Wheel Talk

This week Loren Rowney caught up with Shimano's Road Marketing Manager Alexa Cunningham to chat about sponsorship on the women's side of the sport, from grassroots to WorldTour, and how Alexa found herself in Valkenburg working for one of the biggest brands in cycling.Alexa's obsessions: The Resident on Netflix and Liv's short film about Bonnie.

This week Loren and Abby sat down with Georgie Howe, former rower turned professional cyclist for Liv-AlUla-Jayco. Howe found cycling during the pandemic and her rise in the sport was rapid. That rise came with its pluses and minuses, and after a few wonderful years, Howe is leaving the professional peloton behind in 2025 ... for now. But she's not keen to hang up the bike just yet!More information about the study Georgie mentioned from the 2023 Tour de France Femmes can be found here.Matt de Neef also wrote a story about Georgie's rapid rise in cycling here.

This week on Wheel Talk, Abby chatted with Anna Henderson about her silver medal in the Time Trial at the Paris Olympics, the emotional come-down after she overachieved her goal, her switch to Lidl-Trek, and more.

This week Matt de Neef called up Grace Brown to chat about her career up to this year, her dream 2024 season that included Olympic Gold and a World title, and what she has planned for the future. Matt's written piece on the conversation can be found on Escape Collective here.

This week Abby called up Geerike Schreurs (aka Gee) to chat about her move from racer to soigneur to gravel pro to a WorldTour contract with SD Worx-Protime in 2025.

This week Abby chatted with Elise Chabbey before the end of her up-and-down season about her transition from kayaking to road cycling, her time with Canyon-SRAM and her move to FDJ-Suez in 2025.

This week we kick off our off-season interview series with none other than football/soccer legend Tobin Heath. Tobin is a new convert to cycling but it didn’t take long for her to get hooked. We talk all things women’s cycling and sport, about her time at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and more.

Abby, Gracie and Loren get together for a final group podcast for a while to wrap up the final races of the season and chat the latest transfers. They also talk about the placement of Tour of Chongming Island and Tour of Guangxi in the calendar and if an earlier slot in the year would impact public interest in the races.Next week Abby and Matilda Price chat with Tobin Heath about women’s sports and her discovery of cycling. You won’t want to miss it!Obsessions: Abby - Fall, Loren - Harry has his final treatment this week!, Gracie - Agatha All Along

This week on the podcast, Loren, Gracie, and Abby talked about the Simac Ladies Tour, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig's move to Canyon-SRAM, and the lack of announcement around Demi Vollering’s 2025 team.Obsessions: Abby - Abbott Elementary, Gracie - Shōgun, Loren - Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

This week on the podcast Gracie, Abby and Loren chat about the latest in transfer news, the Gravel World Championships, the 2025 calendar, and the future of bike racing in Australia.Obsessions: Abby - Nobody Wants This, Gracie - Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Loren - A Touch More with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe

Abby, Matt de Neef and Matilda Raynolds break down the women’s Elite World Championship road race. The course was harder than expected, combined with horrendous weather, Saturday gave us quite the race. Very few riders could walk away claiming they had a good day, one of them was the winner, and a whole team proved that strength means nothing if you can’t work together.

This week on the podcast Abby, Loren and Gracie talked about the World Championships time trial on Sunday, some amazing performances there (and one in particular). They also preview the road race, with a little input from none other than Elise Chabbey who just announced she will be moving teams for next season.

This week Abby, Loren and Gracie chat about the European championships with some impressive wins in both the time trial and road races. They also dive a bit into some more transfers and extensions announced last week and look ahead to the World Championship time trial.Obsessions: Abby - Gilmore Girls, Loren - Her bike trailer, Gracie - Truth Be Told.

Despite having no new signings (yet) SD Worx-Protime doesn’t look like they will be any less dominant next season, thanks to their world champion.Abby, Tilda and Gracie break down Tour de Romandie plus touch on how teams are shaping up for 2025.Obsessions: Abby - The Woodhalls, Tilda - Maggie Rogers, Gracie - Zwift training plans (specifically the beginner build up).

This week we chatted a bit about our days in the peloton and answered some listener questions, plus touched on the Paralympics (Meg Fisher’s guide has more info on the classifications).

Gracie Elvin and Matt de Neef are back this week with Abby and Loren to talk Classic Lorient Agglomération. Plus, final takes on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift! We’re still not over it.Next week we will try to tackle some listener questions. Submit yours to the Escape Collective Discord (Wheel Talk channel) or send in your own audio diary here!Obsessions: Loren - her kids, Gracie - her postpartum body, Abby - cooking, specifically cheesy creamed corn, Matt - Ted Lasso

It’s going to take Abby, Loren and Tilda quite some time to process what they watched on Sunday, the final day of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. History was made, and there’s far too much to talk about. With audio diaries from Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime), Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) and Lea Curinier (FDJ-Suez).

The penultimate stage brought some fireworks, with a new winner and a whole lot to talk about before stage 8 on Sunday. Loren, Tilda and Abby break it all down, with audio diaries from Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime), and Noemi Rüegg (EF-Oatly-Cannondale).

A historic win, and emotional win, and one we all should have seen coming. Loren, Tilda and Abby are here to talk about it. Plus audio diaries from Emma Norsgaard (Movistar), Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), Lea Curinier (FDJ-Suez) and Quinty Ton (Liv AlUla Jayco).

It was a crazy day at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift! Loren, Abby and Tilda try to make sense of it. Loren returned to the peloton for the day, on the back of a motorbike. And audio diaries from Noemi Rüegg (EF-Oatly-Cannondale), Lea Curinier (FDJ-Suez), Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) and Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx-Protime).