S8 Ep107: Kilometre 0 – Tour Diaries – Part 2
Episode 5: We hand the mic to our Tour de France diarists again to get inside the race bubble. In this episode we hear from Connor Swift of Arkéa-Samsic who is riding his first Tour de France – in fact, his first Grand Tour – and has the job of looking after their leader Nairo Quintana. Swift gives us his first impressions of the race and talks about how he's settling into the rhythm. The cor...
29m Sep 04, 2020
29m
S8 Ep106: Tour de France stage six: Le Teil – Mont Aigoual
The Tour de France’s second summit finish of the opening week didn’t shake up the overall standings but it did see a barnstorming breakaway and a very fast pace from Kilometre 0. Join Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau outside a busy restaurant in Meyrueis in the Cévennes to recap a stage win by Alexey Lutsenko – the first for a Kazakh for a decade. One of our audio diarists,...
59m Sep 03, 2020
59m
S8 Ep105: Kilometre 0 – The Rider
Episode 4: The Rider by Tim Krabbé is one of the finest books ever written about cycling and it is features the Tour de Mont Aigoual in the Cevennes, where the Tour de France goes today. In this episode we hear from the author and from former professional Laurens Ten Dam, who has made a film inspired by the book, plus cycling writer Max Leonard, who has traced the route from the book, and from...
25m Sep 03, 2020
25m
S8 Ep104: Tour de France stage five: Gap – Privas
The quietest day in modern Tour de France history had an unexpected twist in the tail and Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau were on hand to discuss the stage. It was expected to be a sprint but it was surprising that there was no breakaway all day. We ask why the stage turned out the way it did and hear from Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Michael Mørkøv and NTT Pro Cycling’s Ryan Gi...
43m Sep 02, 2020
43m
S8 Ep103: Kilometre 0 – Tour de France Féminin
Episode 3: La Course started in 2014 as a criterium race on the Champs-Élysées before the final stage of the Tour de France. Since then the race has been a two-day event with stages on the Col d'Izoard and in Marseille, before reverting to a one-day race. This year, La Course kicked off the Tour, preceding the opening stage on Saturday. In the 1980s there was a two-week Tour de France Féminin,...
23m Sep 02, 2020
23m
S8 Ep102: Tour de France stage four: Sisteron – Orcières-Merlette
The riders tackled the first summit finish of the 2020 Tour de France earlier than normal but the fourth stage to Orcières-Merlette provided the first shake-up among the overall contenders. Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau convene at a restaurant in the mountain resort, which has a very distinct out of season feel. With few holidaymakers around, the open air disco felt a bit...
49m Sep 01, 2020
49m
S8 Ep101: Kilometre 0 – Meet the diarists
Episode 2: We have signed up nine riders and a sports director to keep audio diaries for us throughout the Tour de France and in this second episode of our Kilometre 0 series we'll hear from some of them. Debutant Pavel Sivakov had an eventful opening weekend and in this episode we hear his anticipation at the prospect of riding the Tour de France for the first time, followed by two falls duri...
31m Sep 01, 2020
31m
S8 Ep100: Tour de France stage three: Nice – Sisteron
The third stage of the Tour de France was expected to end in a sprint, and so it proved, but in this episode of our race coverage from France find out why the finish was like the race to find the quickest queue at the supermarket checkout. After leaving Nice, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau recorded the podcast in the centre of Sisteron. The crowds may be smaller but one th...
46m Aug 31, 2020
46m
S8 Ep99: Kilometre 0 – Col d'Èze
Episode 1: The Col d'Èze is not the hardest climb in the world. It's not particularly long, or steep, but it is steeped in cycling's history because for many years it was the final battleground for Paris-Nice. The race used to conclude with a Sunday afternoon time trial on the hill and in the 1980s the Irish dominated, with Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly sharing the victories between 1981 and 19...
40m Aug 31, 2020
40m
S8 Ep98: Tour de France stage two: Nice – Nice
The Tour de France’s opening weekend in Nice sent the peloton into the hills. With so many riders having crashed on Saturday there were some bruised and tender bodies dreading a difficult day with four tricky climbs to tackle. Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau recap a day that went some way to restoring normality to this unique Tour de France. Julian Alaphilippe, who held th...
52m Aug 30, 2020
52m
S8 Ep97: Tour de France stage one: Nice – Nice
The opening stage of this most unusual Tour de France turned out to be a strange day, befitting this most peculiar year. Join Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau in Nice to recap a stage won by the veteran Norwegian Alexander Kristoff, who last won a stage on the Champs-Élysées a couple of years ago. With rain falling in Nice for the first time in a couple of months the roads ...
1hr 5m Aug 29, 2020
1hr 5m
S8 Ep96: My First Tour de France
Trailer: Get into the Tour de France mood with My First Tour, a four four-part series for Friends of the Podcast. In episode one, François Thomazeau recalls the first time as a six-year-old boy that he took full notice of the Tour on the fateful day Tom Simpson died on Mont Ventoux in 1967. Then he fast forwards 19 years to the first Tour he covered as a journalist. Then Richard Moore looks b...
6m Aug 28, 2020
6m
S8 Ep95: Life in the Peloton – Jonathan Vaughters
In this episode of Life in the Peloton, Mitch Docker talks to his boss at EF Pro Cycling Jonathan Vaughters to find out what a team manager does. Vaughters founded the team and has steered it through two mergers and kept it afloat when the organisation's future looked to be in jeopardy a couple of seasons ago. But what does the role entail? Vaughters talks about team building, the constant ba...
59m Aug 26, 2020
59m
S8 Ep94: 2020 Tour de France preview
With the Grand Départ in Nice just a few days away, the countdown to the start of the 2020 Tour de France is on. It will be a Tour like no other and in this episode, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe look forward to the race. We weigh up the Ineos Grenadiers team selection, which saw Chris Froome's bid for a fifth Tour victory put on hold and Geraint Thomas also left out. Ineos wi...
1hr 15m Aug 25, 2020
1hr 15m
S8 Ep93: Tour looms, uncertainty reigns at the Dauphiné
In a bumper episode of The Cycling Podcast, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe recap a thrilling and incident-packed week of racing and try to work out the implications for the Tour de France. The Critérium du Dauphiné is always an important warm-up race for the Tour but with the Grand Départ in Nice just two weeks away it was an even bigger indicator of form. Daniel was in France...
1hr 21m Aug 18, 2020
1hr 21m
S8 Ep92: The Cycling Podcast Féminin | August 2020
In the August episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin we speak to Lizzie Deignan, the former world champion who rides for Trek-Segafredo and returned to racing with the rest of the women's peloton last month.  Deignan discusses the races to come, picking out La Course by Le Tour de France at the end of August as a highlight, and she talks about the world's best rider, Annemiek van Vleuten, who ...
1hr 9m Aug 14, 2020
1hr 9m
S8 Ep91: Life in the Peloton – Back on the road: A diary of racing in a pandemic
Racing is back and so it was time for Mitch Docker to get on the road for two Italian Classics – one old, one relatively new. This is Mitch's audio diary from the week he rejoined his EF Pro Cycling teammates and pinned on a number for the first time since the Aussie summer. We follow the team as they tackle the white roads of Strade Bianche and an edition of Milan-Sanremo like no other. Joi...
1hr 40m Aug 12, 2020
1hr 40m
S8 Ep90: Wout and the art of winning
Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe discuss a week packed with racing as the Classics riders tackled the first, and longest, Monument of the season while the stage racers continued their build-up to the Tour de France. In part one: We review Milan-Sanremo and Wout Van Aert's incredible Italian double. Last week he won Strade Bianche, this week the Jumbo-Visma man took La Classicissi...
1hr 19m Aug 10, 2020
1hr 19m
S8 Ep89: The Cycling Podcast Féminin | 'July' 2020
We return to racing in the latest episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin with reaction to and analysis of Strade Bianche, the first Women's World Tour race of the resumed season. We held back the July episode so Orla Chennaoui, Rose Manley and Richard Moore could discuss the race, which was won by the world champion Annemiek van Vleuten but was also notable for the performances of the other tw...
57m Aug 05, 2020
57m
S8 Ep88: Red hot on the white roads
Temperatures soared in Tuscany on Saturday and the riders occasionally disappeared in clouds of pale dust as they crossed the dirt roads. Strade Bianche was a brutal return to the World Tour for the riders and in this episode we assess Wout Van Aert's victory. The Belgian made his breakthrough at the same race two years ago, finishing third behind Tiesj Benoot and Romain Bardet. He was third a...
1hr 8m Aug 03, 2020
1hr 8m
S8 Ep87: Remco dusts off the opposition
After a break of almost five months, racing is back. In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe review the opening three days of the Vuelta a Burgos and look ahead to the first World Tour race following the resumption, Strade Bianche. Twenty-year-old Remco Evenepoel picked up where he left off in the spring. After winning both stages he rode before ...
1hr 11m Jul 31, 2020
1hr 11m
S8 Ep86: Service Course | Episode 12 | Hackers & helmets
In this episode of Service Course Lizzy and Tom speak to an ethical hacker about the ransomware attack on Garmin, and ask what the repercussions are for those of us who use Garmin devices. They also consider the wider issues of data security in cycling and find out why Strava became a problem for Area 51 and GCHQ. Tom also finds out about a prototype wheel that cleans up air pollution as it s...
1hr 25m Jul 30, 2020
1hr 25m
S8 Ep85: Life in the Peloton – The racing restart mailbag with Luke Durbridge
Back in March, Mitch Docker was planning to travel to Tuscany to race on the white roads for the first time. But the coronavirus pandemic meant Strade Bianche was postponed and for the best part of five months the peloton has been in suspended animation – training, racing indoors and waiting for the resumption. This week, Mitch heads to Italy for his first race but before he travelled he got t...
1hr 14m Jul 29, 2020
1hr 14m
S8 Ep84: Countdown to restart
Racing is about to re-start. The Vuelta a Burgos gets underway next Tuesday and the first major stage race on the calendar in more than four months features a high quality field, including Nairo Quintana, Remco Evenepoel, Richard Carapaz and the Yates brothers, Simon and Adam. Lionel Birnie, Daniel Friebe and Richard Moore look ahead to Burgos and pick out one thing each that fascinates them a...
53m Jul 23, 2020
53m
S8 Ep83: What does Froome's departure mean for Team Ineos' Tour de France plans?
Following confirmation that Chris Froome is to leave Team Ineos for Israel Start-Up Nation, we discuss the implications for the upcoming Tour de France. Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe speculate on who Team Ineos will select as the team looks for an eighth Tour de France title in nine years. Will Froome make the final eight or not? We also hear from Freddy Ovett, son of former ...
1hr 1m Jul 17, 2020
1hr 1m
S8 Ep82: Explore | Everesting
Everesting is a simple concept but a difficult challenge. To complete a successful Everesting challenge, a rider must climb and descend the same hill multiple times until they have reached the magic 8,848 metres of vertical gain – the equivalent height to Everest. Although Everesting may seem to be the antithesis of exploration on two wheels, during the coronavirus lockdown it has come into i...
1hr 21m Jul 10, 2020
1hr 21m
S8 Ep81: Chris Froome moves on, Rod Ellingworth looks ahead
In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast we speak to Rod Ellingworth, the man in charge at WorldTour team Bahrain-McLaren, about the uncertainty of the last few months and the imminent resumption of racing. Ellingworth admits that the pay cuts imposed on his team have made his job difficult, but he also reveals that he spoke to Chris Froome, who is set to leave Team Ineos, about joining B...
1hr 4m Jul 09, 2020
1hr 4m
S8 Ep80: Not the Tour de France
In this week's episode Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe discuss the strange case of Mitchelton-Scott and its on-off takeover, and we hear from the team's lead sports director, Matt White, about the challenges of planning for the season when it resumes later this month. There has  been a lot of speculation about Chris Froome, the four-time Tour de France winner, and his relationsh...
1hr Jul 02, 2020
1hr
S8 Ep79: Life in the Peloton – Paul De Geyter
This week, Mitch Docker interviews his former manager, Paul De Geyter, to get the lowdown on the mechanics of rider contracts, who are the best and worst team managers to work with, and how the  coronavirus crisis might be affecting the transfer market. Now retired, De Geyter, who was also general manager at WorldTour team Lotto-Soudal, was one of the first rider managers, with the late Frank ...
54m Jul 01, 2020
54m
S8 Ep78: The Cycling Podcast Féminin | June 2020
In the June episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin there are interviews with the world’s number one ranked rider and the fashion house that’s taken over one of the world's best teams. Lorena Wiebes is the world number one and she recently joined Team Sunweb – we speak to her and one of the team’s sports directors, Hans Timmermans. And we hear from Matthias Thoma, the owner of Paule Ka, the Fre...
1hr 19m Jun 29, 2020
1hr 19m
S8 Ep77: Press Conference
Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe answer listeners questions as our press conference episode returns. Listeners have recorded their questions about all aspects of professional cycling and sent them in and now it's over to us to answer them. The Cycling Podcast is supported by iwoca and Science In Sport. INTRODUCING RICHARD MOORE Continuing our series in which we interview each o...
1hr 35m Jun 26, 2020
1hr 35m
S8 Ep76: Service Course | Episode 11 | Custom build
In this episode of Service Course Tom Whalley and Lizzy Banks delve into the world of bespoke bikes. We speak to Phil Taylor, one of the founders of the UK’s handmade bike festival, Bespoked, which had been due to take place in May. Phil tells us the story of how he set up Bespoked while holding down his other day job as a psychotherapist. We also speak with custom bike builders Liz Coleman an...
1hr 11m Jun 24, 2020
1hr 11m
S8 Ep75: And So They Rode
To coincide with the general release of Cycling Podcast Productions' first film, And So We Rode, we are releasing the original audio diary by Conor Dunne and Larry Warbasse which inspired it. In 2018, The Cycling Podcast asked Conor to keep a diary at the Tour of Britain, which he and Larry were due to ride for the Aqua Blue Sport team. But shortly before the race, the team folded. It didn't ...
1hr 50m Jun 19, 2020
1hr 50m
S8 Ep74: Life in the Peloton – Jens Keukeleire
This week, Mitch Docker catches up with Flandrian Jens Keukeleire. The pair were teammates at Orica-GreenEdge for several years and have been reunited at EF Pro Cycling this season. Mitch takes Jens right back to the beginning, ten years ago, when he was a neo-pro with the Cofidis team. Within a month of joining the pro ranks, Keukeleire won his first big race, Le Samyn, with a spectacular sp...
54m Jun 17, 2020
54m
S8 Ep73: Lance reviewed
Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe return for the first time since the conclusion of Our Giro. A couple of months ago we reviewed the Netflix documentary about the Movistar team, The Least Expected Day. Grab the popcorn because in this episode, we discuss the new ESPN 30 for 30 film directed by Marina Zenovich, Lance. Is this another step on the path to redemption for Lance Armstron...
1hr 34m Jun 12, 2020
1hr 34m
S8 Ep72: Explore | In conversation with Emily Chappell
This episode of Explore by The Cycling Podcast features Hannah Troop in conversation with Emily Chappell, who used to criss-cross London delivering and picking up parcels as a bike courier before discovering long-distance and endurance cycling. Chappell was the first woman to finish the 2016 Transcontinental race and her latest book, Where There's A Will, tells the story of how she won the race...
1hr 27m Jun 10, 2020
1hr 27m
S8 Ep71: Service Course | Episode 10 | Unbroken record
In this episode of Service Course join Lizzy Banks and Tom Whalley as they take a look back at the track team from Derbados that took on the world and turned the track scene upside down. Team Huub Wattbike have been the leaders in technical innovation in the world of track cycling since they burst on to the scene as Team KGF back in the 2017 British National Track Championships. Since then, the...
1hr 13m Jun 07, 2020
1hr 13m
S8 Ep70: Life in the Peloton – Tom Southam
In this episode of Life in the Peloton, Mitch Docker talks to Tom Southam, one of his sports directors on the EF Education First team, and answers some listeners' questions from the postbag. Southam was born in Cornwall, England, and raced in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy as an amateur before turning pro for the Amore e Vita team in 2003. He also rode for Barloworld, Drapac-Porsche...
1hr 13m Jun 03, 2020
1hr 13m
S8 Ep69: Our Giro stage 21: The call of nature
Our Giro reaches Milan after three weeks on the virtual road. We set out from Budapest in Hungary, then spent a few days in Sicily before making the familiar journey the length of Italy, visiting the Dolomites and the Alps and now it's the last leg. Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe look back to the 2017 Giro, won by Tom Dumoulin, who famously had to stop to answer the call of natu...
1hr 26m May 31, 2020
1hr 26m
S8 Ep68: Our Giro stage 20: 'I'll get them tomorrow'
Is stage 20 of Our Giro the 'queen stage'? Well, that's a matter of debate but we have got a bumper episode looking back to the final Friday of the 2018 edition when Chris Froome turned the race on its head. Simon Yates had looked so good for two and a half weeks, winning stages in pink and with panache. Froome had endured crashes and stuttering form in the first half of the race and his victor...
1hr 44m May 30, 2020
1hr 44m
S8 Ep67: Our Giro stage 19: Tales of the Tappe
This episode of Our Giro looks at the relationship between the Giro d'Italia and the literary tradition of journalists, writers and poets covering the race. We look at the 1949 Giro and the continuing rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali through the pages of a collection of writing by novellist and poet Dino Buzzati. Daniel speaks to Filippo Cauz and Leonardo Piccione, two young writer...
1hr 24m May 29, 2020
1hr 24m
S8 Ep66: Our Giro stage 18: Life of Brian
Stage 18 of Our Giro reunites us with Brian Nygaard, who stood in for Lionel during his brief trip home from the race to watch his football team get walloped in the FA Cup final. Continuing the Giro's recent tradition, this episode is our 'wine stage' featuring Daniel's conversation with Nygaard, whose career in cycling has taken him from press officer to team manager to journalist. The Dane ha...
1hr 20m May 28, 2020
1hr 20m
S8 Ep65: Our Giro stage 17: My name is Luca
In this episode of Our Giro, we meet Trek-Segafredo general manager Luca Guercilena and learn about his career in professional cycling. Guercilena was not a pro rider but a sports scientist, whose career began with the Mapei team – where he tested a certain Daniel Friebe and, according to some observers, failed to spot the talent in front of his eyes(!) Later on, he was part of the Leopard-Trek...
1hr 23m May 27, 2020
1hr 23m
S8 Ep64: Our Giro stage 16: An American in pink
In this episode of Our Giro we hear from 1988 Giro d'Italia champion Andy Hampsten, the only American to win the race. Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe look back at the 1988 Giro which was shaped by terrible whether on the stage to Bormio, which went over the Gavia. Snowy conditions made for a cold, miserable day in the saddle for the riders but there was no question as far as the...
1hr 18m May 26, 2020
1hr 18m
S8 Ep63: Our Giro riposo: Team Hamburger
Andy Hampsten is the only American to win the Giro d'Italia but in the first of two episodes with him we look at the 1985 race when he switched mid-season from a small domestic team in the US to the 7-Eleven squad that had been invited to ride the race. Two days from the end, Hampsten won a stage at Gran Paradiso – a short, explosive road race – which earned him a contract for 1986 with the La ...
59m May 25, 2020
59m
S8 Ep62: Our Giro stage 15: The most beautiful race
Every year, the Giro d'Italia shows off the best countryside Italy has to offer. It's not to say that France and Spain are not blessed with great scenery but Italy seems to provide the most consistently beautiful backdrop for the racing. The Giro's slogan – the toughest race in the most beautiful place – might have a touch of hype but it's probably fair to say it is the most photogenic of the t...
1hr 26m May 24, 2020
1hr 26m
S8 Ep61: Our Giro stage 14: White-knuckle ride
In this episode we look at the art and psychology of descending the big mountains. As Our Giro approaches the big mountain stages, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe we talk about some editions of the Giro d'Italia that have been decided going down hill. We hear from American rider Christian Vande Velde, who suffered a bad crash on a descent early on in the 2009 Giro d'Italia. Vande...
1hr 31m May 23, 2020
1hr 31m
S8 Ep60: Our Giro stage 13: End of the world as we knew it
Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe look back at Paris-Nice, the last World Tour stage race before coronavirus brought the world to a halt. In stage 13 of Our Giro we hear from Max Schachmann of Bora-Hansgrohe who was in sparkling form this spring, finishing second at the Volta ao Algarve before winning Paris-Nice, which made its way to the French Riviera as Europe was on the verge o...
1hr 7m May 22, 2020
1hr 7m
S8 Ep59: Our Giro stage 12: Giro 2000
Stage 12 of Our Giro picks up the Max Sciandri story at the point where he decided to switch nationalities and swap his Italian racing licence for a British one. Sciandri also recalls riding the 2000 Giro d'Italia for the vegetarian Linda McCartney Foods team and we hear from the team's press officer John Deering about a remarkable stage win for David McKenzie. Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and ...
1hr 9m May 21, 2020
1hr 9m
S8 Ep58: Life in the Peloton – The 2014 Giro d'Italia
There's a Giro d'Italia flavour to a very special episode of Life in the Peloton. Mitch Docker gets the Orica-GreenEdge band back together to tell the story of an unforgettable Giro for the team. Orica-GreenEdge won the team time trial in Belfast to put Svein Tuft into the maglia rosa. The following day the jersey swapped to the shoulders of his teammate Michael Matthews and the Orica riders sp...
1hr 26m May 20, 2020
1hr 26m