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Chapter 1: What is the route and profile of Stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia?
Welcome back to the Lenten Rouge Cycling Podcast, the recap of stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia from Alessandria to Verbania, 189 kilometers long. We have, once again, a very flat brake formation, 160km of flat, like three uncategorized hills in the first 30km, and then two climbs, a warm-up, nice little five-minute warm-up, 2.4km, 6%, short descent, and then the Ungiasca Climb. 4.7K, 7%.
The last two Ks, average 10%. Quite steep. Little plateau on top. Then a quick descent. Good tarmac. I saw a lot of road furniture in the run-in to Verbania, where it finishes on the shores of Lake Maggiore. Beautiful stage to watch. This episode is brought to you by NordVPN. I thought the break would win today, Benji. I thought it'd be a break of 30.
Yeah.
Because like who, I think there was one team that wanted to control that was NSN. They thought about a theoretical Corbin Strong sprint.
Yeah, I think so as well. And that was kind of the thought process we had yesterday, that there's maybe one, maybe one and a half teams that sees a possibility for a peloton result for their rider. And even with NSN, to be honest, I don't really see it. Like, Strong's a good rider, but there's absolutely no certainty that if the peloton goes to that final climb, that Strong wins the race.
If anything, it could be a puncher, a GC rider, it could be a versatile sprinter, it could be anything, depending on how those last two climbs are done. So I...
I think they should have gone all out for breakaways, especially with riders like Pinarello and so forth, but the rest of the peloton was into breakaway formation action, it's fair to say, although I wasn't completely sure about Ineos, is that fair to say?
Because Jonathan Milan actively started to jump into breakaways at the start for a little track, for green jersey points, I assume, but Ineos first seemed like they were closing moves, and then later switched to joining chasing groups, no?
Yeah, I couldn't really tell. I thought they have to go on the break, right? I mean, where's Egan Bernal on GC? Narnia. He's in the worst place. He's on 5 minutes 45. He's still called Egan Bernal. He might... too close, actually. He's too close, but he's also too far away. Like, I understand Matisse Rondel wanting to go for a top 10. It makes total sense. Egan Bernal's won this race.
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Chapter 2: How does the breakaway strategy unfold during the stage?
And I think it's Gunnar and Turner both in a secondary chasing group. Turner was riding for Gunnar to go in the breakaway, right? Or were they both trying?
Turner was trying to launch Gunnar into the break. He did a lead out for Gunnar, yeah. Which, if I was Turner, I'd never have done, by the way.
Yeah, for sure.
Especially with the context of week one. In the context of the help he's got from Ghana, absolutely not.
Because even like yesterday, I'm sorry, Ghana wrote a fantastic TT. But the way Ghana dropped at the same time as the pure sprinters on the climb yesterday, that is definitely below his capabilities on a climb like that. And he can help a run like Ben Turner more.
Or win himself.
A Seagard style. He literally won the Reserva Lauderdale in that way.
He nearly won Toreno stage that way this year.
I don't know. I said it the day he won the time trial. There's something with Gunna where he should be able to win more races, road races, than he does. And I don't know what the actual reason is behind the scenes, but it's a shame to see.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do the riders face during the climbs?
Yeah. Even like a Sturgeon, to be honest. I agree. I understand. I mean, Unox, I had Lech Nusland as maybe the favorite from that group. So Unox, they got Hulgaard there. He's going to lock it down. FDJ, they've obviously had a shocking Giro. They just want a top five and some UCI points out of Kench. So they're just going to pull with Jakobs.
I agree with the take on respectability. As in, they want to be seen actually doing something in this Giro for the first time. I refuse to believe that it's for top five UCI points. You better believe. I don't actually think that... That team would have achieved much through Fuga de la Fuga, so attacking before we get to the hills.
Because if you attack with Huns and Jakobs, they're most likely going to have a rider with them that's better than them and eventually drops them on the final climb anyway. But I do have an issue on how they approach the last two climbs. But we'll get to that because the first climb is the easy one. The second climb is the harder one.
But Patrick, what if hypothetically I go to Italy and want to watch the Giro d'Italia, but I can't because I've got my UK service?
Well, maybe you want different comms or maybe comms get shut off for a little bit that you like. that's where you need nordvpn so you you think going to races it sounds glamorous you're sitting there in the hotel room and then you realize and as i did actually in london i've used i used nordvpn when i was in london
uh because i was i need to watch the race with the subscription service i pay for and i want the same commentary as normal and that's when i flicked it on and i was able to do so through nordvpn we'll be at rome for the finish uh paris most likely for the tour finish and that's where nordvpn comes in handy
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and make sure you can stay up to date with every single cycling race possible in the world and watch them at all times, any place. There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money day get back guarantee and using that link helps support the podcast. So the break's formed. I like Josh Kench for a sneaky top five. He's a Kiwi who did well on Groupama. He's just got signed by Groupama.
We've already spoken about him, I think. He made the peloton on stages two, four, and five this week so far. But Leknesund I really liked for the reason that he attacked...
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Chapter 4: Which riders are expected to perform well in the stage?
Okay.
We were talking about something else.
I want to remind you of a certain stage in the Tour de France four years ago.
What does that have to do with the light on my window?
It doesn't. I was just trying to get the MI5 to visit you. And the... Mond finish. Alberto Berriol attacks on a 2K 11% climb too early. He drops Michael Matthews, and Michael Matthews comes back from the dead, reels him back in on Monte Jalabert, and beats Berriol with a late surge at the end. Goated stage. Unbelievably good stage and break fight.
You rarely ever see that, and Berriol kind of used that tactic today.
Was that the same climb where maybe a few editions earlier we had Stephen Cummings attack Bardem Pinot or something in the breakaway? Or am I imagining that? Could be. Anyway, that to the side, that to the side. Kench goes way too early here, and he does it twice, because once he has his first attack, he's got three people in the wheel.
Betiel, like you said, Leknessund, your man for the stage, and also on my list, I've got Betiel, Leknessund, and Betiel. It's Volker in the second, the third rider in that group. So there's four riders off the front now. We've got maybe Mark Donovan passing the dropped riders, getting closer, getting closer, but then Josh Kench pushes again with about 1.8-ish kilometers from the top.
And at this point, you can feel it coming. Because the people in his wheel are not actually suffering that hard following the moves of Gensh. And that's when... Is it Leknisunt that counters?
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Chapter 5: What factors influence team strategies in the Giro?
But the other two?
I think scoring and losing time is smart. But yeah, today's stage was just a classic breakaway stage. Not much happened, and that's fine. Tomorrow's stage, something will happen from Aosta. I love Aosta. I love this valley.
Great race. Giro d'Aosta. Yeah. Yeah.
That way, Del Toro had his first ever good result in Europe. We'll check that.
Or is that Sibiu?
No, no, Oster was before Sibiu, I think. Sibiu's in July. Oster's tomorrow, 133 kilometers long, proper mountain stage. We've got one, finally. We start with the category one, 16K, 6% climb, huge day in the KOM fight too. We know Wingergaard's got a lead, but... If the break wins tomorrow, whoever wins from the break can take it back mathematically, maybe, don't know. 15K, 6%.
Descent, short valley of 10Ks. Then we start another section of climbing of about 15 kilometers. Then another descent, short valley, about 5Ks.
uh and we have some french name you know this is on the border of france more or less or near there a lot of people speak french in this valley we have the linois climb 7.5 k's 8 quite hard especially the last two k's very short fall summit and then it kicks up again to veronia 5.6 k 7
us up to about 1600 meters then we have a uh 16 kilometer descent a short valley again a red bull kilometer at the in the middle of the climb which yeah it's so pointless but uh anyway it's there and well how many red bull kilometers have been contested by the top three gc guys in just yesterday two weeks no just yeah but you lalio i mean maybe two in the zero max
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Chapter 6: How does the weather impact the race dynamics?
He was horrific to start this year. Yeah.
It's fascinating. I don't know why you're sending a classics rider to the Alula-Oman combo and then to Classic VAR and Tour de Zalmara team. I mean, yeah, it's not the preparation I would have picked, but... Yeah, then... Kazakh diplomacy.
24, what do you do? I mean, he will...
He was third in Quebec last year. Maybe he's better in hot conditions. Could be. Maybe he's just not good in the spring.
Like Tokyo.
Was he good in Tokyo? On the Mikuni Pass, he was one of the strongest riders. True, he was good then. Maybe he's just good in hot conditions. Maybe he should do TDU.
He did TDU and then he had cramps on the final hill, no?
Yeah, true. I don't know. I think some guys get paid a lot of money because they win some stuff early and then...
That RVV victory was objectively the worst RVV I've ever watched in my entire life. Why? Nothing happened until the outer quarter months. Betiole attacked. Nobody responded because they probably couldn't. And nothing happened for the rest of the race. It's how I perceive that race from my memory. Yeah.
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