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Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast

Giro d'Italia 2026 - Stage 16

26 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What does the 16th stage of the Giro d'Italia entail?

0.031 - 22.682 Patrick Broe

welcome back to the lantern rouge cycling podcast the recap of stage 16 of the giro d'italia from bellinzona which uh i'm gonna just say means pretty zone it was a pretty zone uh we're in switzerland today all over the border in the uh italian region of switzerland Finishing on the top of Kari, a lot of professional cyclists. It used to be traditional to live here. I think a few still do.

0

23.423 - 46.633 Patrick Broe

But I think Contador made his primary residence in Lugano, not far from Bellinzona, essentially the same area if you're Australian. But now it's less fashionable. But still a lot of riders are familiar with this area. We have 113k stage, four Category 2 and 3 climbs on a local lap in the middle. So we have the Torre and the Leon Tica climb. They're both about... Yeah, 10 and 12 minutes.

0

46.874 - 73.649 Patrick Broe

They're separated by pretty nice descents. Before then is a 30K false flat uphill. After that is a 30K false flat roller in a valley. Then they do the car recline. 11.6K is 8%. We have a flat kilometer with 4Ks to go. So actually the average... Gradient of the real climbing is about 8.5, 8.8%. Steep, consistently steep. Low altitude start, more or less.

0

73.99 - 85.455 Patrick Broe

Swiss roads, they're going to go fast after the rest day. What's your view on this stage, Benji? Is this woke nonsense? Being like a Giro, having such a Vuelta stage, do you have a strong view on it?

0

85.672 - 109.131 Benji Naesen

think it's okay to have a stage like this but i think there might be a bit too many stages in this geo that might be controllable for a strong team does that make sense because if you have a strong team here then you can control a 100 kilometer stage for your rider to win the race and we'll see if that becomes reality today or not now um i would like maybe a little bit more multi-mountain stages maybe it's because i

109.162 - 120.243 Benji Naesen

I just... Like, the Piancavallo stage is a... It's not a Uniperto stage. It's two times Piancavallo, but I would like three or four multi-mountain stages instead of the two we have in this race, you know?

122.186 - 126.394 Patrick Broe

Yeah, I don't mind this stage on its own, like you say, but you've got to have then the...

127.066 - 145.986 Patrick Broe

like blockhouse i mean we say that but then blockhouse was preceded by two big climbs in 22 and they had a bunch sprint right so the riders do make the race i thought it was a pretty entertaining stage blockhouse is different though as in blockhouse is a stage that is built for blockhouse to be the terrain of battle at the end of the stage

145.966 - 167.797 Benji Naesen

I like the multi-mountain stages where, for example, like stage 19, you've got lots of mountains throughout the parkour and an easier climb at the end. Or like the Paso de los Telvios stage from 2020, a larger climb before a smaller climb that just incentivizes action on the second last climb or the third last climb instead of people waiting for the last bump to the finish.

Chapter 2: How do the climbs impact the race strategy for the riders?

171.442 - 191.089 Benji Naesen

I got to pause it. We've got to talk about some things because I've got a list of things in my notes that I want to chat about before we get into this stage. And the first one, yesterday I wake up, I was happy to live in a world where the young Christian documentary would come into reality. I opened my YouTube and I see the documentary. I'm super hyped, super hyped. I click on it.

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191.37 - 198.079 Benji Naesen

I click on it and I see, wait a second, it's eight minutes. What is this, Patrick? A documentary for ants?

0

198.481 - 216.608 Patrick Broe

Who started the bit that it was going to be a documentary? Werner Herzog transversing, you know, the Nile River to discover the inner workings of young Kristen? No. I did a nice little, not even little, that's a long video for me. Little?

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216.588 - 243.514 Patrick Broe

i spent all day i spent all day on my rest day uh making that video and no i enjoyed making it uh obviously selective editing left out i actually was going to include i have a photo i'm not lying i have a photo downloaded of him 10 seconds ahead of the breakaway on stage 14 on the first climb as maybe a counterpoint but i i forgot to put it in but anyway Thanks for everyone's comments.

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243.935 - 247.883 Patrick Broe

I like doing this. It's like an old school flashback Lantana Rouge video. I enjoyed doing it.

249.326 - 252.513 Benji Naesen

Okay. I'll put that topic to the side. I'll forgive you.

252.533 - 259.487 Patrick Broe

That's part one. Can it not be a multi-part? Unlike the streaming services, I've got to get you in. That can be a multi-part series.

259.67 - 266.743 Benji Naesen

The problem is that knowing you, there's going to be multiple years between each episode, just like they do TV shows these days.

266.763 - 277.342 Patrick Broe

I legitimately, I work, I'm like the June woman, mother goddess. I'm like, my plans are measured in centuries. Like to me, the Patrick Bro vlog channel is like active.

Chapter 3: What are the opinions on the stage's design and its effect on riders?

315.485 - 317.167 Benji Naesen

Pollen is woke, but dust is not, is what you're saying?

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317.188 - 317.748 Unknown

100%, yeah.

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317.949 - 318.229 Patrick Broe

Yeah.

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318.952 - 321.695 Benji Naesen

Okay, I'll try and write that in my book so I don't get it wrong next time.

0

321.715 - 335.792 Patrick Broe

Like when they do those cringe street interviews on Instagram reels where they go viral that are like, this is this person, guess this person's political beliefs. They drive a car. It's like, I don't know. It's so ridiculous.

335.872 - 360.594 Benji Naesen

Okay, the stage. Pardon? I want to talk about Enrico Zanoncelo for a second. Oh, yeah, that poor guy. So two days ago, there was a Giro d'Italia stage. There was a sprint in the peloton, but the break we obviously won, which resulted in the victory of Duersnes. But in that peloton sprint, there was a crash. That crash was... according to the UCI commissaires caused by Enrico Zanoncelo.

360.975 - 380.903 Benji Naesen

Let me try and portray what happened. They were in the run into the sprint, so I assume last 300 meters roughly. In doing so, Paul Penouet tries to move right to follow an Astana rider, I think, in the sprint. In doing so, shoulder barges into Enrico Zanoncelo, who ends up... falling over into Donaldson.

381.404 - 406.519 Benji Naesen

And during that falling over, he gives a head movement, a headbutt kind of movement towards Donaldson, which results in the crash of Donaldson. Zanoncelli is disqualified and removed out of the race. Now, I think there's elements to this. First of all, Penaway should receive a yellow card for the move that he did because he straight up shoulder barges into Zanoncelli in a pretty serious fashion.

407.039 - 433.03 Benji Naesen

Then next to that, Zanoncelo falling over and so on. It's just a consequence of that initial shoulder barge. I do think that it's easy to misinterpret the headbutt, especially if it's literally being cropped out of the screen like TNT sported on their Instagram and Twitter. They literally cropped Benoit out of the picture, making it look like Zanoncelo took out Donaldson on purpose.

Chapter 4: What incident involving Enrico Zanoncelo occurred during the race?

437.522 - 445.869 Patrick Broe

Yeah. Send him home. To make space. Send him home. He's trying to. I find it very hard. I don't know what the rules are. I haven't looked.

0

447.25 - 449.372 Unknown

Headbutting is not allowed. Spoilers. Okay.

0

449.412 - 479.6 Patrick Broe

But is it a headbutt really? Or is it a rider trying to not crash? And so how can we penalize riders in the middle of a reaction? Bang. You put your arm out even. What if you put his arm out to try to not crash? Give him a yellow card. And listen, we are the original deviation police, but I find it hard to send a guy home. He's reacting in the moment, trying to not crash.

0

479.641 - 490.614 Patrick Broe

He's trying to counterbalance with his head. Also, because he hits the left, because Donaldson was on the hoods, which during a sprint, he's coming back. That compounds the issue. I just see no malice in it.

0

491.435 - 491.856

Yeah.

492.19 - 517.754 Benji Naesen

I think I had three phases. My initial phase was the first time I saw it. It looked to me like he just fell over into Donaldson after Penue pushed him, and then Donaldson crashed as a consequence. That is clearly no DSQ. Then I started looking at the slowed down version of it, 50 times. And the more I saw the slowdown version, the more the slowdown version becomes your reality.

517.934 - 529.015 Patrick Broe

The headbutt was too Italian. That's the problem. That's what's got him here. Especially in the slowdown. There was so much flair in his neck movement. So much. Like, dude, that's the problem. There was too much flair.

529.45 - 547.856 Benji Naesen

If it's on the slowdown and you watch it 50 times, then you could lean towards, oh, that maybe looks like an unnatural movement. I had a moment like that yesterday where I was like, that looks a bit unnatural after watching it 30 times. But if you then go back to the actual speed and watch it again in that speed, I'm sorry, but... He's trying to hit Donaldson's shoulder.

548.337 - 551.762 Patrick Broe

Yeah. His goal was to hit Donaldson's shoulder and bounce back.

Chapter 5: How did the teams approach the breakaway strategy during the stage?

2338.082 - 2354.847 Benji Naesen

Junior race, by the way. Anyway, let's talk about the stage, the breakaway. Narvaez needs to be in the breakaway. He needs the Chiclamino points on the, I think, third climb of the day. Did I listen correctly? You say Chiccone needs to go in the breakaway. I agree with you.

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2355.948 - 2369.238 Benji Naesen

But on a stage like this, Chiccone has less of a certainty in a breakaway versus a Narvaez type operator than on a pure mountain stage. Narvaez can win this. That's what I'm saying. Ciccone is less of a certainty against an advisor on this kind of stage.

0

2369.619 - 2375.911 Patrick Broe

Ciccone, I agree. Like when I look at the... Well, I don't know.

0

2375.932 - 2383.206 Unknown

Are you sure that Ciccone is a better pure climber than Rubio? What are you saying?

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2383.675 - 2399.558 Patrick Broe

I'm saying there's no guarantee Ciccone beats Rubio on 19 or 20. Whereas I think on this punchy 2.5k 6% climb after a hard day and Narvaez having spent a lot of energy before and throughout the three weeks.

2400.46 - 2412.838 Benji Naesen

I've got it differently where I don't see Rubio dropping Ciccone and Ciccone has the better punch. That's the thing. On the other hand, Ciccone has to go all in for K1 points, which costs some energy throughout every climbing segment.

2414.793 - 2420.24 Patrick Broe

Tomorrow's not that important for KOM. So I think he should over-index on the stage win tomorrow, not KOM.

2421.962 - 2426.208 Benji Naesen

Yeah, if he's in the break, he shouldn't care about KOM too much. Also, Zhao is the stage.

2427.51 - 2435.48 Patrick Broe

It's two Cat 3s at the start. I mean, just take second behind Rubio on them. Stop sprinting each other full gas. Go for the stage win.

Chapter 6: What were the key moments leading to the final climb?

2468.236 - 2483.813 Patrick Broe

Who has looked good? Ciccone and Rubio got to stop attacking each other. It's not helping either of them. Who looked good today? When in doubt, pick a star and give me the old fox. Give me Diego Ulysses.

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2483.833 - 2493.004 Benji Naesen

Oh, I like it. I like it. For winning the stage, I'm not sure, but... He can't sprint anymore. You can't sprint anymore. Doesn't he have like nine stage wins at the Giro?

0

2493.905 - 2496.167 Patrick Broe

Yeah, he won a lot. He's won a lot of races.

0

2498.257 - 2499.539 Benji Naesen

He's ridden a lot of races, too.

0

2501.401 - 2510.714 Patrick Broe

So I'm going with Ulisse, I think. Ciccone, Rubio, Narvaez, Cristian, Ulisse. I think we're going to have a cinematic masterpiece in the break tomorrow. Okay.

2511.054 - 2516.001 Benji Naesen

Enrique Mas, maybe? I don't think it's hard enough for Mas. He can't drop Narvaez here.

2516.021 - 2519.886 Patrick Broe

He dropped the gacha on a hill in Lombardia, no?

2520.908 - 2535.308 Benji Naesen

Have you seen that level of Enrique Mas in this Giro, Patrick? He dropped Pogba and Emilia. Are you saying Henrik was better than revised on this type of parkour? Who's your pick?

2535.328 - 2535.989 Unknown

Ulysses, really?

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