At the Giro Next Gen you can find tomorrow's champions. This is well known by an experienced manager like Brent Copeland, whom we met at the start of the third stage from Albese Con Cassano. "It's always important to closely follow these races and the athletes competing. They are young guys, but despite their young age, they are already going strong and making themselves noticed," declares the Jayco AlUla General Manager to tuttobiciweb's microphones. In reality, it's not just a team, but a true "galaxy" comprising the men's World Tour formation, the Liv AlUla Jayco and Liv AlUla Jayco Women's Continental Team, and the Hagens Berman Jayco, a men's Continental team directed by Axel Merckx. "Axel is doing an incredible job with the team. I came here to the Giro Next Gen to be close to the team, see how things are going, and talk a bit with him," Copeland explains to us.

He then adds: "In the first stages, I saw some good things. Particularly, I always like time trials because they provide an indication of the riders' level and help understand who could be a potential future acquisition." The finish in Cantù also impressed the South African manager, who tells us: "I didn't expect the final climb to be so tough".

Giro Next Gen, but not only that. Copeland, with his usual kindness, offers us an overview of the World Tour team as well. "On the horizon, we have the Tour de France, and the preparation is going quite well. Ben O'Connor and the group working with him ahead of the Grande Boucle are currently at the Tour de Suisse (the Australian is currently 5th overall, his teammate Engelhardt is the climbers' leader, ed.). We're coming off the Dauphiné where Eddy Dumbar did well for several stages but then suffered from the great heat and unfortunately couldn't finish in the top 10. On Saturday, we were unlucky with Max Walscheid, who crashed at Dwars door het Hageland, breaking his elbow, and his absence is a serious loss for Dylan Groenewegen's train. In short, there's something positive and something that could be better, but what's certain is that we'll give our maximum."