Shock GC Stage in Albania | Giro d’Italia 2025 Stage 1 | Lanterne Rouge x JOIN Cycling

In this episode Patrick and Benji recap the first stage of the 2025 Giro d’Italia.

*Exclusive deals from our trusted partners* 👇

🚴‍♂️ Want to reach your goals with cycling’s smartest training app? Get a one month free trial of JOIN Cycling, no strings attached! 👉 https://join.cc/campaigns/lanternerouge

🥭 Want premium, science backed sports nutrition? Use code LANTERNE15 for 15% off the MNSTRY 3 in 1 Training Bundle 👉 https://mnstry.com/en/products/training-bundle

🧬 Want to upgrade your recovery and sleep with evidence-based supplements? Use code ROUGE for 15% off PILLAR Performance at https://pillarperformance.shop/ or, for North American listeners, https://thefeed.com.

🛡️ Want bike insurance that goes further than you think? Use code LRCP30 to get 30 days free with Laka 👉 https://my.laka.co/lrcp

*Other ways you can support us* 👇

🌱 Like and subscribe – it helps us grow!
🎩 Leave us a tip: http://www.ko-fi.com/lanternerougecyclingpodcast
🧢 Grab a TugBuddy shirt: https://shop.lanternerouge.com
🎧 Find us on your favourite podcast player: https://shows.acast.com/lanterne-rouge-cycling-podcast
❎ Find us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/LanterneRougeCP

*Meet the team* 👇

🇦🇺 Patrick Broe – Host: https://www.youtube.com/@LanterneRougeCycling & https://www.instagram.com/the_lanterne_rouge_/ & https://www.twitter.com/lanternerougeyt
🇧🇪 Benji Naesen – Host: https://www.youtube.com/@BenjiNaesenTV & https://www.instagram.com/benjinaesen/ & https://www.twitter.com/benjinaesen
🇳🇱 Luc Grefte – Producer: https://www.twitter.com/lucgrefte

Some links in this description may be affiliate links, meaning we earn a commission if you make a purchase through them. This helps support the podcast at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Welcome back to Lantern Roo Cycling Podcast. Live on the ground in Tyrana in Albania for the recap of Jira Ditalia stage one. A really, really exciting stage here with Benji. He’s been going to the start today, him and Luke. I went to the finish to scope it out. We’ve been having some good food, some good good stories as well. But this stage, Benji, uh, is a versatile sprint stage. It’s a breadandbut one. We all the websites have crashed so we can’t see what I’m going to have to do the profile at the top of the head. 160ks from Dures or Daris if you’re Australian to Tyrana uh with two climbs the surel climb which is on the hill just behind us actually comes from the south of Tyran the capital of Albania 5ks 5% but the first case 7 and 12% then it levels off a bit and there’s some steeper sections fast ascent into the city where you won’t make up much time. They do it twice and then back down and then a flat sprint on the uh the plaza uh Mother Theresa which we saw this morning. Small addition, there was also a climb in the middle of the stage before the surell climbs, but that was not too influential on the stage. And let’s be honest, before the stage, we were like, “Okay, how versatile, how selective is this stage going to be?” Cuz we looked at the climb, we’re like, “Okay, profile looks pretty doable for a versatile sprinter.” But the closer I got to today’s date, the closer I got to the Jurro, I I swear back in December or something, it wasn’t December. When the Jurro announced their parkour, definitely wasn’t December. It was like February or something, but when they announced it, we started with maybe a core could survive this in the last week. We went to I don’t feel like they were like he will survive that, but maybe the versatile sprinters will go for the stage. Before today, this morning at the start, the more and more people I spoke to, the more and more people were talking about road surfers not necessarily being the greatest, the descent being a bit dodgy, stuff like that was was said before the start. And I was thinking, okay, the closer I’m getting to the start, the more I’m like, okay, can I punch sure get away get away on this climb? They could have. I mean, it was hard and I don’t want to I’m going to go and and fully just go supportive of Albania. The road surface looked good. Yeah. on the descent. The road surface looked really, really good. I have to say they thought one patch of road like Yeah, I think it was smooth. Looked like a smooth descent. We didn’t have any rain thankfully, but we should do some anecdotes. That’s why we’re here, Benji. So, what what’s been going on? I mean, as anything, the sort of the crazy thing is nothing. You’ve not been you’ve not had any issues for the first time in your life traveling. We’ve been I’ve not been scammed. Yeah. I mean, we’ve been you going to nice restaurants. I took a cab for like 25 minutes and the guy turned around and said, “That’s €3, please.” Well, he said 300 LE. Well, that’s €3. And I was like, “This feels unfair. I paid him more cuz like Oh, Benji flexing.” No, no, he’s trying to flex on everybody. He’s got that guy podcast money. But yeah, it’s it’s been really really good. Flight over was uh we met a guy I sat next to a guy who was going to an Afrolatin like dance festival. um for in toures for four days and I was like the first stage star I didn’t know I’m going there now so I told him about that and I learned about Afro Latin dance festival any cyclist on your plane uh matchin was on the flight um that’s it who else was there Johnny Whale oh yeah it’s true we were talking to I had a standoff with Johnny Whale so basically I refused to get up to to Q I refused to get up to queue until Johnny had had got up and I know he’s like he’s also to a hyper rationalist and he was going to wait. So I was just sitting there. I was like final call. I’m waiting waiting till Johnny gets up. Matching. I mean talk about needing a the a salary cap. We need a UCI salary cap. UAE he had priority boarding. Priority boarding. We’re just chilling at the back. So priority boarding on Wiz there. So they flex. He was flexing on us. I’m an LRT on the on the plane. But question. How how do we color yours? Anyway, lanterns. No, has to be something more dodgy. Degenerates I think is the official term for a number of years now. So been walking around walking around Tana Lake. Saw Zach uh who’s a photographer for RCS at the race Australian. And yeah, he’s going to be on the bike. So apparently they got a like 8 hour ferry, some six hour, some 10-hour ferry on on Monday across to Italy to look forward to. And when I go to the Grande Partenza this morning, for example, I went to the start of the stage in in duration and I I was like, “Okay, let’s take a look at the bus and let’s walk through it. Let’s talk to people, etc.” What I noticed is that the pro team budget went up in the last 3 years, which is obvious, but it’s been since Hungary, Budapest in 2022 that I went to Grand Parten. Remember that Barjani was there with a little van with like umbrellas above the riders or failed to have umbrellas above the riders in the time warm-up. Not even got a proper bus here. Really? Oh well, budgets are out of control. Like I said, um protein budget. You got to thin it down, mate. Last story time was Yeah, we went to we went on a tour through an ethnographic museum in Tana, which was really, really good. Learn about the wedding ceremonies. Uh the order, which is like the the hall where in people’s or the the room in people’s house where they receive visitors. And uh yeah, so it’s actually been it’s actually been really really good. I mean, I think if you want to have a the foreign grand deas or grand gandartenas, they usually kind of I don’t know if they’re worth the money for the the countries, but I mean it most of most of people that go there then have a positive experience. I’ll be honest, I have not seen the the biggest amount of people here for the uh Oh, the local population has no idea the race is on. They don’t care about it. That being said, I enjoyed interacting with everybody that was here though this morning. But anyway, we should get into the racing a little bit cuz there was a race on today. We had a breakaway. Taco taco taco burrito burrito was in the breakaway. Alessandro Tonelli of Pya Manueli, the man that is always in the breakaway in these races. Teno Jiro etc. He’s always in the break. U Alexandro V climy boy on Ara and Sylvus who uh probably tried to go for K1 points etc. So now he’s on PY. I thought he was always in the break for Banani. I think he I reckon he was on a professional juror break merchant on space stages. This could be very wrong. Is Tonelli the dude that won a Tyrano stage for Bardani or am I completely inventing that when the two Bardani boys rode into a roundabout and one of them rode wrong and I might be inventing a stage at this point. Anyway, the chat will correct us. Yeah, he ain’t won no no Gro stage. Yeah. Well, well fought, but it doesn’t matter. Valenciana. Close. That’s it. Yeah. Yeah. Close enough. Almost the same. Same country. Almost. Anyway, that break was up the road. Got to say, I I heard some rumors, we were on the road at that point, that the Red Bull KM was not exactly the most impressive thing in the world. So, basically, if you don’t know, there was this this glorious announcement before the Tito started that it was a Red Bull KM. In the end, it’s basically an intermediate sprint with Red Bull advertising on the sides in the in the last kilometer towards that intermediate sprint. And that was taken by the breakaway. I think it was Tarodzi, but got to be honest, I’m not too sure about that. I sometimes feel like the closer we are to the race, the less we know about the first part of the race. So, we ended up watching the entire final of the race though, including the last two shell climbs in front of our little screen here. And we immediately saw that in the Pelaton, two teams were taking control. Or was it Visman little track? Yes. I think Cryvak was pacing all day behind the breakaway. So they were confident in in either Koi or Van. And before the race, I think maybe after we did the preview, Vanard came out and said he’d been a bit sick before the race, but obviously confident enough to have them to have Christ pace or maybe confident that Koi could make it over the final climb, which when we Yeah. We always thought this is a versatile sprint stage. Maybe can sprint some sprinters can survive. Yeah. Uh but before we get to that first rep of the climb, a word on our sponsor for today’s episode, Pillar Performance. You remember them from the VA last year, the Jira, I think last year as well. Pillar Performance are back. You hear that, Benji? I can hear that. Can the people hear it? They can hear it. I think my mag I’m running out. I’m dangerously low on Pillar Performances triple magnesium. I know many of you have tried it before and it helps my sleep tremendously. I packed it on our way to Albania. I won’t travel without it. Particularly when I’m traveling, I need to keep on top of my sleep when it’s a little bit disrupted in new places. is then my sleep the last year has been part of getting back into good shape actually locking down my sleep uh and and improving not just my habits but also when I am sleeping making sure I’m recovering in my sleep getting good quality sleep and pillars triple magnesium informed by HRV expert Dr. Dan PL is a non-negotiable part of my nighttime routine. I take it 30 minutes before bed. Increases my REM and deep sleep. I feel better even with the same amount of hours of before because it’s packed with a high dose of magnesium glycinate. It’s it’s batch tested for all of you athletes out there. And if you would like to try it, head to pillarerformance.shop shop. Or for North American listeners, go to the feed.com and use code rouge for 15% off all first purchases. That’s code rouge, r o u g for 15% off all first purchases. And yeah, I can really recommend pillars triple magnesium blend, which many athletes take, sponsored or not sponsored. They buy it themselves. And uh I can’t I can’t go without it. Now it’s empty as well. You know why Benji pointing at her? She’s off camera. She steals it. Miss Rou steals it. Yeah, she she steals the chew magnesium. Yeah, the it’s not. Yeah. So, anyway, it’s good enough for her to steals. It’s good enough for you to try. Okay, Benji, first climb. Yes, sir. Talking about athletes, we’ve got a team coming to the front that looked like they were on fire today. And we see Little Track taking control. Don Holler being the first to do so. And I’m like, okay, Don Hall is known as a on paper a ruler in the team. has been part of a lead out, has been part of the the classic stuff like that. Pacing quite a bit in the past few years for a little track. And we see him on the climb, the first Sudell climb of the two. So the last two climbs with about 35 km to go and we immediately see that the pelaton starts to stretch a little bit. You said it before, first part of the climb, a bit more steep than the last part of the climb. I feel like towards the end of the climb, there was also another steep section, but we’ll get to that in a bit because when Holla was spacing, we saw riders dropping a few riders left and right. Mark Lemon was a bit surprising that he dropped so early. Sam Bennett not surprising that he drops on this stage in my opinion. No, I was surp on the first climb. I was surprised like how many like Yeah, Bennett was dropping first climb. Koi first climb gone. I thought first climb they’ll do it like 10 12 minutes 5 watts per kilo in the wheel which the sprinters can do. They can do 400 watts for 10 minutes and then the last climb. Yeah. Yeah, they’ll get dropped. They’ll get dropped probably last climb. Maybe maybe I underestimate how hard this was. First climb, they were gone. So Tre, I mean Tre put their stall out and from 40ks to go, they just boss this stage and made it really hard. Not just Bennett, not just Ko, Paul Manet also dropped quite early. Obviously, he’s had injuries I think still since the last stage of Torino. I think he had a a fracture there and had to come back from that, but um he’s here and he dropped on the first of the two sets. Bit disappointing in that. After that, we saw Holo go up the front a little bit. Patrick Conrad taking over for a bit, but that was towards the end of the climb. We we still saw some trouble, I feel like, in the in the group with some riders. Was it um Andrami was struggling towards the end of the climb and so forth, which is a rider that you you wouldn’t expect to drop here or no, he’s 65 kilos and and he’s a sprint. He’s like a versatile sprinter. So, I was really really surprised to be honest. I mean Tre we I was maybe like oh they don’t have the best lead out for this race or for like the the pure sprints and and they don’t for the pure sprints but they made sure they won this stage or they put Pison in the best position to and this is remember going back two years Benji when those Parinne stages or doofane stages where Burgo won Yeah. and Tre were going for Pison in the sprint but the guys around him were a part of my small small boy community. It was here. They got Conrad climbing ruler. Vachek I don’t know what 73 74 kilos allrounder. Uh Hola is climbing a lot better this year. Chon is the exception. He’s he’s a bit smaller. Who else they got? Certain cra they got like these really strong or Verona another 72 kilo climbing ruler. And these guys can put such a hard pace. There’s going to be the there was no attack. There was no puncher attack because how could they? Exactly. Especially on the first climb. We’ll see you on the second climb. But in hindsight, well, it’s not even a hindsight comment. I felt like Little Trek was always going to try and make this stage as hard as possible to make it a Peterson stage. And in my opinion, Visma Lisbach should have never even paced in the first place. I understand that they might want to do that, but I don’t see the value in that because if you’re going to spend your dosticks in the first 70% of the stage, then that means that Little Trek is maybe spending a little less energy on their on their uh really at the front of the pelon to try and keep the relatively controllable breakaway control. But anyway, that to the side, we’ve basically come to the top of the first of the two SEL climbs when Bara goes over the top without Fernard in the wheel. Still looks okay, although he looked like he was suffering a bit. Person also wasn’t overly comfortable on the climb. Like it was a hard tempo, but there’s this part from this first serial climb to the second sural climb is basically 5k descent, 10 km flat is how I see it. And we are in the valley now. And I see wildfire completely at the back. I’m like, okay, that’s not the position you want to be in once the last climb starts. But we get to the last climb and we get on that second Sudel climb. He’s back in position. W is back near the front. He’s well positioned in this whole time. little track has been well positioned. Holder took over in the valley again after Conra did work on the on the top part of the Sudell climb, the first one. And then at the foot of the second sur climb, IPT storms to the front and starts spacing a bit for I would guess Corbin Strong and then we see EF moving up. Kapas, all the GC riders moving up the riders, but then it goes back into formation. Little Track gets to pacing again. Perona starts spacing and that’s when we see the even more versatile sprinters in Vendra but also Kaden Groves dropping butt. Were you surprised that there was a German man honest surviving that long? Max Caner survived longer than Kaden Groves. Max Caner was he almost survived this? Yeah, because basically this climb Oh no, I’m making things up. I was I was about to say no. If you made it over the first 2ks, you survived by definition on the fat shower section. Not true at all. This turned into like pio chessa style climb where Tre had these Tre had Verona who’s so strong, so big, he’s pulling 500 watts probably on 5% six. Yeah, 5%. If some small guy or some guy drops the wheel in front of you through a corner and you could see when they had the side on images they went so fast it’s over for you and yeah T just had it in a line. I was thinking even on the first rep oh if they lose control T then uh there could be an attack of a Del Toro a J Vine a puncher style. I mean they were suffering. Everyone was suffering just trying to hold the wheel. Especially when another rider from Little Dra hit the front after Verona Chicone started pacing. On paper their GC rider, I was lowkey surprised about that. I didn’t expect it to happen. And that’s when we saw near the front Wild Fernard getting in trouble. When I say in trouble, there was this moment where he moved up, tried to move up into position, in doing so, spending energy, and half a kilometer later, it feels like he blew up and moved entirely to the back of what was left of the group. Bernard made a big mistake there where he he was like P10 in a good draft pocket. He’s got Roglish in front of him. Yeah. Roglish on 5%. Will never drop the wheel. Never. Doesn’t matter if it’s a GC guy, he’s just gonna follow the wheel and close a gap until he gets to the top. And Chakone started to pull really hard. And as Chakone started to pull really hard, Venat tried to move up there in the wind. That was a mistake. Like he didn’t he didn’t need to do it. And clearly he went over his limit at some point because Yeah. He he was also also smart in a way that when he did kind of blow up. Yeah. Well, smart and lucky in that he he went back in the group as the climb was cresting and so basically he gets to the middle of the pack as they get over the crest. He’s back in the draft and he’s got Kellerman around him. He’s he’s he’s surviving at that point. We’re saying middle of the pack, but in the last half of this climb tingling dropping, Imon dropping it’s a bit of a classic to be honest. like the first week of a grand tour, he tends to have these stages that are like either versatile hill versile sprint stage or a random hill stage where Ironsman on on a matania stage for example. That’s the kind of stage where I’d expect an Iron Man to lose time, you know, like that that’s what I see happening. So, it’s not a major surprise to see it happening to Iron Man today, but at the end of the day, it’s a major cost. I think he ends up losing 1 minute 30 at the end of the stage. He wasn’t the only one. We’ve got Derek G dropping as well, ending up in a second group too where IP keeps on pacing. He lost a minute. A minute on a versatile punch, a versatile sprint stage basically. This is a stage you could say Derek G could take bonus seconds on or win. Yeah, like in a late attack. I mean, it’s a 5% climb. He’s a big GC rider. It’s a Gregoire stage. It’s a It’s Yeah, it’s those sort of guys. And you I would maybe expect a you know a tiny like a like an Ivan Sosa type GC operator. Yeah. Cle No, he Clemore actually he’s good on the French circuit. Respect Clemore. Um yeah, I would maybe expect a smaller GC ride to have a problem, but uh yeah, it was the bigger guys. It’s not We’re here. It’s not that hot. Like it’s 20. It’s pleas hot compared to where they would have been training in Spain. It’s not that hard a stage. It’s two climbs. They could have gone to the cars and cooled beforehand. So 160k stage. I don’t Yeah, this is an ARSman. This is what he does. But I was surprised that throughout this entire climb I had trouble finding UAE riders. I still don’t know where Adam’s finished at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Partially cuz first cycling and PCs were down when we started this podcast. No official results yet. Luke, there are official results on Jurro. Where’s Ricardo? Where’s Adam Richard? Where’s Ricardo? Anyway, while while Luke is looking up, UAE out of position in the group, not necessarily bad as long as you can stay with the group over the top. They looked ropey. They looked they reminded me a little bit of like Yeah. stage one. And this is what I said cuz like Baroni full dropped McNut. They don’t have that proper like climbing roulette. Yeah. So, exactly. Do you see on this sort of stage Pagata’s got grow sharpener and Solair fully dedicated to position and they’re entering a good position. Red UA had five in the group. So we say Gropy, but they finished with five in the group. And then Joro was on a gap though. Jay Vine was also in the group. So but anyway, we get to the top. Ward’s over the top as you mentioned. Keon is bringing him back to the front. Wilco offering up a potential top 10 position in the sprint in a stage which he’s collecting them top 10 positions. He’s offering it up for his teammate. Not in sprints. Okay. To be honest, there was there was barely anyone over over 10 riders in the group at the end, but um it was a it was a it was a ride to the front by Kelmon. And we go into the descent and we haven’t spoken about the descent that much earlier either after the first uh loop of the sur climb, but the descent is yes has its turny. There’s quite a few corners, but it looked like the road surface was actually good. You said it earlier at the start of the podcast. It’s like like I swear from the airport to where we are staying, we were literally riding on gravel roads onto the highway at a certain point. the the the main street they were finishing on is through like the the main like political area of the the city. So it was of course yeah it was a really good road surface. It looked like a perfectly good like wide turns. Yeah, it was the descent surface was really really good. So to be honest, there’s no complaints for this stage at all. I thought it was actually this is really good stage design where you have a thinned out group sprint. You still have a sprint. You still have lots of riders in the mix. You still have attacking opportunities which we did see some guys attacking. P Gonzali attacked I think another rider maybe Rubio or some Konchi I think for Aana tried to attack and anticipate cuz Trek we should go back to Tre they’ve got two guys Vachkon is not pulling as much uh I’m trying to look through who else finishing their groups. So yeah it’s just Vach and Chakone. So they they they want to do the lead out with Vach and they play it perfectly. They surf a little bit off wheels with Chicone and then uh I’m going to interrupt you. We got to mention the crash. Oh yes. Jeez. Crash in the descent. Vine looked to be the one crashing first. Is that correct? Was it land first? Lander and then Vine was breaking and then he’s about to crash into Lander and then Strong hit him from the back. Okay. So Vine might have actually kept it up if it wasn’t for Well, then again, it’s not crashed as heavily, but Lander, I’m pretty sure crashed first and he went over. It was like Yeah. a fast left hand bend. He just probably ran too wide. I don’t know if he slid out and then there was a just a drop off into some steps where some shops were. So, it was just a bit of a drop onto some concrete where the pavement was and uh instead of sliding out on the flat, he slid out and down and yeah, Lander looked like he broke his collarbone or something. I think so too. Very unfortunate for the Rays. I was hoping for Lander to be one of those spicy attacking GC riders in week three, especially on the super mountainous terrain. It’s such a shame. It’s not the first time Lander crashing out in the first week over Grand Tour. It really hurts to see that. I I think he’s out of the race. I haven’t seen actual. Okay. Well, [ __ ] for the race. I’m sad about that genuinely, but safety assessment for a second. Riders have gone through that descent already. I will say, however, I would have liked to see padding on that giant pole on the exit of that corner. That’s my personal opinion. regardless of whether riders have hit it. That’s we’re in the last 10 km of a of a a versatile sprint stage. It did seem like a corner. Yeah, a few riders had an issue. Another rider then crashed into them afterwards, I think. So, there was like multiple crashes in that corner. I don’t know if it was related to a rider seeing the crash and then freaking out, but you have landers out unfortunately. And we have the lead out. As I said, some attacks all closed down controlled by Trek really, really well. It’s not easy to do this. And uh they then begin the lead out with Vachek progressively. There’s a left hand fast turn with about 450 to go. Vach goes through that first. There’s a fight with Allah who’s taken the wheel of Pison off Van. Vard then slides up and takes it back off all on the straight with 300 to go and then Pison launches about 200. Vach does leave him in the middle. So he didn’t leave him in the perfect spot with just space to the barrier but Pison jumps. Van gets into his wheel. He and Allah have a I would say a clean fight for the wheel. Venard squeezes through. He opens his sprint. He’s going to come around. And this this is a sprint of Pison Benji. It’s like there is no change of pace. Yeah. During the the 15 seconds, it’s just the same speed and then Vanard hits the wind and then starts to slow down, but he’s coming and maybe Pison. And then to be honest, Pis wins easily. He wins by about a wheel ahead of Vanard to take the Malio Rosa. Vanard second, Olu Allah third. Really good result from him. Busousato fourth, best result of his career I think. On Wanty, uh, Pitcock fifth following the draft. Ulissi sixth, Carropaz seventh, of course. Pool eighth, Koni ninth, Pigzoli 10th. That that tells you all you need to know about this stage. It’s basically two real sprinters, a very versatile sprinter who’s good in positioning like and then GC type guys under 65 kilos who are happy to brush shoulders and get in the mix basically who follow in the draft. It was reduced. Still 36 though, which that is very reduced for stage. But it also means that I wouldn’t be expecting G and its one and so forth to really lose a minute and a minute and a half on a stage like this. adds a major amount of damage and a half Benji a minute and a half again might have this time for the the big two are still present. We lost Land which is a big for the race in my opinion. Bernal finished in the first group. Karapas finished in the first group. The Yates boys also finished in the first group. So outside of London, Gian Ardensman, the other GC riders in my opinion made it to the front group. So that is also good to see for the rest of the fight of this. But question, we’ve seen this first stage, first style sprint stage. Does this change her mind towards stage three, which for sure for sure that has a proper amount. Was it a 7% for 10 km? 10 and a halfk 7 and a half% flown relatively flat 20 the descent 25ks 25ks are yeah flat with some still fast descent I don’t know I don’t know the exact road surface down in the south in Vor but uh if you’re if if you’re a Filipo Zana who just lost a and a half if you’re Yeah. any of these sort of cone bowman. Aren’t you now thinking I’m getting in the break and then he should for KM are Vizma going to control again? Like Vanard was weaker than Pedison on the 5k 5% climb in my opinion. Well, Viz Malishbach shouldn’t have controlled in the first place today anyway. So, they definitely shouldn’t on stage three. Let Steven Christ like do his It’s for Little Trek to do that. And like we we got to think about the stage as well in terms of the We spoke about bonus seconds for a second and Pison’s in pink. Yep. We’ve got a time trial tomorrow. We’ll get into the details of that for in a second. But is on 4 seconds in GC and Ting’s gone. Lost a minute 30. So I thought Tingling was going to stay in the group today at least and then take pink tomorrow with the stage. He’s not beating them by a minute 30. I don’t think we Is there anything else from this stage before we preview tomorrow? H I’d say good stage. Uh, I think you can tell you can tell who’s switched on. Like Roglitch has switched on, Carropaz, Simon Phillips is is switched on and in position. I think Roglitch, they were doing what I said they will do, which is 3ks to go. They he’s still trying to fight and be in the in the mix in the washing machine. Like you look at that last K, Benji, Rogich is getting squeezed as the lead out begins to the barrier. Why are you in the mix? Um, anyway, uh, yeah, that’s all I have to say on the stage. I think it was good tomorrow. TT think so as well. Looking forward to it. Tyrana to Tyrana in the city. 13.7ks. We’ll go and watch it. They go up the little hill at the back of the of Tana Park just here where there’s a a big lake, a nice lake, and they they do an out and back on the hill pretty much. Uh so it’s flat. A city circuit though. I think it be pretty far. It’ll be fast because it’s so flat, but also there’s quite a few turns and also like dead turns. Like they literally just do a 180 degree and come back around again. Uh but yeah, U-turns or two three one two three F three more or less Uturns and some other 90° turns. So yeah, quite a few U-turns. There’s a 1.5k. It’s really okay at 6 and a half%. That’s a decent enough climb before Yeah, 14ks. Pison’s not a bad time trial, Benji. And also when he’s motivated, he’s not just going to give the Malia Rosa today away. He’s also been stronger than Bernard today. I agree, but it’s 4 seconds. Four conse 4 seconds is the amount that you’d expect to find to take on Peterson tomorrow. But I agree this is going to be close either way. Is there anyone else that comes to mind? Roglish, you don’t believe in it. First week Roglish time trial. Are you Roglish looks sharp? But you what I mean, you know, Pettison lost 8 seconds to Dennis in the San Benedetto del Toronto TT in 2018. That’s a long time ago, but like on a flat, this is 14ks. It’s going to take them 16 17 minutes. He can do a good TT. And Venard’s going to need to be in top shape to take the Mario Rosa. I still Are we still going tingling? Yes. To the stage. You’re not. I think Roglish look good. I thing is on paper you’d say Tarling wins. W Fernard is closed. Did Did Tarling drop earlier today than you’d expect? No. Yes. But also relative to who else was dropping? No. Yes. Well, you expecting to make a group of 35, a group of 45, 50, but he was earlier than that in my opinion. You’re right. I was expecting him to to last a bit longer on this on this. But like how do we expect to fare? Because hasn’t he won his last two time trial? Yeah. I mean maybe I’m missing Auso. I’m I’m feeling less bullish on Tarling now and I’m trending more towards uh yeah Auso Robich type guy. He didn’t win his last two times lost from Ghana in one won the skola Luxenberg IT last year but let’s be honest about it not the most actually it was against Spiri. So then again to Luxenberg is not exactly the race that everyone peaks for throughout the season. So I don’t think we can use it as the actual indicator here, but it’s like I felt like a yuzo in Grand Tour time trials has always been slightly worse than I expected him to be. Whether it’s at the tour to France or that Vela in the past. No, I can see you think. I can hear you think. To be honest, I just sort of I I I look at their TTS. I have massive recency bias. I then remember the most recent one. I then try to put two data points together and I’m like that’s their whole career. I’m like so I I know I’m always guilty of doing that. Okay, I got to have final pick. Final pick. Uh I’m going with I’m going with Raw Lich. I’m going with Tarling. Okay, Tarling will be the favorite and Malia Rosa Ward or a I’m going rogitch. I’m going to use a wala roa because it’s not necessarily between Pis and Vani. If someone else wins, they only took 10 and six seconds. You were the one on the preview podcast. Yeah, this Benji, I’m telling you, this is my G. This is my game. You do the preview. You do one pick. Then you do the daily preview before the stage with new information, different pick, completely different pick. And then like you got a Yeah. double the chance of being correct. And after the race, regardless of who of the two it is, you’ll be like, I pick that guy. Exactly. Exactly. this I mean it’s just a genius strategy. So I think it’ll be good TT tomorrow. Weather looks all right. Maybe some maybe a little bit of rain actually which could be pretty slippery. It was pretty dry today. I went and checked and there’s like a fair bit of dust about so could be slippy. Um but there’s going to be guys like G is in a way even though he he lost he lost a minute but some other guys you’re in a way different slot now cuz you got 50 guys ahead of you. So yeah. Anything else to say Benji? Not necessarily. I’m looking forward to the second stage. We enjoyed Albania so far. I reckon tomorrow will be even better because being in person at time trials is really fun. GTS are great. Yeah. It’s like, how can I compare this to? It’s like going I don’t I have no clue what to compare it. It’s like watching a If you go to a race, it’s a for it’s like watching a Formula 1 race. You went in a city circuit and you get to see them go around around like loads of them go around over a couple hours. I think I’ve ever in my entire life see seen a Formula 1 race. I never been to Formula 1 race either. Then why you yapping like it? Taco from cut decides who wins. Okay. Not big Formula 1 fans obviously. Thanks for listening as always. Go check out Pillar Performance. True magnesium penalty where Yeah. grid grid penalty if you don’t go and buy some True Magnesium for Pillar Performance. And uh we’ll see you at the Jurro Recap. Say shoot tomorrow. Chowo chow.