This week James and Will are joined by Harry Tanfield. Born and raised in Yorkshire, Harry started racing aged 10, and having caught teams' attention with strong performances at races like Junior Paris-Roubaix, he turned professional aged 20 with JLT Condor. ProConti racing turned WordTour after a landmark season in 2018 that saw a silver at the Commonwealth Games time-trial, a British National track title and World Cup wins on the track plus an all-important stage win at the Tour de Yorkshire, making him the first Yorkshireman to win a stage of the race. The following year Harry joined WorldTour Team Katusha-Alpecin on a two year contract, but by the end of the season the team had folded. A few more unsettled seasons followed with moves to AG2R in 2020 then Qhubeka for 2021, but by 2022 Harry was back racing ProConti with Ribble-Weldtite, TDT then Saint Piran. Then, in 2025, he reacquainted himself with Ribble as part of the Ribble Outliers gravel team, for whom he still rides.

In this chat, Harry talks about the good old days of elbows-out crit racing, mulls over the British race calendar’s seeming implosion, speaks candidly about his tumultuous time at the WorldTour and how he handled team collapse and personal tragedy, plus what the gravel scene offers to riders coming from the road.

Our chat begins at 6.19

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This episode is brought to you by the Hammerhead Karoo GPS bike computer. Visit hammerhead.io and use the code CYCLIST to get a free HR strap with every purchase (just be sure to add the strap to your cart then apply the code at checkout)

This episode is also brought to you by the Maserati Grecale SUV car. For more information, go to maserati.com for more details

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Did you know Cyclist is also stunning monthly print magazine?

Subscribe now at store.cyclist.co.uk/cycpod and get every issue for less than in the shops, delivered straight to your door

And it's also a rather lovely website about everything road cycling and gravel. Check us out at cyclist.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Will and James are joined by Castelli and Sportful’s global brand manager, Steve Smith. Steve grew up in Portland, USA, where he – like most of the city he says – worked for Nike for 10 years. But in 2000 he decided to make a bold move to Italy, to live the bella vita with a job at Sportful. Four years later parent company Manifattura Valcismon bought Castelli, and in the years since Steve and his team have been responsible for some of the biggest game-changers in cycling, from creating some of the earliest, wind-tunnel designed aero kit to the now infamous Castelli Gabba, which revolutionised foul weather cycling gear and spawned a whole new genre of clothing along the way.

In this chat, Steve explains how those early aero jerseys sparked a mutiny within Castelli’s sponsored pros; the day Castelli blew everyone’s minds – including the race commissaires – with turquoise shorts; what the fastest kit would really look like if riders could only put it on properly; what changes in the law around PFC chemicals have really meant for cycling clothing; and how waterproof kit actually works – and why some jackets lose it, while others will be waterproof forever.

Our chat with Steve begins at 10.34

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This episode is brought to you by the Hammerhead Karoo GPS bike computer. Visit hammerhead.io and use the code CYCLIST to get a free HR strap with every purchase (just be sure to add the strap to your cart then apply the code at checkout)

------------------

Did you know Cyclist is also stunning monthly print magazine?

Subscribe now at store.cyclist.co.uk/cycpod and get every issue for less than in the shops, delivered straight to your door

And it's also a rather lovely website about everything road cycling and gravel. Check us out at cyclist.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Robyn and James are joined by WorldTour pro Zoe Bäckstedt. Born in 2004 in Pontyclun, Wales to British track champion Megan Hughes and Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Bäckstedt, there were only two ways Zoe’s life (and sister Elynor’s for that matter) could have gone – cycling or cycling. So she burst onto the scene as a teenager, winning multiple junior world titles in road, track and cyclocross, before turning pro with EF Education-Tibco-SVB in 2022.

The following season saw her big move to Canyon//Sram zondacrypto, where she took her first pro win a season later with a stage at the Simac Ladies Tour. A string of top results and showings has followed across all three cycling disciplines, but at just 21 years old, colleagues, managers and pundits are all sure of one thing: Zoe’s best is yet to come.

In this episode, Zoe talks about how her multi-discipline abilities have converged on Classics specialist; how dad Magnus and mum Megan have made her the rider she is, along with the British rain; why, despite the chaos and carnage, Paris-Roubaix is still her favourite race; and just how difficult it is to play boardgames in a family that's so competitive.

Zoe's chat begins at 7.38

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This episode is brought to you by the Hammerhead Karoo GPS bike computer. Visit hammerhead.io and use the code CYCLIST to get a free HR strap with every purchase (just be sure to add the strap to your cart then apply the code at checkout)

------------------

Did you know Cyclist is also stunning monthly print magazine?

Subscribe now at store.cyclist.co.uk/cycpod and get every issue for less than in the shops, delivered straight to your door

And it's also a rather lovely website about everything road cycling and gravel. Check us out at cyclist.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.