This is a Global Player Original podcast.

Pippa York, then known as Robert Miller, was crowned Tour de France King of the Mountains, winning three stages in the 1980s.

But ever since she was five, she wanted to be a girl. Years after quitting cycling, age 41, she started a 10-year transition process to become Pippi York, who joins us today.

What was it like racing the Tour de France with gender dysmorphia?

And what does she make of the debate around trans inclusion in sport that is going on right now?

Welcome to the sports agents.

Music to the sports agents. Pippa, thank you very much for joining us on the sports agents.

First of all, the process of the book with David Walsh. How did you

find that whole experience of revisiting everything and all of your memories and putting them down

with him? Some of it's very intrusive. So it brings back a lot of emotions that I didn't deal with at the time.

And something that Chris Hoy said the other day when I watched his podcast was that every time you kind of have to talk about your past or what's happening to you and it's kind of intimate and invasive,

it leaves a certain amount of emotional baggage to deal with. And I found

that each time that I had to write something. So David asked me to write basically kind of 10, 12 chapters

of my life, which I thought were important. And some of them were really difficult to visit,

because I didn't deal with the issues at the time.

Some of the questions, I think they were quite difficult from to ask

because he wasn't sure if I was just about having to answer them.

So eventually I said to him, look, David,

just say it the way you're going to say it

and forget about if you're going to offend me

or think I'm going to be awkward with it.

You said just there that David, you felt at times was worried about he might offend you or say

...