Movistar Go NUCLEAR on the Climb

Welcome to the Butterfly Effect. I'm Chris Horner. This is stage 4, 26 Giro d'Italia, one day after the rest days. Three days in Bulgaria, fly over to Italy, one rest day, then we start today's stage 4. Now today's stage 4, I told you yesterday, was going to be a very hard one to predict. And when we start looking at some of the riders, especially Johnny Milan, he's saying the same thing. It's a difficult one to predict, to predict. At 14.5 kilometers, once you get into 6% average climbs, as I've always told you up here on the Butterfly Effect, that is when you start getting into the climber zone. That's why Johnny Milan doesn't know exactly what's going to happen today, but he knows if they go 100% hard on the climb, 80 kilometers into the start of today's stage, that'll sum it with about 43 kilometers to go. If they go hard from the bottom to the top, Johnny Milan knows he doesn't stand much of a chance when it's 6%. But when we start looking at some of the director sportives from Decathlon, he's a little bit more confident up there. He thinks his guy Tobias Lund-Andersen can do something special on today's stage for sure, and he hopes that he'll be able to win it when it's all said and done. We look at some of the TNT commentators, when we look at my old teammate Robbie McEwan, he believes exactly like I do, Astana will try to control the front of the peloton, because they have the race leader Thomas Silva. So with that in mind, you know they'll try to control as much as they can, and then you know they need some help from some of the sprinter teams when you go up and over the top. Keep in mind, you have to have teammates when you go up over the top. So if you recall way back at the Vuelta a España, when we started talking about Mads Pedersen, he drilled his team up one of these tight stages, blew them all up, they got to the top, they couldn't bring back the original breakaway guys, attacks were coming all over, Brake stayed off and won the stage, Liddell Trek did all the work for no reason, then it was just called Trek. Now we come in today's stage, Liddell Trek, when we start looking at the conversation with Johnny Milan, I told you he doesn't know exactly what's going to happen, but they have other plans, they have Giacone, they have Derek Gee, Sobrero's been riding pretty good, but the rest of the guys, if it goes 100%, they know they're not going to get the help from those three guys, and the guys helping Johnny Milan, when we're talking about Simone Consone and Max Walshaw, those guys can't climb either, so anything's possible. When the cameras come on, we start seeing the attacks going up the road, and before we know it, we got six riders up there with Darren Rafferty at 10 second, Nicholas Larson there at 2.15, Warren Barkey from Picnic four and a half, Martin Marcellucci up there four and a half, Johan Jakub, excuse me, from FDJ, and Baez, Matteo Baez there from Polti, these guys are going to start drilling up the road, and this is exactly what you want, if you're a stunner, because then you can just start setting some tempo, but you got to be careful with six guys, but they're starting to run their sprinters up there, like Davide Ballerini, now they start running up there, the gap goes out to about two minutes and ten, just a hair this way, that way, then they start getting some help from Decathlon, this is exactly what you would think is going to happen on today's stage, because Astana want to keep the jersey, Decathlon, as we know from the director Sportif, they want to try to win today's stage, they think Tobias Lund-Andersen, they believe he can climb better than riders like Johnny Milan and Dylan Grunewagen, and a host of other riders, so that's why they're getting on the front, now they're putting a ton of pressure along the coast there, it's been crazy windy, if I back you up to some of the conversations, when we start talking about Caden Gross, who's dropped out now, and abandoned the Giro d'Italia, but at the beginning of the stage, he was talking about it being all windy and worried about the wind more than finishing the stage, now he's completely out, the peloton's going a little bit curve to curve from time to time, then it's thinning back out, and Vismalisa Biker always in and around the front, but it's Astana and Decathlon doing most of the work, we come into the sprint points competition, and it's Baez up there from Polti that grabs himself some maximum points, but because there's six riders up there, there's not much of a show back there in the peloton, so don't worry about it, now they're going to start the climb here, as they're 80 kilometers into the race, once they start getting on the climb proper, the gap has already dropped down to a minute and 35 seconds, we see Vismalisa Bike, Team Minos were at the front, Lotto were at the front to begin with but now you see Plan A coming to the effect from Decathlon, they're coming up the left side, and you look at the front of the pelotons, they're looking over to the left, they know like okay, this is when Decathlon is going to get on the front, so the Astana boys are happy, Decathlon's going to start getting on the front, but then there's another plant coming into the effect, because Movistar are coming to the front, this is Lorenzo Malese right now that starts throwing down on the front, and guys once he starts throwing down on the front, we see Blika coming out the back for Uno X, Dylan Grunewegen is going to come out soon, Sevilla, the KOM jersey, Diego Sevilla, he's getting dropped, but he's been in the break three days, the first three days of the Giro d'Italia, so he's got reason to drop right now, we go back up to the front now at 55 kilometers to go, there's two Movistars on the front, because Ivan Cortina is up there, so Ivan Garcia Cortina is at the front, this is their sprinter guys, he's still throwing down on the front, they're going to, they got plan A, that's going to surpass the plan A there of Decathlon, because they want to go even faster, now as they start drilling it, we see Martin Marcellucci getting dropped out of the break, and those guys will start blowing up on pieces now pretty soon, they're all chasing each other, ones and twos all over the place up there, we go back down and we see Movistar still drilling it, now we go back up front as we see the breakaway shattering in pieces, and they're starting to get picked off one by one, as we see Warren Barguil getting picked off, then we look at the back of the peloton, Simone Consoni is coming out the back with Pascal Ackermann, we go up a little bit further, it's time for Paul Magnaire to start coming out the back, as Paul Magnaire is coming out the back, he's got some company with Bjerg up there, if I take you back to some of the interviews there from TNT, it was Adam Blythe that said that he believed the breakaway would make it on today's stage four, there's no chance of that happening, then later he changed his mind before the race because he thought that Mikhail Bjerg would be throwing down at the front of the peloton right now trying to blow this stuff up, instead Bjerg's getting dropped off the back with Paul Magnaire, then we go up front, we start looking at Diego looking back, he's looking back over his shoulder because why, because if I back the film up, the pink jersey was always in and around the front of the peloton the whole time coming up this climb, but now Diego's looking back because why, the pink jersey, Tomas Silva there is getting dropped at 52.6 kilometers to go in today's race as he's coming out the back, Movistar have three at the front, now three at the front means what, it means Ivan Garcia Cortina has gotten dropped, if you only got three at the front and I'm sitting on the Chesterfield and I already saw the back of the peloton where Juan Pedro Lopez was coming out the back there along with Paul Magnaire, so if you look at the front you only see three right now and we still got 50 plus kilometers to go in today's stage four, it's not enough guys to control the peloton, but then the peloton moves over we see two more sitting in about 18th position back there, that's Enric Mas and Einar Rubio back there, so they still have five, three at the front when we're talking about Lorenzo up there and we're talking Nelson Oliveira, my old teammate along with Orluis Olar, Orluis Olar is their sprinter, that's why they've been drilling at the full time the whole time right now, full gas I mean, now if we see a Luis Olar up there sitting in third position, we got to start going back down because we got Paul Magnaire and Tobias Lund-Anderson, remember the Decathlon director Sportif said that he thought his teammate his his rider would be able to get up over this climb and possibly win today's stage, well Decathlon's having some problems right now, their A plan got superseded by the A plan of Movistar, Movistar pulling out some fantastic tactics and this is like old school Movistar when it's Alejandro Valverde driving at the front with his teammates in front of him and me sitting behind this wheel at the 2013 Vuelta a España, Movistar's drilling it right now, they're looking fantastic as five will start to come to the front, now we start coming up to the next section where riders are having some problems because that's Felipe Ogana that's at the back, he's getting dropped, he's got his teammate in front of him but he's sweating all over the place right now on this 14 kilometer long climb at six percent, as Felipe Ogana is coming out the back we're going to go up a little bit further we're going to see Igor Arrieta come out the back with Corbin Strong NSN, Corbin Strong's teammate take a look at him as he's looking back for Corbin Strong, they came around the corner and then there's Corbin Strong off the back right now, so he's having a hard time that means most of the sprinters are out of today's stage four at this moment, from the pace up front from Lorenzo Malese that's done a fantastic job, when Lorenzo Malese blows it's time for my old teammate Nelson Oliveira to get on the front and guys this kid can go and he's not much of a kid he's like 36, 38 years old, I was teammates with him with Lampre and teammates with him at Radio Shack and I could tell you they do not come any finer than Nelson Oliveira and he's drilling it on the front right now with Aynar Rubio with Moss there with of course Orluis Olar on his wheel, so they got the team up there and they got plan A in effect as Nelson Oliveira starting to drill it we're coming into about two, 2.2 kilometers to go, Egon Barnal the Colombian starts dropping off the back you see him struggling he closes back up there then they come around the next switchbacks as we're coming into about two kilometers to go the Colombian gets popped off the back immediately hops on the radio you look up further sitting second from the end of the peloton now as Egon Barnal is drifting off the back that's Ben Turner up there Ben Turner is going to look back over his shoulder he's going to pull out to the right because he wants to put on the brakes now and try to go back there and help Egon Barnal when I was sitting in on the Chesterfield I was talking to my home skillet D double E and I was like I don't know if this is a good idea and then I changed my mind because Egon Barnal is four seconds down on the general classification and he's tied with Florian Stork now remember the pink jersey already got dropped so they're racing for pink today they're racing for the stage if you're Movistar but Florian Stork along with Egon Barnal four seconds back and then you start going six seconds back that's Giacone Liddell Treck he's still up in this front group too so two seconds separating three riders at this moment two tied on time at four seconds and once Egon Barnal so I changed my mind while I'm texting with D double E saying that I think I'd wait for Egon Barnal because who knows what could happen but we certainly know on stage two Egon got dropped and now he's getting dropped on stage four so the Colombian does not have 2019 Tour de France like form as he's struggling back there he's got some company along with pseudo quick step I'll call this rider Zana if I remember correctly Felipe Zana as they're drilling it Ben Turner's up there doing everything he can the pink jersey's dropping massive time he's about four minutes back so forget about the pink jersey go up front Movistar still drilling it they're coming up to the top of the KOM now they're going to go over the top with let's call it about a 40 rider group at this moment with Movistar still drilling it on the front with Nelson Oliveira now we look further back at about 30 seconds Ben Turner's Zana and Egon Barnal are going to come over the top of the KOM here about 30 seconds back it's not quite a descent with 43 kilometers to go immediately when you summit it kind of still rolls at the top so this is very hard for riders that have gotten dropped to stay on the pedals properly to be able to gain time back they have to fight these next couple kilometers until you get in the descent more proper then you see Movistar flying down the descent they got the peloton up here strung out with not very many sprinters up there but I'll back the film up to the top of the KOM because we see Jonathan Narvaez has made it in this front group I already told you Ciccone was there and we know both those guys have some speed now as we drop further down the descent we see there's problems for Liddell Trek at this moment 32 kilometers to go Derek G's got an emergency situation you do not want to be dropping off the back at this moment with the peloton going so fast up there as Derek G the cameras find the Liddell Trek rider proper we see is with Egon Barnal this was a gift to the Colombian Egon Barnal from Team Ineos and his teammate Ben Turner right now as you know Derek G will start throwing in some power they get some more help up there from Andre from pseudo quickstep I don't know how he got there where he came from but we got five back there chasing and they're still holding about a 20-25 second gap to the peloton up front being led by Movistar then we go to the middle of the peloton we see Sobrero right up there Liddell Trek he's having a conversation with Ciccone because why because he knows he might have to drop out to help their GC guy Derek G that's exactly what he does he drops back there now we got six chasing the peloton being led by Movistar you see back there they're having some big time problem closing the gap everyone's giving everything they can Egon Barnal pulling Derek G's pulling Ben Turner's pulling everybody's pulling in this group of six trying to bring this group back of the peloton up front but they're suffering as they finally start nearing and getting inside of the peloton Ben Turner has to do a big acceleration at the back of the four guys in front of him because the guy that was supposed to rotate after him that was behind him was supposed to rotate then now Ben Turner has to close the gap he's got to do a big effort with everything he's got to try to close the gap as the group of four is closing up to the back of the peloton with about 17 kilometers to go they'll close on Ben Turner's made it on that whole group of six is on there so Egon Barnal sitting at four seconds is tied for the race leaders jersey along with Florian Stork up there from Tudor cycling now we come into about 12 kilometers ago Tudor cycling starting to move up to the front of the peloton there as they've got to get Florian Stork some of the Red Bull sprint point competition that's coming up because it's all time bonus six seconds four seconds and two seconds we see my man Victor Campenot trying to lead out Jonas Vanjiego at this moment Jonas jumps a little bit too early as he starts to jump we see coming from the back Jan Christian UAE team emirates has found his way up he wants some time bonuses too because he's about 10 seconds back on the general classification he starts his sprint as Jonas started a little too early Jan Christian starts to sprint to the right side he's got Giulio Pellizzari from Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe on his wheel coming from the left side around the back wheel there of Jonas Vanjiego we see that that's Ciaccone as we go up a little bit further Jan Christian is in the lead but he's taking Pellizzari all the way to the fencing then he starts moving back over to Jonas Vanjiego there and then he opens up a little more gap so Pellizzari starts sprinting but but Jan Christian kind of held him up Jan Christian is going to cross the line first for six second time bonus Pellizzari crosses the line for fourth Ciaccone crosses the line for two second time bonuses just in front there of Jonas Vanjiego now well that will they regulate Jan Christian for the time for the sprint way he went to the right side and then moved back to the left well we see that Pellizzari believes they should but in the end they don't which means what it means Ciaccone has just moved up two seconds which means he's tied right now because at four seconds back is Florian Stork Egon Bernal and now Ciaccone so the finish of today's stage is going to be important on who decides to get the pink jersey we look up front Movistar still drilling they're working well together we start seeing that that UAE Team Emirates have a little powwow there between the two riders that made it Jonathan Narvaez and Christian and Jan Christian there as they're talking up some strategy we're going a little bit further Movistar's Nelson Oliveira Rubio are there pulling on the front that's going to leave Enric Mas and or Luis Olar that's trying to win today's stage that Movistar has been drilling it now we start coming in a little bit further as we take you fast forward into about four kilometers ago we start seeing the profile of today's stage we know there's a bump all the way into 400 meters to go but it's certainly not flat and if you look at 1k they got to go over a little bridge there at 1k then we look at the profile in terms of how straight it is or how I should say it's not that straight here on today's stage four so that's what the riders are looking at we come into two kilometers to go all of a sudden this is when Nelson Oliveira he starts to get ready to blow at the front and he's as he's blowing just under two kilometers ago I'll call it about 1.7 1.8 he blows and drift back then Jan Christian comes up from the back side and sprinting on the left side of the peloton throws in a massive dig at the front of the peloton but if I back the film up just a hair little track was coming up the right side there parallel with Movistar as Nelson Oliveira was pulling off that's Derrick G Sobrero and Ciccone now we start looking as Jan Christian's throwing in his attack he's going over the top up front Derrick G's there but Moss is doing the acceleration over the top of Derrick G look over to the left side of the peloton as it started to get a little bit wider Narvaez is there for UAE Team Emirates as Jan Christian's throwing everything into it I'm thinking like that was a little bit early but it's gonna get better here in just a moment as we start coming through all these corners because Moss has got a gap on Derrick G as Moss is still drips is still trailing about two or three seconds behind the attack of Jan Christian he's starting to stretch and extend it out to about three seconds but Derrick G's having all kinds of problems as we're coming through the left turns and the right turns here at the final stage of four Derrick G is starting to blow as we're hitting the bridge now we look at about two seconds maybe three if I stretch it Moss is still there and Jan Christian's at the summit he's looking back over his shoulder we look further back we see that Derrick G is blowing back there as Moss is still holding the gap but now Sobrero comes through for Ciccone as Sobrero's drilling it or Luis Olar's there Jonathan Narvaez is in a good position then we start coming through the roundabout section as Sobrero's getting closer closer he's coming through the next turns he's going to come through the rights and the left and he's starting to close the gap up there to Jan Christian but Jan Christian's making a pay for every pedal stroke as Jan Christian's throwing everything into we come into the last 400 meter right bend he comes through the right turn proper Jan Christian with Sobrero hot on the heels there we start looking behind Sobrero that's or Luis Olar there then we look at Ciccone and Jonathan Narvaez followed of course there by Pinarella and then Ben Turner there from Team Ineos now as we look up front Jan Christian's starting to get wrapped up right now from from the pace there from Sobrero but Sobrero's starting to blow we're coming into about 350 meters to go the first attack is coming from or Luis Olar immediately I'm thinking oh 350 meters to go or Luis Olar flies by and catches Jan Christian as he's passing Sobrero Sobrero's looking over his shoulder and he sees Ciccone his teammate sitting second position and then Jonathan Narvaez in third as or Luis Olar comes over the top of the breakaway rider there that threw in his attack at 1.7 Jan Christian he comes over the top goes all the way to the fencing takes it in about 200 meters to go then he goes into 150 backs off the throttle a little bit looks over his shoulder because why he knows he's in trouble it's starting to stair step up to the top he knows because he's been on the front already for 200 meters as he starts his as he starts looking forward he's got to get a big kick going he starts to kick again Ciccone throws in his attack and so does Jonathan Narvaez with 100 120 meters to go all three are side by side we go up to 50 meters to go Ciccone starts to blow in the middle Jonathan Narvaez starts another acceleration going to 25 meters to go all right or Luis had jumped too early he starts to blow Jonathan Narvaez UAE team members across the line for stage four victory here at the Giro d'Italia followed by Luis Alar from Movistar and Ciccone in third that does what he grabs some more time bonuses of four seconds so he moves himself into the pink race leaders jersey after they cross the line Jonathan Narvaez is going to get hugs from his staff all over the place then we look at Ciccone who's getting some hugs from his teammate Derek G did a fantastic job today coming back from that rear flat we start looking at the general classification it's still tight here going into the next next week here of the Giro d'Italia but we know the pink jersey is in the hand of the tire rider Ciccone from Lit-L-Trek now keep in mind these guys got a thin roster Johnny Milan is trying to win sprint stages Derek G is going for general classification Ciccone is going for stage victories but they're wearing the race leaders pink jersey while they're trying to get the Chiclamino jersey too for Johnny Milan so Lit-L-Trek got their hands full now I got my hands full too but I got a little bit of a rest coming up because Garrett behind the camera he's taking off for the next five days until after the weekend so I'm sorry I won't have a butterfly effect for you guys until Monday which will be beyond the coverage and then the butterfly effect to be on Tuesday but Garrett's got to go race his bike too because he's trying to go up to the big leagues now make sure you guys like and subscribe and I'll see you for something for sure on Monday and we'll be back at the butterfly effect again on Tuesday when we start getting back into the Giro d'Italia stages make sure you like and subscribe and guys don't forget we got Blockhouse coming on Friday which should be the first big explosion for the general classification general classification favorites to start battling with each other and Jonas Venigo no I did not say if we're talking to the Danish fans that left some some comments on my channel I did not say that you won lucky at Paris-Nice in Catalonia and I did not say that you were the favorite here at the Giro d'Italia and you and you won Giro here lucky what I have said is that I've never seen a leader like Jonas Venigo who clearly has the form and is the favorite that's why he's number two on my butterfly effect list but clearly has the form to win the Giro d'Italia what I said is that he's had a ton of luck on his side to have favorites like Paris-Nice where we saw Brandon McNulty won a Uso crash out at Volta Catalonia where Jonas won again where we saw Remco crash we saw of course Tom Pidcock crashed there and when we come in here to the Giro you see Adam Yates and Jay Vine out what I said and clearly said is Jonas Venigo is a fantastic talent and is has has always been the favorite to win the stage races in the 26th season but what I said is that he's had a lot of luck on his side because the favorites behind him have crashed out and we've seen that here at the Giro now can someone come up and stop him on the blockhouse climb we're gonna have to wait and see I'll see you guys for Monday's video real soon