Matt Stephens and Ethan Vernon chat about his hugely successful first season as a World Tour pro. He got off to a great start on his first training ride with Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, beating Fabio Jakobsen in a town sign sprint. Following a fairly memorable team initiation task, he went on to win a couple of stages at the Tour of Slovakia, and another at Volta Catalunya too. Of course, none of this should come as a surprise given his pedigree on the track - he’s currently a Team Pursuit World Champion for Team GB. With an in-depth chat about adaptive training and sprinting techniques, along with the usual fun on the hometown quiz, this episode has something for everyone.

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Matt Stephens and Ashton Lambie reflect on his incredible Individual Pursuit World Record, as the first person ever to ride the 4km discipline in under four minutes. He’s also a decorated gravel racer and loves nothing more than heading off on multi-day adventures on his gravel bike. On the same day that he became World IP Champion, his wife Christina was accepted to NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Class. Ashton discusses the influence that training for short and long distances has on the two disciplines he excels at, and how having his fellow track racing partner Christina in his corner, helps him achieve his goals.

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Recorded in the Green Room at Rouleur Live 2022, Matt Stephens enjoys a freeflowing chat with a range of guests from the top table of professional cycling. Tom Pidcock enjoys mixing it with the ‘Big Dogs’, Lizzy Banks discusses the merits Corduroy, Taylor Phinney and Adam Blythe rate one another’s teeth, and Nathan Haas explains the difficulty in finding the Green Room on behalf of the colourblind community.

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In a cosy live setting on the island of Ibiza, Matt Stephens hosts a chat between some of the most successful riders of all time, and Adam Blythe. Mark Cavendish reflects on his career, and what annoys him about the record he shares with Eddy Merckx, Óscar Freire has a controversial opinion of his friends in the peloton, and Johan Museeuw flies the Belgian flag with all his might. With thanks to LeBlanq, ‘Tales of the Rainbow Jersey’ was part of their Ibiza Joyride package, recorded in front of a live audience.  

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Matt Stephens chats to Thymen Arensman about the incredible impact of his first two seasons as a World Tour pro, and where he sees his career going with the Ineos Grenadiers in 2023. The powerful dutchman is perhaps a surprisingly capable climber, and his victory for Team DSM at the Queen stage of the 2022 Vuelta marked him out as a potential future Grand Tour winner. But he’s not letting it get to his head, as he explains to Matt he’s happy to try his best and see where he ends up. For a man who loves history, he’s got the potential for a very bright future.

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Matt Stephens and Super-domestique George Hincapie chat about the highs and lows of his incredible career where he helped deliver Tour de France victories to three different teammates. However, it wasn’t all done cleanly, and George admitted to doping during a portion of his career which meant his Palmares in Lance Armstrong’s era of dominance were stricken from the record. George helped bring about positive change and is considered by many to be the best teammate of all time, including Mark Cavendish who shared a touching voice note that leaves George shaking.

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Matt Stephens and Lizzy Banks discuss how the landscape of women’s pro cycling has changed for the better in the past five years. It hasn’t been all plain sailing for Lizzy however, who has been plagued by a serious case of concussion and more recently, pericarditis caused by a Covid infection continues to keep her off her bike. Having studied medicine before pursuing her career in the pro peloton, the Team EF Education–Tibco–SVB rider is well placed to impart wisdom on how to recover from concussion and has the grit to focus on her heart’s recovery by wild swimming and sharing her knowledge of the sport she loves on The Cycling Podcast and GCN Eurosport.

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In this special episode to mark World Mental Health Day on October 10th, Matt Stephens chats with two guests to discuss the relationship between cycling and their mental health. Pete Kennaugh is an Olympic gold medalist and enjoyed a successful career racing for Team Sky and Bora–Hansgrohe, who retired to gain better control over his difficult mental health condition. Lee Stephenson was a member of the armed police force in the UK, who suffered immensely in the aftermath of a particularly traumatic incident. Lee discusses the positive influence of cycling in his recovery and ongoing management of complex PTSD.

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Matt Stephens and Alex Dowsett enjoy catching up in the neutral zone of this podcast, before getting down to brass tacks. With his incredible pro cycling career coming to an end with Israel Premier Tech, Alex reflects on how the time felt right to move on to the next chapter with lots of exciting media and business ventures to look forward to. With some great advice on how to use a power meter to best effect, and a deep-dive analysis of how he could outperform his teammates on time trials while pushing fewer watts, Alex is a firm believer in racing with your head, not your legs.

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Matt Stephens learns how Alex Richardson went from brokering deals in the City of London to striking deals in the pro peloton. With a fascinating story of how Stage 3 of the Tour of Britain unfolded, Alex feels that putting too much trust in his fellow riders’ word perhaps cost him the race. The story of how an obsession with cycling took over his life leaves no wonder how he made it from laps of Richmond Park, all the way to the pro peloton. 

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