Rouleur #124

The Colours Issue.

For this final edition of 2023, we’re celebrating one of the most basic building blocks of what makes cycling great: colour. Road cycling has to be the most colourful sport in the world, both literally and metaphorically. Cycling teams have outcompeted each other to stand out in the peloton in ways that have historically run the entire spectrum of taste, from good, all the way to Le Groupement and Polti. Other sports have trophies and cups for their protagonists to aspire to; cycling gives its winners spangly jerseys. And every ride is a journey into the world of colour: give me a blue sky, bright green countryside and a black road and I’m happy. Equally I can see the beauty in the current reality of my rides in a British winter: at the moment it’s mostly grey sky, muted green landscapes and a fair amount of muddy brown, but it still has an atmosphere and visual resonance all of its own.⁠

Our two big interviews in Rouleur 124: the Colours of Cycling are with two yellow jersey winners: Annemiek van Vleuten and Jonas Vingegaard. Both generational riders, both generally shy of too many media commitments, so it’s a pleasure to give our readers access to the people behind the race wins. But we’ve also got more literal features about our magazine theme: in the Colours of Cycling feature, our contributors have each waxed lyrical about a particular cycling colour that speaks to them, and our regular Art Cycle slot is taken up by Piet Mondrian, the Dutch modern artist who inspired the iconic La Vie Claire cycling kit of the 1980s.

And we’ve explored the colourful world of cycling outside the road scene: where else apart from the pages of Rouleur would you find, as well as interviews with two Tour de France winners, a women trans femme non-binary cycling team, a tattooed former elite runner taking on the Transcontinental Race with only a few months to prepare and an interview with 1980s art-pop idol Lloyd Cole? And, of course, Filippo Pozzato. ⁠⁠