In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe and Tudor Pro Cycling stalwart Larry Warbasse discuss some of the more intriguing and controversial news stories of the last few weeks.
With most teams about to gather for their first pre-season training camps, some also face an uncertain future. The long-mooted Lotto-Intermarché merger still hasn’t been confirmed, raising questions about who will even be in the WorldTour in 2026. The UCI’s introduction of a promotion and relegation system was supposed to ensure that such matters were decided primarily on sporting merit. With the latest three-year cycle having just concluded, Daniel and Larry discuss whether the UCI needs to go back to the drawing board.
We also discuss what was formerly Israel Premier Tech’s new identity, Marcel Kittel’s eye-catching recent comments about doping and why exactly the pro peloton has got so much faster since Covid.
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The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.
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S13 Ep152: This Time for Africa
Oi you, loser! Or should that be winner? Yes on this month’s episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin, we discuss our picks for the winners and losers of the season. Our very own losers Rose Manley, Denny Gray and Rebecca Charlton pick out a few notable performances – both for good and bad reasons – from a season that threw up a number of surprises. We ask who faired best and worst from the big transfer shake up which saw many big name riders find new teams and responsibilities.
For our mini feature this month we look at the rise of African cycling in light of Team Amani’s announcement that they will become the first ever Africa-based Women’s Continental team. We hear about the challenges facing African riders from visa complications to community stigma and find out about Team Amani’s ambitions to make it to the Tour de France Femmes by 2028. Listen in to hear from team mentor Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, partnerships director Xylon Van Eyck and Team Amani star rider Xaverine Nirere who lit up the World Championships time trial in Rwanda this year.
We also take a look at next year’s Tour de France Femmes course which covers nine stages from Switzerland to Nice.
Also on the agenda: Anna Van der Breggen plays the piano, Denny embraces his inner beatnik poet and a wet ffff… firework.
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The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.
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S13 Ep151: Trapdoor - Inside the Astana Miracle
In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, we revisit one of the most intriguing storylines of the late summer and autumn in the first instalment of a new KM0 series - Trapdoor - examining the fight to avoid relegation from the WorldTour.
First up is Astana and their miraculous recovery from a dire position a year ago. Exactly how did the recruitment of a data scientist, new bikes, a bit of ‘Moneyball’ recruitment and a completely fresh approach to race planning revive a team that looked dead and buried twelve months ago? Maybe the key individual in the whole, miraculous process, the team’s Head of Performance, Vasilis Anastopoulos, reveals many if not all of the secrets in this interview with Daniel Friebe.
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The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.
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S13 Ep150: All White Now
In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, we digress from the usual diet of weekly news and analysis for a check-in with a familiar voice and regular guest over the years, Matt White, who in recent weeks has joined the Movistar’s team staff after over a decade in senior management at Jayco-AlUla.
White’s departure from the Australian trade team he had shaped for years was almost as much of a surprise as his professional ‘emigration’ to Spain, although he has lived close to Valencia for many years. In this episode, he explains the specific challenges facing Movistar to Daniel Friebe, while also meditating more broadly on the challenge for ‘mid-table’ teams of staying relevant in the Pogačar era.
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The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.
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S13 Ep149: An end-of-season ramble
With the 2025 road racing season now firmly in the rear view mirror, join Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie for a freewheeling ramble through some of the big stories that have hit the headlines in the past couple of weeks.
We start by discussing the fragile nature of survival at World Tour level with the news that the Australian team Jayco-Alula came within days of possibly folding, and the delays to confirmation that two Belgian teams, Lotto and Intermarché, intend to become one. Where does that leave the riders, especially Intermarché's biggest star Biniam Girmay?
Then we indulge in a bit of off-season speculation and wonder what Tadej Pogačar's 2026 season might look like, particularly with a number of race organisers making changes seemingly to entice the SlovAlien to ride. The Vuelta a España starting in his adopted home town of Monaco is not a particularly subtle overture and it seem an appealing prospect but, as we discuss, the picture is more complicated than that.
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Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episodes every month plus a back catalogue of more than 300 exclusive episodes.
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The Cycling Podcast is on Strava
The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.
The Cycling Podcast takes listeners to the heart of professional cycling with weekly episodes and daily coverage of the Grand Tours.
Join journalists Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie – and a few special guests along the way – as they podcast about the latest cycling news and the world of professional cycling.
Founded by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie in 2013, The Cycling Podcast is one of the longest-running independent sports podcasts.
To support The Cycling Podcast, subscribe as a Friend of the Podcast to join our community, listen to special episodes released throughout the year and access our archive stretching back to 2015. Subscribe at thecyclingpodcast.com
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