Cycling Legends Podcast

Still trying to make sense of the Giro d’Italia, the team offer their hot takes on what went wrong and what went right on the roads from Tirana to Rome. Gary is unwittingly using the wrong microphone (again - sorry!) but just about manages to tout Marlen Reusser as the wildcard in the TdFF pack, Chris basks in the glow of deservedly excellent book reviews and David suggests a novel approach to dea...

“What would Barry do?” is our new mantra at Feed Zone Towers, although for starters he’d probably have remembered Lorena Wiebes’ name and who wrote ‘Jerusalem’. In between bouts of amnesia, we look back at an intriguing first week of the Giro d’Italia, pick out highlights from the Vuelta Feminina and Itzulia Women and fly off at tangents along the way. Buckle up! Photo : Alfredo Binda stops at the...

In our latest interview show, Chris talks to a young entrepreneur called Hamish Graham. Hamish has taken over the reins of, not just a cycling holiday company, but the first ever cycling holiday company. The business that in the 1960s founded Majorca as a cycling holiday destination and spawned a tourist industry. That earned its creator, Yorkshireman Doug Petty the Majorcan equivalent of a knight...

How was your Spring then? Any better than Tadej’s? Worse than Lotte’s? Before cycling gets Grand Tour Fever we look back over the Classics of 2025 and ponder whether things really are as bad (or as good) as they seem for the Usual Suspects. Plus, we ask whether One Cycling actually is necessarily an evil and generally shoot the breeze about all things cycling. (Actually, more likely just all thing...

In 1982, Steve Lovelace nearly died while chopping firewood with a friend in a remote field near his home in Wagoner, Oklahoma. Pinned to the ground and crushed by the weight of a tree slab, it took two hours for his friend and a local farmer to extricate him with a chainsaw. When he eventually arrived at hospital, doctors were unsure as to whether he’d live. A little over 3 years later, he became...

Cycling moves from Flanders via Roubaix to the Ardennes as the team pick over the bones of another breathless few weeks of racing. Plus: we look back at some of the tech from Paris-Roubaix; could it also be the end of the rear wheel as we know it (?); why so meagre pickings for the winners of bike races and we remember Barry Hoban, trailblazer, legend and friend, who passed away this week. Photo :...

Barry Hoban raced Paris-Roubaix no fewer than eight times between 1964 and 1974, becoming the first British rider to finish on the podium in 1972. In this interview from 2022, Chris Sidwells talks to Barry about his very first encounter with the Queen of the Classics. You can read all about Barry’s career in his autobiography, Vas y Barry , available again exclusively from the Cycling Legends stor...

O, Holy Week! David, Chris and Gary are briefly rendered speechless as they look back on the weekend’s Rondes Van Vlaanderen. The guys also cast an eye towards Paris-Roubaix and ponder what it takes to win a cobbled Classic. Big love goes to Wout Van Aert and Primoz Roglic plus news from the Simpson-Nouvelles team whose formal launch took place at Herne Hill Velodrome last week. Photo : Dutch ride...

In a busy month for British Cycling, Gary caught up with Chief Executive Jon Dutton to talk about the Grand Departs for both the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes in 2027 and British Cycling's newly-launched strategy that will take the governing body and the sport in the UK into 2029. You can learning more about British Cycling's strategy at https://cloud.britishcycling.org.uk/article/o...

Lugworm haemoglobin and platelet-rich plasma? Are we bringing the noughties back here at Cycling Legends Towers? In Actual Cycling, we ask whether it’s time to crown Strade Bianche the sixth Monument and also just who decides what a Monument (or even a Classic) is. Plus: is Pogacar really ‘crazy’ to contemplate Paris-Roubaix, a decent week for American riders and livening-up team time trials. Phew...

It’s Openinsgsweekend so it stands to reason that we’re team talking about doping in shinty and ballroom dancing. Talk does eventually turn to both Omloopen Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, plus more world records on the track, the return of a famous sponsor to cycling and a possible return to the UK for the Tour de France in 2027. Recommendations/Links The Mountain Races - h...

In the 1980s, men's pro cycling was a closed-door to women, unless you were a podium girl, of course. In 1985, a 25 year-old from Connecticut changed all that. Chris Sidwell chats to pro cycling's first female soigneur, Shelley Verses. In this hour-long interview from 2023 Shelley, who worked with 7-Eleven, La Vie Claire, Toshiba, TVM and Saturn, talks about learning the ropes and becoming accepte...

Chris and David are joined by Erin Avill as we announce this season's line-up with some new faces and new flags join the team for 2025. Erin also reflects on the learning-curve that was 2024 and looks ahead to the forthcoming season with Britain's most exciting women's U23 elite team. Supporters Club Sign up for news and pre-order Simpsons-Nouvelles merch at https://nouvellescycling.co.uk/supporte...

Theo de Rooij won 14 races in a professional career that spanned the decade from 1980 to 1990 . Having ridden with the Panasonic team between 1984-1990, he then became a DS on the team for 4 seasons before joining Rabobank in 1996. He resigned from the Dutch team at the end of 2007. Theo spoke to Chris Sidwells in 2023 about his career, riding behind the Iron Curtain and riding under – and then wo...

Does Alison Jackson listen to the Feed Zone? Probably not, but that doesn’t stop Gary from claiming his musical influence on the Paris-Roubaix Femmes winner. in the real world, it’s Bartali goes to Hollywood as a forthcoming biopic of the Giro and Tour legend is announced, the guys discuss yet more changes on cycling’s small screen plus the European track championships and even make some rash pred...

Andy Hampsten is known to millions of cycling fans for THAT image taken as he attacked in Arctic conditions on the Gavia Pass on his way to take the Maglia Rosa during the 1988 Giro d’Italia,. He would then go on to become, so far, the only US rider to win the Italian Grand Tour. In a show first aired exclusively for premium subscribers in January 2023, Andy talks Chris through some of the highlig...

Is the TNT Sports bombshell really the biggest robbery in cycling since the 1985 Vuelta a Espana or have we just had it too good for too long? Chris, David and Gary discuss the fall-out from this plus chat CX Worlds and much more, not all of which involves cycling! Recommendations Larkin Poe - 'Bloom' https://www.larkinpoe.com/products/bloom-cd Neil Brennan - 'Crazy Good' (Netflix) https://www.net...

Team owner/manager David Walters chats to Chris Sidwells about the team's invitation to return to the Interclub series in Belgium this spring and talks about learning from the past to sustain teams and riders alike. Supporters Club Sign up for news and pre-order Simpsons-Nouvelles merch at https://nouvellescycling.co.uk/supporters-club-%26-merch You can also join the Club for as little as £10 and...

Chris Sidwells chats to Sam Henry, the Bicycling Mayor of Wolverhampton, and former racing cyclist and Chairman of Halesowen Cycling Club, David Viner about initiatives to make cycling accessible in the West Midlands and wider area, including No Limits to Cycling and the West Midlands Velodrome Campaign. Petition - https://www.change.org/p/councillor-ian-ward-build-a-west-midlands-velodrome-track-...

Yellow cards are go Down Under. Have age and treachery gone woke? All this and much more in the new Feed Zone. Recommendations Reckless: The Life and Times of Luis Ocaña - Alistair Fotheringham - https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/reckless-9781408846001/ Kalas Clothing - https://www.kalas.co.uk/ The Peace Race - Oliver Knight & Dominik Rukat - https://www.prendas.co.uk/products/the-peace-race-book?...

As the new season approaches, DS David Walters discusses the team's 2025 race programme which will be heavily focussed on Belgian both on the kermesse and interclub circuits. You can also hear about how you can meet the team as part of the forthcoming Cycling Legends Flanders Experience . Get involved! Join the Supporters Club for as little as £10 and help support the development of women’s U23 cy...

Chris Sidwells and David Walters introduce a new season and a new name for Britain’s most exciting elite women U23 team in a historic year for British cycling. Get involved! Join the Supporters Club for as little as £10 and help support the development of women’s U23 cycling. https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-supporters-club-to-assist-young-talented-female-cyclists Get in touch Drop us a line at cyclin...

Resolutions, health tips and inspiration for the new year - we offer none of that as we stumble into 2025. Instead, settle yourself down for an hour of chat with Chris, David and Gary covering everything from neutralised moto-pacing to make races safer to the UK honours system. Plus we talk Six Days of Ghent (only 6 weeks late!) and remember the legendary Gianni Savio who passed away last week. Go...

Reg Harris won the world professional track sprint title 4 times and was a two-time silver medallist at the 1948 Olympics in London. He was a household name in the 1950s, but came out of retirement in in 1974, aged 54, to claim a seventh British title some 26 years after his last one. Chris Sidwells and John Galloway look at Harris’ career and legacy in this episode of the Feature Show, avail...

And so this is Christmas. With 3 wise men taking up a better offer, it’s down to Chris, David and Gary to deliver the final Feed Zone of the year. Episode thumbnail : ©️Kittisak Jaitieng/ Dreamstime.com Recommendations Cycling into Darkness - David’s Substack https://open.substack.com/pub/dstanley/p/cycling-into-the-darkness?r=nsm6y&utm_medium=ios Strangers Brewing Co - https://strangersbrewin...