The summer of 2012

This episode for Friends of The Cycling Podcast transports us back in time a decade to the summer of 2012.

Lionel Birnie is joined by fellow journalists Owen Slot (The Times) and Edward Pickering (then deputy editor of Cycle Sport magazine) to tell the story of the Tour de France won by Bradley Wiggins.

It was a long, hot summer for British sport, with the country's first Tour victory followed by the Olympic Games in London. Britain was on top of the sporting world, and cycling led the way in British sport.

It was also the final step on a journey that led to the creation of The Cycling Podcast because Lionel and Richard Moore travelled together at the Tour for the first time and started the short-lived Cycle Sport Podcast.

Like most intriguing stories in professional cycling, Wiggins's Tour win was not without controversy. There was the rumbling story of Team Sky's decision to hire Dr Geert Leinders and the brewing rivalry between Wiggins and his teammate Chris Froome but the world saw his Tour win in a very different context with the revelations from the so-called Fancy Bears hackers a few years later.

Series: Friends of the Podcast 2022
Run time: 1hr 17mins
Producer: Huw Owen