French One-day Races and Marseille Finale Changes

With the racing hotting up all over the pro cycling world, we return with the same Friebe-Birnie-Hatch trio as last week to review the latest action and talking points. 

The biggest news story of the week was ASO’s decision to hand Spanish outfit Caja Rural a Tour de France wild card at the expense of the Unibet Rose Rockets. We discuss to what extent Caja’s place on the startline in Barcelona is justified and the case for the opposition i.e. the Rockets.

One man who’ll certainly be heading to the Tour, barring accident, is Remco Evenepoel. His three wins in his first three outings for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe in Mallora augur well for the rest of season. Daniel’s question is: could Remco even be the man to ruin Tadej Pogačar’s Sanremo dream?

Another candidate for that role, of course, is Mathieu van der Poel. He won his eighth world cyclocross title at the weekend, which has us wondering about the Winter Olympics extending his career in the discipline.

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The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.