Cyclist Magazine Podcast

This week Will and James are joined by bike design visionary Dimitris Katsanis. Dimitris worked alongside Chris Boardman in the Secret Squirrel Club, creating the pioneering bikes and kit that helped Team GB dominate the 2012 London Games. Ever wondered where the term 'marginal gains' came from? Yep, Dimitris and his colleagues, whose work at the time was so secret not even his boss, one Dave Brai...

This week Will and James are joined by Ribble Rebellion crit rider, Matt Bostock. Matt cut his teeth racing track and road, but now pedals his trade in the crit racing scene. A twice national crit champ and multiple Tour series winner, Matt now races all over the globe. In this episode Matt discusses growing up on the Isle of Man with Mark Cavendish's old mentor for help, throwing elbows in the St...

This week, Robyn and Will are joined by Mikkel Honoré, Danish pro at WorldTour team EF Education-Easypost. Mikkel talks us through the differences between a team like EF and one like his previous team, Quick-Step; how a small (and decidedly flat) nation like Denmark has produced so many great cyclists; and his thoughts on Pogacar, the Tour, the importance of the World Championships and his love of...

This week James and Will are joined by Carlton Kirby, Eurosport's voice of the Tour de France. In this episode, Carlton looks ahead to the Tour de France 2024, and talks us through the course, all the crucial stages, the likely turning points and the surprise heroes. We discuss the inside track on Cavendish's chances of beating the Merckx record; who will triumph between Pogačar and Vingegaard (bu...

This week Will and James are joined by the founder and owner of Factor Bikes, Rob Gitelis. Rob is originally from Miami but moved to Taiwan more than twenty years ago to start building bikes. Originally he ran a factory which built bikes for brands such as Cervélo, Scott and Canyon, but in 2015 he decided to go it alone with the purchase of Factor Bikes. In this episode, Rob discusses how the bike...

This week James and Will are joined by gravel pro, Danni Shrosbree. Danni became British gravel national champ in 2022, then in 2023 raced to a storming fourth place on her debut at Unbound Gravel, arguably the world’s hardest gravel race - 200 unsupported miles (320km) across the Kansas prairies. Danni tells us why this was one of the most chaotic races of her life, from shacking up with stranger...

Will and James are joined by Ford RideLondon-Essex race director Kevin Nash ahead of this year's event, which takes place on May 26th 2024. Kevin discusses the challenges designing the route, from circumventing weddings to dealing with litter; explains how to deal with peloton physics and the human racing psyche; and divests the secrets of managing thousands of riders and staff, all from a secret...

This week, Pete and James are joined by Channel 4 news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy for a rambling (but hopefully rewarding) episode that runs from bikes to elections. We talk about Krishnan's charity bike ride, the Duchenne Dash - London to Paris in 24hrs; his fair weather approach to cycling; his time on Strictly Come Dancing; the role of AI in mainstream media; what AI Jon Snow would ask him;...

This week, Will and James talk to ex-pro, team ds and race director Scott Sunderland. Today, Sunderland is race director for the RideLondon Classique and Tour of Flanders among others, but during the 1990s and 2000s he rode professionally for TVM, Lotto and GAN before taking on sports director roles at Team CSC and Cervélo Test Team. Here, Sunderland talks racing through the troubled 1990s; a near...

This week James is joined by BBC Radio 2's DJ Spoony, current host of The Good Grove and owner of a dj'ing palmares as long as your arm, from pirate radio at London Underground to Kiss to the BBC to playing out in Ibiza and Ayia Napa. But somewhere along the way DJ Spoony also got really into cycling. And football. And golf. And Strictly Come Dancing. And charity fundraising. And politics. And his...

Maurice Burton joins Will and James for this week's show. Burton became Britain's first black cycling champion in 1974, and by 1975 was on his way to a stellar career racing track and Six-Day events on the Continent. Here he tells Will and James about his early days living in a butchers shop with a man who never washed, trading bikes or cars, competing in 56 Six-Day races and being sabotaged numer...

This week Will and James are joined by Shane Williams, Welsh rugby union legend, Ospreys star winger, RFB Player of the Year and MBE. After nearly 20 years at the top of his sport, Shane retired in 2015 and quickly (like within a week) took up Ironman. From there, Shane's love of cycling only grew, and today he not only rides bikes and competes in triathlon, he's founded his own sportswear kit bra...

This week James and Will talk to Daniel Troia, who cycled coast-to-coast across America (and back) with no food or money, then made a film about it: We Are All In This Together . With only basic camping gear and his trusty Surly tourer, Daniel begged and borrowed his way across the States in the hope of answering the question of the age: as a society, how divided are we? Along the way he met some...

Joining James and Will this week is David Kinjah, Kenyan former pro cyclist who was the first black African to ride for a European team, competed at World Championships and Commonweath Games, founded the Safari Simbaz Cycling Trust and mentored many young African cyclists including one Christopher Clive Froome. Kinjah talks us through his journey into pro cycling, his experiences in Europe, Chris...

On the latest episode of the podcast, James and Emma are joined by Maria Leijerstam, a British adventurer and world record holder. In 2013 Maria became the first person to cycle to the South Pole from the edge of the continent. This epic, and rather dangerous, journey took her ten days 14 hours and 56 minutes. We caught up with Maria to hear all about her record setting journey, the highs and the...

To start 2024 off with a bang, James and Emma are joined by not one but two guests. First up is Mark Sutton, editor of Cycling Electric and all-round cycling industry news specialist who explains the current state of the cycling industry, looking at the past few turbulent years and what the future might hold. Mark shares his views on the industry landscape, discusses value vs volume brands, the bo...

This week James and Emma are joined by Simon Mottram, the founder of cycling clothing company Rapha. You might have heard of it.   Mottram is the former corporate branding specialist and lifelong cycling fan who set up Rapha in 2004 at a time when the sport had yet to experience the explosion of interest in Britain.   You could say, he made cycling cool.   In this episode Mottram de...

This week Will and James are joined by Adam Hansen, ex-pro and president of the professional riders union. As a rider, Hansen completed a record 20 consecutive Grand Tours, riding as a super-domestique first for Mark Cavendish and then for the bulk of his career with André Griepel. Hansen is also an incredible polymath, making his own carbon shoes (which weigh 76g) and writing bespoke software for...

James is joined by ex-Team Sky sports nutritionist, Nigel Mitchell. Nigel has been a top clinical sports nutritionist for more than 25 years, with nearly a decade spent helping Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome win Grand Tours, followed by work with Team GB sailors, skiers and triathletes and more WorldTour cycling teams. In this episode, Nigel discusses the old school world of cycling nutrition an...

This week Robyn and James are joined by ultra-cyclist Leigh Timmis, the fastest man across Europe, pedalling 6,330km from Cabo do Roca in Portugal to Ufa, Russia in just 16 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes. Leigh also held the record for the furthest distance cycled in seven days - 3,589km - and has also ridden around the world. Only that one took a bit longer than usual - about seven years. Our chat...

This week Will and James are joined by Alex Dowsett, six-time British National TT champ, twice Giro d'Italia stage winner and one-time Hour record holder. And he did this all while competing with haemophilia. Now retired, Alex has just released his autobiography, Bloody Minded (Bloomsbury), a candid account that pulls no punches, either when assessing his own performance or telling it like it was,...

For this week’s episode, Emma and Will are joined by the formidable Anna Shackley who rides for SD Worx and, who at just 22 years old, has had a glittering summer. Often the domestique, Shackley has her own set of decent results. Highlights include a win in the under-23 race at the British National Championships (5th overall), third place in the under-23 race at her home World Championships in Sco...

Joining Will and Emma this week is former pro road racer Christian Meier. The 38-year-old, who rode for Garmin-Chipotle and GreenEdge, recently took up trail running and this year won one of the world's biggest races in France. In this episode Meier discusses falling out with cycling, finding a new sport his ambitions in running. Meier is also one of the fore-founders of Girona's cycling scene, fo...

This week Emma and Robyn are joined by World Champion track cyclist Neah Evans. Most recently Evans won the Madison at the World Championships in Glasgow alongside teammate Elinor Barker. She also boasts five Commonwealth Games medals, an Olympic silver medal, and has held national, European and world titles, over a number of track events. Coming to the sport slightly later than most, Evans e...

This week we’re joined by ex-professional cyclist turned philosopher-author, James Hibbard, to chat about his book,  The Art of Cycling: Philosophy, meaning, and a life on two wheels .  It’s a sort of memoir-cum-meditation – a bit like  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  – taking the form of a cycling road trip interspliced with tales of James’s racing career and musing...