All set for the grande partenza

Daniel and Brian have arrived for the start of the 2023 Giro d'Italia

by Lionel Birnie

In this week’s episode – our XL Giro d’Italia Preview – Daniel asked Brian and I what we think of when we think of the first grand tour of the season.

Both of us had similar answers. The Giro d’Italia marks the transition from spring to early summer, with all the unpredictable possibilities that entails. The weather can be blazing hot one day, freezing cold and rainy the next. And yet there is an unmistakable smell in the air at this time of year which, combined with the warmth, the bright early summer sunshine and the pink of the Giro, makes for a vibrancy that, to my mind, eclipses the other two grand tours.

Our daily coverage starts tomorrow (Saturday) and Daniel and Brian will be in Ortona in Abruzzo to report on the first showdown between the two pre-race favourites – Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglič.

The unpredictable nature of the Giro, and this time of year, is such that Roglič’s Jumbo-Visma team has already had to reconfigure its line-up twice before the first stage. The world time trial champion Tobias Foss and Robert Gesink were ruled out with Covid, and were replaced by Rohan Dennis and Jos van Emden. Then Van Emden was also ruled out and replaced by Sam Oomen, adding a degree of uncertainty to the support Roglič will be able to rely on.

The battle between Remco and Rog gives us plenty to look forward to but there’s so much more to the Giro than that, and our coverage – again masterminded by Daniel – will take us on some surprising and delightful detours as the race makes its way to Rome. I’ll be dialling in to give an armchair viewer’s take on the race but I’m already experiencing FOMO – the fear of missing out – especially as dinner time approaches.

As well as the daily shows after the stage, we’re hoping to bring back the Press Conference episodes on the two rest days. If you have a question about the Giro this week, please record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at contact@thecyclingpodcast.com

Our Kilometre 0 series, released three times a week, will be available for Friends of the Podcast subscribers, although the first episode will also be on the free feed. If you are a Friend of the Podcast but have any issues adding the feed to your device (perhaps you’ve got a new phone) there are instructions on how to add your feed in a few simple clicks here. Scroll down to the FAQ section where it says: I’m already a subscriber but I’ve changed my phone / deleted my feed. How do I re-add it?

So, we’re all set, more or less. Daniel is probably in the queue at the car hire place as I write this. Brian, I hope, will take my advice to segregate the back seat so the car doesn’t become a general airing cupboard for Daniel’s running kit. And tomorrow, they’ll be reporting on the time trial. Will it be first blood Remco? Or 1-0 Rog? Tune in to find out.

Stacy’s Giro cups on sale tomorrow (Saturday)

Earlier this week, Stacy Snyder sent us a WhatsApp message with the first photo of a finished Giro d’Italia cup. I was going to say hot out of the kiln, but I’m not sure that’s correct pottery terminology.

Anyway, it’s a moment that heralds the start of the grand tour season every bit as vividly as the opening bars of Cozze by Amaraterra, or the day we turn all our social media logos pink, or when Daniel starts talking about about wine.

Stacy had sent us some rough designs and consulted us on a few things but our input was minimal, on the basis that we believe it’s better to leave art to the artist.

But the first thing I noticed about this batch of cups is the neat addition of a little date mark under the handle which says GIRO 2023.

Of course, everyone will be eager to know when the collection goes on sale. Go to Stacy’s Etsy page on Saturday, May 6 at 10am US east coast time, which is 3pm in the UK and 4pm CET.

Stacy has made one batch for the Giro, consisting of mugs, smaller European-sized cups, and gelato bowls. Be quick, because every batch sells out quickly. If you miss out there’ll be a collection each for the Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes and Vuelta a España later this summer.

Since our collaboration with Stacy began in 2019, a portion of the proceeds has gone towards a worthy cause, usually one nominated by you, our listeners, and selected by us.

The money collected from the sale of the 2022 mugs will go towards a cause commemorating and celebrating our late friend and co-founder Richard Moore.

This year, we are going to again ask listeners to nominate a suitable cycling-related cause that deserves a bit of a financial helping hand.

Below is a list of all the causes that have benefited from Stacy’s creativity and generosity of spirit so far…

Giro 2019: Kelly Catlin Fund and Ride for Charlie

Tour 2019: West Lothian Cycle Circuit and David Carey Scholarship Fund/Star City Cycling

Vuelta 2019: The Bike Project and Andy’s Man Club

‘Our Giro’ 2020: Scuola Ciclismo Cene, near Bergamo

Tour 2020: Media Pitchounes and Joy Riders London

Giro and Vuelta 2020: The Black Cyclists Network in the UK and The Bahati Foundation in LA

Giro 2021: Marina Romoli Onlus Foundation and Masaka Cycling Club

Tour 2021: Brain Tumour Research

Vuelta 2021: Phoenix Bikes

The Grand Tour Diaries: Girovagando 2022

You may remember a few years ago we published two books – A Journey Through the Cycling Year and The Grand Tour Diaries – documenting our travels at cycling’s biggest races.

Yesterday, I published the first instalment of my 2022 Giro d’Italia diary, covering the grande partenza in Hungary. It’s available to those of you who have chosen to sign-up for a paid subscription to The 11.01 Cappuccino, and additional chapters will be released over the duration of this year’s race.

The weekly update (the one you are reading now) will continue to be free, either as an email direct to your inbox or on the Substack website or App.

As with the Friends of the Podcast programme, it’s in addition to our commitment to keep our core content free for all to enjoy. Some listeners choose to subscribe as a Friend of the Podcast because they want to listen to the episodes, others do so as a way to support The Cycling Podcast. The theory is the same. It’s completely optional and if it’s not for you, that’s absolutely fine – please continue to enjoy our free output.

However, the media landscape continues to evolve all the time. In our case, a major two-year sponsorship has just expired, and so we are exploring ways to ensure we can keep our free episodes free.

Our back catalogue: Ten years of podcasts

Did you know that the entire back catalogue of free-to-air episodes is available on our website?

Most major podcast apps cap the number of episodes on the feed to the most recent couple of hundred, which means that the vast majority of our archive – over 1,300 episodes stretching back to June 2013 – is a little harder to find.

There’s a playlist on our website which contains every episode we’ve ever released *

Listener Neil Gough posted on Facebook to say that he has gone back to the beginning and is working his way through the archive in order, starting with our very first episode, recorded in a London park in June 2013 a week or so before the Tour de France began. After that, Richard and Daniel headed to Corsica and we had the first appearance of Ciro Scognamiglio. I missed the Grand Départ because I went to the Glastonbury Festival but I joined the team in Nice for stage four. Also during that Tour was the first guest appearance by Orla Chennaoui and a host of other voices who will now be familiar to listeners.

I asked Neil what possessed him to want to roll the clock back almost a decade and listen from the start.

‘I think the main thing is that I only came across The Cycling Podcast just as we all went into the first lockdown [spring 2020], and immediately I fell in love with the content, the camaraderie and everything I was learning from the world of cycling and beyond, as I listen to all versions of the show,’ he said.

‘When Richard passed, for a long time I couldn't comprehend that it had happened or why it had affected me so deeply, especially as I'd never actually met any of you.

‘Part of my processing of this included revisiting each of your Friends Special interviews and reading Richard’s books, particularly Slaying the Badger (and The Bolt Supremacy), and I found so many similarities in my life to what each of you had encountered with cycling when growing up, albeit that you followed a dream and I ended up behind a desk in the financial services peloton.

‘It really resonated with me and brought back my memories of rushing home to watch the Tour on Channel 4, or imagining I was riding my own Tour de France stages (which I always won), or packing all my stuff into panniers and setting of for youth hostels all over the south of England. The Cycling Podcast brought all these things back and reignited my passion for cycling so much that I went out and bought a new gravel bike.

‘Even nine stages in [to the 2013 Tour episodes] I am struck by the building rapport of the three amigos and I can’t wait to hear more. Having already met Ciro I await with anticipation the first appearances of other familiar voices. Given the sheer volume of material, it’s a long journey I’m undertaking but I’m well stocked with SIS energy gels and believe I’ve done the training necessary to sit for hours and listen.’

* The exceptions are, of course, our Friends of the Podcast episodes and the Kilometre 0 back catalogue from 2015 to 2019, which is also on a separate feed available to Friends of the Podcast subscribers.

Vinovagando

Greg Andrews and the team at DVine Cellars are shipping cases of the Girovagando Selection now and reports are they are flying out of the door.

The case of six wines has been matched to the 2023 Giro route, more or less, and tell the story of the journey around the country from Abruzzo to Rome.

Last week, to kick-off our Giro coverage, Daniel recorded the now traditional wine episode in which Greg and Luciana Girotto explained the choices.

You can buy a case direct from DVine Cellars.

The six wines are:

– GIRA, Passerina d'Abruzzo 2019, Cantina Rapino, Abruzzo

– Falanghina Del Sannio 2020, Cantina Del Taburno, Campania

– Sincero 2021, Cosimo Maria Masini, Tuscany

– Boca 2012, Davide Carlone, Piedmont

– Recantina 2021, Serafini & Vidotto, Veneto

– Frascati 2019, Castel de Paolis, Lazio

Cozze by Amaraterra

So, to get us all in the mood for the Giro, how about a full rendition of our theme tune by the excellent London-based pizzica band, Amaraterra. You can find their 2022 album Malvasia on Spotify too.