Cycling Legends Podcast

Shoves, apologies and a European title decided by the jury: we unpack a fiery week in cyclo-cross, assess the men’s and women’s 2027 Giro routes, and ask who benefits from women’s cycling’s growing wealth. Plus, forty years since Hinault’s farewell, has French cycling ever really moved on - or is Paul Seixas just expected to fix everything?

📸 The Badger bows out. Bernard Hinault takes flight at his farewell cyclo-cross in Quessoy, Brittany, on 9 November 1986. Five Tours, ten Grand Tours, a Rainbow Jersey - and one last hurdle before retirement (Miroir du Cyclisme archives).

Recommendations and shameless plugs
The Cycling Legends illustrated book series - buy all 4 and save £20! - https://tinyurl.com/32vc2zsx
Service95 Book Club with Dua Lipa - https://open.spotify.com/show/1z61Li48Jxcr8HldbxXqmP?si=igaaAdm2QzCNAuu78-1Ubw&utm_source=copy-link
Greta Van Fleet “Palace for the People’ - https://gretavanfleet.lnk.to/palaceforthepeople

Get in touch
Drop us a line at cyclinglegendspodcast@gmail.com! We’d love to hear from you.

Social media
Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos
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A Tour route to tempt Remco, with a brutal sting in the Pyrenees, and a women’s race spending a third of its nine days in Britain: bold ambition or a squeeze too far? We discuss troubling culture reports at Picnic PostNL and British Cycling, ask whether cycling’s contract exits are about money, opportunity or both, and let fly in our new feature, Can We Say? Plus, Chris remembers British cycling pioneer Vin Denson.

📸 Vin Denson’s passing on 14 October, aged 90, means we said goodbye to the last of British cycling’s great pioneering generation. Along with Brian Robinson, Tom Simpson and Barry Hoban, Vin helped pave the way for generations of British professionals on the continent. On 26 May 1966, however, Vin himself made British cycling history in Campobasso, winning stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia and becoming the first British rider to win a stage of La Corsa Rosa. In a pro career that ran from 1961 to 1969, he won the 1965 Tour of Luxembourg and rode six Tours de France, while serving champions Jacques Anquetil and Rik Van Looy as well as riding with both Tom and Barry. (Cycling Legends collection)

Recommendations and shameless plugs
The Cycling Legends illustrated book series - buy all 4 and save £20! - https://tinyurl.com/32vc2zsx
Harry Talbot - 2026 Photo Book https://visualsofharryshop.com/

Get in touch
Drop us a line at cyclinglegendspodcast@gmail.com! We’d love to hear from you.

Social media
Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos
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X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web
https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk
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Il Lombardia, rider protests and a peloton running out of patience. This week, Gary, David and Chris ask what the CPA can actually do about race safety, why Britain keeps skipping the European road championships, and whether American cycling is properly back. Plus, Tom Simpson, Barry Hoban and the forgotten prestige of Paris–Tours.

📸 At Paris-Tours in 1967, Barry Hoban (L) had Rik Van Looy’s wheel - but the Belgian’s guile turned the tables. Van Looy stopped pedalling, daring Barry to chase the riders ahead. Barry blinked first, taking him back to the front, then made the mistake that decided the sprint:
“Then I waited,” he wrote in his autobiography, Vas-y-Barry. “I waited for Rik Van Looy to jump, and that was fatal.
“I came back at Van Looy all the way up the finishing straight. Then we flashed over the line and I was still half a wheel short. Fifteen metres more and I might have got him.
“I never sprinted like that again, never left it late – never let anyone take the initiative.”
A painful second place - and a lesson that changed how Barry sprinted forever. From Vas-y Barry, published by Cycling Legends. (Cycling Legends Collection)

Recommendations and shameless plugs
”Martyr!” - Kaveh Akbar - https://amzn.eu/d/0iJgpQSi

Get in touch
Drop us a line at cyclinglegendspodcast@gmail.com! We’d love to hear from you.

Social media
Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?
X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web
https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk
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Joël Kyaviro has already made history as the first Congolese rider to win a UCI race at this season’s Tour of Cameroon. His story, though, is about much more than results.

Journalist Bill Donahue followed Joël’s journey for Now Voyager magazine and Gary caught up with Bill and Joël to hear more about a story of talent, ambition, conflict, visas, money, opportunity and just how hard it can be simply to get to the start line.

🎵 A Month of Sleep, courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

📸 Joël at the Tour of Cameroon, June 2026. By kind permission of Oliver Farys - https://www.oliverfarys.de https://www.instagram.com/oliverfarys

Links

Revolutions by Bill Donahue https://nowvoyagermag.com/reporting/revolutions
Tumaini Cycling Academy https://tumainicyclingacademy.com/
Tumaini Cycling Academy crowdfunder https://givebutter.com/tumaini-academy

You can follow Joël at:
https://www.instagram.com/joel_kyaviro

You can follow Bill at:
https://billdonahue.net
https://www.facebook.com/bill.donahue.18
https://www.instagram.com/billdonahue13/

Get in touch
Drop us a line at cyclinglegendspodcast@gmail.com! We’d love to hear from you.

Social media
Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?
X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web
https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

World Championships, breakthrough performances and big questions for the future of the sport. We look beyond the rainbow jerseys to the riders shaping what comes next, ask whether American cycling has finally turned young talent into elite success, briefly look at the UCI’s plans to rethink professional road racing, and discuss Rapha’s latest troubles. Plus, after Fin Tarling, has cycling really learned enough about safety?

📸 Alfredo Binda won the inaugural UCI Road World Championships in 1927, but it would be another 31 years before women were given the same opportunity. Luxembourger Elsy Jacobs won the first women’s title in Reims in 1958. Nearly seven decades later, women’s cycling looks very different — but the rainbow jersey remains the ultimate prize. (Harry Pot/Dutch National Archives Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands license)

Recommendations and shameless plugs
Paul Letchworth (artist) - https://pletchworth.com/work
The Kelly Adventures - Alison Putman - https://alison-putman.com/books

Get in touch
Drop us a line at cyclinglegendspodcast@gmail.com! We’d love to hear from you.

Social media
Cycling Legends - The untold story, the unseen photos
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cyclinglegendsmedia?igsh=MW9ldTNhemF6aWVlcA==
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CyclingLegendsMedia?
X/Twitter @cyclinglegends1

Web
https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.