The Cycling Podcast

With the 2025 road racing season now firmly in the rear view mirror, join Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie for a freewheeling ramble through some of the big stories that have hit the headlines in the past couple of weeks. We start by discussing the fragile nature of survival at World Tour level with the news that the Australian team Jayco-Alula came within days of possibly folding, and the delays to confirmation that two Belgian teams, Lotto and Intermarché, intend to become one. Where does that leave the riders, especially Intermarché's biggest star Biniam Girmay? Then we indulge in a bit of off-season speculation and wonder what Tadej Pogačar's 2026 season might look like, particularly with a number of race organisers making changes seemingly to entice the SlovAlien to ride. The Vuelta a España starting in his adopted home town of Monaco is not a particularly subtle overture and it seem an appealing prospect but, as we discuss, the picture is more complicated than that. Follow us on social media: Twitter

The Cycling Podcast returns on Halloween for an end-of-season debrief and audience with the rider formerly known by his team-mates as ‘The Ghost’, Larry Wabasse - for reasons the Tudor Pro Cycling ace will explain. After a quick dip into the week’s headlines, including news of Oier Lazkano’s provisional suspension for biological passport anomalies, we open our mailbag and invite Larry to respond to your questions. From Madeira travel tips to the now familiar question of whether Tadej Pogačar is turning pro cycling into a snoozefest, we demand answers and Larry, happily, obliges.     EPISODE SPONSORS Join Cycling The app designed to get you to your cycling goals, whether you're new to structured training or seeking to take your riding to the next level. Enjoy a 30-day free trial at join.cc/cyclingpodcast NordVPN Get NordVPN two-year plan + four months extra ➼ https://nordvpn.com/tcp It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyc

Daniel Friebe, Lionel Birnie and Rob Hatch, give their verdict on the parcours unveiled in Paris on Thursday morning.  The ASO bigwigs have backloaded the course, apparently in the hope of maintaining a little more suspense this year. Will they succeed? Or, in trying to Pog-proof the Tour, have they merely underlined what an impossible task that is?     EPISODE SPONSORS Join Cycling The app designed to get you to your cycling goals, whether you're new to structured training or seeking to take your riding to the next level. Enjoy a 30-day free trial at join.cc/cyclingpodcast Calm Calm has an exclusive offer for listeners of The Cycling Podcast. Get 40% off a Calm premium subscription to help you sleep better and reduce any anxiety you may be feeling ➼ https://calm.com/cycle Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episodes every month plus a back catalogue of m

The Monument season ended at the weekend in time-honoured fashion, with il Lombardia, and its now traditional denouement of a Tadej Pogačar victory. What more can anyone say about Pogačar’s extraordinary domination? As ever, we at least try to dig out new superlatives, this week with Daniel Friebe, Lionel Birnie and TNT’s voice of cycling, Rob Hatch.  We’ve got other reflections from Lombardy, including on Quinn Simmons’ remarkable performance and Redbull-Bora-hansgrohe’s struggles. There’s also the usual round-up of some of the week’s most eye-catching news stories, including the latest on Derek Gee and the battle for survival in the WorldTour.     EPISODE SPONSORS NordVPN Get NordVPN two-year plan + four months extra ➼ https://nordvpn.com/tcp It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee. Babbel Learn a language the fun, easy way with intuitive 15-minute lessons you can do when you want. Choose from 14 languages including Spanish, French, Italian and German. Listeners can get up to 60% off for a

It’s a meeting of minds on this month’s episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin as Rose Manley, Denny Gray and Rebecca Charlton take a closer look at sports psychology in light of World Mental Health Day. We hear from Dr Allie Wagener, sports psychologist at the Human Powered Health team about her work. Plus we hear from General Manager Ro de Jonckere and rider Ruth Edwards about the ongoing influence sports psychology has on the workings of the team both on and off the bike. The Cycling Podcast Féminin team also pick over the European Championships road race and debate the merits of that surprise World Championships win in the first regular episode since the race. Also on the agenda: cheese wheel rankings, the brief return of “Casio Niewiadoma” and the fear of a burnt pizza. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episodes every month plus a back catalogue o

The autumn season rolled on with the European road race championships at the weekend - and report back from a men’s road race dominated in familiar fashion by Tadej Pogačar, but also lit up by a French teenager riding and starring on home roads, Paul Seixas.  Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie are joined by the voice of Radio Tour, Seb Piquet, to analyse Pog’s latest masterclass and what’s next for Seixas. Before all of that, we also catch up on other news from the last week in pro cycling, including Cian Uijtdebroeks’ surprise transfer to Movistar, Alexander Kristoff’s unhappy farewell and the likely demise of the Arkéa team.  OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BM

The inaugural UCI road World Championships on the continent of Africa took place in Rwanda last week. Dominated - again - by Tadej Pogačar, the men’s road race was widely dubbed ‘the hardest edition ever’, but was it really? Team USA’s Larry Warbasse joins Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie to give his verdict and general impressions from Kigali.  We also solve the mystery of Nauru’s first ever World Championship entrant - who didn’t make it to the start-line. In addition, we pay tribute to two influential figures in the cycling media who have passed away in recent days, and look forward to the European Championship road race at the weekend.  OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mou

Join Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie as they analyse the men's elite road race at the 2025 UCI World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda. No spoilers here in the episode notes. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast covered the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. EPISODE SPONSOR Babbel Learn a language the fun, easy way with intuitive 15-minute lessons you can do when you want. Choose from 14 languages including Spanish, French, Italian and German. Listeners can get up to 60% off for a limited time only at babbel.com/cycle Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycli

Join Rose Manley and Rebecca Charlton as they analyse the 2025 women's UCI World Championship road race in Kigali, Rwanda. No spoilers here but stand by for an account of a stunning edition of the race for the rainbow jersey. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast covered the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episodes every month plus a back catalogue of more than 300 excl

The inaugural UCI road World Championships on the continent of Africa take place in Rwanda this week. The first few days of racing threw up one major surprise, the next few could yield more - and Daniel Friebe, Lionel Birnie & Brian Nygaard are on review & preview duty here. Remco Evenepoel‘s trouncing of Tadej Pogačar in the men‘s TT last Sunday confounded some tipsters but not the form book in that discipline. It‘ll be Pogačar, not Remco, defending his world title on Sunday - but did the former‘s performance on Sunday suggest his road race crown is there for the taking? We discuss this, hear from one Slovenian on the ground in Kigali and ponder the curious, in fact downright mysterious case of Nauru‘s single entrant on the provisional startlist.  OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also spo

Listen up class! The Cycling Podcast Féminin has returned after our post Tour de France Femmes summer break and we have that back-to-school feeling. Rose Manley, Denny Gray and Rebecca Charlton tackle some enticing subjects after a number of contentious topics have arisen over recent weeks. We discuss weight loss in cycling, the disqualification of five teams at the Tour de Romandie, Lorena Wiebes’ continued domination and we look ahead to the World Championships in Rwanda. We broach the furore surrounding Pauline Ferrand Prevot’s four kilogram weight loss in preparation for her victorious Tour de France Femmes campaign and delve further into the conversations around health, weight and disordered eating that have been brought up in the weeks since. In technology (or as Denny says, should it be politics?) we talk about the disqualification of five major teams at the Tour de Romandie after refusing to pick a rider to trial the UCI’s new GPS tracking system. The teams – Visma Lease-a-Bike, Canyon SRAM, EF Edu

Join us for daily coverage of the Vuelta a España recorded on the road as the race makes its way from Turin to Madrid. Our daily coverage features race analysis, interviews and daily postcards from  Spain. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route of the race on the British Cycling website. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episod

 The end is almost in sight — this is our 20th daily podcast from the Vuelta a España 2025, recorded on the road as the race heads towards Madrid. Each episode brings race analysis, rider interviews, and daily postcards from Spain.  OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route of the race on the British Cycling website. EPISODE SPONSOR NordVPN Get NordVPN two-year plan + four months extra ➼ https://nordvpn.com/tcp It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee.  Follow us on so

Join us for daily coverage of the Vuelta a España recorded on the road as the race makes its way from Turin to Madrid. Our daily coverage features race analysis, interviews and daily postcards from  Spain. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route of the race on the British Cycling website. EPISODE SPONSOR Saily If you are travelling abroad and want to reduce or even eliminate roaming charges you need an eSim from Saily, brought to you by the creators of NordVPN. ⛵Download the SAILY

Join us for daily coverage of the Vuelta a España recorded on the road as the race makes its way from Turin to Madrid. Our daily coverage features race analysis, interviews and daily postcards from  Spain. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route of the race on the British Cycling website. EPISODE SPONSOR Babbel Learn a language the fun, easy way with intuitive 15-minute lessons you can do when you want. Choose from 14 languages including Spanish, French, Italian and German. Listene

Join us for daily coverage of the Vuelta a España recorded on the road as the race makes its way from Turin to Madrid. Our daily coverage features race analysis, interviews and daily postcards from  Spain. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route of the race on the British Cycling website. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episod

Join us for daily coverage of the Vuelta a España recorded on the road as the race makes its way from Turin to Madrid. Our daily coverage features race analysis, interviews and daily postcards from  Spain. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route of the race on the British Cycling website. EPISODE SPONSOR Calm Calm is the number one app for sleep and meditation, giving you the power to calm your mind and change your life for the better. Relaxing sleep stories, sleep meditations and

Join Graham Willgoss and Lionel Birnie for daily coverage of the Lloyds Tour of Britain for the first time. The race begins with two stages in Suffolk before it heads west via Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire to Cardiff, where it will mark the final chapter in the glorious career of Geraint Thomas. Our coverage features race analysis, interviews and more from the UK's home tour, with on-the-ground coverage from Stage 3 through to the finish. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route o

Join us for daily coverage of the Vuelta a España recorded on the road as the race makes its way from Turin to Madrid. Our daily coverage features race analysis, interviews and daily postcards from  Spain. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route of the race on the British Cycling website. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episod

Join Graham Willgoss and Lionel Birnie for daily coverage of the Lloyds Tour of Britain for the first time. The race begins with two stages in Suffolk before it heads west via Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire to Cardiff, where it will mark the final chapter in the glorious career of Geraint Thomas. Our coverage features race analysis, interviews and more from the UK's home tour, with on-the-ground coverage from Stage 3 through to the finish. OUR SPONSORS, LLOYDS The Cycling Podcast is proudly supported by Lloyds. Last year, Lloyds began a multi-year partnership with British Cycling, which includes becoming  title sponsors of the Lloyds Tour of Britain races for men and women. Lloyds also sponsors the Great Britain team and National Championships across a range of disciplines – road racing, track cycling, mountain biking, BMX and cyclo-cross. Thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds, The Cycling Podcast will be covering the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men with daily episodes for the first time. Check out the full route o