Cyclist Magazine Podcast

This week, Robyn and Will are joined by one of British Cycling’s most decorated track riders, Victoria Pendleton. Over a career that spanned more than a decade, Victoria won two Olympic gold medals and one silver, nine World Championships, two European Championships and the Commonwealth Games, although arguably her biggest contribution to cycling was her legacy. Along with Team GB alumni such as Laura Kenny, Joanna Rowsell, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy, Victoria helped inspire a generation of young riders and helped put British cyclists on the map, and propelled cycling as a sport into the British mainstream.

However, Victoria’s relationship with cycling hasn’t always been a happy one. She retired after the 2012 Olympics stating she’d achieved everything she set out to do on a bike, only later to reveal that she found the British Cycling programme increasingly difficult to be a part of, and latterly coming out in support of former teammate Jessica Varnish's allegations about the BC culture, which in part led to the resignation of coach Shane Sutton amid wider allegations of sexism and discrimination.

In 2015, Victoria switched a bike for a horse, and by 2016 she had completed ‘probably the greatest achievement of my life’ when she finished fifth in the Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham. Occasional sports commentary and multiple TV show appearances have kept her busy since, and earlier this year she released her psychology book,The Fear Opportunity, which draws on her experiences as both an athlete and in day-to-day life. In this episode, Victoria discusses her own fear of failure and change, the impact of the media and external noise, women’s progress in sport and the psychology of mental resilience.

Chat begins at 6.44

Check out Victoria's new book, The Fear Opportunity (Pan Macmillan) here

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This episode is brought to you by the Maserati Grecale SUV car. For more information, go to maserati.com

...and the Green Commute Initiative, the leading provider of the Government's Cycle to Work Scheme, which can help you save up to 47% off the cost of a new bike. See greencommuteinitiative.uk for more details

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Did you know Cyclist is also stunning monthly print magazine?
Subscribe now at store.cyclist.co.uk/cycpod and get every issue for less than in the shops, delivered straight to your door
We're also a really lovely website about everything road cycling and gravel. Check us out at cyclist.co.uk
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Robyn and Will are joined by Ned Boulting, a man who needs no introduction but hey, here's one anyway: Ned broadcasts, commentates, pundits, orates, performs and writes about all things cycling. This year is Ned's first away from the ITV commentary box at the Tour de France (RIP), and instead he's taking his passion for two wheels on the road with his podcast For The Love Of Cycling, where this summer he's joined by friends and former pros David Millar, Pete Kennaugh and Lizzie Deignan as he follows the Tour around France, analysing the stages and telling the stories of the greatest cycling race on earth.

In this episode, Ned talks us through the most important and set-to-be pivotal stages at this year’s Tour, the riders to watch out for and the inevitable battle for third place, while Robyn introduces Ned to her self-styled ‘Vibes Classification’, which will is surely set to get a UCI points system and jersey all of its own.

Chat begins at 3.30

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This episode is brought to you by the Hammerhead Karoo GPS bike computer. Visit hammerhead.io and use the code CYCLIST to get a free HR strap with every purchase (just be sure to add the strap to your cart then apply the code at checkout)

This episode is also brought to you by the Maserati Grecale SUV car. For more information, go to maserati.com

...and the Green Commute Initiative, the leading provider of the Government's Cycle to Work Scheme, which can help you save up to 47% off the cost of a new bike. See greencommuteinitiative.uk for more details

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Did you know Cyclist is also stunning monthly print magazine?
Subscribe now at store.cyclist.co.uk/cycpod and get every issue for less than in the shops, delivered straight to your door
We're also a really lovely website about everything road cycling and gravel. Check us out at cyclist.co.uk, plus over the next few months we're running our very own Cyclist Track Days and Cycling Electric Demo days, where you can test ride the best bikes around purpose-built, closed-circuit tracks. For a full list of dates and venues across May and June, check out Cyclist Track Days and Cycling Electric Demo Days
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Will and James are joined by Lidl-Trek’s head coach, Mattias Reck. Born and raised in Sweden, like most people in his profession Mattias started out racing as a pro before moving into performance coaching. In 2017 he joined Trek-Segafredo, where he soon found himself nurturing the talents of a young Mads Pedersen (Swedish and Danish languages are pretty similar, says Mattias, which certainly helped with coaching). Today that relationship continues – Mads is something like family now – albeit Mattias is also personally responsible for a host of other riders, ‘mostly the Danish ones’ plus women’s WorldTour stars Shirin van Anrooij and Fleur Moors.

We joined Mattias just after Paris-Roubaix, where Pedersen had finished seventh. Not quite the result the team was hoping for at the start of the Classics campaign but a victory of sorts given Pedersen’s awful crash at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana at the beginning of February, which saw him undergo surgery and only return to racing in late March.

Here, Mattias explains such emotional highs and lows of rider and coach when the proverbial hits the fan; the mental fortitude needed for rehab; and the care teams give to their riders, from check-ins to chats with team psychologists to the role of e-cycling platforms such as Rouvy for rehab. Mattias also explains why he thinks riders are getting faster, the latest thinking in nutrition and carb fuelling, the importance of fatigue resistance, the paradigm shift in training, and why cycling needs to tread a careful line between exploiting young talent and burning out careers early.

Chat begins at 9.50

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This episode is brought to you by the Hammerhead Karoo GPS bike computer. Visit hammerhead.io and use the code CYCLIST to get a free HR strap with every purchase (just be sure to add the strap to your cart then apply the code at checkout)

This episode is also brought to you by the Maserati Grecale SUV car. For more information, go to maserati.com

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Did you know Cyclist is also stunning monthly print magazine?
Subscribe now at store.cyclist.co.uk/cycpod and get every issue for less than in the shops, delivered straight to your door
We're also a really lovely website about everything road cycling and gravel. Check us out at cyclist.co.uk, plus over the next few months we're running our very own Cyclist Track Days and Cycling Electric Demo days, where you can test ride the best bikes around purpose-built, closed-circuit tracks. For a full list of dates and venues across May and June, check out Cyclist Track Days and Cycling Electric Demo Days
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Robyn is joined by Road Race World Champion Magdeleine Vallieres. The 24-year-old EF Education-Oatly rider wasn't seen as one of the main favourites when the women's peloton lined up at the start of last year's course in Rwanda, but after one of the hardest World Championships in years she was a convincing winner, attacking clear from the lead group of three at the bottom of the final climb. In the process she took Canada's first ever rainbow jersey on the road, a year before the Worlds goes to Montreal – just two hours from Magdeleine's hometown.

In this episode Magdeleine talks about that day in Kigali – the buildup, the execution, the reaction, the celebration – and this year's Worlds in Canada, as well as becoming a leader, riding for GC, the evolution of women's Grand Tours and falling in love with cycling on a 1,000km bikepacking adventure aged just nine.

Chat begins at 3.08

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This episode is brought to you by the Hammerhead Karoo GPS bike computer. Visit hammerhead.io and use the code CYCLIST to get a free HR strap with every purchase (just be sure to add the strap to your cart then apply the code at checkout)

This episode is also brought to you by the Maserati Grecale SUV car. For more information, go to maserati.com

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Did you know Cyclist is also stunning monthly print magazine?
Subscribe now at store.cyclist.co.uk/cycpod and get every issue for less than in the shops, delivered straight to your door
We're also a really lovely website about everything road cycling and gravel. Check us out at cyclist.co.uk, plus over the next few months we're running our very own Cyclist Track Days and Cycling Electric Demo days, where you can test ride the best bikes around purpose-built, closed-circuit tracks. For a full list of dates and venues across May and June, check out Cyclist Track Days and Cycling Electric Demo Days
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, James and Will are joined by ex-road pro turned gravel ace, Rob Britton. Born in Saskatchewan in Canada in 1984, Rob turned pro in 2010 with American team Bissell Pro Cycling and for the next 12 seasons raced at Continental level, arguably enjoying his best years with Rally Cycling (not that Raleigh, although he did race for that Raleigh in 2013), where he won the Tour of Utah, his second Tour of Gila in New Mexico and the Canadian National Time-Trial title. Given such strong showings in such hot, long and multi-day races, Rob was a safe bet when he – like lots of his road colleagues – moved into gravel. At first riding as a privateer – sponsored with a bit of kit but essentially riding team-less – Rob finished 6th in his first big gravel race, Unbound, in 2022, then the following year won Badlands – all 800km and 16,000 vertical metres of it. 2023 saw an incredible result at Traka, where he finished second behind fellow ex-road pro Pete Stetina, however arguably his best result so far came when the then 40-year-old beat Lachlan Morton at Unbound XL, finishing the 578km course at an astonishing average speed of 32.4kmh, smashing the course record by 12 minutes in the process.

Such rides have seen Rob become part of the OVRLND adventure team, with backing from Easton Cycling, Castelli and Factor bikes, who’s radical aero suspension gravel bike, the Sarana, Rob rode at this year’s Traka 560.

Whatever bike Rob rides he manages to make gruelling long-distance look easy, but as we chat about in this episode, his journey in cycling has been anything but, fraught with the difficulties of racing for smaller teams, the US’s ever dwindling race calendar, and having to reinvent himself as a gravel racer, from canvassing for sponsors to looking after his own bikes. We caught up with Rob in Italy ahead of racing at The Hills Gravel Race in Treviso in March.

Chat begins at 6.54

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This episode is brought to you by the Hammerhead Karoo GPS bike computer. Visit hammerhead.io and use the code CYCLIST to get a free HR strap with every purchase (just be sure to add the strap to your cart then apply the code at checkout)

This episode is also brought to you by the Maserati Grecale SUV car. For more information, go to maserati.com

------------------

Did you know Cyclist is also stunning monthly print magazine?
Subscribe now at store.cyclist.co.uk/cycpod and get every issue for less than in the shops, delivered straight to your door
We're also a really lovely website about everything road cycling and gravel. Check us out at cyclist.co.uk, plus over the next few months we're running our very own Cyclist Track Days and Cycling Electric Demo days, where you can test ride the best bikes around purpose-built, closed-circuit tracks. For a full list of dates and venues across May and June, check out Cyclist Track Days and Cycling Electric Demo Days
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.