The road.cc Podcast
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!
Episodes
93 episodes
“You need a billionaire to say ‘I’ll save the sport’. But that won’t happen”: Matt Holmes on why British cycling needs a reset and his journey from WorldTour pro to the “world’s most reluctant YouTuber” + Does cycling have a litter problem?
With British cycling in turmoil this winter, following the closure of the country’s two remaining UCI Continental teams, this week’s episode of the road.cc Podcast features one rider who’s forging an alternative path through the struggling dome...
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1:11:04
“A lot of it was caused by greed”: Factor’s CEO on navigating bike industry chaos, Chris Froome’s set-up complaints, trickle-down track tech, and why rim brakes are never coming back + Scott unveil new superlight Addict RC
We’ve got a cycling industry and bike tech special for you this week on the podcast, as Factor CEO Rob Gitelis joins us to discuss the brand’s history and the latest cutting-edge tech, before we take a closer (audio) inspection of the brand-new...
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1:07:17
“The idea is to create a positive out of a negative”: Cancer My Arse’s Kev Griffiths on living with stage four cancer, Sir Chris Hoy, and why he’s encouraging everyone to ride out of the saddle for charity + Mark Cavendish’s greatest moments
Like Sir Chris Hoy, who last month revealed that he has terminal prostate cancer, Kevin Griffiths is determined to turn his own experience of living with stage four cancer into a positive. The Stoke-based cyclist, who hails from two...
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1:11:37
“The Tour is the only race that matters. And that’s gone now”: Ned Boulting on the end of free-to-air Tour de France coverage in the UK and why his new show is a piece of theatre
From 2026, the familiar sights of the Tour de France – the epic mountain ranges, fields of sunflowers, Tadej Pogačar riding off into the distance – will remain the same. But for many cycling fans in the UK, the sounds will be very different.
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46:14
Are the cycling culture wars back? And did they ever go away? Plus: What’s next for Tom Pidcock after dramatic Ineos Grenadiers fallout?
When it comes to culture war discourse around cycling, things had become a bit quiet lately. Too quiet. After a brief period of respite following a general election campaign which saw cycling and active travel largely sacrificed on ...
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1:02:51
Is Tadej Pogačar the greatest cyclist who’s ever lived? Plus we ask: What the hell’s going on with cycling media in 2024?
Over the past five decades, countless promising young riders have been bestowed and burdened with the tag of being the ‘Next Eddy Merckx’. After an unbeatable 2024, Tadej Pogačar is the first to look even remotely close to matching, or ev...
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1:21:42
20 years of Rapha: Co-founder Simon Mottram on tiffs with Team Sky, MAMILs and cycling's skin-suited future
We're coming at you with episode 87 of the road.cc Podcast in association with Hammerhead a whole week early, because... well, Rapha's 'Past Forward' 20-year anniversary bash at the Truman Brewery in London finishes on Sunday 22nd, and going li...
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Episode 87
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1:18:05
Ultimate Strava KOM hunting: The painstaking prep that went into bagging THAT Box Hill KOM (plus bonus climbing tips!)
Like the British cycling world for a brief period earlier this month, episode 86 of the road.cc Podcast has gone Box Hill crazy. We sat down with Dom Jackson and Tobias Dahlhaus of the London-based team Foran Cycling – two of the fi...
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1:15:00
“I’ve rediscovered my love of cycling”: David Millar and James Carnes of CHPT3 on appealing to every cyclist and designing a commuter shoe you can wear with a suit… and down a Swiss mountain
If you’re a fan of nerdy technical chat about shoe design and the joy of riding a bike through town in a suit with a multiple grand tour stage winner, then you’re in for a treat on this special bonus episode of the road.cc Podcast. ...
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1:01:05
“The Tour de France needs to do a proper security review”: Academic behind Shimano electronic gears hacking study on why “it’s hard to tell” if wireless doping has taken place in pro cycling – and why us amateurs shouldn’t be worried
For episode 84 of the road.cc Podcast, we took a deep dive into one of the more curious, and headline grabbing, cycling tech studies of recent years – which discovered that your bike’s electronic shifters may be susceptible to hackers, who coul...
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39:46
Can 50% of Brits really not afford to buy a bike? Cycling and affordability discussed, plus how to make a new bike computer with Hammerhead
For episode 83 of the road.cc Podcast, we decided to don our analytical hats and delve into a recent survey which claimed that 49 per cent of British people do not believe they can afford to buy a bike, and that around a quarter reckon it would...
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54:27
Was the 2024 Tour de France a bit rubbish? Pogačar’s ghostbusting climbs, podcast poltergeists, and Cav’s Vino problem
It's episode 82 of the road.cc Podcast sponsored by Hammerhead, a certain big old race across France has ended for another year, and so it's only right that we do a full debrief of Tour de France 2024! What was good and what was not so ...
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46:46
Mark Cavendish makes history, Dylan Groenewegen’s bizarre (and stage-winning) aero beak, and the weirdest things we’ve ever seen at the Tour de France
We’re almost a week into the 2024 Tour de France, so to celebrate – and inspired by Dylan Groenewegen’s peculiar, Batman-inspired aero beak – in the latest episode of the road.cc Podcast, we decided to unbuckle the Grande Boucle and focus on th...
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1:00:59
Cycling and the General Election: Do the UK’s political parties care about cycling and active travel? We take a deep dive into the 2024 manifestos
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or become adept at turning off the TV as soon as you hear Question Time’s twinkly theme, then you’ll be well aware that the next UK general election is fast approaching. And with under two weeks to go unt...
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59:34
road.cc CANCELLED by Ineos! What happened when we tried to take pics of the new Pinarello Dogma + Does cycling policy need a reset after the election?
Oi, you there! You can’t record your podcast around here…We’ve got a special bonus Dauphiné and election edition of the road.cc Podcast this week, because surely you didn’t think we were going to ignore THAT incident, involving a seeming...
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1:13:24
Making our way around the National Cycle Network (and why it’s really all about the people you meet) with Laura Laker + Is active travel in Britain heading in the wrong direction?
For episode 78 of the road.cc Podcast, we donned our reading glasses, grabbed our bikes, and headed over to the National Cycle Network, that underfunded, unwieldy, often fractured, but very important collection of routes used by cyclists across...
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1:16:56
"You’re not going to legislate away these sort of incidents": Martin Porter KC on cycling and the law + cycling and mental health for Mental Health Awareness Week
It's episode 77 of the road.cc Podcast, and arguably one of our most thought-provoking episodes to date. In part 1, Jack and George sit down with leading barrister Martin Porter KC on the same week that the Government announced tougher ...
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1:18:56
Is cycling treated fairly in the media? BBC AntiSocial goes cycling discussed with ‘the cyclist' + the future of indoor bike racing with IndieVelo's founder
In episode 76 of the road.cc Podcast, we're talking about... another podcast! Well, we'd like to think it goes a bit deeper than that, because our discussion with Lauren O'Brien - representing 'the cyclist' in a recent debate title 'Should cycl...
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1:04:38
The history of folding bikes with Mark Bickerton (+ the real story behind THAT very 80s TV ad) plus a weekend in Hell: Tales from Paris-Roubaix
It's time for episode 75 of the road.cc Podcast, a two-parter that is as chalk and cheese as we've ever recorded in cycling terms... but that's how we like it!Part 1 is all about folding bikes, and more specifically a fascinating chat w...
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1:17:05
“It’s Paris-Roubaix!” Zoe and Magnus Bäckstedt on “blood, mud, and tears” at the Hell of the North, plus cycling and climbing from the lowest to the highest point of each continent (and avoiding getting arrested) with Oli France
With Paris-Roubaix, arguably the most hotly anticipated weekend on the pro cycling calendar, approaching fast around the next cobbled bend, episode 74 of the road.cc Podcast features two representatives of the past, present, and future of the Q...
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1:04:36
Why is it so hard to get a bike on a ferry? Why is Strava's 'Weekly Snapshot' annoying cyclists?
On episode 73 of the road.cc podcast, we hear from two cyclists who tell us their trials and tribulations of trying to get their bikes on the ferry... something that appears to be a tad more difficult that boarding one by car! Our ...
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1:13:02
Mike Ashley buys Wiggle CRC: Ex-employee talks “shock” at retail giant’s demise and staff’s “hard and fast goodbye”, plus THAT Visma Giro helmet discussed
While the two topics discussed on episode 72 of the road.cc Podcast are both high on the cycling world’s list of talking points this week, they notably sit at opposite ends of the seriousness spectrum (unless you take your time trial helmet deb...
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1:06:33
“Our sport will wither and die if we refuse these sponsors”: Sportswashing and pro cycling’s carbon footprint discussed, plus LTNs vs dodgy data
In episode 71 of the road.cc Podcast, we’ve got two great guests and two great topics to discuss… namely sportswashing and low traffic neighbourhoods. We’re arguably missing a debate about helmets, but otherwise it doesn’t get much more road.cc...
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1:15:28
“We’ve learnt to normalise rubbish behaviour”: What stops women cycling? Abuse, intimidation, and how to make cycling safe for everyone
At the start of 2024, the London Cycling Campaign’s Women’s Network, a coalition of cycling groups in the capital, published a report, titled ‘What Stops Women Cycling in London?’, which detailed the shocking extent to which women riding their ...
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49:11
“Some drivers see safe cycling as a character flaw”: the fight for fewer close passes + the UK's booming gravel scene
On episode 69 of the road.cc Podcast, we delve into the reasons and behavioural patterns that underpin most, if not all, of the 887 (and counting) examples of close passes and dangerous driving that make up our Near Miss of the Day series, aide...
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1:14:53