This episode is the first in a three-part series examining the lasting importance of the 1986 Tour de France, 40 years on.

It's available here for a limited time, as well as ad-free for our Friends of the Podcast subscribers. Sign up at thecyclingpodcast.com

In 1986, Channel 4 – a relatively new station – broadcast nightly highlights of the Tour de France for the first time in Britain.

From the opening refrain of Pete Shelley's brilliant theme tune, the studio set with its view of a Soho street in central London, the Tour coverage left a huge impression on anyone who saw it. The half-hour show took viewers on the perfect summer road trip around France. The commentary sounded like it was coming to us from the future. It ushered us in, night after night, explaining this strange sport's history, customs and etiquette gradually before leaving us bereft on the Champs-Élysées until the next summer.

In this episode, Graham Willgoss speaks to Phil Liggett, the commentator when the Tour first hit British screens. And Lionel Birnie talks to James Venner, the son of Brian Venner, who was responsible for putting cycling on TV in the UK. James later spent more than two decades working as a producer on the ITV coverage of the Tour.

We hear how the Tour captured our hearts in '86, created the first great cycling boom in Britain, led eventually to live coverage of not just the Tour but many other races and also inspired a generation of journalists and writers, including, in many ways our KM0 episodes.

This episode was produced by Adam Bowie. Artwork by Lionel Birnie, featuring the old Channel 4 title imagery.

Join Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss for a three-week adventure taking them from Barcelona to Paris, following the 2026 Tour de France.

The Cycling Podcast has covered the Tour with daily episodes recorded at the heart of the world’s biggest race. Our nightly episodes recap the stage action with analysis, interviews and plenty of French flavour.

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Paul Seixas's first Tour de France has been the subject of feverish expectation, and the wait was finally over when the 19-year-old phenom rolled down the start ramp in Barcelona on Saturday.

In part two of our Tour-long series — not just following Seixas but also exploring the reasons for France's 41-year drought in cycling's crown-jewel event — Daniel Friebe chronicles what turned into a baptism of fire, with mechanical mishaps, teammates crashing and, of course, those furnace-like temperatures.

The good news for Seixas, as the Tourmalet loomed, was that nothing he'd done so far had dampened the hype. In fact, quite the opposite...