The 113th Tour de France starts in Barcelona on Saturday, and makes its way to Paris via the Pyrenees, Massif Central, Vosges, Jura and Alps.

In this episode, Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss take an in-depth look at the route, picking out some highlights along the way. There's also some French flavour from François Thomazeau, who has covered the Tour for the past four decades and writes the official tourist's guide for the race.

Join us for the journey when our daily episodes get underway after the opening team time trial on Saturday.

Part one of The XL Preview series is online now. Part three, covering all the other contenders to look out for, will be released soon.

TITLE SPONSOR – MyWhoosh
Our Tour de France preview series is sponsored by MyWhoosh.

MyWhoosh is a serious indoor training and racing platform, built for riders who love cycling, and it’s free. It’s built for anyone who wants to ride indoors with purpose, whether that’s staying fit, following a training plan, joining a community ride, racing hard, or exploring virtual roads and it’s free to ride, just like outdoors.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter @cycling_podcast
Instagram @thecyclingpodcast

Friends of the Podcast
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.

The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).

The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.

The Cycling Podcast is on Strava

The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.

Join Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss for a three-week adventure taking them from Barcelona to Paris, following the 2026 Tour de France.

The Cycling Podcast has covered the Tour with daily episodes recorded at the heart of the world’s biggest race. Our nightly episodes recap the stage action with analysis, interviews and plenty of French flavour.

To listen to the episodes as soon as they are released, follow The Cycling Podcast in your favourite podcast app.

Introducing our sponsors, MyWhoosh
Our Tour de France Grand Départ coverage is sponsored by MyWhoosh.
MyWhoosh is a serious indoor training and racing platform, built for riders who love cycling, and it’s free. It’s built for anyone who wants to ride indoors with purpose, whether that’s staying fit, following a training plan, joining a community ride, racing hard, or exploring virtual roads and it’s free to ride, just like outdoors.
Follow us on social media:
Twitter @cycling_podcast
Instagram @thecyclingpodcast

Friends of the Podcast
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.

The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).

The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.

The Cycling Podcast is on Strava

The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.

Will it be Tadej Pogačar or Jonas Vingegaard? There's more to this year's Tour de France than these two, of course, but it's undeniable that the race for the maillot jaune will focus on the sport's two heavyweights (or should that be lightweights?)

The 2026 Tour de France starts here. There are just a few days to go until the Grand Départ in Barcelona and The Cycling Podcast kicks off a three-part preview of the greatest race in the world by weighing up the two outstanding riders – the champion, Tadej Pogačar and the challenger Jonas Vingegaard.

Join Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss as they find out about the two men who have dominated the Tour de France since 2020. Graham speaks to journalist Andy McGrath, author of Unstoppable, a biography of the Slovenian, about the man aiming to join the five-time winner's club. And Lionel talks to a man our listeners will be very familiar with, Brian Nygaard, who has followed Vingegaard's career from the beginning.

Part two and three of The XL Preview series will cover the route, and all the other contenders to look out for, and will be released soon.

TITLE SPONSOR – MyWhoosh
Our Tour de France preview series is sponsored by MyWhoosh.

MyWhoosh is a serious indoor training and racing platform, built for riders who love cycling, and it’s free. It’s built for anyone who wants to ride indoors with purpose, whether that’s staying fit, following a training plan, joining a community ride, racing hard, or exploring virtual roads and it’s free to ride, just like outdoors.

EPISODE SPONSOR
NordVPN
Get NordVPN two-year plan + four months extra ➼ https://nordvpn.com/tcp It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter @cycling_podcast
Instagram @thecyclingpodcast

Friends of the Podcast
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.

The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).

The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.

The Cycling Podcast is on Strava

The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.

Join Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss as they complete a trilogy of episodes looking ahead to the 2026 Tour de France.

With the big battle between Pogačar and Vingegaard covered in part one, and the route dissected in part two, this time it's a chance to take a deeper look at some of the other storylines and riders who are set to animate the Tour de France.

From the much-anticipated debut of French sensation Paul Seixas, to the joint-leaders of the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team, Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz, who else will challenge for the podium and the other top places on GC?

We weigh up a deep field of fast finishers and ask who will be left standing when the sprinting game of musical chairs comes to a halt. There's a visit to Coorevits Corner, we hear from the Voice of Radio Tour, and ask which teams really need a good Tour de France.

Parts one and two of The XL Preview series are online now.

Daily coverage of the Tour de France starts on Saturday, July 4.

TITLE SPONSOR – MyWhoosh
Our Tour de France preview series is sponsored by MyWhoosh.

MyWhoosh is a serious indoor training and racing platform, built for riders who love cycling, and it’s free. It’s built for anyone who wants to ride indoors with purpose, whether that’s staying fit, following a training plan, joining a community ride, racing hard, or exploring virtual roads and it’s free to ride, just like outdoors.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter @cycling_podcast
Instagram @thecyclingpodcast

Friends of the Podcast
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.

The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).

The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.

The Cycling Podcast is on Strava

The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.

This episode is available ad-free on our Friends of the Podcast feed. Subscribe at thecyclingpodcast.com

"I wouldn't have bet a single centime on no Frenchman winning the Tour for forty years."

So said Bernard Hinault, the owner of what he called an "unwanted record" as the fourth decade since his 1985 victory was about to expire last July. "We haven't got any chance…" Hinault added in the same interview. Kevin Vauquelin's plucky seventh place on GC notwithstanding, it seemed unfathomable after three weeks that the drought wouldn't extend to forty-one years in 2026, forty-two and so on at least until Tadej Pogačar either began an inexorable slide or retired.

Unfathomable is also the adjective many long-in-the-tooth observers would use for the eventuality of Paul Seixas winning the 2026 race at age 19. It would certainly be historic, not only because Seixas would bring the Tour "home" for the first time since Hinault in 1985, but also because he would be the youngest ever winner: to be precise, 49 days younger than Henri Cornet in the Tour's second edition, way back in 1904.

Improbable it certainly sounds, and logic would suggest the same — and yet this summer France expects. Hopes. To a certain extent believes. And will certainly get extremely excited if, even after the first skirmishes with the Pyrenees in week one, the boy from Beaujolais has not been Pogcinerated out of contention.

Having witnessed Seixas's definitive coming of age at the Tour of the Basque Country in April, over three weeks in July, Daniel Friebe will take up potentially the story of the summer at the Tour de France. Not necessarily by chronicling Seixas's every pedal stroke but by examining the question of how France got here — now approaching half a century into one of professional sport's most agonising and baffling droughts — and how, one day either soon or still too far into the future for comfort, deliverance can and will finally arrive.

The 2026 Tour begins its journey in Barcelona — as does our series, outside a curious hospital building in the heart of the Catalan capital which, twenty years ago, was somehow charged with shaping the future of professional cycling. In episode one, Daniel explains exactly what occurred, and also why and how it determined the destiny of Paul Seixas.

Donkeys beware, there’s enough chat about recent racing from Rose Manley and Lizzy Banks that they’re at risk of losing their hind legs.

Rose and Lizzy tackle some major talking points from the Tour de Suisse and beyond. Like how might Zoe Backstedt shape up against Lorena Wiebes in future? What might Kasia Niewiadoma’s rumoured transfer to Lidl-Trek mean for the Polish champion and for Canyon-SRAM? And who should Team UAE-ADQ pick for the Tour de France Femmes considering their huge roster of climbing talent?

Plus there’s a message for our listeners from co-host Rebecca Charlton after she made her cancer treatment public last week.

Also on the agenda: legless donkeys, Lizzy the richest-woman-that-never-was and how a poo could disrupt the Canyon-SRAM team camp.

With the Tour de France now just ten days away, the Tour de Suisse was one of the final competitive opportunities for riders to impress their team management and earn selection for La Grande Boucle.

Join Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss as they complete their own countdown to the 113th edition of the greatest race in the world.

After Jonas Vingegaard impressed at the Giro d'Italia, it was over to Tadej Pogačar to show what sort of condition he's in as he aims for a record-equalling fifth Tour title. In a shorter, but by no means less intense, edition of the Swiss stage race Pogačar left few people in any doubt that he's the number one favourite for the Tour.

Who else impressed in Switzerland, Slovenia and Belgium as the Tour beckoned? And which big name star will miss the race and what impact will that have on his team? We get deep into all that in our final episode of The Cycling Podcast's Attitude Camp.

Next week we complete our final preparations for the Tour de France with a bumper three-part preview, kicking off on Tuesday.

EPISODE SPONSORS

NordVPN
Get NordVPN two-year plan + four months extra ➼ https://nordvpn.com/tcp It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee.

Saily
If you are travelling abroad and want to reduce or even eliminate roaming charges you need an eSim from Saily, brought to you by the creators of NordVPN.
⛵Download the SAILY app and use our code cycling at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase. Or go to saily.com/cycling for full details.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter @cycling_podcast
Instagram @thecyclingpodcast

Friends of the Podcast
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.

The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).

The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.

The Cycling Podcast is on Strava

The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.

With the Tour de France just three weeks away, the mountain stages at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (aka the Dauphiné) was set to be a big test for two young riders who are set to make their debut appearances in La Grande Boucle.

Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss wrap up an enthralling week of racing in the French Alps as Mexico's young pretender Isaac Del Toro continued his development into one of the finest stage racers in the world. We know he'll be a huge help to his UAE Team Emirates leaders Tadej Pogačar at the Tour but might he be podium material in his own right?

Meanwhile, the French sensation Paul Seixas and his Decathlon team endured a setback – perhaps a timely reality check to temper the already sky-high expectations ahead of the Tour?

EPISODE SPONSORS

NordVPN
Get NordVPN two-year plan + four months extra ➼ https://nordvpn.com/tcp It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee.

Car Gurus
Buying a car is a big decision. That’s why CarGurus gives you the facts first – vehicle history, price changes, dealer reviews – everything you need to spot a great deal and steer clear of surprises. With CarGurus, you get access to hundreds of thousands of cars from top rated dealers, so you can find the best deal. Go to cargurus.co.uk

Follow us on social media:
Twitter @cycling_podcast
Instagram @thecyclingpodcast

Friends of the Podcast
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.

The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).

The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.

The Cycling Podcast is on Strava

The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.