Re-Cycle podcast: When Britain's first Tour stage winner blew the field away in 1959

Building on the huge success of the Wiggins podcast, Eurosport is broadening its audio offering to bring cycling fans the greatest stories from the sport’s rich history, featuring iconic names like Eddy Merckx, Fausto Coppi and Bernard Hinault and some of the most famous, and infamous, cycling feats ever witnessed.

Re-Cycle is the first podcast to delve into the history of a sport rich in dramatic sporting tales. A new episode of Re-Cycle will be published every Thursday morning until the end of January - giving cycling fans a regular fix during the off-season.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Subscribe on Spotify

In this episode of Re-Cycle, we doff our cap to Brian Robinson, Britain's first ever Tour de France stage winner courtesy of a remarkable solo win on Stage 20 in the 1959 race.

This time out we’re going back to 1937, when defending Tour de France champion Sylvère Maes withdrew from the race with his entire Belgian team while wearing the yellow jersey – just days away from Paris. Yes, really...

From one extreme breakaway to another, and this time out we’re riding with Andy Hampsten, who – with the help of sheep's wool fat and neoprene diving gloves – conquered the snow-capped Gavia to become the first American to don the maglia rosa in 1988. It was the day that did more than any other to make Hampsten the first and only American to win the Giro – and a stage otherwise known as ‘The Day the Hard Men Cried’.

Last time out, we climbed to the Basilica San Luca with Fiorenzo Magni biting down on an innertube to distract him from the pain of a broken collarbone. Magni had, despite winning the Giro d’Italia three times, always lived in the shadow of his compatriots: Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali. This time out, we’re on the road with Coppi himself – and his mythical long-range attack from Cuneo to Pinerolo that helped him win the 1949 Giro d’Italia.

They say 666 is the number of the beast. Not that many riders to have taken on the monstrous climb to the Basilica San Luca in northern Italy need reminding. It’s a road that has staged some stand-out moments in the history of the Giro d’Italia – from Fiorenzo Magni’s grimacing heroics in 1956 to Simon Gerrans dropping Chris Froome in 2009.

In the second episode of Re-Cycle, we look back at the freezing 1980 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in which Bernard Hinault braved blizzards and snow to win by almost 10 minutes from a field of just 21 finishers.

How did it come to be that the official list of Paris-Roubaix winners exceeds the number of races by one? We revisit the controversy that saw Frenchman André Mahé and Italy's Serse Coppi both win – at least officially – the 47th edition of the Hell of the North.