“We’re seeing some insane new records”: Why are Tour de France speeds getting higher and higher? + Dispatches from the Alps and Paris

Send us Fan MailSo, why is the Tour de France peloton getting faster and faster? That was the question I posed to UAE Team Emirates boss Mauro Gianetti, Geraint Thomas, and MPCC president Emily Brammeier during the race’s record-smashing final week.Later in the episode, we head into the heart of the Alps, and then down onto the boulevards of Paris for an audio retrospective of the Tour’s epic final weekend, featuring a chat on the Alpe d’Huez finish line with podcast alum Conor Delves, the star and creator of the acclaimed Cadel Evans play Lungs on Legs, who was busy hanging out with cycling royalty and prepping his next run of shows in the Alps.I also chatted to some British fans who made the pilgrimage to Alpe d’Huez (including one couple who’d been there for five days before the race arrived), and climbed to the roof of the Tour, the Col du Galibier, before embarking on the long, long drive back to Paris for the Tour’s thrilling finale on the slopes of Montmartre and the cobbles of the Champs-Élysées. And a few celebratory end-of-Tour beers too, of course.