The Cycling Podcast

Richard Moore and Lionel Birnie are joined by guest host and former Team Sky and Katusha-Alpecin professional Ian Boswell to discuss today's racing in three countries.

It was a day to celebrate for Slovenia and one to commiserate for Jolien D’Hoore. We start in northern Spain, the Basque Country to be precise, where the Vuelta a España got underway.

Primoz Roglic picked up where he left off in Madrid last year – in the leader's red jersey – after he won the opening stage. It was a brutal start to the Vuelta, with the overall battle already reduced to a dozen or so contenders. We know for certain that former Vuelta winner Chris Froome and French hope Thibaut Pinot are out of the overall picture already.

Then it’s the the Belgian coast for the Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne which is, logically enough, a pair of one-day races held on consecutive days now. Today it was the turn of the women and there was a controversial relegation for Jolien D’Hoore, who won the sprint finish only to be relegated for an illegal move in the finish straight. Was it the right decision or was she hard done-by?

Finally, we pick up the Giro d’Italia, which resumed after its rest day with the news of a couple of positive coronavirus tests – one for Fernando Gaviria, a teammate of our diarist Joe Dombrowski. We unpick another Slovenian victory and Ian weighs up the overall hopes of his former teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart.

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

We’ve also agreed a collaboration with Laka – a community of cyclists co-operating to provide insurance cover for their bikes and insurance. Listen to the episode to find out more or go to laka.co.uk