We Visited ALBANIA for the Giro d’Italia Grande Partenza | Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast Vlog

The Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast visits Albania for the Grande Partenza of the Giro d’Italia 2025.

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🇦🇺 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

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The first grand tour of 2025, the Judalia is starting in Albania and LRCP is going boots on the ground to Albania to do some podcast. How can you let Vanderbre just ride away? Now Luke’s got no internet. He’s supposed to have internet. He’s supposed to be good. He’s a producer. He’s self-confessed tech wizard. No stream of the race. Last two. My mom. What’s going on? Thinks we’re on a holiday. You don’t need to do that. Luke, that’s going to provide no protection. All right. Barcelona Airport Hotel. Thank you for your club sandwich. Easy jet. I’m going to stand off with Johnny Whale to see who can be the last to get up to uh get on the flight as a hyperrationalist. You know, last call’s been called. Who can avoid queuing the least or the most? The Mavastar staff are already ceuing. And if you see over my right shoulder, you can see them coming into shot. I believe that’s Johnny Whale in the queue. So, we’re free to queue now. We’ve landed in Tana National Airport, International Airport in fact, and Whiz Air appears to be the number one carrier of this destination. Luke’s very tired. This is the Netherlands way past their bedtime. Luke didn’t bring his passport. They got biometric scanners. Awesome. Patrick, what are we doing? I get a coffee. Now you get a flat white. Cool. So, day one, LRCP has assembled as you can see behind us. Today, we’re going to go to Scannerburgg Square where the Jurro Plaza basically is. Don’t know what to expect from that, so I guess we’ll find out. So, are you impressed? I think the reality is Soviet era mural of a workian flag in the background. Patrick, what’s happening? It’s the day before the Jira, but I think they’re demolishing the uh the tour village. Why? I don’t know. I They forgot to put Albania on the map. They did actually. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Never mind. Never mind. Never mind. It’s on the other side of the thing. I know these people introduce I’m not good at that. It’s one day before the Jurro and they’re literally breaking it all down because the team presentation was yesterday. So this thing behind me is the only thing they have here of the Jurro. Oh, we could go to the the mall. It’s the women’s oldest costume in all of the Balkans and very possibly Europe. This is 4,000 year tradition. It’s also Look at that. There’s a gentleman working with Hollywood. We’re a fairly new center. We opened in December. Wavy uh skirt that you can see. It’s quite heavy cuz it’s all denim felt. I think I believe it’s 7 or 9 kilos. um mid 1800s he leaves Italy. How you like it? What do you like the most? The rose is just I have both now. I like this one. Sure. Black paint. Yeah, you have this one too. Oh, that should be nice. Italy and they were bringing a lot of their investment table once they’ve eaten and bring out the bedings and sleep in the regions of course. religion mostly in the waiting for a big feed bag and back. It’s now early afternoon. I’m on my way to the Palace of Congress in Tana because that’s where the Jurro headquarters is for these three days of the Grande Partenza. And I got to pick up my press accredititation. So, let’s go. First conference. Sorry. Go ahead. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. Yeah. I was just like showing you my So, we’re in Durish for the start of the first stage of the Girro 2025. The teams are arriving. Let’s take a look. Mate, what are those? Uh, they’re they’re called my sandals. Hello, sir. Morning. Good luck today. Benji and Luke have gone to Durus uh out on the coast where the stage starts. I was a little bit uh uncaffeinated. So Dez’s caffeinado just steal from Daniel Free. And so we just had coffee and then we’re going to check out the stage finish in uh in Tana in the city where we are right now. So we’ll go we just walk straight up to it. Here we are. This is cuz I remember Wood Bud, we had to walk ages to the We’re here in the mid zone of the juralia. Uh the tour gun will you attack on on the Sunday stage. See, dehydration is the key to victory. Come on. Always stay hydrated. How can you tell if you’re not hydrated? Albanian tap water to me tastes fine. I think it’s fine. It’s compared to Barcelona tap water, it tastes better. Disclaimer for the viewers. He hasn’t drunk anything, so don’t do it. Don’t try it. He’s trying to kill our viewers. This man Luke should have been the ex lawyer. He’s putting disclaimers in the vlogs. We’re at the middle of the lake at the Tana Park. It’s pretty nice, actually. Everyone’s out enjoying the good weather, the families, whenever you need it. I reckon you’d have some decent finds around here. I reckon it’s actually the side cuz this is Can you get a picture of us in a second? I like the side. Once you get past this house, I think you see the road up there like Wow. Don’t let that moist the wheel of P off you. Don’t let Primos take it. He is bars. Primos is smart. He’s just No. Is he though? It’s 3ks to go. Why are you in the mix? All these guys are going to fight for W’s. We will just go to the back. Is your boys moving up? It’s last. It’s a sprint stage. There’s no way there will be captioning such a small group. Look at the shak no is coming. Oh, is this coming? I think it’s first reaction. Oh, really good. Really good stage. I think this is the grand tour organizers have nailed it with these sort of stages that you don’t want a big mass group sprint. You want a thinned out sprint and sometimes GC contenders struggle and that’s what we saw with guys getting dropped. So either Pison took it up Trek mega strong and they deserve to win. So really really good stage. What’s up now? Time to record. Welcome back to Lanch Rou siphoning podcast live on the ground in Albania. At end of it Royster is having to chase remaining four SD works. I think heritzer was dropped yesterday so she was dropped. We just got some raka. Oh it smells good with honey. already drunk. Cheers. Bottoms up. Yeah. So, we’re having a continual debate in the LRCP house. What is when you’re sharing water between five people, what’s the optimal size? Luke wants 1.5 L bottles. I think in the middle of the night they’re unwieldy. He wants smaller. We are not literally. I reckon one liter is the best for night. Yeah, one liter is the best. Luke wants to get a 5 L, no, 7 L jug. I don’t think that’s worth it. I think we’re going to go with the one liters. You’re delusional. He’s in shock. Get him out of here. How the [ __ ] is Simon Yates the same old as Aras? You didn’t record, dude. The previous game, did you? When I was winning, right? My husband literally said no. He said, “I want to go home.” Yates is [ __ ] cooking. He probably also wants to go home. No, he doesn’t. Some may want to go home, but he’s going to go home with the Mario Rosa. So, the boys are heading out. I’m here with Luke himself. We’re heading towards the uh recon of the time trail. So, let’s see how this goes. Two recurring characters in the vlog. You didn’t give me a shout out on the pod last night. Not yet. You might be in the vlog with your shoes, buddy. I’m not wearing them today. I’m resting my weary toes. Resting your weary toes, buddy. Oh, from the London Marathon. Zack cameraman. Jacob, Little Trek press officer. No. What do you call it now? Press manager. Press person manager. Don’t embarrass me. What are you, sir? He’s the big He’s the the big dog. He’s the little truck big dog. Thanks, buddy. I need to find Well, so the riders are all back from their recon and I’ve got a bit of a surprise. I just spoke to Emily and Matt from Picnic Postel and I’m invited into their team car for one of their riders. So, I’ve been in a TT team car once with Yambo Visma in 2022 at the Grand Parten in Budapest. Got to say, it was a bit of a rally, so I’m expecting the same today. Left side of the road is going to be the best all the way to the turn. What we do do is we have a pacing plan for guys going full gas like Roman and Max. And then we also have a pacing plan for guys that have got jobs to do. Yeah. So there they they just know they can come home safely in the time limit. No panic. Got to say it is super funny that the two times I’m going into a team car in a time trial is behind Hazer the same exact rider. Patrick Jirro stage three has begun. You look pretty worried at the moment. Why? I’m trying to find a stream of trf vinance but I can’t find it. Devastating. Pod recap done. Lava feminina video done. Time to stretch the legs. walk around the lake because yeah, we just sit and watch cycling all day and then we’ll have Italian for dinner, of course, with the with the Jirro being on.