Gary & Graham bid a tearful farewell to Sausage Roll Studios with extra helpings of rambling nonsense.  Thanks, listeners - it's been great fun.

We are half way through the Vuelta, so what better time to express ill-founded opinions on Frome's performance & Dan Martin's riding style.  We look at the final round of the MTB World Cup and indulge in idle speculation surrounding rider transfers.   

In this episode we break the mould by bringing you our Vuelta preview before the race has even started.  Gary brings you the MTB news since Graham was too lazy to even bother watching it.  We discuss JTL's epic bender and conclude that he's a very silly boy!

In this episode we wrap up the last few stages of the Tour.  We chat about the latest round of the MTB World Cup and round up the biking action from the Commonwealth Games.  Danny's PR faux pas (what's French for faux pas) and Graham's Malaysian adventure feature in our general-stuff-catching-our-eye segment.

We're well into the 3rd week of the Tour - what better time to bring you our preview of Week 3 and to tie up the standings on the second rest day, which was 3 days ago.  Yup, business as usual for the VCDL Cycling Podcast.

Yup, it's Tour time and in a break with tradition we bring you our Tour preview show - before the race has even started!  Beer is drunk, nonsense is spouted, rash predictions are made.  We also tackle yet another "gate".  This time it's Millargate - was JV correct to leave St Dave out of his Tour squad?

Ahead of the Tour, what did we learn from the Dauphine & the Tour de Suisse?  What does the departure of Belkin as a sponsor tell us about the marketing benefits of sponsoring a cycling team?  What could the UCI (or SKY) have done better in their handling of TUE-gate?  Is Manon Carpenter the revalation of this year's downhill scene? These are just some of the questions that probably remain unanswered despite an hour or so of rambling on the matter.

It's film night & book night here at VCDL Towers as we review Marco Pantani: The Accidental Death of a Cyclist and Steve Peat: Won't Back Down.  We go old skool with a couple of good, old-fashioned, paper-based books, the first of which is Volume 4 of the consistantly excellent Cycling Anthology and Etape, the latest offering from Richard Moore.

We decide to add our voices to all the static surrounding the great Wiggins/Froome debate.  We look at what we learned from the last week of the Giro and as is now the norm, we preview the Dauphine after it has already started.  There is some talk of XTR Di2, the Scottish Commie Games team & the Tour Series and we finish off with a roundup of the latest rounds of cross-country & Downhill from Albstadt & Fort Wiliam respectively.

A Giro-centric episode looking at the first 2 weeks of the race and looking forward to a mental final week.  We discuss the Stage 16 controversy & ask whether this was a race or a freak-show (or whether the riders are just jessies!) Mountain bike action comes from Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic and there is more rambling nonsense in our (even more) unstructured segment of general stuff catching our eye in the last fortnight!

In this episode, given that the race has already started, it seems like a perfect time for our Giro preview.  Rash predictions about riders & stages abound.  We also reflect on Ireland's relationship with the race in its opening stages. There is some random waffle in our snappily-titled general-stuff-catching-our-eye-in-the-last-fortnight segment, and we look back on a highly successful Women's Tour.

Really?  So soon?  Yes - barely 2 weeks after unleashing our last ramblings, we bring you more nonsense in the shape of an Ardennes round-up, the latest from the MTB World Cup in Cairns, and a review of Faster by Michael Hutchinson in our VCDL Book Club segment.As this that wasn't enough/too much, we have a new quick-fire segment which sees our nonsense dished-out in double-quick time.

Having forgotten to record any new episodes due to watching the cobbled classics, we finally get around to catching up with all the action so far.  We apologise to the entire population of Norway & we bring you a round-up of the start of the 2014 MTB season.

In this edition of VCDL Extra, Graham chats with renowned cyclocross photographer Balint Hamvas and reviews the recently completed season.  Meanwhile, Gary hooks up with Rowan Mackie of the Scottish Bike Show to hear about his exciting plans for this year's event.

So much racing to catch up on that Graham mixes up his Stijn Vandenberghs with his Sep Vanmarckes whilst recalling previous Classics.  A quick roundup of Oman, Andalucia & Algarge before we dive headlong into Openings Weekend & some Boonen-love.  Gary delves into the issues surrounding the promotion of women's cycling as we discuss the gathering momentum around this aspect of the sport.

In this episode we look back at the Tour Down Under & the recently completed Dubai Tour.  Is it still too early to predict how the season will pan out?  We look back at the life & legacy of Marco Pantani on the 10th anniversary of his tragic death and we round up the results from the cyclocross World Championships.

We start 2014 with a look at the Tour Down Under & the first full-on sightings of this year's team kit. Despite being utterly unqualified to do so, we comment on their style (or lack of it.)  We look ahead to the TDU and we look back at the British National Cyclocross championships.  Finally, pull up a chair as we delve into the VCDL book club.

Our latest 5-Star iTunes review suggested of the pod that since it's the off-season, "It'll probably go rubbish for a bit."  Just to prove the reviewer right, we bring you a pod full of off-season rubbish.  A cloak of mediocrity woven from threads of purest shite.  Oleg Tinkov and Bjarne Riis get our attention.  Frank & Andy Schleck get Gary's unwanted & slightly creepy attention, and we are worried about cross-country MTB.

Fight! Fight! Fight!  Gary & Graham have a square go over the Hesjedal / Garmin debacle.  We calm down enough to discuss Rod Ellingworth's Project Rainbow in the VCDL Book Club & we give our thoughts on the 2014 Tour De France route.

In this episode we are all over the place like a Grand Tour winner avoiding the dope testers.  We start out by looking at the World Championships - what do they really mean, and were we right to liken Team GB's performance  to a Spinal Tap album?  Rodriguez washes away the disappointment of his World Championships with a repeat win at Il Lombardia & we round up the unedifying spectacle of the UCI election process.

Lifted from our post-Tour funk by a wonderful Vuelta, and brilliant Tour of Britain & the prospect of a great World Championships, we find enough aimless & ill-informed waffle to fill a whole 100 (yes 100, count them) minutes.  We (almost) set aside our cynicism when discussing Horner & Valverde, we revel in the "stated goals" of Sir Wiggo in the Tour of Britain & we make the wildest of stabs in the dark to decide who might win the World Championship Time Trial & Road Races.

Venga, venga, venga!  It's Vuelta time and we spend part one discussing the race so far & just why we're not huge fans of the 86 year old chris Horner.  Part two see us round up the mountain bike World Championships & admit that if we'd had a crash as bad as Eva Lechner, our bikes would be going on Ebay & there would be no chance that we'd attempt to finish a race.

In this episode, we discover that Contador doesn't still ride for Astana!  We bring you our views on the doping "revelations" from the French Senate report & preview the forthcoming Vuelta. In mountain biking news we cover the season so far & bring you a preview of the World Championships in South Africa. Finally, you can find the excellent Cyclocross book by Balint Hamvas at his website and you can get Ned Boulting's new book, On The Road Bike, at all good literary outlets! (Or at Amazon)

After sitting on our backsides watching the Tour for 3 weeks we felt it was time to sit on our backsides and talk about the Tour.  So in the middle of an alpine-like thunderstorm in Sausage Roll City we bring you our 2013 Tour de France review.

In this episode we are live from the British National Road Race Championships in Glasgow.  We also bring you our factually-suspect Tour de France preview and we bring the mountain bike season bang up to date.

We made it to 50 & in this episode we round up the Giro & discuss the "hard questions" which, it seems, have to be asked after every Grand Tour win these days.  We add nothing of value to the news that Sir Boo-Radley Wiggins will not defend his Tour de France title & we look forward to the start of the downhill season at Fort William.

In this episode we look at the opening week of the Giro & ponder who are the real men and who are the big girl's blouses (not wanting to disrespect women, of course!)  We are growing slightly weary of the Wiggo & Froomey Tour leadership spat & we welcome the return of the Cross Country MTB World Cup.

In this episode we demonstrate some unabashed man-love for Fabian Cancellara & his successes on the cobbles.  We sound a note of caution about writing off Sky's attempts at the Classics & Gary demonstrates some motherly concern for Andy Schleck.  Graham's ranting ensures that the pod will never be sponsored by Giro, makers of the Air Attack helmet & finally, we discuss the controvery surrounding Nairo Quintana & the "came from nowhere" comments.

In this episode we are jam-packed with races.  Between one day Classics & stage races, there is an incredible amount to talk about.  We also hook up with Scottish Bike Show organiser, Rowan Mackie, who tells us about the show's move to the brand new Sir chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow.

Enthusiasm levels are definitely rising in Sausage Roll Studios as Classics season starts in earnest. We discuss what was left of "Openings Weekend" after a Europe-wide snowfall put paid to Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, leaving us with Het Nieuwsblad alone. We look at the modern classic that is Strade Bianche and we look ahead to Paris-Nice & Tirreno-Adriatico. Gary gives us the lowdown on the Track World Championships & we look at the new offroad kid on the block, Enduro.

It's a 'cross special with photographer Balint Hamvas who gives us his insight into the recently ended season, the World Championships & his work following the sport.  Ceck out his brilliant work at http://cyclephotos.co.uk/ where you can pre-order his 2012/2013 book.

In a show broadly devoid of any talk of pharmaceutical malfeasance, we discuss the departure of Rocky Roads (who?) as the title sponsor of the MTB World Cup, Gary's frustration with Paul Kimmage and yes, some actual bike racing!

In this episode we avoid the subject of Lance completely.....well, after the first 50 minutes or so.  We express a degree of lethargy towards the Tour Down Under & visit the VCDL Book Club.

In this episode, we temporarily crawl out of our off-season funk and Night-Nurse induced drug haze to bring you all manner of nonsense currently swirling around in our brains. In the purest example of self-generating content, we talk about what happened when we talked to someone!  Not just any someone, however, only just flippin' Graeme Obree, who we had the pleasure of interviewing during a Q & A session at Ronde in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. We made mention of the excellent Eddlestone via Shiplaw blog by Andy Shaw, who took some great pictures of Graeme on the night. We discuss the strange "forgotten man" tag that surrounds Carlos Sastre, and come to the conclusion that it is neither accurate or deserved. Finally, we chat through the recent Change Cycling Now conference and the resultant Charter of the Willing which they published.  Is it the catalyst for change or the catalyst which will result in the true catalyst for change emerging?

In this episode we have a roundup of the season & nominate our rider, team & race of the year.  We have some more discussion about Sky's zero-tolerance policy & finally, we have in interview with Mike Jardine of rare Managment, who is just back from helping to put on the mountain biking test event in China.

Part 2 of our interview with Brian Smith where he tells us about his own career, from his early days at ACBB to his time with Motorola in 1994.

In this episode of VCDL Extra we bring you Part 1 of our interview with Brian Smith of Endura Racing, recently merged with Net App.  Brian tells us about his work with Cervelo Test Team and subsequently Endura Racing, and gives us some great insight into rising star Jon Tiernan Locke.

In this episode, we bring you a farce based on evidence from serial perjurers and those who were coerced through threats & sweetheart deals.  Yup, with only one story in town, we just couldn't ignore it.  We also discuss how Sky (and other teams & riders) have dealt with the fallout.  Finally we look at how Team Sky came across in the recent documentary series, The Road to Glory.

In the first of our Extras, Gary speaks to mountain biking superstar Tracy Moseley about her somewhat varied 2012 season.

To celebrate 2 years of the VCDL Pod, we have tweaked our format a bit.  Fear not though, it's still the same cosy, fireside fan-chat between Gary & Graham as this week they discuss the UCI Road World Championships, Tyler Hamilton's book, The Secret Race & the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup season.

In this episode we wrap up the Vuleta and we preview both the World Championships & the Tour of Britain.  We do our best not to avoid the unavoidable subject of Lance Armstrong's recent USADA sanction and the release of Tyler Hamiltons' book.  We then turn our attention to the mud with a round-up of the 2012 Mountain Bike World Championships.

There is SO much cycling going on at the moment - where to start?  Well, we start by wrapping up the Olympic track results & move on to the Vuelta.  Can Sky support Froome?  Is he truly a pure climber?  Just two of the questions that we will probably not satisfactorily answer! We then bring back some mountain biking news after a long hiatus with results from the World Cup & the Olympics.  Getting more local for once, Graham bigs-up (or should that be big-ups) the Isle of Bute Cycling Festival

Breathless & slightly inebriated after 4 weeks of wall to wall cycling action, we bring you our Tour de France final thoughts. We also chat about the Men's & Women's Olympic Road Races and as many irrelevant side issues and shockingly poor gags as we can shoehorn in.   We also announce the winners of our Tour de France fantasy league, with a random prize courtesy of our pal Gary at Rothera Cycling.

It's the first rest day of the 2012 Tour de France.  Find out how wrong our pre-race predictions were and see if we can make any more wrongerer ones!

It's our 2012 Tour de France preview, jam-packed with ill-informed opinion, reckless predictions & downright anti-Spanish racism.  You would expect no less from us!

In this episode, we round up the Dauphine & the Tour de Suisse.  We have a great interview with the official photographer of Team Sky, Scott Mitchell. We also bring you all the mountain biking news from our great weekend at the Fort William World Cup & Gary has an interview with spanner legend Monkey Vasquez.

In this episode we round up the Giro with talk of Thomas de Ghent's stunning breakaway victory on the Stelvio & Hesjedal's win in the overall.  We ask whether Garmin have come of age as serious Grand Tour contenders. We also discuss the Tour of California and another step along the road to greatness by Peter Sagan. We bring you news of the Cross Country & Eliminator from La Bresse and the Downhill from Vale di Sole as well as looking forward to a great weekend in Fort William.

In this episode we discuss the continuing transformation of Wiggo in relation to his performance in Romandie.  We also get ourselves up to date with the Giro and admit that, despite what other think, we really don't hate the Tour of California. In mountain biking news we bring you results & chat from round 2 of the Cross Country Eliminator & Round 3 of the Cross Country in Nove Mesto Na Morave in the Czech Republic.

In this episode, we discuss (what else) Tom Boonen’s rampant victory in Paris-Roubaix against a field of nobodies (if you believe certain cycling fans and/or Roger de Vlaeminck). We discuss the Ardennes Classics & chuck out some rash (but not really that rash!) predictions for Liege – Bastogne – Liege. We bring you some audio from the Scottish Bike Show, including Mike Jardine, the organiser of the Fort William World Cup, who has kindly offered 2 pairs of full-access weekend tickets as a prize for lucky pod listeners.  We also chatted to Mark at Singletrack Magazine who gave us the low-down on the exciting changes in the look and feel of the magazine.  Finally, we caught up with the company that produce Gary’s favourite bit of bike-cleaning kit, Purple Harry.  In mountain biking news, we wrap up the frites-fest that was Houffalize and bring you news of the first ever World Cup Cross Country Eliminator, making sure to gratuitously drop the name Tracy Moseley wherever possible!

In this episode we are out and about.  We attended an exhibition of work by the excellent cycling artist Richard Mitchelson, held in Ronde, a bike shop with a difference, in Edinburgh. We also had a chat to Rowan Mackie of the Scottish Bike Show to find out how things are shaping up with just 2 weeks to go. We round up part one of the Classics season & discuss Boonen's brilliant win at the Ronde Van Vlaanderen.  In mountain bike news, we discuss the opening round of the World Cup at Pietermaritzburg and the coverage provided by Red Bull.