🎩THREAD
Remco Evenepoel is seeking to leave Soudal-QuickStep, various close sources have informed RadioCycling, with the world champion unhappy about the team’s future direction and doubting if they can support his ambitions, such as winning the Tour de France in 2024.
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Bahrain Victorious have confirmed to RadioCycling at
#TDF2023
that they will permanently honour Gino Mäder by stitching his name into all future jerseys for the rest of the team's existence. The slogan
#RideAsOne
will be replaced with
#rideforGino
.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Ineos Grenadiers and Soudal-QuickStep merge together in Barcelona, with RadioCycling understanding that both teams are rather awkwardly sharing the same Vuelta a España hotel until Sunday morning.
Early 2024 team meeting taking place in the conference room?
🇫🇷 Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme has confirmed to RadioCycling that the 2024 race will visit the Alps as early as stage four, after its Grand Départ in Italy. “One way or another, we’re going to have to go over the Alps like we did the Pyrenees this year."
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This is the fruit stand outside
@LidlTrek
's bus. They'd like to give the fruit to fans/journalists. One problem: ASO have banned them from doing so.
Why? Leclerc, sponsors of the Tour, are a rival of Lidl, thus they're not permitted to hand out apples and pears 😢
#TourFruitWar
✈️RadioCycling understands that one of the two chartered
#LaVuelta23
flights from Murcia to Valladolid had to land in Madrid due to heavy rain, wind and a lightning storm. They were then transported three hours by bus to Valladolid, not arriving into hotels until just before 3am.
🗞️Bahrain-Victorious general manager Milan Eržen has told RadioCycling that he is actively searching for a second title sponsor, bemoaning that the team’s finances “are far away from those four or five teams at the top.”
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We understand that Evenepoel’s camp have contacted a number of teams after concerns over QuickStep’s finances. Evenepoel also doesn’t believe his wage compares with that of his peers. It's thought he earns no more than €4m after bonuses, compared to Pogačar’s reported €7m.
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Ineos Grenadiers are the clear favourites to sign Evenepoel and met with his representatives last autumn. But RadioCycling understands that Israel-PremierTech are also a genuine possibility, with Evenepoel’s camp having very close relationships with Israel staff members
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THREAD
A RadioCycling investigation has revealed details of the UCI’s inconsistent and irregular motor-doping tests, despite the sport’s governing body stating that it "carries out bike tests *at all* UCI WorldTour events…as well as... [at] UCI Women’s WorldTour events.
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One close source to Evenepoel said: “It will all come down to money… and his current contract underpays him. Patrick Lefevere needs to adapt his contract or risk conflict.”
Evenepoel has a contract until the end of 2026 and we understand there are no breakout clauses.
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Despite rumours linking both Lidl-Trek and Bora-hansgrohe to Evenepoel, senior sources at both teams said they haven’t opened up discussions with the 23-year-old. Multiple sources have confirmed that any transfer would be a “package deal” involving Specialized.
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🎩THREAD
So last week Alberto Contador claimed that Remco Evenepoel joining Ineos Grenadiers was an “open secret” and that Ineos would swap Pinarello for Specialized bikes from the 2024 season.
Is that really true? We’ve done some ringing around and here’s what we know.
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Signing Evenepoel, however, is not easy. Despite reports to the contrary, sources have confirmed that all outstanding bonuses have been paid, therefore there is no contract breach. Patrick Lefevere told RadioCycling: “I don’t owe €1 to anybody. Everything is paid.”
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That means the only possibility for Evenepoel departing is if someone buys out his remaining contract, something that is likely to cost in excess of €10m. Lefevere insists that he won't sell.
He also rubbished claims Ineos owner Jim Ratcliffe could buy QuickStep’s licence.
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🇨🇦Despite multiple reports to the contrary, Michael Woods (
@rusty_woods
) has confirmed to RadioCycling that he is not without a contract for the 2024 season.
He has a contract until he retires with Israel-PremierTech, likely to be at the end of the 2025 or 2026 season.
🚨THREAD🇸🇦
RadioCycling understands that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is part of the proposed new league that promises to revolutionise and change cycling forever.
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🎩
@radio_cycling
understands that the U23 road program run by
@BritishCycling
will not continue in 2024, with the national governing body facing a severe shortfall in its budget. That means no Tour de l’Avenir, for example, affecting the next Thomases, Yateses and Pidcocks
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😲 These comments from Pascal Baudron, the organiser of the Tour Féminin des Pyrénées that escalated into chaos, are quite something.
Do you think Baudron and co. should be allowed to run a bike race again?
👇
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🚨THREAD
RadioCycling has learned that most, if not all, of the 18 men’s WorldTour teams have, in the past week, received a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) relating to the One Cycling project.
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🎩
A
@radio_cycling
investigation has found that several federations will not be fielding riders in races they have entrants for at the
@CyclingWorlds
in Glasgow in August due to the “astronomical logistical costs”, including visas that cost £100pp, and hotels £300 per night
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Find out much more about this transfer saga in the latest RadioCycling podcast, where we go in-depth with a series of explainers. We also hear directly from Lefevere and Ineos boss Dave Brailsford.
👇
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🚨Reports have linked Primoz Roglič with a potential move to Bahrain-Victorious, but the team's general manager Milan Erzen told RadioCycling just 10 days ago that even though he counts his fellow Slovenian as a friend, he had no plans to try and sign him.
🏴 "Geraint is an icon of the sport. As always he is a hero."
@INEOSGrenadiers
DS Oli Cookson tells RadioCycling that
@GeraintThomas86
will bounce back from his
@giroditalia
heartache.
Apple:
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💥 Exclusive:
@TeamDSM
will be relaunched in mid-June as DSM-Firmenich, with a rebrand and new kit in time for
@LeTour
and
@giro_donne
.
@cmbell310
will have all the scoop's details, including what it means to the team's finances, in episode 3 of RadioCycling, released on Friday.
🚨A decision on Mark Cavendish’s future is expected within weeks, Astana-Qazaqstan have told RadioCycling, with the chances of the Briton remaining in the peloton in 2024 rated as “50/50”.
👇
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🇨🇭 American journalist
@derailleurkate
got to know Gino Mäder really well, and she pays this moving tribute to him during the RadioCycling special celebrating his life.
👇
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🇨🇭Gino Mäder was a wonderful human being, one the cycling world continues to grieve for.
@derailleurkate
spoke to Gino about politics, injustice and the joys of life, interviews we played in this RadioCycling special
Apple
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He also spoke about the UK-wide bid to host the start of the 2026 race. RadioCycling reported in June that the bid team was optimistic. “We have met several times [with the UK] and there’s a great project,” he said. It's believed the proposed route would begin in Edinburgh.
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The first flight - which departed Murcia only 15 minutes before the second one - did arrive safely in Valladolid, but they too were greeted with torrential rain and a lightning storm.
🎙️ RadioCycling Special celebrating the life of Gino Mäder.
🇨🇭We remember the courteous, thoughtful and worldly young man, playing clips from
@derailleurkate
interviews with the Swiss.
His memory will live on.
Apple:
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🎺Some call
@JumboVismaRoad
's Thomas Gloag the politest man in cycling. Some called him the happiest man on Monte Lussari. We call him the w̶o̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶best musician in cycling.
Trust us, this is a worth a listen.
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🎙️RadioCycling is dropping its weekly output to one episode a week after a busy five months reporting from various races.
🔜We will return to two (or more?) episodes a week in the future.
👀We've got plenty of good stories in the works, including one very big one pretty soon.
“You have to go very far north to find roads… or you have to go by the sea and we’re not going to do that. So the idea is to put in climbs that will make a selection but that won’t be too definitive… so next year, yes, we’ll have the Alps after Italy.”
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🚴♂️Did you know that since RadioCycling's launch in May, we have regularly been cited in The Guardian, L'Équipe and AS?
🎙️2024 business partnerships with cycling's fastest and most engaged podcast are now available.
📒Follow and send us a DM for our media pack.
🚴♂️
@LeTourFemmes
looks set for an August date and a start in Brittany in 2024 to avoid a clash with the Paris Olympics.
@jeremycwhittle
reveals more details on the latest RadioCycling.
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We also reveal details of an explosive letter that has been sent to Plugge from other WorldTour teams part of the AIGCP, expressing their deep mistrust of him, and their unhappiness. As it stands, many teams are opposed to the new league and One Cycling.
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💪
@Eganbernal
almost lost his life in Jan 2022. The fact he's riding
@LeTour
is not just a miracle, but a sign of his incredible strength - physical and mental.
He tells the latest RadioCycling of his pride.
👇
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RadioCycling understands that the team’s budget is around €30m per year - which is less than half of the reported budgets of Ineos Grenadiers, Jumbo-Visma and UAE-Team Emirates. A new sponsor would add between €10-12m.
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⛈️The inclement weather continues to disrupt the Vuelta a España with the start in Mataró affected by a power cut. Riders are being presented to the dozens of fans without background music or fanfare, and the announcer screaming at the top of his voice.
Prudhomme also confirmed that “it wasn’t planned that there would be three foreign Grand Departs in a row” but refused to say if the previous strategy of alternate years would return. “For us, there’s the desire to raise the profile of the Tour de France by going abroad.”
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Additionally, x-ray technology - the UCI’s best weapon to combat mechanical doping - was not used once at the season’s first Grand Tour.
Although testing was regular at the Tour de France, there were no magnetic tablet or x-ray tests on the race's stage 21 in Paris.
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🚨NEW RadioCycling
🇸🇦Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) heavily linked to new multimillion dollar cycling league
3⃣Three years of planning
🚴♂️Six major teams behind the plans
👍UCI on board and in favour
👇
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Bahrain had a co-title sponsor in 2019 and 2020, but McLaren pulled out due to financial cuts brought on by the Covid pandemic. “We are always looking and we are working on this to bring a second title sponsor,” Eržen said.
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🇬🇧This is a powerful statement from
@jeremycwhittle
.
Why hasn't the management of Team Sky and British Cycling assumed responsibility for what happened on their watch in the 2010s? And will they ever?
👇
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🇸🇰 Today, Peter Sagan races his last ever stage of the Tour de France. A legend of the Tour.
🥇 - 12x stage wins
💚 - 7x green jerseys
What made the three-time world champion so good?
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Following various tips off in the peloton about the lack of testing taking place, RadioCycling can now reveal that no tests for technological fraud were undertaken at four of this year’s 21 Giro d’Italia stages. This includes the stage 1 and stage 10 time trials.
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The lack of testing is repeated elsewhere.
The Volta a Catalunya, one of the ‘big 7’ one week stage races, has not any had any x-ray or tablet tests since 2021.
The Tour of Scandinavia, a Women’s WorldTour event since 2017, has never had any tests for motor-doping.
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🇨🇴Representatives of Egan Bernal have quashed the rumours linking him with a move to Movistar in 2024. They denied to RadioCycling that Bernal wants to exit, that Ineos want him to leave, and that there has been an approach from Movistar. "For now, no chance," they said.
🇸🇦Saudi Arabia's direct and indirect involvement within cycling keeps on growing.📷
STC, the kingdom's largest telecoms operator, has just become the majority shareholder (9.9%) of Telefónica, the parent company of Movistar.
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We've just ridden the final 40km of
#TDF2023
stage three (a lot tougher than it looks, not an easy sprint to control) and en route we came across a fan of RadioCycling...
It was Didi the Devil!
🚨A RadioCycling news special will be landing on podcast feeds anytime now...
We have exclusive interviews with the key players at the heart of a plan to change cycling forever.
This is big news.
🎙️ The latest RadioCycling takes a break from a news round-up to deliver a special episode on how Russia's war with Ukraine is devastating the country's cycling community.
It's a story that needed telling.
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🙅♂️"Ineos should stop flirting with Remco,"
@PatLefevere
last week told our Bulgarian colleague
@simeonkichukov
.
It appears that tensions between QuickStep and Ineos are high 😬
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The bid proposal, which was formally sent to the Tour organisers ASO in early 2022, includes a stage in Scotland, England and Wales. RadioCycling understands that ASO have visited Wales, and the proposed Welsh leg would be the “showstopping, blockbuster” stage.
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One Cycling, headed by Jumbo-Visma’s general manager Richard Plugge, aims to give teams more revenue from races. They would like a new league consisting of 100-120 race days, with no overlapping events.
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🎙️The latest RadioCycling would usually be in your podcast feeds this Monday morning, but a bout of illness has wiped out 1/4 of the team. We'll be back as soon as possible - and we even have another little exclusive story up our sleeves 👀
For more information on this story, including revelations surrounding bike frames with a high magnetic reading and the dismantling of bikes, listen to the latest RadioCycling podcast.
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Tests were also not carried out on at least one stage of this year’s men’s Tour Down Under, UAE Tour, Critérium du Dauphiné, Tirreno-Adriatico, La Vuelta Femenina and Paris-Nice. In the latter’s case - one of cycling's biggest races - there were no tests on stages 5, 7 & 8.
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🎙️
@petercossins
is a little concerned by the state of cycling right now. Has he got a justification in being a little dubious? Do you agree with him?
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🟠RadioCycling's
@petercossins
is so excited about the Tour de France's start in the Basque Country that he recorded the latest podcast wearing an orange t-shirt celebrating Roberto Laiseka's 2001 TdF stage win and an Euskaltel casquette signed by Iban Mayo & Haimar Zubeldia...
🚲The UCI states that they test for motor-doping at every men's and women's WorldTour race. RadioCycling has found out that this is simply not the case.
Listen to the full exposé on the latest RadioCycling.
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🎙️Here at RadioCycling we're proud of our work during the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes. We hope we've informed and entertained during our podcasts. Our fantastic producer
@BroadBeano
has put together this wonderful montage of our past month. We hope it makes you laugh
🆕RadioCycling
🇮🇱Exclusive:
@IsraelPremTech
owner Sylvan Adams on the risk Gaza war poses to his team
🇬🇧Adams has a message for Chris Froome
🇪🇸Spain's doping case
⚠️Some listeners may find some content distressing
Apple
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Other noticeable points: just four bikes were tested at Milan-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix Femmes, and La Flèche Wallonne Femmes.
X-ray technology was not used once at the Tour de France Femmes, and just six bikes were tested at that race’s final day TT.
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In a statement, the UCI said:
"The UCI’s programme against technological fraud has developed steadily over the years and provides a robust system for the detection of any possible propulsion systems hidden within framesets or other bike components.
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🇬🇧Good news from
@thewomenstour
: the race, which had to be cancelled in 2023, already has venues signed up for next season.
🤞Organisers are trying hard to see it return to the calendar.
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After learning that senior figures at the UCI have credible concerns about the potential use of motors in the peloton, RadioCycling asked 51 men’s and women’s WorldTour races to provide figures for testing. 24 did so; 12 said the UCI had not shared figures; 15 did not reply.
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Everyone at RadioCycling is deeply shocked and profoundly saddened at the loss of Gino Mäder. We send our best wishes and support to his friends and family.
Rest in peace, Gino. ❤️
Just recorded the latest
@radio_cycling
podcast. News bloodhound
@cmbell310
has turned up one hell of a story - nothing to do with mergers I should add, although we do go into that as well. The link will go up later this evening, keep an eye out
🚴♂️ Ineos Grenadiers are the clear favourites to sign Remco Evenepoel should he leave Soudal-QuickStep, but Ineos' boss Dave Brailsford has denied claims they might buy out QuickStep's licence.
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🇪🇸 The Vuelta a España starts in two days, and RadioCycling will be there, on the ground, interviewing riders, DSs, managers and anyone else important. Are there any stories you'd like us to chase? Any riders you want us to speak to? Let us know...
In June 2021, Ineos and Pinarello announced that their partnership - which started in 2010 with the inception of Team Sky - would continue for another four years until the end of 2025.
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Several teams confirmed to RadioCycling that they have or would be signing the NDA, although some teams continued to express their dissatisfaction with the proposal, claiming that it remains a private club of the most elite teams.
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🇬🇧 Is Mark Cavendish set to prolong his contract and ride one more Tour de France? The signs are that he will.
Would you be happy to see the Manx Missile stick around for an extra year?
👇
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"In 2023, a total of 4,280 controls have been performed, with magnetic tablets used for 3,777 of the controls and X-ray technology — either backscatter or transmission X-ray technologies — for 503 controls. All tests were negative.”
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A hat-tip to
@u23cyclingzone
who first reported on this last week. They do great work in covering the U23 scene.
You can listen to the full story in the latest RadioCycling.
Apple:
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A quick rewind: sources have previously told RadioCycling that signing Evenepoel would be part of a package with Specialized, so Contador’s statement wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
In fact, some sources went as far as saying that "Specialized are pivotal to any deal".
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🇧🇪News that Jasper Philipsen has received death threats and abuse on social media has left
@petercossins
angry and upset. How we do make sure cycling doesn't have more cases like this?
👇
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But RadioCycling understands from speaking to various people at British Cycling that the decision has been badly received, and that there is uproar within the corridors at Manchester Velodrome. The only hope to reverse the decision is that the BC membership revolt.
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🎩
Israel-PremierTech boss has said that Chris Froome has “absolutely not” been value for money in his 2.5yrs with the team, stating that: “How could we say we had value for money? We signed Chris to be the leader of our Tour de France team and he’s not even here.”
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One non-EU European federation said they’d be paying upwards of €100,000 for the 10-day event - a fifth of their annual budget. “This is a Worlds that only benefits the richer European nations,” another said.
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🇧🇪Soudal-QuickStep boss Patrick Lefevere says that speculation he hasn't paid Remco Evenepoel's bonuses is completely false, corroborating with what the world champion's camp also say.
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“It all depends on how much someone can pay for this. Everything is open. We have had some discussions with some potential partners.”
For more on this story listen to the latest RadioCycling.
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📺 You can now watch RadioCycling's full, unedited interview with
@IsraelPremTech
owner Sylvan Adams on our YouTube channel.
We discuss the Gaza war, Chris Froome, and his team's security.
⚠️Some viewers may some content distressing.
🇫🇷RadioCycling's
@petercossins
,
@jeremycwhittle
and
@cmbell310
are arriving in Paris today ahead of the Velo d'Or ceremony and the route announcements of the 2024 men's and women's Tours de France.
A special edition of RadioCycling will be available to download on Weds evening.
Just last week British riders Lukas Nerukrar and Bob Donaldson each won a stage at the Orlen Nations GP, the first Nations Cup of the year. One source said that “the UCI will not be happy that one of the best-funded nations will no longer take part in these races.”
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🇬🇧What does Israel-PremierTech's owner Sylvan Adams think about Chris Froome's comments about his bike-set up?
Full interview in the latest RadioCycling.
📷
@swpixtweets
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🇲🇽In the latest RadioCycling, we hear from Isaac Del Toro's coach about his triumph at the Tour de l'Avenir, as well as from
@BiciGoga
on what the historic triumph means for Mexico.
👇
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🎙️NEW RadioCycling
🪫Exposed: the UCI's inconsistent tests for motor-doping that threaten the sport's credibility
🤝Are Jumbo and Quick-Step really going to merge?
🇬🇧Cat Ferguson's remarkable rise to the WorldTour
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In a special RadioCycling episode, we hear exclusively from Plugge, from EF Education-EasyPost’s manager Jonathan Vaughters, and explain more about the proposed league, its format and planned launch date.
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