Episodes
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This episode was made for Friends of the Podcast as part of Kilometre 0 series recorded at the 2017 Vuelta a España.
[Become a Friend of the Podcast](https://thecyclingpodcast.com/friends) to keep us on the road at the three Grand Tours. You'll get access to a library of in-depth, feature-length episodes.
In this fourth episode of Kilometre 0, recorded at the 2017 Vuelta a España, we hear from Hayden Groves, who is riding his third Grand Tour of 2017.
But Groves isn’t a professional cyclist. He’s an award-winning chef based in London.
And he isn’t really riding the Vuelta – he’s doing each stage, with four other riders, one day ahead of the race. He did the same at the Giro and the Tour de France, all for charity.
His story is one of suffering, endurance – and cooking. At the end of the Vuelta he’ll produce a unique cookbook with recipes for each stage of each Grand Tour.
[You can find out more about Hayden's book and purchase it on his website.](https://www.3tourschallenge.com/)
Fully Supported by BaxterStorey, 100% of the sales will be donated to Cure Leukaemia. -
The final episode of Kilometre 0 from the Tour de France focuses on Sylvain Chavanel, who is riding a record 18th Tour.
Thursday's 18th stage was the 365th stage of his career, meaning he's spent a whole year of his life riding the Tour de France.
We speak to Chavanel and several of the people who know him best, including Jean-Rene Bernaudeau, the manager of the team he started and will finish his professional career with.
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Missing episodes?
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In this episode of Kilometre 0, Richard Moore and Lionel Birnie head to the summit of the Col du Portet to witness the short Pyrenean mountain stage with the innovative gridded start.
What did the riders think and would it change the dimension of the race?
Kilometre 0 is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
In this episode of Kilometre 0 Orla Chennaoui talks to Cedric Vasseur, the boss of the French Cofidis team.
Cofidis has been a fixture at the Tour de France for more than 20 years. In that time they have enjoyed stage wins and yellow jerseys but were also at the centre of a doping scandal in 2004.
It is now ten years since Cofidis won a Tour de France stage and at the start of the year Vasseur was brought in to turn around the team’s fortunes.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
At La Rosière in the Alps, Geraint Thomas won the stage and took the yellow jersey and, more than an hour later, Mark Cavendish crossed the line last and well outside the time limit.
For Rod Ellingworth it was a bitter-sweet day because both riders were graduates of the British Cycling Academy he founded and ran.
The next day, on the road to Alpe d'Huez, Orla Chennaoui travelled with Ellingworth in a Team Sky car and asked him about his relationship with both riders and his approach to developing youngsters to cope with the demands of professional cycling.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
In this episode of Kilometre 0 Richard Moore spends the day with 2010 Tour de France champion Andy Schleck.
The former rider from Luxembourg is back at the Tour driving VIPs for one of the race's sponsors, Skoda. Richard talks to him about his career and how he has adjusted to retirement.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
Lionel Birnie heads to bend number seven on Alpe d'Huez to experience the atmosphere of Dutch Corner.
However, because of safety and security concerns, the Tour de France organisers and police had taken steps to control the size and behaviour of the crowd, restricting the amount of alcohol available and leading to a less fervent atmosphere than in past years.
It's ironic that Dutch Corner was founded by a local clergyman selling beer to help raise funds to rebuild his church…
Kilometre 0 is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
In this episode of Kilometre 0 François Thomazeau talks about how Reuters broke the story about organised doping in the Festina team in 1998.
One of the news agency's regular stringers called François on the eve of the Grand Départ in Dublin to say a Festina team car had been stopped by customs officers on the Franco-Belgian border and had been found to contain hundreds of doses of doping products.
Twenty years ago the media landscape was very different and so when Reuters broke the news it created huge shockwaves.
François describes what happened – why he had to bend Reuters' editorial rules slightly in order to break the news because he was confident in his colleague's sources.
This is a fascinating insight into breaking news, sorting facts from fiction and setting a news agenda that changed professional cycling for good.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
In this episode of Kilometre 0 we spend the day following La Course, the one-day women’s race organised by the Tour de France. Richard Moore, Orla Chennaoui and Rose Manley go to the start in Annecy and the finish in Le Grand Bornand, where they witness a thrilling finish to an exciting race. We hear from Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, Dani Rowe, one of the stars of the race, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and the winner, Annemiek van Vleuten.
Kilometre 0 by The Cycling Podcast is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
In this episode of Kilometre 0 we look at the growing use of data and statistics in professional cycling.
With so much information available, what is useful to the team managers and riders?
We also talk to Stephan Van der Zwan, co-owner of the Pro Cycling Stats website about how more teams are using the information he collates and publishes.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
In this episode of Kilometre 0, Lionel Birnie heads out on to the pavé to witness one of the most dramatic Tour de France stages in years.
The morning after the French national holiday and with France playing in the World Cup final later that evening there was a huge, enthusiastic crowd out on the roads.
But for the riders it was a case of chaos, crashes and hoping for the best…
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In this episode of Kilometre 0 we look back ten years to the Slipstream team's Tour de France debut.
Jonathan Vaughters talks about the team's anti-doping ethos and the steep learning curve of riding their first Tour. We hear from Will Frischkorn who almost won a stage in the first week, and ask Vaughters how it felt to be challenging for a place on the podium with Christian Vande Velde in the final week.
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In the fourth episode of Kilometre 0 from the Tour de France we meet Paul Fournel, author of a new illustrated history of the maps of the Tour.
Fournel is one of Frances’s most respected writers and he tells us about his book and his lifelong love affair with cycling and with the Tour.
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This episode of Kilometre 0 features the Australian rider Adam Hansen, who set a record of completing 20 grand tours when he rode the Giro d'Italia in May.
Hansen is not riding this Tour de France – it's the first one he's missed since his run began in 2011 – but he was in the Vendée working for a television station and getting a glimpse of another side of the race for the first time.
We spoke to him about his record-breaking run and asked some of the riders and staff at his Lotto-Soudal team what it's like without him.
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On stage one Lawson Craddock crashed, breaking his scapula and suffering a deep laceration above his eye. He finished the stage but the question was whether it was wise for him to carry on. With the help of the Education First medical staff he started the next morning and survived the stage. Then came an even bigger test – the team time trial.
In this episode we speak to Craddock and also to his medics, sports directors and teammates.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Hansgrohe, showers & taps -
In this episode of Kilometre 0 by The Cycling Podcast we speak to some of the riders who were experiencing the Tour de France for the first time.
The nerves and sense of anticipation were heightened in Noirmoutier-en-l’Île as they prepared to tackle the biggest race of them all. From he youngest rider in the race, to others who had waited almost all their careers to make their debut, we ask whether the Tour feels different to other events
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In our final episode of Kilometre 0 of the 2017 Tour de France, we look back at the very first race in 1903 with Peter Cossins, the author of Butcher, Blacksmith, Acrobat, Sweep.
We explore the roots of the Tour, why the race was founded and some of the unknown stories from the 1903 race.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Nederburg Wines. -
In this episode of Kilometre 0 we speak to Thierry Gouvenou, the sporting director of the Tour de France, about how the race route is plotted.
This year's Tour has visited all five mountain ranges in France – the Jura, the Vosges, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Alps – and has led to one of the closest races of all-time.
But what is Gouvenou aiming for when he and his team design the route? We ask him.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Nederburg Wines. -
In the 1930s, the Tour de France used to have an official song each year. Almost all of them were absolutely dreadful and it has to be said that although the Tour has inspired plenty of music since, much of it has been little improvement on those early songs.
The notable exception is Tour de France by Düsseldorf band Kraftwerk.
This episode of Kilometre 0 is inspired by Juke Box Jury as François Thomazeau reveals ten songs that have been inspired by cycling. There's also an appearance by Jean-François Bernard singing his late 1980s 'hit' Tour de France.
So, come on pop-pickers, let the countdown commence...
Kilometre 0 is supported by Nederburg Wines. -
In this episode of Kilometre 0 we focus on the African riders who have begun to make an impression on the Tour de France in the past decade.
We hear from Doug Ryder, boss of the first African team to ride the Tour, now known as Dimension Data-Qhubeka, Louis Meintjes of UAE-Team Emirates, who finished eighth last year and is high in the overall classification again, and the first Ethiopian to ride the Tour, Tsgabu Grmay.
Kilometre 0 is supported by Nederburg Wines. - Show more