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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.

Next year’s Tour, the 25th edition of the race to be shown live on ITV, will also be the final one to be broadcast on free-to-air television in the UK, after it was announced last week that Warner Bros. Discovery and Eurosport have agreed a new exclusive TV rights deal for cycling’s biggest race from 2026 onwards.

On this week’s episode, ITV’s lead cycling commentator Ned Boulting, who’s been working on the race for the channel since 2003, discusses the sad and poignant end of 40 years of the Tour de France on free-to-air British TV, the news of which he discovered while touring his new show, based on the 1923 edition of the race.

Boulting reflects on why ITV’s long association with the race has come to an end, what effect this will have on the Tour’s viewership within the UK, and his own personal relationship with the race.

He also chats about his new show, the ‘Marginal Mystery Tour: 1923 And All That’, which just so happens to celebrate ITV’s coverage of the Tour de France and why he’s crafted a piece of theatre about cycling and the context in which it takes place.

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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 the so-called ‘War on the Motorist’ altar, the political and ideological conflict surrounding riding a bike kicked into gear again this month, with the Telegraph, Iain Duncan Smith, and even Thames Valley Police fanning the culture war flames with questionable public pronouncements.

So, are the cycling culture wars back? And did they ever go away? Transport and sustainability journalist Carlton Reid and the London Cycling Campaign’s Simon Munk join us to ask why and how cycling become embroiled in the culture wars, assess the role of conspiracy theories and motonormativity in hindering cycling projects and policy, and offer up our own (somewhat ambitious) plans to put a stop to the cycling culture war once and for all.

Oh, and maybe review a very cycling-focused chapter of Boris Johnson’s new book…

And in the Week in Cycling, Ryan and Emily ponder what the future holds for Tom Pidcock, after the British star became embroiled in a transfer saga following his very public falling out with the Ineos Grenadiers.

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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 even surpassing, Merckx’s until-now untouchable legacy.

Which is why, since that 100km attack in Zurich, the question has raged on in social media debates, live blogs, and on weekend club rides: Is Pogačar the greatest male cyclist we’ve ever seen?

On episode 88 of the road.cc Podcast, Dan and Ryan dissect the GOAT debate, the folly of comparing different eras, and Merckx’s own flip-flopping position on Pogačar’s place in cycling history.

We also break out the stats to assess how Eddy and Tadej stack up against each other at the same age (spoiler – it’s closer than you think), what the current world champion has to do before he retires to compete for GOAT status, and to what extent Pogačar’s swashbuckling, devil-may-care style, and the brutally dominant manner of his victories, compares against other attacking greats such as Fausto Coppi.

In part two, Ryan and road.cc founder Tony are joined by former GCN presenter and developer Cillian Kelly to discuss current cycling media landscape, why it’s changed (and changing), and whether we should be worried about the future. Oh, and why we miss the good old days of countless cycling magazines filling our local newsagents’ shelves.

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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 live next week would mean numerous continuity errors in our interview!

Anyway... as well as telling you about where and when you can stop by to take a look at the exhibition celebrating all things Rapha, the brand's co-founder and former CEO Simon Mottram sits down with Ryan and Jack for a wide-ranging interview that goes back to the very beginnings of Rapha in 2004 when a plucky young Mottram rocked up to the Cycling Plus newsroom, where none other than road.cc's co-founder Tony Farrelly was then the editor, to plug a cool new cycling brand (to a rather mixed reception, he claims!)

Despite the reservations of cynical journalists and Cycling Plus forum members at the time, Rapha of course went on to be worn by over a million cyclists, became the kit sponsors to the most successful British road cycling team in history and is one of the most recognisable cycling apparel brands on the planet. Listen for Mottram's take on cycling and fashion, his thoughts on the brand's association with MAMILs, some tense moments with Team Sky and Dave Brailsford and what's coming in the future when it comes to cycling clothing. Enjoy!

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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 figures behind arguably one of the most ambitious (and successful) Strava KOM/QOM attempts of all time – to find out how Dom, winner of the prestigious Rás Tailteann international stage race earlier this year, cracked the most attempted and arguably the most prestigious Strava KOM of them all, Box Hill.

With meticulous planning, spreadsheets, a bunch of willing pals pulling turns on each bend or sweeping and marshalling corners, a curious pre-effort diet, and two immaculately shaved arms, Dom rode an outrageous time of 4:05, at an average speed of 33.7km/h – eight seconds quicker than pro cyclist Rory Townsend who had taken the KOM just days earlier.

Will we see a sub-4 clocked soon on Box Hill’s slopes? It’s like the four-minute mile barrier all over again! We also squeezed some climbing tips out of Dom and Tobias, both highly accomplished bike racers, and got some further advice on locating and smashing some Strava KOMs for ourselves… when we’ve put some more training in.

At the start of the episode, we also welcome tech writer Emily Tillett for our new regular opening section on the ‘week in cycling’ with presenter Ryan Mallon, which this week focuses on the current trouble at Ineos and asks: Are bikes becoming better value again?

Let us know what you think of our new sound at podcast@road.cc

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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.

Because, to mark the launch this week of the CHPT3’s Transit 2.0, we sat down with the brains behind the urban commuter shoe that aims to combine the “power of a pro cycling shoe and the comfort of a luxury sneaker” – pro cyclist-turned-commentator David Millar and ex-Adidas designer James Carnes – to discuss the inspiration behind the potentially revolutionary new cycling footwear, Millar’s rediscovered love for cycling, and whether you can wear the same shoe at the local nightclub and down a precipitous Swiss mountain.

We chat about discuss the journey, both literally and metaphorically, that led them to the Transit 2.0, and the problems inherent in so many commuter or urban cycling shoes, and how Millar rediscovered his love of cycling by breaking out of his pro cycling bubble.

We also ask the important questions: Do they look cool? Are they suitable for cycling and walking about the office and town? How do they fare on a downhill mountain biking route in the Swiss Alps, or in the most inhospitable of British town centres? And most importantly, can you wear them with a suit?

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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 could even be lurking at the Vuelta a España, waiting to sabotage Primož Roglič’s next move to the big ring.

That study, published earlier this month by three US-based cyber security experts, explored the security features of Shimano’s Di2 electronic shifting systems, the current most common method of changing gears in the pro peloton.

The researchers rather worryingly concluded, through a black box analysis of Shimano’s systems and a roadside experiment, that they can be hacked by a relatively simple and cheap radio technique – one that potentially has the power to allow nefarious individuals by the roadside or in the peloton itself to change or jam a rival’s gears without their knowledge during a race, in a bid to scupper their chances of victory.

In this week’s podcast episode, one of the researchers behind the much-talked-about Di2 analysis, Dr Earlence Fernandes, a cyclist himself, chats about what inspired him to delve into the security set-ups and flaws of wireless shifting, how hacking someone’s gears actually works, his subsequent interactions with Shimano, and how pervasive he thinks the threat of wireless doping could be to both the pro cycling world and us weekend warriors out on a Saturday group ride.

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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 take around six months to save up for one.

Are bikes, and the accessories commonly associated with cycling, perceived by the general public to be expensive, even as prices fall across an industry laden with sales at the moment? And is that belief a barrier to encouraging more people to ditch the car and adopt active travel for the commute?

Also, why is a bike still considered by many to be a luxury, a ‘toy’ used for leisure purposes, and something that competes for our disposable income – rather than a mode of transport in its own right and possible replacement for the evidently much more expensive car?

In part two, George has a chat with Grayson Pollock, a product manager at Hammerhead to discuss what it takes to make a new cycling computer from scratch.