S13 Ep149: An end-of-season ramble
The Cycling Podcast
The Cycling Podcast
4.7 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2025
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We start by discussing the fragile nature of survival at World Tour level with the news that the Australian team Jayco-Alula came within days of possibly folding, and the delays to confirmation that two Belgian teams, Lotto and Intermarché, intend to become one. Where does that leave the riders, especially Intermarché's biggest star Biniam Girmay?
Then we indulge in a bit of off-season speculation and wonder what Tadej Pogačar's 2026 season might look like, particularly with a number of race organisers making changes seemingly to entice the SlovAlien to ride. The Vuelta a España starting in his adopted home town of Monaco is not a particularly subtle overture and it seem an appealing prospect but, as we discuss, the picture is more complicated than that.
Follow us on social media:
Twitter @cycling_podcast
Instagram @thecyclingpodcast
Friends of the Podcast
Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episodes every month plus a back catalogue of more than 300 exclusive episodes.
The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).
The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our new virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.
The Cycling Podcast is on Strava
The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and joining you in the first week of November. |
| 0:21.2 | I shan't be more specific than that because the actual release date of this podcast is as closely guarded a secret as today. |
| 0:26.7 | Pogacchar's 2026 race program. |
| 0:29.4 | My name's Daniel Freeber. |
| 0:30.4 | I'm the host of this decidedly low-key. |
| 0:33.0 | There I say, slightly ad hoc episode of the cycling podcast in which we will try to shovel a few last embers of lukewarm topics and reheated news stories into the end of season furnace. |
| 0:43.9 | Joining me to do that with his oven gloves on is Lionel Bernie. |
| 0:47.5 | Have I whipped off enough excitement, Lionel? |
| 0:50.6 | Oh, you've oversold it, if anything. |
| 0:53.1 | Yeah, yeah. But it is that time of year isn't it |
| 0:56.1 | everything is sort of dying down or what if you're a professional rider you are probably sodding off |
| 1:04.2 | on holiday that's if you're not still looking for a contract because a lot is still to be |
| 1:09.2 | decided and signed isn't it And that's one of the topics |
| 1:11.8 | we're going to be talking about. Yeah, there's lots of uncertainty. But some riders will be |
| 1:17.2 | starting all over again, won't they? Early November, their first sort of orientation camps, |
| 1:21.7 | the first meetup to set objectives for 2026. Come on, guys, it's only just finished. I saw |
| 1:27.1 | Walthan Art on social media talking about, well, he was posting pictures of his homestead set objectives for 2026. Come on guys, it's only just finished. I saw Walt Van |
| 1:27.6 | Art on social media talking about, well, he was posting pictures of his holiday with his |
| 1:32.7 | family. I think they went to Italy, didn't they? And there was some quotes in the Belgian |
| 1:37.2 | press, him saying just how much he needed a proper end of season holiday, because he sort |
| 1:43.4 | of postponed slash curtailed his holiday at the end of last season so he felt like it was long overdue some proper downtime with his family before well they all head off to volcanoes again to start training for the 2026 season well van art of course will be racing cyclercross in the not too distant future. |
| 2:03.4 | He and Matthew Vanderpul are expected to race in the cycle cross over the winter. I can see, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Cycling Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Cycling Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.