Team Time Trial and Error
6/10/20261 hr 10 min
Who would have thought it possible to take such a deep dive into a team time trial stage? Join Lionel Birnie and Graham Willgoss as they recap the story of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes – the race formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné – so far.
After two entertaining wins from the breakaway to kick things off, the 'new' team time trial format finally captured the imagination, perhaps because it's a dress rehearsal for the opening stage of the Tour de France in Barcelona in a few weeks' time.
How did the teams stack up against e...
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First 90 secondsGraham Willgoss· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome to the Cycling Podcast and our build-up to the 2026 Tour de France. Rolling through a fair few cerebral vertical meters with me, Graham Willgoss, is the king of the gray matter mountains of Not-Watford, Lionel Birnie.
Lionel Birnie· Host0:33
Wow, we've gone intellectual already. [laughs] Uh, we're setting the bar high here, Graham.
Graham Willgoss· Host0:38
It's always getting the intellectual out the way before we descend into, well, the opposite of intellectual with our- The, the, the infantile and puerile.
Lionel Birnie· Host0:46
No, we'll try and keep it sensible, won't we, this week, Graham? Um, the Tour de France is looming. We've had three incredible days of racing at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. A big ping for getting that right first time.
Graham Willgoss· Host0:59
Interesting.
Lionel Birnie· Host0:59
No mention of the, the Dauphiné, the now-defunct name, even though everything is screaming in my head that, "No, it's a Dauphiné, it's a Dauphiné, it's a Dauphiné." But, uh, no, we're respecting the name of the race as it currently is, and this is attitude camp. Uh, I don't know what the equivalent of an Everest attempt in attitude is, but, uh, considering Paul Seixas and his preparation for the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes was a mammoth training camp in Sierra Nevada. He spent 16 days there,