what that actually means. He’s a rider who interesting enough came through the Yumbbo Visma development team as it was and now find himself as of last year in the Alpha Independent Techup. He is an absolute classic Alpha Independent rider as well in that he is a kind of punchy sprinty allrounder as well. Now we are below the minute mark as well. Doesn’t look unlike Yasper Philips from this position as well. Don’t you think Matt? And then maybe it’s the glasses and obviously the kit and all the rest of it, but very much a Philipsson builds last globe. I don’t don’t mind me saying. Yeah, they sit a little bit similar on the on the bike as well. Um I I understand what you mean and see that. Yeah, the the shape of the the different riders kind of also the position work that they do kind of does does play a big effect in in terms of aerodynamics but also on a in a the amount of kilometers they do also they have to feel a little bit comfortable on the bike as well. When they’re they’re not feeling comfortable there then uh yeah they also cannot produce the power that they they need. Indeed. Yes. similar kind of stretched out style as well. Lots of long roads on today’s stage. Not so much the case. This is kind of the standout stage really compared to the others where we have some twisty windy circuits and um as Matt has mentioned as well, quite a few where we double back on ourselves and take on all sorts. Um today just the one King of the Mountains classification. Tomorrow we’ve got a few more and then it goes a bit crazy on Wednesday when we head into the Valriski Mountains uh heading into the Carpathian Hills following day as well. We go through effectively three different mountain ranges that all stretch along the southern edge of Poland. It’s the Baliski mountains first, then the Besid Mountains, and then the Tatra Mountains in that order in the middle three days of the race. Heading deeper into the the Carpathian mountain as we do going along the southern border, very very close at times to Czecha and Slovakia as well. Um, for those of you who don’t know your geography, uh, as well as I apparently do now, or I’m at least going to try and sound like I do, um, Poland, of course, um, borders on it southern border. Czecha, formerly known as the Czech Republic, but now known as Czecha. Uh, then in the middle, Slovakia to the south. Ukraine is off to the east southeastern edge of Poland. Uh, Bellarus to the northeastern edge, and then Lithuania to the north. Then far north of course is the Baltic Sea itself. So the sea on its northern border and then Germany off to the west. Germany, Czecha, Slovakia, Ukraine, Bellarus, Lithuania and then the Baltic Sea. That is an anticlockwise tour around the very edge of Poland. This fascinating country which we’re going to be exploring the southern edges of all the way through this week looking in on Olaf Koi there. Of course, four stages in the last three years. two JRO stages to his name this year, five wins so far this year, but he is not the winningest rider in this race. He’s not even the winningest rider in his team because that is Matthew Brennan on eight wins just this year, which is I know we’ve already touched on Matthew Brennan, but I I say it out loud and I have to pinch myself because it’s almost ridiculous, isn’t it, Matt? We’re talking about riders quite often who go into their 30s, have been in the Pro Pelaton 10 years, haven’t even won a bike race. And Matthew Brennan’s won eight just this year, not even including last year. He’s still 19. It is it is bonkers regardless of the fact he’s British. Bonkers. Kai’s a a fantastic talent and uh came from the uh Fen Powers uh junior team where he was already uh making really good steps there and was picked up by Bisma Lisa Bike development team which I think is is really good to go into those development teams in that first year from uh transition out of junior. I think it’s really important to make that step in a in a good way. And obviously during that season he he could dip a little bit into racing with the pro team as well. He did chat tour I think with the with the pro team and few other races. Um raced a bit also for for Great Britain obviously uh had three stages at um where he was in the top five in in Lavanir and and then made that that full transition this year into into the world tour team. He’s he’s a fantastic young talent and I think it’s uh really exciting for for the British viewers but also for the sport in general that you’ve got a guy that is quite versatile. You see how he won stage one of Catalonia. That’s not an easy sprint finish to win and there he uh yeah he that was a really nice sprint. Yeah, I think it was tour of Hungary as well, if I’m not mistaken, where he was seemingly intent on going for pretty much every stage he possibly could. He climbs well for a guy who’s so quick as well. And um it’s nice to see in a way, although I’m inclined, I guess, as a commentator, I mean, I’m inclined to try and pigeon hole people and box them into the kind of rider they are, but I still don’t not entirely sure that settles. His time triing is still particularly good as well. He raced I mean he didn’t have to but he bothered to race the the British time trial championships as well this summer which for a sprinter is I guess relatively unusual isn’t it? Um it isn’t it is I think kind of it’s it’s good that he he does it like at this age as well like you say he he’s also still discovering a little bit where where he’s at and and how he’s going. So it’s nice that he he’s still kind of just putting himself out there and you know won the the general classification in tour Norway. So there he can he can win those one week stage races but you have to also develop yourself as a as a little bit of an all rounder there. So to ride the the national time trial I think it was was good. It was not an easy time trial that’s for sure. It was I think it was it was a pretty long one at over 40 km but also quite a few climbs in there as well. So his uh his time was was obviously is a little bit off the podium, but it was still a pretty respectable time. You’ve just reminded me and corrected me without realizing it. I think as well, Matt, you’re you’re right. It was um it was touring Norway that I was thinking of actually those opening stages where even though it was he was desperate not to let go of that leader jersey as well. Um really impressive ride over Norway. Since then he uh he rode the Das Hagerlands won by Pman of course in this race spoiler alert I should say and then since then has just ridden the uh the national British national individual time car and the road race. So he is one of those riders because tour Norway was um end of May early June. He is one of those riders who’s had a very very quiet July which might well be quite a good thing for him not least at this stage of his career but this stage of the season as well just to have a look at freshen up. Yeah, I mean there’s not so much racing on in July anyway. So those guys that are not on the on the tour list. They uh normally kind of in in July it’s their mid-season break. They’ll refresh. Some like I mentioned earlier will go on altitude camps. Some will stay at home. Some will have a few weeks off the bike. It all just depends what sort of racing you’ve done so far that year and and where you’re up to really. I mean he’s not raced so much this year. Uh Mer has done I think yeah you’ve mentioned the races kind of he’s been at. So he’s not had a a staff calendar so far not done a a grand tour as yet. I don’t know if he’s on track towards the world or not but he’s he’s still there kind of fresh enough where he can uh dip in and out of competition. He is of course one of those riders who started the season so early down under. Um so nearly won stage one of the Santos cool down under this um second place in Gumarata but then it wasn’t too long before he took his first wins as well in the freedom now and uh just kept winning ever since eight wins this year so far and he’s expecting we will see I will remind viewers this is their his last chance probably today to take a win before he becomes a man. He is merely a child still the age of 19. Um actually no I think legally certainly in the United Kingdom I think your child is the age of 18 legally if not in in reality but he’s 19 now turns 20 on Wednesday. Just as a little pointer uh as well while I talk about birthdays got quite a few birthdays this week. There’s actually two of the Polish national team who aren’t related who both have birthdays today. It’s not the two brothers in the team. Um so happy birthday to Benala and messki both of them have a birthday today and both ride the polish national team is 27 today and 22 so happy birthday to those two lads on the birthday tip as well uh this is notable Remy Cavanaia turns 30 on Sunday the day of the individual time trial and I quite like the the look of that I’m going to keep mentioning that every now and again during the course of the week because he’s a potential, you never know on at his absolute best on a time trial, right? Potential winner of that final time trial. Um, and it’s his birthday on Sunday. He has of course won a time trial. He won the the individual time trial stage six back in 2021 and he turns 30 on Sunday, the day of the TT. Remind Michael Hutchinson of that. Get him to hammer that one home as well. Um, he likes a bit of Remy Cabana. No, we’ll come on to the sprint potential favorites in just a moment. But just thinking ahead to Sunday, the individual time trial. If we think about it from a nonGC perspective, just as a world tour stage race stage perspective, we have got some fantastic time trialists here. Group armor FDG of course have two of the best of them. Stefan Kung is here and Remy Kavana as well. Those two um I guess potentially might actually be waiting for Sunday. Stefan Kung potentially really focusing on that Sunday individual time trial. We’ll see. But they’re not the only ones. We’ve already mentioned Magnus Sheffield as well. Uh young Michael Leonard 21 in a very strong time triing team of course getting this week as well the Luxember time trial champion. Lots of time triing talent in there. be looking forward to Sunday and others. They’re not the only ones. Michael Zylad of course a short time trial specialist, but I expect him to feature maybe in the top 10 in that fairly flat and fast mind time trial on Sunday. Brandon McNulki likewise, depending on where he is in the general classification. So, we know some plenty of bigname time trialist here. But Matt, should we have a conversation before we come off the sprint about general classification riders for this week? the riders that we really think are going to feature once we’ve come through the the first and second catch climbs for the Patra Mountains and others. Where where do you see this one sitting? Yeah, I think there’s a there is a it’s a nice start this year in Poland and um there’s plenty of guys to be to be going at. I think as you mentioned Inosers will want to try and do something in the in the general classification here with with their young talent. uh playing with Sheffield is the is the rider to watch there. Also, uh Antonio Terry from Far Victorious, another young rider who we know can be up there in the general classification. He’s going to be uh seeing how far he can get. Red Bull Boran thrower got a few guys that I think certainly on those climbing days will be uh really in the race. And of course, we’ll see also up around the GC. I think he’s uh he’s going to be targeting that as a team post now. Um so I think we’re we’re in for an interesting race and what stands out to me is quite a lot of the young guys that are here that will be fighting for that that general classification. Yeah, I’ll chuck a few more names in there as well. Let’s not forget you Emirates who I could probably bet everything I own that they’ll win at least a stage this week as well. They just do that. That’s what they do. That’s what they do. Just permanence. Um Yan Christristen they’ve got in very very good form second of course at San Sebastian. Oh spoiler alert sorry it was two days ago so we’re probably all right now and Matt was covering that race. Um San Sebastian I guess a useful pointer of form as well. Yan Chris second there was third. Jacone who won is not here but second and third are here showing very good recent form from two riders who didn’t ride the tours but have come out of that period with good legs indeed. We’ve already mentioned rapper Michael. He’s won the GC before of course and three stages. And then Brandon Nely, who’s been pretty quiet of late. He was sick on GC two years ago in the American. He’ll be enjoying the time travel. Those of you just been on a short break, um Winston and I just rolling through some potential names for the general classification. Um including Man of Sheffield, Magnus Sheffield I should say, the American. Um Matt picking out Antonio Tiberi of course the 24y old Italian on bar victorious but Jack Hey back to this race having crashed out of the tour to France and hopefully back uh to full fitness and looking to have a right go here who’ve been um eighth on general classification in the past as well and um I guess another name to chuck in there. There’s three really from Bahrain Victorious that I wouldn’t be surprised to see feature in GC this week. that um Terry mentioned, Pig we’ve now mentioned, but Hale Bil Bao as well of course um who was a a DNF at San Sebastian so I don’t know where his form is at. I don’t know where this has come from. I can’t believe he’s 35 years of age. He is one of these guys who doesn’t look 35 at all. You could tell me he was 21 and I believe it as well. Um third on GC just 3 years ago Bill Ba. It’ll be interesting to see the kind of form he brings in this race. Yeah, like you say, it feels uh yeah, 35 sounds uh it’s been around for a long time now, but it still feels like uh he’s always in the race and always uh up there hunting around those positions. I think kind of yeah, like like you mentioned, he didn’t finish in Sbasson at weekend, but that’s not really an indicator of of form, I would say. He he was not in the front. So yeah, there no Poland’s on the program and uh yeah, maybe uh didn’t finish for for that reason to save himself a little bit for for the coming week once he was not in the race. He did a good tour to Swiss on a couple of stages, but I do think he’ll be here in the support of of Antonio. Of course, when we’re talking general classification riders, it would be remiss of us not to mention one of the greatest stage racers of all time who just happens to be in the field as well. I am of course talking about Chris Broom riding for Israel Premitech. The Brit is here in this field. I hope you’ll get to see something of him during the course of the race. Seemingly appropriately, here’s Matt and I, two Brits commentating on this race with you. The youngest rider in the race is British, Matthew Brener, the age of 19. And the oldest rider in the race, British as well in Chris Broom, now 40 years of age, uh the four-time tour to France champion. And uh notably, Matt, I as well I noticed I can’t see any reference anywhere to him having had either a contract extension or a contract next year. I I not trying to drill down into your knowledge base, but I don’t know if you know anything on that, but I I haven’t seen anything about what’s happening with Roomie next year. I also uh have not seen anything there. I’m not sure. I know you had quite a long contract with Israel Premier Tech. I’m not sure when when that was due to finish or or expire, but I uh I haven’t really seen any kind of what the future holds for. Yeah, I um should confess I am going by pro cycling on this and they’re usually pretty accurate and their listing of his teams takes him up to end of this season, but we’ll see. News to come on that. We will see. Either way, I suspect if he’s got the legs, he’ll be helping out his team this this uh this year. There’s an awful lot of stuff said about about Chris Broom by a lot of opinionated people, some of whom feel like that maybe he’s it’s time to retire or he’s not. Obviously, he’s not the right. He’s been through some horrific crashes as well as we know. Um, but one thing he’s I think I’ I’ve always found really touching is is how willingly he dedicates himself to the other riders, particularly the younger riders in that team as well. He’s never afraid to be doing what we’re seeing right now, going back to the team car and picking up offers and what have you. for a four-time tour to France champion, that humility and the willingness to dedicate himself to the team, I think, is to be applauded. Matt, I’m sure you’d agree with me. Yeah, I mean, he’s had a a really nice career, hasn’t he, over over the years? And I know that in the in the team in Israel, he he gives a lot of his time to to helping those young riders and investing in those guys and yeah, helping them to to keep their development going. and he’s one of the names that stands out there this week. Matthew Mello also a young rider coming coming through making some some really nice steps there and I’m sure having Chris alongside him is a is a big help and can draw down on his advice that the 23y old American Richello one of those riders in this week’s Israel penny tech team who are set to ride welder as well. In fact, they looking like they brought um at least half the chunk of their velocity team here. Excuse me. Including Ethan Vernon, a potential a potential sprint winner today. Eden Vernon the Brit as well. Vernon, Richard, um Navisburg, who we saw in the breakaway earlier, dropped out of the breakaway. He is also on their provisional start list for welfer as is Marco Frigo, the Italian who we saw rolling through in his rain jacket a little bit earlier. So, yeah, I agree with you, Matt. Sheello, one of those really exciting riders coming through and part of that next young American wave as well. And just like that, these waves come and go quite quickly. Magna Sheffield is the same age, a bit more established in the Palestine now, Sheffield, but we have two young talents. Definitely, it could well go on feature in the GC. We will see. It’ll all come about really on um well a combination of the final stage me Wednesday stage and Saturday stage. Sorry, the final stage of the 25 course, but Wednesday and Saturday. Two big days, both in excess of 3,000 m of elevation. Uh the biggest of them is that Wednesday stage in the Valdiski Mountains, but it’s partly really more because we have so many climbs. did is a proper sawtooth profile on that day all the way throughout as well as we roll through the middle part of lower Silacia up the other side. That’s a big day in the mountains and then the final day likewise as well. It’s much the same. No big enormous mountain all by itself. Just lots of first category climbs. The final stair Saturday stage sorry stage in Lesser Poland into Bukavina. I’m going to say that again. Sinska is um six first category climbs and then a big I think second category finale as well on those multilaps. So um plenty of climbing yet to come, plenty of opportunities to see those young American talents as well. That was rather pretty. appreciate I’m talking over the top of um some very fine looking architecture. This is having his wounds tended to by the neutral um ambulance car by the looks of it. So washing those wounds a little bit. Um and as we look at his knee mat, you’ve got obviously lots of riders you’re in charge of in races at Phoenix Post Denel. Um, and you know, you no one ever want to see any of the riders injured or hurt. We’ve heard an awful lot of talk this year, and I think some of it is in amongst the the kind of thinking about the the one cycling project and pushes to make cycling safer. Every now and again, I hear in conversation in various different places, the word safe, and it always leaves me scratching my head. Pushes to make the sport safer make sense to me, but I can’t see how this sport can ever be safe. safe means no one ever crash. Well, people crash but no one ever gets hurt. How you do that? I don’t know. Um is there anything that you within your experience as a sports director you’ve seen in recent times you think actually do you know what this could make the sport safer whether it’s an invention of some kind or just ways that the course to run a race to run that kind of thing? I think kind of yeah like like you say unfortunately you’re never going to make it 100% where we don’t we don’t have crashes and but there’s a lot of things we can do to uh bring down the chance of crashes and I think kind of the organizers the teams the riders are all trying to trying to work on that and and take a shared responsibility to look after each other in the best way possible. Um I think you you you kind of finishes your your descents and there always going to be a nature of the sport where it is it is busy and it it can be a little bit more dangerous. You see now for example in Belgium where they have uh an in and out system for the motorbikes where the motorbikes don’t overtake the helon. I think that’s a a really good idea and also holds that stress level down that you don’t have kind of five or six motos passing which is also important because those guys do a really important job to go ahead and protect the course and then of course they need to get back in front of the race to to protect the next obstacle or the or the next hazard. So little things like that where the the route directors maybe plan an extra loop around the town so the motorbikes can just uh go down a side street and and come back out the front is is a good idea. And we you know you’re seeing all the time more there’s more companies now with uh flashing hazard warning lights when they enter towns that are marking obstacles as well. And of course they it’s all really important and the riders are also really respectful of that. And it like we saw a little bit earlier though, you know, now there’s several guys riding around with with rips in their kit where they there’s just maybe been a lack of concentration from one or two guys and and it’s caused a big crash. There’s it you’re always going to get it in the in the sport unfortunately. Interesting. Uh I was um I was at uh a commentator’s briefing at the UCI headquarters in Piggler in January and one of the things they were talking to us about in relation to the Safe Fur project, you know what I’m talking about, was was about and I was really pleased to hear it was about um trying to limit or lessen risk off the race route. So on the divergent routes that you’re talking about on the routes that the the team carers take to get ahead to feed zones. I’m um I’m someone who’s I’ve spoken I’ve got a little bit of experience working at UCI level um for one particular summer as a as a team carer as the swan as they call them. It’s the only time in my life that I’ve ever actually taken off in a vehicle and that was that was in the diversion route. We were being weighed through so quickly to get to the next veto. Everyone had their foot got on the ground. I didn’t even see the roundabout coming. I went over it and I was in my own car. I hasten to add I wasn’t given a team car for this and I fully took off and landed the other side. I remember thinking I’m not entirely comfortable with this but it was a it was a closed section of road to do exactly what you just said get the uh get the race um off race vehicles around the town and away from the race route. So it’s not just on the race route itself that things have to be kept safe. It’s also for the other people involved in the race all around it. And you’ll know that plenty well. I’m sure you might want to say it on air, Matt, but I suspect you’ve probably taken off on a lip somewhere or other in a in a race vehicle. Wouldn’t surprise me. There’s a Yeah, I try and uh not do that, though. We have to uh I think no we we all have to uh yeah it’s for me as a as a sport director obviously you have um the feed zones and you send your swaners to to do the feeds but it that’s where also the planning comes in and I always try and make it that the guys are not in stress to get to the next point because yeah that’s how accidents happen and we we spend so many days on the road and also long days that we have to we have a a shared responsibility to look after each other there and it It’s difficult when you only have maybe a small staff um and you have to and you feel also a bit of pressure to get to those feeling points but yeah with good planning and uh a little bit of experience we try and uh limit that. Yes, I think you may have just touched on what was my experience. I won’t name the team. It was a use team that I was I was working for that week but I effectively and they won’t mind me saying this. I was the staff group. I was doing everything absolutely everything. So, um, yeah, that’s my that was my modest experience on that occasion. You can tell it’s lunchtime. Plenty of fuel going in. In actual fact, Steven Price White, experienced stage racer as he is, I don’t think he stopped eating since he came on air. He is heeding the advice of Brian Smith that you always get from the covering stage races. You know, you’re not just eating today, you’re eating tomorrow and the next day. He’s been eating I think non-stop since we started Christ fight including when he was on the front setting the pace as well that was I think we’ve seen that that’s a live shot in the live shot first loose dog of the week and hopefully the last as well as we look at that 2 and 1/2 minutes now so in amongst all the topics that Matt Winston and I have been covering they’ve extended by another minute as well seeing that moment again there it is thought better of it turned around and went back good doggy Excellent behavior from that black and tan youngster by the looks of it. And I think Matt, by the looks of this, there may have even been a crash that we’ve not seen because it is I said there was a little bit of a cross tail with I don’t think it’s enough to split the bunch up, but there’s definitely a group off the back here. Yeah, I think they still coming back from the crash because Tespas’s in there. Yeah, it can also be um I think from the dog to be honest. There’s um yeah quite a hard break in the in the pelon and uh just cause that little split there. It’ll come back. There’s little column there. You uh but yeah, I think that was down to the dog that little split in. There we go. Hopefully that’s the last time we see that. It’s you can just see the group coming back in in the background there as well. They’re making their way back in. I think actually by the looks of it, everyone uh safe there. And and it’s easy for me sometimes to just sort of joke about the dog. the poor animal would have been absolutely petrified while that was going on as well. And thankfully made the right decision. I always say um assess whatever’s run in front of you, but by the size of its head. Squirrels are the worst. I’ve had a squirrel go through my spokes before and out the other side. Um dog thankfully has got a slightly bigger head to body ratio and that one had a good one. They thought carefully about it and went back hopefully. You see Miho Katakovski, former world champion, former winner of this race for Iniosad is just having a conversation with one of his teammates there and they’ve got nearly the whole team up here today Matt. So if we talk about statements, that’s quite a statement early on. I just wonder who if it’s about if it’s about a sprint option today. Ben Turner. Yeah, possible. I think we you know you just said it yourself like discussing about the the dogs running in the road. This is a a race where you constantly passing little towns and areas where there’s uh can you can run into potential problems kind of almost at every every corner and just to sit there with the team in front is just a safer option. keeps everyone out of trouble and yeah the team can can sit in a good position. I think that’s for sure Inos. I think we’ll try and fire Ben Turner up for the sprint. But this is one of the reasons why they sit so close to you are watching stage one tour of to the tour of Poland with me Jes Cox and Matt Winston. We’re looking in on the breakaway here. Donovan Gromban, the Frenchman for Ara BMBB Hotels in the breakaway on that Celeste Bianke. I’m just getting a few instructions from the team car or at least figuring out where they are and what they have yet to come. We have 125 km yet to ride off this 200k opening stage between Rosa and Lisa going northwestward. It’s the most westerly of the seven stages this week you roll away our way through this week which goes all the way along the southern edge of southern Poland. Um just covering two of the 16 provinces own there is the aforementioned eldest man in the bunch Chris Broom with his elbows out still checking on the length of his stem. That’s not changed in all these years and he sits uh pretty much last of quite a lot if not all of the Israelite tech riders back there. We have Steven Krywike on the front for this Malisa bike and he’s been swapping turns pretty much since the breakaway established itself with Haiko Bastains Belgian rider for Sudar Quickstep. Um and uh we already have quite a lot of color order going on for the teams back there. G farmer FDG likewise. No obvious sprint option that sticks out to me for them. Possibly say Ho Bull, the young Frenchman who’s been sprinting quite well. Just keeping themselves up and out of trouble, not least after that early crash and a dog that we’ve just seen running into the color. So teams looking to make sure they have options to play later in the week as well. Yeah, the uh when you talk about the dog, I remember we were in the in Albania for the start of the Jirro and uh the the poor motorbike marshals thankfully saw in enough time uh two bulls running down the field where there was no fence and uh they were trying to control a couple of bulls from running into the road which was uh I don’t think picked up by the television cameras but sure was a a scary moment in the team when you see a bull of that size running towards you. Goodness me. Yeah. Yeah, scary things. Not at least combining the speed of the pelon and then their speed as well. But like you say with with the with the dog, you would have been absolutely petrified. And it is it’s uh you you think like when a bike race passes you and you s on the roadside even for a human such a sensory overload. You’ve got all the motorbikes, all the riders, the cars, the helicopters, everything going on. And yeah, you’re there to watch the race and to have fun for for an animal when a race is passing. I can imagine it’s uh they are absolutely terrified. Yeah. It’s why we also say to the riders all the time, guys, you just have to stay sharp. There’s there’s no moment you can really turn off. It’s if you if you turn off and something like that happens at the the slightest occasion, you your race is over and you can prepare for weeks and weeks to be in top shape to go for your biggest goals of the year and it can end in in a second just by a little crash or a an animal or whatever and yeah, then your season’s finished. So you can never switch off and you have to rely on the other 154 riders in the race that are around you to also have the same attention level and the the same level of being alert. Yeah, stressful situation out there. We’ve got 154 riders in this pelaton all doing the same thing as Matt just said, trying to look after themselves, stay alert, not switch off. Watch out for that. We’ve just seen a speed bump you just gone over. All the little things that can catch you out, I guess. As well, the roads are gradually drying out. I’m hoping it’s the last of the rain. They are now the closest they come to the finish all day because they’re at the pinch point that forms the upper bubble. They’re about to go around as well. They’ve just gone through Vitig. They’ll go through back through in well with far to go. Yeah, with about 17 18 km to go in. very near to where they are right now where they turn westwards. But before that, they’ve got to go up into, excuse me, something of a little bit more of a hilly region. They climb very very gradually up to the high point where they go past the uh the Zelasni Most, the um the lake to the far north of the course. We’ll see it as we get to it. It is Zelathi Mosque means iron bridge. It’s effectively a enormous lake that was used to store uh waste from the copper mines in that part of Poland as well. We’ll see more of that as we get near. We get up to that big lake and then turn away from it, start to come southward again back to where we are right now and then they turn westward the final run to the finish. No looping across the finish line. This time it is straight in. And the final two kilometers are a kind of um right hand effectively around Lake Nitsa to bring them to a flat fast run to the finish line as well. No excuses today really for the sprint teams who want to make this work. The run is possibly not arrow straight and perfect, but the best they’re going to get this week, that’s for sure. And notably, as we look down on the Visma Lisa bike riders, at least three or four of them have gone for the Aero helmets today as well. looking to make the most of them. Yeah, just looking at the uh at the course actually just as you’re saying it kind of they they pass the the same town twice actually quite nicely put together for for the team staff that are going around to do the various uh feed zones and bottle points town like this. You can do this feed zone here and then uh straight down to the finish and uh also from the the final feed zones there’s a highway down to that last finish town etc. So quite quite a nice one put together there by the the organizers that for sure helps the the staff move around the course fast. Well, in just a moment while we’re bringing you these live pictures, we’re going to bring you a promo of a program we’re showing here at the Home of Cycling, which I am particularly excited about because there is some seriously nice bike machinery on offer in the program that we’re about to tease for you. Some of you might have seen it already, by the way, because it’s available on HBO Max and on Discovery Plus. But here’s a little insight into something new we’ve created, courtesy of our colleague Rick Mcloin, who brings you the the mountain bike coverage. And here it is. New exciting sport series basically called Race Bikes, taking you deeper into the world of mountain bike racing through its fastest machines as well. Join Rick as he goes back on a 20 year journey to track down some of the sport’s most important bikes. Two of the well some of the very best two wheel project cars as defined by their race victories along the way as well. Episode 4 about Greg Menard’s Honda RN1 is on air today at 5:00 CPT and it’s already streaming together with all the other episodes on HBO Max and Discovery Plus. Check it out there. Uh, as a somebody who got into cycling in the 1990s, particularly mountain biking as well, there is some, what shall I say, drew worthy machinery on offer in that program and hats off to Rick and the team putting that one together. I’m looking forward to watching it and I hope I’ve weted your appetite at home. Particularly those of you who are um, what should we say, excited by the muddy side of our great sport as well. I’ve had a bit of a gear change, I have to confess, Matt, because over the weekend I was commentating while you were covering San Sebastian for us as our expert summarizer there. I was covering the BMX racing world championships um in a week where I was mostly covering road racing in a week and then got asked to quickly do a little bit of the the European mountain bike cross country championship last weekend. So, I’ve been splitting between different formats and I’ve come from yesterday we had 48 individual races or individual motos that we covered from those world BMX championships in Copenhagen. So, today’s full stage one is a far more relaxed affair for me. Yesterday was like, you know, we’re talking about 30 to 32 second races at the BMX World Champsy is is quite the contrast today, but I’ve enjoyed it. Yeah, I can imagine. It’s uh I remember the BMX kind of scene in the in the UK when I was a a young rider myself and we used to take the uh the talent riders there to uh to also go on the the BMX tracks around the around the country just to also enhance the skills. So guys like Simon and Adam and Yates when they were on the on the talent team, we we used to take along to to do a little bit of BMXing and then they built the fantastic indoor BMX track at at Manchester. Um and used to be great lunchtime watch from the office to go and uh watch the the GBMXes there. So I can imagine this weekend. Oh yeah. Um spoiler alert, but I I’ll give it to people anyway. uh as a British commentator yesterday. It was it was incredible to watch Bethany Shrivever taking her third world title. Of course, former Olympic champion Beth Shaver from East London. Um had two really uh slow starts to get into that final through the the quarterfinal and the 18 final as well. Just not sparking, but everything came together. It came together for her in that final as well. And in the end, it was a final that she absolutely dominated best as well. I won’t give away any other spoilers, but go away and watch it. Particularly, I would encourage people go and watch it. If you are sitting there saying, “No, BMX is not my thing. I don’t watch it.” You might be exactly the kind of person who does need to watch it because it’s kind of purified cycle sport in its rural form as well. I often say that about track cycling or I might say about mountain bike short track, but no, BMX really is exactly that, pure competitive racing. Lots of crashes, I’m sorry to say, from Copenhagen. It was damp like this. similar kind of weather really rain on and off and all that kind of thing. But uh yeah, brilliant, brilliant weekend of competition and we are back into covering an awful lot of things all at the same time here. And actually, I should be said today I think it’s just you and I Matt, which is which is quite nice. It won’t last though because we’ve got to dean coming up in a couple of days. is a race I’ve covered quite a few times before starting on Wednesday and then the one of I’m going to say it the most beautiful race on the calendar. The Arctic Race of Norway which starts on Thursday. So by the weekend the uh the tour to Palonia, the Tour of Poland here will be running alongside the Tour to Land France of course and the Arctic Race of Norway. you lot is full of choice and it’s going to be a a real feast for your eyes cuz I think as the week goes by the weather’s going to be getting better right the way across Europe and we should be back into what might feel like summer. Um Matt I think you were saying to me that we’ve had a little you’ve had a bit of a thunderstorm where you are today as well. So it’s all been kicking off across Europe. Yeah. We It’s the sun the sun’s shining now, but this morning it was raining full gas and then we had about a 20 minute storm before up in uh in Lanasher and uh I literally thought the uh the outside was going to blow away. Talk about a mishmash at the cycling world and the weather world. I’ve never heard rain described as raining full gas before, but we all know we all know exactly what you mean. I can imagine. Anyway, it’s pretty pretty savage to be fair, but yeah. talking about the Arctic Race of Norway. That is a a really lovely race to uh to to go to like and if anyone ever gets the opportunity to go and visit that part of Norway, I’m I’m super privileged that I’ve I’ve been to that race for work, but and it was actually one of my I think one of my most favorite races to have gone to. It’s a what we call a flight race as well. So with it being so far north like a race like Tour Down Under and and Canada as you expect are flight races uh but also Arctic Race of Norway is what we class as a flight race. So the organizer uh schedules some flights up to the top of Norway. Uh gives you the vehicles there and you kind of you go and do the race. There’s always a special vibe around a flight race. Everyone’s kind of in the same boat. You got the the you get a few cars from the organization. There’s no team buses there. It’s a bit more relaxed around the start. But what what a a beautiful part of the world to to have a bike race. But when the weather’s bad, the weather’s really bad. Oh yes, it is. Uh it’s the race that that that kind of separates itself from the aforementioned tour of Norway that I was talking about which happened earlier this year which is in the south. Of course, as Matt will know only too well, it’s the Arctic Race of Norway is it’s usually pretty true to its name and quite a lot of the race happens just above the Arctic Circle. Not that much further north, but above the Arctic Circle itself as well. And it’s other races are starting to follow suit now as well. You’ll have experienced this M when you’re there, but the race organizers pr prided themselves on saying that they were the first race to have a fully electric uh following fleet as well of cars. And it being a flight race as you say, meaning the vast majority, in fact, I think all of the teams turn up without their team vehicles, use the vehicles of the organization and um I believe they’re all electric as well. Was that your experience? I don’t want you to reveal anything that wasn’t quite right. I’m assuming it was. Yeah. So the the year that I went was was a number of years ago now actually and there it was standard vehicles but yeah they’ve made a a massive step and they all the all the team cars that are there are fully electric and the first year I think kind of it did kind of the the organization also made a step so they said we we’ve got electric vehicles here uh we’ll also take care and make sure there’s there’s charging stations and um it it for sure was different for some of the teams Um, in our in our team at Picnic Postel, actually, all our sport director cars are are fully electric vehicles. So, we’ve and we’ve had that now for 2 and a half seasons where all our Yeah. All our cars that you see in the race, all our Volvos are are electric. So, as a team, we’re quite used to finding a charge station on the way to the start when it’s a 200 km day, popping it up, finding somewhere on the way back. And it it it adds a bit more to your planning in the day. You’ve got to have real good structure where yeah, you know, okay, after the race I can do 20 km, then I need to to top up for for 15 minutes and then go back to the hotel and and when it’s part of your your routine, then it it’s no problem. But I know for a few other teams, they uh they found it interesting to say the least. Um but they Yeah, I I think it’s a it’s a really great step from from Arctic Race of Norway to to provide the the electric vehicles for for all teams. Yeah, and it does make sense to me obviously on a on a kind of a on a green point as well, but it makes sense as well that you’re creating less if not no emissions within the actual pelaton as well because it can be a I mean if you think of pelatons and race convoys of old can be smoky old affairs with exhaust pipes left, right, and center. So, I’m guessing it makes for cleaner air around them. And and also, Matt, just from a from a kind of um a race perspective, when you’re on the steeper, longer climbs, you the point is we’re using normal roadgoing cars going at cyclist speed. So, sometimes you’re grinding along in first and second gear for hours on a mountain climb as well. As we look at a couple of stalks by the look of it, first bit of bird life of the day. Um, definitely not herand. They are very much uh stalked. I’ve looked up my my bird light. Just bear with me a second. Second, Matt, cuz I’m I’m always big on my bird light. And I think what we’re looking at is actually black stalks uh as opposed to the white stalk cuz the white stalks are Yeah, you guessed it. They’re white. The the black stalk is not entirely black. Um and according to my research, they’re actually more secretive than the white stalk. So, possibly why we’ve seen those two flying a little bit further off. They’re normally found in the in the forest, but I’m pretty certain that’s the black stalk boan zi, which I’ve almost certainly got wrong. As I say, my only rule I have with the Polish pronunciations, you don’t say anything how it looks if you’re right. But anyway, pretty certain they got black scores as opposed to the white scores. But no doubt I’m getting hammered on social media already. I pride myself as a bit of an ornithologist when it comes to these things. If only Brian Smith were here. You any good with birds, Matt? I shouldn’t assume that you’re not to be honest. I uh didn’t realize we would be discussing it. Otherwise, I would have maybe uh Yeah, that’s my thing. That’s my thing. I’ve never uh No, I think you can be in the lead with that one. Tell me when I see birds, you can you can take over. Right on it. Don’t worry about that. Um I’m probably wrong. Usually wrong, but I always happy to stick my neck out. There we go. Um I’ve completely forgotten what we were talking about now as well. We’re talking about Arctic race of Norway electric vehicle. Yeah. And I was going to ask you before we saw those stalks the the so chugging away on a on a long climb. Is it better to control? Cuz I know I’ve never driven an electric vehicle, but I believe they’ve got quite snappy acceleration. So I get it in terms of getting in and out of gaps and what have you, but what about their performance on a long draggy alpine climb? Yeah, I mean we um yeah, we really like the cars we have and uh we don’t get really get any any issues with that. You have to The same with any electric vehicle when it’s really hot or really cold, the battery goes a little bit quicker. Um, but we all we we’ve never run into a problem in in the race where yeah, you need to stop or or anything. Like I say, you just need good plans up front, good plans afterwards. And uh yeah, it’s nice to to have it in the race. And actually, the first time uh we used it in the tour of France a couple years ago, the Jean Dari, the Dana Republican were super impressed with just how fast the acceleration was on this. So there’s the inline inside inside line on the electric vehicles. It will probably gradually become a conversation we don’t have anymore as it just seemingly becomes more and more popular. And I guess hearing you mention Volvo there as well. But we won’t keep giving them too many more plugs, Matt. But I’m guessing as well when most of the world’s biggest teams are have at least a deal with a car company, a sponsorship with a car company, there is even more incentive for their electric vehicles to be in the various fleets as well. It’s a nice thing for them to crow about, but also to to show the versatility of their vehicles, the carrying capacity and all the rest of it. It’s probably quite a unique thing for a car company to to be able to sort of shout about, you know. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I think it’s uh it’s nice and like you say it’s sponsorship in cycling is it goes in goes in waves and you but like one thing that does stay the same is that everyone does need need cars and when we had when we saw this opportunity to to go down the electric route we uh we jumped in it and uh yeah it’s a a really nice car actually but as you say when it gets more and more common with the teams and I think in the tournament for instance there was three teams used uh electric vehicles in the tour this year they will use them the whole year round. But also the the caravan um the tours caravan, a lot of their vehicles are now electric as well. So it can mean uh some busy service stations on the way to the race with everyone there trying to charge their batteries up. Yeah, I can imagine. Of course, for those people who don’t know as well, pretty much all of the bikes we’re looking at now, in fact, all of them also have batteries on them. In fact, they’ve probably got multiple batteries in them. I’m guessing if you look at any one of these bikes here, they’ll have an electric gear battery for their electronic gears. There’ll be obviously a battery in the head unit computer in between their handlebars. There’ll be a battery probably somewhere around about their power cranks or power pedals or what have you, whether that’s a replaceable one or a or um an internal one. You’re talking probably minimum of three batteries per bike as well. There’s an awful lot of electricity going on in the Katon just like that and behind it and in front of it and around it as well because um although this is I think a helicopter shot right now increasingly we’re seeing more and more drone shots as well of our races and there should be some really spectacular ones this week in particular. Thankfully the weather is good so we shouldn’t have too many problems having aerial shots from the last few weeks maybe indicative of the bad weather we have had over the last week or so. I’ve covered quite a few races where we haven’t been able to get drones up and we haven’t been able to get helicopters up even. Um, shouldn’t be any great problem this week. It’s the same two riders on the front as you might expect when we’re covering pretty much gun to take the whole stage. Hyperbastians of Sudal Quickstep thinking about Paul Man getting his fifth win of the year if he can here today. the Frenchman and then of course uh Steven Price fight 38-year-old Dutchman fight thinking of one of we assume a brand Cory and when I threw that one at you earlier Matt you dealt with it very diplomatically about the team making the decision between those two and I I still find myself thinking about it and thinking about that kind of that Formula 1 idea of there being two potential winners in one For those of you who’ve been aware on break, I’ve just teased at thought again about the Matthew Brennan and Olaf Koy being in the same team. Olaf Koi now 23, so he’s kind of middle age now. He’s getting on in cycling terms and Matthew Brennan at the age of 19 today. Two very um very predictable potential winners today, I think, for most people. but both in the same team as well. At the early stages of our broadcast, I did my best to back that one up in the air to to to Matt Winston here alongside me, hoping that that he would also agree that there’s a chance of jeopardy there. Split leadership. What are we going to do? Two riders, both capable of winning. But um understandably, Matt, you dealt with it exactly how I expected you to, suggesting, well, there’s two potential sprint stages this week between. How does that work though when we know that today is the the absolute most likely sprint stage and then that the Thursday might be? Who sticks their their finger in the air out of those two in the team meetings? Yeah, but I think today maybe should be my one. Can you run a sprint train where you have two riders who peel off and open up at the same time? We don’t often see it, do we? No, I think kind of the they’re in a nice position there. And I think the the thing with this Melissa bike and the the one thing I definitely trust there in in that team is that they uh they have a a plan and it will have already been pretty discussed. Sometimes I think maybe in in one or two situations you might have that inter team rivalry where things have not really discussed and then you you run into a situation where yeah there’s two guys both going to the start line thinking okay today’s my chance. But I think at this release fight they’ll have that situation well under control and they will put fight in the meeting. The good thing is it keeps everybody guessing including us and what I imagine that they will do when they run into that final lead out they’ll have one acting as a sweeper on the other until the until the final moments when then they’ll come round if it’s the last lead out man. But sometimes the the fastest sprinters don’t necessarily make the best lead out man because they’re almost too fast with that acceleration and maybe they go they keep the standard lead out man and then the sprinter will go into the spot just in front of that and and then they stick with with what they know. So, if they’ve not sprinted a lot together, then there’s a good chance that they uh yeah, one one does the a little bit of an earlier job, but they’ll also have in the back there in the back of their minds, keep listening to the radio. If there’s a problem in the last 5 km, then uh the spring twitches and we actually had that situation in the tour to France where we had Pavl Bitner and Tobius Lund Anderson. And on the stage we were going to paddle, there was a quite a big crash at 1 km to go. And it it’s easy in that moment for the sprinter to think today is my day and I’m going to sprint today. But such was the the way of working between Pavle and Toby that as Pavle was literally sliding on the tarmac, he was talking in the radio saying sprint Toby sprint. Toby didn’t really couldn’t understand really what he was saying, but he just heard the noise in the radio at that moment. And as a sport director, I don’t normally talk inside the last 5 km. So, as soon as Toby heard something near the radio, he knew, okay, now uh I I need to sprint today. And he was actually third on that stage, which was unexpected for him and for us as well to be honest. Yeah, you’ve got in amongst those two uh and of course in this race um Casper Van, you’ve got three very exciting, still quite young sprinters as well emerging in their game. And there’s another name to chuck into the melting pot today. Casper van, the Dutchman. Um, we talked about Max Pool, of course, at Picnell as a potential general classification rider that we’re both looking forward to seeing this week. I’m sure you are too as well. But uh, yeah, I’m presuming Casper Van will be the uh, the sprinter of choice for personnel this week. Yes, I uh I think it will be uh interesting to see how Casper goes. I also noticed he had his arrow helmet on at the start when we got the uh the start shot. So, I’ve not actually seen him in the race, but he’s uh he’s definitely up for it. Well, there’s us talking and it’s very much looking like it’s going to be sprint stage today. What I’ll quickly do is just read you the uh the race director’s thoughts about this week in actual fact. And it is important because he’s been a key part of course in putting together this route and thinking about how these stages unfold. It is uh Cheslav’s Lang the race organizer um of this 82nd edition of the G Palonia and he says I’ll read you directly his quotes to give us an insight into where he thinks this race is going this week. He says understandably organizing a race is a very difficult and complex undertaking but once again we managed it. It’s not easy because administrative regulations are becoming increasingly stringent and it’s not easy to organize such a race. In one municipality, the Lang team, as Matt talked about earlier, the organizing company, had to buy asphalt to patch some potholes itself. It’s really not easy, but we put together a great race. But what kind of race can we expect? Well, we’ve designed this race to offer something for everyone. Sprinters will have the first day and the stage uh on on the stage to Negita followed by stages reminiscent of classic races that you’ve had in the park. I’m convinced each of them will culminate in a spectacular spectacular spectacle. That’s not easy to say. The next day we travel to Zakopani and the well-known uh loop around Bukavina and around the resort itself culminating at the end of the race in the time trial at the salt mine. 82nd tour of Palonia will undoubtedly be remembered as a race full of excitement and a beautiful battle featuring our flagship riders Mihal Kovski and rapper Micah along with excellent international riders he says what about the world tour status what does that mean for the race he’s asked his response well we’re part of the UCI world tour and only nine countries have a stage race of this caliber and Poland is one of them we have to be happy and proud of this because it brings the best teams and riders to Poland every year. Um, he goes on to talk about what a celebration the whole thing is for not just the riders but also for everything else that’s happening in the country. I hope it does actually give a little insight into what’s actually happening in Polish cycling and cycling in Poland as a whole as we watch the sun coming out on our pelaton. We are almost exactly half distance right now. I’ve just finished reading this. It’s quite an insight into where he feels Poland is in terms of its professional cycling landscape. When we’re organizing our events here, we have a pyramid and at the top is the Tour to Palonia UCI World Tour race where the world’s top cyclists come every year. However, we’re committed to promoting cycling amongst young people and amateurs, which is why we hold the toolia junior uh memorial every year and the Orland to Palonia um under 23 race as well. We expect over 3,000 people to attend the the ride starting in Bukovina this week as part of the uh the the tour of Poland. And after the elite race concludes, we set off for a day. We move to Lublin region where the third women awaits as well. So the women’s race following on from this one. Not easy to organize. He says it’s a big organizational logistical challenge, but I’m glad we managed to pull everything off once again and have the women’s race as well. But yeah, the uh the tool fam runs after this race and will start on Tuesday of next week. So a one day rest for the organizer before they’re straight into it. So two full weeks straight for them. I um had the pleasure of commentating on the Nations Grand Prix earlier this year for the under 20 I’m trying to remember if it’s the under 23s or the juniors. It must have been the under 23s cuz we covered it here. Yeah. Thanks, Matt. Um, I covered that one for this network just prior to doing the um the Baby Jirro. It’s not called the Baby Jirro anymore, is it? The Under 23 Jirro Italia. Um, here we’re covering increasingly more and more of the big under2 races, which is really nice to see. So, if you haven’t watched them and you want to see the riders coming through, you can find them all when you go back on HBO Max or on Discovery Plus as well. You’ll be able to see all of our coverage of those top under 23 races. It’s usually where we get an insight for those exciting younger riders coming through. Back to our breakaway who are knocking on 45 km per hour at the moment with that now slightly more helpful tailwind. Little bit more than a cross tailwind as well because they turn slightly more easterly. Now this part of the course it’s about 13 14 km/h there or thereabouts. The wind just pushing at their backs a little bit for these three riders. You just recently joined us. There were originally four riders here because they did have with them Nadav Riceberg, the Israeli rider, Israel Prenitech. He sat up and got back the pelon leaving last look here, the Dutchman for Alfred. And then the red Frenchman Jonathan Grand on the Bianke just behind him, Celeste Bianke. And then the expected Polish rider from the Polish national team, Patrick Stosh. Now, Patrick Sto is the only one of these three riders who is officially listed as having professional victories to his Palm Marzes. He’s won a couple of stages with the Tour of Romania and he’s won the general classification of the tour of Bulgaria. So, he’s been um he traveled around a fair bit. Used to ride for the CCC team, which was the big Polish team, which made it up to second division status. Um I actually thought it was a world team at one point, that CCC team. Now, have I managed to convince myself of that? The boys in orange. I um I think they did have a year or two where they were um a world tour team, but it was before the promotion, relegation, etc. And um yeah, I think they uh it was when in and around when they were around DMC time. I think they did a Yeah, maybe I’m wrong, but I do think they were a world tour. Maybe, maybe not, though. Maybe not. Maybe only for continental. Go back and look them up. They’re certainly riding a lot of World Tour races. They were extremely Yeah. Now, I don’t know whether Donovan Coran’s got a problem there. Understandably, our camera motorbike zooming in on his back wheel to see if it’s soft. It looked a little bit soft, but then some of these big tires are run so soft now anyway that it might just be natural bounce. There’s another loose dog thankfully behind the gate on the left hand side of the road. We don’t want any more of them. Gonavan Donovan Gran is just dropping back. We go back to see if he’s all right. See what’s going on there for our three riders out front. They need all the manpower they can get out there at the moment to hold off this lock who I’m guessing Matt at this stage with 100 km to go. Let’s call it halfway point in the stage now. Um this is is a nice comfortable gap to have pegged back from the what do we have 2 and 1/2 minutes or so at one point. Yeah, it seems to be going up and down uh that time gap from uh a minute to 2 and 1/2 minutes just uh I don’t know whether the breakaway is toying with the Pelaton or the Pelaton’s toying with the break but yeah it seems to uh seems to be going up and down. I’ve just uh just double check that. So CCC were world tour for 2 years. They um they bought the license from BMC uh when BMC finished and then they had two years as a as a world tour team. There you go. Thank you research on the go. Apologies. I’m halfway through a bagel when you come back to me. It looks like by the way Kevin Tyson is not the only one of the Entach riders who came down. That was the backside of Franchesco Gus, the Italian who also has been in. So those of you who weren’t with us earlier, we had an early clash today. Uh some somewhere between 15 and 20 riders down one of those. Kevin Tyson, the the most obvious of the big sprint names that I spotted down in that crash, too. But we certainly haven’t seen anything that suggests that anyone hasn’t made it back in. There was a little bit of a chase for riders to come back in, but certainly I don’t know if you’ve seen anything, Matt. I haven’t seen anything of any any withdrawals or retirements uh as a result of that thankfully. No, no, we’ve we’ve not been informed of uh anything like that so far. Um so yeah, I also looked at the side of the road like everyone was standing uh standing back up and uh dusting themselves down to to continue, which is also a is also a good sign indeed. Well, I mentioned earlier just in the this being day one, thinking about the history of this race and previous winners um last year obviously a really nice moment for the race getting one of the biggest names in stage racing as its winner Dane. Uh although I mentioned as I mentioned earlier this race did happen a week or so later last year uh around the kind of calendar shifting that was affected by the uh the Olympics in Paris. Come back to that in just a moment while we think back to former winners. But I’m just going to keep an eye on these two because they don’t seem to be waiting for Donovan Conan. So whatever’s happened to the Frenchman back there, they might be done with him at this stage. They’re rocking on 50 kph. So that tailwind is definitely helping a little bit more I’d say now, Matt, by the looks of it. Yeah, it definitely is. Um wind speed’s not super high today, but yeah, having a having that tailwind behind them, wind on the back for a little section here will uh will definitely help them. It’s about 12 km. That’s her win at the moment. But with the direction of the course actually, it means that the last 20k is also going to be into headwind. So when we run into that final, you will see that the road will start to block up with the headwind. The normal sprint teams fighting for position. Be uh like you say, interesting to see if uh John returns to the breakaway now. Maybe he also can get a little bit of assistance from the cars to to come back. They’ve uh for sure will want to keep the speed, especially with the gap only being 1 minute 15. They don’t want to be caught too soon, especially when there’s another intermediate sprint point still to come. Um and they’ll they’ll hope that the rider from RK Airbnb hotels gets uh some assistance from the the team cars to return to to the breakaway. Indeed. Uh we’ve got 40k to go to that intermediate sprint point. UAT members having a little post lunch meeting down there. Checking on the zip quality maybe of um Rafael Mic. Those of you who were with us earlier spent a long time back at the team car. Uh team mechanic had a set of big pair of scissors out in the groin area made me very nervous. Um trying to operate running repairs on a dodgy zip. Um in the end didn’t manage to get it right. I don’t think not that I’m criticizing the work of the mechanic. There’s so much you can do with a broken zip and so they whacked another layer of looks to it over the top of that man Rafa who retires at the end of this season we’re told the current Polish road race champion champion and uh he will definitely I think that’s another of these things we can kind of put our hat on this week tell me you disagree with me Matt but that at some point Raphael Micah will will want to be doing something being up the road in a big breakaway going for a stage something like that in his final point for sure. I I think we will see uh yeah for sure Rafa M come into play later on in this race. Certainly not today. Um he will look to come through the stages as calm and easy as possible. But I I do think tomorrow’s stage can be an interesting one. It’s a 150 km and you also have a second category climb in the start. So there when when you have a a start like that that climbs 5k around 4 1/2 5%. So not super hard, but that does play into the hands of a breakaway when you have a climb like that in the start. So maybe even as early as tomorrow we could see uh them trying to force a move there. Yeah, it’s a brutal hard start for tomorrow and it’s a brutal finale tomorrow as well though. It’s um is that the shortest stage? Yes. No, it’s not. The final stage is 148. Final stage is one kilometer shorter than that, but shorter and a uh a long draggy uphill finish as well. Not the same kind of finishes that we saw uh T-Bones dominating last year, which is so good at those punchy uphill finishes. More of a draggy one, but we’ll see what happens. We’ll see how it’s taken on as well. But you’re right to point it out then that early early hard start tomorrow. Could well be could well be a good day tomorrow to be in the breakaway and survive over that kind of terrain. Yeah, I always like those starts. They’re always nice for the race and like you say um does attract the guys that like to go in the breakway. They look at the road book and they say stage like that and they think, okay, that can be a day where uh we’ll see what’s going on in the start. And again, stage six is another hard start. Um, so that’ll be another day where stage six I think it’s been also designed that it can be a GC day right from uh kilometer zero to be honest. Just to say by the way, thank you to those of you who are watching who’ve been uh in touch on social media. I haven’t even asked for it this time and we’ve got a few messages. If you want to get involved this week, then ping me uh thoughts, questions for Matt maybe uh questions for either of us, predictions uh for stages, the overall be a bit of your kind of chewing the flat from the tour of France thinking about what is yet to come this season. Send it our way and I’ll do my best to use some of it on air because we’re doing long broadcast so we are relying on you guys to give us a little bit of steering in terms of topics as well. Uh I as I suggested um Matt, this has always happened with me. Some someone berating you for for not realizing that I’m the self-appointed head of ornithology at the home of cycling here. So you you’ve been told off. I’ve been told off as well. I’ve been told off as well. Dan Weber, the two birds filmed in flight by the helicopter were common cranes. Not black stalks. You No, I didn’t have to say that, but I’m saying that. He says not common crane. Sorry, they were common cranes. Not black stalks. As per the commentary team, we both got told off. I like that. I does say here though, but the commentator is correct. Black stalks are more secretive than the often conspicuous white stalks. Thank you, Dan. I’ll take your word for that. I’m doing my best here to try and piece together. I’m not I’m know I know my birds fairly well, and I’m always trying to try something down and every now and again, I might take a little bit of a stab at it with my own beak. Apparently, I got that one wrong. Um uh just just rolling through some of the Go on, Matt. No, I was I was I was going to uh apologize and um yeah, for for not realizing that and I I don’t want to cause offense, but when I do watch or have the race on in the team car, I don’t actually have the sound on most of the time. So, unfortunately, Jez, I uh I don’t hear you so often. No. Well, well, we both work in and around cycling, aren’t we? So, so don’t we? So, we don’t chances are we don’t often uh we don’t often cross paths in that way. And that makes sense. I’m probably I’m actually glad you’re not not have the sound turned up when you’re in the team car as well. I don’t want to put you off or anything. Um, apparently my my Polish pronunciations are working so far according to a couple of people. So, I’m pleased with that. That’s good. If you want to get involved, as I say, ping me a message. I am Jezco JD Ez. And it could be things for both of us. I’ll do my best to put questions Matt as well. Please don’t expect me to see things straight away. I have 1 2 3 4 5 six screens in front of me already and then my phone. So, every now and again I’ll pick it up and I’ll do my best to work my way through questions, thoughts, and predictions. If you want to send us predictions for upcoming stages, by all means do that. And I’ve probably got more time overnight to have a look at them, write some down, and give out some of your predictions on air, and we can see how you’re going to be. I’ve already primed um Matt Winston here, our first time on the mic here together. I primed him that I like to do the 10K to go club, as I call it, uh where we both stick our necks out with 10K to go and sort of make a little prediction. And I’m going to try and put him up to that with 10K to go today. But likewise, if you want to do the same, let us know. It’s based on I always try and do it with 10k to go. Based on the the race situation as it is right then, who do you think is and um we’ll come to that in uh under what 80k’s time, something like that. Uh Donovan Grovan has had his I think it was a rear wheel change by the looks of things in these damp conditions. No great surprise to see something getting into that tire. Actually, he’s got a bike change. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Matt, for spotting that. You’re right. There’s no race number on the back of it. And it’s actually different model, different color, and it’s a matte paint job as opposed to the Bianke. Getting lots of coverage out this. I have no tires for Bianke. I used to I used to ride a Bianke, but this is an all allgether different type of bike to the one I had. And that is a a matte black and Celeste Banke on this occasion. So, full bike change. It’s unusual. I think it was a puncture, though. I think going back to the uh the bike change there that you were just just mentioning for the ride from Marqu, even though it’s just a just a puncture and quite often you would see a wheel change, I’m quite sure that if they were behind the pelon, they would have just changed the wheel, but with the gap only being 1 minute 15 to 1 minute 20 and yo-yoing a little bit, there’s no time there for any sort of mistake if he wants to get back to the brake. So just to change the bike there is uh is is is kind of quite normal just to keep him flowing get him back underway and that means that the cars are also not trapped by the by the pelon I’ve already mentioned today that you’re you’re younger than me but you’re also old enough to remember as I do the age of the quick release I repeat quick release. Yeah the quick way of releasing a wheel and taking it out. we’ve gone backwards is about the only thing where we have gone backwards I think and I and I wonder whether now having to get the drill out or what have you also might make bike changes even more regular because I don’t know what you think and and I also don’t know what you what your team have done over time to try and make it quicker. We can see the front wheel here of LA of of um of last boven has got a winder on it and the rear one in fact they’ve got winders on both those wheels looking a bit like a quick release but you see on the bike here of Donovan Grand just basically got a through axle with no winder on it. What was your thoughts on that? And would you agree with me that well we’ve slowed the whole process down. It’s a slow release rather than a quick release. Yeah, it’s uh I I understand kind of with the with the technology also the weight. Um, now it’s it definitely adds something, but like you say, I will also when I’m in the car discuss with the mechanic and we’ll make a call that in certain situations we we change the wheel, but also in certain situations we just change the bike and there’s yeah, like in uh sometimes the wheel changes can take a little bit longer just because you have to wind out the axle on the on the wheel. So yeah, in a in a fast situation where a bike change is better, then uh we we now do more and more bike changes. But I also have the confidence with uh our setups that race bike one, race bike 2, and race bike three, the settings are all exactly the same. So the the riders kind of can step onto a new bike and they don’t really feel any difference there. Yeah, that makes sense on this occasion. Quick bike change, different model, different color. The setup will be spot on before gone down. Suspect by the looks of things. And we’re now riding into countryside, which looks like the roads could pretty much completely dried out. Matt mentioning earlier how good the roads are as well in Poland. This certainly seem to be that one so far. Absolutely fantastic looking roads. They go past um some Olaf Koi fans out in the middle of the course, but probably with enough time from there to get to the finish as well. I say it’ll be about 20k to go where they turn back off this big upper loop they’re doing today um up to the going the northwesterly and then turning back on themselves. So they’ll definitely have time. I’m sure they will be heading from where they just watch the go past to get to the finish to see whether Olaf Koi can get his sixth win of the year. That’s where we are on the course now. Over halfway, just getting into really the only rolling hills of this stage, quite unlike all the other stages until we get to the final time trial, which is ever so slightly uphill and then a very long downhill drag all the way to the line. 12 1/2 km that final time trial on Sunday at the salt mine. We’ve got a minute and 12 seconds of a gap back this pellet for the three riders out front. We mentioned before we uh went to the break as well that I’d go back over some of the former winners of this race. As I say, the history of this race goes right the way back to 1928. In those days, it was very much a national race dominated by Polish riders. First ever winner of this race in 1928 was Felix Bite of Poland, of course. In fact, all the top threes were all Polish until the first non-P Polish winner in 1949. It was Franchesco Lochelli, the Italian ahead of Romanian rider Marin Nichollescu and Kai Alan Olsen, Denmark. That was 1949. There’s got to be a reason for that. I need to look back through my history books because up until then, all of the top threes were Polish. And then from then onwards until well the 50s all of the the top three sorry were were Polish as well. Just that one year in 1949. Not quite sure if there’ll be a reason for that. Somebody’s probably messaged me with it already. If you know it then then do let me know. But increasingly as with all these things as we went through the history of the race and got um closer to the 1990s it then became far more international particularly as a world tour race. It actually ran annually right the way through to World War II and then ran through communist rule as well. So I don’t know whether that’s got something to do with it, but during communist war it was limited to being a national and eastern block race. As I say, it wasn’t until the 1990s fall of the communist rule that it was opened up to be a much more international race. Became a pro tour race as it was back then, what we now call the world tour in 2005. and it’s continued there ever since as well. The envable status as one of the world’s biggest stage races. It is the um visit. I was counting up how many world tour stage races we’ve had uh so far this year. Where have I written it down? Lost my I’ve lost that in my notes somewhere. I’ll find it eventually. You might already be able to work this out, but we started of course with the tour down under. Then we had UAE tour. This is stage races only, not one day races. Paris, Toronto Adriatico, Catalunia, one by Rogich of course, tour of the Bass Country, one by Jawa and then um of course we rolled through Par and all the one day classic as well. We got to the tour of Ramenundi which I was covering for viewers here at the home and cycling winner there as well. Jirro won by Simon Yates of course Dopina won by Paula to Swiss won by Almeida. Again what a great year he’s having. I roll through them. I remind myself how many stage races he’s won. Tad April chart won the tour to France. Spoiler alert, just in case you’ve not caught up with all of the viewing this summer, everyone at home. And here we are at the uh Tour to Bolognia. We only have uh obviously the Welter upcoming, but the Renewi tour and the tour of Guanchi right at the end of the year in terms of stage races. There’s not much left, just three more. Renui, Walta, and Guangi. the final World Tour stage races of the year. My goodness me, Matt Winston, it’s nearly cipher cross season. Merry Christmas, if you don’t mind me saying to you as well, it’s all coming around very quickly. It seems faster and faster every year uh it’s it’s strange. And yeah, for sure this year the calendar seems to have uh like you say, we’ve uh not got so much to go. There’s still plenty of racing to happen. But yeah, in terms of the World Cup calendar with just those uh three stage races after this one to come and I think we have maybe five one day races left as well. Then um yeah, we uh we’re fast on our way towards the the end of the season. Yeah, the one day races we have to look forward to. We’ve just had the classic San Sebastian. We’ve got the ADAC Hamburg Classics this year which I’m going to be covering in just a week’s time. Oh, you’re wearing it together, are we? I didn’t know that. There we go. looking forward to it. It’s always I’m quite new to this and yeah, I never know until I get my email and then the days before and then yeah, so yes, we’re doing that one. Very much looking forward to it. That will be that’ll be a nice uh kind of opener for me uh because I leave I think the next day to go and cover the Georgetown tour in Germany as well on the ground. I tend to do that one for ASO, but we use the same coverage here for home cycling. So, um yeah, be a nice German week that. Uh interesting to see of course the Hamburg Cyclass is a slightly different field but it’ be really interesting for me Matt on the ground there in Germany that week to get a sense of uh Florian Leovic’s um kind of fever because I’ve been at that race the last two years three years now I think tour and the German fans really still remarkably still operating in this post Yanoric era post Eric Zarville era where they just long to have a really big champion and a grand tour champion as well. Um, you know, much as they’ve obviously enjoyed the years of Marcel Kito and others having, you know, having been in their eyes kind of spoiled in the era of Yan Rick and all that came with it. Uh, I I’m really intrigued to to kind of get a sense of the Fian leap of its um kind of fever on the ground there in Germany. I’ve got a feeling it’s quite big. Yeah, I agree. I think uh it will be interesting one. Actually, I will also be at the uh Dutch tour in as a sport. So, are you following me? What’s going on here? You can uh you can swing by and uh and grab a coffee. I’m looking forward to it. And then, uh yeah, after that race, I will actually drive our team car back to the UK ready for Britain for one of our other sport directors. So, uh if you need a lift, then uh yeah, I will be uh driving back after the race. Matt, we met formally just a few few hours ago and yet I’m also working on the tour of Britain as well. So, it looks like we’re spending the rest of the summer together. Nice. I unfortunately I I miss Tour Britain this year. I’m just moving a vehicle for us. But um yeah, I’m off to Canada one day racing instead, which is uh is also nice. But um obviously Tour Britain is a fantastic event that’s really nice to be a part of. Well, I am envious of you going to Canada. It’s one of my favorite countries in the world. I know already that I am doing commentary for Quebec and Montreal as well. So really looking forward to them. They were brilliant last year and Yeah, very much looking forward to it. That sounds like a nice drive um to bring the cars back for the Tour of Britain as well. Uh Michael Hutchinson and I going to be covering Tour of Britain here at home cycling this year and we’re really looking forward to those stages. Also particularly looking forward to the homecoming of Garrett Thomas as well for that final stage in Cardiff. That’s going to be a a really really special day. Not to bang on too much about the British perspective of things, Matt, but that is going to be a special day for the Welshman and and the Welsh country as well. Yeah, it’s going to be a fantastic finale. I think the I saw the the route for the tour of Britain the other week and um yeah, I think years you’re in for a treat with that one this year and be nice to also have a a summit finish. Um I think that will also make the race really interesting and um I think that’ll be a really good start this time. Yeah, of course, Tour Britain a pro series stage race. one level down third division race I guess if you like but no not a massive difference in the kind of teams that it’ll uh attract and I’ve already seen the team list start list this year’s 12 as well I think British cycling and uh well I think for a long time as well sweet spot the former organizers of the tour of Britain as well the men’s race and the women’s race um were always keen on the idea as you would be of the race becoming a world tour stage race one day and you never know. See what happens with that over time. Doesn’t necessarily need to at the moment, but uh there’s space on the calendar. I don’t think they’ll be saying no as long as they could live up to all of the expectations that that brings with it. Two cobbles, our first stretch of cobbles through the town here as well, if we can call it that. So, we’ve had a little bit of everything today. This is the cobbled stage. We’ll call it that by the looks of it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a few more of them across the course of the week. Stretching pass through the towns. Uh yeah, the little town cobbles there can be uh slippy when they’re wet, but um yeah, palaton there passing through with uh with with no issues. Clinkers, clinkers, I think we sometimes call them we just sort of little flat cobbles in the town. Um these are the three riders in the breakaway for those of you maybe who’ve just recently joined us. The Dutchman last froan with his radio down the front of his skin suit by the looks of it. Possibly making some arrow gains there. I don’t know. Patrick Stosh here of the Polish national team. One of the most experienced riders in that Polish national team today, securing his place as we kind of expected they would in the breakaway today. Excuse me. And they have Donovan Grombound with them, our Kabn man who has been back for a real change already. Matt, while we’re on together on this first day, I’ve got a list of little topics I want to touch on with you. And I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll wait till we go to a break and I I’ll bring in the next of them because it’s be an interesting discussion I suspect uh related to RK BNB and um we’ll hold that one back until we’ve got everyone back from the next break because the uh the gap is again coming down to the minute mark. We’re looking at the impetus of the Pelaton under Steven wondering if it’s starting to be ramped up. Um, I tell you what we’ll do. We’ll deal with that one now. I teed it up. Um, you mentioned it a couple of times, promotion, relegation. We’re at the uh the end of this three-year cycle. uh which effectively as you’ll know only too well as all of the everyone working in professional cycling will know for the men’s side means that at the end of this year the top 18 teams will be offered places in the world for the next three years next year um finally looking at what I think is the latest ranking it says that Confidence are in 19th place ahead of Uno X of course who are a second division team anyway of the world teams RK B&B hotels the French team are in 21st place so three places below uh the drop and the lowest ranked of those teams. They have a rider in the breakaway today. Um nobody will ever give up. I am assuming of course I guess as we have to Matt and you you might have a take on this. I know obviously I’m not going to I don’t want you to say anything you’re not supposed to say because you obviously have a a team who are in there as well in that top eight already. Um how can I maybe ask you know your own opinion of of of what is it now the second time round of doing this threeyear cycle as well the promotion relegation thing. I talk about it every now and again because it’s something to talk about in commentary. Is it something that’s spoken about a lot in amongst the uh the team DS’s over the dinner table when you do get the chance to talk to each other and how do how do the team see it? How do the riders see it? I think um I think it’s an interesting one and um obviously they yeah you you need a system where teams can like new teams that come into the sport do have a chance to to move to the world tour. But you also I think on the flip side of that teams that maybe are on the the brink of relegation or or struggling with the points it’s it’s more difficult for them to then attract investment. And you you you mentioned that our Airbnb hotels like they’re they’re still a little bit there’s a bit of uncertainty there as to whether they will continue or not. um everyone really hopes that they do because it’s not also good for the sport to to be losing teams off the off the back of off the back of that. So it brought a different dynamic in. Um there’s not really that much chat amongst other sport directors uh from other teams about it, but of course in our team uh we discuss it. Um we talk about it, we don’t really change how we approach things. Um but yeah, of course it’s a it’s a it’s a thing that we as a team have certainly had to discuss this year and our position is okay for for the moment. But there, you know, earlier this year we had we were looking a little bit over our shoulders and thinking, okay, now we need to uh to score some points here and here and there. Well, thank you for that insight, Matt. Um, we are currently just going around the very edge of the enormous lake that I’ve been banging on about for the last 2 hours, thinking we might see it on our screens. I’ve got a strange feeling we’re not going to, though. It is the Zelasi Must, the Iron Bridge Lake. I’ll tell you a little bit more about that. Let me bring this lot back in. Welcome back those of you who’ve been away from our coverage for a short moment. The riders are currently at the most northerly part, well almost the most northerly part. They’ve got another little loop to do on the very edge of the the lake at the far northern edge of the course today. Therefore, it’s the most northwesterly and the most northerly of this whole race this year. this very southern Polish focused race that goes all the way along the southern border of Poland along the border with Czecha and Slovakia and over in the direction of Ukraine but not quite reaching Ukraine where it finishes with the salt mine time trial on Sunday. My name’s Chox. I have Matt Winston with me. Matt was just talking, we were just talking about Arcade B&B and their need for UCI points as well. Uh, with their current place in the UCI rankings, this promotion and relegation cycle that we’ve been in again for these last three years. Of course, I’m sure I’m sure pretty much all of you watching, if not everyone watching, listening and involved in this sport, hopes that of course our Airbnb hotels does continue. the QTON team. The team that goes I’ll take you a bit all through the history lot. You’ll remember some of the names of these teams. Those you’ve been around long enough in cycling way back to 2005 when they started out as Pretton Jean Flock. They then became Fetan Amur Lux for two years and they were Fetan Schuler and then it was around about the kind of late 20110s that the t the team then moved up into what was then the uh Pro Tour if I remember correctly Sache they were initially sash environment then they became Fortune Vital concept where their kit changed in color it was much more kind of black and green then uh then they were fortunate a year. Then team Fortune Sami and then in 2019 they became team Ara Samik before uh last year 2024 became becoming Arab B&B hotels. That uh naming contract is due to continue through to 2026 as far as we see it. We will keep our fingers crossed for their future. that team that has 28 riders signed to them at the moment this year and they have one of them in the breakaway today. Donovan Cromb who’s been with that team uh the Frenchman since he turned pro well 5 years ago into the pro ranks now 24 years of age who’s only ever known that team as a professional. Fingers crossed for them. There’s the tall figure of um in the background of Ben Turner. My expected potential sprint finish today. And this season, Matt, in particular, Ben Turner seemed to have been being used a little bit more and given some more free reign and opportunities as a sprinter as well. But he’s a multifaceted kind of sprinter as well. Great uphill, survives the climbs well as well. And I don’t know, I can only presume they are thinking of giving in shot today. Yeah, I think uh I think they will be I think they don’t in in quite a few events they don’t have an out sprinter with them. So to when you don’t go when you don’t have anyone to to go for in the finish it’s just almost 200k on the bike not so much purpose and yeah it’s it’s a little bit dull for for everyone involved. So they uh it’s good that they’ve been using Ben and giving him that opportunity to to take part in the sprints and he’s also shown he’s he’s pretty good at it. He’s uh a lot of the time it’s just about being in a good position to start your sprint which Ben has done in a really good way and he’s uh picked up a few top 10 this season off the back of it. I have taken my time working my way through previous winners and I started at the far end in 1928 when this race started. I never did get up to the current day. So, it’s an interesting I want to go through some of them because it’s a fascinating list of former winners as well and former podium finishes too in this race. We’ll start in 2002. I mentioned that the race became highest level race in 1996 when it was won by the Russian rider Blatislav Javan. I must admit it’s not a name that I know. He beat one of my favorite riders of all time, Marxio into second place on that occasion. Pond Fondre himself had won this race two years before uh three years before in fact in 1994. Um but I’m going to bring bring you a little bit more up to date. So Nor the Frenchman, former Fina rider of course was the winner in 2002. Um a year later it was another Polish winner in Zamana. Andre Sosena the Czech rider was the winner in 20 in 2004. Uh it was won by Luxembour in 2005. Kim Kerchin ahead of Peter Vining and Thomas Deca, the two Dutchman in second and third. Stefan Schumaca the German was the winner in 2006 ahead of Cadell Evans and Aleandro Balan. Again reminding people what an interesting mishmash of kind of classics riders and stage race riders this uh this race has become over the years. Johan Van Suman again to illustrate the classics uh kind of credentials of this race was the winner in 2007 over Robert Hessing again strange combination of riders we have at the top our very good friend and colleague here at TNT cycling was the winner German rider in 2008 ahead of large back and Franco Pelzopi 2009 it was Aleandro Balan on the top step this time the Italian ahead of Daniel Moreno and Edal Bosenhagen. And we’ll come back to maybe what this all means after this match. My question to you is going to be what kind of rider actually finishes on the podium here because it’s such a weird match. Dan Martin, the Irishman, was the winner in uh in 2010 ahead of Greg Evolve, who I believe is still racing. I’ve certainly seen him racing on the Asia Tour these last few years. Alam Mama was in third. He’s in this race this year. He was third place finisher in 2010. Uh Peter Sigan, three-time world champion in Slovak, who was the winner in 2011 over Dan Martin. Again, illustrating the fascinating podiums we get here. Peter Sagan ahead of Dan Martin, Marco Makato. That was 2011. Uh 2012, Moreno Mosa was the winner ahead of Mihovski and Sergio Hin. 2013, Peter Bean ahead of Yuzigiri and Kristoff Ribbon, the Frenchman in third place. Rafa Mica took his win in 2014 ahead of Yoni Zigeri again in second and then Pchowski the bas rider in third. Then Yonyi Zigiri took the win in 2015. Uh Tim Wellins was the winner in 2016 ahead of Fabio Felin and Alberto Betio. Bet is in the race this year. Uh Dylan Turns was the winner for Belgium in 2017 ahead of Rafa Micah WS 2018 it was Mihal Pyakovski um winning ahead of Simon Yates and Tibbo Pino 2019 Pokov when he was still racing on a Russian license uh ahead of Ji Hindley and Diego Yissi who’s in the race this year of course Franco Ednipol took his win in 2020 ahead of Jakobsang and Simon Yates Jiao Ala was the winner the Portuguese only Portuguese winner of this race that I can see in 2021 ahead of Mate Mahoric the Slovenian and Nihart Vietkoski such a regular feature on the podium Ethan hater as a forementioned he’s in the race this year was the winner in 2022 ahead of time Arens I should say and Po Bilbao also back here this year he was third in 2022 mate Mahoric the Slovenian Pavarian Victorious was the winner in 2023 three ahead of Xiao Almeida and Liatkosski and then of course as I said last year Jonas Vinu taking the win by a slender margin over Diego Ulissi and Wilco Kellerman. So I teed up the question for you Matt. What kind of rider wins this race overall or at least finishes on the podium? Because that is some weird mix we’ve just gone through isn’t it? Yeah, it is. And I think it’s uh a lot down to the nature of the course each year. And I think that does pay uh play into into those results that you read out and it’s quite a a comprehensive list there of like you say of of all round type riders, some pure GT guys, some riders that are good in the in the one day classics. That’s what makes this race really interesting is the is you you will find the one day riders also can can do a really good GC here and especially with the way this time trial is on the last day. They shouldn’t be losing too much time there to the pure TT specialists. So stage three is almost like a an ends classic style day where it’s just constantly up and down all day. steep climbs, big kickers, and there I wouldn’t be surprised if we if we do see kind of yeah, a a a surprise winner um coming to the four once again. Yeah, is all to be played for this week and we’re yet to even crown our first stage winner. This is the expected sprint stage. Go on, Matt. I I think we’ll we’ll start by by Wednesday. We’ll have a good indication of of how this race is going to unfold. We have it’s a it’s a hilltop finish tomorrow or mountain top finish tomorrow uh followed by that really hard day on on Wednesday and it depends who goes into the leaders jersey tomorrow how Wednesday plays out because a team might let a bigger breakaway go on Wednesday on on that harder day and just kind of control it from behind 2 minutes behind it takes bonuses out the the equation at the finish line and and that sort of thing. So it we could be in for quite an interesting race on Wednesday depending on how tomorrow goes and who sits in the leaders. Yeah. Tomorrow’s stage. Um starting and finishing in the same place in Car Patch. Um but as Matt has said that long uphill finish as well is actually classified being about about 4 km 4 or 5k but it’s longer than that really. They’re climbing from about 12 km out as well. And crucially, maybe crucially, we’ll see for the general classification, the organizers are a little bit sneaky because halfway up that sort of 12 km climb, there’s a little ledge on which they have put the final intermediate sprint point of the day. So 3 seconds up for grabs kind of halfway up that final climb as well. There are I’ll remind people 10-second bonuses on the line here as well stages. So, um, more available at the finish than you can gain across the three sprint points each day. 9 seconds in total available of those intermediate sprint points as well. In case anyone’s wondering, the um, well, the virtual joint virtual leaders on the road at the moment are Donovan Grand and Lars Bowen. They both won um, 3 seconds each of those two intermediate sprint points. And uh oh actually having said that Donovan Gondan will be slightly further ahead because Last Boven took only the 1 second at the second one. So Donovan Kan the Frenchman here has got a 5second advantage and therefore 1 second over Last Boven. So it’s actually clear the Arca B&B man is the current virtual leader on the road because he’s picked up more bonus seconds. The one more thing you need to know about me to go with the ornithology by the way Matt is that I’m terrible at working things out in terms of numbers. So, I don’t I’m kind of fingers crossed you’re better than me and you might be able to do the maths for me every now and again. I’ll uh I’ll do my best. Right. These guys now are actually at the most northerly point of this course. And that means that coming down the sort of western edge of this big uh lollipop loop they’re doing at the top of the course today. They’re going to be picking up a little bit more of a cross headwind although it’s almost uh pretty much block side wind. As Matt has already mentioned though it’s not particularly strong. It’s about at the most about 15 km/h be coming from their right. They’re up in amongst the forests at the moment as they come south. They’ll open up again back into the train where they were. It’s a much more open fair and a very very long straight road in actual fact going down through Lubin Haded in towards the direction of that right hand turn that takes him towards the finish in Legit and the city of Leenita today. Don’t forget there’s that tiny little rise of a climb which will give the King of the Mountains jersey away to whoever is first over the top of that come the finish. And we await to see whether these three can survive to that point. Oh dear, they’re nervously looking back as well. It’s 46 seconds. So the team cars have been taken out from behind them. And there is there is the Pelaton. This strikes me, Matt Winston, as being if they do catch him within the next few kilometers. It’s quite early to be catching a breakaway like this or or am I paying too much attention to that uh to that idea of holding them out there? I tell you what we’ll do. We’ll let viewers go to a break and we’ll we’ll come back to that question here. So for our digital viewers, Matt, I was just posing that question, they would have heard it as well about, you know, do am I I quite often talk about it, but is is there is that a thing, the idea of actually catching a break too soon and the race being therefore less controlled? I’ve just lost Matt for a second. Sorry about that. That’s all right. Yes, I’m here. I also uh was on the commercial break. There we go. I think I’ve interrupted your commercial break. Go on. No, not at all. Not at all. Um yeah, I I heard everything you asked and um there. Yeah, there I think on some occasions what you say is is toy right. Um there’s the kind of you catch the break too early and it comes open open season almost and people are jumping from the pelaton and and trying to establish that break. On a day like today, I think the pelaton is not really thinking too much about the breakaway. They’re there as a bit of a carrot just to kind of draw the race out and keep the speed high, but if they catch them with 60 km to go or 20 km to go, it’s not really going to make a difference to the to the teams that are chasing. What will happen is once the brake is caught, the pelon will become more nervous. So then you’ll find that the road will start to block up. It will get busier. More teams want that space in the front of the pelaton. And there naturally the speed just rises all the time. But yeah, I mean also there where the time came really down. It looked like the the breakaway was on quite a grippy part of the course. And they also don’t want to totally cut themselves on on stage one. They maybe have ambitions to go in the breakaway tomorrow to keep picking up more sprint points, etc. So, they’ll also be tailoring their effort a little bit. So, the riders are now around the edge of that lake. A little bit of a shame not to see too much of it because being um an old mining lake, the colors around the edge of what I can tell is pretty impressive where it’s dried into those deep deep blue colors as well. But we haven’t picked it up unless I’ve missed it while I’ve been waffering away about other things and looking through people’s messages. These three have turned around. It out the forest pretty much the other side as well. Um, as I say, the name of the lake is the Zelanski M, which means iron bridge. Uh, because of what it was used for, it was basically a place to store the waste from the copper mines in the area just to the north of the forest where they are now. The lake itself having a 2 km radius right the way around it. It’s also the name of apparently a fairly well-known um contemporary Polish film from 2019 also called Zenci Mos the Iron Bridge. Um which is about a love triangle. I’ve not seen it. I’ve seen the I’ve actually seen the trailer. I watched the trailer. How that’s how deep my research is for this kind of race. I actually watch the trailer and it looks grippy. Not not really my kind of thing, but go look it up. Some of you might have even seen it. They’ve not been caught yet in Swedo. Taking the uh the time gap off the off the screen as well. So, uh maybe the gap out a little bit more. So, welcome back those of you watching this. We are watching the front end of the Pelaton still led by Steven Kais Dutchman for his Melissa bike. But we’re about to see a new phase of the race we suspect come into action here because three riders off the road. Last Boven, the Dutchman, Donovan Grand, the Frenchman, and Patrick, the Polish rider riding for the Polish national team, are probably about to be reeled back in with just under 70 km to go. Let’s think about what they have ahead of them. They’re now riding south southeastwards back in the direction in which they’ve come back towards Maggnita which is off to the western end of this uh kind of lollipop they are currently taping on and in that route they go through where there is the final third and final intermediate sprint of the day. Then they go through which is where that tiny mountain climb is uh where we’ll put up the mountains jersey as well. and then the fat fast running around that 2 kilometer kind of hook like curve in the city of Megan to we expect bring home and set up a sprint stage here today. Um so the the catch hasn’t happened just yet. If anything it seems to be sitting at about 47 seconds but we saw it visually just now looking back past the breakaway towards the uh the Pelaton and it was pretty close. vehicles having been pulled out in between them as well and the riders also the three of them looking back as well. Um once they are caught of course as long as he stays in there Donovan Gondan will still be the virtual leader on the road because he’s bagged um 5 seconds over everyone else in here. So if he finishes in a bunch finish today, expect to see him still sitting fairly high on general classification. But don’t forget there’ll be 10 6 and 4 seconds for the first three riders cross the line anyway. So, should it come down to a sprint finish, that will, of course mean the winner of the stage will also take on the leaders jersey. I’m just going to remind people how the jerseys work in this race. I’m pleased to say um and I regularly bang on Matt about my annoyance of different teams having different colored jerseys that confuse us, particularly when um what was I covering last week? To Wallally, I I love the Toro Wallally. It’s a cracking race. The points jersey is yellow. Uh, and then the leader jersey is orange. So, you have a yellow jersey in a professional bike race, which is not the jersey. That’s the the leader’s jersey. I’m not maybe actually in your professional standing. I won’t ask you to comment on that, Matt, but it does my head in. I just think I think yellow pure yellow jersey for the points leaders jersey when you’ve got an orange leaders jersey. I love I love the tool, but that is a little issue I’ve got with it. It keeps us all on our toes, but some uniformity about jersey colors would be nice. I personally that is my own personal take, not the take of this this network, but I’ve talked about it before and I’m going to I’m going to park that one there. In this race, we’ve got a yellow leaders jersey sponsored by Orland, who also sponsor that Orland Nations Grand Prix I was referring to earlier. So, investing in cycle school in Poland, that company. Then we got the blue uh most active riders jersey. That is our Hotspot Sprints jersey. Only contested at the Hotspot Sprints. Nothing added to it from the finishes either. Uh oh, actually, you know, I tell a lie. Sorry. That has got points from the finish added to it as well. Um, so I correct myself there as I go. 32 and one points uh from the Do you know what? I’m going to triple correct myself. You’re listening to this, Matt, I suppose. But here we go. It is actually a proper most active riders jersey. There are no points from the finish contrary to what I just said. I’ve written I’ll scribble all this down. I’m now going back over it. It is a pure hotspots prince jersey. The lotto most active blue jersey. Then we’ve got the king of the mountains jersey as I say which is white with blue dots. That will be contested by the one categorized climb today. Uh and then there’s the white points classification jersey. Not the best young riders jersey as we sometimes have with these white jerseys. That is a points classification jersey just for the finishes. So it’s the most consistent finishes jersey. And as I kind of laughed about earlier, uh, Matt, and you you’ll appreciate this because I’m sure like like me, you you pour over an awful lot of road books. The road book says very specifically in the rule section, there are only three categories of climb in this race. First category, the biggest, second category, the next, and third category. That’s it. Today’s climb is is categorized as a fourth category climb. So it doesn’t even exist, but it does exist. So, I mean, I’m only presuming the four third category climbs in this race are only supposed to have three, two, and one points. So, I don’t know whether it’s a fourth category climb. It’s just got one point. It may as well only have one point because whoever goes across that um rise, you know, is 900 m at 2.3% average, but whoever goes across there will be in the King of the Mountains jersey tomorrow. So, I guess they needed it, but it’s almost as if they’ve called it a fourth category, meaning, you know, like don’t worry, whoever’s across the line gets it. We don’t need to worry about categorizing it, but it is categorized anyway. Yeah, I think that’s definitely it. You have a sponsor that sponsors your uh your jersey, so you have to also uh you want to give it out on that first day uh and have the sponsor on the podium. So, yeah, they uh just put in this little uh probably motorway bridge just to uh be able to award the jersey in that manner. But interestingly enough, when you’re talking about the the intermediate competition, obviously the sprint point coming up in around about 10 km I believe um or maybe even a little bit less about 6k is it actually in the town of Poise which you uh which you mentioned but going back to talk about CCC who obviously did so much for Polish cycling and have done over the years that’s actually their headquarters for the uh for the massive company that is CCC. Um, so the sprint point is directly uh near the headquarters of uh the trainer company CCC. There we go. Just a little bit of uh knowledge that Yeah, I don’t even know why though. I think uh we had the car park a stage finish of Malos talk in 2015 in their car park. It just stayed with me. So well the team used to be called didn’t it CCC Sprandi as well. So it was actually named after the town or the town at least with a was a funding maybe a sponsor or something in the team. Yeah, possible actually. Possible. It’s not really it’s not it’s not really a brand that we have over in in the UK, but I know there’s quite some CC stores across Europe. Seen them a few times on on my travels. Looking in here on Pavl Bernas who rides for the Marski team. That’s the black short. So he’s able to wear the shorts of his UCI team and then the jersey of the national team there as well. You don’t always see that Matt, do you? I can think of other examples where national team certainly I think the Great Britain national team who will ride in the the tour of Britain as far as I’m aware I think will all ride in kind of full Great Britain kit. you’ll know better than me on that front. Yeah, it’s uh it’s actually led by the Federations, but I um used to work with a few Polish riders uh in my last team at One Pro Cycling, and they had they were actually selected a few times to ride this race. Um and the Polish Federation were always really good to say, can you send us your team logo? We want to include it on the shorts. Um to also give the team there some exposure, which is uh is a nice touch. Um, and it all just depends on whi which federation and who the federation sponsors are as well. I think these um these shots we’re getting in here, Matt, are maybe indicative of kind of everyone readying themselves for the final storm here as well. Knowing the catch well looked like it was imminent. It’s now going back to a minute. Before you know it’ll be 2 minutes again at this stage. This is Vega Langan the Norwegian for UAT Emirates. And we’ve just also been seeing David Furolo of Moistar the Italian who has done well in this race in the past. He was fourth on general classification in 2016. Part of the Maui star team that also have Fernando Javiria the Colombian sprinter who’s previously won three stages of this race but it was way back in 2016 I think when he won the first two and then he won one more recently in 2021 Gavir of course one of the one of the best sprinters of the modern era but struggled in recent years despite the fact that he’s only 30 years of age now. and hybridizing, changing in a way the way that he sprints. He’s now very well known for going extremely early in his sprints. Let’s see if Moby Star can get him into good position and he’s up for it today. We’ll see. And this is the aforementioned Piti where we have this intermediate sprint point coming up. Beautiful looking town as well. Not sure I fancy riding a criterium on those. on those shiny tiles in the middle there. But very very smart looking town of intermediate spin point coming up in around about 4 km time for these riders. At the first one, the quickest man looked to be last Bergen. This man on our screens right now, but it was very close between him, Donovan Groan, and Patrick Sto. Patrick Stor still there on that occasion. It’s the one rider and now that the Riceberg of Israel Premier Tech have chosen not to get involved with that and then found themselves going back to the Pelaton. We are nearly there. These guys will survive at this point. You never know Matt Winston they actually might survive to that King of the Mountains point if the the Pelaton decides well we can see you now. And it was almost like they could see them and go oh right calm down they’re right there. Don’t trust what we’re hearing in our ears until we can see them. And there they are. And uh now it’s well sitting at 47 seconds. They’re going to survive to this sprint point. Maybe they will get to the King of the Mountains point. That kind of uh that would be neat and tidy. Of course it’d be very neat and tidy if they survived all the way to the finish. But on a day like this above all other stages, they’re probably the least likely of the breakaways to survive. Would you say, Matt, or am I am I being too formulaic about it? No, no. I uh I totally agree with you. I think uh yeah, the the Pelon just reeled them in. uh with him almost touching this. You saw you mentioned it a couple of minutes ago in what you were saying, you saw riders almost finalizing their preparations for for the final. A few riders stopping for natural breaks on the side of the road. And it’ll be at this moment that the sport directors uh are saying in the riders ears, “Okay, guys, you’re coming up now. You’ve got an hour and 15 minutes of racing left. Time to switch on for this final preparation. maybe do another lap bid on from the team car and just start to come into that into that final final rhythm. So the Pelaton are the certainly the two riders controlling the Pelaton today. It’s just brought the breakaway back into kind of 45 seconds 40 seconds and then just eased off a little bit and then everyone will just yeah take that natural break go to the car. Also kills the morale of the breakaway. They also know we have no chance of staying away. We’ve got an hour and 15 to go. Pelaton’s breathing down our necks. So they’ll I wouldn’t be surprised if a guy like Lord Bowman takes part in this final sprint, sees what he can do there and then just sits up and goes back to anyway. Yeah, that makes sense. It is uh that sprint point right in the middle of not quite there yet, but about 1500 meters to go something like that. Assuming that our road book is accurate, we just uh I’ll probably cut back to them as Matt has said now with it being pretty close the chase of Bastian here of uh suit out quickstep T-Rex quick step as they are this week. We should be expecting to see those three riders starting to mess around. It could be actually what does for them at this stage and maybe they won’t get to the uh the king of the mountains point at Book of Viet as a as a breakaway anyway. We’ll see. There’s Magnus Sheffield at front of the Inos Grenaders who’ve been paying very close attention. They’ve always been there or thereabouts just behind these two riders at the front. What will it come to at the end of the stage? Or is it really all about mission for the whole race? Just keeping everyone up and out of trouble. Time will tell on that one, but we’ll remember they were there, how much attention they paid to the front end. Um, this is around about the point where the other two would be quite sensible to encourage Jonathan Grandan to do a few more turns and longer turns as well. He is the general classification leader. He is the virtual yellow jersey on the road at the moment. The man in the red and black of our Airbnb. However, he’s on the drops as is last. Possibly Patrick Schulz knowing that he’s going to have a fight on his hands if he wants to get these from those two. Notably, Schulz is the one rider still sitting on the hoods holding the wheel of the compact figure of last Ben. I wouldn’t be surprised here, Matt, to see Donovan Grandan try to jump them because Bowen is the the tried and tested sprinter of these three really. Yeah, he is. I think um if the others want to take that off, you see Bovin at the back just tightening his shoes. So, for sure he’s he’s readying himself for this sprint. I think just looking at the the nature of the way the road is that they’re going to they make this left turn here and then they’re almost on the final running towards the town towards that sprint point. So yeah, it’s coming up pretty pretty close and um yeah instantly the dynamic of the break once uh that sprint has has happened. Yeah. And poor old Padrick Storch at the moment is stuck on the front. He swings off though. Getting the timing right coming into this. Might be that last boven has timed this perfectly or has he? Cuz he’s now left to come through as well. I love the build up to these little sprints in small groups as well. It’s not the finish. It is the third intermediate sprint point of the day for the blue um hotspot sprints competition for the uh the intermediate sprints jersey, the blue one, but also those bonus seconds for the general classification which will be wiped out by the finish today of course depending on what happens unless these three were to survive. one speed bump. Yeah, they’re inside the last last kilometer to the sprint now. So, they’re going to uh they’ve got a roundabout that they pass over and then they they’re around 400 m to that sprint point then after after that. So, um I expect that we’ll see uh yeah, you can see there the roundabout in the distance. They’re going to take that roundabout and uh then the sprint will ensue. But they’re really riding this like a final. So I imagine that one or two guys will set up from the breakaway after this sprint the way they’re approaching this one. Yeah, Patrick Josh, it’s not like he hasn’t sprinted for these so far. He took second place at the last one as well. Went with it last if you remember sat up at the last one then took just the third place one second one point. Um Stoch though still sitting up on the hoods not going for the drops. Looking around there to see where Ben is. He’s going to have a go at this as well. Donovan Grandan continuing to press on. He starts. All three of them going to go for this as well. Here comes Boven down the outside. Has he got the speed to match Donovan Grandan? I’m not entirely sure he has at the moment. No, he hasn’t. So, the best place rider in this breakaway has taken three more seconds there as well. So, he continues to be the virtual leader on the road. And crucially, that means that Donovan Kanan will have something to show from this breakaway tomorrow. The others will also, should they finish in the in the Pelaton, should they be caught, sorry, if they are and they stay in the Pelaton coming into finish, they will also be sitting fairly high on general classification. But Donovan will be in that blue jersey tomorrow for the most active rider. That’s a name, by the way, Matt, isn’t it, that’s kind of crept into cycling more and more the last few years. I’m still inclined to call it the hotspot sprints jersey, but most active rider or MAR is quite often just referred to as MAR, isn’t it, in the road books and what have you. That seems to be the the modern iteration of that. Yeah, it’s uh I think kind of trying to I guess uh breathe some life into some of these competitions as you go through the the different races. And like you were saying before about the leaders jersey, like I think it’s important for every race to have their own identity. And uh actually one of the things about Tour Poland and races in Poland I remember is you see the big orange balls on the side of the road. You’ll see a lot of them this week, the the real big inflatables with all the the sponsors names on in different areas is really popular in uh in this race, but also in uh in other UCI Polish races. So, uh, I think it’s important they find their own identity and people see pictures and recognize that’s the Tour of Poland or Woney Tour and you have your your big big races that everyone identifies and I think these guys have to try and find a way to to stand out a little bit. Patrick Sto did sprint. I actually think he may have. Yes, he has. I think he’s beaten us both. And in actual fact, we’ve got exactly the same result as we had in Shodroa Schlonka, the second of our intermediate sprint points of the day when it was Donovan, Patrick Sto, and Loven. Exactly the same result this time round as well. And there was no holding back. All three of them went for that too. And there it is confirmed for you. Kondan three points. So he will be leading in that jersey competition. You can see right there. He’ll be wearing it tomorrow on top of his black RA BNB shorts as well. We’ll have three of those intermediate sprint points most days, but not all days on some of the bigger days. So, on the on the oddly enough, I’m not sure whe they’ve missed something out in the road book, but in fact, as I look at it, no, there we go. On the uh on stage six, the last uh stage before the time trial, there are two intermediate points. And actually on stage three on on Wednesday, that hilliest of all days, there is just a one intermediate sprint for about a third of the way through the stage. And uh I suspect that’s because the bonus seconds will start to become largely irrelevant once we get the bigger gaps between the groups that I’m certain will form on that stage. Here are the teammates at the back of the man in the breakaway, Lass Boven. Just looking there at Sam Gays, multiple World Cup mountain bike winner, multiple world champion as well. number 23 world mountain bike champion, elite marathon champion, uh world short track champion as well, Sam Gay a Kiwi riding for Alperson Kernik this week. Um I am really hopeful particularly because he rides for Alison Kernic but Sam Gays uh as a Kiwi as well might be given the opportunity if he hasn’t gone home to New Zealand to ride some cyclross this winter. I would absolutely love to see that. It would be really good to see Sam Gays on the cross circuit. I I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I’m sticking out there now. There’s any uh cross fans who’ve got any any insight any uh any insiders to the Alton K. Matt, if you’re bumping into the Alton Kurt staff for the next few weeks, could you suggest that to them, please? I’d love to see Sam Gay riding some cross world cups. Yeah, I’ll ask them to consider your request. I’m not sure I’m not sure they’ll be so interested in what I have to say, but I’ll give it a go for you. Trust me, they’ll be even less interested in what I’ve got to say, but that’s not the point. We’ll we’ll see. Hey, here’s Victor Lelotti, Monagas Pro for Inosad. It’ll be interesting to watch this week in the hills as well. Um, oh, sorry, we’re looking at Lucas Hamilton. We were looking at Victor Lelerotti. I look up from my screen. uh Lelerotti of course from Monaco whose flag is not to be confused with this guy’s flags because the Monagas flag is literally the kind of um opposite. It has the red band at the top, white at the bottom for Monaco and of course Poland is white at the top, red at the bottom. We were looking at Lucas Hamilton of course the Aussie completely different part of the world but very similar similar build of riders as we look at them. And there is um as well Bob Jungles the Luxomberger had the great pleasure of sitting down with him at Ruler last year Ruler London show and have a a long chat as well a lot of bit about nutrition actually about what he’s learned about nutrition over the last few years. He was talking also on the eve of becoming an Inos Grenadier this year. This is his first full season with them. The former Luxembourg national champion. Uh we will look to see how well he time trials on Sunday as well. Lesser known as a big time trialist nowadays as he was in his early career. And there’s the first of our breakaway riders coming back. I’m not even sure if we’ve seen No, it isn’t. Yes, it is. Sorry, it is. It is Patrick Stosh now out of the breakaway and back. Didn’t take him long to get back in there. I think he may have stopped for a nature break, too. So, Matt Winston, you were right. After that intermediate sprint, at least one of them has sat up and gone back and taken the opportunity to uh to have a nature break as well. So, we’re down to two now. Yeah, I think kind of you he he will want to be in the break on on the coming stages as well. So, it’s better to once the intermediates are done, just save those legs and uh and think about the rest of the week. And the other two, when you look to their faces, they’re also not really going pressing much on the pedals here. They’re just hanging out front, waiting to be caught, waiting for the inev inevitable. Um, so yeah, the Pelaton will not be so stressed about this breakaway. They’ll uh be going through the motions a little bit and uh making sure they stay as fresh as possible to uh to look after their sprinter. Once again, thank you for those of you who are getting in touch. Lots of messages coming today. As I said, this is the the biggest race in the world today and throughout this week as well. We of course concluded uh grand tour coverage for the last few weeks with the conclusion of the sort of part of x week yesterday. What a brilliant edition it was um this past week. Finishing at the port sole yesterday. You can catch it all back here at the home of cycling. We are just one day after so I won’t use any spoilers or talk about what happened but maybe we can touch on a little bit of that later in the week. But if you want to get in touch on socials I am Jezcox JZ Cox X. Send us your thoughts, questions, things you want me to discuss with Matt perhaps stuff you want to know about. Um probably the best way to get in touch is on X if you can. It’s where I’m most accessible, but also on Blue Sky as well and on Instagram if you must. I’m not very good with Instagram. I’m I’m really quite old so I’m still finding my way around these things. Uh Mike Nent though has got in touch on Instagram and asked a question which I guess I can put to you Matt as well looking here at last boat and I talked about the fact that his radio was down the front of his skin suit his race suit here and show my age by calling it a skin suit but I talked about the potential arrow gain that he says you’ve mentioned having the radio in the front for a gain but isn’t it safer as well if you crash with the radio on the back isn’t it going to cause injury is something we see very often in actual fact Matt I saw it during the tour to Wallam a rider who whose radio was on their back. They crashed and the radio was were basically hanging out of a ripped hole at the back and there was a wound underneath where the radio had been. Not necessarily saying it was the radio, but what do you guys do and what’s your experience of radio placement? And is there anything arrow about down the front? Do you know it is a little bit more arrow to have that radio down the front. Um, I think kind of you see more and more now the the manufacturers are putting their their pockets um in the front of the skin suits so that the the riders can slot the uh the radio in there. Um, but I also understand with the having it on the back can uh if you land on your back can cause a little bit of damage there. Um, but it it does seem that more and more guys just sliding around towards the front for uh for that little bit of arrow gain. Well, thank you for the other messages coming through. We’ll deal with a couple of those in a moment as we get into the final stage of this race. One more reminder that the birds are cranes apparently. Welcome back those of you who have just come to our coverage as well. That was the moment at which uh three riders became two when Patrick Sto of the Polish national team sat up sensibly chose to have a nature break and jump back into Pelaton as well leaving these two Dutchman Lov and the Frenchman Donovan Kan of our BNB in the red and black who is the virtual leader on the road because the bonus seconds he’s picked up. He’s also now we know that the leader in the most active riders blue jersey which he’ll be wearing on the podium later on. Um, nice to know there’s so many of you watching cuz my phone is buzzing away all the time with Russian things coming in. I think they want to tap into your brain map as well. This is one from uh I can’t actually read Janice Soma on Instagram. Uh it says I noticed that Vizma has a team in the tour of Poland but not in the tour to Walani which we’ve been talking about as well. What are the considerations of managers in making the decisions about what races they enter? Um, and and I’m guessing some of that relates to this being a world tour race, but maybe outside of where you have to do stuff, what what are the considerations, not least when someone like your team could have, what’s the most I guess the most you’ve ever had is what, three teams in three different races. Can you split it that much? Yeah, I think three three teams on the road on on one day is kind of Yeah, that the it’s almost can be normal sometimes. Uh four is a is a really a push. And if we we ended up with four four teams on the road, we for sure be topping up with some riders from from the development team there, which I can also explain a little bit more about the the rules around that as we uh we go through the week. Um but yeah, considerations. So this is the World Tour race. Um, tour of Poland is an established world tour race. So, every world tour team has to participate in this race. Um, the a race like tour of Walty um can have uh a number of world tour teams in that race, but it can’t accept every world tour team because they have to also give space then to uh pro teams and and allow continental teams also from that country in. So an organizer of a race like Tour of Britain or Tour of Bologna will will kind of offer out at the start of the year to to teams do you want to come to our race? They’ll also get some teams asking can we come put it on the table and then they will make a negotiation with the team about okay you come are you going to bring a good team are you bringing a a younger team how does that look and uh comprise their start list like that. So maybe for for Vizma Lita bike for example they uh they’ve just come out the tour to France August is always busy with quite some races. Um and you have to also make priorities in uh you can’t go to every race. You just riders can also only race uh 85 days a season. So you also have to balance their calendar out a little bit as well. And yeah it’s just not possible to be at every race all of the time. 85 races a season. Is that you know that’s something I’ve not come across before Matt. That’s that is new to me. That is that a UCLA rule? Yes. So 80 uh 85 days uh a season. Um is is kind of like a maximum you you if you go slightly over you need uh displation from the UCI. Uh but they yeah refrain. It’s only come in in the in the last number of years. It’s not always been been a rule that but um yeah it is a rule now that’s in in place just to protect riders from uh constantly uh racing. So now the the days of doing three grand tours like we saw a few years ago with certain riders, that’s uh pretty difficult to do now to to have three grand tours on your on your calendar. Yeah, indeed. That’s that’s getting you on towards it as well. These two looking over their right hand shoulders back down the road from where they’ve just come to see if they can see the I suspect they can. Just uh tapping into what Matt’s saying there about the maximum number 85 days in the season for the riders. Uh you might be wondering who in this field has done the most racing this year. I can tell you it’s Teemo Keelik. That’s according to Pro Cycling Staff. Anyway, um came into this race today having done 9,650 km in racing in 2025 Belgian. And he’s been he’s been winning too as well, winning the uh the Port Epic Classic just a few weeks ago. And very good form recently as well. very good for the aforementioned Gordal as well. There’s that same bridge uh Aiko Bastian going across the top of it. Um a little question to you from me Matt and and it’s an interesting one is that we watch Aiko Bastings and uh Steven Krywight doing their turns at the front and actually it has been I would suggest possibly slightly more to Aiko Bastian. It could just be to when our cameras cutting back to him, but I’m sure there’ll be people watching thinking and I think this every now and again. Has the team said, “Right, Taiko, today you’re going to be doing uh around about 170 km on the front. It’s just you. We’re only going to use you. You’re going to sit up there.” Or is that him putting himself up and going, “Yeah, I’m up for this.” And knowing his physical capacity, sits at 300 W or whatever and taps it away at the front for the whole time. You know, I look at it and I think, well, hang on. The whole of Inos Grenaders are sitting behind. Why don’t you put two of the Sudar Quickstep riders there? Chuck Casper Pedison, someone strong like that in to do half and half with him. Why do we so often do we not see that happen? It’s uh it’s all about the use of your resources in the best way possible. So he has the capacity where he can just sit on the front 200 km stage his job. Make sure we have a sprint at the end of the day. That’s your job. If the breakaway was stronger, going faster, um, and they was kind of they were struggling to take time back, then uh, for sure Sudal Quickstep after this much investment would either go and push some of the other sprint teams to come and ride or they would put two guys in the chase. But they also day one, yeah, they have a really good chance to win the stage, but they also don’t want to burn more guys than necessary. And certainly a guy like Casper Pison can be really valuable in the final part of the lead out for them. So they don’t want to waste him too early. He will be there for for positioning later. So it’s all under control at the moment. No one’s in panic. No one needs to ride any more than they are doing. And um yeah, it’s uh looking more and more like we’ll get a sprint in uh in 49 km. My angel see now the uh time gap is uh also just 40 seconds. So yeah, they’re just uh just holding that tempo now. Just holding them where they’re uh where they’re at and everything is under control as they uh make their way towards the the finish time. Yep, it is now. I guess looking slightly more possible, Matt, that they might survive to that King of the Mountains point as well, cuz it’s hovering constantly around about that 40 something mark as well. Um maybe maybe uh maybe there is a whole little bit of holding back. Does that ever come? I I often talk about that in commentary, but could I bastin’s been getting in his ear? Keep it there. Let them cook. They’re at about 40 seconds. You keep seeing them, just hold it. Or is it No, just bring them back soon as you like. Um, yeah, they’ll be holding him off. They’ll just say just easy. I mean, we still have 30 kilometers to the the the K point, if that’s what we’re calling it. The the the sprint for the uh the point the mountains jersey. Um, hill sprint. The hill sprint. Yeah. When I look at the map and I see it, it looks like it’s uh almost like a motorway slip road that they’re just going up and uh that’s where they’re passing the uh the point. But they for sure they’ll be holding him back a little bit. I say, “Okay, uh, 35 seconds.” Yeah, perfect. Good situation. What will happen is when the GC team start to become more nervous, when we get a little bit deeper in, they’ll start to push forward and then the road will become what we would say uh, blocked like there’s just no way through because you you you’ve got it’s gutter to gutter with different teams protecting their leaders and Inos Grenaders are in the perfect spot here. they can take their spot as soon as they get that feeling from behind that there’s a wave coming. So as soon as they start to think, okay, the road’s going to become a little bit more blocked up now, they’ll just directly take their spot. Little Treker already organized ready for it. Group Palmer Fish, you also see just there behind them, Jac Lula. And when the road then becomes blocked, the speed just naturally kind of just creeps up while it’s blocking up cuz everyone’s fighting for that that space. and that’ll take the 30 seconds out of the the gap between the breakaway naturally. Once they’ve got into that position, then they’ll back off a little bit, especially with headwind in the final. So, you’re going to run your last 18k into headwind. So, the road will block and then they’ll just kind of that front row of riders will just look at each other and say, “Okay, we’ve got our spot. Teams in position. Okay, let’s just back it off, boys. Let’s uh keep it nice and control, keep it nice and early, and uh save our resources for as long as possible.” I like this, Matt. You’re getting into You’re getting back into DS mode here. I can almost hear you on the radio as you speak. I like it. No, it’s good. We’re building the excitement nicely. This is This is what we want. Um, yeah. Well, you mentioned there little Trek, by the way. We’ve kind of not touched on them so far, but they also There’s me bigging up the potential two-pronged attack of this Lisa bike. Let’s not forget they have one of the most talented and exciting young sprinters out there if we discount Matt Brennan because this guy’s a little bit older. Uh Tim to Twitinberg, the man who I spent a whole week in the middle of the night practicing saying the name of during the tour down under this year and I think I’m nearly right. In actual fact, it’s so tricky for me that I have it written on a special piece of paper in my commentary here. And it is Tim McTor Tweeton D because I’ve written it phonetically on my wall. And uh yeah, the German the German not as prolific a winner as Matthew Brennan in his early career, but always there or thereabouts and probably their expected sprinter today. Although we won’t discount Matias Vatk who I can report is in very very good form from the recent tour to Walaniway spent uh the whole of that stage race battling with Corbin Strong and in the end being bettered by Corbin Strong who went one better than his second place the year before to take the win. But Bat also got his stage win and was extremely impressive. The Czech road race champion, newly crowned Czech road race champion. Just to mark cards on things this week, by the way, I don’t often mention this about riders, but he looked to me like he’d got even leaner and dare I say a little bit smaller as well, like he’d lost a little bit of muscle bulk along the way. He was climbing well. We’ll see what that means for this week. Um, actually quite a lot of the little track riders in uh in that field from the tour to Walam are also here because they also have Alex Kirch with them as well, the Luxembburger, who was also looking very good on the the rolling hills of the Arden from the to Walam. So, both of them in good form. Um, and they also have Andrea Fajioli here this week, the 26-year-old Italian climber. To see him come into the four a little bit more in the next few days maybe as well, Baji. But that’s a strong team for this week. We’ve already seen Jakob Moscow earlier in this stage asking um Steven Kis to slow down a little bit. I think the riders who were involved in the crash behind but Moscow using his status as one of the older statesmen of Pelaton to try and just control the pace a bit. Donovan Grandan just looked over his shoulder tucked down getting on with it and they can see the front of the pelaton back there as well. So the catch is in the it does look like they’re not going to survive to Sedge Motorway bridge in order to take on that final King of the Mountains point in the Vietc. So, if that does happen, if the catch does happen here, Matt, we’re going to be left trying to work out what happens when we get to that uh hill sprint. Let’s call it a hill sprint. Um see who takes that that dotty jersey tomorrow. I’d hate to think it would just be a random rider who happens to be swinging off at the front doing their turn at that point. It is still 19k to go. There’s always the opportunity we might have another rolling uh breakaway that goes over the top of this one. I’m sure that won’t be what the sprint teams want, but it’s the possibility, I guess. Yeah, I think uh that the sprint team will keep it controlled and you see yeah this gap coming down more and more. I think we will see uh some competition for the um to take the the KM points. I think it’s important especially for a rider that’s say for example racing for the Poland National Federation to take a jersey in your home race is massive and uh I expect we we’re going to see some competition for for that jersey from whichever group whether the it’s from the Pelaton or it’s from uh these two riders off the front. I’ve just been looking a little bit more into the final actually and and the roads on the on the way in and it’s actually really wide roads the whole way in. So at the moment the rider is just on normal two-lane road and then they’ll go almost onto dual carriageway style roads on the on the running towards the final. So quite a lot of space. Pelaton’s not super big. 154 riders. So uh there’s there’s plenty of space on that on that road for uh positioning work on the on the run to the swim. Fantastic. Look at this. There’s a sign for I think I think it might be Rafa Micah sign with a Garmin logo. I’m not quite sure what that is. There’s a Mihaqi supporters club thing there and they’re all wearing their CCC kit as well. Fantastic to see fans out on their bikes as well looking at it. Most of them are ridden out. A traditional orange wig as well in there amongst it. And a voodoo zella. Good measure too, just to annoy the riders as they’re going past. Love it. A green plastic vuella being being tooted in your ear. Just what they need. At least the sun’s out now. Now, if you weren’t with us for the opening of today’s stage one, it was pretty miserable actually at the start. We had rain jackets on, arm warmers and all sorts, but what is still early August, it looked like late September, early October, I hope. And I think according to weather forecast, that is it for bad weather in this race. And actually, for a lot of the European races yet to come across the quarter this week, we should be going back into warm and sunny conditions. Just what Matt Winston and I want when we’re locked indoors all week, unable to enjoy it, but it’s going to be nice out. So do make sure wherever you are if you get some of that nice weather you go out and enjoy it. Conversation there going on between one of the poles Danislav and Yulcowski of Coffeidus with the 41 on his back in conversation with Mihal Pakoski of course two poles undoubtedly speaking to them to each other in Polish alongside them a team we’ve really not mentioned so far Jacula in the purple and gray. Um no obvious sprint option for today or have I missed someone? M. Can you think of anyone within that team who might suddenly pop up and win today? I can’t see it myself. No, I don’t imagine so, but I I think kind of Yeah, they’ll they’ll be preparing for for later in this week and, you know, they’ll be they’ll be looking to to be as active as possible. And I think once we get more into those uh those hillier days, they will start to got K Balman and the 31-year-old Dutchman who enjoys the kind of constantly bumpy terrain. Hilly Fosanna likewise, former Italian road race champion. And they have Aleandro Demari in his final season of his career, retires at the end of this season. So there’s a rider who I’m sure will be able to make the most of all the racing opportunities he gets. Do not be surprised to see Dari in a breakaway this week. Just before we get uh the capture, it’s 27 seconds away from happening by the looks of it. Getting back to a bit of your correspondence, I’ve just gone to Blue Sky, which I don’t often use too much, but quite a few of you on. And there’s a big cycling community actually on Blue Sky just to just to point that out to people. If you’re still using X and Instagram and all the others, if you haven’t yet found Blue Sky, I must admit, particularly here at the Home of Cycling, an awful lot of the fans who watch a lot of the racing here that we cover are on Blue Sky. There’s a pretty big cycling community there. A few of you have been in touch in that way. Um, enough with the common cranes now, right? You lot, I’m getting roasted on all different social networks for calling them stalks or whatever, black stalks or something. said, um, thank you for pointing out a number of you that they’re common claims and we’ll park that there and I’ll just refer to the common claims whenever and whenever we see them again. So, thank you. Um Andy Gibson got in touch on there on blue sky to point out that there was a split stage in the Balawaza ladies tour this year only a couple of weeks ago. And of course it was Wales very own Zoe Baxter who won both stages on the day both the roller stage and the time trial along with the prologue and the overall Zoe Backstead in once again cracking form this year. In fact, I grabbed a word with her just a few weeks ago, just before the start of the uh uh the tour to France, of course, because she was sat alongside her dad, Maggie, when we were about to do coverage of the British um circuit race championships here at uh on TNT Cycling and on Discovery Plus. And Zoe just happened to be sat alongside her dad. I grabbed a word with her and asked her what she was thinking about national season, how season gone so far. So, she was the winner of that split stage there. Thank you for getting in touch, Andy. And yeah, that’ll probably be the end of our correspondence for today while we focus on the rest of the race. If you got things you want to send us for tomorrow, predictions, questions, etc., uh then do get in touch with me at Jezcox. If you wish to give us a prediction for today, don’t give me a waffly long message. Um I’m fine one to talk, I know, but send me send me just a name who you think is going to win stage one, and I’ll do my best to pick through a few of them, and maybe we’ll let you know what we think of your picks for today’s stage one. I won’t be. Don’t worry, Matt. I won’t be asking you until about 10k to go. We’ll see how it is going. At the moment, we still have two riders here. As always, I keep promising myself that when there is a breakaway, I should talk about them as if they might stay away. Although, this is possibly the most unlikely day of all. Yeah, I think uh you don’t need to uh be uh talking too much about this uh breakaway going the distance, especially uh as the rains are well and truly on from uh Pisma Lisa if I can uh quick step. Um yeah, it’s fully under control and I think those two uh those two teams are definitely putting their hands up today to say uh yeah, we’re going to be the favorites and uh we’ll be there in the final. Talking of that final, I’ll just remind people who we have here amongst the kind of big sprint favorites that have been talked about by us and others in the run-up to the day. There is of course Olaf Koy and Matthew Brenham and this Lisa bike and then we have some of the recognized names of the riders who are regular top 10 finishers in World Tour stage races and then pro Series races as well. We’ve got Dorian Godon and Sam Bennett both riding for the Cathol. probably mentioned them so far, but Dorian Gdon, the newly crowned French road race champion. Um, always a good man to pick in a long drawn out sprint finish, but he does have the Irishman Sam Bennett in there. Let’s remind people this is so far been a pretty good year for Bennett, sitting on four wins already. Also seen last in the breakaway. He won’t be sprinting for this finish, I’m certain, but they do have Jensen Plowight, the young Australian. He might be an interesting one to keep an eye on as well. I’ve mentioned Gon Thson and onto Maria Wanty, but he’s been down in that crash earlier today. So, we’ll look to see how he has recovered. Moby Star, as I mentioned, have Fernando Gabir, who has won three stages of this race in the past. Let’s see if he can get himself into a position to protect his sprint today. They also have to have a Chimolai who can be quite consistent in these kind of races as well, although not a regular one to be picked for the win. Timon Tweetenberg I’ve mentioned the German the young German for legal trek and then of course Matias Vatk who could almost include for any of the finishes this week because you can never quite know what he’s going to do. He’s that kind of rider who is strong enough definitely to be taking a part in some of these sprints we will see. Lotto have got Lonel Tamino the Belgian and IA Vivani uh one of the greatest sprinters of this modern era although we’ve not mentioned him too often of late he is in the race. Viviani 36y old Ry Botto then of course Matt Winston’s team Casper Vanu and of course the Dutchman in picnic proell XDS Astana have got well Alberto Betio who’s another of those you never know riders who can prop up left right and center but they’re more likely to lean on Max Caner the German they are to go for the sprint pro cycling one of the best sprinters in the field I’ve not mentioned so far they’re right the way down at the bottom of our start list are the decline the Dutchman And that they also have Michael Zylar, one of my favorite riders in the current Pelaton, the Dutchman. So exciting. Could choose to get involved in the sprint. Either that or be a lightning quick leadout rider for a decline. That’s a pretty powerful and proven duo there for TUDA froite in this race. Israel premise got Ethan Vernon the Brit who hails from just up the road from me where I’m talking to you from right now in England. And then of course Sudar Quickstep who’ve been pacing all day today through Arco Baines. They have Paul Manet who was also on four wins this year as well just as Sam Bennett is. And I think that is the rundown. That’s quite a tasty list of top sprinters right there, Matt, isn’t it? I’ve done my best. Have I missed anyone or is there anyone’s name in there I’ve mentioned that’s made you think, “Oh, actually, yeah. I might have just lost Matt there for a second. possibly. Yes, I’m here. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. No, I was uh I was enjoying your rundown of all those sprinters, so I uh I took the opportunity to just mute for a second and uh take a quick drink. Um but no, I think there’s uh for for a race that’s only got a couple of um sprint opportunities, I think the the field is actually quite stacked with those sprint guys in. And you see now just uh just on the screen before we go back to that now what I was describing before where the road starts to become blocked that breakaway is caught now. So the pelaton starts to become a little bit more nervous and and teams start to kind of push a little bit to come into position because the road is wider there. They’re not it’s not too stressed but um you see more and more now as you go towards the finish that happens. And yeah, just to go back to your your list of sprinters, I think kind of it will it’s all going to be about positioning in this final here. There’s going to be space to move, so you don’t want to burn your lead out too soon. Um, but it’s all going to be about timing. You you you whenever you finish in a city, um, you have corners to deal with, roundabouts, street furniture. So, I’m sure the the finished cars of of many of the teams have relay relayed that information back to the sport directors. uh for example uh roundabout open both sides with 3ks to go closed on the left side 2ks to go etc etc and uh once you come into the final it’s the road almost curves around the last 500 m and it’ll be only around probably about 200 m to go 300 m to go where you’ll actually see the finish line. So, it is all about timing and with the headwind on the run into the city can it can mean that that teams are burning quite fast. Matt, I love this. We are we are literally sitting in on a live kind of I can almost hear you saying that on the team bus. It’s like myself and all the other viewers are sat on your on Matt Winston’s team bus right now hearing the talk about about which islands which which roundabouts are closed and open, which way to go around the roundabout. We’ve dialed in the finish as well and we’ve kind of had the the pre-race tour. It’s a night it’s a real pleasure for us this so often we get former uh sports directors and former riders giving us that insight. But you’re right in there at the pick of having just come from doing it at the tour of France and giving us your little team talk here which not least with your team in the race as well despite the fact that they can’t hear you. We’re hearing it and it’s a really nice really useful insight. Thank you. Oh thank you. It’s a it’s also a pleasure to be here and I think kind of those little details in the in the final make all the difference, you know, like and you think your team like now you see the the two teams investing on the front of the pelaton all day. If you then run into the city and go and and it’s a split-second decision. You you go on the right side of the roundabout and the left side’s faster and you lose 15 places. That can be the difference between winning and losing the race. So you really have to be sharp on on thinking about the which side to pick. And sometimes it’s just as fast both sides, but other times there’s there’s a big difference between the right side or the left side. And it’s it’s it’s those small details that make a massive difference in the in the final. Very impressive looking stadium. Luben where we are now. Still heading due south eastward. Very long straight road. As Matt has indicated, it’s widened out as well, which mean we’ve got these little dips where we come into slip roads and then the central reservation as well. All these little bits of furniture to stay on top of. I realized, by the way, when I was rattling through that list of sprinters, I actually missed out some of the teams. And I’d be wise to pick them up again a little bit because um I already mentioned Stanowski, the Polish rider at Coffee Disc, but I missed out a rider who stands out like a sore thumb since he won the Estonian Road Race Championships, and that’s young Madish Miguel’s. uh in that new kit, the kind of blue top, white base to it, black middle of Estonia with the pink helmet on. He’s riding for EF Education, Easy Post, of course, the Estonian. He’s a good man for a day like this, but he also has Marine Vandenberg as well, who’s won stage five here back in 2023. So, he’s got previous form um in this race. He’s also one of those tour to France riders, Maran Vandenberg, who didn’t start stage 10. So got round about halfway through the tour of France. Uh didn’t start stage 10 and is back here now as well. So presumably had a big physical build up to the race as well. Should have formed to burn and something to bounce back from as well from Ryan Vandenberg. There’s also a number of I picked out a number of riders like I guess I guess like I mentioned Alberto Betio, you never quite know what he might get involved in whether he has a day when he just fancies on me going the B sprint. We’ve seen that before. Another one to be included in that if we include Ben Turner in that and Alberto Betil in those super versatile sprinters who’ve been known to suddenly find themselves in a good place and have a crack at a bunch sprint. Uh another rider who falls into that category is Maxim Van Hills we’ve already seen today. Now he was also down in that crash earlier alongside much earlier in the stage alongside FBI Tyson. I think Maxim Van Hills is all right but he’s a very quick rider. with Maxim Van Hills and wouldn’t be surprised to see him having a go in some of the bigger groups that finish. Maybe not today, bearing in mind who we’ve got here, but we will see. Yeah, I think mentioning Alberto Betio there, I think we’ll see him committing fully for looking after Max Caner and unless Max has a problem on the in the last 5k, then I expect that Alberto will be uh will be sprinting for him. Oh, leading him out. Well, it looks to me like now Steven Krywak has got a little bit more help than the rest of his Vizmissa bike team there as well. As I say, some of them in the arrow helmets. My suspicion is those in the arrow helmets are those who are going to be involved in the very big finale for them. Nicholas Barren is in the arrow helmet as is Matthew Brennan and I think Dan Mcclelay is in one too. real team of experience. Um, real team of experience and youth there as well. Dan Mcclelay coming into the team the end of last year. I think maybe a bit of a surprise to some people, but I suspect probably not to the likes of you, Matt, who know what he does and has done for years, Dan Mcclelay, to offer for that team. Yeah, exactly. He has a wealth of knowledge as uh in that in that sprint lead out role and kind of bringing him in alongside two young sprinters is is really a smart move from uh his release bike. He’s going to control that lead out, keep the guys calm in that final and also, you know, you’ve seen the races that Dan’s won himself. He can uh he can find a gap sometimes where those gaps just shouldn’t exist. My suspicion for this week, despite the fact they have Matthew Brennan, Olaf Koi here as their very obvious sprint options, my suspicion is that Valta Aila, their Hungarian uh is going to be their man for the mountains, the big hills. Um he is also on their provisional start list for the Gua. Just watching a conversation going on between uh Raphael Maher and a couple of other riders initially, but George Bennett included amongst them and two of the guys we expect to see in the Big Hills. Kiwi has been fourth on GC in the past back in 2018. George Bennett um how much of that was just banter or chat. It looked a little bit energized. I’m not sure what that’s about. We of course can’t read too much. Sure would have frenzy near the back of the pelon. Everything is now back together. It’s all under control now to go into that last 30 km. And you notice that the speed is not so high at the moment just because it is so controlled and everyone is uh is happy with where they’re up to. We still see the the two guys at the front controlling that tempo. But now the push for position is starting and the road will start to block up here. And how um Matt, when you’re watching this, uh say you’re a team. I try and pick an example. It’s probably unfair of me to speak to a current sports director and ask them to be the sports director of another team, but I’ll think of an example off the top of my head. Um let’s see now. A team who I said I wasn’t sure whether they had an obvious sprint option. Maybe Barah victorious. Uh I mean Eduardo Zambini is probably their best sprinter but then strangely enough as he’s always the way with the GC in this race. He was seventh on GC a couple of years ago as well. But a team like that who don’t have an obvious sprint option you know is it still an op when when they’ve got pale bilba Jack Hey Terry riders they want to protect the GC. Do you just ride like a sprint team in terms of keeping everyone up and and out of trouble at the front? And there’s only so much room up there as well, isn’t there? Yeah, exactly. I think kind of you you have to um you have to look after your team in in the best possible way. And by being in position is the best possible way. So they the GC teams will come and they’ll they’ll push and try and hold that side of the road or kind of keep that bubble together just to keep their leaders nice and safe. Still Steven Kai Reich at the front. There’s Fernando Gabria bottom right of our screen as well. Just rolling through Multar Man. There’s Matias Vat Champion. Not sure what’s going on with these guys. Whether they’re just coming back from getting a feed or something or whether they’re being dropped. I can’t believe that under the pressure man who was in the early breakaway also back there. Yeah, there is a little bit of wind coming from the side on this road. Um, it’s not super open, so shouldn’t be uh too much, but yeah, they could have just uh been for a feed or you look in the back of the Pelon though, even though at the front it looks uh looks quite calm in the back, it is a little bit of a string, but I think it was probably more of a maybe one of the guys that had a mechanical and a couple coming back from a a natural break. Uh but you see here now there is a little bit of pressure on the front because the the road being blocked like we discussed a minute ago is is not happening now because this Misa bike uh are keeping that pressure on the front and it’s just stringing out the front part of the Pelaton. So it’s actually quite hard then to come and ride up alongside them. So teams are just starting to kind of settle back a little bit and just go in that pocket just behind the the front of the race. Yeah, that little group who we saw off the back are now back on because I’ve just seen um that have rice in there as well. So, they’ve got back on, but they’re at the very end of that rat’s tail out there at the back of the pelaton like a bubble like a a balloon with a long string flapping out behind it. Look at this long, long, straight road. Steven Pricewark is a fascinating rider. Uh I think historically we’ve seen him for this team over the years do so much great work in the um in the mountains. We remember him of course in the Valerosa in the the Jirro, you know, big mountain climber and yet here he is today on the flattest day of the race. Uh combining with just one other rider, Aiko Bastian to knock out a good what 180 plus kilometers on the front. It’s it’s not necessarily the kind of effort you’d expect from a from a mountain man like that who can do a bit of everything seemingly. Yeah, he’s uh he’s a he’s a massive part of that team and uh he’s certainly doing a lot of the work today uh to keep his team out of trouble. He’s just see there he’s just moving across to them towards the middle of the road. So, one of his teammates just shouted there just to step out a little bit to to protect their team from the wind. And that’s the joy of being able to ride in the front. You can make that call. So, he just pushed the team across, keep everyone nice and clear. And I think to be honest it looked like yeah it was just to keep them out of that gutter but then you see the team behind inos there then a little bit exposed in in that kind of crosswind if there is any like the trees are quite high density of trees so it’s not so much but every little can count on the on the running. So we’ve got what are that about 8k to go now to the uh hill sprint the only hill sprint of the day in provit along this very long straight road. They’ve just ridden past Gors crossing the tiny little stream there. You might have seen it. Just popped under the road. And that is our next point to see who’s going to get that uh white with blue dot mountains leaders jersey to take into the second stage tomorrow in Carpatch. Further along eastward working our way eastward through uh Lower Silencia right along the southern edge of Poland this week. This is stage one, day one of seven in this year’s 82nd edition of the tour of Bologna, the tour of Poland with me, Chz Cox, and Matt Winston. We’re taking you all the way through to that final time trial around the Sitka Sort on Sunday, the 12 1/2 km time trial, which will be really for the time trial specialist and the GC favorites who have emerged during the course of the week to to hammer home the general classification. Last year’s time trial happened on stage two, so it would have been tomorrow’s stage. Um, and that set up the Yonas Vinodor victory of last year. This time though, the time trial going where it’s been before, right at the end of the race uh to provide an opportunity for chasebacks in general classification and the big time trial specialists to save themselves for maybe for the end of the week. This is looking at the back of our Pelaton rolling ever so slightly downhill now. So coasting this one in and it’s still like Kobaste is now taking over on that front. Wouldn’t mind seeing the speed actually because the back there it looked relatively comfortable, didn’t it? I bet the speed’s been up on this road map by the looks of it. Yeah, the press on the front and the the string at the back is definitely a little bit down to to that wind direction just bumping the pellet on and um yeah, it’s it’s a situation now where teams are trying to get organized that pushes the pace a little bit. Um but you see how straight and long this road is like before they come off and start turning into that headwind for the for the running towards the finish. I’ve got a few predictions coming in. I’m just going to check on uh right in the middle of looking this up. Thank you for those of you who are sending your predictions in as well. Um win white on blue sky. I think it is predicting a win for Olaf Ky take stage one of Poland. What else have we got in here? Apologies. This is live scrolling going on right now. Let me do this on air. Let’s see who we’ve got on X as well. I’m not going to ask Matt to predict just yet, but some of you have been very happy to do exactly that so far. So, thank you for you. John Magguire getting in touch to say he thinks that I basten must have applied for Tim Durk’s role as tractor pelaton. Does look that way for today, doesn’t it? as well. And I’m going to have to track back through this a little while and see what people have predicted. But, uh, we’re having a look at some of the team lineups here. UAT Emirates, the aforementioned. It would be shocking, wouldn’t it? Absolutely shocking, Matt Winston, were we to get through a week where UAT Emirates doesn’t win a stage. It’s just literally I think it’s actually not possible. I’m fairly sure they’ll get a stage win somewhere here this week, let alone the overall. Who on earth knows? But you you got a chance to see Yan Christristen come second on Saturday at San Sebastian. How did he look there? Cuz he looked so good all year to my mind. Yeah, he looked he looked really in good shape and the way he jumped out the Pelaton uh to go across the the leading group was uh really impressive and uh I think he’s definitely one to watch as we go through this week. Yes, I do need to go back and watch your coverage of Sebastian at some point. When on and I’ll get a chance to do that, I don’t know. As I say, I was, as I mentioned earlier, covering the BMX World Championships from Copenhagen all weekend. So, unable to be on San Sebastian this time. I’ve covered that race a few times now. Always love it. Um, the climb up and over to Heisel and the descent down into Donastia. Fantastic race. Always great timing as well just after the tour to France. something about that coastline uh there as well, just just where it is and the uh the setting, the race, the timing of it and everything. It’s a it’s a race I absolutely love. Yeah, it’s a it’s a really uh really nice race and the UAE team member did show uh what good shape they’re in there on the at the weekend and going back to them, I think kind of they’ve got a few more guys alongside Yan Kristen that will be going for that stage win. uh Brandon McNorty. Obviously, he’ll be one of the favorites for the time trial and uh when he’s in a good position then uh in the in the GC then that that time trial can be decisive for him. Yes, he probably is of all of the uh the GC favorites here. Probably the best time travel think of someone Magnus Sheffield maybe. Um Ethan hater depending on how Ethan Hater rides this week. awful lot of climbing yet to come as well. So, be interesting to watch. What’s Max Paul’s time triing like? There’s a direct question to you, Matt. I don’t know that actually. Yeah, it’s um it’s something he’s been working on quite uh closely with the team and developing over the over the last years. obviously still a young rider himself, but he um when he’s in a good GC position, then uh yeah, the time trial is not an event that he uh he will fear. He was uh 17th and 15th in the Jirro in the in the two time trials there. And um yeah, it’s uh I think he it’s one where for this time trial on Sunday will be an interesting one. I’ll be uh really interested to hear what Michael Hutchinson has to say about it because you’ve got mostly uphill for the first 4K and then a lot of downhill. So, it’s almost like you’ve got two finish lines. You’ve got one at 4K where you go and you almost empty your tank and then try and recover a little bit on the on the long downhill section and then actually you’ve got three and a halfks to the finish from the end of the downhill. So, it’s going to be a super fast fan trial and I think there that can uh can suit Max and I’ll certainly be interested to see how he’s going. Yes, indeed. Looking forward to that. Thank you again to all of you getting involved. The uh the nephew of Matthew Richello has been involved been in touch um Robert Josephello on Instagram and says great work on the my too. Israel Pec this is me sharing this with you. I hope I’m not sharing the inside line here. Israel Premik says they’re not going for the stage. Uh sorry, not going for the stage. Maybe maybe the GC. My nephew uh for a small climber is good at the time trial. He’s got a great position on the time trial bike. I hope he can stay up there on the GC. We will see. So family, Richello family getting in touch. Thank you, Robert, for that. He’s insight as well. Seeing an awful lot of Raphael Micah, aren’t we? Sorry, Matt. Go on. No, no. I was just going to mention about uh Matthew Richell again like obviously he’s had a a really good part first part of the year he did a good tour of the Alps uh finishing in the top 10 there which was in a in a really good field and a lot of those guys preparing for the JRO and then obviously won the cycling tour which is a a really lovely race in in Romania that I’ve uh had the pleasure of going to before um and he actually won the climb up um the stage up to Balac there which is a is a really long long climb and perfect for for a guy like him. Um I think he won it solo actually at the top of there. I’d have to I’d have to check but I remember seeing his name in the results and uh yeah pulled off the overall victory there. Yeah, Shella also coming from particularly good endurance sports stock as well if I remember correctly. His dad was a top uh triumph iron man triumph I think I need to do my research on that. the the the multisportters amongst our viewers will know that for sure, but definitely comes from a big multisport family as well. Looking down on our pelon, you once again see Chris Groom on the left hand side, drawn to the familiar sticky out elbows of the eldest man in this pelon at the age of 40 who rolls up the left hand side into another of these little rises. We’ve got 4K to go. Um, no, we haven’t actually. What am I talking about? We’ve got about a kilometer to go to this king of the mountains point. In fact, we might be on the climb right now. We’re awaiting the summit. I’m not mocking it. I’m trying to build it up. I’m looking forward to this because somebody’s got to take that docky jersey. Please. I should tell you what. I was about to say, please don’t tell me it’s Steven Krywight, but I hope it is Steven Krywight because he deserves it. He or I should just be pushed forward and allowed to take the docky jersey. It’s Don’t tell me it’s up there somewhere. I think it might be. I think you were absolutely right, Matt. I think it actually is a bridge. Yeah, I think we might still be uh 2k away. Um so we’re we’re on the running now. 18.2ks to go. I think is the is the point where it’s at. So, we go up this road now. And it goes this goes slightly uphill, but it’s going to plateau a little bit and then you’re going to go around on the almost on kind of the motorway slip road or it’s a main road slip road and then it’s just going to be near the town at the top of there is my understanding when I look to the road book. But you can see now really the the big fight for position because when they actually get enter the official part of the climb, I think the road will go down to one lane because of the nature of the the slit road. So this is why you see all the teams now fighting for this position because it’s going to go from two lanes down to one lane only very shortly. But still everyone wants to be in position ready for that moment. Yeah, we’re just looking a little bit further ahead. There it is. Yes. well spotted or at least there we think it is. In fact, by the looks of it, it’s not even us that aren’t entirely sure, but it’s around that corner somewhere. I think I think from what I’m seeing on the fellow viewer, it should be aligned with the road book. It’s just after the right hand turn or just before it somewhere very very close to that righthander that takes us in the direction of the finish as well. I’m I’m kind of hoping that in amongst the riders we’re looking at on the front right now, someone in there or at least a few of them in there are waiting for that in order to bag themselves a jersey. It be a nice moment to get on the podium and be wearing it all day tomorrow of course as well. I wonder if anything Matt, I wonder if any of the teams there are better to do some kind of little lead out just for that. I I wouldn’t imagine so this is about positioning. But what I did see about five guys back was a Polish national jersey just trying to move up through the middle of the pelon. But I think he’s now going to get squeezed and boxed here as the pelon goes off to the right into this narrow one lane road that I was speaking about. Oh, it’s very narrow. Oh, I think we’ve just made it through that. And it’s going to be one of the leader track riders who’s going for this. This is nice to see. And it’s a very specific reason as well. It looks like Balcommer. I’m not I’m not I’m not not mistaken. That looks like Balammer going for this as well. Where’s that line? It should be anywhere here. It looks like the former Balcommer. And I think it is. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Oh, that’s fantastic to see. Where’s that line? Has he gone over it yet? There it is. Here. Oh, a fantastic ride by the 38-year-old. He was expecting a a slightly unknown youngster to have a go for it. But there’s the man who’s um won a stage back in 2010. And you know what’s remarkable? There he is. He’s going to be in that jersey tomorrow. But you know what’s remarkable? Since 2010, he has not been back since. Here we are 15 years on at the closing stage of stage one. He’s riding like he’s 21 again. I love it. Fantastic to see from Valcommer. Yeah, got himself in a position nicely there and just uh able to spring out the pelaton. There’s not so much reaction behind it. A couple of riders start to get out saddle to think about it, but such was the acceleration from Malcolm Oliver there that he uh he tied up that quite nicely. I like that. I’m happy with that, Matt, because there’s someone who actually when you look at his Palares and he’s standing within the sport, he’s now what did I say? 37 years of age. 38 years of age, sorry. He doesn’t he doesn’t need to do that, but he wants to and he wants to be in that jersey tomorrow as well. That’s a that’s a really nice thing to see of all the riders that could have done that. I think MMA Yeah, that’s made me pleased. Yeah, it’s a it was a nice you see he was looking over his shoulder there into the headwind thinking where is that line? Um like you say, it was a little bit hard to uh totally understand in the uh off the road book, but um he got that point no problem there. So, we’ll see him a little bit later on. I think we might not be able to bring podium presentations every day because we’re doing such long broadcasts here this week. Some of our digital viewers will see some of the podium presentations. Possibly those of you watching on TNT might not, but it all depends, I guess, on the speed of the pelaton whether we’re ahead of schedule and how much we can bring you. So, I can’t promise you it every day, but we’ll certainly keep you ups at the start of every day as well with who is wearing which jerseys where. working in on the Polish national teams who will want to be involved in everything they can possibly get involved in this week as well. We’ve already seen one of them in the break today in the shape of Patrick Stosh. And we are now skipping ahead I believe to have a little look at our finishing city today. It is particularly beautiful as you can see. Um, Legitza dates back to at least the 9th 9th century as a Slavic settlement and became a stronghold of the duchies of Legitza best known historically according to my research for the Battle of Legit in 1241. One of the city’s most famous historical events. And that’s the end of my historical rundown. I’ve got loads of plaques on it, but we we might come back to it if we’re hanging around and finish waiting to see what’s going on. Um, now rolling through to the front, one of your riders in actual fact, Matt, Juangmo Martinez, the Colombian, I need to formally apologize to you and the picnic profile team because Pipper York and I, we were very naughty. We we really did laugh fairly openly during live coverage when he celebrated too soon, a lap too soon in and I can’t remember the race now. You’ll know what I’m talking about. I think it was a brilliant moment. His acceleration was incredible. It was a lap too soon and I now can’t remember where it was. The poor guy. Um, but it did do the rounds on social media. I felt particularly guilty about that as well. Do you do you know what I’m talking about? Have you seen it? Uh, I think I think I’ve erased that one from my uh my memory. But really, it was the tour of Norway. That was it was the tour of Norway, but it was it was also it was also brilliant. And yet at the same time, I thought, “Oh no, I know exactly what’s happened here.” Anyway, we’ll leave that one. We’ll leave that one there. Yeah, it’s a a young guy full of enthusiasm and uh yeah, I think he uh he saw that finish line and was uh thinking a little bit about It’s uh I feel really good here. But yeah, there’s uh there’s there’s pros that are way more established than he is that have made similar mistakes. Oh yeah. But I was actually just watching that. It was quite an interesting battle going on after the K point because EF had come up the side um in the in the pink pit there and Picnic Postnel in the in the blue had had come and after the K they tried to take the right hand side of the road and EF had to kind of defend that a little bit and you saw the the riders there kind of trying to dig themselves out and there’s a little bit of a battle on going for a couple of kilometers there who was going to have the right side of the road and by having the side of the road it means you can just bubble up a little bit and protect your sprinter. So, EF have won that battle and uh yeah, the picnic personnel team is now kind of sitting next to them and what they’re trying to do now, you see the two guys at the back are just kind of riding side by side almost. Again, that’s all about space. So, you’re just trying to protect that space a little bit from the back because you don’t want to get cut off from each other. So by going into this like nice ball shape now they actually have quite a lot of space when you look at say for example EF on the side who are all in one in one line and their sprinters then forced a little bit further back. Interesting. Really interesting to get that inside. You can see that really clearly the purple jerseys with the orange stripe down the middle of picnic post and they are just bubbling up as Matt has said to create space around themselves. EF Education Easy Post to their right up against the curve. There they are in the pink on the left hand side. right now. Notably, as I look to the back of them, it was the Estonian Champions jersey. Just see it again now. Mattis MueL’s pink helmet just hopping over that little hole there uh in the new Estonian Champions jersey. Blue top, black EF middle to it. Very distinctive. Really stands out that one. And he has the aforementioned former multiple mountain bike world champion Sam Gays, the Kiwi on his wheel back there as Gay looking intently at the front of the pelon as well. Keep an eye on him throughout the whole course of this week for Alpha Cindering. We now have really a very rectangular Pelaton blocking the road as you said, Matt. Yeah, it’s uh this is normal now as we we run into this sprint. It’s gutter to gutter. The the guys on the front will just try and control the tempo now. So, you’ve got the front line, you’ve got your whole team there, you’re in position, just hold. And if you go too hard and then 10ks to go, you’re gone. Your team’s down a man directly. So, it’s all about trying to keep those guys in that position till we approach 7 8ks to go and then someone else will come and take and take that wind on the front. And with a block headwind all the way in, you don’t want to use your guys too early. So, 13 km to go. stretch out and look across the giant lake alongside Lake Nita and the direction in which we’re heading. Glorious weather now, completely in contrast to what we had at uh what just gone midday in uh where we started this morning. Apparently, it seems like thankfully we have everyone still in the race despite the fact we’ve had one big crash quite early on today. Took down quite a lot of riders. Thankfully, everyone seemed to slide a bit. Probably because it’s wet as well. I hate to say it, but as we all know, Matt, you’ll know any too well. When it’s wet, you tend to slide more. When you’re dry, you hit the deck a bit harder and gripped the ground. Thankfully, everyone seemed to have slid a bit more and seem to slid back up and got back in the race. That is at least as far as we’ve been told and can see. Yeah, I uh I think that’s the case. And uh yeah, there’ll be a few guys got got off quite lucky there. I think uh that was it was quite a large crash uh quite early in the stage, but uh it seems like everyone uh is uh back in the right. Um I said with 10k to go, let’s do it with 12ks to go. Matt Winston, can I tempt you to give me a winner from today winner? It’s impossible to know for sure, but if you had to. Obviously, I would uh I would love to see Castle Van, but I’m not going to but obviously for uh for you guys, I will also put my hand in the fire and go for someone else. Um but I think with the when we see the amount of work that uh Sudar Quickstaff have done today, I uh I think Paul Man is feeling pretty good and uh I think they’ll want a challenge for this one. Lovely. So that saying Paul Manet, you know, I don’t know why, but I’ve just written Paul. I always write these down every day so we can keep track of how good or bad we are. I’m really bad normally, so I’m hoping for maybe one win this week. I’ve gone and written Paul Manet next down to next to my name, but no, you’re going for Paul Manet. I can’t do that. Therefore, and I am going to go for I’m not going to go to Why am I going to go off this? Yes, I am going to go off this. I’m looking now at the numbers of this Melissa fight to see who’s at the back. Number four is Dan Mcclelay. Number six is Matthew Brennan and number two is Olaf Koy. Now Olaf Koi is sitting further back than Matthew Brennan. So I’m going to say Olaf Koi. Not an outside bet by any means. He’s won four stages here previously, but I’m going to say Olaf. Interesting cuz they’re purely purely based on what I can see there. That’s it. Well, there actually as you said it, they moved up and they sat side by side just make it even more difficult. What? However, what I would normally say in that situation is the one sitting at the very back wouldn’t normally be the sprinter that you were going for cuz you try and protect him in the bubble. So, just to give you a little tip for future, you have to stay with your pick now. But yeah, the one sitting at the very very back of the string normally is not the guy that they’re going to sprint for. As they’re side by side, they’re making it they’re they’re keeping everybody guessing, which I would also do. Yeah. And it is only now only now just becoming 10k to go. Just outside 10k to go in the glorious Polish sunshine. Who’d have thought this this morning when they started? Right. We picked our potential winners. Me going for Laoy, Matt going for Paul Manier, the Frenchman. Both really good picks for today. Let’s see. Both the two teams of course who’ve done the most work at the front. Steven Guys of this Melissa bike and Bastings of Sudout Quickstep, T-Rex Quickstep this week. And we can just see Aiko Bastings now at the back. There he is with 131 on the back. His job done for the day. And a big job it was as well. We call that 190 180 km 180 km of constant pacing. It does look to me though like Steven Dwight haven’t left the front yet. So he’s doing that a little bit more. He’s still the first I think there of the the Bismala bike riders alongside Bob Young’s off to the right hand side of the screen. He’s had his weab today m hasn’t he? Yeah, he certainly had a big day in the chair today, that’s for sure. And uh with another two days on this race that are 200 km and we’re going to get some quite some kilometers in the race this week. Other breakfast cereals are available here. Um split either side of the central reservation right now and the multiple coils are sprung. We wait to see which way this one springs though when it’s released. um in the middle. Nice to see um Azadel Aongo setting themselves up right in the middle as well with those or certainly two very good potential victors here today in Sam Bennett and Dorian Gordon and I thought actually don’t see it that often. Maybe it’s just I’m not watching the right races but Dorian God strikes me as as as a as a kind of Dan Mcclelay style brilliant leadout man as well. You can set up Dorian God going hard down the middle of the road or on one side taking Sam Bennett with him. That sounds really potent to me, Matt. Yeah, I think the I think they’ll go for Sam Bennett today and in the best way possible for this final. um he’s uh showed these and uh yeah they they’ve done a lot of work there at the capital I should reserve this year to uh try and work on that sprint train and and kind of keep developing in that area and I think he will be their sprinter for today but I think just to mention now as we uh we approach the finishing town we come we come down this road now and at 6.1 km to go then uh there’s going to be the road goes narrow again and the pelaton is going to come off this road. It’s a left turn off this road at 6.1k to go and then they pass a roundabout shortly afterwards. So then there the pelon will get lined out a little bit and that’s going to come around 5.7 km to go. It’s all big roads so that there will be moments where you can move back into position but the GC teams will be under stress until that 3k to go banner. If there’s a mechanical or a crash inside the last 3 km, you’re rewarded the same time. But the nerves will be there for those GC teams to keep their leaders in position until that moment exciting. Yeah, thank you for the insight for the finish that. So definitely a few things to contend with despite the fact at the moment we’re on the wide road. They are talking to each other and the arosski just indicating a narrowing there alongside that barrier crash barrier at the side of the road. Grenaders have been very evident throughout the whole of the stage. Probably more evident at the front than any other team. Constantly positioning themselves with six five to seven riders. There’s seven riders in total in all these teams by the way for everyone at home. But Inos Grenadier is almost up there in their entirety today. Ben Turner very evident up there too. And they are pacing down the left hand side. There’s six of them. So possibly not all of them. Someone’s missing from that stream back there. But yeah, you see you see there then when the road just opened up a little bit. Little track came through the gap with three riders and then moved across. Now you see they’re bringing another rider across. So they’re just all just coming through that gap just cuz the road got a little bit wider and now they’ve actually gone and taken the position that Inos Benaders had just by that little acceleration and just coming across as a team. So it’s a really nice move from them to uh to bring their their leader into position is up there but looking for teammates by the looks of it with the 148 back in the red of lot has got teammates there to support. Can he follow Eagle Trek up? I think he followed Matier Bat actually swung through and then found himself on or near the front. He has now slotted in behind a teammate. So Elliot at the moment playing a part in this. Let’s see how deep he can go and how he will finish too. It is Jacob Moscow on the far side for Le got themselves in order as well sits there on the net. Now we really are picking things up and we’re starting to race it as well. Right hand side EF Education Easy Post just losing out a little bit on this battle at the moment. Still over 6K to go though, but a real push happening at this moment, Matt. Yeah, they’re racing for the left hand turn at 6.1K to go here. And that’s what this big push is for now. So, Little Track actually timed that really, really well there. And you see that it made the Pelaton increase its speed, just singled it out, and teams are now starting to lose each other in the in the chaos behind. They are the words of Mount Winston. My name is Jess Cox. It’s the opening stage of seven in this year’s 87 82nd edition the tour of Fonia the tour of Poland. There’s that narrow squeeze that we’ve been racing our way into. They are now locked on for the finish in Le Nita for this opening stage and it is going to be the sprint finish that we expected. The most likely sprint stage of all seven of the stages which finish with a time trial on Sunday. There are so many top sprinters here in this field. They’ve got to make it count today because they’re not going to get many more chances after this. No, they’re certainly not. And uh I think kind of you saw the the big fight there and Bisma Lisa bike now 5ks to go. There’s only three riders at the front. Little track have four. But it’s all now going to be about control in these next kilometers. If you go too slow, you’re going to get swamped. But you also can’t especially when you only have three guys altogether there left. You can’t burn each other too soon otherwise you’re going to run out of men. Donovan uh sorry um Dorian Gdon now moving up in the French champions jersey. There he is. So he is also working for the team the datafon man. Where is Sam Bennett? Really not seen the the stripes on the shoulders of the former Irish champion in there. So I hope Bennett is well placed. During God having a little look around I think to see where he is. 5 km to go and having been on the wide road. We saw so many teams organized. They are now having to reshuffle after that pinch point and refind their teammates to get themselves organized. Doran god in the middle in the dark jersey of the French champion does appear to have two riders behind him. I’m not sure but okay we’re picking out Sam Bennett there. So he is sitting on the wheel of Donovan uh Dorian Glong the French champion off the right hand side. So he’s got the right wheel. The number six is actually Raasmus Pedison. So Sam Bennett’s 51. He is locked on behind Pedson as well. So Bennett in a good position, but right in the middle off to the right hand side is the combination of Inos Grenaders who’ve been pushed back a bit by Little Trek who are in the middle. Yeah, it’s uh it’s getting pretty busy now. And you see now Bisma Lisa Bike coming up with their their sprinters coming back into position. Dan Mlelay just leading the second part of that train. So they’ve got three guys at the front, but then also a pocket of three guys that are looking to try and reconnect with each other there. And and Dan Mcclelay leading the charge there to to bring Olaf Koy and Matty Brennan back into position. Yes, Olaf Koy and Matty Brennan. That pairing that I’ve been talking about since the beginning. How are they going to play it? There’s Olaf Koy with the number two on his back. And at the moment, I think he has now Mcclelay just in front of him. Matty Brennan’s disappeared a little bit further back as well. In fact, they’re split slightly. I did talk about, you know, this tantalizing prospect of a Formula 1 style split within the team. I’m certainly not suggesting that, but they’re physically split at the moment. And I think it’s I think actually Dan Mcclelay has um Matty Brennan off to one side and then over on the other side is Olaf Cory, Nicholas Barren, and somebody else as well. So Biz Malisa Biker definitely split in there at the moment. Looking now at Arthur Cluckers, the Luxembourg road race champion working for Arvid Decline. I’ve not really seen anything of Arvid Decline so far, but the Dutchman is so good at hiding. And if he’s in good possession, Clasers is working here. Watch out for Arvid Decline cuz he can come through like a cannonball right at the finish as well. Alsink on the other side now. It looks to me like they’ve actually got Sam Gay in good position. But where’s Jensen Plow? Right. There’s another man who’ be a good pick for a day like this. We’ve not mentioned too much of the Australians so far. They’re spread wide across the road hoping for safe passage to the finish. 3 km to go. Matt, yeah, you actually see Dam got himself back into the position on the train and it’s it’s actually Koi and Brennan now that are together a little bit further back. At the moment, Ky was just in front of Brennan, but it looks like they’re just about to switch positions as it really is a messy finish here cuz the road is so wide and then it goes narrow again as they go through the roundabouts. It’s just causing all the time that shockwave effect. And we are now coming away from what should be the last of the little pinch points to the kind of sweeping road that takes us on the long curving right hand turn around these final two kilometers. Still traffic islands to deal with though all the time. Matias Vatk in the middle for Needle Trek but he appears to he appears to be leading out Pier Aligout at the moment. Pier Aligout following him. Sanifat Anilowski is still there with a number 41 on this back but he looks like he is also freestyling at this stage. It’s Mihal Kyakoski the pole on the front for Inos Grenaders who delivered so much into this stage. They will be hoping that their man and Ben Turner can finish this one off for them. Yeah, it’s really uh it’s really messy in there. It’s just constant changing of teams at the front. Constant that washing machine effect that we call it just as riders just trying to come into position. When you have so many sprinters and only maximum two chances, everyone wants to make it count. And you’re seeing that here now. Yeah. And Ben Turner is now up to second wheel as well for Inos Benad. Mihiakoski is doing a very long lead out here. But he’s got Ben Turner on his wheel and a crash off to the right hand side. That’s taken out unfortunately one of the picnic pastel riders. Let’s hope that’s not Casper Van from where he was. It was pretty near the front of the field as well. So it has disrupted things. Yeah, I think that was Pat Eddie that came down there for Postnel. Like you say, it was really in that front pocket of sprinters there, which that will have taken a few guys out of the race. And the race continues. It’s now Jacob Alula who picked things up on the front, but that has disrupted stuff. Not just taking riders out, but taking lead out riders out as well. It’s now Malissa bike who take over on the front. One of their riders in the air at home. I think that might be Dan Mcclelay starting already right in the middle of the shot. It looks like Jensen Plight is still there as well for Alpha Cindering. So they’ve got two riders in the prey. Let’s see how much this has messed things up. Mattis Mikuel’s is still there. The Estonian road race champion. He is right in the middle. We’re waiting for the shot from the front end. It’s looking like I think it might be Hubar who’s in the middle ready to take the shot. Handuka is still there as well. This could not be this could actually end up being a sprint finish that features riders who weren’t expecting. Ben Turner has freestyle. He sits second wheel. The British rider Inos prime position here. Great opportunity for Ben Turner to go for this one. Here comes the next of the EF riders and I think it is actually Alberto Betio by the looks of it who’s leading in here. Ben Turner is following every single wheel he can touch at the moment. He’s ready to go. Off he goes. Tim Joy Tutenberg has opened up though. Titenberg might just take this on stage one. It looks like the young German is open for the line. I think he might get this. Max Caner chucked in just behind him. Ben Turner going to get a right go down the middle. Here comes Jensen FLight as well. One of them is the leader by riders. That looks like going for the line. Has he got it? Hol Cory. There’s me picking up all the riders we necessarily weren’t particularly expecting and he’s only gone and done it again. Holy four stages over the last three years. He’s opened his account. He’s won stage one and he is going to be the leader of this year’s tour of Palona. Yeah, a fantastic sprint there from Olaf K. A few guys had to open up early as they ran out of lead out men, but Olaf Cory timed that to absolute perfection. And I think Sam Bennett also got himself up there for second place. My goodness me. That was tough to stay on top of, wasn’t it? We were getting a lot sort of switching different front end shots as well. But wow, Olaf Ky was in the end seemed to be seem to have floated all the madness in there just like all great sprinters do of course and perfectly positioned the finish. looking forward. Yeah, sorry, Matt. Go on. No, just uh like we were saying a little bit on the running just with uh the nature of that sprint, not so many chances and a lot of sprinters there, you just see just how busy that sprint was in those final kilometers, just everyone fighting for that position to be in the front and to uh to deliver their their sprinter in the best possible way. Well, they got it right and hopefully Kyo will be giving a big thank you to Steven Krywike for the whatever it was in the end might have been 190k. Here’s the shot from the front. There’s Cory Aman your pick. I think that looks like the the tall figure of Paul Manos in second. It’s definitely an Alison man. I think that might have been Jensen Flower in third. Oh, there was that crash. Thankfully, a little bit of a soft landing at the edge of the road there on the grass for a couple of riders who literally do that kind of bike step off that we’ve seen so many times. Just talk us through this closing stage here then, Matt. Would you? Yeah, I think kind of we see that the the sprint kind of did open up really early as they as the riders came out of that final corner there. It was Tim Hornberg that just launched that sprint. Max Caner from XDS starter in the wheel. Great sprint from uh Ben Turner also just holding and around that that final last curve. It’s just almost the explosion from Visma Eastbank. You see that two guys together timed it to perfection to to open up the sprint with probably only 200 m to go. So yeah, exactly 200 m to go is where he opens up the sprint and uh and he delivered it in a perfect fashion. Yeah, I think we saw from the front end as well how much of a problem that was causing for some riders. the fact that we swept around the bend with what is that about 250 m to go going around that bend as well. One last little thing being picked up from the road by the looks of it. Toenber have gone early. Caner faded. Ben Turner I don’t know how Ben Turner did that because he was kind of following wheels for ages and in the end he’s come it might be somewhere what somewhere just inside the top 10 as well. But Turner had a really good sprint there as well. Plow right I think it is down the middle but then there’s Cory just bursting clear. Man gave him a good run for his money. Two completely different sprinters stylistically, but in the end dipping for the line, first and second. And I think Danielsky has taken a top five there as well if I’m not mistaken. We’ll wait to see uh the stage result. Here it is from on high again. Madish Mel’s took his foot out. I hadn’t spotted that. And he gets pushed back in I think by the looks of it. There was Yeah, man. Mel’s there. What was that with 800? He’s hitting wheels actually everywhere. I don’t know what’s going on there with the Estonian, but lucky not to come down. at the bottom of the shot. There was the moment at which Timon Twinberg first burst came. He’s got a wonderful sprinting style. Super arrow and snappy as well down the outside. But unfortunately there are others waiting off the wheel. The moment which Ben Turner went. I thought he had that but no coming off his wheel. Uh plow right I think it was and then Manet coming with speed in the background there. By the way, one rider who was coming through very very late on was Ethan Vernon. Now I don’t know how on earth Ethan Vernon has come through for I think fourth there the Brit fourth or fifth because Ethan Vernon started there miles back you can see him in the back of the shot there behind Max Caner working his way through working his way through shaking his head sitting down and driving and then he goes again Ethan Burn very good sprint by him alongside Turner but no one had a an answer really for the the fast legs of Olaf again. Yeah, I just uh also rewatching that sprint for me for Vernon there. It’s uh these guys just know how to find a way through the gaps and they’re so so skilled at just kind of looking and diving around and you see that a little bit like Ben Turner sprint there was he opened up early big strong guy he’s hard to come around when he’s there on the front and he’s driving for the finish line like he was but um yeah he also uh definitely uh held on to a a good a good position there in the final. It was also uh Michael Zylad. I thought it didn’t look like the sprinting form of um aid decline and it wasn’t Zylad once again proving that in some of these more technical finishes as well he can hold speed and position well in front of a group like that. Zylad wasn’t for this is all provisional by the way but we should confirm this for you on the screen in a little while. Ethan Vernon in fifth as I thought just deeping alongside Michael Zad and Stan and Lowski best of the Polish riders in six. Cop this man. Ben Turner in seventh. Florian Berm it was in eighth. UA remember XG man. Max Caner in the end fading a little bit bearing in mind where he was alongside Twittenberg. Twinberg himself not finishing in the top 10. It was former Danish national champion Arasmus Edison who finished in 10th place. These are all provisional at the moment. Um there it is on the screen for you. Edison in 10th century Vernon Xard Plow right with a good sprint. The Aussie Man and Koi the two best of the sprinters so far in this race in the most expected sprint stage stage one. Tim Twittenberg as we can see there just fading to 14th after leading through that sprint. He’s got that he’s got that classic lowslung sprinter style Cavendishes Twittenberg. He’s fun to watch that isn’t he? I like it. He has uh he opened up early there and he he came out the corner saw uh saw the finish line and uh and opened up and kind of yeah he he faded a little bit towards the uh towards the end but it was uh yeah nice sprint from I just I was just looking on the on the stage and noticed they put the the seconds in. So I was just uh going to check the regulations there to see uh should normally in a sprint finish like that then uh and Pelaton cross the line as they do there’s no time seconds normally given but uh yeah I noticed on the result that’s what’s uh just popping up. Was it on the screen there Matt they were showing the seconds? Yeah it was like you said it’s just uh provisional so uh yeah that is unusual. Yeah, for anyone maybe who’s not aware, I don’t like to always have assumed knowledge within our sport, but uh when it’s in a big bunch sprint finish like that, everyone should be getting the same time unless there is a uh correct me if I’m wrong, Matt, is 3 seconds or more actual time gap within the bunch as well. Yeah, there uh it it can change depending on the nature of the stage. I’m just checking the the race manual cuz obviously every race has does have their own rules. uh but article six in the in the handbook uh instance in the last three kilometers uh and stage one has been identified as an expected from finish during those stages the protocol of calculation of sign gaps in stages will be applied. So yeah, the the the gaps that you see there on the screen are just direct from the transponder and will be removed for the official result. And also it’s worth of saying that the riders, we don’t yet know for sure who the riders were that were involved in that very late crash, but they will, assuming they come across the line and finish, they will also get the same time as the crew they were in when that crash, which is the main platform as well. I have to say actually, Matt, there was some good avoidance riding by the riders there, particularly those dipping into the bushes and stuff because that could have been a much bigger crash, bearing in mind that it happened pretty close to the front, didn’t it? Yeah, it was in that in that sprint bubble where everyone was just trying to be in position and trying to uh yeah, find their teammates, find their leaders, and uh it’s yeah, not uh it it looked not too bad from the original pictures that we saw. So yeah, like I say, hopefully everyone can remount the bike and uh and finish. Well, I hope we’re able to bring you viewers at home coverage of the podium presentation, at least bits of it, and reconfirm the result for you and look at what the new general classification looks like going into stage two as well. Be watching our TNT coverage. We’re probably going to leave it a little bit earlier, but fingers crossed we can bring you all that before we do it. Uh it starts to get much hillier tomorrow and we know who our king of the mountains is. It’s going to be Balcon. I really enjoyed that. The 38-year-old heading off a jumping clear of everyone to take that soul king of the mountains point today uh in Crocker Viet. He’ll be in that dirty jersey tomorrow. Um and there are 1 2 3 4 five mountains points tomorrow including the the final climb as well. All second category climbs all of them as well. But plenty of points on offer for riders who go in the breakaway tomorrow. Wonder if we’ll see Balcon Mama going in the breakaway tomorrow. Maybe he’s trying to see if he can build some more points in that classification. We are looking in on uh Legit here into the city and um well it’s proven itself to be a pretty fitting finale. Hey, down. my angel wings. I told the devil morning Devil’s outside. My angel wings. I told the devil. the devil’s eyes. Hold it down. My angel wings. I told the devil. Devil’s outside. My angel wings. I told the devil. inside the devil’s down. Hey, down. My angel wings the devil. Devil’s eyes. My angel wings. I told the devil. The devil down. Take it down. My angel wings. I told the devil that The devil’s outside. My angel wings. I told the devil. the devil’s eyes down. Hey, down. My angel wings. I told the devil. Let me tell you outside. My angel wings. I told the devil. The devil’s eyes Sound like wrong. My angel wings. I told the devil. The devil’s outside. My angel wings. I told the devil. The devil’s Hey, down. My angel wings. I told the Let’s devil outside. My angel wings. 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