Thursday – “Comic Day” (Cycling Weekly); back in 1982 or ’83 I was desperate to get my paws on it to read about ‘Lloydy’ winning the “25.”
I’d bought a Telegraph on Monday morning, so I knew the first six, but that was all.
There was no VeloVeritas, back then.
I can still remember my impassioned plea to the newsagent when he told me it wasn’t in; “but you don’t realise how important this is, I need to see that magazine!“
With the internet giving you instant results, I sometimes read things in mags and think; “that was ages ago!“
But of course, it wasn’t, it’s just that everything happens so fast in this world, nowadays.
“The Comic” has certainly changed, the time trial champs come and go with scarcely a mention; comp records that would have been front page news in the ‘old days’ get a paragraph.
Cav is front page and gets eight pages this week; Lance too gets a front page mention and 40% of a page with a decent colour shot – for winning a mountain bike race; the aforementioned Lloydy makes the front page too – “Lloyd’s extreme sportive bike,” and gets two pages inside.
That front page doesn’t come about by accident – Cav has made himself a household name, Lance is a famous as Elvis and Sportives and Fondos and are the ‘next big thing.’
Cycling Weekly has changed with the times, despite haemorrhaging hard core race readers they have kept their circulation at around 27,000 by broadening their appeal and giving readers what they want.
Which would seem to be bike and equipment reviews, Sportives, Lance, Cav and Wiggo – plus Chris Hoy and the Olympians, once every four years.
Tyler Farrar’s great win at Hamburg gets 15 column centimetres and a postage stamp pic.
Ross Creber ? he gets two column centimetres in the ‘good week’ column.
Meanwhile, ‘Dr. Hutch’ gets two pages – ah well!