Service Course by The Cycling Podcast, with Tom Whalley and Keira McVitty, returns for its second episode with a focus on gravel riding and how this trend – in professional races as well as for amateurs on weekend rides – is affecting equipment choices. 

Keira tries a new gravel bike as she and Tom tackle a local circuit with off-road sections, and we hear from mechanics at the Tour de France – from the Mitchelton-Scott, Sunweb, CCC and EF-Education First teams – about how the introduction of gravel roads at the Tour and other World Tour races is influencing equipment choices. These mechanics also tell us what they think about the 6.8kg weight limit on professional racing bikes. 

Tom speaks to Sam Pickman of Allied Cycles, one of the newest and most admired makers of beautiful handmade bikes, and we hear about the equipment choices of Jonathan Rankin and Matthew Falconer for the Transcontinental Race, which both took part in over the past week.

Service Course by The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science in Sport.

This episode is sponsored by Komoot, the world's top route planning and navigation app and the No.1 outdoor app in Europe. It enables millions of cyclists and hikers to experience more of the outdoors with its highly detailed yet simple to use planning interface combined with a community-generated recommendations of local highlights. It makes route planning and navigation easy so you can spend more time exploring. Sign up, plan a route on Komoot and enjoy the outdoors. 

Komoot are offering listeners to The Cycling Podcast a free regional map bundle of their choice. You can save your routes for offline use, use turn-by-turn voice navigation, even track rides in flight mode. The voucher code is CYCLINGPOD. Redeem Gift | Komoot - Cycling & Hiking App