ProCycling is the doyenne of Cycling Magazines in the UK, being within a year of overtaking the now defunct Cycle Sport magazine (1993-2016, RIP) in terms of longevity, although it still has some way to go to match its new stablemate Cycling Weekly, which is coming up to 130 years of age. Since the last millennium, it’s chronicled the rises and falls of various superstars, the scandals, the triumphs, the shocks, the spills, the thrills. It’s gone through a multitude of editors – William Fotheringham, Jeremy Whittle, Peter Cossins, Cam Winstanley, and now Edward Pickering, and overcome the new digital world, almost running out of money, and, of course, the pandemic.
Having previously used the magazine’s letters page as a source for cycling fan’s opinions on doping for my MA, I’ve not turned to using it as a way at looking back on old cycling adverts, to have a look at trends, messages, themes, and, well, because adverts are cool, a real window on the world. Those will be a series of future posts, but for the moment, here’s the front covers of ProCycling, a journey through the wild world of cycling history.
Facts and Figures
ProCycling has employed that time-honoured sports magazine tradition of a cover star over its 279 issues (as of March 2021, and 125 men and women have managed to be featured on the cover over the 23 years it’s been going. Now, the split isn’t very representative – only five women have taken a starring prominence on the front page. But where Victoria Pendleton, Lizzie Deignan, Marriane Vos, Anna Van der Bregen and Annemiek Van Vleuten have led, others will surely follow, with three of 2020’s thirteen covers dedicated to women.
Of those 125 riders, it’s no surprise who comes out on top on having appeared the most – everyone’s favourite Texan, Lance Armstrong, leads the way with 33 covers, and has also managed to appear on the covers in 13 separate years. There is a chance that Mark Cavendish, on 26 covers, might replace him at the summit however, but like Merckx’s Tour de France stage record, it’s hard to see if it will ever be done.
The top riders, by number of covers, are…
- Lance Armstrong – 34 covers
It was always going to be the US Postal man, with his 2 and a bit year comeback generating 6 new covers. - Mark Cavendish – 26 covers
The Manx Missile has a habit of appearing with others, usually to highlight a new season, a season review, Olympics or so on, but has also uniquely featured eight times, albeit in 15 different jerseys. - Alberto Contador – 20 covers
El Pistolero catapulted onto the scene at the 2007 Paris Nice, then went stratospheric when he won the Tour, so much so that he got mocked up as the winner when he wasn’t allowed to take part the following year thanks to Astana’s expulsion due to their previous riders’ digressions. Contador was of course a lurking danger throughout his career, with their always being a concern that he could sneak away and pull of an audacious time gaining assault on the GC. - Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome – 16 covers each
Wiggins was but a humble track cyclist when he first appeared on the cover, before his evolution to GC contender, Tour winner, attempted Giro winner, cobbled classics rider, and back to track champion again. He thus holds the honour of being featured alongside, and thus being held in the same regard as, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Lance Armstrong, Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador, Chris Froome, and perhaps most eyebrow raisingly, Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen. Despite his pronunciations and seeming belief that he just had to turn up and ride away at Roubaix, Wiggins only managed a top ten finish without every bothering the top men. But his versatility and willingness to provide perhaps illjudged soundbites kept him in the imagination, even if revelations as to his use of steroids has, if David Walsh is to be believed, necessitated an asterisk to be added to his Tour triumph.
Chris Froome has slowly been annoying Bradley Wiggins for a while now. First, he bested his team leader at the 2011 Vuelta, becoming the first British grand tour winner when JJ Cobo was eventually DQed years later. He p-ed off Wiggins further at the 2012 Tour, where Wiggins was supposedly on the verge of quitting, before usurping his rival so that his compatriot wasn’t even on the team by 2013. Having gone on to secure all three grand Tours, and held them all at once, Froome is now equal on covers with Wiggo, but will surely surpass him, as he already has as Britain’s greatest road cyclist despite entering the autumn of his career. - Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara – 13 covers each
It is of course fitting that Boonen and Cancellara ended up on the same number of covers, and indeed shared their final three, given it continues the notion that the pair were equally great and that we shouldn’t be arbitrarily trying to elevate one of these Colossi of the sport above one another. “The Finale” didn’t quite play out as the fans would have hoped, nor indeed did the twosome actually clash all that often despite targeting the same races, but it was one hell of a ride. From 2005-06’s Boonenmania to the Motorgate claims of those bewitched by Spartacus’s power in 2010, they have etched their names into the history of the sport in a fitting manner.
Of course, not all covers have featured riders, with arty renditions of France or indeed a roundabout to symbolise the sport’s lack of direction post Operacion Puerto also making appearances, with the 2006 run of covers, infamous for their “curse” on those featured, likely contributing to this. Some, particularly the Tour de France preview and review issues, have featured multiple riders as well, in which case I’ve counted them all as “stars” towards the stats.
So what should you do if you want to get on the cover? There are two three main ways to get on:
1) Win the Yellow Jersey
Shock horror, winning the most coveted prize in cycling serves as an excellent way to get yourself on the cover. Every winner from Marco Pantani onwards, with the exception of Tadej Pogacar and the two winners by account of the original champion being disqualified (that is, Oscar Pereiro and Andy Schleck) have has been on the front in the yellow jersey, usually on a fetching yellow background.
2) Be on Team Sky/Ineos
A British magazine is always going to like a British team, especially given the wealth of British talent there has been in recent years. Even before they were officially presented they were “stars”, and it has of course helped that they’ve won the Tour seven times since 2012, which has put them at a relative advantage.
3) Win yourself the rainbow jersey
Arguably the most beautiful jersey in sport, Peter Sagan featured in it less than Mark Cavendish despite wearing it for three years, although he did have it slung over his shoulder once.
Teams
95 seperate named teams have featured on the cover, from various national team kits to the unmistakable black and blue of Team Sky, repeatedly. The British team have pipped US Postal in recent years when all incarnations are combined with one another:
Price
What about the cover price? ProCycling began at the sum of just £2.95, which, according to inflation calculators, is now the equivalent of £5.30 now, with prices having increased by 79.7% in the UK, going by the retail price index (RPI). The actual cover price today is £6.20, over 100% of the original price, and there have been at least 13 different cover prices over time. Indeed, the highest price of £6.99 was charged for only one edition, that of January 2021, before one of the few drops in price back down to £6.20 the following month.
For the most part, the price has been fairly steady, remaining at £3.99 and £4.99 for the best part of ten years, with the one pound increase following a redesign and change to a different size and paper type. Early issues changed prices to account for extra pages as well, before sticking pretty flat. Even the rise to £5.25 had a cycling connection – it was the number of wins supposedly captured by Eddy Merckx across his career (525 that is, not five and a quarter…) although that quickly allowed a movement up through the £5 range before Coronavirus forced some rapid changes, culminating in the cost finally ending up at over £6, peaking for a month a £6.99.
1999
Procycling kicked off in April 1999 with no less that the last man to achieve the hallowed Giro-Tour double, and thus defending champion of both races, Marco Pantani, on the cover. Not a bad way to start your new mag eh. From there, it’s oft yellow tinged banner took on the look of a celebrity gossip mag in its pull quotes, with such choice quotations as “I never slagged off Pantani, Guv”, “I’ve won plenty of races after having sex” and “My drugs quarrel with Pantani” giving a more intimate edge than the more corporate, scripted sound-bites of the modern era. Of course, Lance Armstrong made his first appearance after the “Tour of Renewal” triumph, his first of the 34 he would make on the cover of the magazine, whilst Cofidis and Mapei got their colours on the front as well.
It’s worth recalling that this was the age where cycling magazines were one of the primary sources of cycling information for the discerning fan. In 1999, only 13% of households had internet access, and with TV coverage limited to a half hour of Tour highlights on Channel 4 you perhaps had to set your VCR for, magazines were one of the only methods of catching a glimpse of the colour and vibrancy of the sport you loved, as well as seeing the results. Indeed, even up until 2009 (internet access: 70%), the magazine was still publishing pages of results in the back pages. Once internet access and speed had grown however, particularly with the ability to access it at a glance on your mobile device rather than booting up a PC, there was no need to access the reems of results that could be quickly referenced online. This perhaps also explains how covers would gradually become more focused on individual riders rather than “News” – there prevalence of information meant there was no need to convey what had gone on in the sport, and more bandwidth to delve into personalities and so on rather than just the black and white results business.
2000
The dawn of a new millennium saw a celebration of a century of cycling, before Der Kaiser himself made an appearance, having not featured at the 1999 Tour (although he had then gone on to win the Vuelta the same year.) David Millar had the honour of being the first British rider to feature on the front, on what was a “March/April” double issue, before Lance and the Olympics became de mode once more. They did find the space to include Erik Dekker at the end of the year however, after the Dutchman won three stages of the Tour de France, leading to the belief he could maybe win the Worlds – he would go on to finish fourth the following year. The magazine had by this point gotten rid of the “gossip banner”, but was persevering with puns and rhyming phrases such as “American Beauty”, riffing on that year’s Oscar Best Picture winner and “Triple Dekker”, whilst an Olympic year obviously called for “Gold Rush” to be used.
2001
From 2001, the magazine settled into a cycle of twelve issues a year until 2006, when it would extend to 13. The headline was now a mix of either surnames or quotes, with a topless Mario Cipollini declaring his intent to win everything in 2002 (just don’t mention Fuentes) being a particular highlight, despite making it look like the mag should have perhaps been on the top shelves. “WIN!” promotions were also big in 2001 – five consecutive issues advertised the opportunity for riders to win VIP trips to Paris, a Trek frame (marketed as a “Lance Armstrong replica”, of course), a Litespeed, a Gios, or indeed Super Mario’s own bike.
It’s also notable how Eurocentric the magazine was at this point – bar Mr Armstrong, every rider featured had been from a European nation (Russia is Europe apparently, take your complaints to Eurovision…), and the “traditional” ones at that, a far cry from the modern cycling world where North and South America produce talent, “Africa’s team” races on and the lands Down Under keep producing quality riders.
2002
Ah yes, there was a time when Danilo Di Luca was the bright young thing of Italian Cycling, having captured the Tour of Lombardy in 2001, before, ahem, “developing” as a rider in 2005 and somehow becoming a Grand Tour winner in 2007. And then it all went a bit pear shaped didn’t it, with “the Killer” managing to get disqualified from two Giri for doping infractions. Indeed, the 2001 line up of riders are almost notorious in their doping connections – all but Robbie McEwen and Juan Antonio Flecha have either admitted to, tested positive for, or been linked to the taking of banned substances/practices (with the disclaimer that Santiago Botero was named in Operacion Puerto, but cleared.) So it would seem 2001 was emblematic of the problems in cycling at that time, hiding in plain sight.
It’s also interesting that the magazine was going for a more portrait-centric approach to how it was showing off the riders, who had previously been captured in action or riding their bicycle seemingly oblivious to the camera, but now were eyeballing it in more intimate, staged environments. Indeed, those not familiar with Mr Botero could have been forgiven for thinking they were picking up a lifestyle magazine rather than a cycling one, and a Martin Scholler portrait was used for a Lance cover. The interviews themselves were also more involving as well, usually involving the target’s house or featuring them taking the reported fishing, rather than being a 15 minute slot in a sterile hotel that today’s riders provide. Impressively, it meant you didn’t see a bicycle on the cover all that often, but you did get to peer behind the curtains of the star’s homes.
2003
2003 was a very American year for ProCycling, featuring no more than seven covers with men from the Land of the Free. Remember when Levi Leipheimer rode for Rabobank, not Gerolsteiner? Me neither, though that’s probably because he was usually in the lower half of the top ten at week long stage races back then. Indeed, 2003 was quite a year of covers featuring riders in kits you wouldn’t really recognise them in, such as Cadel Evans’ ill fated stint at Telekom, and what surely must be one of the few actual pictures of a Team Coast jersey, with the Jan Ullrich centred set up eventually becoming Bianchi after various tribulation in time for the Tour. George Hincapie was of course eminently recognisable by his signature Oakley Racing Jackets, whilst the appearance of 25 year old Tom Danielson, at that point the winner of the Tour of Langkawi for two consecutive years, seemed to hint at a bright future for American cycling. That went well.
History was being written by Armstrong of course, and it lurked behind Armstrong in the Tour preview issue in the shape of the then five time winners club, having come after a stirringly patriotic portrait of Lance with the Stars and Stripes billowing in the background. Oh say, can you see…
2004
The Lance effect was in full swing in 2004, with even the issues on which he wasn’t on the cover referencing him to draw people in. It was also a return to more action photos, helped of course by the fact that helmets could still be removed on the final climb of the day (that rule was revoked the following year.) The tragic death of Marco Pantani on Valentines Day drew a special issue of remembrance, filled with letters bewailing what the sport had done to the Italian, and how to stop it from happening again.
Impressively, 2004 marked one of only two appearances by Alejandro Valverde on the cover, which is particularly impressive given the Spaniard is still going 17 years later and is, indeed, the “superstar” the cover predicted, having won the Worlds, the Vuelta, four editions of Liege-Bastonge-Liege and podiumed at the Tour and Giro, albeit with a ban in the middle of all that. The Green Bullet did get interviews in later years, but only managed cover status once, in 2006. The mag was also keeping an eye on the post-Lance future with Damiano Cunego, winner of the Giro at just 22, as well as the 30 year old Roberto Heras, who was leaving US Postal for Liberty Seguros, and 26 year old Iban Mayo, who had roasted Armstrong at both the Dauphine and the Tour on the Ventoux and Alpe respectively. The first appearance of the fabled “Curse of the Cover” materialised as well, with Tyler Hamilton’s short lived Olympic gold medal being brought into doubt as they went to press.
2005
One thing you may have noticed about those featured on the covers up until this point was the relative dearth of Classics contenders, with the “narrative” of the covers having almost entirely centred around the Tour de France, and who was “going to take on Lance.” That began to change in 2005, with an issue centred around the Cobbled Classics and starring Tom Boonen, then on the verge of winning the Flanders-Roubaix double before taking the worlds later in the year. We even got the glorious, underappreciated all white ProTour kit, albeit worn by Danilo “The Killer” Di Luca, although the majority of the work was on GC contenders and whcih could perhaps inherit Armstrong’s crown.
Armstrong, of course, “retired unbeaten” (not strictly true, given he’d not finished three previous Tours and been 36th in the one he did get to Paris for, 1995, but “Invincible” he was since his 1999 comeback) and continued to live a charmed existence of the cover, despite not longer being a professional. If only he’d left it there eh.
2006
There used to be a time when being a doper made you persona non grata, but David Millar managed to somehow skirt around the outskirts of it, and so turned his career into a redemptive comeback story about how he was becoming a better person after admitting to (read: being caught) taking EPO. Turns out it was a good gig – now he has a clothing line and a commentators gig at ITV, where he tells you that everyone’s move is “perfect” and describes the action as if we’re blind and he’s on the radio. Who’d be a clean rider eh?
Finally free of the yoke of having to accommodate Lance on the cover, ProCycling got to play around with some more off the cuff topics, being able to look at the classics again (and somehow managing not to use a picture of Tom Boonen in the rainbow jersey) as well as dedicating an issue to “Mavericks” in which Jens Voigt played with his Nintendo DS. The big story, of course, was the crazy event that was the 2006 Tour de France, which saw the truth birth of the “Curse of the ProCycling cover”, as the May, June, July, August and Post Tour issues all featured riders who were thrown out of the race, including the infamous “It’s Floyd!” headline that made everyone appreciate the time delay between publication and print, being delivered to newsagents after Landis had had his positive test announced. No wonder the subsequent issue didn’t feature anyone: they probably figured they’d be jinxed.
There were now also 13 issues a year, rather than 12, which meant some editions started to be called the “season preview”, “Post Tour” or “Review of the Year” to prevent the months going horrifically out of sync with the publication date.
2007
The magazine went for a redesign in 2007, perhaps hoping to abolish some memories of the previous year’s controversies, and found that the best way to sell magazines was actually just to put Lance back on the covers, so the retired rider returned to the front page eighteen months after his retirement. His successor was being explicitly named as 22 year old Andy Schleck, who was destined, it was foretold, for “Tour de France domination”. It was ironic that the next cover featured perennial rival to be Alberto Contador, who had benefitted from the pulling of Michael Rasmussen from the Tour to secure the yellow jersey.
Elsewhere, there was the first variant cover in July, with a choice between the two “favourites” for the 2007 London prologue – David Millar (who finished, er, 13th in the 7.9km test) or David Zabriske (11th). This was also the 100th issue, which was celebrated with a look back at 100 moments in the sport from the time covered from the previous issues. Other highlights included the first appearances of a podgy looking Geraint Thomas and a magenta clad Mark Cavendish, who along with Ben Swift ended up doing a “Cool Britannia” fashion shoot. It was nice to see some of the punchy, sprinter types such as Bettini, McEwen and Freire get a look in as well, although the less said about the not particularly prophetic “Untouchable” Basso headline, the better.
2008
Are you an editor whose getting a bit bored and fancies a quiet January? Why, get a guest editor in of course! That was what the team plumped for in Greg Lemond, who gave the magazine “the Lemond Treatment”, whatever that may be. The following month the magazine plagiarised Star Wars, before managing to get Mario Cipollini, who’d returned from retirement for an all to brief but bright burning return with Michael Ball’s Rock Racing outfit, back on the cover.
Lance was never too far away though, offering an excusive interview in July whilst the following issue mocked up the not-invited Alberto Contador in a malliot jaune, foreshadowing the outcome of the former’s comeback to be. Of course, that was massive news when it transpired, and the same image that had been headlined with “Invincible” was used to mark the return of Le Texan to the fold. Poor Carlos Sastre did at least get on a couple of covers thanks to his slightly surprising Tour victory, and the Olympics saw the first woman – Victoria Pendleton – get a gig on the cover, even if some of the captions on the relevant article (referring to a Dictaphone as an “attractometer” to seduce the Olympic Champion) are rather cringeworthy in hindsight.
2009
When the most marketable asset in the sport comes back to try to add to his already record number of wins, you are of course going to try and leverage that as much as you can. Thus it was that Armstrong found his way onto 4 of the 13 editions of the magazine in 2009, albeit not in the yellow jersey he so desired. 2009 was also the 10th anniversary of the publication, which decided to look forward, rather than back, at who the future would be. Some choices were good – Cavendish, Gilbert, Contador, Boonen, Cancellara; others were middling – Andy Schleck, Romain Kreuziger, Kim Kirchen, Robert Gesink and Linus Gerdemann. Still, it was a pleasant change from the Lance-love-in, with the American taking pole position in the inaugural “Power List” (based on influence rather than wattage) before only managing the third step of the podium at the Tour. Bradley Wiggins earnt his first solo cover after the Olympics off the back of his surprise fourth place, and special mention to the copy editor who went with “Family Matters” rather than “The Joy of Schlecks” for Frank and Andy.
2010
2010 was a year in transition in many ways. It was the (second) end of the Armstrong era, the time of the birth of Team Sky, and time for another rebrand for ProCycling, with a 20% increase in the cover price seeing a move to a cleaner, broader magazine that focused on a big interview with a star who would be “exclusively photographed for ProCycling”, or so the front cover boasted. The back cover, previously given over to advertising also became a canvas for portraits as well, at least for a while. This meant the more feature driven style employed previously with ideas such as “The Speed Issue”, or indeed the controversial “Banned” edition that looked at all the naughty folks, somewhat disappeared in favour of a star focus.
As things got more artistic and Instagrammy (note the masthead and photographs were now separate features, no longer bleeding into one another – and the photo was even square as per the ‘gram), the tradition of a shoot of the key competitors for the Tour de France preview issue began, as did the changing of the motto from “Inside the World’s Toughest Sport” to “Inside the World’s Toughest Race” for the Tour edition. But they could still have fun as well – such as giving newly crowned World Champion Thor Hushovd a saddle “hammer” with which to imitate his Norse God namesake (not the Marvel Character – the first Thor film only appeared in 2011. Yes, I feel old.)
2011
2011 was an excellent year for bicycle racing, producing exciting, topsy turvy racing, an era of super teams with converging goals, unexpected winners and redemptive triumphs by those we thought had missed their chance. Pretty much every rider, bar perhaps Jens Voigt and certainly David Millar, was an A-list star, and they even picked the teams with the best kits to show off as well. Lance made what we would have thought was his final appearance as we all grappled with the Floyd Landis/Tyler Hamilton revelations, as we were asked, a Few Good Men-esque, if we could handle the truth.
Cadel Evans had the bizarre honour of being the first rider to win the Tour de France not to feature in his yellow jersey, which was an oversight that wouldn’t be corrected for four years, as the magazine began to stray back to a slightly less serious approach by incorporating side bars to convey what else was contained besides the “Big Interview.”
2012
The joys of the publishing calendar meant that 14 issues were actually published in 2012, although the first was actually the review of the year for 2011, featuring the rider who had torn up sprint finishes that year having joined his Skil Shimano team as a bronze U23 Time Trial medallist – Marcel Kittel. 17 wins later, including a stage of the Vuelta. Fabian Cancellara then managed to produce the kit reveal for the snappily monikered Radioshack Nissan Trek, and Peter Sagan, at that point a mere phenomenon who has captured Paris Nice and Vuelta Stages but no classics or Green Jerseys, made his freshfaced first appearance.
It was a year for British cycling success though, whether with their first Tour de France victory or the success at the Olympics, and so six of the 14 issues featured one of Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, or Chris Froome. This was also the beginning of the magazine’s curious obsession with a Milan-San Remo preview issue, which was to persevere for a few years, almost always talking up Mark Cavendish’s chances, which neve ended too well. Oh, and yes, Lance was back, but on the back of USADA’s decision to strip all his results and thus remove his Tour titles. The alternative history the feature produced, based on a divergence point of Armstrong retiring at the onset of his cancer diagnosis, has the following, interesting, list of Tour de France Winners:
1999: Alex Zulle (SUI)
2000: Jan Ullrich (GER)
2001: Andrei Kivilev (KAZ)
2002-2003: Not stated
2004: Sandy Casar (FRA)
2005: Sandy Casar (FRA)
2006-2008: Not stated
2009: Alberto Contador (ESP)
2010: Alberto Contador (ESP)
2011: Alberto Contador (ESP)
2012: Bradley Wiggins (GBR)
2013
The Procycling era has seen a range of centenaries – the 100th anniversary of the first Tour in 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Pyrenees usage in 2010, ditto for the Alps in 2011, the 100th anniversary of the Giro in 1909, and now the 100th edition of the Tour de France in 2013. Not only that, but we had the enjoyment of Bradley Wiggins’ attempt to win the Giro, the Tour, and then possibly the Vuelta in what was certainly the “egomania” phase of his career. That didn’t turn out so well, when instead of winning all three in a “Grand Slam”, Wiggins didn’t finish the Giro and had the ignominy of not being selected for the Tour, although the official reason was a Knee injury. It didn’t keep him off the Tour Preview issues though, though he may have wish it had to avoid all the embarrassing questions.
Meanwhile, the photoshoots became a bit more fun. Joaquim Rodriguez had a stick of dynamite in a call out to his explosive style, Peter Sagan channelled the Terminator in lieu of his “Tourminator” nickname, Cancellara got to seemingly implode a cobble into a black hole, and Marcel Kittel got to channel his inner Steve McQueen on a recreation of the Bullit poster. Even the standard folded arms pose was livened up by putting a Florencian background behind Vincenzo Nibali, to talk about his to be unsuccessful attempt at becoming World Champion. Chris Horner also got to become the equal oldest current rider on the cover at publication date, equalling Mario Cipollini at the age of 41, though he would be 42 pretty shortly afterwards.
2014
A year when every team decided they wanted to wear dull, black kits, Procycling tried their best to liven up the colour schemes of their covers by featuring the rainbow jersey not once, not twice, but four times amongst the Sky and Omega Pharma darkness. Marianne Vos also became the first woman to be exclusively on the cover, which was certainly a representational milestone for the publication. An updated power list also managed to get non-cyclists Dave Brailsford and Christophe Prudhomme to the fore, something that hadn’t happened since Johan Bruyneel’s appearance as a sports director back in 2002.
Vincenzo Nibali’s completion of the Grand Tour set also kept him in business, although the Tour preview issue was again a bit of a curse – Sagan failed to win a stage, whilst Contador, Froome and Cavendish had all crashed out by stage 10 of the race. But at least we got to see an all pink Giro leaders kit for the first time since 2005, and indeed the first appearance of the maglia rosa on the cover since 2006. What had Italy done to deserve that?!
2015
Finally, Cadel Evans managed to get on the cover in the yellow jersey as part of his guest editorship, in an issue where he got to discuss his career as he prepared to retire at the race bearing his name in February. That month saw the 200th issue of ProCycling, which was celebrated with a retrospective looking back at the moments and the madness that has encapsulated the magazine’s tenure of a particularly tumultuous period of cycling history. Notably, the cover didn’t try to erase history in the manner of some publications, with one final appearance for Lance Armstrong along side Pantani, Contador, Cancellara, Cavendish, Boonen, Pantani, Nibali, Cipollini, Ullrich and Pantani. Issue 300 is due in 2022 – it will be interesting to see who features then.
Bradley Wiggins had been talking up his desire to win Paris Roubaix, having taken confidence from his 9th place the year before, and this meant he was given billing equivalent to the three and four time winners Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen, which seemed a little bizarre. Wiggins would eventually finish 18th, but did at least get to promote his eponymous, and now folded, Team Wiggins during August. Lizzie Armitstead featured after her World’s win in Richmond, and the bonkers edition that was the 2015 Vuelta, that saw the rise of Tom Dumoulin as a GC contender but was ultimately won by Fabio Aru, also got a splash.
2016
An Olympic year, 2016 saw a slightly adjusted calendar to account for the Late Summer games in Rio. It was a year of resurgences from riders who looked to be on the way down, with Mark Cavendish winning four Tour stages and securing that all important Olympic medal, whist Vincenzo Nibali overturned an impressive deficit in the dying days of the Giro to add his second title. With Fabian Cancellara retiring, space was given over the the Boonen-Cancellara duopoly over the cobbled classics, before Peter Sagan got credence for his repeat World Championship win.
The Olympics meant that Wiggins would get a career retrospective, whilst newly crowned Gold Medallist Greg Van Avermaet got to show off his new golden bands as well. The “Tour Preview” photoshoot of previous years disappeared this year, with only Chris Froome featuring for what would be his third Tour win. The separation of masthead and photo was now abandoned as well, with riders frequently overlapping the title, and indeed obliterating their own names. Only one issue even had a bicycle on the cover as well.
2017
Fresh from another second place at the Vuelta, Chris Froome turned his focus to guest editing the magazine in what was termed a “collectors edition”, although there wasn’t a standard one so was that really even a thing? He chose some interesting features, including ones that seemed intended to knock a certain Belgian-born rival Brit… The “Pro” brand started to become a thing as well, mainly because Chris Froome’s noggin had obliterated the “cycling” part, and it was increasingly hidden behind rider’s heads, which had become increasingly prominent the previous year, but were not shrinking a little to incorporate those all important sponsors.
Philppe Gilbert as impressively prophetic as to his future abilities, with Paris Roubaix on the horizon after his Tour of Flanders triumph. Froome’s Vuelta triumph, the first grand tour double since Alberto Contador’s 2008 capture of the Giro and Vuelta, also made the headlines, and Tom Dumoulin’s centenary Giro win ensured all grand Tour winners got a far airing.
2018
It was odd to think that Nairo Quintana had only managed to get on the cover once since his arrival to the big time in 2013, and that was as part of a Colombian special. Colombia did well in 2018 though, with Esteban Chaves and Fernando Gaviria joining in the fun, in a year where Chris Froome was oddly absent despite his Giro triumph, likely because of the sabutamol case that hung over the Brit at the beginning of the year. Not that British hopes were dampened much – Geraint Thomas simply won the Tour instead, and Simon Yates made up for collapsing at the Giro by taking the Vuelta out.
The Tour preview issue went arty and illustrated, which was to become a new trend, and 2018 was also notable for showing a clean shave Julian Alaphilippe before his Musketeers moustache became de rigour for the Frenchman. The “feature” driven issue of the past now seemed completely dead – every issue was sold on its pushing of the Big Interview, and each seemed to follow a rather set template of features and ideas (“Counterpoint” for example) rather than risk anything particularly glitzy or unique as had been the case in previous years with the “Limits”, “Banned”, “Winners” and so on.
2019
It seemed guest editorship was a biannual gig that was going, and it fell to Mark Cavendish this year, who rode with previous guest Cadel Evans amongst other things – perhaps the next one will get to ride with Cav? The massive head thing had perhaps grown a little weary as template for the front cover, and 2019 at least saw some experimentation with different ideas – another illustrated Tour cover, a Colombian riff on Egan Bernal’s first win, a issue centred on the EF Education team, one focused on the increasingly powerful youths based on The Who’s “The Kids Are Alright” album, and even adding Primoz Roglic’s ski jumping shadow, just in case anyone was still unaware of the Slovenian’s past.
2020
The Covid year (hopefully singular, rather than plural), 2020 was of course hugely disrupted by the pandemic to the point that racing essentially ceased between March and August, traditionally the core of the cycling season. The condensement of what had become a January-October sport into just a couple of months meant that the early months featured images of last year’s races to pad out the required imagery, whilst the traditional Tour preview issue became a summer love letter to a race we were denied.
It had all started so well with a review of the decade, which made up for the absence of any women from the 200th edition by including Marianne Vos on the cover, the 1st of four women to feature on the cover in 2020, certainly a record. Tadej Pogacar joined Cadel Evans as a man not to end up on the cover in yellow, although like the Australian, he only wore the yellow jersey for one day, the final one.
2021
2021 is still young, of course, so there is no established theme yet, as Covid uncertainty still runs amok as to what may and may not happen. But a return of former diarist Tao Geoghegan Hart after his Giro win kicked things off, before we got what seems to be a first: a black and white image on the cover, of the coiffured Peter Sagan (the 2015 photo of Lizzie Armitstead doesn’t count, as the rainbows were colourised)
Cycling meets art
Over the years, there have been some kooky attempts at brightening reader’s days by being a bit more playful with the covers, usually by trying something artistic. Thus, we’ve been treated to Ivan Basso as Vitruvian Man, Geraint Thomas bearing the trident of Britannia, The Mighty Thor Hushovd bearing Mjolinir, Thor’s Hammer, and then Tom Boonen randomly agreed to be covered in mud for some reason. Joaquim Rodriguez got a stick of dynamite, Sagan gained a meld between Robocop, Google Glass and Terminator specs, Fabian Cancellara showed his ability to destroy stone with his bare hands, then the pop culture references continued with Marcel Kittel as Steve McQueen and youthful riders who probably had no idea who the Who were, er, pretending to be the Who. And there was also a weird Jekyll and Hyde/Hulk cross over with Peter Sagan. Noice.
Sicycle 
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