In this episode Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe discuss the final unveiling of the 2022 Giro d'Italia route. The Giro stages have been revealed bit by bit this time in batches, rather than chronologically. Has this robbed the Giro route of some of its mystery and majesty or does it not really matter? And what are the other terrible innovations in recent grand tour history?

It's track season, cyclo-cross season and silly season. We discuss the controversy of riders taking part in events on their new team's bikes before their contracts have expired in the light of EF Education First's threat to terminate Sergio Higuita and Lawson Craddock's contracts for doing just that. We ask whether Adam Yates's Barcelona marathon time was impressive for a professional cyclist.

Richard's show and tell segment discusses a new show on GCN featuring EF Education First sports director Tom Southam teaching a bunch of fourth-category riders how to ride as a team, and we hear from Southam himself.

And in the final part we speak to Tony Moffa, a Friend of the Podcast who has recently secured a job in the World Tour with Team DSM as a mechanic – a move which came about after he listened to our Friends of the Podcast special episode A Team Apart.

The Cycling Podcast is supported by Supersapiens and Science in Sport

Supersapiens is a continuous glucose monitoring system that helps you make the right fuelling choices. See supersapiens.com

For 25% off all your SiS products, go to scienceinsport.com and enter the code SISCP25 at the checkout.

This episode is sponsored by Calm, the #1 mental wellness app, to give you the tools that improve the way you feel. If you go to calm.com/CYCLE, you’ll get a limited time offer of 40% off a Calm Premium Subscription, which includes hundreds of hours of programming.

S9 Ep198: The Giro's slow striptease