CyclingTips Podcast

A mostly uneventful stage ended in a furious sprint finish defined by a nasty headwind. It took patience and more than a little daring to pull off the victory. 

Then, James joins us for a Nerd Alert on clinchers (with tubes!) at the Tour. 

Plus, we hear from the Secret Pro ahead of the first uphill finish of this Tour de France. 

Today's episode is brought to you by Flobikes.

Julian Alaphilippe is at it again. 

The Frenchman took yellow a stage earlier this year than last - it took him until stage 3 in 2019 - but the week ahead looks favorable for a long defense. Can he do it? Do we need to become Alabelievers, once again? 

Plus, a more detailed look at yesterday's crashes, a top stage 3 tip from the Secret Pro, and much more.

It was a somewhat surprising podium for the first stage of the Tour de France, led by the elder statesman of the sprinters, Alexander Kristoff. 

It was a day full of crashes, and though most of the GC favorites stayed upright many of their domestiques did not. 

At La Course, an expected sprint didn't play out that way, and we dig into why. 

Finally, the Secret Pro sends over his tip for Stage 2.

Welcome to the first Tour Daily episode, coming to you from an Airbnb in Nice (and elsewhere. Thanks COVID). 

In this final episode before the Tour kicks off, we run through the route, key stages, plus make some picks for the most important competition, the race for the Maillot Sable. 

Plus, we get a stage 1 pick from the Secret Pro.

The 2020 Tour de France is an Alps-heavy route with eight mountain-top finishes and one crucial mountain time trial. It begins in Nice, takes a quick dip into the Alps, then runs west for a brief stint in the Pyrenees. That’s followed by a long slog across the middle of France, highlighted by a massive uphill finish at Puy Mary. The last week bounces around in the Alps and leads into a time trial finishing on La Planche des Belles Filles for the penultimate stage.

Who's going to win?

We're less than two weeks from the start of the Tour de France. The Dauphine is behind us, but didn't answer many of the questions we had when it started. GC favorites are injured. Young riders are rising. We dig into the race, plus the crashes at Lombardia, and look ahead to the Tour. 

You know what really grinds James's gears? Water bottles.

Jumbo-Visma is on a tear. Can they hold on to that form? 

Plus, we dissect the Tour of Poland crash, Dylan Groenewegen's level of fault, and what the race organizer should have done differently. 

Transfer season is in full swing. What do the major moves mean for both the riders and their new teams?

This week's Nerd Alert discusses the regional specificity of gravel tires, and the best way to find a tire that works for your part of the world.

This week's episode discusses the first major one-day of the re-started season, Strade Bianche, including insight from Trek-Segafredo's Toms Skujins on the heightened chaos inside a peloton racing every day like it might be the last race of the season. 

Plus, we round up the latest transfer news, discuss Peter Sagan's future teammate, Nils Politt, and where Marianne Vos might end up next year. 

This week's Nerd Alert is simple: We're hiring a tech writer. What sort of skills are we looking for?

This week's episode runs through the first weekend of racing, including Annemiek van Vleuten's incredible run of wins and a spate of riders being pulled from the Vuelta a Burgos over coronavirus concerns. 

In this week's Nerd Alert, we kick off with news from Mavic and its new ownership, then dig into threaded bottom brackets and why they're still not a cure-all for creaks.

How do you take a bike like the Tarmac SL6 and make it even better? In this special episode, pun intended, we sit down with the engineers behind the new Specialized Tarmac SL7 to talk optimization, aerodynamics, integration, and lots more. 

Thanks to Specialized for partnering with us on this episode, and for making the engineers behind the Tarmac available for whatever questions we wanted to ask.