Season preview with Van Avermaet and Boswell - Podcast

The 2018 season is here, and what better way to kick-start the campaign than by listening to the latest Cyclingnews podcast. This week we sit down and catch up with Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and one of Katusha-Alpecin’s newest recruits, Ian Boswell.

Van Avermaet is gearing up for another tilt at the Classics and, after a hugely successful 2017, is hoping to add the Tour of Flanders to his already impressive palmares. We talked to the Belgian about his plans for the year, his dreams of Flanders and how BMC Racing are going to cope without the skills of Daniel Oss, who has moved to Bora.

Boswell arrives at Katusha after spending five WorldTour years at Team Sky. Recorded in early December, we spoke to the American about making the switch, the change in atmosphere and how he is gunning to ride the Tour de France for the first time.

We also proudly introduce our new podcast sponsors, Prendas Ciclismo and Pinarello. We're delighted to welcome both brands on board, and they'll be with us throughout the season to help us provide you with the latest interviews, race analysis and more from all the biggest races in the world. A big thank you to both Prendas Ciclismo and Pinarello.

"We've been avid readers of Cyclingnews since its creation in the mid-nineties. Whilst we will continue to advertise in Procycling magazine, something we have done since issue 1, we have identified that podcasts are ever-increasingly popular in part thanks to the proliferation of smart phones," said Andy Storey from Prendas.

Luciano Fusar Poli from Pinarello added: "At Pinarello we are keen to partner with Cyclingnews and their ever-growing and popular podcast. Cyclingnews offer a great opportunity to share our brand and, having sponsored their annual Reader Poll in the past two years, we had no hesitation in supporting the podcast."

We also check out and review [If you can call it that - ed.] the WorldTour jerseys for 2018 and share with you the results from our recent reader poll. We close out the first episode of the podcast by making some predictions for the season that are bold and almost certain to be proved wrong, including who will win the Tour de France and who will be the biggest flop of the season.

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