GCN+

GCN Presenter Simon Richardson & endurance cyclist Jenny Graham are spending a whirlwind 24 hours in the Colombian city of Medellin. Once the country's murder capitol, this cities dark past is long gone, now a safe a vibrant place, described as one of the most cycling friendly cities in Latin America. Si is heading to the hills to ride the world famous Alto de las Palmas & meet legendary figureheads of Colombian cycling including Santiago Botero, Rigoberto Uran & frame builder Tino Hincapie. Jenny is exploring the colourful Comuna 13 with Champion trials rider Xavier Zapata.

On the 19th of July 1903 60 cyclists left Paris for the maiden stage of the very first Tour de France, racing 467km through the night to the line in Lyon. 116 years later, two modern-day riders attempted to recreate the feat of endurance using bikes and equipment from the early 20th century to fully experience the highs and lows of the early Tour pioneers. Endurance cyclist Mark Beaumont and GCN presenter James Lowsley-Williams are pushed to the limits of their physical and mental ability, struggling with the midsummer heat, bikes borrowed from museums and a lack of sleep. How did they compare to the Tour’s first heroes?

1969. July the 15th. Stage 17 of the Tour de France. A brutal stage from Luchon to Mourenx covering four of the toughest mountains in the Pyrenees. On this fateful day, Eddy Merckx catapulted himself into the history books with one of the greatest solo breakaways the sport has ever seen. Fast forward over half a century, and GCN’s Simon Richardson is in the Pyrenees to pay tribute to The Cannibal by recreating his ride. To make the 220km epic even more challenging, Si will do it aboard his 1969 spec Faema team bike and wearing their iconic red and white jersey. Eddy Merckx made this ride look easy, but will Si even make it to the finish line?

It created one of the most memorable days in grand tour history. Riders such as Andy Hampsten and Franco Chioccioli share their extraordinary experience of a day they'll never forget.

Neil Laughton, cycling enthusiast, adventurer and record-breaker is joined by cycling experts Scotford Lawrence, Edwin Knight and Jon Cannings to explore the history of the bicycle. They explore every twist and turn of the bicycle’s journey of development through history, including some major successes, and the odd failure! The journey begins with the Laufmachine in 1817 right through to the safety bicycle that has developed into the high-performance machines we know today.

Does the pro peloton have a problem with food? Are cyclists eating enough to be healthy? Former pro cyclist and GCN presenter Conor Dunne investigates how the pursuit of low weight has been the fixation of professional riders for generations. He finds out if his own weight loss programme has caused lasting damage, and asks if pro teams are now changing their approach to weight management Conor heads to Italy to meet former teammate Davide Cimolai to hear how his weight obsession ruined his early years. He also hears from Gabz Cullaigh whose recent experience at the top of the sport presents evidence that despite advances in coaching and science-led meal plans, under-eating is still a problem.

Tulsa Tough is one of the hardest, fastest, most prestigious criterium races in the United States of America. This high-octane, action packed film follows the Miami Blazers, and hears from sprinter and fast rising talent Dante Young, as they go toe-to-toe with the likes of L39ION OF LOS ANGELES on the downtown streets of Tulsa. It’s NASCAR meets bike racing as we see the best criterium racers in the world battle for supremacy.

Andy Schleck & Alberto Contador. A pro cycling rivalry that ignited the Tour de France in 2009 and 2010. The fiery Spaniard and the level headed Luxembourger only went toe to toe at the Tour on a few occasions; but their rivalry has gone down in history as one of the most explosive, entertaining, and controversial the sport has ever seen. Dan Lloyd is joined in the studio by Nicolas Roche and William Fotheringham to dig into what made this rivalry so compelling. They’ll re-live epic battles, and debate who is the greatest.

Fabian Cancellara is one of the greatest Classics riders ever, with three Tour of Flanders wins and three editions of Paris-Roubaix to his name. He also won the world time trial championships four times and took eight stage victories at the Tour de France, wearing the yellow jersey for a total of 29 days. He hung up his wheels in 2016, after claiming his second Olympic gold medal. Dan Lloyd is in Switzerland to go cross country skiing and find out more about the lesser-known Swiss version of the legend of Spartacus.

In the mid-1980s, one team dominated the cycling headlines: La Vie Claire. Despite a ferocious internal power struggle between two of the sport’s biggest stars, they racked up more than 100 wins. Wearing their iconic Mondrian jersey, Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond won two of the most infamous Tour de France victories of all time. Bankrolled by the controversial businessman, Bernard Tapie, La Vie Claire rewrote the rulebook on both bike racing and fashion. Dan Lloyd is joined by special guests Pippa York and William Fotheringham to discuss how the team turned a recipe for disaster into a period of complete dominance.

GCN presenter and ex-professional cyclist Conor Dunne heads to Midwest America to take on the infamous UNBOUND 200. Alongside 100 pro riders and more than 1000 amateurs, this is the biggest gravel race in the world. Across 330 km of unforgiving Kansas landscape, Conor must battle tyre-slashing flint, thick mud, and crippling heat exhaustion in a fight to make it to the finish. Conor is joined by former World Tour road pros Nathan Haas and Larry Warbasse, up-and coming gravel racer Anna Yamauchi, and 2022 Unbound champion Ivar Slik in this up close and personal, no-holds barred look at what it takes to survive this brutal event.

7-Eleven: A team that defined American Cycling for a decade. In this film, Alex Stieda reunites with his teammates to tell the story of how an unlikely group of bike racers reinvented North American cycling, and created a legacy which endures today. In the early 1980s, sport in the USA was dominated by the LA Olympics. The company behind the convenience store 7-Eleven wanted in on the action, and funded a bike racing team. This band of brothers won seven gold medals at the LA Games before turning pro and tackling Europe’s biggest races - much to the irritation of established European riders. In 1986, they were invited to the Tour de France where Canadian, Alex Stieda, became the first North American to wear the coveted Yellow Jersey. The 7-Eleven story was unorthodox, pioneering, and full of friendship and camaraderie.

Ex-pro cyclist, Ted King has a lot of love for his home state of Vermont. With its rolling landscapes, rugged gravel roads and its fantastic craft beer scene, he was never unhappy to return home after his time spent in pelotons around the world. As beer and bike enthusiasts, Ted and elite road and CX racer Regina Legge, are taking their gravel bikes down the road less travelled, touring brewery to brewery and learning what puts Vermont’s craft beer ahead of the bunch. As they head north to south, we'll take in some of Vermont's challenging climbs and learn a thing or two about beer along the way.

Cycling powerhouse Jens Voigt was the boss of the breakaway when he was a professional. Bernie Eisel travels to Berlin to meet Jens, tour his beloved city, and visit the places that influenced his life and seventeen year cycling career. Born in East Germany, Jens gives us an insight into what it was like to grow up under a communist regime, how discipline and determination was instilled in him from a young age, and how this helped him as a bike racer. Bernie chats to close friend, and old team mate Bobby Julich, who helps to paint a picture of this extraordinarily tough and charismatic cycling Legend.

Canyon//SRAM racing takes on one of the biggest races on the women’s calendar: the Giro Donne. The GCN+ cameras go behind-the-scenes to capture every single moment. With exclusive access to the team, including established stars and rising talents like Chloé Dygert, Tiffany Cromwell, and Antonia Niedermaier, this fly-on-the-wall documentary pulls back the curtain on how one of the best teams in the business navigates the emotional and physical rollercoaster of a truly dramatic race. With ex-pros Magnus Bäckstedt and Dani Christmas in the team car, expectations are for big performances and big wins. But, with treacherous conditions and big crashes across nine brutal stages, how does the team stay ahead of the competition and deliver results?

Simon Richardson and James Lowsley-Williams head to the Himalayas on a quest to discover Nepal’s mysterious ‘Forbidden Kingdom’, the remote mountaintop city of Lo Manthang. Breath-taking views, lung-busting climbs, and incredible encounters with locals; Si and James are in for an unmissable gravel bike adventure! Their once-in-a-lifetime expedition begins in the chaotic streets of Kathmandu before embarking on a gruelling five-day ride up the ancient trade route that forges a path between Nepal and Tibet. Their epic ride sees them dicing with kamikaze trucks, enduring freezing rainstorms, taking a 228m bungee jump, and even a heroic attempt to beat a Himalayan KOM.

Paris-Brest-Paris is a cycling spectacle like no other. Once every 4 years, over 7,000 cyclists from across the globe head to France’s capital to take on this gruelling 1200 km. Thousands of spectators flock to the roadsides of North-West France to support the riders; some of whom will be attempting to finish first, riding non-stop for over 48 hours, whilst others are just trying to make it back to Paris before the 90 hour cut off time. We follow British amateur riders Jack Thurston and Amy Hudson as they tackle this monumental challenge for the first time, along with veteran French rider Dominique Lamouller, racing Paris-Brest-Paris for the13th time, along with his son, ex-pro road racer Loïc Lamouller. A gruelling course, intense heat, and sleep deprivation, will our riders make it back to Paris?

A mountain so legendary it’s known simply as “The Alpe”, with its unmistakable 21 hairpins it’s cycling’s most famous climb. Not the steepest, or the hardest, but when the Tour de France hits Alpe d’Huez, drama is guaranteed. It’s featured more than thirty times and is eagerly awaited by hordes of fans lining the route. Crowds are estimated to have swelled to over a million and on one of the sport’s most recognisable bends all of Holland seems to camp out; the iconic Dutch Corner. Conor is joined by ex-pro Fränk Schleck who won on the mountain in 2006. His victory cemented his place at cycling’s top table, and Fränk’s name is now immortalised on hairpin eighteen, alongside double stage winner, Hennie Kuiper, who also shares his memories of the mythical mountain.

Reynolds Technology has been responsible for the tubing in the world’s most famous bikes: Jaques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault’s Tour winning Gitanes; Eddy Merckx’s DeRosa; and Miguel Indurain’s Pinarello… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Reynolds patented the invention of butted steel tubing, a process that dramatically reduces weight in steel bikes, over 120 years ago. GCN+ travels to their factory on the outskirts of Birmingham, UK to discover how the company has survived the threat of more modern materials. That's right, steel is here to stay.

Simon Richardson and James Lowsley-Williams are heading to Nepal to tackle the Annapurna Circuit; a 230 km trail that circumnavigates the mountain. Known as the best long distance hike in the world, an experienced hiker will take around 20 days to complete the route on foot; Si and James are attempting to ride it in just 5. Joined by local Nepalese mountain bike legend, Mangal Lama, they’ll battle extreme weather conditions, treacherous single track, and perilous high altitude as they try to complete the iconic Annapurna Circuit.