Cyclist Magazine Podcast

Pearson Cycles is the oldest bike shop in the world having first opened its doors back in 1860. And after 161 years of trading, these past 18 months have been its toughest. James and Joe are joined by Pearson owner Will Pearson who talks about the big bike boom of the pandemic, why the industry is struggling to keep up with demand and why online retail giants may struggle to offer the massive disc...

With the Tokyo Olympics finally here we thought it best to get an Olympic champion on the pod. Not just any Olympic champion either, we got double Olympic gold medalist Joanna Rowsell-Shand. Part of the all-conquering women's team pursuit team of London 2012 and Rio 2016, James and Joe chat to Jo about how the Olympics changed her life forever, being part of the British Cycling medal winning machi...

Ride gravel? Ride mountain bikes? Well, you have Tom Ritchey to thank for that, kind of. He is, after all, the Godfather of Gravel. James and Joe joined Tom from his California home (virtually) to bathe in his many anecdotes about the early days of off-road riding around California with Jobst Brandt and pioneering the first off-road bikes. This is Part 2. If you liked this episode, please remember...

Ride gravel? Ride mountain bikes? Well, you have Tom Ritchey to thank for that, kind of. He is, after all, the Godfather of Gravel. James and Joe joined Tom from his California home (virtually) to bathe in his many anecdotes about the early days of off-road riding around California with Jobst Brandt and pioneering the first off-road bikes. This is Part 1. Part 2 will be along shortly. If you liked...

With the Tour de France starting this weekend who better to sit down with than the voice of cycling himself, Phil Liggett. Liggett has offered a soundtrack to cycling for almost 50 years, describing the sport of cycling to millions around the world from the commentary booth. James and Joe chat to Phil about how he got into cycling commentary, his iconic partnership with the late Paul Sherwen, life...

Krishnan Guru-Murthy is best known for holding to account everyone from Hollywood A-listers to senior cabinet ministers during his day job as one of Channel 4's news presenters. However what you may not know is that Krishnan is also a road cyclist which gave us a great excuse to get him on the pod. James and Joe sat down with Krishnan to talk about how he got into cycling, his annual London-Paris...

On today's pod is legendary cycling photographer Graham Watson who joins Joe and James to regale us with some incredible stories from his 40 years in the professional peloton. From his Tour de France capturing the great Merckx to telling Greg LeMond he had won the 1989 Tour de France to witnessing Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck duel on the Tourmalet, Graham has been there for every major drama...

Joining James and Joe this week is Chris Boardman, Olympic champion, Tour de France yellow jersey wearer, Hour Record holder, Greater Manchester walking and cycling commissioner, Question Time guest and everything in between. Boardman talks us through how the pandemic changed cycling, what's stopping those at the top backing cycling and how embracing two wheels is our only way out of this current...

Joining James and Joe on the pod this week is 2016 Paris-Roubaix winner Mat Hayman. The Aussie talks about his switch from the peloton to the team car, the pressures Covid is putting on racing, his iconic Roubaix win five years ago, living in Belgium and one-hit wonder, Daryl Braithwaite. If you liked this episode, please remember to leave us a review, comment and make sure to share with your cycl...

Johan Museeuw – the Lion of Flanders, one of the greatest Cobbled Classics riders of all-time and one of cycling's true hardmen. Now 55 years old, Museeuw chats to James and Joe on the latest Cyclist Magazine Podcast about how he is still stronger than some pros on the bike, how Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert need to deal with the pressures of being the 'next Eddy Merckx' and his special bond w...

Yes, we know that the men's and inaugural women's Paris-Roubaix has been postponed until October but that doesn't mean we cannot do some reminiscing about the greatest race in the cycling calendar right now. After all, with the race not taking place on April 11th like scheduled, what else do you expect us to do to fill the void? We called upon friends of the podcast, including Greg LeMond, Sean Ke...

Last month we gave you Greg LeMond. Today, the man who made his bikes, Mr Craig Calfee. The first bike builder to have a full carbon fibre bike raced at the Tour de France, Calfee has always been a man who is ahead of the curve. Listen as Joe and James delve into Calfee's intriguing life of building bikes, missing out on pro contracts, where the big performance gains are to be had in race bikes an...

Paris-Roubaix winner from 2004 Magnus Backstedt and Trek-Segafredo women's rider Elynor Backstedt share the same dream: to become the first father and daughter duo to have both won the 'Hell of the North'. However, for 124 years it was just that, a dream. Because while the men have been able to race the Queen of the Classics since 1896, the women have never had an equivalent race for their own pro...

Joining us this week is three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, the only man to have won the Tour after getting shot! **THIS IS PART 2. IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, PLEASE GO BACK AND LISTEN TO PART 1** James and Joe sat down with Greg to talk about almost everything, so much so we have split the two-hour conversation into two separate episodes. In Part 1, we talk Greg's new bike brand, 'revolu...

Joining us this week is three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, the only man to have won the Tour after getting shot! James and Joe sat down with Greg to talk about almost everything, so much so we have split the two-hour conversation into two separate episodes. In Part 1, we talk Greg's new bike brand, 'revolutionary carbon fibre', his prior experiences in the market and being the 'most i...

Rob Hayles is a winner of three Olympic medals, two World titles and countless national titles on the track long before it was cool and a British National Champion on the road who then retired for a spot in the commentary booth at BBC Radio Five Live and Eurosport. He is also a man with magical hands who has long been involved in the mysterious world of carbon fibre technology and who owns his own...

Our guest on the show this week is the King, Sean Kelly. 159 career wins, nine Monuments, one Grand Tour, seven consecutive Paris-Nice, countless other big races, Kelly is one of the greatest road cyclists of all time. James and Joe talk to Sean about that immensely successful career and being ranked the second greatest cyclist ever behind Eddy Merckx, never having to pay for his own pint in Irela...

On the show this week is Mr Fausto Pinarello. From his humble beginnings as a frame painter to worldwide domination with the Ineos Grenadiers/Team Sky and all the times he almost bankrupting the company in between, Fausto has done it all. James and Joe chat with the man behind the most successful road bike of the last decade on how his father built the Pinarello brand from nothing, the team's many...

Our guest this week is a bonafide legend of professional cycling, Brian Holm. Deceuninck-QuickStep DS, former brick layer-turned-pro rider, best man to Mark Cavendish, Copenhagen city councillor, best mates with Paul Smith and Paul Weller, Brian has lived a life. James and Joe talk to Brian about almost everything including rider safer and dealing with the Fabio Jakobsen crash, his close bond to M...

This Christmas is going to be a bit weird with everything going on. With that in mind, Joe and James thought it would be nice to drop a little bonus episode for you to enjoy over the Festive season. In turns out that the burger-van owning Angelos Epithemiou of Shooting Stars fame fancies himself as the next Carlton Kirby/Ned Boulting. With that in mind, Angelos came on the podcast to offer us some...

When the challenges get a little crazy, Cyclist sends Marcus Leach. In the latest pod, James and Joe chat to Marcus on his recent scenic JOGLE adventure for Cyclist which saw him ride through some of the UK's most incredibly tough yet beautiful terrain all self-supported during a global pandemic. We also talk about being stalked by giant ants in a Taiwanese jungle and riding all three Grand Tour i...

On the 12th December, Britain's Alex Dowsett was set to take to the Manchester Velodrome to regain the Hour Record from Belgian Victor Campenaerts... then he caught Covid. Joe and James caught up with Dowsett while he was in isolation to talk catching Covid and it forcing him to postpone his Hour attempt, why he was certain he could go better than his 2015 effort and recapture the record and about...

Jai Hindley came within 20 minutes of winning the Giro d'Italia. Losing a Grand Tour on the final day is a bitter pill to swallow. Thankfully, the 24-year-old Australian Hindley has a steady head upon his shoulders. Because while it was Tao Geoghegan Hart who took home the Giro title, it was Team Sunweb's Hindley who came away with the realisation he can win a Grand Tour one day. The Cyclist Magaz...

Ben Tulett may only be a teenager but he is undoubtedly the next big thing for British cycling. He is a two-time cyclocross Junior World Champion, a teammate of Mathieu van der Poel at Alpecin-Fenix and, aged 19, the youngest rider to finish Liege-Bastogne-Liege since 1909. Following in the footsteps of fellow young star Tom Pidcock, Tulett is showing a rapid rise towards the top of the sport and...

In association with Castelli. Ben Foster is an 8-time capped England goalkeeper who has played Premier League football for Manchester United, Birmingham City, West Brom and Watford, where he is still currently club captain. But it turns out he is also a cycling fanatic. That's right, he is one of us! A bonafide leg-shaving, Rapha-wearing, Specialized-riding roadie who loves his cycling so much he...