Cycling Legends Podcast

A Tour route to tempt Remco, with a brutal sting in the Pyrenees, and a women’s race spending a third of its nine days in Britain: bold ambition or a squeeze too far? We discuss troubling culture reports at Picnic PostNL and British Cycling, ask whether cycling’s contract exits are about money, opportunity or both, and let fly in our new feature, Can We Say? Plus, Chris remembers British cycling pioneer Vin Denson.

📸 Vin Denson’s passing on 14 October, aged 90, means we said goodbye to the last of British cycling’s great pioneering generation. Along with Brian Robinson, Tom Simpson and Barry Hoban, Vin helped pave the way for generations of British professionals on the continent. On 26 May 1966, however, Vin himself made British cycling history in Campobasso, winning stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia and becoming the first British rider to win a stage of La Corsa Rosa. In a pro career that ran from 1961 to 1969, he won the 1965 Tour of Luxembourg and rode six Tours de France, while serving champions Jacques Anquetil and Rik Van Looy as well as riding with both Tom and Barry. (Cycling Legends collection)

Recommendations and shameless plugs

The Cycling Legends illustrated book series - buy all 4 and save £20! - https://tinyurl.com/32vc2zsx

Harry Talbot - 2026 Photo Book https://visualsofharryshop.com/

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Il Lombardia, rider protests and a peloton running out of patience. This week, Gary, David and Chris ask what the CPA can actually do about race safety, why Britain keeps skipping the European road championships, and whether American cycling is properly back. Plus, Tom Simpson, Barry Hoban and the forgotten prestige of Paris–Tours.

📸 At Paris-Tours in 1967, Barry Hoban (L) had Rik Van Looy’s wheel - but the Belgian’s guile turned the tables. Van Looy stopped pedalling, daring Barry to chase the riders ahead. Barry blinked first, taking him back to the front, then made the mistake that decided the sprint:

“Then I waited,” he wrote in his autobiography, Vas-y-Barry. “I waited for Rik Van Looy to jump, and that was fatal.

“I came back at Van Looy all the way up the finishing straight. Then we flashed over the line and I was still half a wheel short. Fifteen metres more and I might have got him.

“I never sprinted like that again, never left it late – never let anyone take the initiative.”

A painful second place - and a lesson that changed how Barry sprinted forever. From Vas-y Barry, published by Cycling Legends. (Cycling Legends Collection)

Recommendations and shameless plugs

”Martyr!” - Kaveh Akbar - https://amzn.eu/d/0iJgpQSi

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Joël Kyaviro has already made history as the first Congolese rider to win a UCI race at this season’s Tour of Cameroon. His story, though, is about much more than results.

Journalist Bill Donahue followed Joël’s journey for Now Voyager magazine and Gary caught up with Bill and Joël to hear more about a story of talent, ambition, conflict, visas, money, opportunity and just how hard it can be simply to get to the start line.

🎵 A Month of Sleep, courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

📸 Joël at the Tour of Cameroon, June 2026. By kind permission of Oliver Farys - https://www.oliverfarys.de https://www.instagram.com/oliverfarys

Links

Revolutions by Bill Donahue https://nowvoyagermag.com/reporting/revolutions

Tumaini Cycling Academy https://tumainicyclingacademy.com/

Tumaini Cycling Academy crowdfunder https://givebutter.com/tumaini-academy

You can follow Joël at:

https://www.instagram.com/joel_kyaviro

You can follow Bill at:

https://billdonahue.net

https://www.facebook.com/bill.donahue.18

https://www.instagram.com/billdonahue13/

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World Championships, breakthrough performances and big questions for the future of the sport. We look beyond the rainbow jerseys to the riders shaping what comes next, ask whether American cycling has finally turned young talent into elite success, briefly look at the UCI’s plans to rethink professional road racing, and discuss Rapha’s latest troubles. Plus, after Fin Tarling, has cycling really learned enough about safety?

📸 Alfredo Binda won the inaugural UCI Road World Championships in 1927, but it would be another 31 years before women were given the same opportunity. Luxembourger Elsy Jacobs won the first women’s title in Reims in 1958. Nearly seven decades later, women’s cycling looks very different — but the rainbow jersey remains the ultimate prize. (Harry Pot/Dutch National Archives Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands license)

Recommendations and shameless plugs

Paul Letchworth (artist) - https://pletchworth.com/work

The Kelly Adventures - Alison Putman - https://alison-putman.com/books

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Enric Mas finally wins the Vuelta — and somehow Movistar manage not to Movistar it. We look back at Mas v Roglič, ask what Spain has told us about the World Championships, and wonder whether Movistar have finally shaken off the ghosts of Vueltas past.

📸 Stage 18’s Individual Time Trial was a pivotal story in this year’s Vuelta and the race does have a habit of saving its biggest twists for the race of truth. In 2003, Roberto Heras started the Stage 20 mountain TT to Alto de Abantos 1:55 behind race leader Isidro Nozal. Twenty-five minutes later, he’d won the stage, taken 2:23 out of Nozal and seized the gold jersey by 28 seconds — with Madrid just a day away. (Manuel Bruque/EPA)

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After a month spent following the racing around France, The Feed Zone is back. David has a shiny new laptop, the Vuelta is underway, the transfer market is bubbling nicely, and there’s plenty to discuss from the Tour of Britain Women. We also reflect on the tragic death of Fin Tarling and the wider questions it raises about rider safety.

📸 Monaco 2026 marked La Vuelta’s seventh start outside Spain - and its third in succession. The first came in Lisbon in 1997. Alex Zülle is pictured placing fourth in the stage 9 Córdoba time trial that year, enough to take the race lead and carry it all the way to Madrid. (Graham Watson/Getty)

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For Fin Crowdfunder - https://www.gofundme.com/f/for-fin-s2u87

SIMPSON RETRO 11-13 SEPTEMBER 2026 - Tickets still available at https://cyclinglegends.co.uk/pages/simpson-retro

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The dust has just about settled on a(nother) thrilling Tour de France Femmes. Katy Madgwick joins Chris, David and Gary to look back at Demi Vollering’s historic victory, Kasia’s Ventoux heroics, the riders who lit up the race — and the controversies that threatened (briefly) to overshadow it.

Read more insights on all things pro cycling from Katy at https://substack.com/@writebikerepeat

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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.

SIMPSON RETRO 11-13 SEPTEMBER 2026 - Tickets still available at https://cyclinglegends.co.uk/pages/simpson-retro

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From Boels-Dolmans to SD Worx-Protime, this is the story of the women’s cycling super-team that rewrote the rules of dominance. On the eve of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes, we trace the roots, riders, rivalries and rainbow jerseys behind a squad that shaped the modern era — from Lizzie Deignan, Anna van der Breggen and Chantal Blaak to Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes and Lotte Kopecky.

🎵 Hampus Naeselius, courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

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Nine stages. Nearly 19,000 metres of climbing. A time trial. Mont Ventoux. And perhaps the deepest field the Tour de France Femmes has ever assembled.

Gary and Chris look ahead to the jewel in women’s cycling’s glittering crown.

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Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. Or something. What did happen? Time trial, a double helping of Alpe d'Huez and one final Parisian flourish over Montmartre.

The team picks over a decisive final week of this year's race. Who were the big winners (yes, apart from the one in the yellow jumper)? Who surprised us? And just how will this edition be remembered?

Let’s do it all again next year, huh?

📸 Le Cote de la Butte de Montmatre made its race debut at the 2024 Olympic Road Race before featuring for the first time in the 2025 Tour. As can be seen from this view from that edition, it was an instant hit with fans. (ASO/Aurélien Vialate)

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.

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