Row Man, it's stage 11 of the Euro Ditalia
Row Man, it's stage 11 of the Euro Ditalia. Let's cure that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Row Man Podcast. Roadman, welcome back to another Roadman cycling podcast and in all honesty we've been waiting for this stage since the very start of the Shiro d'Italia. I flagged this stage at the outset, we said it was one where great gladiators were going to come and they were going to smash the heads off each other and that's exactly what they It was like an old school boxing match with punches just getting exchanged and there was one big winner and I'm gonna go into it now. Before we do, just a reminder about Patreon. Patreon's how we fund the podcast, it's how we keep the show rolling. So if you wanna buy me a beer, once a month, head on over to patreon.com and help cover some of the expenses of the podcast. The link is in the bio. It's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. So we had stage 11. It was nervous, 2007 we see a Kid 11's win there. We love Strata Bianchi and today we had four separate sectors which amounted to 35km of gravel inside the last 70km. And for sure the hardest working man in the pro peloton is going to be the kit washer to noise because it got dirty out there today. Monkey dirty day, the Strata Bianchi, made for absolutely brilliant entertainment, and I always say this, whatever is amazing entertainment for us is always shit for the writers, whatever we look forward to Daydread, whatever Daydlook forward to WeDread, those flat, boring, uneventful stages, this was certainly anything both that. We had a break that went out and it got about 15 minutes, and I don't want to downplay how strong the break were, because we had a debutante Grand Tour rider winning a stage today which was brilliant but all the action was back the road and we had Felipe Ogana taking it into that forced gravel section like a boss. Time and time again I've criticized Inyos in one day races and time and time again I've praised Inyos in Grand Tours. They were absolutely incredible again today. When the dust settled on that forced dust settled pardon me, the pond settled on that forced stratobianchi section we had a tree in the ocean in front. And Bernal, we had Saagann up there, we had Trek, Hade Nibley, and Conconé up there, we'd movie star had tree goys including their team, Ursula Celer, and we had Quickstep, EF and Astana all in group two. We had a bit of a regroup, but then everything came back together, all the favourites there, except the big two losers today.
Hate to say, our Irish man, Dan Martin and David Formula didn't make…
And I hate to say, our Irish man, Dan Martin and David Formula didn't make group two, which re-fronted at the front of the race and they went on to lose over six minutes today which is the end of their GC hopes falling out of the top 20 I think. But you could notice on the gravel straight away the history that guys have on the bike. Someone who is much hoiped not on this podcast but much hoiped coming into the race by mainstream media, Remko Evan Paul and if we contrasted him as one of the big favourites against Bernanoil. Bernanoil was born on a bike. He grew up on a bike from a young age he was riding a He used to race mountain bike. He looked so at home on the bike. His boy handling is immense. Remp cost me on the bike for four or five years and he moved across from being a soccer player. And that doesn't always show on road races but boy fuck it showed today on the gravel. Bernal looked every bit the champion that he's grown to be. He looked brilliant, he looked composed, he looked mature, he looked strong and as Evan Paul was struggling, Bernal was the one. Some days here to hammer, some days here to nail and Bernal was the hammer and Evan Paul was the nail. Musk on was super strong, shout out to him as well. Well, Remko couldn't sit on wheels, he was getting gapped in corners and ultimately that amount of extra energy he had to spend added up. And when it came across pictures on TV that Remko was struggling in last man, who was going to come to the front and put the dying blow to him? The knockout punch, it was Bernal, took it on himself, Maglia Rosa at the front of the boy Grace smashing the group to pieces. Drops Remco. We've Joe I made it from Quickstep, still in the group, but I don't have to miss communication on what was going on, but Joe I made it, probably stayed for a 6k after Remco was dropped from the front group. Remco petulantly tosses his earpiece out of his ear. It looked drama a Quickstep, I don't know what was going on, what sort of infighting was going on. I made it eventually went back and tried to ride for Evan Paul who was getting dropped. He'd have fucking disaster over the day. For me, he's out of GC as well now. Buckman went on the attack with about 5k to go and he distanced Chikonne and Nibali. Also Salir got himself dropped around then and this is where we kind of get into the final scene and this is where it was brilliant because Hugh Carnegie for me attacks in the final but he doesn't judge his effort. He's obviously feeling okay but he attacks and as soon as he attacks he's countered by Blasov and Hugh Carnegie gets dropped and And then what happens, Blasoth, who makes the exact same mistake Hugh Cardi just made, everyone thinking they're the strongest man there, but there's only one strongest man there, and it's Eagan Bernal.
He counters Blasoth's attack, so it's been a Cardi, countered by…
He counters Blasoth's attack, so it's been a Cardi, countered by Blasoth, countered by Bernal, Bernal rolls across to, when I said rolls across, goes across like a fucking rocket to Buckman, who's up the road, they make a two-up, they have their little chat as we often see in Boy Grace and where it's mutually beneficial for both them to ride, that both of the O'Ride and take away and they end up taking gaps big noticeable gaps on a stage like this like Bernal takes three seconds the big GC gaps are Bernal takes three seconds from Buckman 13 seconds from Vlasov 12 seconds from Karuso 2 minutes 30 from Renko unbelievable I should mention I've gotten so caught up in the GC battle because it's fascinating it was in trawl and it was boy-can and it was power it was teamwork it was everything every reason why we love of Sullyclan. Sorry for getting so caught up on that and just kind of glossing over Merr Peruso is managing into the top tree at 1-12 with Hugh Cardi there, Yates is there all inside the top six and Remko's back in 7th from 2nd to 7th at 2-22. Today was, if you don't like, today's stage, you don't like Boy Grace and it was brilliant. Get yourself on the Eurosport player, check out the last 34km at us because it was just cycling at its very, very best. We're back again tomorrow. I've enjoyed my rest day. Hopefully you enjoyed having a day and not listening to me, but I'll be back again tomorrow. Jati Olin. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14-day Kickstarter challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans regardless of what your level is. There's masters, beginner, advanced. There's meal plans, shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you true at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmansoidcling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio. That's go to mansycling.com slash 14 day.