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Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast

Giro d'Italia 2026 - Stage 20

30 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What are the key features of Stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia?

0.031 - 25.243 Patrick Broe

Welcome back to the Lenten Rouge Cycling Podcast, the recap of stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia, the final mountain stage from Gemona del Friuli to Piancavallo, similar to the Monte Grappa stage last year. They have a sort of plain 133k, a couple of climbs in the middle, but Really just flat. And then two big climbs. Same climb, rather. So they do two reps off Piancavallo. 15Ks, 8%.

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25.424 - 35.286 Patrick Broe

But first 9Ks is 9%. The last 4 or 5Ks is only like 5.5%. So big draft there. Very technical descent off it. Like...

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35.266 - 57.075 Patrick Broe

there was almost no front camera moto because of how tight it was they had to get them out of there good road service but very technical then there's a 20k valley fast valley and then they go and do it all again it's a fast climb normally pretty high watts because it's from more or less sea level And it's steep from the bottom consistently. So it doesn't go to high altitude. It's very steep.

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57.515 - 64.043 Patrick Broe

It incentivizes going hard at the bottom. And yeah, this episode is brought to you by NordVPN.

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Chapter 2: How do the climbs in Stage 20 impact the race dynamics?

64.243 - 75.617 Patrick Broe

You will forgive me if you see my eyes darting. Benji's giving me permission. The Bucla Dilla Mayen Queen Stage, which is slightly lower altitude than this Queen Stage, is ongoing.

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76.492 - 93.079 Benji Naesen

Okay, now about this Queen stage though, we had some preset parameters here, Patrick. When it comes to the white jersey, Piganzoli was now just over a minute behind Eulalio in the white jersey, so we were looking at whether Piganzoli and Wismar Lissabai could allow Piganzoli to go for that white jersey on the final climb.

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93.64 - 118.463 Benji Naesen

Next to that, Ciccone is now 44 KM points ahead before the stage starts on Vingegaard in the Malia-Azura classification. So to keep in mind, First Piancavallo climb, 40 points. Second Piancavallo climb, 50 points. So Ciccone, ideally, gets some points somewhere to secure it compared to Jonas Vingegaard is basically the story I'm trying to say here. Nonetheless...

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119.185 - 139.843 Benji Naesen

break formation felt a bit calmer than I expected. Is that fair to say? Because we had a breakaway, a seven-man breakaway that evolved out of not the craziest breakaway formation I've ever seen, with the likes of Jonas Geens, Manuel Itarozzi, Axel Huns, Jack Haig, Larry Warbass, Leknisund, and Silva. That's a Ruler breakaway, right?

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140.971 - 161.224 Patrick Broe

Yeah, and I'll take your word for it being calm because I was... Relatively. Well, I was on a plane. So I'm actually near the Circo Massimo in Rome now. Well, I'm not right there. I'm inside a hotel room. But yeah, it was really not like a... It wasn't a hard break to control. I mean...

161.677 - 179.483 Patrick Broe

It's the last opportunity, but I guess the last romantics, Ciccone, I think his best chance to secure KOM is to sit in the peloton and just sprint. Because no one that goes in the break can threaten his KOM lead, right?

179.615 - 202.99 Benji Naesen

like what's this malisa goodbye gonna do are they gonna explode the first biancavalo climb to make sure chikuni has dropped so that if vingo can take the points on that climb without chikuni taking any points no visma won't take that risk so from the peloton there's that certainty that either the breakaway takes away the points for chikuni on that first climb or next to that we'd come into a situation where um

203.982 - 227.087 Benji Naesen

where Ciccone can do it from the peloton himself reacting to Jonas Vingegaard because the tempo in the peloton wasn't extreme enough and he doesn't need to beat Vingegaard from the peloton either just get close enough to also take points that would also secure it so Ciccone was in a luxury position I said it yesterday you said it yesterday he was looking pretty good for this classification after yesterday so unless Vingegaard was going to do something insane today

227.067 - 253.632 Benji Naesen

was not gonna lose that but um like you said easy to control breakaway his malisa bike kept it at i think about four minutes roughly maybe five minutes on the flat portion and it's a long flat portion here but i gotta confess i went to nap time and when i came back from nap time we had the uh start of the uh proper climb but patrick you're outside of your home country how are you watching nordvpn

Chapter 3: What strategies are teams employing during the Queen Stage?

392.527 - 400.877 Patrick Broe

He's like Tom Cruise in the movies when he's in like the... Is it the thing that spins you like when you're an astronaut doing training and it like spins you upside down and around?

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400.897 - 401.398 Benji Naesen

The G-Force thing.

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401.678 - 410.148 Patrick Broe

Yeah, he's inverted. Indeed. And he showed something to the... Did anyone get to the bottom of what he was trying to show on his bike computer to the camera?

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410.889 - 413.112 Benji Naesen

I think his watts is my assumption.

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413.192 - 414.274 Patrick Broe

His average watts of the pool.

414.954 - 416.356 Benji Naesen

Anyway, I'm happy for him.

Chapter 4: Who are the main contenders for the white jersey in this stage?

416.376 - 436.711 Benji Naesen

He probably did pretty high watts based on his performance there, but... Okay, midway to climb, Jonas says something to a teammate, goes to the side of the road, stands still for 20 seconds and rubs the top of his tire a little bit. I assume he maybe thought there's some little rock stuck in it, maybe some nail somewhere, I don't know.

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436.731 - 444.163 Benji Naesen

Either way, he gets back on the bike before the group is completely passed, but... I don't know if you properly saw this moment.

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444.383 - 454.556 Patrick Broe

But that is a classic thing to be like, does he have coal in the legs? Like, you know, when you're like, my brakes are rubbing, my brakes are rubbing. It's like, nah, you just got coal in your legs. He's maybe just thought the uphill was harder than he thought.

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454.576 - 468.754 Benji Naesen

Talking about coal in the legs, I think this moment of Jonas doing this caused Wismar to settle the tempo down a little bit. And Eulalia was struggling up to that point. I feel like on the first Biancavallo, Eulalia might have struggled more than on the second one.

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470.843 - 474.649 Patrick Broe

Nah, I think Eulalia was bluffing the last three stages, honestly.

475.15 - 477.654 Benji Naesen

Okay, you think he's that kind of pacing type rider?

478.114 - 486.427 Patrick Broe

Yeah, I think he was bluffing. Okay. Because how can you be so good on the second rep when they definitely went harder at the bottom of the second rep?

486.908 - 488.791 Benji Naesen

Yeah, but he dropped yesterday on the second climb.

491.796 - 494.64 Unknown

And then came back two descents later.

Chapter 5: What was the significance of the breakaway in Stage 20?

602.553 - 616.51 Benji Naesen

Remember yesterday, Patrick, lots of drama between G, between Ciccone, between Rubio, all indirectly related to or directly related to the Red Bull sprint, because Rubio is leading that classification and wanted to secure it yesterday.

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616.55 - 626.743 Benji Naesen

Turns out that Arrieta went into that attack today, took the Red Bull sprint in the Valley, and is now leading that classification without Rubio doing anything about it.

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627.403 - 628.224 Patrick Broe

Yeah, I had no idea.

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628.245 - 631.108 Benji Naesen

The day he can secure it, he was sleeping.

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632.118 - 652.911 Patrick Broe

I actually had no idea about this. Forgive me that there was, like, other people within shot of the Red Bull classification. It is 15,000 euros, so, you know, it's a fair amount of cash. It's more than KOM. It's more than KOM. But, yeah, like, Rubio was here because he moved up. He was there. He was caught napping.

655.642 - 677.891 Benji Naesen

Fascinating. Anyway, Arieta's now leading. Tomorrow there's another sprint, and I think every sprint gives like 12 to 15 points. I think 15. So it's definitely up for grabs. So it's two points difference if I counted correctly in my head. This could be completely wrong between Arieta and Rubio now. So we might have a Red Bull classification battle going on in tomorrow's stage.

677.911 - 682.257 Benji Naesen

But does anything else happen before Piancavallo 2? I don't think so, eh?

682.642 - 701.815 Patrick Broe

Just Chakani doing the descent, Vingegaard taking it easy. Yeah, like Vingegaard didn't change bikes, so maybe he did get, like I thought he was going to change bike in the valley. They went through some tunnels. Were you surprised no one tried on the descent? I think both of us kind of, we'd given up.

702.183 - 720.59 Benji Naesen

Yeah, I've given up. I gave up off the stage 11. When we had the Colle dei Scioli, that second last medium mountain in the paper district stage, that was the moment for me. I didn't believe in it yesterday and today as much as I did on that stage 11, where it's like a hectic medium mountain stage, you know?

Chapter 6: How did Jonas Vingegaard's performance shape the outcome?

1443.801 - 1448.045 Benji Naesen

If Milan wins tomorrow, it doesn't save it for me. Just admit Giro then for them.

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1448.686 - 1459.637 Patrick Broe

Yeah. Yeah, fifth KOM in a stage. It's not horrific. It's still like, it's better than a lot of teams.

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1459.988 - 1476.563 Benji Naesen

Yeah, you're right. And also, I want to last-minute pop something in here. I am going to make my usual Grand Tour tier list on my Benji Nassim channel. I'm going to record it tomorrow, so it's going to be up on Monday or Tuesday, roughly. So that, together with the Chiro LRCP recap, you've got a lot on your menu, listeners.

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1478.737 - 1492.857 Patrick Broe

Go and check that out when Benji drops it. Tomorrow's stage in Rhyme, technical circuit, best leader wins. I'm going for Paul Meunier. I can't go past him because Jasper Sterven I think is the X factor.

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1495.361 - 1499.226 Unknown

Yeah, I agree with you.

1501.754 - 1521.176 Benji Naesen

But the only way I can win this prediction competition is if I pick a rider that is not Manier. If Manier wins tomorrow and I pick Manier, you win the prediction competition. I have to pick Milan and hope that Milan wins. That's the only way I can still win this. And I'm not even sure I can mathematically still win it. Then again, is it only stage wins or does GC count?

1521.196 - 1526.522 Benji Naesen

Because I've got, well, you're getting Jonas. I think we both got, but I have Hindley in third place.

1526.562 - 1533.268 Unknown

So, or did you as well? The GC gowns, I think I'm good.

1533.288 - 1537.975 Patrick Broe

I don't recall the scoring system for GC.

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