S11 Ep31: Arrivée | Liège-Bastogne-Liège | women's race
Rose Manley and Lizzy Banks serve up their takes on an edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege that ranks highly on the Belgian waffle-o-meter. SD Worx’s Demi Vollering comes into the race with an Ardennes Classics triple on her mind. But with more teams taking more risks as the Spring season comes to a close, her ascension is anything but a forgone conclusion. Could her closest opponent in fact come ...
38m Apr 23, 2023
38m
S11 Ep30: Arrivée | Flèche Wallonne
In the time it takes to climb the Mur de Huy half a dozen times, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie discuss the uphill cheese roll, aka Flèche Wallonne. Is it the most predictable race on the calendar, or is there some hidden nuance to the final climb? We discuss how the race panned out and other associated Ardennes trivia before attention turns to the big one, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, on Sunday. A...
31m Apr 19, 2023
31m
S11 Ep29: Amstel Gold Ace
In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie review the action from the first of the Limburg-Ardennes troika of Classics–- the Amstel Gold Race. To aid them in an ever more desperate scramble for superlatives to describe Tadej Pogačar’s spring, the boys are joined by AG2R Citroën stalwart Larry Warbasse – who’ll be among those trying to prevent a Pog clean sweep at Fl...
1hr 20m Apr 17, 2023
1hr 20m
S11 Ep28: Service Course | Tech Heaven in Hell
This episode of Service Course was recorded on location at the Hell of the North. Join Lizzy Banks and Tom Whalley for two breathtaking races at Paris-Roubaix and a closer look at some of the bikes being ridden. The pair hear about the rival adjustable tyre pressure systems being used by Team DSM and Jumbo-Visma at the race, Scope Atmoz and Gravaa Kaps respectively, as well as speaking to the ...
41m Apr 13, 2023
41m
S11 Ep27: Like a Mat Out of Hell
As the dust settles on another cobbled Classics season – and some who made it to the Roubaix velodrome on Sunday are still wiping the grit and in one or two cases tears from their eyes –  Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie take a last look back at the Hell of the North in the company of former WorldTour pro and cobblestone connoisseur Mitch Docker. We hear Mitch’s thoughts on another superlative ...
1hr 21m Apr 12, 2023
1hr 21m
S11 Ep26: Arrivée | Paris-Roubaix
In our third round of Arrivée podcasts of the 2023 season, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe recap the action from a fast – historically fast – and frenetic Paris-Roubaix. After his victory in Milan-Sanremo three weeks ago, Mathieu van der Poel looked like the hot favourite – but could his long-time rival Wout Van Aert turn it into a Sunday in Hell for the Dutchman? Lionel was on the ground to f...
40m Apr 09, 2023
40m
S11 Ep25: Arrivée | Paris-Roubaix Femmes
Join Lionel Birnie and Lizzy Banks in the grandstand at the velodrome in Roubaix as they recap a thrilling third edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes. They spent the day hopping from cobble section to cobble section but made it to the finish in time to see the outcome. The Cycling Podcast is supported by Supersapiens and Science in Sport. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast (https...
36m Apr 08, 2023
36m
S11 Ep24: Men who stare at GOATS
In this week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie are joined by long-time contributor François Thomazeau to reflect on Tadej Pogačar’s Tour of Flanders victory at the weekend and look ahead to Paris-Roubaix. Since Flanders, debate has raged about whether Pog will one day complete cycling’s “Monument Slam”. We discuss how much prestige should in fact be asso...
1hr 17m Apr 05, 2023
1hr 17m
S11 Ep22: Arrivée | Tour of Flanders | men’s race
In our second round of Arrivée podcasts of the 2023 season, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe get together to serve up their hot takes after a memorable edition of the Tour of Flanders. Could Mathieu van der Poel repeat his Milan-Sanremo heroics and thereby equal the career record of three Flanders wins? Would the home favourite Wout Van Aert finally add his name to the roll of honour of Vlaande...
40m Apr 02, 2023
40m
S11 Ep23: Arrivée | Tour of Flanders | women’s race
In this episode of Arrivée, Rose Manley and Lizzy Banks dissect the women’s Tour of Flanders. After an imperious start to the season which includes wins for Demi Vollering, Marlen Reusser and Lotte Kopecky, all eyes will be on SD Worx. But with former Flanders champion Elisa Longo Borghini returning to the Trek-Segafredo fold and World Champion Annemiek Van Vleuten racing her final Ronde Van V...
34m Apr 02, 2023
34m
S11 Ep21: A Perfect Gent
In this week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe are joined by Renaat Schotte, one of the voices of cycling in Belgium, to review a scintillating weekend of Classics racing - and one that reaffirmed Jumbo-Visma’s supremacy ahead of the Tour of Flanders. We savour an E3 Saxo Bank Classic illuminated by three galáciticos of the pro peloton before going on to...
1hr 42m Mar 29, 2023
1hr 42m
S11 Ep20: Whole Lotte Love
This month, The Cycling Podcast Féminin team get what they wished for: a fiercely fought battle between two teammates. Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering gunned it out at Strade Bianche with the Dutchwoman eventually crowned the victor after a tense photo finish. Despite being pipped into second, the Italian classic marked yet another chapter in Kopecky’s extraordinary early season in which she h...
1hr 5m Mar 24, 2023
1hr 5m
S11 Ep19: The Phonebox, the Ibex & Eight Bowls of Linguine
In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, after our on-the-whistle analysis in Arrivée at the weekend, we revisit Milan-Sanremo in the company of Larry Warbasse of AG2r-Citroën, who was in the thick of the action right up until the moment of Mathieu van der Poel’s race-winning attack on the Poggio. Larry takes Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie inside the peloton, dissecting and demystifying the wi...
1hr 16m Mar 22, 2023
1hr 16m
S11 Ep18: Arrivée | Milan-Sanremo 2023
In this year’s first episode of Arrivée, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe review the action from Milan-Sanremo aka La Classicissima. Would Tadej Pogačar continue where he left off at Paris-Nice last weekend? Could Van Aert and Van der Poel thwart him? And would Lionel reprise the foccacia-in-cappuccino dunking ritual premiered at last year’s Giro d’Italia? Follow us on social media: Twitter @c...
38m Mar 18, 2023
38m
S11 Ep17: Service Course | The Worst Kept Secret
In this month's episode of service course Tom Whalley and Lizzy Banks discuss Victor Campanaerts' secret weapon for the spring classics. Lizzy reveals what she's been up to on her secret mission to Girona and speaks to Cannondale's top nerds, Sam Ebert and Nathan Barry. Tom also set out to gain an insight into the process of kit design and spoke to Kate Wagner, Sam Morgan of Paria and our very ...
1hr 15m Mar 17, 2023
1hr 15m
S11 Ep16: Jam Tadej
In this week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie are joined by former Team CSC and Team Sky press chief and Leopard-Trek manager Brian Nygaard to review the two big WorldTour stage races that concluded at the weekend and look ahead to the first Monument of the 2023 season - Milan-Sanremo. After the usual weekly news round-up, we discuss the latest Pogciner...
1hr 31m Mar 15, 2023
1hr 31m
S11 Ep15: Explore | The Midlife Cyclist
This episode of Explore was recorded in March 2022, when Lionel Birnie travelled to Berkshire to meet Phil Cavell. Lionel fitted squarely into the demographic Phil was writing for in his book The Midlife Cyclist and, as one of the people behind Cyclefit, has spent years trying to make riders more comfortable, more efficient and more powerful on the bike. As the years tick by and the likelihoo...
1hr 9m Mar 09, 2023
1hr 9m
S11 Ep14: The Incredulity of Thomas
Lionel Birnie is joined by EF Education-Tibco rider Lizzy Banks and Edward Pickering, the editor of Rouleur magazine, to help see through the dust thrown up by Strade Bianche. Saturday was a day when teamwork came under the microscope. In part one we examine the women’s race which was dominated by two SD Worx riders who had everything worked out except the ending. Demi Vollering seemed as surp...
1hr 23m Mar 06, 2023
1hr 23m
S11 Ep13: A Diamond Thief in the Hornets’ Nest
In this week’s regular episode, Daniel Friebe, Lionel Birnie and Rob Hatch of GCN and Eurosport commentary fame reflect on two thrilling days of racing at Opening Weekend in Belgium. On Saturday, a dominant Jumbo-Visma performance culminated in victory in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad for a rider whose winning moves typically display all the stealth, cunning and deftness of a gemstone heist. This was ...
1hr 10m Feb 27, 2023
1hr 10m
S11 Ep12: Kool and the Gang
Comebacks, controversy and new rivalries, there’s plenty for Rose Manley, Orla Chennaoui and Lizzy Banks to discuss in this month’s episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin. We hear from Charlotte Kool who caused a major upset in taking two stage wins over former teammate and sprinting superstar Lorena Wiebes at the UAE Tour. She tells us what it is like taking on the mantle of leadership in one...
1hr 15m Feb 24, 2023
1hr 15m
S11 Ep11: Chasing the X Factor
In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie are joined by the young and ambitious chief of the Uno-X men’s and women’s teams, Jens Haugland, to discuss their unlikely journey towards the pinnacle of the sport - the Tour de France. In a wide-ranging interview, Haugland explains why professional football and the priesthood could have been his alternative career...
1hr 16m Feb 20, 2023
1hr 16m
La Marseillaise
This is a trailer for La Marseillaise, a five-part series for Friends of The Cycling Podcast subscribers. Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com (https://thecyclingpodcast.supportingcast.fm) Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau tell the story of Marseille's cycling history and take in the opening race of the 2023 French season. Lionel heads to Marseille in search of a mid...
8m Feb 16, 2023
8m
S11 Ep10: The Pog Days Aren’t Over
In this week’s regular episode, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie are joined by former Team Sky and Katusha ace turned gravel-racing maestro Ian Boswell. After our usual round-up of the week’s news, it’s time to reflect on Tadej Pogačar’s 2023 racing début at the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior - and his scintillating victory on the white roads of what has already established itself as Spain’s ans...
1hr 41m Feb 14, 2023
1hr 41m
S11 Ep9: Admirable Lord Neilson & The Battle of Hoogerheide
This week Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie are back and joined by one of the most illustrious and recognisable voices in Belgian cycling, Sporza’s veteran commentator and reporter Renaat Schotte. After the usual news round-up, we review the action from the cyclocross Worlds in Hoogerheide, where Fem Van Empel and Mathieu van der Poel went double Dutch by taking the women’s and men’s titles resp...
1hr 33m Feb 08, 2023
1hr 33m
S11 Ep8: Explore | Rubbing shoulders with giants
Explore is about cycling with a sense of adventure, journeying into the unknown and setting off for a challenge not knowing quite what lies ahead. This episode is no exception, although it features a slightly different type of journey. Lionel Birnie talks to American cyclo-cross rider Ben Frederick, who made the trip of a lifetime to Belgium over the Christmas and New Year period. It was his ...
1hr 11m Feb 06, 2023
1hr 11m
S11 Ep7: Inter-stellar Domination
In this week’s episode, Daniel Friebe is joined by Rob Hatch and Lionel Birnie, fresh back from his trip to the GP La Marseillaise for the start of the French season. We round up a flurry of racing over recent days, including that curtain-raiser in Marseille, and exchange hot takes about what we’ve seen so far in Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Spain. We also reflect in greater detail on an emphat...
1hr 31m Feb 02, 2023
1hr 31m
S11 Ep6: Service Course | The wisdom of Boz
In this episode of Service Course, Tom Whalley speaks to Ian Boswell about the upcoming gravel season, the rule changes made by Unbound, and his plans for a very podcast-y Cape Epic ride partnering Mitch Docker. Boz also talks about his plans to transition from the pointy end of gravel races to the party end at the back. Beyond that, Tom and Lizzy Banks discuss the UCI rule changes for road bi...
1hr 10m Feb 02, 2023
1hr 10m
S11 Ep5: The Joe & Larry Show, Volume II
After their first appearance to look back on the 2022 season a few weeks ago, we reunite Joe Dombrowski of Astana-Qazaqstan and Larry Warbasse of AG2R Citroën and turn our gaze and thoughts forward to their respective 2023 campaigns. We ponder their hopes, dreams and fears for the coming campaign, and reflect on a broader question: to what extent is the grunt work that goes into arriving at an...
1hr 42m Jan 27, 2023
1hr 42m
S11 Ep4: The Women's World Tour is back
The Cycling Podcast Feminin kicks off 2023 with a look at the racing that is already in full swing in Australia. Rose Manley, Orla Chennaoui and Lizzy Banks discuss the first Women’s World Tour race of the season – the Tour Down Under – which returns to the calendar for the first time since 2020. We also hear from brand new Australian National Champion Brodie Chapman about finally winning the ...
1hr 5m Jan 27, 2023
1hr 5m
S11 Ep3: Touching the Void or (Down) Under Pressure
The 2023 men’s WorldTour kicked off with the Tour Down Under, and that race features heavily in this week’s regular episode, with our roving reporter on the ground in Adelaide, Mitch Docker, bringing us up to date with the latest action. Mitch is joined by Daniel Friebe and multiple former Monument and Grand Tour stage winner Dan Martin to also discuss the rest of the week’s news. That include...
1hr 43m Jan 19, 2023
1hr 43m
S11 Ep2: Tricky, It’s Greener, Barcelona
After the presentation of the 2023 Vuelta a España route in Barcelona on Tuesday, The Cycling Podcast takes a closer look at the 21 stages that will make up the peloton’s journey from the Catalan capital to Madrid in the summer. Daniel Friebe is joined by a pair of experts well known for their work on GCN and Eurosport - Rob Hatch and Laura Meseguer. We hear their thoughts on a route whose dif...
1hr 28m Jan 12, 2023
1hr 28m
S11 Ep1: Flaming Bora
After our Big Predictions Pod last week, in this episode The Cycling Podcast continues to gaze into the crystal ball by taking a close look at a team that, we suspect, will continue to soar in 2023. That team is Bora-Hansgrohe, and one of the main brains behind their change of focus in recent months is head sports director Rolf Aldag, who joins Daniel Friebe for an in-depth conversation about t...
1hr 39m Jan 06, 2023
1hr 39m
S10 Ep167: The Big Predictions Pod
The Cycling Podcast rings in the New Year by looking ahead to the 2023 season and some of the big storylines that may or may not play out on and off the road. Daniel Friebe is joined by former pro team manager and spin doctor Brian Nygaard and current AG2R Citroën ace Larry Warbasse. Having discussed the main headlines of the festive period, our not-so-clairvoyant trio hears from various other...
1hr 39m Dec 30, 2022
1hr 39m
S10 Ep166: Merry Quizmas Everyone!
The Cycling Podcast Féminin's final episode of 2022 sees the return of the Christmas Quiz! But before their competitive sides kick in, Rose Manley, Orla Chennaoui and Lizzy Banks share their highlights of the season and are in agreement for once. In a year when the inaugural Tour de France Femmes put women’s racing in the spotlight, they reminisce over some of the moments that captured their i...
1hr 3m Dec 17, 2022
1hr 3m
S10 Ep165: Team of the Year 2022: Jumbo-Visma
The Cycling Podcast completes its review of the 2022 season by electing our “Team of the Year”. In reality, it wasn't a difficult choice: Jumbo-Visma ruled the roost both in the terms of the quality and quantity of their victories, with Jonas Vingegaard's Tour de France title, Wout van Aert's July tour de force and Tobias Foss's rainbow jersey capping a sensational season. In an extended interv...
1hr 59m Dec 15, 2022
1hr 59m
S10 Ep164: Service Course | The man in the shadows
In this episode Tom Whalley speaks to Paul Farrell, the founder of Leggera who now designs frames and other items for some of the biggest brands in cycling. His career has seen him live in 55 different countries, with 15 years spent living and working in a carbon factory in China. Prior to that he spent over a decade working in the oil business, during which time he was shot at with bows and ar...
35m Dec 10, 2022
35m
S10 Ep163: Comeback of the Year 2022: Geraint Thomas
The Cycling Podcast continues its review of the 2022 season by electing our “Comeback of the Year”. Egan Bernal and Milan Vader made miraculous recoveries from injuries that looked career-threatening, Jai Hindley successfully banished the memory of a wretched 2021…but it’s Geraint Thomas who takes the laurels thanks mainly to his third place in the Tour de France. Before an extended interview ...
1hr 34m Dec 06, 2022
1hr 34m
S10 Ep162: Kilometre 0 – The cyclist and his shadow
This episode of Kilometre 0 features François Thomazeau talking about The cyclist and his shadow by Olivier Haralambon, which was published by The Cycling Podcast earlier this year. The book is a vivid exploration of what it is to ride a bike by Olivier, a philosopher and former racing cyclist. At the end of the 2020 Tour de France, François described the book – published in its original Fren...
17m Dec 05, 2022
17m
S10 Ep161: 2022 – The Year Through The Media Lens
In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, we continue our review of the 2022 season by looking at some of the biggest stories of the last eleven months - and a troubling year for certain sections of the cycling media itself. Daniel Friebe is joined by AG2r-Citroën rider Larry Warbasse and Jeremy Whittle, the co-founder of Procycling Magazine and now The Guardian's Tour de France correspondent. W...
1hr 40m Dec 01, 2022
1hr 40m
S10 Ep160: Ride of 2022: Tobias Foss, Worlds TT
The Cycling Podcast continues its review of the 2022 season by electing our “Ride of the Year” - and courting controversy with that selection. You can keep your Remcos at Liège, your Pogs at Strade Bianche, we say - the finest single exploit of the men’s cycling year was Tobias Foss’s giantkilling act in the World TT championship in Wollongong. In this episode, to help account for our choice, F...
1hr 26m Nov 24, 2022
1hr 26m
S10 Ep159: Service Course | The master of disruption
In this episode of Service Course, Lizzy Banks talks to Henry Furniss, who describes his mission as 'enhancing adventure with disruptive techonology'. In 2019, he left WindyMilla, the company he co-founded, and the following year he hinted to Service Course what he planned to do next. Now he can put more flesh on the bones of his new project, which combines two of our favourite things – new m...
58m Nov 21, 2022
58m
S10 Ep158: Men in the Mirror
How does a WorldTour professional evaluate his own performance? How does his team? What about his colleagues and training partners? In this week’s episode, regular guest Larry Warbasse of AG2R Citroën Team and his compatriot, Joe Dombrowski of Astana Qazaqstan, are invited to analyse and critique their respective 2022 seasons – and then to turn the spotlight on each other. Daniel Friebe conduc...
1hr 18m Nov 17, 2022
1hr 18m
S10 Ep157: Explore | Tour d'Écosse stages 13-15: Montrose – Peterhead – Elgin – Birnie – Dingwall
The final episode of the Tour d’Écosse series covers the last three stages of the ride to visit each of Scotland’s Football League grounds. Stage 13 of the trip takes Lionel and Simon from Montrose to Peterhead, via Aberdeen and a visit to Slains Castle, which inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. At 128 kilometres it’s the longest stage of the entire tour too but, fortunately, it's somewhat tailwin...
1hr 31m Nov 17, 2022
1hr 31m
S10 Ep156: Explore | Tour d'Écosse stage 12: Dundee – Montrose
The Angus stage of the Tour d’Écosse takes Lionel Birnie and Simon Gill from Dundee up to Forfar and Brechin before dropping down to the seaside in Arbroath and finally hugging the coastline to Montrose. There are a couple of culinary delights on the way, the Forfar Bridie for brunch and the Arbroath smokies for lunch before heading to watch the Red Lichties, Arbroath, take on East Fife at Gay...
38m Nov 16, 2022
38m
S10 Ep155: Explore | Tour d'Écosse stage 11: Freuchie – Dundee
Join Lionel Birnie and Simon Gill in Freuchie as they recap the first stage of the Tour d’Écosse following their return to Scotland for their journey around the country visiting all the football grounds. First, though, an exploration of Freuchie’s cricketing exploits before they roll through the Lomond Hills to Perth, the home of St Johnstone, and then up to Dundee where the city’s two footbal...
50m Nov 15, 2022
50m
S10 Ep154: Explore | Tour d'Écosse stage 10: Bonnyrigg – Freuchie
After just 165 rest days, the Tour d’Écosse resumed in Bonnyrigg in late September for the final stretch of the journey taking in the remaining Scottish Football League grounds. The route director had to re-draw the course over the summer because Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic became the newest members of the Scottish League after winning promotion at Cowdenbeath’s expense in May. And so, instead of ...
55m Nov 14, 2022
55m
S10 Ep153: Movers and shakers
In the November episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin, Rose Manley, Orla Chennaoui and Lizzy Banks talk transfers. With a number of high profile riders swapping teams, The Cycling Podcast team discuss the mechanics behind the moves and how they might change the face of racing next year. Drawing particular attention is the official arrival of Zoe Backstedt on to the Women’s World Tour. The 18 ...
1hr 17m Nov 13, 2022
1hr 17m
S10 Ep152: Explore | Tour d'Écosse stage 9: Linlithgow – Alloa
All roads lead to Alloa as the first stretch of Tour d'Écosse stages come to a conclusion with a trip to see the Wasps take on Clyde in the shadow of the beautiful Ochil Hills. The roll out is from the site of the West Lothian Cycle Circuit at Linlithgow. Lionel meets Matt Ball, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the circuit about how he hopes it will inspire generations of young...
50m Nov 11, 2022
50m
S10 Ep150: Explore | Tour d'Écosse stage 8: Leith – Dunfermline
After some initial confusion about which bridge would take them from Edinburgh across to Fife, Lionel and Simon’s Tour d’Écosse journey continues with stage eight. It’s a relatively short stage but there’s a deceptive amount of climbing on the course today and Simon is beginning to feel it. His efforts to slow Lionel down come to nothing. Tired legs does not explain the sinking feeling the pa...
40m Nov 10, 2022
40m
S10 Ep149: Explore | Tour d'Écosse stage 7: Strathclyde Country Park – Leith
Stage seven of the Tour d’Écosse is as close to the traditional transitional stage as it’s possible to get. The route avoids the Bathgate Alps and takes the low route from Glasgow to Edinburgh. In Lionel and Simon’s defence they have to go via Livingston Football Club’s Tony Macaroni Arena. It’s a beautiful, quiet ride offering time for reflection and reminiscence before they reach the outskir...
1hr 2m Nov 09, 2022
1hr 2m