Stage 1 | Nessebar – Burgas | Giro d’Italia 2026

[MUSIC PLAYING] You're listening to Dura Vagandum, the cycling podcast at the 2026 Dura Dita Dura. The cycling podcast, every day on the ground at the Dura Dita Dalia since 2016. Today we are in Borgas. [MUSIC PLAYING] [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] I've responded those and say, well, just going to be a cakewalk for Jonas to take the pictures in the trophy. No, I don't buy in on that one. I mean, the hero is the hero. You've seen it in the last four editions. It got turned upside down in three of them in the last stage. So everything can happen here. And you need to be focused every single day. And also, the competition is not easy. It's good bi-graders as well. Well, actually, when you say 109th, give it a try. It is. It's underway. How would you describe the atmosphere? I think it's pretty-- it's been fantastic, actually. Alight, of course. It's not real, it's a pause. No, but I was looking to our colleague, Simion Kichukov, he said, who was surprised by how many people are here. And in fact, I could see lots of pink, lots of local fans as well. I think Bulgaria has been-- Most good. I don't know about any of that front. I think so. I think so. First stage, so far so good. Michele Belachi. Eccolo Haiderun. Daniele Tau. Welcome, Fabulous Chiqulismo. We are in Arena Burgas. This place-- The mythical arena Burgas. This is his cavernous indoor arena, where the press room has been today in Burgas. And this is where the local basketball team play. And they're a very good basketball team. By all accounts, Michele, they play in the top division. And Chernomorets, I believe they're called-- They're not called Burgas. I think that's a region-- no, it's not a region, a district of the city, I think. They know, by the way, in Bulgaria, these days, we're having Ural League basketball, because Makabitela Viv and Real Madrid are playing a series here. Wow. Wow. You never see still amazed me. And Michele, we heard-- we just heard this studio that you're starting before that. Yonu's Vingigas sort of summing up what he's been saying for a long time now. This is not going to be-- well, our colleague, the American journalist Gregor Brown, used the phrase "cakewalk." And I was impressed that Yonu's Vingigas either knew or he figured out what cakewalk meant. It means a race competition that's going to be easy. And he said, nah, nah, no, Gregor. That's not going to be easy. Interesting. It won't be easy. It will be 20 grueling stages for him and for us as well, for everyone. But we had a pretty short and speedy one today, right? Not that speedy, according to some of the chaps in the peloton that we spoke to afterwards, but more on that in a minute. Michele, just to bring the listeners up to date a little bit, we have been in Bulgaria now for just over 24 hours. And it started pretty badly in the sense that when we went to fetch our high car, I hit my head against the metal box. And I've been complaining today. I've been invoking the Concussion Protocol today. So if I sound a little bit groggy, it's because I am very groggy. And I've been complaining. And Michele is giggling because he spends his whole day giggling. I don't know if he's-- Hopefully my condition doesn't deteriorate in the nation. What does it mean? It means not my usual sprightly self, Michele. So apologies already to the listeners for that. But that was in Sofia. We picked our car up in Sofia. And more about our journey later, but just to inform the listeners that we arrived last night. And then we reported for duty the morning at the start in Nesebar, Old Nesebar. We'd already been to Nesebar this morning, hadn't we? Because we'd been running there from our hotel, Michele. And we were calling it the Venice of the Black Sea. I mean, if you really, really squint, it was a lot smaller than Venice. Tons smaller than Venice. But similar entrance on a-- on the water pathway or street. And through this street, you could see this little-- not island, but it resembled an island or a tortilla in Syracusa if some of those are-- Very good comparison. Very good comparison. It's easily-- And yeah, but it would be honest. Looked a bit like an old medieval center in Italy, because you've got ruins and there were fishermen. It was beautiful to see, actually. It was, Michele. And we were already quite impressed. We've been quite impressed since arriving by the amount of excitement that seems to be about the Giro di Italia. The amount of interest already in Sofia, which is a long way from here, four hours drive. There was paint, there was signs, there were balloons. And we saw more of that today. But we will be discussing that in greater detail later in the episode. Michele, traditionally, we do go back in time to the start of the day. And we talk about a little bit about what happened this morning, a couple of people we spoke to. A couple of conversations, interesting conversations, I've note that I thought we would share with listeners. One with a gentleman, a young gentleman, 22 years old, called Joshua Giddings of Lotto Antelmache, who was called up at the last minute, because there were this terrible illness, this terrible virus, freak virus, which some of the Lotto Antelmache riders had contracted at the race. It was the-- what's the name of the race in Belgium, the one-day race, in Wallone a few days ago. See, see. They developed stomach virus and issues because of cowl dung on the road allegedly, apparently. And well, it was bad news for the team. Good and bitter sweet news for Joshua Giddings, because he got the call, Liam Slock, was taken out last minute. And Joshua Giddings got the call. So we're going to hear from him, that interview starts with reference to his height. And after that, we're going to hear from the only gentleman in the field, as far as we know, who had won in Borghaz, in Bulgaria, he'd won the GC in Toro Borghaz two years ago, but he specifically won a stage in Borghaz, where today's stage was finishing 32 years old, making his grand tour debut Matteo Maluccelli. So Giddings and then Matteo Maluccelli. Yeah, OK. Right, what's the name, English? 195. 195. You won 1 metre, 95, I believe. On the internet, what's that? What's that? 65. 65, yeah. Well done. Thanks. You have had a very last minute call for this. So in strange circumstances, I believe. Is that right? Just tell us what happened. Yeah, a few of the riders were sick after a lot of ferment. And I had a pretty last minute call. So yeah, the guys were sick and I was wanted to reserve, so I had to step in. And just tell me, so how did that play out? Where were you? Was it a phone call? Was it a text message? We've heard stories before about riders being in the middle of training and rising, having to get to the airport quickly. What had it worked? Yeah, I was at home. I had a power of obeyin and I had a short break at home, so I did three weeks just training. So actually, I was on a rest day and I had a phone call that could potentially happen in the next morning. Was all logistically prepared and I had the message I had to go that evening to Manchester Airport. You live in? I live in Darbyshire, Elkistan. And how do you feel about it? I mean, how do you feel about being here? You first got in thought? Yeah, I'm pretty excited, actually. I'm excited for the challenge. I didn't specifically prepare for this, but I think sometimes for me, that's a good thing. I'm not really in physical-- about my physical condition. I can't change that, so I can only be in the right mindset and control the things that I control mentally and also I pack my suitcase and everything like that. It went smooth with the flight. And I'm here at the end of the day, the weather's good, and I'm looking forward to it. I won't be the first journalist to ask you about this today, but you have won in Burghaz before at the Torbog area. Tell us about that experience. Yeah, the race wasn't of the same. The same finish line. It was always UCI race. But it's not the same. From 2.2 to 2.2 to 2.2. So this is a little more level. There is a little more level. But the end of the sprint is a sprint. The same tactics, same moments, same effort. So I will do my best. I will try to do my best. I know that there is a good opportunity for me and the team believe in me, trust in me. Well, Michele, let's find out, shall we? How Matteo Maluccelli got on, and whether he finished his first day as a grand tour rider in the Malia Rosa, the prosciutto metro is back. It's not long ago. What do we call it? The homonometro? Prosciutto metro. That's the original ambest, the OG. Let's have that now. The prosciutto metro, di Michele Pelaci. Pelaci? We came empty-handed to the giro. We were hoping we would bring some of your families to the prime. What do we call it? What is it called? The Grand. Are you talking about the Cardinali? There we go. You've promised this a minute, Italy. You didn't bring any. You did come empty-handed with just hand luggage, in fact. But how many hands for today's stage? Out of five. The giro is coming to Amilia, but I'm going to give to this stage solidly the three slices of prosciutto, I think. Could have been four if it wasn't for the crash, maybe. But as far as we know, however, no riders. riders got significantly injured, which is good. But this is one, I want three. Three humps. Yeah. What basis? What does a stage have to do to get zero humps? Today, today wasn't the most thrilling. I know, but this is what most sprint edges are, right? And you've got short ones, short trades. Dissensinary, why not? And sprinters were going like very good. Solid sprinters were going, I don't know, I'm not for the win, which is what we want, right? Like the biggest stars in the biggest-- It convinced me. Moment. Maybe that'll be the list in the question. We're going to have a list in the question every day here at the jury days, is sitting them in. Any way you-- any means you can employ to get a question to as well, field questions on what it's Strava X. And you're sliding to our-- I'll find out again. They know how to find this. And we will be answering questions. Maybe that should be today's-- maybe a list in the set, that question in. What does a stage have to do to get zero humps at a vegan stage? We were talking informously last year, Mikayle. You became well known for the qualifying things as Chick-le-Smo. When something was good, it was Chick-le-Smo. We were talking earlier in the car. I think what is sort of the anti-Chick-le-Smo, the denomination that we're going to use when something's really bad and I suggested high rocks. I would suggest that today's stage was more high rocks than Chick-le-Smo. Anyway, we can tell you what happened in this stage. And the listens can then make their own mind up. Pancake flat stage, first off, to start a Giro d'Italia with a local loop in Burgas, a pretty short one as well as the race lasted a bit more than three hours. A two-man breakaway kept each other company for the majority of the day. The Copa Blosset Villa of Poltivicit Malta and Manuel Tarazzi of Bardiani's CSF Seven Saber. New name for them. We're first one to pass under the Red Bull Kilometer, while Sevilla also won a couple of fourth category climb on Cape Agalina. So Sevilla will wear the mountain blue jersey tomorrow. The gap was under two minutes continuously declining as the race approached the final 20 kilometers. With five K left, a complete peloton enters Burgas with unibet rose rockets, two-dirt and unoax in the front. It was Decazlone, sudal quick step and little trek. They'd train first under the Flam Rouge, but with under 600 meters to go, a crash caused a significant split in the peloton. Sudal quick step was the team with the highest number of riders, three, and it's not going to the coincidence that they won in the end. Tobias Lund Andrezin launches first, but its Frenchman Paul Manier wears the first Malgarosa. American-born Frenchman Paul Manier because of course, he was born in La Rea Do, which he's in La Rea Do, I've just given it a sort of retaliation. There's a place called La Rea Do in Cantabria, I believe, because I've stayed there. La Rea Do is in Texas, isn't it? Is he in Texas? - It is. - La Rea Do, it is. More about Paul Manier later, fantastic win for him. Pelachi, I suppose, I suppose you've already really told us who is going to be wearing various jerseys for tomorrow, but anything else in terms of the classifications, because we're going to have to do that every day as well. I mean, for people who were in various jerseys. I think it will be Tobias Lund Andrezin in the white one because he's the second in GC and he qualifies for the classification. So. And did we find out who was the last Frenchman to wear the pink jersey? We didn't know. We had an idea, we had an idea, it might be, I don't know, it's been quite a chaotic day, I must admit. I mean, besides my suspected concussion, we found it quite difficult to get to the finish, much like Tyrana last year. Obviously, the Jira started in Albania last year and we had a couple of stages in Tyrana. There were a lot of traffic lights in Burghast, there were a lot of traffic lights and it took us about an hour to travel a couple of kilometers hence why we're maybe not as abreast of everything as we ordinarily would be. Second of Mayerasa, actually, for Paul Manier because he won stage two in the Giron X Gen, the baby Giro in 2024. And winning that, he wore Mayerasa already in the baby Giro. So he's sort of got his new Mayerasa in the big boys' Giron out. - Pellacci, when we saw that crash, we were floundering, scrambling to get over barriers into the finish line, but when we saw that crash, we feared there might be some serious damage 'cause it was a spectacular crash. It was one of those where, a portion of the pedals on most of the pedals on this case just sort of stopped. It was as though they'd written in, they'd hit their heads as well, they'd written into a war much like me yesterday. And the frontline just sort of collapsed and we did worry that there could be some serious damage. But based on what we've heard, and I think I don't know if the medical communicators come out already, but we were led to believe that there's not gonna be any serious damage to anyone, which is good news. Maybe this justifies the three prosciutto. Yeah, no serious damage in the crash. I didn't know Giron X Gen came down. - Possibly, yeah, we saw him against, with the back against the barriers, but the Giro Press Officer told us that the medic has said nothing, nothing too serious or no problems with the guys, which is good, right? We want to riders to be at least, it's very good, but I just think that's excellent. - Yeah, yeah, it's fantastic. - Yeah, we didn't see it, I mean, usually in these situations, when you're standing by the finish line where we take up our positions, afterwards you do, your first medical check is by observing the riders and you see riders, with bloody knees and so on and so forth. I didn't really see anyone. And then just asking around the teams that we spoke to afterwards, they were all sort of breathing inside of relief and because their riders at all come home in pretty good shape, it was an X rider, wasn't it the first one to crash? - And they sort of, I think they touched elbows, elbows. I kind of, my pronunciation will be better. - Palacias, actually. - The company's improved. It's improved, it was already good last year. - I think it was both with Oranjizen or Gurmsted, guys from Decazlan who ended up in the top 10. They were lucky to stay on the wheels. Yeah, you know, the X riders, at first to the floor was not looking great for them, but apparently everyone is healthy. - So Palacias, we've established, Paul Manier was the one here at the stage. I was curious about the average speed today, 43.85 kilometers out because we did hear from various people in the bunch that it was very easy today. Second, a Lund undressant of Decazlan. Third, Ethan Vernon of NSN cycling team. Fourth, Milan, fifth, Madis Mikkels. Then Giovanni Lombarddi, not Lombarddi, Giovanni Lombarddi was here, but he's now an agent he retired about 20 years ago. Pascal Ackerman was seventh, and then we get down to the sort of lead out man who did survive that split. Good match that for Decazlan, and Valschade of little track. Milan, what did he say? - Milan said that he was not, it was not even not happy, of course, but not too sort of delusional. He was not, you know, he was like, had to fight back for position a lot in the kilometers leading up to this print, so he didn't have the legs. And he did not say or complained about how he's team performed, but I think something can be said about how, for example, it was wall shade in the front when split happened, and no teammate of Milan was close to him. Next to him. - One thing we don't know, and we, what we did not, Milan after the finish, but we will ascertain in seven weeks, few days, is Contrarn is still the last lead out man, because Valschade is obviously a guy with credentials for that role. He's also massive, he's also enormous, similar size to Milan, where's Contrarn, the unusual, the anomalous thing about Contrarn as a lead out man, he's very small, and he's working for a very big guy, so I'm not sure where Contrarn was supposed to be. - It's interesting, because I've talked to Contrarn as well, after the finish line, and I was there with Chilos Cringamiga and Philippo Lorenzon, and Contrarn was the only guy who was able to escape that massive crash, but he was out of the fight. He said I was lucky to escape that crash, but he was too, I think, 20 position behind Milan, and he was 600 meters to go. Why was he that far away? It was not looking great for Contrarn, it's not the first time. I love Contrarn, Olympic gold medalist, of course. He has been seemingly more and more honored the client in recent race days. - Oh, fine. - In recent. - In the racing. - In penalty, fighting, talk. - Yeah, I. - Well, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we have an actual day. It's not mean, the next opportunity is probably going to come on day three, I would suggest for those chaps. But, penalty, that was Milan. Let's hear from. We're gonna hear from another gentleman who went close, and that was Tobias Lund and Anderson, of Dick Ad Law. He was second, but before that, we're gonna have Paul Manier's direct sportive and elated David Ibramati, then Lund and Anderson. Then we're going to have the big favorite for this Gilles Taliah, Jonas Vingar, who I spoke to after the finish about, but what he saw of that crash. - I think everybody saw. Paul is very nice guys, also beautiful guys. Everybody saw, he has a big, big body, he's a funny. I think we're coming here, very motivated. He said, ready to me in the last two weeks, that he was ready. Today we'll say, everybody, also Garof Lizzana and Rakanie Wysde, everybody, that day. non sono spettiali in la fola e poi farvi il riso di finire il job. C'è anche un po' di piccoli di solito, perché era solo in un po' in cui era facile di controllare. Non ho capito di finire il sennato. - Tobias, cosa vuoi fare? - Questa è la mia nena. - Siamo un po' di appena con il piatto. - Siamo in un piatto. È un piatto che abbiamo fatto. È un piatto che ha fatto la sua fine, perché era il mio plano. E, per esempio, ha uno inizio a un po' di più, e il milano è una cosa. - Ma è già finito. - È una questione di spiegare, non è qualcosa che ci sono raggiato o ci sono chieste. C'è un po' di dettagli, ma se non si sono appena puoi fare, non si sono appena puoi fare, non si sono appena puoi fare. che avevo stato scatrina di vita e averni. Se avchuckling prof ю,La sua pi Really is a favourita. него. E Джα аlyeva si era jerk? Non. E io ma non mindsava questo rimatello. restoringomosi e la terra아아, raccontrareinè la pena in vita è Ridalter di impresso prima? E' un'altra cosa che abbiamo fatto, non abbiamo fatto un'altra cosa che abbiamo fatto, quando il stress è stato inizioso, abbiamo� a fronte e ci sono inizioso, perché è una grande risposta, anche se è il cresccio, anche se è il cresccio, è il cresccio, Così farò una buona Spotabile maar Paоть previro Un commento Se non vi è capito, la data roaming è una buona di attraverso in un app in un app in cui si è iniziato a un app in un app in cui si fa. Allora, ti stai iniziando il salio app in un app storia e se si usa il cod "cycling" che c'è che è che è iniziato, ti stai iniziato 15% di il pò di la sua prima data plan. Che è il lavoro? È che si è iniziato quando è iniziato, è che si è iniziato a questa data roaming e può anche perdere il maniera di data e si è iniziato perché sale è iniziato a blocca, strada di attraverso a adozionare, e può perdere data per 28.6% E' perché BeautyFrom the People Behind Norway VPN Come's Trust worthy too Sally.com/cycling e per esempio per la seconda scelta di cui non è compatibile, non è che può essere una faccia alla fine. Quindi, portate a salite.com/cycling e per usare il cod e la scelta di che ho scelto per l'ultimo 15% di la sua firste data plan. Poi ho fatto un'altra parte di il corso di la corso- Arena, con un po' di ricetta che è inizio, in una settimana di un po' di uova. Io e Nuzvingo, noi vanno a la sua semplice, abbiamo visto un po' di uova, una grande media di media di uova, perché i uova sono sono più di più di più di più, whenever. E' un po' di uova, quindi non è più di più di più, e ho fatto un po' di uova, ma è il mio favorito, quindi ho fatto un po' di uova. E' un po' di uova, perché ho fatto che abbiamo fatto il mio favorito. Puotono kasih per essere ciao infatti. aula travel, birlikte veramente een wah мende, unago io o se nel settimo. Io richesamente, Ling lucky mostly in l taste, che io Xueram diary engra tutta'ea di prebarci il mostrato, che Thanks bisscheni perfen티 di brutti i stacciti. I staventi al blij eins embroiderendo un claum slash la polla, quindi è il endo auguste. Il 1,5% di la racisa in cui si poteva, in posto in torfistolabaccia, crore, creazione, tolva, guanchi, ok, la racisa è un po' che non è il creme dell'autore, il guanchi è in il world tour, ma non è il più grande attore, ma è molto un'ambitabile. E' il 1,5% di la racisa in torfistolabaccia, ma è il 2,5% di la racisa in torfistolabaccia, ma è il 2,5% di la racisa in torfistolabaccia, ma è il 4th day in il 4th day in il 4th day in torfistolabaccia, ma è il 4th day in torfistolabaccia, ma è il 5th day in torfistolabaccia, ma è il 5th day in torfistolabaccia, ma è il 5th day in torfistolabaccia, ma è il 5th day in torfistolabaccia, not to read too much into one sprint. At some point Max Walshide went ahead. It was not an attack. You could see behind him it was three guys of Sudakwiak's step. They formed a train and they were looking up over their shoulder to see what was happening behind them. And they sort of stopped following Walshide. That's why Walshide was ahead. But it was just a strange, strange sprint. So I wouldn't read too much into it. Excellent day. Generally it's an excellent day for all of Sudakwiak's steps, sponsors. But one in particular, Pelachi, and people will have noticed that they're wearing an unusual jersey at this Jirritati. And it's a tribute to their equipment supplier Castelli, a historic Italian brand, Jersey manufacturer. And it's got various, what are the graphics on the jersey? It's a historic, historic images from, we really should know this because we're about to give you some real trivia on this jersey. But we don't know very basic details of what it looks like. I read some of the press release. But anyway, it's a cream jersey. And as I said, made by Castelli. Why have they changed Jersey for this Jirritati? Why do they have this special jersey? Because Castelli, the company, are celebrating their 150th birthday as a company. Now I said this is historic Italian brand. I mean, this is the brand that they claim at least. And I'm certainly not going to contradict them. They invented the skin suit. They produced the first skin suit for Jacques Montille, who attempted the hour record on the bigot-elig Velojoe in 1967. But his, was his own hour record, I think it was. Set a new mark, but it was never validated because he refused to take an anti-doping test. He wanted to take the anti-doping test, but he wanted his own doctor in France to do the anti-doping test. Interesting. Don't know why they didn't go for that. They didn't know why that one didn't fly. And we were also here in some of the good stories about the technology that Castelli have contributed to. They also claim that they produced the first Aero jersey. And this was around about the time, around 2005, 2006, around about that period, when they were sponsoring Saunier de Val, famous infamous, you could say, Saunier de Val team. And the riders didn't really go for it. Or with one exception, David Miller, who at time tried this, and he was quite keen to try this Aero jersey that they produced. And the feedback from the rest of the team, led by the spokesperson was Leonardo Piapoli Italian climber. We're not wearing that Barbie suit. So it's died of death. And this while, I don't know whether this was according to tests they did at the time or test that they've done since retrospectively on these jerseys, but it would have gained them, it would have gained significant war, too. Amazing stuff. Yeah. The Aero evolution has been, yeah, significant in the last years, but it was interesting to me, this course cover that it dates back quite some time, Daniela. And also 150 years from Castelli, they are almost as old as the country itself of Italy, which was founded and united in 1861. So they are literally as old as the country. Wow. I think you're going to say almost as old as you then. That's going to give you a nice. I was trying to figure out what's the most if on their jersey. I think they got no more, no more. It's just cream and it's good. It's nice. Decorative with something. Palachi. Is it? I believe it's decorating with something. And there you go. There you go. Always that just sponsors. It's decorating with old, that's what it is. It's the old Castelli's, the Castelli logo through the ages. It's not what you if it's just logos. Yeah, but it's something. It's just blank. But it looks a lot like Andronia, lots of sponsors, lots of logos. It does. It does. It does indeed. It does indeed. It does indeed. And Palachi, other sort of observations from today's first stage, we had a bit of a conversation as we drove into Nessa, this area last night about what an incongruous location it is for a juries higher to start. As we've sort of said, the feedback most people's feeling this morning at the start was that they were pleasantly surprised by the local turnout and the local reaction. They were sort of favorably comparing it with last year in Albania. But we were saying this is so strange. You know, if you were to explain to someone who doesn't work in cycling or doesn't follow cycling, the jury is telling you he's starting in Bulgaria. And there's no real sort of narrative thread to it. It's not as though there was some treaty sign between Bulgaria and Italy 100 years ago. It's not like the Castelli jersey, Palachi is it? This is purely, it's opportunistic. It's it's the promotorism here. And they've paid a lot of money. Estimates range from 8 million to 12 million euros. And yeah, when we arrived last night, we were, we sort of have a discussion in the car about the sort of equation, the balance between what's gained in monetary terms, in the short term, which the jury tell you obviously needs. And for example, how much it loses in terms of resonating with the Italians, the lay Italian public, people in Italy, because I think there is a little bit less media coverage in Italy when the jury tell you doesn't start in Italy. So interesting. Look at the press from right now. It's not that much after the finish line. And we are just 10 people, including us. So not in the media any, no, no huge numbers in Italian media here, no huge numbers in Italian fans here. You could have like the traveling days of fans and going away for soccer game or blah blah blah, not happening here. It's interesting also how Bulgarian press, I was told is talking about just how this digital Italian is bringing huge numbers. And they are skyrocketing tourism. And I was told 10, no sorry, 100 million people. It was said in the Bulgarian press they were watching the team's presentation. What? 100 million on television. Not in Budga. Of course not. But 100 million, it was not true. Of course. This is how propaganda, so to speak, has been like, like, Christian, Christian, which is what kind of exaggerating numbers. Exactly. So this is a fine line, right, between how you should, how can I say, yeah, find the balance between yeah, I mean, what we've said before and this is well known, this is well documented. The thing is that the difference between an Italian region or an Italian city bidding for the Gran de Parthens and what they would offer and a location like this is not small. It's, well, it's a it's a chasm. And RCS, as we know, I mean, I think that the digital Italian is profitable for them and it has been for a number of years now, but it's not hugely, hugely profitable. And there's less and less money spent in Italy by public agencies by the state, effectively for or for events like the digital Italian and that makes things very, very difficult. So they're in an invidious position, RCS. And, um, you know, we do hear, like you say, about what, you know, the impact is going to have local tourism or whatever. And we even hear sometimes and we don't really believe it and we certainly shouldn't have believed it last year in Albania that it's also in the name of developing cycling further afield. The UCI might say that the RCS can't really say that in good conscience. Because, hey, they don't really care to be brutally honest. It doesn't matter to RTS. You know, in 10 years, there are 20% more people riding bikes in Bulgaria. That really doesn't matter. Um, so, so yeah, and it's going to continue to happen, isn't it? In the future, over the next few years, I mean, already the last decade, we've had a lot of these grandi, bad dancing further and further afield in more and more tenuously linked countries to Italy. And, um, I think that is a trend that is going to continue if not accelerate. Probably. And we have to say also the social impact, the people impact here how we saw lots of fans with flags and Giro Ballouz is exceeding our expectations. Yeah. And I also felt today, Palatia, I don't know if you agree with me, but the crowds around the buses, I got the strong sense that quite a lot of them knew what they were watching. New who the riders were, you know, Geronite Thomas was there. Fun. Um, net company in EOS. I could have to get used to that. Um, and he was stopping for a lot of selfies. Oh, no, you know, they weren't necessarily all people who live in border gas from border gas, but a decent percentage would have been Bulgarians, I'm sure. I mean, we bumped into a gentleman, Macedonian gentleman who we'd actually seen yesterday when we were having pizza at Motoei service station. And he was clearly a cycling fan. He was a cyclist with Lychron. He was there. So, you know, I think there's a decent number of people as well who have come from surrounding countries, Eastern European country, Romania, Macedonia and probably from quite a long way in Sofia. I'm sorry, in Bulgaria, for example, Sofia. But yeah, I did get the sense that much more so than Albania, that people knew a bit about what was going on. Palatia. Someone who, well, as of today knows and can talk with authority about the Giro di Italia, but also new Bulgaria to a certain extent before today, the Unibet Rose Rockets rider, Slavakian champion, Lukash Kubich. He was riding his first Grand Tour today, but this after 38 days I made it in his career, 38 race days on Bulgarian roads. I'm pretty sure that makes him the most experienced rider on Bulgarian roads in this Giro di Italia. Well I thought he would be an ideal candidate also because we thought he would be involved in a lead out train for Dynchurnevegen and he was, but it didn't quite work out for them. And I thought he'd be an ideal candidate for the first Kakerata del Jornoth. So let's have that now shall we? L'Akakerata del Jornoth, the team wag of the day. How are you doing? I'm doing good. Daniel, look as you are an experienced in racing in Bulgaria, I see you've got 38 race days in Bulgaria, including this race in the footsteps of the Romans. Tell me about this race. Yeah, I remember it was 2020 or 21 maybe. It was quite nice race, it was two stages I remember and it was that part of what that cult. There is also nothing about this race and stuff like that. World Cup of downhill skiing is there. So it was really beautiful area and I really enjoyed it and I had nice memories out of there. So yeah, I was very happy when they told me about the lineup and I'm coming here when everything began. So you've been giving all of your teammates all of the local knowledge, all of your experience that you've accumulated over the years. It's different because how I say to you is maybe five years ago when I've been here. So of course, but yeah, what I remember from that time it was like all the good tarmacs and the roads were fine. So even more now we saw already when we did the recon of the two day stage, like the tarmac is really great everywhere and they really work at well on this. So yeah, I'm happy to be part of this. And what about the tour bulk area? You will sit on that as well. Yeah, yeah, it was also really nice race. I think I was second or third maybe in one stage. So it was quite funny and yeah, I enjoyed it. I remember. And it was also because we did steps of romance and then the few days after before I'm not sure now it was a tour of Bulgaria. So it was like one big block. So it was nice. So it's like there might be a role for you in the future of the Ministry of Tourism for Bulgaria. So it's like you're a big fan. Yeah, yeah. I'm enjoying cycling because I can travel a lot. It's kind of different of traveling not for a holiday, but you can see something at least. So it's not like you are sitting on a couch, but yeah, I'm happy. And you're hearing your beautiful Slovakian national champions jersey. I can see Slovak fans. I can see your name on a big flag. Who are those people over there? Yeah, yeah. I'm so happy for all the fans here and also not even for them because they are Slovakian. Yeah, they draw all the way here and just to cheer for me. So it's you don't know them. Yeah, I know them. I know these two guys who are there in the front. So I already made them few times before and in the races. So they are following the races and yeah, it's a big pleasure for me. And today you've got a chance obviously in the team first, Pink Jersey. You also got Marcel Kittel here. We know it's been helping you guys with spring. So it took me a little bit about the plan that is put in place for today. Now of course the plan is for me to wear the pink helmet. You know, so yeah, the plan is clear. We want to win the stage with Dylan. We will go voting for it. And yeah, my role will be part of the lead out of course because the final is so the final yesterday we wrote it all. And yeah, just to bring them on the right position and then it's going to be about the Dylan. Dylan is really fast. He's really good now and we are really happy about it. Also he showed it before with all the victory. So yeah, we are aiming for that. Where are you in the train? I'll be Ford guys so about 1 kilometer to go. So yeah, that depends about the situation and of course we need to avoid all the things like how it's going in a sprint. You know, it's just about the seconds or merely seconds even. So yeah, it is what it is. So Dylan, Pink Jersey today, you pink helmet. You pink jersey tomorrow maybe. That will be like really dreaming scenario. So if this is happening, we can go home afterwards. So we honor this is in a Bulgaria. Thanks very much. We'll get back in a minute. Summer's a gift. The gift of days that last a little longer. A brighter state of mind. The gift yourself a new Kia at the Kia Summer Sticker sales event. Especially tagged vehicles including the Cerento, Sportage, Carnival as well as the Neurohybrid. All backed by a 10 year 100,000 mile limited powertrain warranty. So the gift of summer can keep on giving for summers to come. Kia, movement that inspires. Call 800-334-Q3DTLs. I was just a food van and 6126D with the warranty details. Hello. Hello, sir. Welcome to Bulgaria. Govorita, Anglican. Do you speak English? How's Moral in the car? How does the spirits? Oh, amazing. How is spirit? Good health. Good health. Good health. Hello. Hello, dear listeners. And I'm really happy for this my number 16, Giro Starter. I'm becoming getting older and older. But happy because I start from the sea. Nesebar. So better than nothing. Larry, great to see you. Great to see you. Although I was not really alarmed by. I saw some quotes of yours the other day. I was too busy. I didn't read them in full. But I think the problem is that you hate to be driven. So I was not in full. That was the problem. It was a bit of a, yeah, I got a bit taken out of context. And, you know, I think maybe I just do better with these long form audio or text than I do in slight snippets. Oh, I mean, I guess the snippets got some clicks. You hung this stout in the midget team. Okay. The Catalan CMA CGM team. Well remembered. Every time I'm thinking of why I don't talk with you. You've got great things. You've got great voice. That's the thing. Yeah. A bit of a particular Norwegian accent. During the interview, it was kind of like, oh, they asked me, how'd you sort of, yeah, this is going to be, I don't know, my six or seven zero or something. How'd you become like, you're a zero guy? How did that, did you ask for that? And I was like, well, no, I didn't ask for it. I just, I don't know. It just kind of happened. And like, yeah, I was like, you know, you know, we pay your huge sum. It comes to the gyro. So it's a force you wait for the gyro team. Exactly, exactly. No, I didn't have to pay a huge sum. Unfortunately, I don't get paid a huge sum either. So, but I said, yeah, you know, I mean, cycling, you know, I guess you go where they tell you. Larry's wearing a Casio watch today. He's been stripped of the chewed of what? Jack Egg, rider for net company in yours. New colds as well. I don't know, what do you think? Better or worse? Am I in partial? I'm completely, I don't care about the pictures, is what they look like in most in partial. Ah, it's a bit of a disappointing answer, but no, no. This is a bit of blue, blue, blue, blue. Okay. This is actual. This is actual. It's amazing, the piece like your one. Oh, yeah. It's just from the nature. Oh, the nature of the little teeth. The pralibs. Pralibs. Honey on the throne. Ah, throne. Okay. Wow, fantastic. Good. I'm going to throw in. Okay. Well, nice to meet you guys. Maybe see you in Sofia. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, fine. Okay, that was a little vignette, little postcard from our first 24 hours in Bulgaria from the moment shortly after I knocked myself out in the car park picking up the car. To this morning, where we had from Larry, we heard from Jack Hague, you had a stow in the midter who was mystified as to why we speak or why I've been speaking to him quite a lot of racists recently. And we had the explanation there that he simply got a very good voice. Yeah, that's the way we choose our interview candidates, victims on that basis. We also heard about that. What the cast are to be. There you go. With Jack, with Jack Hague, one of Magnifs and Voice Jack Hague, Scott, Jack Hague is a very disappointed that I wasn't more interested in the hue of his new jersey. And last year, at the end, we heard from a couple, Veronica and. That was a reminder. Honey, honey. Producer. Honey, producers. Honey producers. And we tasted a whole selection of the honey. We tasted blue honey. That was the first in my life, spirulina honey. What else? I had some yogurt with mushroom and there was. Yeah, all different pistachio honey. I think it was chocolate honey. It was many different kinds on little sticks. We had a good time there. Five minutes, well spent, I have to say, instead of waiting for riders. Yes, indeed. Palachi, just, I wanted to sit down about B's actually. Well, we heard that, what did they call it? The one with their honey producer called the throne, the honey throne. Yeah, it was nice, wasn't it? And they had a nice little talking of logos. It was a bit like the Castelli logo, a nice logo of a B. And it reminded me that, as you'll know, Palachi, last few days, I released this series of podcasts on the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, before you were born ten years before you bought, you know, one of the things that absolutely fascinated me reading about Chernobyl, and I didn't put this in the podcast. But a lot of B keepers in the general environs of Chernobyl, but in Ukraine and Belarus, reported very strange behavior from their bees in the hours after well before humans became, or, I mean, obviously, you know, Chernobyl itself, the guide encounters, was a cracking straight away. But, you know, well before people in sort of Kiev were aware what was going on, the bees started behaving very strangely. Not a shot at one I used about last year's Giro, but I guess I'm not being able to do that. A lot of bees, a recent Gries. Interesting. It's a theme. It's a theme. Also, a bit of a theme in Bulgaria, I believe, is there's a lot of, I'm going to use the wrong word here. Kind of a Roman, the herbs have always been a big thing. Herbs, spices, natural tonics, and this kind of thing. I'm really just recommend a book actually. There's a Scottish, Scottish Bulgarian author. If you're interested in reading more about Bulgaria, Capca Casabova is your author. And I'm reading a book that she's written about that kind of thing called elixir, and particularly the southwest of Bulgaria, if I'm not mistaken, and the long, very long tradition of that kind of thing in more rural areas of Bulgaria than what we have seen today. And pelachi, we will be experiencing seeing sampling more of Bulgaria tomorrow. I've made this promise, and it's not an empty promise, pelachi. We always, we're always very reliable, and we keep our promises. And that we are going to answer. This is at our attempts to be more interactive. We're going to answer listener questions, what we already said that didn't we earlier in the episode, that people can find us everywhere, where you bake with us. We'll answer questions. The best question, not even the best question, around them questions, every night. We'll answer it. Anyway, it's a random one today. It's a good one. This was the first, this is going to kick us off. John Matthews from Chicago asked us about the logistics pelachi of this Bulgarian grande partanza. Complicated logistics. I asked a number of teams this morning, and I think we already said in the preview podcast that most teams have to have, well, I think all of the teams have two crews here or two at the giro. So one crew boss vehicles who have come here, and another that Sonny's way already in a lot of cases, down to the south of Italy, don't forget, we resume the giro in the south of Italy. For example, Astana, their riders landed in three different locations, and some of their star booker rest, Sophia and Varna, and they all made their separate ways here. Most of the vehicles came from the service course in Nice, and after this race, all of the vehicles that are here are going directly to the Tour of Hungary. I don't know how soon that starts. That seems to be the case with quite a lot of teams. Meanwhile, the Astana bus, I don't know whether it's already left, I think it may have already left, or was leaving today from Nice, service course in Nice down to Cosseno, Capanzaro, where we restart from Capanzaro. Yeah, which is over well over a thousand kilometers, isn't it? Oh yeah, it's a long way. It's a long time. NSN, they're fortunate in that they have an Italian bus driver who keeps his bus at home. I was imagining, I was imagining his residential street with a big NSN block in the cul de sac, and everyone getting very angry and waving their fist at the NSN bus driver, but apparently he is at home with the NSN bus, and he's just driving down. Similar story, the rest of the vehicles that are here are going straight to Hungary. There's been a bit of beef pelates, he's been a bit of controversy about, and we mentioned this in the preview as well, about the sort of expenses that are covered by the race organization, ordinarily, and also in exceptional circumstances, like these where the teams have to travel a long way, spend a lot of money, we talked the other day about how much fuel costs these days. They ordinarily get 45,000 euros, I believe, to come through the Giro di Italia, I don't know whether that's the same for all grand tours. They have negotiated through the AIOs, you know AIO, CEC, and the team's organization. They've negotiated that in this case, they are getting 127.5,000 euros, which sounds a lot of money. They also get, they're about 24 staff on grand tours now, and everyone else, if they want extra rooms in hotels, they have to pay extra. I think they get 18 seats, these teams get 18 seats on one of the three planes that's leaving on, I don't know, Sunday or Monday, night. Interesting. We'll figure it out, but who doesn't fly, people who don't take the airplane, they would have to make a long way, because it's scopje in North Macedonia, then Albania, it's Tirana, then Durazzo, Durres, ferry boat to the south of Sicily. Some of the organization is doing this. - Yes, of course. - On the same day as well. Of course. I have to, and you know, in Frampuglia it's still for three, four, five hours to get tanzaro, so yeah, long way. Last year, of course, we did a kilometer zero episode about the previous time that the Giroetail had crossed the Aegean Sea, that was in 1996, and that became an intriguing, sort of much mythologized story, because there was supposedly going to be this dope, this doping raid by the nasty Italian drugs police, we're going to sort of swoop on the Giroetailia, when they arrived in Puglia, and it was foiled because there was some sort of mole or someone gave the game away, and so they threw away, supposedly teams threw away their drugs, but also they apparently sent their staff instead of sending them overseas, or by air, they sent them around all the way around through the Balkans and back into Italy by road. None of that going on nowadays, of course. Pelaci, should we talk about tomorrow's stage? Why not? Let's do that. La Tappa di Domani, la Cina di Yuri, tomorrow's stage yesterday's dinner. Pelaci, last night's dinner, first of all, wasn't very authentic, it wasn't very typical, wasn't typical Bulgarian fare. We are in this sandpanteleon sort of name, and give away our location. Hotel in the coast of Nasevar. The group is outside the door, it's a tomorrow morning. There is not a lot of people. You can't see, we were told it was the richone of the Black Sea. It's kind of like that, right? So in early season, you'd have a lot of people, but you can see how during summertime it would be full of tourists and people from all over the place, getting to enjoy the summer and the beaches over the Black Sea, but our place is a sort of a continental restaurant. We were able just to get a salad, a local salad, like a Greek salad, but with a Bulgarian twist. It was a salad discord. Not goat cheese, but it was cow cheese, and that's what makes the difference between the Greek salad and the Bulgarian salad. It's kind of grated on top, rather than cubes, usually get cubes on a Greek salad, of course. Pelacin. We also had some nice red wine as well, but I think we're going to talk more about wine tomorrow. We might even be recording part of the episode from a wine rate, so that's something to look forward to. Pelacin tomorrow's stage, please, which I think is going to be, it might be the most visually appealing, and maybe the most interesting terms of racing of these three days. It's possible because we're having 221 kilometers stage from Burgas to Velico Ternavo around the middle of Bulgaria. Bialapas and Vratnik, third category climbs, midway through the race, then with 11k to go, the race de-lic, oh my goodness. Yaskovets, monastery, yes, Kovets. Look at that. That's where we could be trying tomorrow. This climb averages 4.6, average gradient is pretty long as well because it's 4k of a climb, and then the final kilometers are not straight at flat. Quite the opposite, actually, there is with one between two and one kilometers to go, there is a 9% maximum gradient. I looked at the planimetry, it's very twisty. Terns, I think the last bend is with around 400 meters to go, so I don't think a group will arrive, you know, a large group will arrive at the finish line. I mean, I heard a listen to the speculation, listen to some other broadcasts, what we were talking about, maybe versatile sprinters, having a chance tomorrow. It depends what you consider to be at the first half sprint. I said to Lukash Kubits this morning, could it be an opportunity to hear me? So I said, "Yeah, well, we had it in the interview, maybe, fingers crossed." You know, Lund and Andresson is another name that's been mentioned. We know that he climbs well. There are other sprinters in the field that climb well. I mean, I'm thinking more when I see that final climb, it's not as hard as the final climb in Torino two years ago, but I sort of think of it in that virus. We don't really know what kind of form he's in though. Pelagiana, the outstanding names that you can think of. I mean, we've got to consider GC right as well. Arnodeli has to be a name, for example. Yeah, if you see if he's recovered from his cow d'apples. Francesco Busatto can be an interesting name. It was a similar stage in Albania last year, for example. And he was, I think, fourth in the opening stage last year in Albania. But we can take a look at some pure climbers, but more of that profile, Santiago Buitragó is a punchy climber. It can be a name. Because also, yeah, the final, as we said, the final is uphill, significant. The uphill with some cobbles as well. He ran there. So we'll be a thing to see as well. Yeah, lots of names. Probably you could name 2030 riders who in theory might have a chance to more vein that I may, might be a good name. I would also say Ben Turner might be an excellent name. Probably it will be a top 10 for sure. Has not been the case in the first place, but in top 10, very probably. By Lady Ini. I'm actually a lot of Italians here. Could be a good day. Could be a good day for the Italians. One thing I want, Daniela, is the Magyarasa change. I love Magyarasa changes. And yeah, had Paul Magyar, you know, one day will be enough for Paul. Have many more his career? Hopefully Magyarasa changes tomorrow. We were talking last night at dinner about that very strange, very strange, when you go back now and see scenes from the 2024 Kieru, Daniela and Tadeh Pogaccio, wearing the pink jersey with these sort of mauve, ciclamino shorts. It seems like a fever dream when you watch, when you see those pictures now, particularly in the time trial. And we had a moment, momentary, laps as we couldn't remember exactly what the reason for those shorts was. And we remembered there was a bit of controversy about it and there were threats that he was going to get fined and so on and so forth. And it was all to do with what really is the guy who owns RCS. Kaira, first name is Urbano. Kaira. And he owns Torino Football Club. And they play in precisely that pomegranate color. And of course, in that jury Italia two years ago as well, we talked a lot about the grande Torino team, 75th anniversary of the tragic plane crash where most of that team lost their lives. Belaci, is that about it for day one? I have to say yes. There is no only one little girl is writing her monopathino, how do you say it? I'm Scooter. Scooter in the arena. They're just us and nobody else here. And yeah, a very young girl writing to him, quite impressive loops. She looks like she might be an aspiring Olympian. She's in a Bulgarian national team track suit. Anyway, maybe monopathini will be an Olympic discipline before very long. Belaci, I think we should go have some Bulgarian food tonight. Let's try. Until tomorrow. Thank you very much. Until tomorrow. The cycling podcast was created in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Fried and Lionel [Music]