The garlic bread and olives of Australia and the Middle East are done and the main course of single-day racing in northern Europe is about to be served. Chris, David and Gary look ahead to Openingsweekend and the Spring Classics in general.

📸 The single-day race first known as Omloop Van Vlaanderen was first held in 1945, becoming the somewhat more familiar Het Volk two years later before adopting its current guise as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2009. The 1947 edition was won by the man shown here, Albert Sercu, pictured after winning that year’s Dwars door België (Dwars door Vlaanderen today), just a week earlier. If you think the family name sounds familiar then you’d be right. Albert’s son who was 2 years old when the photo was taken would go on to dominate the six-day track scene, as well as being a multiple Giro and Tour stage winner. His name? Patrick, of course. (Credit: KOERS Museum of Cycle Racing collection via Creative Commons licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Colourised by Cycling Legends Media 2026)

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SHAMELESS PLUGS

Beatles Anthology (Disney+) - https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/browse/entity-cab32c53-c3f8-4879-86f5-c8e4a1657338

No One Rides Alone - The Tour de MMN 2025 Film - https://tinyurl.com/MTMONFilm

Making the Most of Now - Chris Philips Interview - https://shows.acast.com/64ef4b8cf714670011477528/685d22f07cd58072a5d346a1

Tom Simpson Cycling Festival, 6-13 September 2026

Get your tickets at https://cyclinglegends.co.uk/pages/tom-simpson-cycling-festival?srsltid=AfmBOoq-lT3u_RBugJadNdxjeqxs2gMMgDSi76UxYSxouqb74SFjvAyH

The Equation Live - Thursday 26 February

Join Richard Oakes and Chris Sidwells at the Clubhouse, Putney Embankment, London SW15 - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-equation-live-tickets-1981846220395?aff=ebdssbcategorybrowse&fbclid=IwdGRjcAP6sflleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEem4CUFWkDy-e7LtwQSSD_2TwtyoXYsrKjKRAGu0tHR8Qbb1hqM-oo1AahnL4_aem_cN55QHZE0pn-tt5Z1-X2fw

Get in touch

Drop us a line at [email protected]! Whether it’s your best of/worst of 2025 or just general bike chat, we’d love to hear from you.

Social media

Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?

X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web

https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kicking off 2026, Chris Sidwells hosted an evening at the Clubhouse in Putney, starring Simpson Nouvelles Cycling’s Erin Avill, team owner and manager David Walters, Luca Kuhn, CEO and founder of team apparel partner Luca, and Tara Andrews, Marketing Director of Raptor, whose bikes the team will ride this season.

Music: “Starry Eyes” by A Month of Sleep, courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.

Your fit, your ride, your Raptor. Discover the bikes made to move with you at www.raptorbikes.cc

Luca’s cycling apparel fuses cutting-edge materials with understated, performance-driven design. Extensively researched and engineered for women in both road cycling and spinning, Luca empower women to ride without limits. Check out the range at https://www.rideluca.com/

Supporters Club

You can join the Club for as little as £10 and help support the development of women’s U23 cycling. https://www.nouvellescycling.co.uk/supporters-club

Merch

Show your support with some of our merch. As seen at races throughout 2025! Sign up for news and order Simpsons-Nouvelles merch at https://nouvellescycling.co.uk/merch

Get on line!

Website www.nouvellescycling.co.uk

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NouvellesCycling?

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/NouvellesCycling

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is something rotten in the state of Denmark’s GC hero’s team? Just what does it take to impress Roger De Vlaeminck? Not an eighth world cyclocross title, it appears. Have cycling fans gone mad (again)?

Chris, David and Gary ponder all this and more in the latest Feed Zone.

📸 He is perhaps regarded more highly as a coach/DS, but with no fewer than 4 Tour de France winners under his tutelage, Cyrille Guimard was no slouch on the bike, winning 7 Tour de France and 2 Vuleta a Espana stages between 1970 and 1974. Pictured here at the start of stage 1a of the 1973 Tour at Scheveningen in the Netherlands, Guimard is in conversation with that other legendary DS, Peter Post. (Credit: Bert Verhoeff for Anefo (Dutch National Archives))

RECOMMEDATIONS AND SHAMELESS PLUGS

Tom Simpson Cycling Festival, 6-13 September 2026

Get your tickets at https://cyclinglegends.co.uk/pages/tom-simpson-cycling-festival?srsltid=AfmBOoq-lT3u_RBugJadNdxjeqxs2gMMgDSi76UxYSxouqb74SFjvAyH

The Equation Live - Thursday 26 February

Join Richard Oakes and Chris Sidwells at the Clubhouse, Putney Embankment, London SW15 - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-equation-live-tickets-1981846220395?aff=ebdssbcategorybrowse&fbclid=IwdGRjcAP6sflleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEem4CUFWkDy-e7LtwQSSD_2TwtyoXYsrKjKRAGu0tHR8Qbb1hqM-oo1AahnL4_aem_cN55QHZE0pn-tt5Z1-X2fw

'Seeing' - Jose Saramago - https://amzn.eu/d/0iCnFEtG

Get in touch

Drop us a line at [email protected]! Whether it’s your best of/worst of 2025 or just general bike chat, we’d love to hear from you.

Social media

Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?

X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web

https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world is all over the place and cycling is not immune from the madness. Jay Vine finds a new way to crash in Australia, Lucinda Brand is suddenly rubbish* in Belgium and British Cycling finds a way to slight the nation’s best cyclocross racer. Again.

(*Yes, we’re kidding - she’s still ace.)

📸 Victor Harbour, South Australia, 21 January 1999: Stuart O’Grady takes stage 3 on the inaugural Santos Tour Down Under and with it the leader’s Ochre Jersey, which he will wear for the remainder of the race.

Recommendations

Sarah Hammer fundraiser - https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-sarah-hammers-journey/cl/s?utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&lang=en_GB

Huberman Labs - Dorian Yates https://open.spotify.com/episode/14mWkxOpbERlXHLqDA6FyI?si=xIQRcGMiTTagXAVUw7EhyA&pi=J7yK-rYIQ8Wcq&t=0

David’s Substack - https://dstanley.substack.com/

Sonnet:visioN- https://youtube.com/@sonnetvision?si=fW20mL_rcYd2765m

Jeff Bogle - ‘Street Cats and Where to Find Them’ https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jeff-bogle/street-cats-where-to-find-them/9780762489145/

Get in touch

Drop us a line at [email protected]! Whether it’s your best of/worst of 2025 or just general bike chat, we’d love to hear from you.

Social media

Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?

X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web

https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk

An Afternoon With Chris Sidwells - Sunday 8 February 2026, Marsden, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

Join Chris as he delves into the complex, fascinating world of cycling’s greatest icons, sharing untold stories and unseen photos from some of the most iconic riders and races.

https://www.marsdenmechanics.co.uk/events/cycling-legends-an-afternoon-with-chris-sidwells/

Laatste Ronde https://youtube.com/@laatsteronde?si=Z0dMJH40p2WcC3_B

Dr John Cooper Clarke - Haiku #1 - https://youtu.be/hkH9BHS-ph4?si=Qpx7beyLJXRPpLbY

John Cooper Clark ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ - https://store.johncooperclarke.com/products/i-wanna-be-yours-paperback-book-djc

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The chimes of a new year have barely stopped their ringing and it’s already kicking off in the world of cycling. Join Chris, David and Gary as they try to make sense of a Kerstperiode packed with ‘cross, contract buy-outs and contract bye-byes. Why are riders simply packing it in? Will Belgium be relegated to “guest nation” status in cyclocross? And does Axel Merckx have a type? We think so!

📸 Celebrating New Year with champagne is traditional, but how about celebrating with champagne IN Champagne? On stage 3 of the 2022 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig did exactly that, outsprinting Marianne Vos and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio with a late attack on the uphill drag into Épernay. (Credit: ASO)

Recommendations

The Last Class - https://www.thelastclassfilm.com/

Jon Batiste - Für Elise - https://youtu.be/-5YRhvH6Uys?si=DHwI0l6c6LOKTVvnn

Protein: Everything We Need to Know (Channel 4, UK only) - https://tinyurl.com/yc2xpmnt

The Packfiller Perspective - https://youtube.com/@packfiller?si=WPzN9_zFmGbwEstC

The Vintage Space: Absurdly Deep Dive into Apollo 13 - https://youtu.be/gQUHVYYHTb0?si=N8_KzxmwXD2YLWQ

Get in touch

Drop us a line at [email protected]! Whether it’s your best of/worst of 2025 or just general bike chat, we’d love to hear from you.

Social media

Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?

X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web

https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk

An Afternoon With Chris Sidwells - Sunday 8 February 2026, Marsden, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

Join Chris as he delves into the complex, fascinating world of cycling’s greatest icons, sharing untold stories and unseen photos from some of the most iconic riders and races.

https://www.marsdenmechanics.co.uk/events/cycling-legends-an-afternoon-with-chris-sidwells/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ho, Ho and thrice Ho! It’s our 25th Feed Zone of the year to ring in the 25th day and all it entails. Our 3 unwise men are visited by a spirit of Feed Zones past, the Packfiller’s very own Patrick Bulger to chat about:

• What pro kit is on our Santa lists
• Highlights and lowlights of 2025
• Our hopes for the new season
• Best (and worst) of the new kits; and
• Did you ever get a bike for Christmas?

All in your bumper Christmas and New Year double issue Feed Zone from Cycling Legends Media!

You can check out Packfiller - the world’s longest running cycling podcast* - LIVE every Tuesday at 6pm Pacific at https://youtube.com/@packfiller?si=1h0OvHzaWRra3mwd

*Possibly

Recommendations

Concept2 ERG Rower - https://www.concept2.co.uk/ or https://www.concept2.com/

‘Shot Ready’ - Stephen Curry - https://amzn.eu/d/92qKpL3 or https://a.co/d/2Zxqc5n

Get in touch

Drop us a line at [email protected]! Whether it’s your best of/worst of 2025 or just general bike chat, we’d love to hear from you.

Social media

Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?

X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web

https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luca Kuhn launched her eponymous women’s cycling apparel brand in 2023 and from the 2026 season we are delighted to say that Luca will be kitting out Simpson Nouvelles Cycling. Luca sat down with Chris Sidwells and Simpson Nouvelles team owner and manager David Walters to talk about her journey, building communities for women cyclists and supporting Simpson Nouvelles from next year.

Music: “Starry Eyes” by A Month of Sleep, courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.

Luca’s cycling apparel fuses cutting-edge materials with understated, performance-driven design. Extensively researched and engineered for women in both road cycling and spinning, Luca empower women to ride without limits. Check out the range at https://www.rideluca.com/

Supporters Club

You can join the Club for as little as £10 and help support the development of women’s U23 cycling. https://www.nouvellescycling.co.uk/supporters-club

Merch

Show your support with some of our merch. As seen at races throughout 2025! Sign up for news and order Simpsons-Nouvelles merch at https://nouvellescycling.co.uk/merch

Get on board!

Is your business interested in partnering with Britain's only U23 elite women's team? Drop Chris Sidwells a line at [email protected]

Get on line!

Website www.nouvellescycling.co.uk

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NouvellesCycling?

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/NouvellesCycling

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hot on the heels of the last episode announcing the Simpson Nouvelles 2026 line-up, David and Chris chat to a rider who, as well looking ahead to next season in the road, is currently causing a stir in domestic and European cyclocross. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Freya Whiteside!

📸 Freya on her way to 5th overall and 3rd in the U23 category during Round 4 of the Lloyds Cyclo-cross National Trophy Series 2025/26 at Sandwell Valley Country Park in November 2025. (Andy Smith Photography https://www.andysmithphotography.co.uk/)

Music: “Starry Eyes” by A Month of Sleep, courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.

Supporters Club

You can join the Club for as little as £10 and help support the development of women’s U23 cycling. https://www.nouvellescycling.co.uk/supporters-club

Merch

Show your support with some of our merch. As seen at races throughout 2025! Sign up for news and order Simpsons-Nouvelles merch at https://nouvellescycling.co.uk/merch

Get on board!

Is your business interested in partnering with Britain's only U23 elite women's team? Drop Chris Sidwells a line at [email protected]

Get on line!

Website www.nouvellescycling.co.uk

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NouvellesCycling?

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/NouvellesCycling

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just to prove that it’s not just good things that you can have too much of, an impromptu Feed Zone takes to the ether barely a week after the last one. A new points system from the UCI, Wout Van Aert and news from Simpson Nouvelles Cycling are but three of the topics on the agenda as we try (and fail) to keep to time.

Plus, get your nominations in for your favourites of the year. What was your cycling moment of 2025? Who was your hero, villain, favourite race, whatever? Drop us a line at [email protected] and we’ll throw it in the mix in our Christmas Special on 21 December!

📸 Lucinda Brand’s win at this weekend’s World Cup in Terralba was her 52nd consecutive cyclocross podium, overtaking Marianne Vos’ previous record. But Brand is no slouch on the road either, with no fewer than 28 pro wins on narrow tyres. She’s seen here launching the attack that would earn her the very top spot on Omloop Het Nieuwsblad podium in 2017. (Credit: LC/Tim De Waele/Corbis)

Recommendations

Cycling Legends 4 for £60 while stocks last!! https://cyclinglegends.co.uk/collections/cycling-legends-illustrated-books

Good Bye, Paul Sherwen, and Thanks https://www.bikeraceinfo.com/commentary/stanley-david/2018/2018-Paul-Sherwen-Goodbye.html

Fun While it Lasted (Live) - Massive Wagons https://youtu.be/6nYXyd7z6YA?si=eDWE4-5w7Oc5JmQL

Get in touch

Drop us a line at [email protected]! Whether it’s your best of/worst of 2025 or just general bike chat, we’d love to hear from you.

Social media

Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?

X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web

https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Walters talks to Chris Sidwells as he announces the Simpson Nouvelles line-up for 2026 and plans for the new season.

Music: “Starry Eyes” by A Month of Sleep, courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.

Supporters Club

You can join the Club for as little as £10 and help support the development of women’s U23 cycling. https://www.nouvellescycling.co.uk/supporters-club

Merch

Show your support with some of our merch. As seen at races throughout 2025! Sign up for news and order Simpsons-Nouvelles merch at https://nouvellescycling.co.uk/merch

Get on board!

Is your business interested in partnering with Britain's only U23 elite women's team? Drop Chris Sidwells a line at [email protected]

Get on line!

Website www.nouvellescycling.co.uk

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NouvellesCycling?

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/NouvellesCycling

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.