Cycling Legends Podcast

Many champions dominate by force or aggression, but Jacques Anquetil seemed to glide into the centre of things, immaculate and compete. Anquetil had substance but he also had style - on and off the bike. Join Chris Sidwells throughout this year’s race for more Tales from the Tour de France . 📸 Cycling Legends collection. 🎵Trabant 33 “Like in France”, courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com You can buy...

Sacre bleu! Has it really been a whole year since we last did this? Join Chris, David and Gary as they look ahead to the 113th Tour de France Hommes sans Zwift. The course, the climbs, the favourites and the dark horses plus some throwbacks along the way. Can anyone stop defending champion Tadej Pogacar from joining the greats with a 5th maillot jaune? We can only wait and see. Le Tour est ic...

In this episode of Cycling Family Trees , we trace the remarkable Rabobank lineage: from Jan Raas’s post–TI-Raleigh breakaway and the Kwantum roots of the 1980s, through Rabobank’s rise as the great Dutch talent factory, to its collapse amid cycling’s doping reckoning and its rebirth as the powerhouse now known as Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Along the way, we follow the men’s and women’s branches o...

Birth(day)s, deaths and marriages! Welcome to the evening edition of your local newspaper. Thankfully cycling content is a-plenty as Chris, David and Gary cast their eyes over another fascinating few weeks in pro cycling. 📸 The Dauphiné Libéré (okay, the Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, if you must) is often seen as a Tour de France indicator, yet in 78 editions only 12 Dauphiné winners have taken th...

Every cycling team has a story . In this series, we’ll dig into the teams that made cycling what it is: the dynasties, the cult squads, the superteams, the survivors, and the vanished names that still echo through the peloton today. We’ll look at where they came from, who built them, what they won, what they changed — and what grew from them after the final finish line In this first episode, Gary...

When is a race not a race? When the GC lead decides he doesn’t fancy it? Gary’s apathy towards the current Maglia Rosa might be taking a turn for the worse, but how does the sport balance spectacle and safety? Still, over the Mediterranean in Burgos, the Women’s World Tour continues to serve up Actual Racing and new winners and it all bodes well for the Giro d’Italia Women which rolls out next wee...

Join Chris Sidwells throughout this year’s men’s Giro d’Italia for some little slices of Corsa Rosa history. Before the curtain fell on one of cycling’s most mercurial careers, Marco Pantani returned to the Giro in 2003 and faced a haunting, human battle to find himself on the roads that had once made him a legend. This is the story of the Last Hurrah or Marco Pantani. 🎵 Giro d’Italia by Trabant...

The Giro d’Italia is safely (ish) back on home turf so the team take stock of the first week and a bit of the year’s first Grand Tour. Predictably, Jonas’ Blockhaus blockbuster don’t impress Gary much (his time trial even less so) but is it just a matter of time before the Danish Dynamo (cough) chalks up a debut Maglia Rosa? Elsewhere in racing, is it mere coincidence that the subject of the last...

The Lincoln Grand Prix is one of the most prestigious races in the British domestic racing and has been an ever-present in the calendar since 1956. This year saw the 70th edition of the men’s race and the 11th running of the women’s event. In this special, Gary was there to capture some of the atmosphere of the race and catch up with Simpson Nouvelles on what turned out to be a very good day for t...

Vuelta Feminina! Giro! Lincoln Grand Prix! It's all happening at once, but that's no problem for our dynamic trio who just talk about other stuff anyway. Belgian toothpaste, for example, which may possibly give you a very different ring of confidence. Join Chris, David and Gary for nutrition and hygiene tips with some occasional bike racing thrown in for good measure. 📸 The Lincoln Grand Prix is...

Join Chris Sidwells throughout this year’s men’s Giro d’Italia for some little slices of Corsa Rosa history. It’s 1924 and you’re a woman who plans to ride the Giro d’Italia. But there’s no women’s Giro in 1924. Not a problem for Alfonsina Strada! In this first show, Chris tells the remarkable story of ‘the Devil in a Skirt’. 🎵 Giro d’Italia by Trabant 33, courtesy of  www.epidemicsound.com...

So Spring is over then. After 8 weeks of breathless single-day race action, it’s almost time to knuckle down for the long-haul of the first Grand Tour of the season, but the Classics have given us a tantalising glimpse of what we might expect should the stars align in July and beyond. Join Chris, David and Gary to look back at a Spring to remember. 📸 While the men’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege first too...

Toot toot! It’s all aboard the Paul Seixas hype TGV but not before we dissect 2 nail-biting Enfers du Nord. It’s been a week of cycling history being made in real time and expectations being defied. Again. RECOMMENDATIONS AND SHAMELESS PLUGS Tom Simpson Cycling Festival, 6-13 September 2026 Get your tickets at https://cyclinglegends.co.uk/pages/tom-simpson-cycling-festival?srsltid=AfmBOoq-lT3u_RBu...

Reg "Reggie" Barnett enjoyed a long and distinguished cycling career between 1965 and 1977, turning professional after. A six-time national sprint champion, he turned professional after competing for Great Britain in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He went on to race domestically for teams including Holdsworth‑ Campagnolo, Falcon, TI‑Raleigh, and later his own Barnett‑Edwards‑Shim...

Despite our best attempts, it really is all about Flanders in this episode. Oh, and some 1970s progressive rock. Join Chris, David and “Whispering” Gary for a look back at two memorable Rondes Van Vlaanderen, with a sprinkle of noodly guitars and occasional yodelling. You don’t get this over at Lionel Birnie’s, do you? 📸 The Lion of Flanders himself, Johan Museeuw, taking the first of his 3 Ronde...

Mama Mia! Milan-San Remo has not disappointed, from Pogi’s Poggio power to Cipressa carnage to a whole lotta Lotte doubters made schtum and all of it leaving us almost equally so. This is hardly ideal considering there’s an hour of podcast time to kill so we talk about some other stuff too. What did we learn from Tirreno and Paris-Nice? No bull with Isaac Del Toro, that’s for sure (oh, come on, ev...

In ten days, the pro peloton goes from Belgium to Tuscany and then on to Paris-Nice by way of Tirreno. Yes, it’s that “careful what you wish for” time of the season when All The Racing happens at once and Gary has his annual meltdown. It’s a bumper show from the team so channel your inner Paul Seixas and try to hang in with us! 📸 Megan Guarnier led home a Boels-Dolmans 1-2 in the inaugural Strade...

Can someone with Multifocal Motor Neuropathy (MMN) ride the route of the Tour de France? That’s what Clive Phillips and a team of fellow veterans set out to discover during the Tour de MMN 2025. Following the 1955 Tour de France route, the team set out to see if they could follow in the wheel tracks of the very first British Tour de France team. Clive sat down with Chris Sidwells this week to talk...

Hard to believe, but it’s now ten years since the bright, unmistakable colours of Team Canyon//SRAM burst onto the Women’s WorldTour. Since then, they’ve stacked up more than ninety wins, a world title in the team time trial, over thirty national championships, six Grand Tour stage victories, and - of course - that incredible Tour de France Femmes win in 2024. As they prepared for this season’s tr...

The garlic bread and olives of Australia and the Middle East are done and the main course of single-day racing in northern Europe is about to be served. Chris, David and Gary look ahead to Openingsweekend and the Spring Classics in general. 📸 The single-day race first known as Omloop Van Vlaanderen was first held in 1945, becoming the somewhat more familiar Het Volk two years later before adoptin...

Kicking off 2026, Chris Sidwells hosted an evening at the Clubhouse in Putney, starring Simpson Nouvelles Cycling’s Erin Avill, team owner and manager David Walters, Luca Kuhn, CEO and founder of team apparel partner Luca, and Tara Andrews, Marketing Director of Raptor, whose bikes the team will ride this season. Music : “Starry Eyes” by A Month of Sleep, courtesy of  www.epidemicsound.com ....

Is something rotten in the state of Denmark’s GC hero’s team? Just what does it take to impress Roger De Vlaeminck? Not an eighth world cyclocross title, it appears. Have cycling fans gone mad (again)? Chris, David and Gary ponder all this and more in the latest Feed Zone. 📸 He is perhaps regarded more highly as a coach/DS, but with no fewer than 4 Tour de France winners under his tutelage, Cyril...

The world is all over the place and cycling is not immune from the madness. Jay Vine finds a new way to crash in Australia, Lucinda Brand is suddenly rubbish* in Belgium and British Cycling finds a way to slight the nation’s best cyclocross racer. Again. (*Yes, we’re kidding - she’s still ace.) 📸 Victor Harbour, South Australia, 21 January 1999: Stuart O’Grady takes stage 3 on the inaugural Santo...

The chimes of a new year have barely stopped their ringing and it’s already kicking off in the world of cycling. Join Chris, David and Gary as they try to make sense of a Kerstperiode packed with ‘cross, contract buy-outs and contract bye-byes. Why are riders simply packing it in? Will Belgium be relegated to “guest nation” status in cyclocross? And does Axel Merckx have a type? We think so! 📸 Ce...

Ho, Ho and thrice Ho! It’s our 25th Feed Zone of the year to ring in the 25th day and all it entails. Our 3 unwise men are visited by a spirit of Feed Zones past, the Packfiller’s very own Patrick Bulger to chat about: What pro kit is on our Santa lists Highlights and lowlights of 2025 Our hopes for the new season Best (and worst) of the new kits; and Did you ever get a bike for Christmas? All in...