But what of the Ineos Grenadiers? Knocked from their perch having dominated the Tour during the 2010s, the British team is resurgent. They may not have a rider to compare with the four main favourites, but can Jim Ratcliffe’s riders be the disruptors at this year’s Tour de France?

We speak to Ineos team manager Steve Cummings, who highlights the untapped potential of young Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez, the ever-improving form of 2019 Tour champion Egan Bernal, who's getting back to his best following his life-threatening crash in 2022, and of the all-round strength within the British team, whose Tour line-up is set to provide an interesting combination of youth and experience.

Plus, just a fortnight or so back, it was looking hightly unlikely that Jonas Vingegaard would defend his Tour de France title. However, having returned to training at home in Denmark and then in the hills of Majorca, the Visma | Lease A Bike leader has joined his teammates at an altitude training camp in the French ski resort of Tignes this week.

With Vingegaard ever more likely to be on the Tour start line in Florence on 29 June, we speak to his coach Tim Heemskerk, who tells us that the Dane's training is being assessed and tweaked on a day by day basis with the aim of getting him into the right condition to be able to compete with his rivals at the at the Tour. "But," says Heemskerk, "we're respecting his recovery of course, we're not forcing anything..."

Earlier this week, RadioCycling's Chris Marshall-Bell travelled to Switzerland to visit the headquarters of the UCI and the International Testing Agency (ITA) that now oversees anti-doping in cycling. Having spoken at length to UCI president David Lappartient, the ITA's recently-appointed investigative chief Nick Raudenski and Olivier Banuls, head of the ITA's cycling unit, Chris reveals their take on technical fraud and particularly motor doping, their fears about athletes microdosing banned products, and changes to the ADAMS whereabouts system.

Also, in "Ways to Make Cycling Better" we hear from Lidl-Trek star Mads Pedersen, who has an intriguing suggestion for increasing connection with fans.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle. For details on all of Skedaddle's holidays, go to www.skedaddle.com

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Marion - High Hopes

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In the wake of Pogačar's six stage wins that carried him to the largest winning margin at the Giro for six decades, we reflect on the UAE Team Emirates leader's radical change of Grand Tour fortunes and look ahead to how his first GT win since 2021 has changed the racing landscape just five weeks before the Tour de France gets under way in Florence.

We reveal Pogačar's plans for his Tour preparation, which include a week kicking back at home in Monaco, and assess whether he could pull off the greatest racing season in the sport's history.

Our Giro coverage also features a lengthy final diary from Grand Tour debutant Harrison Wood. The Cofidis rider reveals the good and the bad of his race and wonders why UAE Team Emirates made things so difficult for everyone on the final "parade" stage into Rome.

After Lorena Wiebes and her SD Worx time put on a Pogačar-like show of dominance to sweep the three stages and the overall crown at the Ride London Classique, race director Scott Sunderland tells us why the British event is going from strength to strength and about bigger plans for the future.

We also have a lengthy interview with Human Powered Health's Audrey Cordon-Ragot. The highly experienced French racer reflects on the increasing flow of cash in the women's peloton, but argues that more of that money needs to find its way to the riders who aren't star names and are nearer the foot of the racing pyramid.

Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond provides this episode's "Way to Make Cycling Better", the American offering his suggestion for a league-like system that would make the sport easier for all comers to understand.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle. For details on how to save £100 on all of Skedaddle's Italian holidays during the Giro d'Italia, go to www.skedaddle.com/radiocycling

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Marion - High Hopes

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After months of uncertainty, British Cycling have the money, the title partner and the race director: now they also have the races. Incredibly, the Tours of Britain have been saved, thanks to a five-year sponsorship deal with Lloyds Bank that is believed to be in the region of £20 million.

We hear from British Cycling CEO Jon Dutton as he tells the media about the "landmark deal" that will see Lloyds Bank immediately become the title partner of the Tour of Britain events, as well as what BC are calling its "major events vision". We also reveal that former organisers Sweetspot were close to securing a deal of their own with Lloyds last year before they were forced into liquidation.

On the back of this thrilling news for British cycling as a whole, we also look ahead to three days of great racing at the Ride London Classique. The event has attracted many of the biggest names in the women's peloton including Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes and Lizzi Deignan, as well as Zoe Bäckstedt, who's fresh from her second place in the Antwerp Port Epic.

In an exclusive interview, the 19-year-old Canyon-SRAM rider reflects on her highlights of the season so far, the excitement she feels at the prospect of racing in front of home fans at Ride London, and the possibility of selection for this summer's Paris Olympics.

Sam Bennett is another rider hoping that he gets the chance to shine in France this summer, in his case at the Tour de France, which he's not appeared in since winning the green jersey in 2020.

Buoyed by five victories at last week's Four Days of Dunkirk, the Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale sprinter looks back on that success, reveals the race he's chosen as prep for the Tour, and talks up his chances of being selected for his currently all-conquering French team.

In our "How to Make Cycling Better" feature, we hear from EF Education-EasyPost team manager Charly Wegelius, who outlines a way in which he believes racing could not only be safer for the riders, but also attract bigger audiences.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle. For details on how to save £100 on all of Skedaddle's Italian holidays during the Giro d'Italia, go to www.skedaddle.com/radiocycling

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Marion - High Hopes

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We’re only 15 days into the 2024 Giro d’Italia, and already Tadej Pogačar has the race in his pocket. He leads second-placed Geraint Thomas by almost seven minutes. Before the Giro began, he had already won Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Volta a Catalunya. Soon he will be turning his sights to the Tour de France. Is he going to win every race he turns up to this season?

In order to get perspective and context on his achievements, shortly after the Slovenian’s Grand Tour masterclass on stage 15 to Livigno we caught up with Greg LeMond, a three-time winner of the Tour de France, who finished third on his Giro debut in 1985. The American tells us why he already puts Pogačar in the same class as Eddy Merckx, why he expects him to better and faster at the Tour de France, and why he loves to watch him race.

Going into the Giro, Antonio Tiberi was renowned primarily for his disgraceful shooting of a cat. Over the race's opening fortnight, he's shown a very different side of himself, holding the pace of the GC favourites as he's taken a firm grip on the white jersey of best young rider. To get an insight into Italian cycling's new GC hope we hear from Tuttobici journalist Carlo Malvestio, who tells us that the rider dubbed "The Sniper" by some of his peers still has some way to go to redeem himself, but is winning the tifosi over with his performances on the road.

The Giro sprints have dominated by one man, Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan, a towering presence who can produce equally towering power outputs when he gets a finish line in his sights. Milan's team director Gregory Rast tells us why the Italian phenomenon is already one of the leading sprinters in the sport and that he's only going to get better.

Sticking with the sprinters, we focus too on Fabio Jakobsen. Last winter, the Dutchman moved from Soudal QuickStep to dsm-firmenich-PostNL on a three-year deal tasked with scoring enough wins to keep his team in the WorldTour. However, in 39 race days Jakobsen has only won once and has been forced to quit the Giro after crashing. Team director Matt Winston tells us why Jakobsen has struggled and why he will come good.

Finally, we hear from Cofidis climber Harrison Wood. In his Giro diary, the young Briton talks about his time in the break on the epic stage over the Mortirolo and into Livigno, about helping Simon Geschke pick up points for the mountains jersey, and reveals the awfulness of the last 1.5km of that stage on a super-steep dirt road.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle. For details on how to save £100 on all of Skedaddle's Italian holidays during the Giro d'Italia, go to www.skedaddle.com/radiocycling

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Marion - High Hopes

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Road racing’s not just about the biggest races, the biggest names and the biggest teams. While the Giro d’Italia continues and hogs most of the headlines, there's plenty of quality racing going on elsewhere, just with a lesser profile and often less funding too. This leads us to the question: why can’t Britain’s most talented young team get a bike brand on board?

That team is Shibden HopeTech Apex, and we hear from its manager, Tim Ferguson. He tells us about their astonishing run of success through the first half of this season, about the WorldTour teams interested in signing half a dozen or more of his riders, and reveals that they're achieving world-beating results on a budget that would barely cover the cost of one fully-fitted WorldTour racing bike. Despite this financial poverty, Ferguson also asserts that he's determined for his team to press on and keep producing talent, hoping that more support will come in future.

We also hear from Cat Ferguson, Tim's daughter and the outstanding talent on that Shibden team. Signed to a multi-year deal with Movistar from 1 August, the 18-year-old British sensation reflects on a season where her worst position has been second, on the crop of British juniors who look set to make waves on the Women's WorldTour in the years ahead, on her determination to win an elusive rainbow jersey before she leaves the junior ranks, and of her gratitude for the women who have paved the way to better and sustainable careers at the top level.

Out with the brown shorts and in with victories – that's been the story of Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale's season so far. After nine wins in 2023, the French team already have 16 this year. We turned to their experienced road captain Larry Warbasse to get an insight into the reasons behind this change in fortunes. The American explains how Decathlon's arrival provided new motivation and focus, as well as extremely fast new bikes that have helped boost the riders' speed and confidence levels.

Our Giro diary comes from Groupama-FDJ's Lewis Askey, who is full of praise for the organisers of the corsa rosa, reveals that Clarkson's Farm is getting his roommate Laurence Pithie sleeping like a baby in the evenings, and explains why he's confident in his own and his team's chances of his success before the race reaches Rome.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle. For details on how to save £100 on all of Skedaddle's Italian holidays during the Giro d'Italia, go to www.skedaddle.com/radiocycling

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Marion - High Hopes

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Tadej Pogačar has a convincing lead in the Giro d’Italia as the race pauses for the first rest day. With nine stages completed he's already won three stages and could easily have bagged five. Imperious on every terrain, he's even turned his hand to providing a devastatingly strong lead-out for his UAE team's sprinter, Juan Sebastián Molano. He's racing for fun and for victory. So, we ask, can anything stop him from cantering away with the maglia rosa as the race nears its Roman finale?

In order to answer that question, we speak to the directors on the two teams that have pressed Pogačar hardest over the Giro's opening nine days. We hear first from Bora-Hansgrohe DS John Wakefield, who's full of praise for Bora leader Dani Martínez, and tells us "if the opportunity presents, we'll definitely go for it".

The Ineos Grenadiers have signalled their determination to be aggressive since the opening day, when their Ecuadorian champion Jhonatan Narváez outsprinted Pogačar to become this Giro's first leader. After Narváez went oh so close to a second win in Naples, we spoke to Ineos team manager Steve Cummings, who explains why his team have been "excellent" since the race started and why cycling's history suggests that there's still a chance of Ineos leader Geraint Thomas taking the title.

After Lewis Askey last time out, it's the turn of Harrison Wood to update us on his Giro progress. The Cofidis rider reflects on the stage victory taken by teammate Benjamin Thomas, the awful state of the Neapolitan roads, and how he's quickly learning how to save his personal "bullets" for exactly the right moment to fire them.

We also reflect on the decision to select Richard Virenque as a torchbearer for the Olympic flame, which has arrived on French soil and is now being zig-zagging its way northwards from Marseille to Paris. A doper who consistently lied about his actions until the evidence of his cheating was overwhelming, does Virenque really embody the values of the Olympic Games?

Last time out in our regular "How to Make Cycling Better" feature, Soudal QuickStep sprinter Luke Lamperti suggested getting rid of time trials in stage races. Now we hear from his former team boss at the Trinity Racing team, Pete Kennaugh, who explains why he'd do away with "cognitive gains".

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle. For details on how to save £100 on all of Skedaddle's Italian holidays during the Giro d'Italia, go to www.skedaddle.com/radiocycling

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Marion - High Hopes

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Defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard is talking up his chances of being at the Grand Départ of this year’s race in Florence on 29 June after the crash at Itzulia Basque Country that left him with serious injuries and complicated his Tour preparations hugely. But will he make it? And if he does, will he be in good enough shape to challenge for the yellow jersey yet again?

At the end of a week in which Vingegaard made his first outdoor foray on two wheels since that horrific crash, we hear from Frederik Gernigon, a journalist for the Danish newspaper BT Sport, who has been closely following the Visma | Lease a Bike leader's progress. Gernigon outlines Vingegaard's likely programme going into the Tour, the shocked reaction to his crash in Denmark, and the likelihood of the Dane defending his title.

We also speak to Israel-PremierTech coach Liam Holohan, who outlines the processes that comes into play when riders suffer serious injuries and are then guided back to the elite competitive level. Holohan explains why riders tend to push too hard too fast in these situations and how the backroom staff on pro teams ensure that riders recover fitness and form at a rate that doesn't affect their short- or long-term health.

Going into a big weekend of racing at the Giro d'Italia, we analyse who are likely to be the most satisfied campaigners come the first rest day at the start of next week – it'll be no surprise at all that we're all tipping Tadej Pogačar to have a very happy Monday. Plus, we hear from our diarist Lewis Askey, who talks through his first week at the Giro, admitting that he's learned an awful lot in seven days, and not only from his evening viewing of Clarkson's Farm with roommate Laurence Pithie.

While the Giro peloton were battling through the dust on Tuscany’s white roads, a few hundred kilometres away, at the Tour of Hungary, Mark Cavendish clinched his second victory of the season. In the wake of that timely success, we caught up with his coach and Astana team director Vasilis Anastopoulos, who reveals the Manx sprinter's recent struggles, details Cavendish's intense training and racing programme going into the Tour de France which includes a start at the Tour de Suisse, and explains why the British sprinter's Hungarian success is a boost for the whole Astana team.

In our regular "How to Make Cycling Better" feature, Soudal QuickStep sprinter Luke Lamperti proposes a radical way to make the action even more aggressive in stage races, a suggestion that will raise the hackles of fans of one particular racing discipline...

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle. For details on how to save £100 on all of Skedaddle's Italian holidays during the Giro d'Italia, go to www.skedaddle.com/radiocycling

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Marion - High Hopes

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Just three days into the Giro d’Italia and, after Tadej Pogacar’s sterling work over the opening weekend, it’s already a done deal, isn't it?  

No, of course it isn’t. Yes, the Slovenian has the pink jersey and has made a great start, but there's still plenty of racing to come and work to be done, according to Stephen Roche, who knows better than almost anyone what it takes to win the Giro-Tour double.

Although he recognises that Pogačar is a class apart as a racer, Ireland's 1987 Triple Crown winner explains why chasing victories and time gains every day could soon lead to some serious strategic problems for the Giro leader, both within his own team and amongst the rest of the peloton.

Also from the Giro, we hear from British debutant Harrison Wood, with the Cofidis rider offering his perspective on his first weekend of Grand Tour racing.

Meanwhile, over in France, safety is once again the focus of attention after a horror crash during the Ronde de l'Isard under-23 stage race in the Pyrenees that resulted in one of Australia's brightest prospects being hospitalised.

Our reporter at the event caught up with Trinity Racing's team director Pete Kennaugh to get his perspective on the incident and why the sport needs more volunteers to reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences in the future.

We also report from the race on the latest crop of upcoming talents who are likely to be breaking into the elite ranks in the coming seasons, including a cohort from Visma | Lease a Bike and an extremely promising 18-year-old Belgian.

Global Peloton's Dan Challis joins us as a guest presenter and he tells us about China's growing enthusiasm for road racing, spearheaded by the China Glory team. Dan talks to the team's French team director Lionel Marie, who reveals the team is looking to move up from the continental ranks, with the WorldTour a long-term goal.

In our regular "How to Make Cycling Better" slot, Bahrain Victorious's Pello Bilbao proposes a quick fix solution for the UCI points system – simply do away with it!

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle.

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Marion - High Hopes

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With the Giro d'Italia starting in Turin on Saturday, we turn most of our new episode over to a preview of the corsa rosa and ask the question: can Geraint Thomas — or in fact anyone — outfox the flying Tadej Pogačar? 

We start with an extended interview with Geraint Thomas, beaten on the final weekend last year by Primož Roglič, who took the title by just 14 seconds. While acknowledging that Roglič's fellow Slovenian Pogačar is a class above his GC rivals for the maglia rosa, 2018 Tour de France winner Thomas tells us why he's backing himself to produce another sustained run for the Giro title and why he believes that he and his super strong Ineos Grenadiers team can be optimistic about their prospects.

We also hear from another of Pogačar's likely rivals for the title, Ben O'Connor. The Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider is targeting his first ever Grand Tour podium, and his spring form suggests it’s more than possible. The Australian says he's relishing the chance to show what he can do on Italy's roads and that he's hoping to be celebrating a podium finish in Rome in three weeks' time.

During the Giro, we'll have diary contributions from young Brits Lewis Askey and Harrison Wood, who are both making their debut in the race. Groupama-FDJ's Askey tells us that his primary job will be to help set up Kiwi teammate Laurence Pithie in the bunch sprints and that he'll be kicking back in the evenings with a dose of Jeremy Clarkson. Cofidis's Wood, meanwhile, is hoping that his pre-race reading of Roy Keane's autobiography will inspire him to knock over some big names in the hills and mountains.

We also look at what promises to be a scintillating contest among the Giro sprinters, where the depth of talent looks as strong or perhaps stronger than it's likely to be at the Tour de France in July. There's Milan and Merlier, Ewan and Groves, Kooij and Jakobsen, to name just half a dozen of the fastmen who'll be aiming to amass stage wins and the ciclamino points jersey.

As the first women's Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta Femenina, got under way in Spain earlier this week, our newshound Chris Marshall-Bell took the opportunity to get the latest on defending Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion Demi Vollering's end of season exit from SD Worx and rumoured arrival at FDj-Suez for a cool one million euros a season. FDJ boss Stephen Delcourt and SD Worx manager Danny Stam offer their take on the Vollering transfer, which is sure to be biggest ever seen on the women's side of the sport.

In our regular 'How to Make Cycling Better' feature, Visma | Lease a Bike's Vuelta a España champion Sepp Kuss explains how course design could be improved to make racing more exciting.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle.

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Marion - High Hopes

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The spring Classics are over and the Grand Tours are looming, starting with the Vuelta Femenina, which kicks off this weekend. But before we get into the Vuelta Femenina and ask if Demi Vollering can win for the first time this season, there’s another huge women’s story in town: that of world champion Lotte Kopecky deciding to bypass the Tour de France Femmes in August — something which would have been unthinkable even a year ago — in favour of the Paris Olympic Games.

We examine the reasons behind the world number one's decision to miss the biggest race of the season in order to target gold in three events at the Paris Olympic. We hear from her French rival Audrey Cordon-Ragot, who explains why she isn't surprised to hear the news about Kopecky's change of focus.

This leads us on to a wider issue... With reigning Tour de France Femmes champion Demi Vollering reportedly set to move from SD Worx to FDJ Suez next season on a salary rumoured to be around one million euros, we ask whether this growth rate of women’s cycling is sustainable? Is it going to create an even bigger divide between the rich and poor in the women’s peloton?

Next up is a preview of the week-long Vuelta Femenina, where Vollering will be chasing an elusive first win of the season. Movistar team director Tim Harris tells us what he's expecting from the season's first Grand Tour and also reveals his hopes for his own team, which will feature Movistar leader Liane Lippert for the first time this season after her recovery from a December leg break.

Staying with the women's elite, we speak to Britain's Lizzie Deignan, another rider who's on the way back after breaking a bone, in her case an arm in a crash at the Tour of Flanders. The Lidl-Trek rider also has her focus on the Olympics, where she hopes to better the silver medal she won at London 2012. She outlines her programme leading into Paris, talks about her confidence in her ability to get into the form she needs, and about Britain's emerging strength as a road race power, which could benefit her this summer.

In our 'How to Make Cycling Better' feature, we hand the microphone to French veteran stage racer and recent Liège-Bastogne-Liège runner-up Romain Bardet, who offers an intriguing proposal that he believes would help to reduce the control of the major teams on racing, making the sport more unpredictable and exciting.

And, finally, was there ever a time when French financial services company Cofidis was not sponsoring a bike team? Once again, the team’s contract has just been renewed, ensuring that there will be a Cofidis jersey in the peloton until at least 2028.

So what’s the secret of their staying power? We ask French journalist Pierre Carrey, the cycling correspondent Swiss paper Le Temps, about the French team and whether there's anything to those widespread rumours linking them with French star Julian Alaphilippe, whose contract is up at the end of this season.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of our sponsor, Saddle Skedaddle.

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Marion - High Hopes

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