You are listening to the cycling podcast. Hello and joining you on October the 23rd Christmas morning for some cycling fans, those with enough self-restraint not to go rummaging in the dark recesses of the internet for root leaks.

My name's Daniel Freeber, I can't promise I didn't quickly glance at what had fallen out of the hole and prudy sack and onto the dark web ahead of today's tour de france route presentation and together with my co-host i will be telling you today a bit more about what we've all found in our christmas stockings this morning, i.e. what kind of tour de France waits us next July. Those co-hows are Rob Hatch, nurse Hatch today because I'm staying with Rob in my odka and he's been taking care of me. Well, I've been ill. I am ill, unfortunately. Sick bucket at the ready if he wasn't in the other room quarantining from me. How are you, Rob? I'm all right. I'm just worried.

Every little sort of thing that resembled ready if he wasn't in the other room quarantining from me. How are you, Rob?

I'm all right.

I'm just worried.

Every little sort of thing that resembles a headache.

I think, oh, no, here we go. I'm getting it. He's giving it me. And I'm going on my holidays tomorrow. Research trip. Oh, what a start. That will be. Anyway, I'm hearing you echoing in the back room and if you need a paracetam, just give me a knock.

You haven't got any paracetam in your house.

You're allergic to you.

I know.

I am, yeah.

You're allergic to you. I'm hearing you echoing in the back room and if you need a parasitone, just give me a knock.

You haven't got any paracetam in your house. You're allergic to me. I know. I am, yeah. You're allergic to, not me. I said that for effect. Yeah. And also joining us slightly under the weather as well, a different flavour of illness, I believe. In Not Watford, it's Lionel Burning. Yeah, it's rubbish, isn't it? This time of year, all the bugs flying around. We're going to be competing for time off the back of the peloton, visiting the doctor's car today, I think, Daniel. But we'll keep the energy up, won't we? We'll click off English like that and keep the energy up. I can't promise that. I can't. So excited at the prospect of the 2026 Tour de France, having seen the route for the men's and women's races unveiled in Paris. What? Less than an hour ago, this is our knee-jerk reaction, isn't it? 23 minutes after I came off air. I mean, less than an hour, it's a rapid reaction. You know, this is the sort of, this is before you get the manager's interviews after the match this. Imagine they have to ride it now. That would be good, wouldn't it? If it was announced 20 minutes before the start of stage one, that would be perfect. The big question, oh, who's going to win? Yeah.

If the internet didn't exist, that would actually have been almost possible.

I mean, we've talked about this before in the podcast,

the way, if you go back and look at the archives of races like the Giro di Italia,

sometimes it was announced in March, the route, ahead of the start in late May,

but unfortunately now it is rather impossible.

Lionel, did you stay faithful to your credo of never, never doing what I do and most people do,

and rummaging around, hunting around for root leaks well I

didn't have to look very far to be fair this year and most years I don't have to look very far

somebody WhatsApps me and I can piece it together from that really a few weeks before the official

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