In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by former Classics stalwart Mitch Docker and the journalist Richard Abraham, as we look back at last weekend’s pre-Ronde van Vlaanderen appetisers, the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem. Friday saw the latest masterclass from Mathieu van der Poel in E3, which underlined his status as the outstanding favourite for De Ronde. Forty-eight hours later, though, Mads Pedersen’s victory over Van der Poel in Gent-Wevelgem led some to wonder whether Lidl-Trek had happened upon the perfect blueprint for defeating the Dutchman - not that the strategy will be easy to implement on Sunday. In the final part of the podcast, we hear from a rider for whom just being on the startline on Sunday will represent a personal triumph - the Dane Michael Valgren, whose career was almost ended by a horror crash in the 2022 Route Occitanie. Babbel Learn a language the fun, easy way with intuitive 15-minute lessons you can do when you want. Choose from 14 languages including Spanish, French, Italian and German. Get six months free with the purchase of a six-month subscription at Babbel.com/play with the promo code CYCLE24. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast The 11.01 Cappuccino Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am). MAAP The Cycling Podcast x MAAP collection is available now. Go to maap.cc to see the full MAAP range. Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to more than 100 exclusive episodes. Our latest, four-part KM0 special, ‘Classicissima: Springtime in Sanremo’ is available on the Kilometre 0 for Friends of The Cycling Podcast feed now. The Cycling Podcast is on Strava The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.