The Giro d’Italia had a transitional stage for the sprinters and we had a transitional podcast too, with Lionel Birnie joining Richard Moore to recap stage 11.

With sprint finishes in Rimini and in Schoten at the Scheldeprijs, the question is, who’s the fastest? Arnaud Démare – who took his fourth stage victory of this Giro – or Caleb Ewan, who won in Belgium?

We hear from Jacopo Guarnieri of Groupama-FDJ after another seamless leadout for Démare, and from Elia Viviani, who was knocked off by a motorbike, a moment of misfortune that sums up his season.

We also hear from stage eight’s victor, Alex Dowsett, who has settled back into support duties for his Israel Start-Up Nation team, and from Atilla Valter, the Hungarian riding his first grand tour.

With Daniel Friebe absent, no one was available to remind Lionel of the incident at last year’s Giro when they recorded an entire episode of the podcast only to discover that the recording equipment had been on the wrong setting, meaning they had to start from scratch, which in turn meant they missed out on a sumptuous dinner and had to settle for a rushed pizza. Oh, the memories!

Tomorrow night we introduce the first of our guest co-hosts for The Grandest Tour, with former pro Ian Boswell picking up the mic.

The Cycling Podcast is supported by iwoca and Science in Sport.