S13 Ep71: The XL Tour de France Preview, Part Two
The Cycling Podcast
The Cycling Podcast
4.8 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 3 July 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We pick up where we left off with François' run-through of what to expect on the road in weeks two and three of the 2025 Tour de France, interspersed with some of the more intriguing sub-plots to look forward to.
There's also Whitey's Whiteboard – in which experienced sports director Matt White shares some of his tactical expertise and breaks down how a typical team goes about selecting its line-up for the Tour de France and how the daily strategy is decided and conveyed to the riders.
INTRODUCING VAN RYSEL, OUR TOUR DE FRANCE SPONSORS
We are very pleased to welcome Van Rysel as our sponsors for the first half of our Tour de France coverage. The Tour gets underway in Lille, the city where the company was founded and has its headquarters. The city is steeped in French cycling history and heritage, not least because the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix are on the doorstep.
Van Rysel supplies bikes and kit for the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale World Tour team, who feature Felix Gall, Bruno Armirail and Aurélien Paret-Peintre in their line-up for the Tour.
If you are going to Lille for the opening weekend make sure to drop in at Van Rysel House, a pop-up venue and hub for cycling fans. It’s located at Hein Estaminet in Place Saint-Hubert a short walk from the Euralille train station. It’s a place to have a drink or something to eat and watch the race on TV and there’ll be lots going on over the weekend with a quiz night to test your cycling knowledge each night at 8pm. There’s also some group rides setting out from there. A chance to see the Van Reesel bikes and the innovation that goes into their design.
Visit www.vanryselcycling.com to find out more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the cycling podcast brought to you in association with Van Riesel, |
| 0:06.0 | the bike company born in Leal in the heart of French Flanders. And we're very happy to say that |
| 0:10.7 | Van Riesel is sponsoring the cycling podcast coverage of the first half of the Tour de France, |
| 0:16.0 | including the Grand Depart in Leal this weekend, which is a city where Van Riesel was founded in 2019. |
| 0:23.6 | We'll be hearing a lot more about the company as the tour goes on, the innovation that goes |
| 0:28.9 | into their bike design, and the decathlon Ager-des-Air La Mondial team, whose bikes and kit |
| 0:35.2 | they supply. |
| 0:39.6 | And really, the tour, I think, tells you something about life, because if you follow your |
| 0:43.7 | front wheel, you kind of end up exactly where you're supposed to be. |
| 0:47.1 | Now, I'm wearing my cassiolet podcast t-shirt, because normally down in the south-west, |
| 0:51.3 | I would seek out a cassiolet if we were staying in Carcasson. |
| 0:53.8 | When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now. |
| 1:02.3 | Welcome to part two of the cycling podcast's Big Tour de France preview with me, Graham Wilgoss. |
| 1:08.7 | We're in the company of Rob Hatch, but first, here's Lionel Burnie. |
| 1:13.5 | Shall we hear from Francois Tomaso again about the middle week, which is heavily dominated by |
| 1:18.5 | the Pyrenees? But for me, it's Casualais week, because it goes from one great city of Casualais, |
| 1:24.5 | Toulouse, to the other Carcassonne. I know foie will throw its hat into the ring a bit there |
| 1:29.3 | as well and stake a claim to uh being the the true spiritual spiritual home of well what is it |
| 1:37.2 | bean goose duck sausage stew a perfect perfect meal for the end of a day when temperatures have been nudging |
| 1:45.7 | 40 degrees, looking forward to it immensely. But this is what the Pyrenees has in store for |
| 1:50.6 | the tour this year. Well, Francois, the middle week of the Tour de France really is the Pyrenees, |
| 1:58.8 | isn't it? In and around the Pyrenees for the whole week, |
... |
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