As if to reinforce our status as uninformed halfwits, less than 24 hours after recording our celebratory Episode 50, with Graham singing the praises of Mauro Santambrogio of Vini Fanitni, news broke of his positive for EPO.

“What a complete twat”, we say.  (And Santambrogio’s not much better either!)

Anyway, we made it to 50 and we celebrate by rounding up the Giro & its “wonderful” performances.  We also discuss Wiggins’ withdrawal from the Tour de France & we wonder just how much support Sky will get from the British armchair fans with Wiggo out of the equation.

We review the opening 2 rounds of the Cross Country MTB World Cup & look forward to Round 1 of the downhill at Fort William.

So we’ve been doing this podcast thing for 2 ½ years now – or almost 50 episodes. In that time we’ve evolved from fans with microphones to – erm – fans with microphones that quite a lot of you seem to like listening to. And we like that you like listening to us.

Over the last 49 episodes we’ve discussed many races, offered many opinions, spoken to many people and gleaned their opinions too and from time to time listeners will email or Tweet us and say, “You should do some commentary.” Of all the (occasional) plaudits we receive, this is the one that is met unequivocally with the response, “No we shouldn’t.”

The UCI World Tour started its annual migration across the globe in Australia back in January and the season has wended its way to Brescia (as of yesterday) via the likes of Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya, the Ronde Van Vlaanderen and the Tour of Romandie with assorted Classics thrown in for variety and good measure. Like me, you have no doubt enjoyed watching these and other races thanks in part to commentary teams like David Harmon and Sean Kelly, Rob Hatch and Brian Smith, Carlton Kirby and Dan Lloyd, Declan Quigley and Brian Smith, Declan Quigley and Sean Kelly, Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen and Hugh Porter and – er – Brian Smith. At no point in watching any of these World Tour, Tour Series, semi-Classics or whatever have I ever uttered the words “we could do that”.

One of the many joys of being a podcaster is that we get to talk about cycling, offering opinions on the stories of the day or week. We speak about races usually with the benefit of a few days’ grace following the end of that race, by which time the talking points have emerged, the controversies have been digested and the discussion is well under way. That discussion is invariably shaped by other people – journalists – and is something that has always bothered me to some extent: people think we’re “informed” talking about stuff that Daniel Friebe, Lionel Birnie, David Walsh, Richard Moore, Rupert Guinness, Will Fotheringham et al have already prepared. Call it an OBE – Other Buggers’ Efforts.

Of course, these guys aren’t commentators, but what of Messrs Harmon, Kelly, Quigley, Smith, Liggett, etc? Theirs is an entirely different craft, one which when performed well, balances the immediacy of relaying what’s happening Right There, Right Now with the research and investigation of a “normal” journalist.

This past week has seen me attempt to follow 4 races (or 2 races and one series) on Eurosport and ITV4. Declan Quigley and Sean Kelly have covered the Giro d’Italia for most of the 3 weeks (I’m sure Brian Smith covered the early stages with Declan), which the increasingly brilliant Rob Hatch has covered the Tours of Belgium and California with Smithy. Over on ITV4 the reassuring tones of ex-BBC stalwart Hugh Porter and – yes – Brian Smith are also covering the Tour Series. Depending on your preference, each pairing has its apparent flaws: Quigley is bumbling, Kelly is too laid back, Smithy’s too Scottish, Hatch is apparently arrogant (ah, dontcha love Twitter?!), Hugh is too old and let’s not forget that Phil and Paul are mates of Lance Armstrong’s.

Ned Boulting, writing in Volume II of The Cycling Anthology puts a slant on the commentator’s role:

“The media landscape is broad and varied. Each outlet… services a separate need, and answers to a subtly different mandate… The voice of the commentator is the accompaniment to the action, to spot the names we might otherwise miss, fill in the gaps we may not even know are there, and to reflect (and augment) our own thrill at the spectacle.”

Of course, different commentators bring different aspects to that accompaniment. Brian Smith brings a wealth of knowledge and recall that bewilders me and Rob Hatch’s ability to spot individual riders in the mayhem that is those final kilometres as the sprint trains jostle for position is perhaps second only to David Harmon’s. Hugh Porter is still the voice of track cycling to me and having heard him whip up the crowd at the Glasgow round of the Revolution Series, I will accept no substitute in that context (although the BBC have forced me to from now on). And what of Phil and Paul? Well, Graham and I are divided on the issue post- Lance. He reckons they lack credibility now, while I don’t care and take comfort in their reassuring tones and Paul’s blatant use of the Tour road book. I return to Ned and my still-fresh copy of The Cycling Anthology:

“For the few seconds in which an athlete, any athlete, corrupt or pure, is blasting clear to win, the race is all that matters…

“Those are the precious seconds when the accelerating cadence finds its mirror image in Liggett’s rising intonations. There is, to my mind, not one commentator out there who can match him when it comes to calling a finish. It is a great skill.”

I actually think it’s an extraordinary skill, practiced by a few good and even fewer great commentators. Could I do it? Not on your life. Now stop asking.

Volume 2 of The Cycling Anthology is published by Peloton Publishing and available from www.cyclinganthology.com

Cycling quite obviously lends itself to photography. Men and women doing heroic stuff on bikes, framed by epic backdrops of various Alps, velodromes, Pyrenees, Dolomites  muurs and bloody sunflowers. Roadsides teeming with devils, mankinis, Dirk Hofman and those guys with American football gear while riders battle it out shoulder to shoulder or count down the lonely final kilometres in a desperate bid to keep the peloton at bay. There’s probably not much that hasn’t been photographed in a century or so.

So I was mildly surprised to find that author and friend of the Pod, Richard Moore was working on a pictorial history of the Tour de France ahead of its 100th outing this July. After all, he’s not a photographer.  I was, nonetheless, quietly delighted to see a pile of the results of that work – Tour de France 100 – emerge from his suitcase at the recent Scottish Bike Show.  I even bought my own copy…

So what of Tour de France 100? Moore was granted access to the Getty Archive and – as he told us recently – wanted to tell a story of a Tour less ridden. In this age of “new media” where any fan with a smartphone can take a decent shot and run it through Instagram and transmit it to the world in seconds, there is a refreshing poignancy in some of the images in this book. There’s Maurice Garin riding into Longchamps to win the inaugural Tour, a grainy full-page shot of Octave “Assassins!” Lapize pushing his rig (and, let’s be honest, that’s what we were talking about then) up the Tourmalet in 1910. The “quality” of the images is not necessarily in their composition or lighting, but in what they show.

As you’d expect, the photos are predominantly black and white, not in a moody, über-cool Rapha sense but simply because that’s what was available at the time. But that often serves to illustrate the things that make a Grand Tour – well – grand. One picture shows Firmin Lambot riding up the Galibier in 1920 and the starkness of black and white serves to illustrate the desolation of the Col at that time. With no baying crowds, no names painted on tarmac roads and just a rough track on a scorched mountainside you begin to get a sense of what an undertaking those early Tours were.

Throughout the book, Moore narrates tales and anecdotes from across the 100 editions: we read about Henri Pelissier falling foul of the race organisers’ clothing rule and remonstrating with Henri Desgranges in 1923. We associate Mont Ventoux with Tom Simpson’s tragic death in 1967 (indeed there’s a jarring image of Mister Tom receiving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation) but Moore writes of Jean Malléjac’s near identical incident during the 1955 visit to the Giant of Provence, collapsing in the heat, doped on amphetamine. He also writes of Louison Bobet’s nerves ahead of the same stage. “I don’t feel well, not well at all…” He attacked on the Ventoux and won the stage.

Indeed incidents in the Tour have a habit of returning to haunt the race. We see Roger Rivière being tended to after a crash on the Col de Perjuret in the 1960 race. Riviere hit a low wall while descending off the Col and would spend the rest of his short life (he died of throat cancer, aged only 40) in a wheelchair. The similarities with Fabio Casartelli’s fatal crash off the Col de Portet d’Aspet in 1994 will not be lost on any cycling fan.

As a student of the modern era, one thing that also struck me was seeing the riders’ eyes and in that, seeing the pain. Remember, Oakleys didn’t appear until the late 1980s. Anecdotes of Jacques Anquetil destroying all that lay before (and ultimately minutes behind) him are one thing, but the black and white images show haunted eyes and sunken cheeks tell a story of suffering too. That said, Fausto Coppi looks the epitome of cool in his shades!

What of that modern era? The usual suspects are all there, albeit in perhaps unseen guise. Bernard Hinault smiling (yes, really), Pedro Delgado skulking from doping control in 1988 and – yes – Lance Amstrong gets a look in too. As Moore points out, he can’t simply be erased from the pages of the Tour’s history, but suggests that perhaps the years 1999-2005 should be known as “the asterisk era”.  Interestingly, there’s only one image of Floyd Landis throughout – not on his banzai solo break into Morzine on Stage 17 of the 2006 race, but rather the day before on that disastrous climb to La Toussuire.  Who knew then at that moment of the significance of what was unfolding?

One final thought on an excellent book that deserves your attention: headlines become fact over the years (Simpson’s “put me back on my bike”, for example) and what actually happened on the road gets lost in hyperbole and the need to tell a good yarn. So, to stage 15 of the 2010 edition on the road to Bagnères-de-Luchon. Or “Chaingate”. We all know that Andy Schleck’s chain shipped on the climb and Alberto Contador stuck 42 seconds into him. Bet you don’t remember that it was actually Alexandre Vinokourov who was on Schleck’s wheel when it all went wrong tho’. That’s what Tour de France 100 does. And there’s not one sunflower in it either.

Tour de France 100 is published in hardcover by Bloomsbury. You can have a peek here.

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 controversy surrounding Nairo Quintana & the “came from nowhere” comments.

In this episode, we are jam-packed with racing news. The single-day Classics & semi-Classics mingle happily with the multi-day stage races & we struggle to stay on-topic for 2 seconds!

From Dan Martin’s win in Catalunya to Peter Sagan’s wheelie in Ghent-Wevelgem, it’s all here (well, bits of it, and not necessarily in the right order).

We also have our old pal Rowan Mackie of the Scottish Bike Show to tell us about the show’s exciting move to the shiny new Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

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.

Picture by http://www.kramon.be/

In this episode of VCDL Extra, Graham chats to cyclocross photographer Balint Hamvas. He gives us his insight into the recently ended season and the World Championships in Louisville, as well as some background on his own work following the ‘cross circus.

There is some tech-talk about disk brakes & electronic shifting, some jingoistic reveling in the success of the British women and some discussion of the evergreen Sven Nys, still strong at 36!!

You can pre-order Balint’s 2012/2013 book at his website, Cyclephotos where you can also look at some of his terrific work.

Having almost forgotten we record a regular cycling podcast, we return unabashed with a show broadly devoid of any talk of pharmaceutical malfeasance.  Things also get bumpy for the UCI as we examine the departure of Rocky Roads (who?) from the title sponsorship of the Mountain Bike World Cup, while Gary’s takes the absolute hump with Paul Kimmage.  Somewhere in there we also manage to chat about – wait for it – yes, some actual bike racing!  We kid you not…

In this episode, we completely ignore any talk about Lance Armstrong and his interview with Oprah Winfrey (pictured)…….well, after the first fifty minutes or so.

We also discuss the untimely death of rising star Burry Stander in a training accident in his native South Africa.

We attempt (and clearly fail) to muster up some enthusiasm for the Tour down Under and have a cosy fireside chat as we bring you the latest installment of the VCDL Book Club.

Gary mentioned the excellent Spokey Dokey Blog and Graham forgot to mention the latest episode of the marvelous Dig In series (probably because he’s still narked at missing the race with a cold!)