In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast we speak to Rod Ellingworth, the man in charge at WorldTour team Bahrain-McLaren, about the uncertainty of the last few months and the imminent resumption of racing. Ellingworth admits that the pay cuts imposed on his team have made his job difficult, but he also reveals that he spoke to Chris Froome, who is set to leave Team Ineos, about joining Bahrain-McLaren for 2021. In this episode we reveal that Froome has agreed to join Israel Start-Up Nation. Lionel Birnie, Daniel Friebe and Richard Moore also discuss the first unofficial race in Belgium and the protocals put in place by cycling’s governing body, the UCI, to manage health and safety before major racing resumes at the end of the month. And we hear from Greg LeMond, the three-time Tour de France winner, in an excerpt from the latest Friends mini-series, ‘My first Tour de France’, looking back at the 1990 Tour. The Cycling Podcast is supported by iwoca and Science in Sport This episode is sponsored by the Wattbike Atom The next generation Wattbike Atom is an evolution of the award-winning smart bike, with an electromagnetic resistance motor for a smoother and more realistic ride. The Atom improves your performance in real time with precision data and analysis, reading your data 1000 times per second for an accuracy level of +/- 1%. To find out more: https://wattbike.com/gb/product/atom My first Tour de France In the second episode of a four-part series for friends of the podcast, Richard Moore remembers the first Tour he watched from the roadside, in 1990, in the company of Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe. We hear from the winner of the race-defining first stage, Frans Maassen, and three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond. To sign up as a Friend of the Podcast go to our website. BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS Last month we were named as a finalist in the British Podcast Awards for the fourth consecutive year. This week we heard that our latest book The Grand Tour Diaries is a finalist in the cycling category at the British Sports Book Awards. The winners of both awards will be announced next month. Go to our online shop to buy a copy of our book. OUR NEW CLOTHING RANGE We have teamed up with Katusha to produce The Cycling Podcast Collection. The launch range is a cycling jersey and a t-shirt in both men's and women's cuts. To check out the range go to our website. OUR SPONSORS

iwoca became The Cycling Podcast’s title sponsors in March 2020. Iwoca specialises in supporting small businesses and can lend between £1,000 and £250,000. Applications can take only a few minutes to complete and they promise a fast and fair decision. To find out more, go to iwoca.co.uk

Science In Sport is The Cycling Podcast’s longest-standing supporter. It’s a relationship that stretches back to the 2016 Giro d’Italia. Listeners can get 25% off Science In Sport’s range of energy drinks, bars, gels and cakes at scienceinsport.com with the code SISCP25