Lionel Birnie is a journalist, author and publisher. He is co-founder and co-presenter of The Cycling Podcast and owner of Peloton Publishing.

His career began as a reporter at the Watford Observer after leaving school in 1993. He later moved to Cycling Weekly and first covered the Tour de France in 1999. He started writing for the Sunday Times in 2008.

In 2010, he formed Peloton Publishing an imprint to produce sports books and he has published the autobiographies of former England manager Graham Taylor and Irish cyclist Sean Kelly and created The Cycling Anthology series.