Explore every episode of the podcast Cycling Conversations with inGamba

What does it take to turn a one-day bike race into a monument? To make a climb so familiar that fans around the world hold their breath every time the peloton turns onto it? Scott Sunderland has spent the better part of three decades figuring that out, first as a professional cyclist racing the cobbles himself, then as a team director at CSC and Sky, and now as general race director of Flanders Classics, the organization behind the Tour of Flanders, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Scheldeprijs, Gent-Wevelgem, and more.

Host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director James Startt sit down with Scott for a conversation about what actually goes into designing a race that works for the rider grinding through it, the fan standing on a Kwaremont switchback in the rain, and the television viewer watching from their living room in Sydney. The answer, it turns out, has a lot in common with writing a great song: you need the chorus, a bit of a lull, and one memorable solo that lands at exactly the right moment.

Along the way: the history of Oudenaarde as a pirate shipping hub, why the Muir was removed from Tour of Flanders and where it went instead, the Westmalle Tripel versus the Duvel debate, and what it means to be a true Flandrien, plus what to expect from the 2027 Tour of Flanders and why you need to join inGamba for the trip! 

inGamba's Cobbled Classics trip puts you inside the race week itself, with VIP access and riding on the race roads. Find the full 2027 calendar at ingamba.pro/trips

Katie Boling has spent nine years in her role at inGamba, but before that, she was already looking for adventure, from racing Ironman to spending two years of backpacking across 55 countries. When she first arrived at our home in Borgholecchi over a decade ago, she knew she’d found her place, and since then, she’s helped build the inGamba community into what it is today.

Host Molly Hurford and creative director James Startt sit down with Katie for a conversation about what inGamba's community actually looks like from the inside, why solo travel is less solo than people expect, and why someday is not a date worth putting on your calendar. The conversation covers the surprising reality that a large portion of inGamba guests arrive alone, and why that often leads to the deepest connections of any trip. Katie talks about the art of matching people to the right group before they even pack their bags, why Women's Weeks have become so important to our calendar, and why the months most people overlook when it comes to cycling— January, February, March — are some of the best times to be riding in Europe.

Find the full inGamba trip calendar and Katie's piece on choosing the right tour for you in the show notes at ingamba.pro.

The UCI Road World Championships have come to North America for the first time in decades, and inGamba was on the ground in Montreal to bring you behind the scenes of the city. Host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director James Startt trade the race bubble for the neighborhood streets of Montreal to put together four vignettes of a city that we’ve come to love. 

First up is Sébastien Arsenault, president of the race organizing committee, who has been dreaming of this event since 2013 and describes the decade of political headwinds, sponsor hunts, and public convincing it took to get here. Then Jake Greenberg of Chez Greenberg, Montreal's hyper-local, Jewish-inspired smoked salmon institution in Mile End. Then Paul's Boutique, a 25-year-old record shop on Plateau with a bright yellow facade and a back room that James calls a goldmine. And finally, Guillaume of Le Club, the pioneering cycling cafe that has become the unofficial Montreal home of the pro peloton, which now runs over 100 community events a year, roasts its own beans, and recently expanded into a full cycling boutique next door.

inGamba's 2027 trip calendar is now live and booking fast. Find all upcoming trips at ingamba.pro/trips

Contemporary artist Zio Ziegler makes the case better than almost anyone that a long bike ride and a long day in the studio can feel the same.

Host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director James Startt sit down with Zio, whose work has shown in museums from Tokyo to Milan to Basel, for a wide-ranging conversation about creative obsession, the discipline of simplicity, and of course, a shared love of the bike. Zio speaks to how his career has been built on constantly outpacing his own aesthetic instincts, from graffiti and street art to the large-scale totemic figures and stripped-back tree paintings. He also gets into why he still struggles to call himself an artist in public, why social media optimizes against the kind of decade-long thinking serious painting requires, and what Jackson Pollock's drip paintings have to do with the mathematics of the human nervous system.

The cycling connection runs deep: Zio loves to ride and has even joined us on an inGamba trip in the past. 

Cover photo: Bryson Malone

He guided Tadej Pogacar to his first Tour de France victory. He helped Mark Cavendish become one of the most prolific stage winners of a generation. He arrived in Belgium at seventeen with $300 from his mother and a bike, and figured out the rest. Allan Peiper may not be a household name outside the sport, but inside it, he is one of the most quietly consequential figures of the last five decades.

Host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director James Startt sit down with the Australian-born directeur sportif, now a strategic consultant to Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe, for a conversation that ranges from sleeping on doorsteps at French amateur team ACBB in the late 1970s to the parking lot at Planche des Belles Filles in 2020, where he crouched behind a car and cried after Pogacar crossed the line. In between: twelve years of cancer treatment, a chemotherapy recovery that ran straight into the most important Tour de France of his career, and a front-row seat to what it actually takes to build a grand tour winner.

The conversation also turns to Remco Evenepoel's second place at this year's Tour, the interdepartmental masterclass that got him there, and why emotional intelligence now matters as much as VO2 max when it comes to identifying and developing talent.

In this episode:

• Leaving Australia at seventeen with $300, and racing the Track World Championships in the US on a borrowed bike—and still getting silver
• What he saw when a nineteen-year-old Pogacar losing his passport in Australia and stayed completely calm
• The 2020 Tour: hiding Pogacar from the race lead, the bike change zone at kilometer 32.6, the junior cassette on Planche des Belles Filles, and why Jumbo-Visma didn't do their recon
• Twelve years managing prostate cancer alongside a career at the highest level of the sport
• What it took to get Remco Evenepoel to the Tour de France as a 2.0 version of himself
• Why VO2 max alone is not enough, and what he looks for instead in young talent

What does it feel like to watch the Tour de France as a spectator after winning it four times? Chris Froome found out this past July, and it turns out it takes him right back to being sixteen years old in a boarding school common room in Johannesburg, watching some of the greats battle through the mountains and thinking: I want to get there one day. Now, he’s on a mission to help other young riders in Africa do just that with the Froome Foundation—and you can help his mission.

Host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director James Startt sit down with the four-time Tour de France champion and seven-time Grand Tour winner just days after his first Tour de France as a spectator, hosting guests on early morning rides with Skoda. We chat about the three career moments that still stand out above everything else, what it was like to run in cycling shoes up Mont Ventoux with a broken bike and the yellow jersey in 2016 compared to  winning on Ventoux in 2013 so completely spent that he had to get oxygen at the finish line.

Then the conversation turns to what comes next: Chris grew up in Kenya, and that connection to East Africa has never left him. The Froome Foundation is now taking shape, with the goal of giving young East African riders access to bikes, education, and a genuine pathway into professional cycling. The foundation's first fundraising experience, a small-group ride through the South of France roads Chris trained on throughout his career, is coming up in August—and spots are still available.

To learn more about the Froome Foundation trip or to inquire about spots, visit: https://ingamba.pro/trip/chris-froome-foundation-private-experience/

The Tour de France is not just a bike race. It is a traveling circus, a moving theater through one of the most geographically diverse countries in the world, and this episode captures both ends of that spectrum: the quiet, often forgotten heart of rural France, and its most mythic mountain: Mont Ventoux.

Host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director James Startt are joined first by Ed Pickering, editor-at-large on our recent issue of The Magazine and author of the Substack "Cycling, the Universe and Everything," for a conversation about La France Profonde, the deep rural interior that the Tour passes through every year between its famous mountain stages. Ed and James, between them covering more than 50 Tours on the ground, make the case that these overlooked flatlands and rolling farmlands are not filler but the true soul of the race: more cows than people, cassoulet in summer heat, and roads suspended in time.

Then Eros Poli, former winner of the Mont Ventoux Tour stage, joins to talk about the mountain that changed his life. His 1994 solo stage win atop Mont Ventoux in blistering heat with no team car support and a can of warm Fanta as his only mid-climb rescue, remains one of the most improbable and beloved moments in Tour de France history. That win, documented in the film Grinta, is now being celebrated at film festivals around the world. Eros shares what the Ventoux demands of anyone who attempts it, and what the Tour de France Femmes riders can expect when they race to its summit for the first time this year.

In this episode:

• What is La France Profonde? Ed and James define the "empty diagonal" that sits at the heart of every Tour
• Why bike racing needs wide open space, and why France has it
• The best things to eat in rural France (cassoulet wins, narrowly)
• Eros on his 1994 Ventoux stage win: the heat, the solo attack, the warm Fanta, and the bow to the crowd
• His advice for riders climbing Ventoux: "The grinta is inside you. You cannot get it from your watch."

Craving France in real life? inGamba's 2027 France expansion adds the Burgundy region to our trip list, and our Provence trip runs regularly. Find everything at https://ingamba.pro/destinations/france/

The most Tour de France victories of any bike brand—and a Louis Vuitton collab that stopped the cycling world in its tracks. This week, host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director James Startt sit down with Fausto Pinarello of Pinarello, and Douglas Ryder, the team manager behind the WorldTour team Pinarello-Q36.5. These men have shaped what winning in style looks like in professional cycling.

In this episode:

• The Pinarello origin story: from a bicycle shop in Treviso to the most decorated grand tour bike in history
• The recent Louis Vuitton x Pinarello collaboration and why fashion and cycling keep finding each other
• Q36.5's heat management strategy for what could be a historically hot Tour de France
• Tom Pidcock: GC contender, stage hunter, and what makes him an unusually mature leader—and sets him apart from other riders
• What to expect from the team in their first Tour de France under the Pinarello-Q36.5 name

Interested in joining an inGamba trip on some of the iconic Tour de France roads? Reach out at ingamba.pro/contact and we’ll help you plan your perfect trip!

What does it feel like to ride through a vineyard and actually understand what's in the glass waiting at the end? That's the thread running through this conversation—and two guests who live at the crossroads of cycling and wine are the perfect people to pull it. Host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director James Startt sit down with Aldo Sohm, multi-time North America's Sommelier of the Year, wine director at Le Bernardin, and author of Wine Simple and Perfect Pairings, and Brian Nygaard, cycling journalist, former press officer and then team manager at Leopard-Trek, philosophy graduate, and winemaker behind his own California label, Oceanic. 

The conversation covers why the bike is one of the best tools for understanding terroir (feeling the temperature drop as you climb from Lecchi toward Radda is worth more than any textbook), how running a World Tour cycling team and running a winery share more DNA than you'd expect, and why our Chianti Classico cycling trip keeps earning its way back onto both their tables. 

In this episode:

• Why cycling and wine culture keep finding each other — generosity, slowness, attention
• Riding as a way to understand microclimate and terroir firsthand
• Brian on being a press officer and then team manager at Leopard-Trek, managing a vineyard through Covid and California wildfires, and launching Oceanic
• Aldo on reading the room: why AI will never replace a good sommelier
• Champagne with steak? Aldo makes the case
• Emerging wine regions worth paying attention to right now
• Rapid-fire pairings for every cycling moment

Find Aldo at @AldoSohm on Instagram and at the Aldo Sohm Wine Bar in New York. Find Brian and his wines at @OceanicWine on Instagram.

Interested in pairing your inGamba trip with a specific wine region or joining Aldo himself on a trip next April? Reach out at ingamba.pro/contact

What does it feel like to show up to your bike already prepped, your route loaded, your tires perfect — with nothing left to do but ride? For the women who joined inGamba's sold-out Calpe women's week this past February, that was just the beginning. Cycling Conversations with inGamba co-host Molly Hurford sits down with two Kates who made it happen. First up is Kate Veronneau, the force behind the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, who joined the Calpe trip as a guest and came away with a new answer to what a pro cycling experience actually feels like. Then co-host James Startt takes over to chat with Katie Boling, inGamba's women's program lead, about how the numbers of women on inGamba trips have climbed past 30% — and what comes next.

Between them, they cover the team-camp energy of 15 women from four continents riding the sun-drenched climbs of Costa Blanca, a private nine-course dinner at a seasonal restaurant that hadn't even opened yet, and why Lecchi in Tuscany and the Algarve coast of Portugal are the next two destinations on the women's calendar.

Kate V. also gives a preview of what to expect from the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift this summer: a route starting on Lake Geneva, a finish in Nice, and a Ventoux stage with 12,500 cyclists on the mountain the day before the women race it.

In this episode:

• What the Calpe women's week felt like from the inside: the riding, the bonds, the best meal of the trip
• Why inGamba isn't a training camp, and why that's exactly the point
• How Katie Boling has helped grow women's participation at inGamba and what the dedicated trips offer
• Upcoming women's weeks: Lecchi, Tuscany (fall) and Algarve, Portugal (January 2027)
• Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2025 preview with Kate Veronneau

Want to join an upcoming women's trip? Visit ingamba.pro/trips 

What does eating alone have to do with riding bikes? More than you'd think—and this episode makes a compelling case for both. Host Molly Hurford is joined by writer Colin O'Brien and inGamba creative director James Startt for a conversation around two features from the new issue of inGamba’s latest issue of The Magazine. Colin's piece "Party of One" is a love letter to the art of dining solo: the freedom, the focus, and why putting the phone away is half the battle. James also takes the group to Siena, a city as close to inGamba's heart as the races that finish there, covered in the magazine by Barry Ryan.

Then Bill Strickland, Editorial Director of the Hearst Enthusiast Group and one of cycling journalism's most celebrated voices, joins for a wide-ranging conversation on what it means to stay in love with the sport across a decades-long career. His piece in the magazine, "The Flow," captures something all three have felt — that state of being fully present on the bike, whether alone on a descent or tucked into an echelon with new friends. They also get into the riders they'd most want to sit down with for a meal.

In this episode:

• Colin O'Brien on the joy of dining alone, and how to actually do it without doom-scrolling
• Siena: cycling city, Renaissance city, and one of inGamba's most beloved destinations
• Bill Strickland on "flow": what it is, why it matters, and how inGamba embodies it
• James and Bill on how their love of cycling has evolved from racing to something richer
• The riders they'd most want to share a coffee (or a bottle) with

Learn more and book a trip at ingamba.pro

Want to get a copy of THE MAGAZINE? Contact us here: hello@ingamba.pro

Our creative director and award-winning cycling photographer James Startt and inGamba The Magazine guest editor Ed Pickering joined cycling journalist Molly Hurford to discuss the a very relevant feature in the new edition of The Magazine: A celebration of cubism and futurism that begins, surprisingly, at Paris-Roubaix. James was also on the ground at the race and shares his experience watching Franzi Koch, a rider we featured in The Magazine, ride to the first major victory of her career.

Full shownotes: https://ingamba.pro/feature/podcast-3-paris-roubaix/

In this episode:

• Wout van Aert, Franzi Koch, and the drama of Paris-Roubaix 2026
• Why the bicycle was a symbol of modernity for early 20th-century artists
• Metzinger’s Au Vélodrome and the layers of a Cubist painting
• Futurism and capturing movement in a still image
• The one-word answer that explains the link between cycling and art

Join us in 2027 at Paris Roubaix – spots are open now!

What does it take to win monuments, wear the yellow jersey, become a cyclocross world champion, and raise one of the greatest cyclists of all time? Adrie van der Poel does it all. In this episode, inGamba's James Startt sits down with the cycling legend for a wide-ranging conversation that covers nearly 20 years of professional racing, the tactical sprint that shocked Sean Kelly at the 1986 Tour of Flanders, the yellow jersey he wore for a single unforgettable day, and how he spotted Mathieu van der Poel's talent before the boy could even reach the pedals.

Adrie is one of inGamba's most beloved special trip leaders — and this episode is a preview of the kind of storytelling you get when you ride alongside him.

Nearly 20 years as a top pro — the secret to longevity Adrie's answer is disarmingly simple: he just loved riding his bike. When the big classics became too hard in his mid-30s, he found new goals in smaller races and cyclocross rather than walking away. He draws a parallel to Greg Van Avermaet, who retired when he knew Flanders would never come again — a very different kind of story.

Mathieu van der Poel — the moment Adrie knew The story starts before Mathieu could even ride without training wheels. His school teacher called Adrie to ask why he still had them on — because Mathieu had been riding every other kid's bike in the schoolyard without them. "When he was five, I started doing some small races in the region and you saw a certain drive. How he got on the bike, got off the bike, changing gears — you only had to explain it once. He was just a total natural." But Adrie is clear: talent was only the beginning.

Why cyclocross produces great road riders: Asked about the pipeline from cross to road (ahem, Wout van Aert, Mathieu, Tom Pidcock) Adrie's take is characteristically direct: "They have a lot of talent. And later on they discovered they were very good on the road. But it all starts with talent. And then: try to enjoy your work. That's the only thing that matters."

Flanders vs. Roubaix — which is more special? Despite winning Flanders, Adrie's most cherished race is Paris–Roubaix. His reasoning mirrors what Tom Boonen told him: Flanders shares roads and climbs with a dozen other spring races, but the Roubaix cobbles are opened just once a year. "The cobbles at Roubaix — they didn't put them in the ground on their knees. They dropped them from an airplane. That's it."

Still a kid on new bike day: Even now, riding 10,000 kilometers a year, Adrie puts a new bike in the bedroom and stares at it. "I enjoy a new bike like I was 10 years old."

This season, Adrie van der Poel is part of our inGamba trips to Milan–San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris–Roubaix — and the stories you'll hear on the road make this podcast episode sound like a warm-up act. Sign up for one of our 2027 trips now so you don’t miss your chance! ingamba.pro

Cycling Conversations with inGamba is produced by inGamba. Hosted by Molly Hurford. Creative direction by James Startt. Visit ingamba.pro to join the next trip.

The Tour of Flanders is more than a race — it's a cultural phenomenon, a brutally hard monument, and for the Flemish people, something close to a world championship. In this episode of Cycling Conversations with inGamba, host Molly Hurford and inGamba creative director and award-winning cycling photographer James Startt sit down with two riders who've lived it from the inside: Portuguese pros Sergio Paulinho and Manuel Cardoso.

From white-knuckle descents at 80+ km/h and crashes into farm runoff, to broken cleats and moments of pure bewilderment, their stories bring the race to life in a way no broadcast ever could. This is the conversation you get when you're riding alongside former pros — and exactly the kind of access inGamba delivers on their Classics experiences.

• Sergio Paulinho is a former Portuguese professional cyclist who represented his country at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he claimed a silver medal in the road race — a result that earned him a spot on the classics squad at Liberty Seguros. A grand tour stage winner and all-around classics rouleur, Sergio raced the Tour of Flanders in 2005 and has the distinction of featuring in the Flanders Museum's permanent collection — albeit not for a winning photo.
• Manuel Cardoso is a former Portuguese professional road cyclist known as a prolific winner throughout his career, claiming around 10 victories a season at his peak and multiple national championship titles. A rider built for punchy, hilly classics, Manuel raced the Tour of Flanders multiple times — first as a wide-eyed neo-pro with RadioShack, and later as a seasoned domestique with a key tactical role.

inGamba offers curated cycling travel experiences at the world's greatest races and most beautiful roads. Their Spring Classics trips put you in the middle of the action at the Tour of Flanders — with VIP access, behind-the-scenes intel, and guides who have actually raced and won these events. That includes inGamba guide Adrie van der Poel, the 1986 Tour of Flanders champion, who features in this very conversation.

As Molly mentions in the episode: the best stories are the ones shared off-mic. The only way to hear them is to be on the trip.

Check out all of our upcoming tours at ingamba.pro

Time Topic 00:59 Welcome & intro — why Flanders matters 01:42 James Startt on Flanders as a monument

03:21 Introducing Sergio Paulinho & Manuel Cardoso

05:22 Manuel's first Flanders — the fans, the fight, the feeling

07:09 Manuel's sport directors: "You can do well here"

08:17 The descent into the Kwaremont — chaos at 80+ km/h

11:56 Paterberg in the rain: crashes, cleats, and catastrophe

13:08 Sergio's 2005 Flanders debut — the Olympic silver medalist arrives

15:30 Sergio crashes into a Flemish farm's finest

16:29 What it's really like in the middle of the peloton

17:23 Manuel: one month to recover from his first Flanders

18:20 Flanders vs. Roubaix — Kristoff, Sergio, and the debate

20:29 Adrie van der Poel and how racing has changed across generations

22:28 Team tactics from RadioShack to the Pogačar era

• 🌐 Website: ingamba.pro
• 📸 Instagram: @ingamba

Cycling Conversations with inGamba is produced by inGamba. Hosted by Molly Hurford. Creative direction by James Startt.

Welcome to cycling conversations with inGamba, where we celebrate the art and the culture of the sport - the rhythm, the ritual, and the refinement that surrounds it. inGamba means in the know, and as with our cycling tours, these conversations are meant to bring you behind the scenes in our world. 

This is the space for when sport meets elevated living: where a former pro racer dissects the brutality of racing a Classic, followed by a cycling-CEO sharing their favourite spot for a post-ride Negroni. Along the way is our creative director and award-winning cycling photographer James Startt who joins cycling journalist Molly Hurford to unpack the cultural currents shaping the sport and the destinations that make it so beautiful.

 To learn more about our award-winning bike tours and to join us, visit ingamba.pro or the link in our shownotes.