SPECIAL GUESTS OF THE 2023 CYCLE SHOW
The theatres were jam-packed with captivating, inspirational and cutting-edge conversations from all your favourite riders across the disciplines.
REBECCA CHARLTON
Journalist, author and presenter Rebecca is a well-known face and voice in the cycling world, commentating for the likes of Eurosport, ITV and Channel 4, alongside numerous fitness-related features for various cycling publications. To quote Rebecca: “Lord of the Rings is 20 hours of my life I’ll never get back. Will not be progressing to The Hobbit”. We are right behind you there.
ALL DAYS
MATT STEPHENS
As a professional, Matt was a British national road race champion in 1998 and rode the Giro d’Italia in 2000. Since retirement, he switched seamlessly to presenting for GCN, where his easy-going, friendly-style – not to mention his infectious laugh! – made Stephens an instant hit with the audience on the rapidly-expanding YouTube channel. He now hosts live events and podcasts, and provides race commentary for GCN+. As for Matt’s hotel hairdryer reviews from the Tour de France, they need to be seen to be believed…
ALL DAYS
CHRIS FROOME
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CHRIS FROOME
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VIOLA BRAND
If you’ve never seen Artistic Cycling, included in the UCI World Championships in Glasgow for the first time this summer, you are in for a treat. Imagine the floor exercise in gymnastics but on two wheels – amazing skills. We’ll have Viola Brand, one of the world’s finest exponents of the art and an Instagram and YouTube megastar, showing off her fabulous routines every day of the show, her debut appearance in England. Not to be missed.
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ROB WARNER
Rob is one of mountain biking’s biggest characters. As a rider he won the downhill national champs three times and was the UK’s first ever World Cup winner. As a commentator he’s become THE voice of downhill racing and has provided some of the greatest moments of live coverage of any sport. After starting his career with Giant he’s now back with the brand and riding and making YouTube videos non-stop, although he’s swapped the ATX1 for something with a battery these days.
SUNDAY
ZOE BÄCKSTEDT
Zoe is a teenage phenomenon and current world champion across four different junior disciplines – road race, time-trial, cyclo-cross and Madison – wide-ranging talent not seen since the great Marianne Vos first lit up the world stage. Give her a bike, any bike, and she will race it to win. And, more often than not, she will succeed.
Zoe comes from a family of out-and-out winners. Father Magnus was Paris-Roubaix champion in 2004; mother Megan Jones took the British National road race Championships in 1998; sister Elynor is a World Track Championships medallist who races for Trek-Segafredo on the road.
Zoe races for EF Education-TIBCO-SVB for the 2023 season, for both cyclo-cross and road racing. She is one to watch in every respect.
SATURDAY
NICOLAS ROCHE
Over a 17-year career in the professional peloton, Roche won three Vuelta a Espana stages and was Irish national champion in both road and time-trial disciplines on four occasions in total. Riding predominantly as a valued domestique, Nico was handed a leadership role for the 2013 Vuelta, resulting in a creditable 5th place overall.
Another of our guests with cycling royalty relations – father Stephen won the 1987 Tour de France and cousin Dan Martin was also a brilliant racer – Nico has now turned his hand to gravel racing, representing Ireland in the inaugural UCI World Championships in Italy. He also expanded his repertoire recently with an appearance on Dancing With The Stars in Ireland, reaching the quarter finals. We are hoping he will show us a few moves at The Cycle Show.
FRIDAY
CHANEL HARRIS
Chanel, alongside husband and recently retired professional cyclist Alex Dowsett, runs the Thighs Club Channel on YouTube, covering topics ranging from endurance riding hints and tips to cafe rides, to Chanel’s recent Ironman Triathlon debut The mix of a relative newcomer cyclist, paired with an expert in the field – Alex won 6 national titles and 2 Giro D’Italia stages – plus the couple’s personalities, are a winning combination, with big followings across the board on social media platforms. Oh and Chanel is also a qualified barrister.
FRIDAY
ALEX DOWSETT
The popular former Hour Record holder and time-trial specialist joins us along with one of the faces of this year’s show, his wife Chanel Dowsett, on Friday before running the London Marathon on Sunday – good luck, Alex and Chanel! A multiple British national champion and two-time Giro d’Italia stage winner, Dowsett is haemophiliac and campaigns for his charity, Little Bleeders, raising awareness of the condition and encouraging young people with haemophilia to compete in sport.
FRIDAY
SHANAZE READE
BMX made its Olympic debut in 2008 at Beijing and Shanaze was the sport’s undoubted star, despite crashing out in memorably spectacular fashion in the final. A multiple world champion in her chosen field, Reade also competed successfully in the velodrome, with two world titles to her credit with Victoria Pendleton in the team sprint, and is an ambassador for the Glasgow 2023 World Championships.
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BETH SHRIEVER
Undoubtedly the homegrown story of the 2020 Olympics. The young Londoner self-financed her way to Tokyo by crowdfunding, blazed to brilliant gold on the BMX track and was tossed in the air by team-mate and fellow medallist Kye Whyte – brilliant scenes! Taking the World Championships rainbow stripes the following year was the icing on the cake, followed by the European title in 2022. Beth was awarded the MBE in the New Year Honours list in recognition of her services to the sport.
SATURDAY
LIAM YATES
A lifelong cyclist from the Ashdown Forest in the South of England, Liam is not one to turn down a new opportunity or adventure and has cycled his bike as long as he can remember, everything from BMX to racing road, time-trials and fixed gear crits, and more recently bikepacking and touring. Coming from a family of cyclists, it’s no surprise Liam feels at home on two wheels.
FRIDAY
KRISS KYLE
A BMX freestyle legend MTB YouTube star, this Red Bull sponsored Scotsman loves nothing more than taking on seemingly impossible and making it reality. Check out his 15 million-viewed video, beginning with a helicopter jump and descending rapidly downhill from there, riding Dubai’s famous landmarks and making it look easy. Mindblowing skills! And with a personality to match, Kriss is someone you’ll definitely want to meet and greet in person at The Cycle Show.
SUNDAY
PHILIPPA YORK
Philippa, formerly Robert Millar, was the first British winner of the Tour de France King of the Mountains competition, taking the polka dot jersey in 1984. During her glittering cycling career, she also won three Tour de France stages, the mountains classification at the Giro d’Italia (1987), alongside Tour of Britain (1989), Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (1990) and was British national road race champion in 1995.
Philippa writes for the likes of Rouleur magazine and Cycling News, alongside TV punditry work for the Tour de France and Tour of Britain. She also possesses an extremely dry and acerbic sense of humour. Enjoy!
SUNDAY
PETER KENNAUGH
Pete hails from the cycling talent factory of the Isle of Man, alongside childhood friend Mark Cavendish and a host of pro cyclists. A gold medallist at the 2012 London Olympics in the team pursuit, Kennaugh spent eight years racing on the road for Team Sky before switching to Bora Hansgrohe for a final season, announcing his retirement in 2019, aged just 28. The former British champion cited struggles, both physically and mentally, for his withdrawal from the pro peloton, and has talked frankly about his issues. He now runs his own coaching company, Supass, and has become an integral part of ITV4’s Tour de France team alongside Ned Boulting and David Millar. The trio also produce the chart-topping cycling podcast, Never Strays Far.
SATURDAY
BEN DEAKIN
Ben returns to the Cycle Show with his brand Oi Oi. The Deakinator was a former Royal Marine Commando who was injured in the line of duty is now a professional Mountain Bike rider and content creator alongside fellow Focus athlete and podcast cohort Olly Wilkins. He received his first hardtail MTB at the age of 12 years old and immediately caught the bug. That fateful day led to him racing Elite Downhill and now riding his bike all around the globe and creating content and films about it. His passion for always trying to be the fastest means you might still see him at the odd downhill or enduro race as well! Give Deaks two wheels, no matter what kind, a couple of mates and he will have the best time possible – his happiness is contagious
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OLLY WILKINS
The ‘Lord of Loam’ hails from Surrey and has run though the range of MTB disciplines – cross country, dirt jumping, downhill, 4X – and ridden all over the world since first getting bitten by the fat tyre bug as a kid.
Olly rides for Focus, but still turns his hand to designing bikes and parts for Sussex-based mountain bike brand DMR and his new signature bars will get their first public showing at Ally Pally in April.
With his own YouTube channel, podcast and a sizable Instagram following, Olly is a big name on the shredding scene – top skills and a personality to match.
SUNDAY
JOSH IBBETT
Ultra-distance racer Josh hit the headlines by winning the 2015 TCR (Transcontinental Race), the 4,000km self-supported ride across Europe and one of the toughest cycling challenges in the world. Since then, he’s ridden all over the globe: Rwanda, New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Mexico, Morroco, USA, Canada, Oman, and more. His film documentaries for GCN+ include end-to-ends of Spain, Portugal and Rwanda.
SUNDAY
ANNA GLOWINSKI
From velodrome to cyclo-cross, MTB to road racing, Anna spent her childhood developing a passion for two-wheels. As an adult, she’s been particularly attracted to the adrenaline side of bikes, pushing her limits on jumps, mountainsides, and learning tricks, which led to her first TV role on ITV’s The Cycle Show and the lab rat who was sent to try out all the weird and wonderful (and often scary) things that cycling has to offer.
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RACHEL & DAN ATHERTON
It’s fair to say the Atherton family live and breathe mountain biking. As well as winning eight downhill world titles and 49 world cups between them, they organise their own downhill event, have designed the Dyfi bike park in Wales and still find time to run their own bike company – Atherton Bikes. You can see Dan and Rachel on stage at the show and get to meet them and see the bikes up close too on stand G183.
SUNDAY
DAN MARTIN
A winner of stages in all three Grand Tours, Dan is one of the best Irish racers of his generation, alongside cousin Nico Roche. Who can forget Dan’s brilliant 2013 victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with a guy in a panda outfit chasing him down the road?!
He’ll be joined on stage by Tour of Britain route director Andy Hawes to discuss the 2023 race in September – the highlight of the British racing calendar. Will it be coming to your town? Find out at The Cycle Show.
FRIDAY
TOM CARDY
Tom is one of the UK’s best dirt jumpers, with a CV stacked with podium spots from comps around the world. After retiring from contests, he’s become a prolific video maker with a seemingly endless supply of new tricks up his sleeve and an effortless riding style to showcase. Recently signed up with TSG, Tom’s also been a long time pilot for Haibikes and GoPro.
SATURDAY
GEOFF THOMAS
Geoff Thomas MBE was capped nine times for England, captained Crystal Palace in their 1990 FA Cup Final and made over 450 club appearances in his pro career. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2003, a year after he retired from football. After successfully battling the disease, Geoff has since ridden the full Tour de France route on five occasions and helped set up The Tour 21 which last year raised over £1 million for Cure Leukaemia. Geoff was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2021 for his charity work. He’ll be chatting on stage with DJ Spoony about cycling a lot and football a bit.
FRIDAY
NED BOULTING
Ned is one of road cycling’s best-loved voices. He has covered every Tour de France since 2003, and at the Cycle Show he joins fellow pundit Peter Kennaugh to chat about the season to come and who in the peloton we should watch out for this spring and summer. While he continues to write books, record podcasts and present on TV, he also finds time to edit The Road Book – road racing’s mammoth almanack – host a series of hugely successful one-man stage tours and commentate on the odd darts match for good measure.
SATURDAY
DJ SPOONY
Jonathan Joseph, better known as radio and TV presenter DJ Spoony, joined Radio 1 as part of the Dreem Team in 2000, going on to broadcast with Radio 5 Live and now Radio 2. He is a huge football and cycling fan, hence we have paired him up on stage with Geoff Thomas MBE, and was himself honoured in the 2023 New Year’s list for his charity work through the pandemic.
FRIDAY
GAIL BROWN
Gail has completed the Transcontinental Race, GBDURO, HT550 and Atlas Mountain Race. This year her aim is one of the most notorious ultradistance events of all, The Tour Divide. She describes herself as an “active travel addict”, as well as physiotherapist, currently working with the British XC mountain bike team as a soigneur and an ambassador for Hunt Beyond.
FRIDAY
FELICITY CLOAKE
Felicity is an award-winning food, drink and travel writer, keen cyclist and terrier owner. The author of the Guardian’s long-running “How to Make the Perfect…” recipe column, a weekly fixture since 2011, and seven books; five cookbooks and two food-focused travelogues including “Croissant for the Road” which details her 2,300km cycle ride across France in seach of the definitive versions of classic French dishes, and “Red Sauce Brown Sauce” in which she cycles the length and breadth of Britain in an admirable search to find the perfect fry up.
SUNDAY
KITTY PEMBERTON-PLATT
Kitty’s book ‘Eat Bike Cook’ successfully marries two of her great passions – cycling and food – in a collection of easy and tasty recipes created to meet the energy demands of cyclists. After many years working at Adidas, followed by heading up social marketing at Rapha, she founded her own business après sport, and is now a Strategy Director at a creative agency.
FRIDAY
REBECCA LOWE
Rebecca is a freelance journalist from London, who in July 2015 set off on a year-long cycle trip through Europe and the Middle East. Partly in an effort to try to address the stereotyping of the Middle East, and partly out of a supreme spirit of adventure, she set off on a solo cycle ride from London to Azadi Square, Tehran. Her trip took her across 11,000km of often extreme terrain in conditions that soared to 48 degree heat and would have challenged the most battle-hardened expeditionist. Her epic journey became the subject of her book The Slow Road to Tehran.
FRIDAY
DR KATE RAWLES
A passionate environmental and climate change campaigner, Kate’s marathon rides highlighting the planet’s urgent crisis include an 8,288-mile end-to-end of South America on a self-made bamboo bike. She lectures regularly on sustainable development and is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and sits on the Food Ethics Council.
SUNDAY
TOM BRUCE
Tom cycled around the world in 2011, covering 23,000km in 10 months, recounted in his book Every Inch of the Way; My Bike Ride around the World. He has since published five more books on his global adventures, with a guide on getting kids into adventure cycling in the pipeline.
SATURDAY
TEMI LATEEF
Temi works in conjunction with London authorities and community organisations to create projects that promote diversity, inclusion and representation. He’ll be riding to Africa next month to publicise the My Choice mission: “All people should be able to engage in sport and the outdoors, regardless of race, geography or finance.” Respect!
JEREMY FORD
The Qhubeka Charity raises funds to improve the social mobility of South African school kids and key workers with their unique bicycles. The charity has been supported by the Tour de France since 2018. Qhubeka’s UK director and trustee Jeremy Ford (that’s him on the left, in case you were wondering), brings us the latest from the “Bicycles Change Lives” charity doing brilliant work in Africa.
DAN JARVIS
MTB commentator Dan is passionate about the sport. When his good friend and Scottish superstar racer Rab Wardell tragically passed away last August, he committed to the #RideLikeRab Project. Working with Rab’s family and friends, the project is raising funds to help promote the sport we love. “Our first endeavour is to support riders from developing cycling nations to compete in MTB events at the 2023 Worlds, but we’ll also be supporting young racers in the UK too.”
TRACY MOSELEY
Tracy is former downhill World Champion, multi-time World Cup winner and three time winner of the Enduro World Series. She learnt her MTB skills riding with brother Ed on the Malvern Hills, going on to be one of GB’s most successful riders. In between duties as a mum, Tracy’s an ambassdor for Bosch and also helps coach the Trek Factory Racing XC and Enduro squads. As well as chatting about the joys of electric bikes on the Bosch stand she’ll be joining the UCI Worlds team on stage to discuss the upcoming MTB and eMTB races in Scotland.
SUNDAY
JODY CUNDY CBE
Jody is one of Britain’s most decorated cyclists and one of the country’s foremost Paralympic athletes. His selection for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics marked the seventh Games for the Cambridgeshire athlete, who started his elite sporting career by representing GB in swimming at three Paralympics from 1996 to 2004. He’ll be joining Trudy Lindblade, CEO of the UCI World Championships and Shanaze Reade on the main stage to chat about the para cycling competitions in Scotland this summer.
SATURDAY
TRUDY LINDBLADE
Trudy is CEO of the UCI World Championships 2023. Over the three days of the show she’ll be joined on the main stage by Shanaze Reade, Viola Brand, Jody Cundy and Tracy Moseley to preview what is set to be the UK’s biggest-ever celebration of cycling. Starting on the 3rd August, over 200 rainbow jerseys will be awarded to athletes competing in cycling disciplines from BMX flatland to downhill moutain biking, road racing to trials. Eleven days of competition across Scotland that is a must-see for all cycling fans.
ALL DAYS
*Please note riders are subject to change – t&s apply.
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SHANAZE READE
BMX made its Olympic debut in 2008 at Beijing and Shanaze was the sport’s undoubted star, despite crashing out in memorably spectacular fashion in the final. A multiple world champion in her chosen field, Reade also competed successfully in the velodrome, with two world titles to her credit with Victoria Pendleton in the team sprint, and is an ambassador for the Glasgow 2023 World Championships.
PHOEBE GALE
The 18-year-old Scot is a sensational talent on the downhill scene, ending the 2022 UCI junior Mountain Bike World Cup in second spot. And Phoebe is one to watch again this season in the under-23 category as she takes her racing to the next level. Plus the Canyon-sponsored rider’s favourite warm-up tune is Rihanna’s Shut Up and Drive. We like her style.
