The Cycling Podcast

In this week's episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe and journalist Richard Abraham are back in the bike race bubble at Paris-Nice, where two of the Big Four contenders for this year's Tour de France start to piece together their preparations for July.  Remco Evenepoel comes fresh from victory at the Volta ao Algarve but is taking on a stage race on French soil for the first time in his ca...

We’re looking at motherhood in our February episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin. With Ellen Van Dijk’s much-anticipated return from maternity leave on the horizon, we explore the growing trend of racers returning to the peloton post-baby. Rose Manley speaks to Lizzie Deignan, one of the first women to be supported by her team to a return to racing and her agent Emma Wade, as well as new mum and...

In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by the veteran French journalist François Thomazeau and the Aussie former Classics maestro Mitch Docker to recap Opening Weekend - the Belgian double-header dominated, as per the predictions, by the Visma-Lease a Bike team.  Wout Van Aert was the favourite for Saturday’s Omloop het Nieuwsblad and indeed looked to be zeroing in...

In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by the journalist Richard Abraham & top commentator Rob Hatch, as we look forward to a very eagerly anticipated Opening Weekend in Belgium.  Before thoughts turn to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne,, we review some racing highlights from the last weekend, most notably from the Algarve in Portugal, where Remc...

In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by the journalist Richard Abraham & Décathlon-AG2r La Mondiale stalwart Larry Warbasse - a still slightly soggy Larry Warbasse after his season’s début at a very wet Tour de la Provence. We discuss how Mads Pedersen whipped up a storm that blew the rest of the field away in the south of France - & ask whether the weathe...

In this week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by top commentator Rob Hatch and the Danish former comms chief turned team manager turned journalist, Brian Nygaard.  We take a look back at a busy week of racing - including the cyclocross World Championships - and some of the biggest stories of the last week, including heartening news about the Tour of Britain. It’s t...

In this week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by two of cycling’s most recognisable and beloved commentators - Renaat Schotte and Rob Hatch - to discuss to the start of the European road season and look ahead to the cyclocross Worlds in Tábor, Czechia.  The reigning ‘cross world champions, Mathieu van der Poel and Fem Van Empel, are both favourites to retain their...

We’re looking at life a little upside down in the first Cycling Podcast Feminin of the year. Special guest cycling journalist Rebecca Charlton joins Rose Manley and Denny Gray to look over the first Women’s World Tour race of the year – the Tour Down Under in Australia. We analyse the veracity of overall winner Sarah Gigante’s claims that she was “washed up” at the age of 23 and all get into a hot...

In this week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by former peloton stalwart Mitch Docker and former pressroom stalwart François Thomazeau to review the first WorldTour race of the 2024 season, the Santos Tour Down Under. We discuss how Stevie Williams’ thrilling overall victory represents a return from the brink for the Welsh rider - and one tinged with controversy. T...

When, midway through last year’s Tour de France, Caleb Ewan ‘celebrated’ his 29th birthday, in fact far from rejoicing, the Aussie sprinter was enduring some of the most difficult days of his career - out of form and out of favour with his Lotto-Dstny team, so much so that his boss, Stéphane Heulot, would respond to Ewan quitting La Grande Boucle by questioning his professionalism.  Ewan’s relatio...

This week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast is our annual Speculation episode, in which we ponder & prognosticate what will be the major stories of the coming season. Daniel Friebe is joined by Décathlon-AG2r La Mondiale star Larry Warbasse & ace commentator Rob Hatch - & together they’ll scrutinise the 2024 predictions of assorted friends, colleagues & riders. Can Visma-Lea...

In this special episode of The Cycling Podcast, as a festive treat, we serve up a Christmas selection box of highlights from the 2023 men's Grand Tours. Proceeding in chronological order, we journey back in time first to May and the Giro d'Italia, where Daniel Friebe and Brian Nygaard saw lots of rain, a race that took its time to catch light, then a finale for the ages.  Next, Lionel Birnie took...

In this special, end-of-year episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by a star-studded ensemble of regular guests to relive and debate some of the highlights of the 2023 road season. Mitch Docker, François Thomazeau, Larry Warbasse, Richard Abraham (fortunate to avoid inclusion in the episode artwork!), Ian Boswell, Rob Hatch and a certain Italian newshound all drop in to share in...

Yes, it’s the most wonderful time of year… Christmas quiz time! Reigning champ (or so she claims) Orla Chennaoui pits herself against quiz debutant Denny Gray in Rose Manley’s fiendish Yuletide puzzler. Let your brain be bamboozled by humdingers like, how many corners were there in the World Champs course? Did Demi Vollering really explain her teammate’s toilet habits in a post-race interview? And...

In this week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast, we visit Bora-Hansgrohe at their December billet in Mallorca for an in-depth interview with the team’s Head of Sports Rolf Aldag.  It turned out to be a timely conversation, coming as it did hot on the heels of news that Cian Uijtdebroeks had walked out on Bora-Hansgrohe to sign for Jumbo-Visma - his agent claimed after his Bora deal had been...

In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, long-time Grand Tour diarist Pavel Sivakov joins us to reflect on his 2023 season and look ahead to his imminent move to the world’s number one-ranked team, UAE Team Emirates.  The winner of the Giro della Toscana in September and a top-10 finisher in six stage races, Sivakov enjoyed his best season ever in 2023 - and yet recognises that, in some pund...

In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by ace Eurosport commentator Rob Hatch to discuss the latest headlines from the world of professional cycling and some of the burning issues of the week.  In Germany, the hot topic of the last few days has been the release of the new, multi-part Jan Ullrich documentary ‘Der Gejagte’. Daniel reports back on what we as viewers learn and...

In this week’s regular episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by Brian Nygaard and Ian Boswell - both of them formerly of Team Sky as a press chief and rider respectively - as we chew over the shock news that Deputy Team Principal Rod Ellingworth is to leave the British outfit.  We analyse Ellingworth’s legacy and ask where the team goes next, having lost one of their founding fat...

It’s an Annemiek Van Vleuten special on The Cycling Podcast Feminin. Rose Manley and Denny Gray reflect back on the racing career of one of the most successful and influential riders in the sport following her retirement in September.  Rose sits down with Van Vleuten herself to talk about the things that shaped her as a rider and how she’s finding post-retirement life. And Van Vleuten reveals what...

In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, we take you inside one of the more dramatic and harrowing stories of the 2023 season - a crash that abruptly ended one rider’s realistic chance of winning the Giro d’Italia, his season and also his seven-year career with the team that, as a teenager, he had dreamed of one day joining.  That rider is Tao Geoghegan Hart - and he is also our guest and Da...

In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe & Brian Nygaard delve deeper into one of the stories of a wild pro cycling autumn - the revelation that half a dozen World Tour teams want to launch their own league or series to help secure their (financial) future. Brian was at the bleeding edge of two previous attempts to do precisely this - and he helps us understand why neither...

In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, we are joined by an old friend and confidant - AG2r-Citroën’s Larry Warbasse - for a full debrief on the former US road racing champion’s 2023 season.  Daniel Friebe quizzes Larry about personal landmarks, successes and disappointments in what was a long, tiring campaign for the 33-year-old. There’s also an honest analysis of AG2r’s fortunes over the past fe...

Explore returns with Adam Bowie, one of The Cycling Podcast's producers, taking over the mic to document his ride at the 2023 Étape du Tour. Each July, the Étape gives thousands of riders a chance to experience the thrill of riding the route of a Tour de France stage on closed roads. This time it was the course of stage 14 from Annemasse to Morzine in the Alps, taking in the Col de Cou, Col du Feu...

In this episode of The Cycling Podcast, we review two big gala events that took place in Paris this week - the Vélo d’Or awards ceremony and the presentation of the 2024 Tour de France routes.  Daniel Friebe is joined by veteran reporter and resident francophile François Thomazeau plus top commentator Rob Hatch to give our verdict on the Vélo d’Or voting panel’s decisions - and on two Tour de Fran...

This October episode of The Cycling Podcast Feminin is full of our podcast’s most dreaded thing “speculation”. Rose Manley and Denny Gray look over some of the rumours around next year’s Tour de France Femmes route which will apparently include a showstopping final day on the Alpe d’Huez. They also look ahead to some of how next season’s teams are shaping up, with Lidl-Trek and EF Education-Cannon...