On Friday, the first Grand Tour of the season rolls out from Bulgaria, not Italy – and, as always, we’ll be there, on the ground, to bring you all the action from the Giro d’Italia.

This year’s “Corsa Rosa” starts here, with our race preview and the troika who’ll take you on the journey to Rome over the next three weeks: Daniel Friebe, Brian Nygaard and Michele Pelacci. Before sinking our teeth into the Giro, though, we discuss the first big headline of the week: Paul Seixas’s announcement that he’ll be riding the Tour de France.

It’s then time to talk about the Giro, focusing first on the favourites, then moving into the beautiful canvas upon which Jonas Vingegaard et al. will hopefully create cycling art over the next three weeks.

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2026 Girovagando selection:
You can buy this year’s Girovagando wine selection here: https://dvinecellars.com/products/cycling-podcast-giro-26.
The wines with corresponding stage numbers are as follows:
Stage 3: Mixtape Red, Georgiev & Milkov, Plovdiv (red)
Stage 4: Tenuta del Conte, Calabria Rosso, Calabria (red)
Stage 5: Vigneti del Vulture, Pipoli, Aglianico del Vulture, Basilicata (red)
Stage 10: Bianco 'il Terraio’ Paterna, Tuscany (white)
Stage 14: Les Crêtes Mon Blanc, Valle D’Aosta (white)
Stage 20: Braida Antica Blanc, Russolo, Friuli Venezia-Giulia (white)

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Every year, as the Giro d'Italia approaches, we ease into our coverage with an episode that has — ostensibly — nothing to do with racing bikes. Any listeners with a passing interest in wine, stay with us. Everyone else, there are plenty of other episodes in our build-up to the Grande Partenza that will be more up your strada.

The Cycling Podcast has been on the ground at every Giro since 2016, and the lesson we keep relearning is that these races can't really be separated from the places that host them. The culture, the land, the things it grows and makes — all of it is part of the story. It was with that in mind that we headed to D Vine Cellars HQ in London last week for the unveiling of our 2026 Girovagando selection (link to buy and list of wines in the shownotes below), with Greg Andrews the master of ceremonies.

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2026 Girovagando selection:
You can buy this year’s Girovagando selection here: https://dvinecellars.com/products/cycling-podcast-giro-26.
The wines with corresponding stage numbers are as follows:
Stage 3: Mixtape Red, Georgiev & Milkov, Plovdiv (red)
Stage 4: Tenuta del Conte, Calabria Rosso, Calabria (red)
Stage 5: Vigneti del Vulture, Pipoli, Aglianico del Vulture, Basilicata (red)
Stage 10: Bianco 'il Terraio’ Paterna, Tuscany (white)
Stage 14: Les Crêtes Mon Blanc, Valle D’Aosta (white)
Stage 20: Braida Antica Blanc, Russolo, Friuli Venezia-Giulia (white)

Friends of the Podcast
Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episodes every month plus a back catalogue of more than 300 exclusive episodes.

The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).

The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.

The Cycling Podcast is on Strava

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

The spring Classics campaign has come to an end and the Giro d'Italia is just around the corner. To bridge the gap between the two, and with Daniel Friebe absent as he prepares for the Giro, Lionel Birnie is joined by Tudor Pro Cycling's Larry Warbasse to wrap up the first part of the season, look ahead to the first Grand Tour of the year and react to some huge sponsorship news which may help Ineos Grenadiers challenge for the Tour de France once again.

In part one Larry updates on the Tour of the Alps, where he and a lot of riders were fine-tuning their form ahead of the Giro and one of his teammates made a rapid and successful transition from speed skating to elite level cycling with a stage win. He also talks about his version of the all-day-breakfast and heat training indoors.

In the second part, Lionel reports back from the big reveal which confirmed a new title sponsor for Ineos Grenadiers. From the Giro d'Italia they will be Netcompany-Ineos thanks to backing from a Danish IT company that is pumping in a figure thought to be around €100m over five years. The target is for the team to win an eighth Tour de France in the next five years, but its the introduction of Netcompany's AI software, Pulse, which makes this more than just a sponsorship deal. Pulse, which is used at several major airports, including Heathrow, will be used to help the team make 'better decisions more often'. We ask whether its use can extend beyond logistics and training and start to influence racing strategy and tactics.

In the final part, we tie up all the loose ends from the spring and turn our attentions towards the Giro before handing over to Daniel and co for daily coverage of the Corsa Rosa, which starts in Bulgaria on Friday, May 8.

Image courtesy of Netcompany-Ineos.

Follow us on social media:
Twitter @cycling_podcast
Instagram @thecyclingpodcast

Friends of the Podcast
Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episodes every month plus a back catalogue of more than 300 exclusive episodes.

The 11.01 Cappuccino
Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am).

The Cannibal & Badger
Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in.

The Cycling Podcast is on Strava

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