It’s Christmas, traditionally a time for people to come together and enjoy the simple pleasure of playing a friendly board game and a glass of eggnog.

Join Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and special guest Ned Boulting for The Cycling Podcast’s Christmas Cycling Scrabble Challenge.

This is Scrabble, but not as you know it.

Only words that have a clear and obvious link to the world of professional cycling are permitted.

And with that wonderfully vague rule, let the arguments begin.

In honour of professional cycling, the rest of the rules of the game are unwritten… So tune in and see if Lionel can get Zakarin down on a triple word score...

The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science In Sport.

After three-and-a-half years, our title sponsorship arrangement with Rapha is coming to an end. We'd like to thank everyone at Rapha, and particularly Simon Mottram, for their support.

Science In Sport have been sponsoring us for even longer than Rapha and we're delighted that will continue in 2020. All listeners can get 25% off their Science In Sport goodies at scienceinsport.com by using the code SISCP25

We’ve launched our new Friends of the Podcast system and it’s much easier to get the episodes on your phone now. Episode one, telling the story of Stage 19 of the Tour de France and featuring Egan Bernal, is online now.

We’ve frozen the price at £15 for a year’s access and have two episodes to add over the Christmas and New Year period.

To sign up you need only an email address and credit or debit card. You do not need your existing Friends of the Podcast login details. Go to thecyclingpodcast.com/subscribe for all the details.

Anyone who chooses to pay more and become a Very Good or Best Friend of the Podcast will also get a signed copy of our new book The Grand Tour Diaries. Everyone else who signs up as a Friend will be eligible for a 20% discount. Go to thecyclingpodcast.com/book for details.

You can buy a gift subscription to our Friends of the Podcast series for the pro cycling fan in your life at thecyclingpodcast.com/gifts and it will be kept a surprise until the big day.

CHRISTMAS BREAK

This is our final episode of 2019. We'd like to wish all our listeners a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you for listening this year. We hope you'll be with us when we return in early January.

In the meantime, we do have a couple of Friends of the Podcast episodes scheduled to go out over Christmas.