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Mid-May 2020 seemed an unlikely time to set off on a new publishing venture. The world of bike racing journalism was temporarily in crisis along with the rest of the sports profession. There was no live cycling to write about, and budgets were being slashed left right and centre as recession hit hard. Most cycling writers are freelance, and in the UK at least there wasn’t a lot of help coming from the government. But the idea of putting a website on line to bring cycling fans the best writing that a group of long-standing cycling journalists could provide had been kicking around my mind for a while. In a moment of optimism a few years ago, I’d even registered a name that I liked and that I knew had resonance with lovers of the sport – lacourseentete.com |
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| Meet The Team OJ Borg is lacourseentete podcast specialist. A broadcaster of long standing who is currently with BBC Radio Two, when not out on his bike, be that road, mud or virtual. During his tenure as BBC cycling correspondent he undertook two hour record attempts shockingly failing in both, learnt how to look good in lycra from David Millar, blew up a bicycle on l’Alpe d’Huez and almost killed Rob Hayles while reporting on Paris-Roubaix. Nick Bull was drawn to cycling aged nine when the Rochester International Classic World Cup race took place on local roads in 1997. He joined Cycling Weekly and Cycle Sport as a reporter in 2011, and went on to become the magazines’ news editor. A regular contributor to BBC Radio 5 Live’s BeSpoke cycling show, he is also the PR & digital manager for the Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour races. He tweets @nickbull21. Peter Cossins devoured Phil Liggett’s reports in his dad’s newpspaper in the 70s and began work at Cycling Weekly as the magazine was preparing to launch Cycle Sport. He was procycling editor between 2006 and 2009 and currently specialises in writing books about the sport. An award winner for both Full Gas (2018) and The Yellow Jersey (2019), Pete currently lives with his family in the Pyrenees, with an office overlooking the Prat d’Albis climb. William Fotheringham is lead cycling writer at The Guardian and has covered 26 Tours de France. A former writer at Cycling Weekly, he helped launch Cycle Sport before founding procycling together with Jeremy Whittle. His best-selling books include Put Me Back on My Bike: in search of Tom Simpson (2002), Fallen Angel: the Passion of Fausto Coppi (2008), and Merckx: Half-Man, Half-Bike (2012). Matt Morris is a Shropshire based designer who started his own company in 2008 and has worked with cycling brands Orbea, Scott, Bianchi and Viner as well as a number of blue-chip companies and the Lawn Tennis Association. Like many, he was drawn to cycling by Channel Four’s Tour coverage and currently enjoys thrashing his gravel bike around the lanes. Sadhbh O’Shea was born in Ireland and raised in the cycling hotbed that is the Isle of Man. After working as an intern at Eurosport after graduating in journalism, she went on to a spell at procycling followed by working at cyclingnews.com and is currently working at the BBC in the Isle of Man. Most of her time is spent interviewing politicians but cycling is never far from her mind. Sophie Smith has covered cycling since 2010 and reported from eight Tours de France, working as a journalist and television presenter for Australian and British press. She cut her teeth at the 2010 world road championships before moving to England in 2012 to join Cycling Weekly and Cycle Sport magazines. Now based out of Melbourne, she travels to WorldTour races as a regular contributor to media outlets in Australia and the UK. Jeremy Whittle began covering cycling in 1993, for Winning magazine, where his first assignment was interviewing a Texan upstart named Lance Armstrong. He has covered the Tour de France for 25 years, for the Times and currently for the Guardian, and joined William in launching procycling in 1999. His books Bad Blood and Racing Through the Dark (with David Millar) were shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. SWPix.com provide lacourseentete with photographs; they are an independent mainly sports specific picture agency, whose live and archive imagery appears in national and regional newspapers and across many digital platforms. The swpix.com archive holds nearly a million images; or more information contact Simon Wilkinson on simon@swpix.com |
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