4. Early wins for Kittel, Cavendish and Froome

February 11 | The Telegraph Cycling Podcast returns this week with Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe discussing the latest racing in the Middle East, Australia, Spain and France.

Marcel Kittel, who missed most of 2015 with illness and poor form, appeared rejuvenated when he made his debut for his new team, Etixx-QuickStep, at the Dubai Tour. In sprinting to two stage wins and the overall victory he did enough to suggest that he has rediscovered his 2014 form. Kittel is missing from this week’s Tour of Qatar – Etixx were not invited by the organisers, for alleged misconduct last year – and in the German’s absence, Mark Cavendish got his first win for Team Dimension Data on stage one.

It has been a successful week for Team Sky, giving an early sign that they are still the team to beat in stage races, with Chris Froome winning the Herald Sun Tour in Australia and Wout Poels taking the Valencia Tour. One of Poels’ teammates in southern Spain was Alex Peters, the neo-pro from Hackney – we hear from Peters, who admits that at the team’s winter training camp in Mallorca he felt intimidated to be training with the likes of Froome and 2014 world champion Michal Kwiatkowski.

We also have an interview with Fran Millar, head of business operations at Team Sky, who talks about the squad’s long-term future and how in 2016 they intend to win over some of the doubters.

The Telegraph Cycling Podcast is supported by Trainer Road and Eurosport.