A pre-Tour de France ramble, part two

July 4 | In a bumper final episode before the start of the 2018 Tour de France, Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe meet up in a Soho pub to complete the countdown to La Grande Boucle.

One story has dominated this week's cycling news and that is the decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency and Union Cycliste Internationale to drop the case against Chris Froome.

It means Froome is free to ride the Tour de France after spending the best part of nine months with the cloud from his salbutamol case hanging over him following the leak that revealed he had recorded an adverse analytical finding during the last week of the 2017 Vuelta a Espana.

We discuss what this latest development means and hear from EF Education First team boss Jonathan Vaughters before looking ahead to the Tour as the 176-rider start list was confirmed.

The Tour de France begins in the Vendée on Saturday and The Cycling Podcast will be producing daily episodes analysing the racing as well as Kilometre 0, taking a look at a different aspect of the race, every weekday morning.

The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science In Sport.