Re-Cycle: Pippa York and the 'Stolen Vuelta'
In 1985 and 1986, mercurial climber Philippa York twice came one step away from becoming Britain’s first Grand Tour winner – only for a comb...
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Re-Cycle: The cycling history podcast
Welcome to Re-Cycle, by Eurosport – a retrospective series on the most compelling, the most controversial and the most extraordinary riders and races in cycling history. Written by Felix Low...
Episodes
20 of 51 episodes
When Federico Bahamontes gifted the 1957 Vuelta to rival Jesus Lorono
In this episode of Re-Cycle, we re-count when Federico Bahamontes blew a 16-minute lead to hand his big rival Jesús Loroño the yellow jersey...
When Rudi Altig defied teammate Jacques Anquetil to win the 1962 title
In this episode of Re-Cycle, we re-count the time Rudi Altig defied teammate Jacques Anquetil to win the 1962 Vuelta. Frenchman Jacques Anqu...
When Floyd Landis did the impossible on the road to Morzine
In this episode of Re-Cycle, we look back on a ride that really was too good to be true. A day after handing the initiative to Oscar Pereiro...
Eros Poli's historic Mont Ventoux attack: How some quick thinking, a little James Brown and a hot can of Fanta fired a giant to victory
In this episode of Re-Cycle, we’re riding with Eros Poli, a man famous for being the tallest rider in the peloton as well as finishing last...
Abdel-Kader Zaaf: The trailblazing Algerian who rose above racism to outsmart and out-earn his legendary contemporaries
Sunstroke and a bottle of wine made Abdel-Kader Zaaf a household name at the 1950 Tour after he passed out on his bike then, in a daze, rode...
When Rini Wagtmans denied Eddy Merckx to become the accidental yellow jersey
In the first of our 4-stage Tour run of Re-Cycle, Felix Lowe tells the story of the accidental yellow jersey. Eddy Merckx’s bid to wear the...
When Bartali beat Coppi and the Giro unified war-torn Italy in 1946
In this episode of Re-Cycle, Felix Lowe turns back the clock to June 1946, just a few months after the end of World War II. A reduced field...
When Cadel Evans rode through the mud to pip Vino at Montalcino
It’s rightly gone down as one of the most legendary stages in the Giro d’Italia: when the race hit Tuscany’s Strade Bianche amid a deluge of...
'His face was no longer that of a man' - Charly Gaul and an apocalyptic day on Monte Bidone
Luxembourg climber Charly Gaul braved blizzards and frozen temperatures on Monte Bondone to win Stage 20 of the 1956 Giro. By doing so, the...
The legacy of The Lion King | Part Two of the Mario Cipollini saga
Part Two of a Cipollini two-parter. As Mario Cipollini moved towards retirement, his flaws were amplified, his words were heard differently...
When Mario Cipollini broke Alfredo Binda’s Giro d'Italia stage record | Part One of the Cipollini saga
Part One of a Cipollini two-parter. Alfredo Binda’s record of 41 stage wins in the Giro d’Italia stood for 70 years, until Mario Cipollini w...
When Philippe Gilbert owned The Ardennes
For 10 days in the spring of 2011, Philippe Gilbert was invincible. Having won Brabantse Pijl, the Amstel Gold Race and La Fleche Wallone, h...
'Second doesn't exist' - When Backstedt denied Museeuw in his final Paris-Roubaix
Swedish powerhouse Magnus Backstedt felt so strong going toe-to-toe with Johan Museeuw in 2004’s Hell of the North, he even questioned wheth...
'That was my best chance' – When Adrie van der Poel denied Sean Kelly in Flanders
Thirty-four years before Mathieu van der Poel won the Tour of Flanders, his father pipped Sean Kelly to the line. Felix Lowe turns back the...
The ‘toughest bike race ever’: When Eugène Christophe braved blizzards at Milan-San Remo
We’re winding the clock back a bit further this week to 1910 and a spectacle we will never again see in cycling. Before he became the first...
King Kelly’s supreme seven-year reign at Paris-Nice
No one has shone brighter in the Race to the Sun than Sean Kelly, who won seven straight editions after Stephen Roche’s GC victory got the w...
King for a day: When Ian Stannard outfoxed the Wolfpack at Omloop
Re-Cycle is back for a third season - and we kick off with the day Team Sky's Ian Stannard pulled off one of the surprises of the century at...
'Hell starts here' - When Jimenez won the first ascent of the Angliru
The fearsome Angliru immediately became a Vuelta a España legend on its introduction to the race in 1999, when Spanish climber José María Ji...
Fans spat at him, tried to shove umbrellas into his spokes: When Caritoux overcame not just the odds to win La Vuelta by the narrowest grand tour margin
Just when you thought Tao Geoghegan Hart’s Giro d’Italia victory over Jai Hindley was a close-run thing, we rewind to the 80’s and the close...