S13 Ep66: All Aboard the Dauphiné’s GC Sprint Train

The Cycling Podcast

News, Sports, Sports News

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss kick-off The Cycling Podcast’s build-up to the Tour de France, which starts in Lille on July 5.

The Critérium du Dauphiné began in spectacular style with fireworks at the end of the opening stage on Sunday. The three riders who finished on the podium at last year’s Tour de France – Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel – lined up alongside each other for the first time since last July.

And they all came alive on the final climb of the race, breaking clear with Mathieu van der Poel and Santiago Buitrago, to hold off the sprinters in Montluçon.

It was a statement of intent from the three leading contenders for this summer’s Tour as they begin their final preparations for the grand départ.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the cycling podcast Tour de France run for 2025.
0:36.1	And I'm very happy to be back after last summer's tour with Rich
0:41.0	and Mitch. Rich and Mitch yes. Well thank you very much for coming back Graham. We are setting off
0:47.1	on our Tour de France Odyssey. It kind of starts here doesn't it? Although the Tour de France gets
0:51.6	underway in Leal on July the 5th. The riders are all
0:56.3	doing the Cretem du Dauphine, not all of them, but a lot of them are doing the dophine in the build-up
1:00.5	to the Tour de France. Others will be doing the Tour de Swiss. There'll be altitude camps in
1:05.8	the mountains of Europe as the riders get ready for the tour. This is the start of our attitude camp as I build it.
1:12.9	I have no doubts about your attitude, Graham. I listened to last year's Tour de France coverage.
1:17.1	This is very much me getting myself ready for Tour de France number 22.
1:22.8	It's number three for me, but I've been sleeping in a hypoxic tent for the last week or so to get my
1:28.7	attitude just right. The problem with an attitude camp is you never know what your legs are going
1:32.2	to be like when you come down from attitude. But I think all going well, things should be fine.
1:38.7	The thing for me, Graham, is a bad attitude I can do. That's no problem. That's the default.
1:43.9	It's working on the good attitude that I need to
1:46.2	get that, get myself into the right frame of mind for what is the most fantastic sporting event on the planet.
1:53.8	We are going to be covering the tour from start to finish. That's the plan, although the tour being the
2:00.4	tour, we're going to take it day by day.
2:02.6	We're going to be joined in Leal over the Grand De Par weekend by our very good friend, Francois Tomazzo,
2:07.5	who is coming out of retirement for the opening weekend because it's the city of his birth.
2:13.6	And then, Graham, you and I don't know each other terribly well. This is the first time we've ever podcasted together.
2:19.1	So this is kind of baby steps.
	...

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