I’m in France on holiday but as ever, managing time is a bit a juggling act, with family to see, children to chase after, bike riding to be done (as much as possible), weddings to go to, and so on.

I’ve always been a fan of radio and at Tour time, podcasts are a great way for me to keep up with all the aspects of the race- I don’t have time to read all the written media and if I’m lucky I’ll see an hour of live coverage, but when I get home and have to go back to work, I sometimes even struggle to catch the highlights.

This year there have been several shows, after what was something of a light summer in 2011.

Velocast
My favourite, The Velocast, returns to daily Tour coverage. Hosts Scott and John have taken a bold step in asking for A £10 subscription upfront and I am supporting this venture and hope it leads to more shows and more time for the two of them to produce content. This may not be for everybody but

Cycling Central
Australian journalist Anthony Tan is doing what looks like it will be a daily show with Cycling Central. Scottish writer Richard Moore joined him for one earlier show- a partnership that has been seen before on the now-defunct Cyclingnews show, that was sponsored by Rapha one year, and ran to publicise the cyclingnews.com website in 2011 (as I understood it). ‘Tan Man‘ and Moore have a good chemistry and seem to thrive by slagging each other. Others may prefer their commentary more ‘straight’ but I enjoy listening for the nuances in the relationships- after 2 weeks of Tour madness, you can tell that cabin fever sets in amongst the journos and often more honest assesments of poor tactics or bad conduct come to the fore. As well as the banter there is good analysis and interviews- it’s Aussie in focus though, with audio from Allan Peiper, Matt White, Matt Goss and plenty of others so far. Cadel may be elusive but they keep a close eye on his exploits. There’s still plenty of British interest with views from Moore and today Daniel Friebe and Will Fotheringham.

Cycle Sport
Richard Moore hosted a show with Cycle Sport (and Cycling Weekly) writer Lionel Birnie. This one looks like it will be more occasional but also had some really good analysis.

ITV
This show backs up the UKs main terrestrial highlights show on ITV4. It has a professional feel with clips from the English language live commentary by Phil & Paul and interviews with the stage winner or some other man of the day by Ned Boulting. Matt Rendell is cerebral as ever but there is plenty of humour between him, Boulting and the ex pro Chris Boardman. The Scouser’s humour appeals to me, there may be impressions and possibly even some ukelele from the technical staff if we are lucky.