u/FischerHias

Hi,

I want to both give feedback on the Cycling Podcasts Giro coverage and speak more generally about them.

General: The Cycling Podcast is maybe the most famous/important cycling podcast (Lance Armstrong might disagree 😄 ). They are now in business for 13 years, with over 100 podcasts per year - some of them available only for subscribers, but most free for all. For 10 years or so they are doing daily episodes for all Grand Tours and actually they are on the ground travelling with the peloton. One of the three founders Richard Moore (the others are Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie) died unexpectedly in 2022 - so long-time listeners like me feel also emotionally tied two the project.

2026 Giro Coverage: It was great as usual. Daniel Friebe was on daily; mostly with the young Italian Michele Pellacci and for about a week with the veteran Dane Brian Nygaard. The chemistry between the hosts is very good; the mixture of sport, culture and geography is good. Also a lot of interviews from riders, directors etc.

2026 Tour Coverage: Here I must speculate more; usually Daniel Friebe is not doing the Tour, as he works for ITV during the Grand Boucle. So my guess is that Lionel Birnie and Graeme Wilgoss might do it.

Besides your opinion about the podcast - do you know any similar podcasts for Grand Tours - please name only podcasts who are actually on the ground - for general reviews of cycling podcasts there are enough other threads.

Hallo, wo kann man öffentlich die WM-Spiele anschauen (auch kleinere Venues).

Mein Wissensstand:

Public Viewing TIWAG-Arena: Alle Abendspiele, freier Eintritt, wg. der Größe kriegt man wahrscheinlich auch bei den Spitzenspielen (GER und AUT abends) einen Platz mit annehmbarer Sicht

Turmstadion Treibhaus: Zeigen laut eigenem Flyer in der Vorrunde nur die Abendspiele von Deutschland und Österreich (und Italien, wohl kein Witz sondern dem Zeitpunkt der Drucklegung des Flyers geschuldet). Also sehr wenig. Dürfte auch schnell voll werden.

Sixty-Twenty: Zeigen verlässlich auch nur Österreich und Deutschland (zu Öffnungszeiten)

Erfahrungen und zusätzliche Optionen gerne willkommen.

UPDATE (12th July): Elias from the newsletter/website offers a comprehensive guide of public viewing in Innsbruck

Most podcasts are not out yet, which is annoying because I want to listen to a preview before the tournament starts....

Well my favourites from the past:

Guardian Football Weekly: Usually have groups together. Some international experts and obviously a special interest on the British Teams.

The Totally Football Show: Also English, but also with very good international experts.

BBC Football Daily: Number three of the big English football podcasts...actually even more England-centric....but they had good previews in the past.

Rasenfunk (in German): My favourite...their preview is very long, but thorough. Also it is not group by group; if I remember correctly the last time (Euros) they gave marks between 0 and 10. They boycotted the Qatar World Cup, but I don't think they will boycott this one.

What do you think?

Which outsider do you think will reach the round of 16.

I define an outsider who is by betting markets not tipped to reach this round.

So the top 16 to reach the second knockoutstage according to one provider are:

Spain, England, France, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Morocco and Uruguay.

My suggestions would be Turkey and Ecuador.

Hi, I love to listen to football on the radio...for several reasons...the main one being that I can be active myself while listening to the sports coverage. My experience from past tournaments and also from online research is, that the following stations provide live coverage of entire games. I limit my list to stations broadcasting in English, German, French and Italian, as those are the languages I understand.

English

BBC 5 Live: Very good, but alas geo-restricted who are not in the UK.

Talk Sport: Very often not geo-restricted, according to their website they offer amplified coverage of the games

CBC: Canadian channel, never listened to it, but should also cover the cup.

German

WDR Event: Not clear how many games they will broadcast, but for sure the Germany games and possibly many more. Very good coverage.

Italian

Rai Radio 1 (Sport): Both the main channel and its sport channel - which very often run on simulcast - provided live commentary of most games in the past. I guess even with Italy not in the World Cup, this will be the case. However it will probably be geo-restricted.

French

RMC: Offer amplified sports coverage; I find it a bit unnerving, that they have three-four commentators for one game and that they shout a lout - especially for France games.

RTBF Viva Sport: I am not sure about them, but in the past they provided coverage, sometimes just taking the audio commentary out of the television feed.

Feel free to add or comment; also stations in other languages might be of interest for others in the community.

As we are now well into the season, it starts making sense to watch the UCI Rankings. While I am not very interested in which team will finish first, as this has no real consequences, I deliberately don't call this thread "Relegation watch". Because the three year cycle is only one of the features of the UCI rankings; the battle for WT (and hence GT Wild Cards) and the battle for the Top 30 (and hence the possibility to get a wild card for a Grand Tour) is also very consequential for the teams concerned.

The story so far:

• I said I don't want to look a the three year cycle too much. This said, the dismal performance of Team Picnic and already a deficit of 2,500 points to Rank 18 is noteworthy.
• Cofidis is doing really well and on its way to secure one of the three top spots for PRT-teams.
• Interestingly it is close between Pinarello and especially Tudor and Unibet for the remaining places. One would have expected more especially from Tudor as they are a big budget team in the second league.
• All four Spanish PRT teams are in the top 30. The battle for next years Vuelta Wild Cards is fierce.
• Bardiani had a bad start and is well outside the top 30, while their competitors Solution Tech and Polti are well inside. Notably Solution Tech and Euskaltel (both outside the Top 30 in 2025 and so without Grand Tour participation this year) have stepped up.