The 111th Tour de France begins this Saturday in northern Italy. It will end three weeks later in Nice, France.

To preview the race, I’m joined by Joshua Robinson of the Wall Street Journal. He and Jason Gay, his colleague at the Wall Street Journal, are the last two journalists at a major American newspaper who cover professional cycling.

Joshua and I talk about his background and how he got into journalism, what he’s looking to write about at this year’s Tour, and we talk a bit about Netflix’s second season of “Unchained”—what works and what doesn’t.

I’m also joined by Mark Malloch-Brown, former diplomat and strategist, to discuss the political backdrop of the Tour de France. This July, sport and politics collide in France because there will be parliamentary elections on June 30 and July 7.

Here at the RIDING WITH newsletter and podcast we are exploring stories about how professional cycling explains the world.

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Thanks for listening and see you on the roads.

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RIDING WITH is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.