Our review of the 2021 men’s road racing season continues with a deep look at the three grand tours.

Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe weigh up the era of the galacticos in a year when the three outstanding stage racers – Egan Bernal, Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič – each won a grand tour.

Transport yourself back to Italy, France and Spain with our greatest hits compilations, a selection of audio highlights from our travels this year, before we discuss each of the races in turn.

We look back at the best days of racing, ask whether the Vuelta really is overtaking the Giro as the ’second’ grand tour, revisit Mark Cavendish’s record-equalling stage wins at the Tour and ask which of Bernal and Roglic is best placed to challenge Pogačar next season.

We hear from Joe Dombrowski, Pavel Sivakov and Jonathan Vaughters on the Pog-nomenon and ask what threats there are to his dominance. And we speak to Toms Skujiņš about arguably the best day’s racing from the grand tours – or at least the day which provided the least expected thrills.

The Giro d’Italia – 12 minutes 28 seconds

The Tour de France – 37 minutes 49 seconds

Vuelta a España – 1 hour 36 minutes 27 seconds

The Cycling Podcast is supported by Supersapiens and Science in Sport.

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This episode is also supported by Beer52. To get ten free craft beers delivered to your door, order by December 17 at https://www.beer52.com/cycle

S9 Ep206: Annus galaxicus: The grand tours