Monaco

So, but that's going to keep building and building and building.

And yeah, I mean, Charles Leclerc talked about it being a, a commitment track and Gasly was saying it's a mix of Jeddah and Monaco.

Berman went with Baku and Jeddah.

So we've got a few different tracks.

Urban track, like to call it.

Yeah.

So like Monaco, for example, you, you're going through buildings and hotels and bars and cafes and the harbor.

There's a lot...

[upbeat music] You're listening to the cycling podcast at the 2026 Vuelta a España, on the ground and on the road from Monaco to Granada.

[upbeat music]

With, like, two k's to go, Primoz, what was the plan today?

But before that, I've been sent a voice note from Martin, who is making his way back from the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous de Septembre, having spent a few days sipping champagne, but also working very hard to bring us the latest gossip from his conversations at the conference about how the insurance industry will manage the soft cycle and the wider risk landscape.

Martin, from somewhere between Monaco and the metropolis of London, take it away.

[upbeat music] Thanks, Josh.

And yes, the last few days have been very intense, but also very fun.

Monaco welcomed me in the traditional way this year, which was by charging me 21 euros for a beer within about five minutes of arriving.

So expectations were set fairly quickly.

Then on the first night at the Fairmont, which acts kind of as the luxury hotel at the center of the conference, they somehow managed to run out of the expensive champagne before the cheap stuff.

Good luck.

What links these countries? We have Russia, Mexico, Spain and Monaco.

Russia, Mexico, Spain.

Mm-hmm.

My initial ins- instinct is it could well be something to do with a flag.

I think often when it's countries, it's...

Uh, I'm trying to think of a Monaco flag.

Um-

Depuis que leur histoire a été officialisée en avril, la descendante des Bourbonnes de Sicilia, Maria Carolina et le président du Rassemblement national, Jordan Bardella, sont au centre de nombreux commentaires médiatiques et mondains.

Leur rencontre au Grand Prix de Monaco en deux mille vingt-cinq avait déjà suscité la curiosité, mais c'est la reconnaissance publique récente du couple qui a fait décoller les spéculations sur un éventuel mariage royal et sur le rôle possible de la princesse dans la scène politique française, surtout à l'aube proche des élections présidentielles de deux mille vingt-sept.

En réponse aux rumeurs, le vingt-et-un mai, lors du gala de Liam Farakan, le prince Charles, Henri de Lobkowitz, cousin de Maria Carolina et membre du Gotha, a pris la parole pour faire taire les commérages.

Le soixante-deux, descendant de la princesse Françoise de Bourbon, Pam, a décrit la jeune femme comme très heureuse et amoureuse, qui vit chaque moment avec simplicité, loin des jeux de pouvoir.

Cependant, les experts soulignent que le taux est encore inférieur à celui enregistré en Allemagne et aux Pays-Bas, où les politiques de formation sont davantage intégrées au marché du travail.

Le ministère de la Chine a annoncé de nouveaux investissements pour élargir les parcours de formation professionnelle dans le but de combler l'âme secteur compétitif au niveau européen.

Météo Paris, Monaco, Monte Carlo et Milan pour le vendredi onze septembre deux mille vingt-six.

Paris.

So Pierre Gasly has a pretty atrocious weekend.

Over the weekend, going into it, he finds out that his podium from Monaco...

Literally less than 24 hours before Monza's qualifying, he finds out from the FIA that the appeal was overturned, the steward's decision has been reversed, and he is stripped of his Monaco.

Which...

Think about that for a second.

Monaco, Monza, those are huge historic races.

You get a podium there, that's something that is like core memory for life.

So he goes into the weekend having to answer tons of questions about that, and that's such a low blow for that to happen to him.

...

I, I've heard people saying that apparently the circuit designers for Madrid wanted a combination of Macau, Jeddah, and Monaco.

Right.

Those are not three tracks I think need combining.

Yeah

...

but you know, like, you know, when McLaren did a couple of special liveries, like the Senna one a couple of years ago at Monaco and things like that.

Yeah.

Yeah, an ability to learn a circuit, get up to speed with a very challenging one with the walls close by.

Someone who's raced at the likes of Valencia before and has good experience around Monaco.

You may

just not need to

yeah we had two dns's no four dns's and three dnfs's seven not making it to the flag um two dnfs in japan three dnfs but also it's the mad ring And we don't know what to expect.

Three, four, five, six DNFs in Canada.

One, two, three, four, five, six DNFs in Monaco.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven DNFs in Barcelona and one DNS.

Danny Welbeck, Henderson, older guys.

A lot of people made fun of those moves, but honestly, when you have a roster of young potential and talent, already what else do you need you need someone to kind of guide those you know young kids you know the kids really their kids uh because i mean last season with the red cards and everything it was just it was rough you could tell yeah you could tell they're just they were immature and really just you know when adversity struck they just didn't know what to do and just flailed spazzed everything like that um i think we kind of put ourselves in a position where the midfield may be thin especially at the beginning of the season Moises Caicedo is experiencing some injury spells right now tried bringing in a midfielder Camara from Monaco yes Monaco but that was botched due to Florian Balogun not wanting to go to Everton the sporting director going against his words over there at Monaco it was rough so And, you know, some players that we could have brought, but we could have reneged the contract.

And so we could have told Enzo, no, sorry, you're staying until January, whatever it is.

But in that case, you do run into issues where maybe you don't have the player that he doesn't want to be there.

Yeah, I think the glaring, the most obvious piece is the midfield, as Lojo was mentioning.

I think as a Chelsea fan and as a big Enzo Fernandez supporter myself, it was one of those things where I was keeping an eye on this saga until I wasn't really, because I recognized that it was only a matter of time that Manchester City were going to pull a Chelsea and splash the cash.

And then when I see the, you know, the side quest that was the business around getting Kamara from Monaco and how that all came to be, to not be essentially, right, because of the Baligan move and all that stuff.

um it was like oh my gosh that is the worst thing i'd want to see is is that we had the opportunity to essentially nullify that move but because we're you know a club of our word it's like yeah we're going to honor that move and and give the player what he wants and so um yeah it's a little frustrating to see especially um seeing how how thin our our midfield quality is now uh you look at the likes of like a romeo lavia who is still struggling to put up consistent 90 plus minute performances for for this club um you look at valentine barco who is still struggling to get premier league minutes even though i mean we just picked him up sure but um I don't know if it's just...