Books / Literature

Cycling often gets a bad rap as a traditionalist, backward-looking sport, but it’s also one that is obsessed with the future. The history of the sport has been one of constant improvement, technologically, nutritionally, physiologically and psychologically. Yes, those guys in the 1990s and 2000s made those gains in unethical ways, but they still rode faster than those who came before. And a mark of the progress that has been made in sports science since then is that many of the speeds that were achieved with the help of large quantities of performance-enhancing drugs are now achieved with better aerodynamics, nutrition, training and bikes. What’s in the magazine? Greg Van Avermaet James Startt sat down with Greg Van Avermaet in Canada at the GPs Québec and Montréal in September. The Belgian has twice won in Montreal and, like several big-name riders from his generation, will be retiring at the end of this season. GVA was one of the best one-day riders over the past decade, winning gold in the Olympic road race in Rio in 2016 as well as Paris-Roubaix in 2017. But he also managed to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France in 2016 and 2018. Van Avermaet built his reputation on hard work and a low profile, and talked with James about his reasons to finally retire at the age of 38. “I could have continued,” he says, but he came to the conclusion for two reasons. Firstly, he wanted to spend more time with his family. But also he understood that winning the race he most wanted – the Tour of Flanders – was simply no longer possible. It's about time In autumn 2022, ASO announced that the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift would be concluded with an individual time trial. The storybook for men’s road cycling often portrays the ITT as the stage for the decisive GC battle; is this the next step for the women’s peloton? Deena Blacking went in search of answers, shedding light through the voices and experiences of athletes, team managers, and engineers. In a discipline where money can buy speed, what matters more, the athlete or the machine? And how will this shape the future of women’s road cycling? The future of scouting Years ago James Witts interviewed Oskar Svendsen, the Norwegian cyclist who holds the world-record VO2max score. Svendsen recorded a score of nearly 100 millimetres of oxygen per kilogramme of bodyweight each minute at the age of just 18. (VO2max scores in the 90s are vanishingly rare, even the 80s are highly unusual and there are many WorldTour pros with scores in the 70s.) Svendsen’s numbers were a sensation and the top teams stalked him. But just a couple years later he’d already retired. His story highlighted the fact that identifying talent isn’t solely about lab tests and numbers, and it inspired James to dig deeper into the rider-recruitment processes of the upper echelons. He discovered a world of value proposition and parental influence, but also concerns that riders’ careers will burn brighter but shorter in the current era. And more... Also in Rouleur 123: the Futurology Edition: The magazine also features interviews with two archetypally ‘modern’ riders – Taco van der Hoorn and Jay Vine; Amy Sedghi heads to Girona to take part in the 100km Traka event in a bid to understand its reputation as a gravel hotspot, the Traka’s appeal and the culture it sits within; Rachel Jary gets to know one of the most diverse and exciting cycling teams in the world, the Miami Blazers; James Startt visits Sebastian Fisher, who collects bikes from what he considers to be the golden era of bike design; Tekkers creator Alec Briggs puts Canyon’s latest Grail gravel bike to the test; Emilio Previtli visits the headquarters of KASK helmets and KOO eyewear to interview founder Angelo Gotti; Rachel Jary also learns more about BMC and Red Bull Advanced Technologies’ Project Speed; plus Swi, Lapierre, Velocio, Pas Normal Studios, Orla, Ned and much, much more.

Welcome to Rouleur 118: the Classics Issue. If the Tour de France is the idealised version of cycling, with blue skies, warm temperatures, sublime mountain landscapes and the colourful swish of the peloton along beautifully engineered roads, the Classics are more like real life. The great one-day races of Belgium and northern Europe – the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, E3, Gent-Wevelgem, Liège-Bastogne-Liège et al – are gritty, monochromatic affairs. They take place on farm roads, with all the attendant unglamorous sights and smells, in muddy, unspectacular landscapes where the trees are still bare in early spring. It’s probably raining, and it’s definitely chilly. We dream of the Tour de France; the Classics are more like everyday life. But they are also epic in their own way. The racing follows an entirely different pattern to the Tour. The Tour is about energy-saving and patience; in the Classics, especially in the modern era, who dares wins. And if whoever dares loses, well, there’s another race in a few days’ time. Issue 118 celebrates all things Classics, from the WorldTour riders who have made their mark on these cobbled roads to the places that bring these places to life.

There is no better way of travelling than by bike. It is the cheapest, cleanest and healthiest way of getting from A to B, and at a speed which makes short work of long distances, but which allows us to take in our surroundings. Every bike ride is a journey, both literal and emotional, and in the latest edition of Rouleur, our Travel Edition, we have asked what it really means to explore and travel by bike. We know as cyclists that the journey is as important as the destination, and is sometimes even the point. But that’s not to say that the destination is not important – we learn a lot by exploring new places, and travelling teaches us about the world. We travel, they say, to find ourselves. However, we can also discover some amazing places en route. Inside The Road For Rouleur 122: the Travel Edition, the opening feature is The Road, by Richard Abraham, with pictures by Jered and Ashley Gruber. Richard’s pitch for The Road was an unusual one: the destination is secret, though if you read between the lines, maybe you can work out where to look for it. Much like the beach that featured in Alex Garland’s turn-of-the-century backpacking novel The Beach, The Road is a shared secret among those who like to explore the best cycling routes. It’s not the highest road, nor the steepest, nor the most epic, but it does have a character all of its own, and it is atmospheric and scenic. Best of all, it’s rarely used by cars, and to Richard’s mind, offers the very best kind of riding experience. We’re not going to tell you where it is, but part of the point is to understand that The Road symbolises all our favourite roads. The perfect riding experience doesn’t have to be a bucket-list destination like L’Alpe d’Huez or the Col du Tourmalet, it can sometimes be found in the most surprising places. Alison Jackson Of course, travel is about the people we meet as well as the places we go, and our at-home feature with Alison Jackson, the Paris-Roubaix champion, ticks both boxes. Canadian journalist Curtis Gillespie, in his first feature for Rouleur, went to visit the irrepressible Jackson at the farm she grew up on, and along with Cooper & O’Hara photography, came up with Alison Jackson Has Outdoor Energy. The Jackson farm is close to the Alberta/Saskatchewan border in rural western Canada, and to say that it is an unusual background for a professional cyclist is to understate the case. Canada’s three prairie provinces are approximately 15 times the size of England, and are home to a population of approximately a million people, and it’s no surprise to find out that Jackson’s journey from deepest Canada to the Paris-Roubaix podium has been a convoluted one. But what really shines through in Curtis’s feature is Jackson’s raw energy and joie de vivre. Read this feature, and then buy a ticket to Rouleur Live, where Jackson will be making an appearance. Nothing Beside Remains We often associate cycling travel features with big landscapes and mountain scenery. The most epic cycling tours head up into the mountains, where cyclists can commune with nature and enjoy the view. However, Tom Owen and Matt Grayson came up with a bike tour with a difference for their feature Nothing Beside Remains. Tom and Matt went bikepacking around Sardinia. So far, so normal, because Sardinia is a beautiful place – a Mediterranean island with forested mountains, lovely seascapes and nice weather. However, Tom and Matt were on an urbex (urban exploration) tour, and visited a series of atmospheric and eerie abandoned places – a huge crumbling satellite dish, a long-dead holiday resort and a disused chairlift among others. Travel is about culture, as well as nature, though in the case of some of the buildings Tom and Matt explored, nature is taking back over. And more... Also in Rouleur 122: the Travel Edition: the Tour de France visits the obscure town of Moulins, lost in La France Profonde; we cycle up from the top of the Col du Tourmalet to the Pic du Midi du Bigorre and ask if the Tour de France could one day follow the same route; Chris Marshall-Bell interviews Ethiopian rider Negasi Haylu Abreha; Amy Sedghi goes gravel riding in Sri Lanka for a week of sensory overload, heat, humidity and wild animals; Rachel Jary goes to Finland to take part in F1 driver Valtteri Bottas’s new event FNLD GRVL; James Startt visits Flanders, Roubaix and Lombardia winner Andrea Tafi at his agriturismo in Tuscany; we go to Iten in Kenya, more famous for producing the world’s fastest distance runners, to follow the Team Amani project; Art Cycle celebrates the career of professional cyclist and artist Maurice de Vlaminck; plus Technogym, Vittoria, Pico Aneto with Jack Ultracyclist, the Amalfi Coast, a long Tour stage to Peyragudes, Costa Brava, Heidi Franz, Orla, Ned and much, much more.