The road.cc Podcast

<p>The official podcast of road.cc sponsored by Hammerhead, dedicated to looking at the things that impact real cyclists. Brought to you by road.cc, the UK's number one website for independent reviews, buying advice and cycling news. Covering road cycling​, gravel riding, cycle commuting, leisure riding, sportives and more!</p>

Episode 26: The things we hate about cycling + the joys of bikepacking

Send us a text We love cycling of course, and we hope you love it too... but nothing is absolutely perfect, so in this episode we're talking about the things we don't like about our favourite thing! Dodgy drivers, dodgy infrastructure, flies, sunburn, punctures and concept bikes all make an appearance, and I'm sure there's plenty you could add to the list. What's your least favourite thing about cycling? For our second segment, Simon chats to his fascinating friend and bikepacking afic...

05-26
49:56

Episode 20: Are time trial bikes safe to ride on open roads? Plus favourite spring Classics debate

Send us a text In the latest episode of the road.cc Podcast in association with MET, we’re talking TT bike safety. After Egan Bernal’s horror crash in training recently, Chris Froome suggested that time trial bikes should be banned in the pro peloton, because the extreme position means it’s difficult to keep your eyes on the road and what’s around you. So, if this were to happen, would it impact the popular TT scene in the UK? We thought there was no one better to ask than Michael Broadwith, ...

03-10
46:19

Episode 19: The angry backlash against NFTs in cycling, and how Bike Club NFT is trying to turn the tide

Send us a text A decentralised cycling club with members from all over the world, happily chatting away online about their shared love of all things bike… sounds great, right? Almost a little bit like what the original idea for road.cc was when we started out way back in 2008! It’s sort of what the founders of Bike Club NFT say they have started; however, if you add in the word ‘NFT’ and require members to buy in using the controversial cryptocurrency known as Ethereum, it turns out you risk ...

02-24
38:06

Episode 17: Chris Boardman, England's new Active Travel Commissioner on why the bicycle is the answer and it always has been

Send us a text We’ve jumped the gun on this episode of the road.cc podcast because, we’ll think you’ll agree, it’s very very timely… our special guest is none other than Chris Boardman! In a week where the Highway Code is changing to better reinforce the greater responsibility of motorists on our roads, the former Olympic Champion, business owner, MBE (insert more achievements here) has been named the interim commissioner of a new governmental body, Active Travel England, which has bee...

01-27
38:26

Episode 16 : CyclingMikey on the road.cc Podcast, plus making the most of your lunch hour

Send us a text It’s time to kick off the second season of the road.cc Podcast in association with Altura, and we're speaking to none other than the king of camera cyclists Mike van Erp, better known as CyclingMikey. How does one man with a busy day job have time to make all those submissions to the police, and how does he feel about being wrongly dubbed a 'vigilante'? Find out as Mike, Jack and Simon discuss all things cycling and road crime. Would you spend £165 on a bar bag? Mike Stead te...

01-20
42:15

Episode 1: Pilot, What Sadiq Khan's Re-election Means for Cyclists, Access for Cyclists, and The Speedplay Zero Pedals

Send us a text In the first episode of the the road.cc podcast we discuss keeping fit through cycling after you hit 40, how Sadiq Khan's re-election will impact cycling infrastructure, we take a look at the Speedplay Zero Pedals, and Dave Atkinson, Jack Sexty, and George Hill discuss access for cyclists during the pandemic.

06-15
32:30

“I’ve done some stupid things in my life, but this was beyond stupid!” Ultra-endurance cyclist Sofiane Sehili on breaking into Russia, 51 days in jail, and cycling’s most dramatic failed record attempt ever

Send us a text “This is crazy. It’s Russia, you don’t illegally enter Russian territory. You don’t do that!” says Sofiane Sehili. Except he did… And the ultra-endurance legend tells us all about it on this epic episode of the podcast. In September, Sehili was a day away from breaking the world record for the fastest Eurasia crossing by bike when he was refused entry to Russia at the country’s border with China. Undeterred, he forged on through a forest, through streams, and over barbed wire a...

11-13
01:31:38

“I lost sponsors after riding with Lance Armstrong – but it did us more good than bad”: Ex-footballer Geoff Thomas on 20 years of tackling the Tour de France route for charity, tears on the Galibier, and enjoying cycling more than ever

Send us a text 20 years ago, former England footballer, Crystal Palace captain, and cancer survivor Geoff Thomas first made his mark on the cycling world by completing all 21 stages and 3,593km of the 2005 Tour de France, a day before the Lance Armstrong-led peloton. Since then, Thomas’s Tour 21 has developed into a huge deal, and every year groups of amateurs follow in his wheel tracks and ride the Tour route one week before the pros, raising millions of pounds for Cure Leukaemia. And this s...

10-31
01:05:12

Top tips for recovering from the cycling yips: How to regain your confidence on the bike after a bad crash + Double Alpe d’Huez! Ventoux! 2026 Tour de France routes analysed… Are they boring?

Send us a text It may have been sorely lacking in recent years, but the 2026 edition of the Tour de France Hommes will be all about suspense. Or, as the race’s press release put it, it’s going to be a ‘crescendo’. Whether it’s one that could build to a great Alpine GC frenzy, or, if Tadej decides to clash the symbols sooner than anticipated, fade into a disappointing diminuendo, remains to be seen. On this week’s episode, we offer our immediate reactions to the Tour Hommes route revealed this...

10-23
32:55

“Is sport a force for good? Or for battering people into submission?” Former UCI president Brian Cookson on Israel, sportswashing, banning nation state sponsors, and why protests highlight bike race security failures

Send us a text Following Israel-Premier Tech’s decision to change both its name and nationality for 2026, in the wake of a season dominated by protests and controversy surrounding the team’s participation in races amid the conflict in Gaza, former UCI president Brian Cookson joins us on the podcast to discuss one of cycling’s biggest talking points in recent years: sportswashing. In a wide-ranging discussion, Cookson, who ran the UCI between 2013 and 2017 after 16 years at the helm of British...

10-10
01:35:27

“I told myself, just let Robert Millar go!” Pippa York and David Walsh on gender, following the Tour de France, and why pro cycling isn’t Disneyland

Send us a text Buckle up for a truly epic episode of the road.cc podcast! We're delighted to be joined by legendary cyclist Pippa York and arguably cycling's most well-known journalist, David Walsh, for episode 115. After York agreed to spend three weeks on the road with Walsh following the Tour de France back in 2020, the pair struck up an unlikely friendship, which culminated in a book about their adventures during that Tour, plus the 2021 and 2022 editions, published earlier this yea...

09-25
01:38:31

Is China ready to take over the cycling industry? We chat to Chinese bike brand Yoeleo about challenging the old guard, changing Western perceptions, building trust, and “pushing the limits”

Send us a text This week, we're exploring one of the big cycling tech stories of 2025: the rise of Chinese bike brands. And why they could, through better tech, research and design, and affordable prices, very quickly threaten the traditional western brands and transform the global cycling industry. To assess China’s new high-end bike brand dynasty, and dig deeper into the circumstances, tech, and methods underpinning it, we spoke to Yoeleo, one of those Chinese companies aiming to di...

08-28
01:16:34

“It would be a tragedy if we abandoned time trialling in Britain because of bad drivers”: Lawyers discuss duty of cycling clubs after rider seriously injured by motorist during time trial – and why cyclists should “expect better” from the police

Send us a text On the evening of Tuesday 23 May 2019, Ben Hetherington’s life changed forever. Ben, then 23-years-old and one of the most exciting young prospects in British cycling, was racing a local 10-mile time trial when he was struck by a motorist who turned right across the carriageway’s eastbound lanes after failing to give way. Ben suffered serious, life-threatening injuries in the crash, including a traumatic brain injury, and spent several weeks in an induced coma and three m...

08-14
58:59

How to build a Tour de France team from scratch: Tudor Pro Cycling’s CEO on reaching the biggest race in the world within three years and creating a squad that’s “here to stay” + Inside the mechanics’ truck at the Tour

Send us a text This episode of the podcast is in association with Schwalbe... How do you go about building a Tour de France team effectively from scratch? That’s the question I asked when I popped around to the rest day hotel of Julian Alaphilippe’s Tudor Pro Cycling squad, who are making their debuts at this year’s Tour. The Swiss team are relative newbies to the sport, only launching under the Tudor name in 2022, two years after classics legend and national hero Fabian Cancellara took over ...

07-26
01:20:05

Is Tadej Pogačar too good? We discuss the Tour de France leader’s Pyrenean dominance + Ben Healy on returning to “doing what I like” after two days in the yellow jersey

Send us a text Tadej Pogačar, already four stage wins to the good this year and chasing his fourth Tour de France title at the age of just 26, is busy cementing his status as one of cycling’s greatest ever riders, with yet another dominant, cannibal-esque performance at the sport’s biggest race. But is Pogačar’s relentless dominance hurting the race? And is he just too good? That’s the big debate featured on the latest episode of the road.cc Podcast, where Ryan is in the Pyrenees following th...

07-19
43:20

“When I quit, I was done with all the pressure and suffering. But I like cycling again”: Anna van der Breggen on her comeback and “feeling stupid” in the peloton + Pink jersey Anna Henderson, Pfeiffer Georgi, and Mia Griffin talk Giro d’Italia debuts

Send us a text It’s July, it’s hot, the men’s and women’s pelotons are both deep into grand tour season – and the road.cc Podcast is hitting the road and embracing all the stage racing madness, as part of a new mini-series we’re calling… errr, ‘road.cc on the road’. And kicking off this tentatively titled podcast series, I headed to northern Italy and the self-proclaimed cheese capital of Europe, Bergamo, for the start of the Giro d’Italia Women, one of the biggest, most prestigious wee...

07-11
34:24

Chris Boardman talks e-bikes, road safety, and why Reform UK has made cyclists “nervous” + Is Tadej Pogačar vs Jonas Vingegaard the greatest Tour de France rivalry in history? Bumper TDF preview

Send us a text Coppi versus Bartali. Anquetil versus Poulidor. LeMond versus Hinault. Armstrong versus Ullrich. Contador versus Schleck. Does Tadej Pogačar’s epic rivalry with Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France beat them all? That’s the question we try our best to answer during this week’s Tour de France-focused episode of the road.cc Podcast, as we rub our hands in glee at the prospect of Pogi v Jonas entering its fifth consecutive instalment, with the scores currently even at two-all. ...

07-03
53:17

“Get that bike back in the van!” Tour de France tech tales from the Dauphiné, Factor’s radical bike, and the backlash to new UCI rules + Does Cycle to Work still… work?

Send us a text For most of the pro cycling world, June is all about altitude camps, warm-up races, and fine-tuning that all-important preparation ahead of the big one: the Tour de France. But here at road.cc, it really means only one thing: our annual tech-spotting pilgrimage to the Critérium du Dauphiné! (Or whatever it’s going to be called next year…) And while all eyes were on Tadej Pogačar, road.cc’s editor Jack and news editor Dan were busy skulking around rural French car parks in searc...

06-20
01:14:18

Should brands stop claiming gravel bikes “can go anywhere”? Lawyer discusses £4.5m Planet X fork failure case, its implications for the cycling industry, and the need for transparent marketing + Is Simon Yates one of Britain’s greats after Giro win?

Send us a text On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Julian Chamberlayne, a partner at Stewart’s, the UK law firm who last month secured a £4.5m settlement case against Planet X’s insurers, after cyclist Dr Daniel Gordon was left paralysed in a crash caused by his gravel bike's carbon fork shearing in two on a grass slope. We discuss what went wrong to lead to such a horrendous crash, the case itself, and its potential implications for the cycling industry, where gravel bikes are frequently...

06-06
01:14:38

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