S8 Ep175: Kilometre 0 – Grandest Tour Diaries
In this, this instalment of the Grandest Tour Diaries, we hear the thoughts and reflections of our team on a thrilling edition of the pink race, as well as the reaction to the first six stages of the Vuelta a España. Thanks to Nathan Haas (Cofidis), Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates), Rick Zabel (Israel Start-Up Nation), James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-hansgrohe), Ja...
40m Oct 26, 2020
40m
S8 Ep174: The Grandest Tour Stage 21: The Jai-breaker
The Giro d’Italia concluded with the final time trial into Milan and an already simmering Vuelta a España bubbled into life in the freezing rain. Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Lizzy Banks recap all the racing, starting with analysis of the time trial which gave Tao Geoghegan Hart overall victory in the Giro ahead of Jai Hindley. We also hear from Daniel Friebe at the Vuelta on a day when I...
57m Oct 25, 2020
57m
S8 Ep173: The Grandest Tour stage 20: Tao + Jai = Tie
Join Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Lizzy Banks as they discuss a stage which means two riders go into the Giro d'Italia's final time trial on Sunday level on time. It's the closest finish to a grand tour in history. Who will come out on top? The Cycling Podcast is supported by iwoca and Science in Sport.
53m Oct 24, 2020
53m
S8 Ep172: The Grandest Tour stage 19: On The Buses
Richard and Lionel are joined by professional rider Lizzy Banks as they discuss stage 19 at the Giro d'Italia and stage 4 at the Vuelta a España, though the main talking points were in Italy, where the riders staged a protest over the length of the stage and ended up covering much of the distance in their team buses. We hear from our audio diarists, James Knox, Rick Zabel, Joe Dombrowski and C...
1hr 3m Oct 23, 2020
1hr 3m
S8 Ep171: The Grandest Tour stage 18: The World Jacket Putting-On Championships
In this episode Richard Moore and Lionel Birnie are again joined by François Thomazeau to review stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia, which tackled the legendary Stelvio before the finish at Laghi di Cancano. We discuss the World Jacket Putting-On Championships and Team Sunweb's tactics and ask why the mood in the camp might not be ecstatic tonight considering they took the stage victory and the pin...
56m Oct 22, 2020
56m
S8 Ep170: Kilometre 0 – Giro Diaries – Part 5
In this episode of Kilometre 0 we hear more from our diarists in the Giro d'Italia peloton. They are Nathan Haas (Cofidis), Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates), Rick Zabel (Israel Start-Up Nation), James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-hansgrohe), Jacopo Guarnieri (Groupama-FDJ). Kilometre 0 by The Cycling Podcast is supported by Zwift, the app for riding, training and rac...
56m Oct 22, 2020
56m
S8 Ep169: The Grandest Tour stage 17: The Italian-Spanish-Belgium triangle
For the second day in a row there are three races in three countries to discuss. Richard Moore and Lionel Birnie are joined by the star of our Tour de France coverage, François Thomazeau. In the first part we review stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia, where Aussie Ben O’Connor went one better than yesterday and took a vital victory for NTT Pro Cycling. Then we recap the men’s Three Days of De Pann...
1hr 9m Oct 21, 2020
1hr 9m
S8 Ep168: Life in the Peloton – Greg Griffiths
Meet The Commissaire. In this episode of Life in the Peloton, Mitch Docker talks to one of the team of UCI officials who enforce the rules, dish out the penalties, and keep the peloton on the straight and narrow. Greg Griffiths is from Mitch's neck of the woods, in Melbourne, Australia, and every year he travels round the world working as a commissaire – or judge – in professional cycling. B...
52m Oct 21, 2020
52m
S8 Ep167: The Grandest Tour stage 16: Cappuccino, waffles, jamón
Richard Moore and Lionel Birnie are joined by guest host and former Team Sky and Katusha-Alpecin professional Ian Boswell to discuss today's racing in three countries. It was a day to celebrate for Slovenia and one to commiserate for Jolien D’Hoore. We start in northern Spain, the Basque Country to be precise, where the Vuelta a España got underway. Primoz Roglic picked up where he left off i...
52m Oct 20, 2020
52m
S8 Ep166: Kilometre 0 – George Bennett
"As long as I've been a good bike racer, I've had this problem." George Bennett has suffered from a long term health issue since the beginning of his career as a professional cyclist. Last winter he underwent surgery in attempt to correct it. He had a fantastic start to the season restart, winning Gran Piemonte and coming second to Jakob Fuglsang at Il Lombardia, in addition to playing a vita...
23m Oct 20, 2020
23m
S8 Ep165: Kilometre 0 – NTT SOS
Africa's premier cycling team has been around in various guises since 2007. Initially, as continental team MTN, which became pro-continental team MTN-Qhubeka, before joining the WorldTour as Dimension Data and now NTT. Gerald Ciolek took their first win at Milan Sanremo back in 2013. Shortly afterwards, the team was riding and winning stages at the Tour de France. They made a splash in 2015 w...
28m Oct 19, 2020
28m
S8 Ep164: The Grandest Tour stage 15: The Giro van Vlaanderen
In this episode we join Richard Moore and a good friend of the podcast in Belgium to review the Tour of Flanders, which featured a showdown between two riders whose rivalry began in cyclo-cross and are now destined to clash in the cobbled classics for years to come. Then it’s over to Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe to recap the first serious mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia, which saw a fir...
47m Oct 18, 2020
47m
S8 Ep163: The Grandest Tour stage 14: The Prosecco time trial
With Daniel serving a one podcast ban (not really) for defaming an entire nation’s pronunciation of the words ‘pasta’ and ‘risotto’ it’s left to Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Ian Boswell to recap the Giro d’Italia’s time trial to Valdobbiadene in Prosecco country. Ineos Grenadiers will have plenty of reason to pop the cork on a bottle of the fizzy wine after Filippo Ganna and Rohan Dennis t...
47m Oct 17, 2020
47m
S8 Ep162: The Grandest Tour stage 13: The sprint stage without sprinters
For stage 13 of The Grandest Tour we are joined again by former professional Ian Boswell, who discusses the Giro d'Italia in the company of Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie. There are audio diaries from Jacopo Guarnieri, the lead-out man for sprinter Arnaud Démare, and James Knox, an important teammate for Joao Almeida, who still holds the pink jersey of race leader and increased...
55m Oct 16, 2020
55m
S8 Ep161: The Grandest Tour stage 12: Chocolate mousse at the Merckx's
In our latest episode, discussing stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia, Richard Moore and Lionel Birnie are joined by guest presenter Ian Boswell, the former professional rider with Team Sky and Katusha-Alpecin. It was a tough day in Italy, with heavy rain and cold weather turning a hilly stage into a battle for survival. We hear from James Knox of Deceuninck-Quickstep who describes himself as "an em...
43m Oct 15, 2020
43m
S8 Ep160: Kilometre 0 – Giro Diaries – Part 4
Our Giro Diaries series continues and this episode kicks off with Jacopo Guarnieri recapping a day's racing while having his post-race massage. We also hear from James Knox as he continues to defend his teammate João Almeida's maglia rosa and from Cesare Benedetti on Peter Sagan's first Giro stage win and first race victory since the 2019 Tour de France. Kilometre 0 by The Cycling Podcast is ...
28m Oct 15, 2020
28m
S8 Ep159: The Grandest Tour stage 11: A transitional stage
The Giro d’Italia had a transitional stage for the sprinters and we had a transitional podcast too, with Lionel Birnie joining Richard Moore to recap stage 11. With sprint finishes in Rimini and in Schoten at the Scheldeprijs, the question is, who’s the fastest? Arnaud Démare – who took his fourth stage victory of this Giro – or Caleb Ewan, who won in Belgium? We hear from Jacopo Guarnieri of...
51m Oct 14, 2020
51m
S8 Ep158: Kilometre 0 – Giro Diaries – Part 3
In this episode of Kilometre 0 we hear from three of our diarists in the Giro d'Italia peloton. With Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo-Visma having to pull out of the race because of a spate of coronavirus positive tests, Joe Dombrowski of UAE Team Emirates reacts to the news, talks about the difficulty of keeping the bubble secure and asks whether the race will make it to Milan. Israel Start-Up Nat...
42m Oct 14, 2020
42m
S8 Ep157: The Grandest Tour stage 10: Saganissimo
The Giro d’Italia resumed after its rest day with the news that two high profile riders, Steven Kruijswijk and Michael Matthews, had tested positive for Covid and were out of the race. The race limped on and served up a thrilling stage, won by Peter Sagan with one of the performances of his career. In this episode we hear from Ben Swift and Brandon McNulty, as well as our audio diarist James ...
55m Oct 13, 2020
55m
S8 Ep156: Kilometre 0 – Italy's other mountains
Stretching over 1200 kilometres, from the knee of Italy’s boot to the tip of its toe, the Apennines are ‘il Bel Paese’s’ defining geographical feature - & yet many would struggle to point to them on a map. Similarly, the range’s place in Giro folklore is underplayed or even ignored, despite glorious dramas on fearsome climbs like Blockhaus, Monte Carpegna, San Pellegrino in Alpe & l’Abetone.  ...
15m Oct 13, 2020
15m
S8 Ep155: The Grandest Tour Rest Day 1: Press Conference
The first rest day of the Giro d'Italia sees Daniel and Richard answer your questions with the first press conference of The Cycling Podcast's Grandest Tour. There are questions about asterisks, the dates of the Ardennes classics and whether they should be moved, Team Ineos and Peter Sagan – and many more. There were also questions for Joe Dombrowski and James Knox, who are both keeping audio ...
57m Oct 12, 2020
57m
S8 Ep154: The Grandest Tour stage 9: Super Sunday
There were races in Belgium, France and Italy, with Ghent-Wevelgem, Paris-Tours and the Giro d'Italia, and we have reaction to each of them in our latest episode. From Italy, we hear from Wilco Kelderman, who moved up to second overall at the Giro, and his Sunweb teammate Sam Oomen. We also have interviews with Larry Warbasse, who makes some pointed comments about Ruben Guerrero, the stage nin...
51m Oct 11, 2020
51m
S8 Ep153: The Grandest Tour stage 8: Dowsett takes an emotional win
As Alex Dowsett won his second stage of the Giro d’Italia, and his first in seven years, The Cycling Podcast was there to witness an emotional victory for the rider from Essex. The Giro had woken up to the concerning news of one of the favourites, Simon Yates, testing positive for Covid-19. His Mitchelton-Scott teammates all tested negative and so continue in the race, but Yates was taken by a...
46m Oct 10, 2020
46m
S8 Ep152: The Grandest Tour stage 7: When the wind blows
We lingered in Matera, the beautiful city where stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia finished and stage 7 started, with crosswinds forecast. They duly came, and, predictably, it was Deceuninck-Quickstep and Jumbo-Visma who went to the front and tore the race into pieces. In tonight's episode we hear from our diarist, James Knox of Deceuninck, about his sense of trepidation ahead of the stage. We also ...
59m Oct 09, 2020
59m
S8 Ep151: Kilometre 0 – Giro Diaries – Part 2
In episode two of Kilometre 0 from The Grandest Tour we hear once again from our team of audio diarists, including pasta with Nathan Haas, defending the pink jersey with James Knox, and hearing about the life less glamorous with Rick Zabel. Our audio diarists at the Giro d'Italia are Haas (Cofidis), Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates), Zabel (Israel Start-Up Nation), Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step...
30m Oct 09, 2020
30m
S8 Ep150: The Grandest Tour stage 6: Démare in a hurry
From the beautiful city of Matera, the third oldest in the world, Richard and Daniel report from a stage of the Giro d'Italia won in impressive style by French champion Arnaud Démare. We hear from his Groupama-FDJ leadout man, Jacopo Guarnieri, who is keeping an audio diary for The Cycling Podcast, and also from another of our diarists, James Knox, whose Deceuninck-Quickstep team defended the p...
51m Oct 08, 2020
51m
S8 Ep149: The Grandest Tour stage 5: Premature celebrations
A mountainous stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia was won by the heaviest man in the race, Filippo Ganna, after an apparent row between his breakaway companions, Thomas De Gendt and Einer Rubio.  We hear from both De Gendt and Rubio, with each having a different view of what went on. In this episode we also hear from Simon Yates, who still hopes to win overall, from Jakob Fuglsang and our old friend...
48m Oct 07, 2020
48m
S8 Ep148: Life in the Peloton – Dr Kevin Sprouse
Mitch Docker is back to talk about Life in the Peloton with a man who is critical to the health and wellbeing of the riders on and off the bike. Dr Kevin Sprouse is the medical director of Mitch's team, EF Pro Cycling, and in a fascinating conversation he talks about the daily routine for a team doctor working in professional cycling. What does a team doctor do day-to-day? How does a doctor d...
1hr 11m Oct 07, 2020
1hr 11m
S8 Ep147: The Grandest Tour stage 4: Shark hunting
The Giro d'Italia spent a fourth day on the island of Sicliy and Richard and Daniel went shark hunting in Messina, visiting the shop owned by Vincenzo Nibali's family. With the stage won in a close sprint by Arnaud Démare of Groupama-FDJ, we get an eyewitness account from our audio diarist, and Démare's leadout man, Jacopo Guarnieri. We speak to Pello Bilbao, who is sitting third overall after...
50m Oct 06, 2020
50m
S8 Ep146: Kilometre 0 – Giro Diaries – Part 1
Episode 1: We have signed up six riders to keep audio diaries for us throughout the 103rd edition of the Giro d'Italia. They are Nathan Haas (Cofidis), Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates), Rick Zabel (Israel Start-Up Nation), James Knox (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Cesare Benedetti (Bora-hansgrohe), Jacopo Guarnieri (Groupama-FDJ). Meet the team in this first episode of Kilometre 0. Kilometre 0 b...
47m Oct 06, 2020
47m
S8 Ep145: The Grandest Tour stage 3: Enna — Etna
Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia saw drama even before the race properly started when Geraint Thomas, one of the favourites, crashed heavily in the neutralised zone.  Thomas’s challenge is over, and Simon Yates’s took a dent as he was dropped on the slopes of Mount Etna. We hear from the sports directors of their respective teams and also from Fabrizio Guidi, whose EF Pro Cycling team won the stag...
38m Oct 05, 2020
38m
S8 Ep144: The Grandest Tour Stage 2: Alcamo - Agrigento (via Liège–Bastogne–Liège)
In stage two of The Cycling Podcast’s Grandest Tour we are divided between Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Giro d’Italia.  In Liège there was a victory for Primoz Roglic, and we have the reaction of the boss of his Jumbo-Visma team, Richard Plugge.  In Italy, Diego Ulissi won his seventh Giro stage and we hear from his teammate, Joe Dombrowski. We also have a dispatch from another of our audio d...
46m Oct 04, 2020
46m
S8 Ep143: The Grandest Tour Stage 1: Monreale - Palermo
In the first episode from the Giro d’Italia — and the first of The Grandest Tour by The Cycling Podcast — Richard and Daniel review stage one, won by Filippo Ganna of Team Ineos Grenadiers.  We hear from Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates, the big winners among the overall contenders, and from our new diarists, Joe Dombrowski, James Knox, Jacopo Guarnieri, Nathan Haas, Cesare Benedetti and Rick Za...
49m Oct 03, 2020
49m
S8 Ep142: Service Course | Contador, Basso, Biometrics and Ducks
In this episode of Service Course Tom and Lizzy react to EF Pro-Cycling's new kit for the Giro, speak with Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso about the Aurum Magma, the first bike to be produced by their new brand, and chat with Absolute Black's Borut Fonda about his lab work with Tadej Pogačar. Service Course is supported by Science In Sport (https://www.scienceinsport.com/) .  If you would like...
1hr 17m Oct 02, 2020
1hr 17m
S8 Ep141: Alaphilippe dances to the rainbow jersey
In this episode, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe recap the World Championship road race won by Julian Alaphilippe. How did the Frenchman win it? What could the others have done to stop him? And should Primoz Roglic have put national rivalry aside to help his Jumbo-Visma teammate Wout Van Aert of Belgium, who worked so tirelessly for him in the recent Tour de France? Plus find ou...
50m Sep 30, 2020
50m
S8 Ep140: Lizzy Banks’ Giro Rosa Diary
This month’s episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin includes Lizzy Banks’ unmissable audio diary from the Giro Rosa. Banks, who won a stage for the second year in a row, takes listeners inside the race, interviewing her Équipe Paule Ka teammates, Emma Norsgaard, Elise Chabbey and Mikayla Harvey, as they discuss rough roads and even rougher hotel beds, supportive grandfathers and stealing Annem...
1hr 52m Sep 28, 2020
1hr 52m
S8 Ep139: Looking back at the Tour and looking forward to the World Championships
In this week's podcast Richard Moore and Daniel Friebe discuss the time trials at the UCI world championships in Imola and look back at the Tour de France, won by Tadej Pogacar a week ago in Paris. Daniel justifies his "four wine glass" rating for this year's delayed Tour, and asks whether this is the start of the Pog dynasty, or a one off, when he was able to ride on the coat-tails of Jumbo-V...
1hr 10m Sep 26, 2020
1hr 10m
S8 Ep138: Life in the Peloton – Juanma Garate
In this episode of Life in the Peloton, Mitch Docker catches up with another of his sports directors, Juanma Garate. Garate is a former Spanish national road race champion who also won stages of all three grand tours, including the Mont Ventoux stage of the 2009 Tour de France. In this episode, Mitch and Juanma talk about life on the road as a rider, as a sports director and much more. This ...
1hr Sep 23, 2020
1hr
S8 Ep137: Tour de France stage 21: Mantes-la-Jolie – Paris Champs-Élysées
In a final episode of The Cycling Podcast from close to the Champs-Élysées Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau recap the last stage of the 2020 Tour de France. Still digesting yesterday’s time trial we review a stage victory for Sam Bennett before hearing from Connor Swift, who was in the break, Alexander Kristoff, who won the opening stage of the race and is a teammate of Tade...
1hr 17m Sep 20, 2020
1hr 17m
S8 Ep136: Tour de France stage 20: Lure – La Planche des Belles Filles
In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau recap an incredible stage of the Tour de France which turned the race on its head. A Slovenian will wear the yellow jersey in Paris tomorrow but the Tour champion elect is not Primoz Roglic, who has led the race since the Pyrenees but Tadej Pogacar, who produced a stunning performance in the time trial ...
52m Sep 19, 2020
52m
S8 Ep135: Tour de France stage 19: Bourg-en-Bresse – Champagnole
In this episode of The Cycling Podcast from the Tour de France, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau are enjoying an early glass of Champagne and a game of table tennis before recapping stage 19. They discuss another stage win for Sunweb and the tactics that led to it, then hear from yesterday’s stage winner Michal Kwiatkowski before looking ahead to tomorrow’s time trial to the...
53m Sep 18, 2020
53m
S8 Ep134: Kilometre 0 – The World Tour?
Episode 15: In recent months some sports, notably soccer and NBA basketball but others too, have raised the profile of the Black Lives Matter movement highlighting professional cycling's silence on the issue. Kévin Reza is the only black rider in the 2020 Tour de France peloton. While there have been initiatives to develop riders in Africa and Guadeloupe what is the pathway like for young blac...
28m Sep 18, 2020
28m
S8 Ep133: Tour de France stage 18: Méribel – La Roche-sur-Foron
Join Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau in La Roche-sur-Yoron as they recap the final Alpine stage of the Tour de France. There was a one-two for Ineos-Grenadiers, a worrying time for Richie Porte, who punctured on the gravel at the top of the Plateau des Glières and another big move by Bahrain-McLaren that came to nothing. Hear from Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma on helping Primoz...
38m Sep 17, 2020
38m
S8 Ep132: Kilometre 0 – They were all yellow
Episode 14: With Primoz Roglic and Jumbo-Visma closing in on their first Tour de France title we look back at the journey they've been on to reach this point. This episode of Kilometre 0 is a sequel to a Friends of the Podcast episode called Chasing Sky that Richard Moore made a couple of winters ago. It told the story of how the Dutch team had its sights on Team Sky (now Ineos Grenadiers) and...
28m Sep 17, 2020
28m
S8 Ep131: Tour de France stage 17: Grenoble – Méribel Col de la Loze
The Tour de France reached Méribel and a new climb, the Col de la Loze, taking the riders to more than 2,300 metres of altitude. But did it settle the general classification once and for all? On the steep final climb it was Superman Miguel Angel Lopez who soared away from the rest to win his first Tour de France stage. Behind, Primoz Roglic tightened his grip on the yellow jersey. Join Richar...
46m Sep 16, 2020
46m
S8 Ep130: Kilometre 0 – Tour Diaries – Part 6
Episode 13: It's time to hear from our Tour de France diarists again. In this update, we hear from Simon Geschke of CCC who has featured in several breaks and is also helping his teammate Matteo Trentin close the gap in the green jersey competition. But what is the tactic? Geschke explains. Michael Mørkøv of Deceuninck-Quick Step is leadout man for Sam Bennett, who currently has the green jers...
24m Sep 16, 2020
24m
S8 Ep129: Tour de France stage 16: La Tour-du-Pin – Villard-de-Lans
In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau are in a bustling square in Grenoble. They recap a stage to Villard-de-Lans which was won by the Bora-Hansgrohe rider Lennard Kamna, who succeeded where he and his teammate failed last week when they were outfought by Dani Martinez. We hear from Team Ineos Grenadiers boss Dave Brailsford about how they...
48m Sep 15, 2020
48m
S8 Ep128: Kilometre 0 – The climate challenge
Episode 12: This episode of Kilometre 0 is a prequel to a deeper discussion of professional cycling and the environment in a future episode of The Cycling Podcast later this year. Slowly the focus on the sport's impact on the environment and the measures race organisers, teams and individuals can take to reduce the carbon footprint has intensified. Race organisers have taken steps to reduce li...
31m Sep 15, 2020
31m
S8 Ep127: Tour de France rest day press conference 2
It’s the second rest day of the Tour de France and before the race resumes with its final block of stages, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau answer another batch of questions from listeners. OUR SPONSORS iwoca became The Cycling Podcast’s title sponsors in March 2020. iwoca specialises in supporting small businesses and can lend between £1,000 and £250,000. iwoca have been a...
1hr 12m Sep 14, 2020
1hr 12m
S8 Ep126: Kilometre 0 – Tour Diaries – Part 5
Episode 11: Our diarists return with contributions from NTT Pro Cycling's South African champion Ryan Gibbons, CCC's Simon Geschke on getting in the breaks, Connor Swift on climbing and Pavel Sivakov, who continues to improve after his crashes on stage one. Despatches from our team of audio diarists will appear throughout our Tour de France coverage as well as in Kilometre 0. The full line-up ...
20m Sep 14, 2020
20m