Tour de France preview: featuring Jonathan Vaughters, Marcel Kittel, Fred Wright, Tadej Pogačar’s coach, and Ineos’s transfer riddle

RadioCycling will be offering three episodes a week during the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Our first Tour-themed show, backed by our new sponsor Saddle Skedaddle, offers a blitz of the latest news going into the world's greatest race.

We start with the latest on transfer dealings at Ineos Grenadiers, where there's a lot of outward traffic but very little movement in the other direction. With Tao Geoghegan-Hart, Ben Tulett, Pavel Sivakov, Carlos Rodríguez and now Dani Martínez all heavily linked with moves away from the British super squad, we examine the Ineos transfer strategy. Is there a big signing in the offing?

EF Education-EasyPost have named what's arguably their strongest ever line-up for the Tour. Team boss Jonathan Vaughters tells us about their strategy going into the race, why he's expecting team leader Richard Carapaz to come good over the next three weeks, and also offers some suggestions on how to improve rider safety in the wake of Gino Mäder's tragic death at the Tour of Switzerland.

Fears that Tadej Pogačar might be forced to sit out the Tour after breaking a wrist in April have been allayed and the two-time champion is fit and raring to go. UAE Team Emirates head coach Iñigo San Millán has played a vital role in Pogačar's return to peak fitness and tells us about Pogačar's training regime during this period and also the UAE leader's love of a chocolate mousse.

Most of the pre-Tour talk has, inevitably, been about the GC battle, but what's in store for the clash of the sprinting titans?  We turned to Marcel Kittel for an expert's analysis of this contest. Winner of 14 Tour stages, Kittel also reveals why Mark Cavendish was always his biggest rival and who he expects to emerge as this year's Tourminator of the bunch sprints.

Last weekend fan favourite Fred Wright took a highly emotional first professional win in the British road championship. The Londoner lifts the lid on what he expects to be an action-packed race for his Bahrain Victorious team, which will be aiming to contend on all fronts.

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