The Rouleur Podcast

Riding in the rain is grim. Racing in the rain is treacherous. Matt Seaton’s essay on pedalling through precipitation from issue 6 of Rouleur magazine.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With two new foreign language editions added to the Rouleur stable, meet our Spanish and Italian editors, Olga and Emilio. Olga Àbalos is our Barcelona-based colleague with six years’ experience as co-founder of Volata magazine in Spain. A former racer herself, she tells us why she started the magazine and what the future holds with our multi-language collaborations.  Emilio Previtali, our Rouleur Italia editor, went from climbing up and skiing down mountains to training on the bike, then to racing, then to journalism. He doesn’t sit still for long, but Ian Parkinson asks Emilio how life is shaping up in these lockdown times in his hard-hit region of northern Italy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1973, Zoltan Elekes arrived in Plymouth from Romania to ride the Milk Race. It would be 22 years before he saw home again. Emma Wright reads No Direction Home by Steven Green from Rouleur 18.6. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Daredevil speed merchant, track racer and German superstar from the early 20th century, Thaddeus Robl met a predictably tragic end, but not on a bicycle. The story of Germany’s first sporting hero. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rouleur editor Andy McGrath joins Ian Parkinson as issue 100 starts landing with subscribers this week. It features a major re-design, new matt paper stock and the usual mix of fascinating features and top-notch photography, including a unique, truly 'inside the peloton' take on the 2020 Tour de France by the riders and staff of four WorldTour teams. Controversial young American star Chloé Dygert also makes an appearance in this issue. Andy explains the process behind profiling this complex individual with some unpopular world views and a bagful of talent.Plus news of the groundbreaking issue 101 we have in the pipeline, a year in planning and months in the making. Regular columnist Orla Chennaoui has taken over the editorial reins for this all-female take on the wonderful world of cycling. What can we expect to read in the New Year? Orla gives us the lowdown on her fine content and guests. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 2020 Road Book, edited by Ned Boulting, is now in stock at the Rouleur store. Ned joins us to run through this most peculiar season of Covid-19 affected bike racing, starting with the UAE Tour back in February, all the way through to the Vuelta in November. This mighty tome reflects on what Ned describes as a “scintillating season, from start to finish, providing us with a fabulous diversion from the pandemic for just a few months.” Hear hear. Did you know Rouleur was backed and owned by Rapha back in 2006? Simon Mottram, Rapha’s founder, tells us how frequent meetings and copious cups of coffee with Guy Andrews resulted in a wafer-thin issue 1, costing £9, and how Rouleur spread its wings and grew from there. It’s quite a story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Concussion protocol has improved within pro bike racing in recent years, but is still not mandatory. The debilitating and potentially lifetime consequences of head injuries are still not widely understood within the sport.With testimony from three racers with very different experiences: Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Brent Bookwalter (Mitchelton-Scott) and Matt Brammeier (now a British Cycling coach).The Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don’t stop what you’re doing – do it while listening to the world’s best cycling writing.The latest in this series is Concussion Repercussion, by Ian Cleverly, read by Emma Wright, from issue 18.3 of Rouleur magazine.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The future of NTT, formerly MTN-Qhubeka, looked to be in doubt until team principal Doug Ryder announced Assos have stepped up their involvement to keep the team at the races in 2021. Ryder tells Ian Parkinson how Africa’s Team will keep working on getting homegrown riders from the continent into the top tier of the sport, and the big change in personnel for next season. Qhubeka means “move forward” – an apt slogan in these challenging times. Derek Bouchard-Hall, CEO of Assos, joins us to explain the renowned Swiss clothing company’s decision to stick with Ryder and the team and put the Qhubeka name front and centre of the project. Our big birthday issue 100 has just gone to the printers and it’s fair to say we are overjoyed with the result. Miles Baker-Clarke takes you through what’s hot in the Rouleur shop in the run up to Christmas, while Ian Cleverly points out a few highlights from this special issue. Plus news of upcoming competition prizes related to our 100 Memorable Moments feature. Get involved with the hashtag #rouleur100 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tucked away in a warren of testing cub­icles and curious contraptions, we find Franco Rigolon hard at work. His job involves making just one thing, and it’s not something he can make very quickly. Franco is a wheel-builder, the sole person in charge — the only one with the know-how — of one of the company’s most enduring products: the Ghibli wheel.After Valentino Campagnolo took over following the death of his father in 1983, the Ghibli was one of his first great successes. In a time where almost every wheel was made the same way it had been since before the company’s beginning, Campagnolo put a team of engineers to work on coming up with some new ideas.From there came the concept of using fibres rather than spokes to create the tension and maintain structure. This was lighter, stronger, resistant to temperature changes and allowed more aerodynamic shapes.It was, to use an old cliché, a game changer.From Miguel Indurain’s hour record to Alex Zanardi’s Paralympic gold, the Campagnolo Ghibli has been a winning set of wheels. Meet the man who makes these labour intensive works of art.The Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don’t stop what you’re doing – do it while listening to the world’s best cycling writing.The latest in this series is ‘Mister Ghibli’ by Colin O'Brien, from Rouleur 50, read by George Oliver. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Racing drivers are partial to a bit of bike riding to keep them fit, but 2009 Formula One world champion Jenson Button has taken it a step further following years of high speed success behind the wheel, launching his own clothing range, Léger. Jenson talks to Ian Parkinson from his home in LA on being fit at 40 and designing kit that won't make Mrs B laugh... Rheumatoid arthritis has put a premature end to the fine career of Ian Stannard. The former British champion has been a highly respected and fondly regarded Classics mainstay of Team Sky since its inception. A Paris-Roubaix podium finish in 2016 and consecutive victories at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad are amongst Stannard's highlights - the second an unforgettable moment in hardman finishing after seeing off the combined efforts of three of the best Quick Steps, including Tom Boonen. Peter Stuart talks to the retiring Mr Stannard at home in Cheshire.And hill climber Becky Hair tells Ian Parkinson about her campaign for equal treatment of women from the bottom to the top of the sport. The hashtag #climbinghighertogether is going places. Hup, hup, listen up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is late summer 2015 and nobody knows that Tom Dumoulin is on the verge of a breakthrough. Not the 24 year-old Dutchman himself, nor his team-mates at Giant-Alpecin. It doesn’t figure in his employers’ plans. The top tens of Grand Tour contenders put out by magazines and websites ahead of such races do not feature him. The best three-week riders in the world might know his name but have no idea he is set to join their ranks. Dumoulin has shown promise in week-long races, winning stages at the Tour de Suisse and the Eneco Tour, placing twice overall in successive years at both. He finished second to Tony Martin in the penultimate stage TT at last year’s Tour de France. By more than a minute but still, Tony Martin. A podium at Paris-Nice, maybe Romandie, should be next, though Dumoulin has already said his target for 2016 is an Olympic medal. A gold one. He is thought of by his team as an exciting prospect for the future but they see him, for now at least, as “a world class time trialist who’s very good on the hills”. He can make it over the high mountains (more or less) but he is not expected to challenge in them. That is about to change.He’s one of the best Grand Tour men of a generation now; in 2015, Tom Dumoulin was a 1,000-1 outsider before the Vuelta a España that kickstarted his career. The “Butterfly of Maastricht” and his team-mates reflect on how they nearly pulled off the greatest shock in modern Grand Tour racing.The Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don’t stop what you’re doing – do it while listening to the world’s best cycling writing.The latest in this series is ‘The Butterfly Effect’ by Nick Christian, from Rouleur 18.6, read by George Oliver. Download the Rouleur app and use the code BUTTERFLY to read the whole issue free of charge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have three fascinating, erudite guests on the latest podcast, and Desire editor Stuart Clapp too. Only joshing, Stu…Olympic team pursuiters Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald were interviewed by Hannah Dines for the latest Rouleur issue, and an excellent feature it is too. Waiting for a postponed Olympics, getting back to racing, mental health and explaining the Madison via the works of Shakespeare - Katie and Elinor cover it all in typically engaging style. Baltimore cyclist Chris Jones’s superb essay in issue 20.7 is another highlight. He tells Ian Parkinson about the experience of riding the city streets as a black man in America, racial divides, very gradual improvement and freeing the mind via the bike. Essential listening.Our Stu was understandably emotional at the weekend, as a young man from Hackney most of us here at Rouleur Towers have known since he was a skinny little kid working in a bike shop, won the Giro d’Italia. Stuart has a nice little anecdote about Tao Geoghegan Hart and what a decent chap he is - of course he does. Brings a tear to the eye.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The ’cross background puts riders like Wout and Mathieu in an ideal position to fight for the win in the final of a Classic. They’re used to pushing top end power for an hour in a way most riders can’t,” says Merijn. “Explosive power is harder to develop than endurance. It’s also a mental thing: if you’ve learned to push yourself at a young age, it’s something that sticks with you. It’s very hard to pick up later if you haven’t got it.” Some say cyclo-cross riders also have a better feel for the race. “You learn that riding ’cross – bike handling, positioning, timing,” says Wout. And with the constant micro-adjustments and anticipation, riders get better at gauging their effort, sensing when to push or hold back. “The racing is more instinctive, not just relying on power readings,” he says.One of the added challenges in the winter discipline has been the increasingly technical courses. “It’s great for the spectators, but shifts the racing more towards interval efforts, less steady state,” says Wout. “I’m more of a power rider and this recent development tends to favour lighter, more technical riders like Mathieu.” Of course, Wout has amazing skills, but Mathieu is nimbler. “It means usually having to chase him coming out of the bends.”Having Van der Poel as a rival meant there was never any room for complacency. In interviews, Wout’s trainer Marc Lamberts has said that it led to him forcing Wout’s development harder and earlier than he would if the Dutchman hadn’t been around. Wout would have had more time to grow into the under-23s. They pushed each other and now everyone else is suffering.Fully recovered from his horrific 2019 Tour crash, Wout van Aert is the most exciting bike racer in the world. Domestique, sprinter, climber, time trials, cyclo-cross and Tour de France stage wins - he can do it allThe Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don’t stop what you’re doing – do it while listening to the world’s best cycling writing.The latest in this series is ‘The Wout Factor’ by Olivier Nilsson-Julien, from Rouleur 20.7. Download the Rouleur app and use the code WOUTFACTOR to read the whole issue free of charge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Doping has sadly become a perennial issue in cycling. Every year there’s a new drug, a new disgrace and a series of articles on websites where we all persuade ourselves that this will be the last time this happens. Let’s be clear. Cycling is far cleaner than it once was. Despite the non-endemic media’s perception of bike racing as a kind of endurance version of WWE wrestling, the vast majority of riders and racers wouldn’t know where to begin doping. But that doesn’t mean they don’t wonder how it feels. Everybody who has found themselves in the gruppetto all week, only to see the same guys ride away from them three weeks later, has marvelled at how form can change that fast. We’ve all asked ourselves what it is like to not get tired, to always be the hammer and never the nail. Does it feel like every day on the bike is your best day? Or a little bit superhuman? Or like you’ve had too much coffee? What does doping feel like? After decades of racing in the bunch, a top amateur racer satisfies his curiosity in a clinical trial and discovered that it’s not what you put into your body, but what you get out, that matters.The latest in this series is ‘New Blood’ by James Stout, from Rouleur 20.4. Download the Rouleur app and use the code NEWBLOOD to read the whole issue free of charge.SPONSORED BY LAKAWe are delighted to have Laka as a brand partner of the Rouleur Podcast.Laka is a team that looks out of each other. Laka’s collective cover is made for cyclists, for life on and off your bike. Laka has flipped outdated traditional insurance on its head.No more fixed upfront premiums. Instead, your monthly contributions are based on the collectives’ claims that month. Your max monthly price is capped, but the savings are all yours. Plus, 80% of your money goes straight back into the collective: fixing, replacing, helping, whatever. And the other 20% keeps their wheels spinning. It’s as simple as that.And when s*** does hit the fan, Laka’s got your back. Claims are handled by experts and usually agreed within a day. With no depreciation or excess. Laka are so over annual contracts locking you in…with Laka – if you want to leave, you can. Anytime.If you are new to Laka, you can get a £10 credit by signing up today. Just use the discount code: rouleur Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two Grand Tour legends - Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso - have launched their own bike brand, inspired they say by their decades of experience in the pro peloton. They join presenter Ian Parkinson, along with 19-year old Alpecin-Fenix rider Ben Tulett, fresh from a very creditable performance over the 260 punishing kilometres of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The Giro'Italia is already proving as unpredictable as every other race this season, although the early stages were dominated by discussions about EF Pro Cycling's radical new kit, a collaboration with the skateboard brand Palace. Rouleur's head of Desire Stuart Clapp, himself recovering from an age-inappropriate skateboard accident, thinks it's a work of genius. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.