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Articles by Emlyn Lewis
The Pull: The Cycling Addiction by Phil Cavell
Phil Cavell wants to help you. He’s spent an entire career as a bike fitter, philosopher, researcher, teacher, racer, writer and connector of specialists across the cycling spectrum. His first book, The Mid-Life Cyclist, examined the current generation of middle-aged cyclists, literally the first generation to attempt to be good at bikes well past its prime, signposting the physical changes to muscle mass, bone density, heart health, hormones, etc.
Revolting 247
Reliable Reviews of Movies We Haven’t Seen. Maybe you’ve seen them. Who cares? We’re gonna tell you what you should think, because we are keen observers of culture and media, arbiters of taste even. Grab yourself a bucket of popcorn and dump it on your head. We do things a little differently around here.
Revolting 244
Meet Me at the Goat Parade. All over the world people sensed a disturbance in the force, two powerful forces colliding, as though gravity shuddered and let out a fart. What happened was Robot and I met up at the MADE fancy-ass bicycle show, and now we’re gonna tell you all about our adventures there.
Video – The Bicycle Man
Sometimes I like to take a break from cynicism and misanthropy and remind myself that there are genuinely good people among us. Jethro Mann was one of them. Have a nice Friday.
The Shape of Failure
I probably spend too much time standing by the side of the trail talking about what it’s like to ride mountain bikes instead of riding them, but I have a degree in philosophy and a lifetime of overthinking behind me that’s just begging to be put to no good use. A recent topic is the shape that failure takes, in your body (and mind), when you don’t clear an obstacle. Something like this happens.
Hot Take: Bikes Are Too Good Now
I just wanted to crack the passenger side window, like one-and-a-half cranks of the old lever that did the job when you could actually “roll down the window.” But we don’t roll the window down anymore. Rolling the window down is a paleolithic activity, like making fire with two sticks.
Hot Take: Bikes Are Ugly
Yes. I know. You love your bike. You gaze lovingly at it when you’re not riding it. You likely also feel this way about your, let’s be honest, homely children. I get it. Your bicycle gives you a lot of joy, and that translates to an appreciation that is more emotional than objective. The bicycle is one of the best tools humanity has conjured, but utility doesn’t confer beauty, not in any classical sense. So what are we looking at?
Video – The State of Two Arts in Mountain Biking
I’m giving you two videos today. The first one is a freeride masterpiece that gets me excited on a few levels. First, great music. Second, show me some crashes. Third, gnarly riding. Fourth, German. It’s high-energy nonsense, and I hope you like it. Next, something a little more heart-warming and a lot more Welsh. Here’s a longer video about a group of kids whose lives are vastly improved by finding bikes. If you’re a parent, this one’ll hit hard. VideoLukas SchäferDyfi Forest
Boogers
I pick my nose. I think you probably do, too, not in the way of young children, who root around in the wet mess in the center of their face for the simple fact that they haven’t yet learned to be repulsed by wet messes. No. I pick my nose patiently, waiting for the masses that form there to dry thoroughly, that they may be extracted whole and without either muss or fuss. In other words, I pick my nose like a goddamned grown-up.
Deliver Us From Evil
It is unbecoming of an adult person to pull on a leotard and a pair of tap shoes and venture out in public with a plastic toy between their legs, and yet, legions of us are captive to this fetish. Why? I learned the Lord’s Prayer in 3rd grade, when my parents enrolled me in a private, religious school after we moved to Mobile, Alabama. As the child of atheists, I had never actually heard it before, but I was expected to recite each day before school.
Robot’s Useless Reviews – 15spd Telepathic
Some of you may be aware that I don’t love to write reviews. It’s because I’m just not that interested in the technical details of most products, but also because I believe, sincerely, that most of the stuff available for doing the thing we do is pretty great. Still, reviews are big source of traffic for any cycling site, and I’m willing to do my duty for the cause, such as it is.
Not Even I Care What I Think About Your Bike
Like you, I have opinions. I have even been called ‘opinionated’ by people who know and like me. But the older I get the fewer opinions I have, because there’s so much I’m either not qualified to have a take on or just don’t care enough about to throw in my two cents. Arguably, I’m an expert when it comes to bikes, but mainly that expertise extends, in my later days, to more fully understanding what I don’t actually know. And I don’t know what you like about bikes.
Revolting 225
TV Had Rotted Our Minds Long Before the Internet Came Along. You must see that the Internet is just the Choose Your Own Adventure version of television, and long before the algorithm was developed to destroy our free will, TV wormed its way into our hearts and minds, setting the stage for our eventual self-destruction. But game shows were cool.
Our guest today is Andy McGrath, author of the new Tadej Pogačar biography Unstoppable. He’s been editor of Rouleur magazine and chief reporter at Cycling Weekly. He’s won awards. And this is his third cycling book, following biographies of Tom Simpson and Frank Vandenbroucke. We spoke with him about that book when it came out, and we’re happy to have him back to talk about cycling’s current super-mega-superstar, Tadej Pogačar.
Tadej Pogačar: Unstoppable by Andy McGrath
If you’re 27-years old and someone writes your biography, then you must have done some pretty remarkable stuff, and thus appears this first attempt to understand the Pogačar phenomenon, based on myriad interviews with family, friends, coaches and teammates. What we learn is that Pogačar is something of a perfect storm of a world-beater. Growing up in Slovenia he was out of the glare that many mercurial youth encounter in countries like Italy, France and Belgium.
There’s No Revolting, But There Is Cyclocross
There’s No Revolting, But There Is Cyclocross Revolting is taking a week off to do laundry and pay bills. We’ll be back next week. In the meantime, did you see the cyclocross last weekend? It was sick.
Video - Hannah Bergemann - Esperanto Extras
Obviously, I watch a lot of bike videos, and like many of you I have riders who excite me. Brandon Semenuk is, in my opinion, the steeziest rider who’s ever set foot on a set of a pedals, for example. Chris Akrigg‘s mountain bike trials riding is non pareil. And Hannah Bergemann is the hardest-charging free rider I’ve ever seen. She doesn’t win every contest she enters, but I ALWAYS want to see what she’s doing, because it’s always huge AND she’s always smiling.
TCI Friday - That je ne sais quoi
TCI Friday is a participation game. Read the topic below. Then throw in your two cents. Or ten. Je ne sais quoi is French for “I don’t know what,” or more colloquially “that special sauce,” and it’s a thing that the best bikes all have. This is part of the reason I urge all my friends to ride a bike before they buy it. Geometry charts only tell you so much. A bike, to me, is like a musical instrument. Each one has its own voice, and little details can make a big difference to how it feels to ride.
TCI Friday - Copper, Saffron, One Honest Person
Historically, the most valuable things in the world have been useful things, like copper, saffron, good steel, nuclear fissile material, etc. I count myself wealthy in as much as I own a home, have access to good healthcare and good food, and am surrounded by people who want to see me safe and content. Within that context then, diamonds and rubies aren’t terribly useful, but do you know what is? Motivation. Motivation is the most precious thing I have (or lack).
Video - Loose in Bloom
I have to confess to a couple of ambivalences about this one. First, the music is awful. Second, this is more than one MTB video in a row, and I prefer to mix it up a bit more than that. However. The archival footage in the intro is charming AF, and Josh Lewis’ (no relation) riding is so fun and stupid that I can’t help watching. Also known as Loose Dog, the dude throws himself and the bike around like a 5-year-old in a bouncy castle. Also, dumb crashes and laughter.
TCI Friday - Passengers and Cruise Directors
I know a few people who ride one kind of bike in one kind of way, their whole lives, like they’ve found a sweet spot so sweet they never want anything else. I think that must be nice, to know just want you want and how to get it. My riding life has been less straightforward. I’m never not wanting to ride, but I’ve had more eras than Taylor Swift, more phases than the moons of Saturn.
Video - Windfell
I keep tabs on Gee Atherton, mainly because his eponymous bike company is based in Machynlleth in Wales, near my family home. Basically, I’m a fan of anyone who is investing in that area of the world. The Atherton family are also mountain bike royalty. Gee has made a long series of videos where he rides things that shouldn’t be ridden, and this little clip is no exception. Storm Darragh ravaged the Welsh coast last December, leaving wrecked forest in its wake.
Video - Seven Serpents 2025
Well, this looks hard, but there IS a ferry transfer, maybe two of them, and I’m a sucker for a ferry. Starting in Slovenia, riders get rolling views of castles, lakes, and forests. There is a painfully difficult hike-a-bike section as the course swings into Croatia. The climbs are all steep, the weather is unreliable, and the chances of getting lost seem better than you’d want them to, but eventually it all ends in the historic Italian city of Trieste.
TCIF - The Face or the Stomach
It’s a classic trope of the tough-guy genre of film. The bad guys jump the good guy, and one of them holds him while the others work him over. It’s not personal, you understand. It’s business. So the head bad guy, the one with the speaking part, says, “OK, bub! The face or the stomach?” Late November in the Northern Hemisphere, we get a similar proposition, the basement or the cold? I know some very strong riders who build their strength on the trainer during the winter.
TCIF - Storage Capacity
The funny thing about cargo pants is that very seldom are they actually transporting any cargo. What a strange flex it is indeed to walk around flaunting your capacity for cargo, without ever moving anything from one place to another. I think they should call them pockets-pants, because most of the time, it seems to be pockets for the sake of pockets. They make cargo bibs now, which are regular bibs with pockets. I think that’s because so many riding shirts stopped having pockets.
Video - ö Clever / SH!T LIGHT
This video features Brandon Semenuk, Motörhead, and it’s shot in black and white. I don’t wanna say they made it for me, but they didn’t not, if you know what I mean. Part of the premise is that they shot it in not-the-best light, but to my eye it looks fantastic, a real piece of video art. It’s not the most cogent MTB video you’ll ever watch, but it’s got a hard Friday vibe and a real WGAF approach that I really, really appreciate.
The Gray Cold
The gray cold doesn’t give much away. I stand in the front window and look at the morning empty street, and I can’t get any real read on how it’s gonna feel out there. I consult the weather app. Numbers. Then I get dressed. Dressing for the gray cold is guessing. It’s a time of year when you can easily overdress, your fear of feeling the prickle of cold on your skin or worse, the seeping into your bones, causing you to add one (or two) layers too many. The meteorologists get it.
Video - The Greatest Cyclocross World Championship
Cross was coming, but now it has come. Mud, sand, stairs, barriers, chicanes, power, technique, glory, misery and post-race interviews of winners with their faces splattered with all that nonsense. This is 2014, Hoogerheide, Sven Nys vs. Zdenek Stybar. And it is all class.
Be More Amazed
This isn’t about religion or even spirituality as much as it is about practical, every day matters of happiness and contentment. The background here is that I’m one of those annoying atheists, preoccupied with science, who eschews supernatural explanations for even the most remarkable phenomena.
Video - Cyclocross in the ’80s
Well, the cyclocross season is upon us, and if you’re so inclined, the races are pretty easy to follow. They’re streamed live on HBO Max and/or FloBikes, but you can also get great highlights packages on the TNT Sports Cycling. This little news package from Portland in the ’80s is worth watching for the stylin’ steel cx bikes, but also the beguiling soundtrack. I watched it twice.
Video - Three Peaks Cyclocross with Lachlan Morton
EF Pro Cycling does a great job with video content, and the series following Lachlan Morton around on his strange pro career are some of the best examples. This one focuses on the Three Peaks cyclocross which has been running in the Yorkshire Dales for over 60 years. It’s not what most of us think about when we think about cyclocross. It also looks agonizingly hard. But I kinda wanna do it.
Video - Grit & Guts // The Mud Fueled Spectacle of the 2010 Giro D’Italia
Video – Grit & Guts // The Mud Fueled Spectacle of the 2010 Giro D’Italia You hate to see race organizers intentionally putting riders in harm’s way just for the spectacle it will produce. But you know, sometimes it rains and incredible things happen.
Video - Eddy Merckx - 1974 Giro d’Italia
I don’t know what I like most about these vintage cycling documentaries, the glimpse at history, the amazing music, or the campy (not Campy) narration. The answer is yes. This is a clip from the documentary The Greatest Show on Earth, which is here if you want to watch the whole thing.
Video - Everything I Wish I Knew…
The Loam Ranger is clearly one of the best, most prolific and most successful MTB YouTubers, and there’s a reason for that. This video, Everything I WISH I KNEW When I Started Mountain Biking, captures so much useful information in 15 minutes that you can’t help but get something out of it.
One of the not-very-helpful pieces of advice I give inexperienced mountain bikers when they are struggling to clear an obstacle is, “Just let the bike roll over it. Do your best just to stay out of the way.” As you can imagine, this bit of wisdom is usually met with a blank stare, if not a small shake of the head. But really, it’s true. The bike is a much better bike rider than I am. The bike knows only too well how to ride the lightning. What’s that you say? The lightning?
Video - Mind 3 - The Cycling Independent
By now you know I’m a total sucker for this stuff, street trials. I’d gladly trade any skill I’ve got with the keyboard for the mind-bending talent and balance it takes to do these particular stupid-human-tricks. Charlie Rolls, apparently the number 1 ranked trials rider in the world, does that thing that Hans Rey and Martyn Ashton and Danny MacAskill and Chris Akrigg all did, which was make you go…”What?” This is third in his recent series of street trials videos. Enjoy.
Correction
When I started riding bikes, there were few resources about bikes, races, training, touring – just a few. The way you learned about bikes was to be a part of a group and listen and learn. It often went like the following. Somehow you find a group ride. There was no internet, so you made a personal connection somewhere. Probably at your local bike shop. You showed up. They did a quick survey of you and then off you rode. Individuals in the group would provide feedback and instruction to you.
You Should Maybe Change Your Socks
This piece appeared in Hokem Magazine, Issue 06. Our heads were in our asses, clearly. We sat on our bicycle seats and on recycled yoga mats and on city buses, thinking we were strong and maybe even spiritual and sipping at disposable coffee cups. But there was a time when we worried about our socks. Were they too short? Were they too tall? They weren’t right. We knew they weren’t right.
Doping
Do we care about doping anymore? We talk about it a lot less. Personally, I like talking about it a lot less, but I also wonder if that’s an indication that we have, by and large, just accepted that it’s going on, and that on some level, as long as the athletes aren’t shoving it in our faces (a la Lance, et. al.) we don’t mind that much. The agency tasked with policing sports, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been roiled by controversy after controversy.
Life Will Make You Old
This is true on a lot of levels, starting with the second law of thermodynamics which deals with entropy. But you know, sitting in a long meeting with a lot of humans, discussing something you don’t much care about will also take time off the clock. Sometimes I think about it like the electric meter on the side of my house. Some things make the meter run faster; some things slow it down. We got solar panels last year.
Video - TROLLDOM
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are popular because they combine two great flavors into one product. Similarly, this video combines two things I love, mountain biking and doom metal videos, into one product, with the same alchemical result. Like the old A-Team TV show, it also includes a construction montage, and though I have misgivings about building things to ride, this particular project is painfully cool, not to mention looking harrowingly dangerous. Enjoy!
Anecdotally
I wish I was a data guy. The (present and) future belong to data people. Data doesn’t lie, except when it’s made to. Data paints a clear picture, very little shading. It makes decisions easier to make. Me? I love an anecdote. I love a story. And I’m sucker for the things I can see with my own eyes. Call me romantic. I just love all the information between the zero and the one. So here’s my report on the state of bikes, based solely on what I am observing where I live (which is Greater Boston).
A Mountain Biking Vernacular
When first we meet a mountain bike we have only a limited vocabulary to communicate with it, just what we’ve been taught by our road bike maybe. Perhaps we bring some faltering BMX to the mix, one of our original languages, but one we haven’t practiced since we were kids. So how do we move forward? Most people speak front wheel. Turn the handlebars. Guide the front wheel through the obstacles as needed. It’s simple stuff, but it gets you around.
Tour de France Femmes - 5 Things
The tale of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes is mainly another chapter in the splintering of talent in the women’s pro peloton. Where Team SD Worx was once all conquering, two of their primary GC riders have found other teams to race for, Demi Vollering to FDJ-Suez, Marlen Reuser to Movistar.
Is It All Our Fault?
What is wrong with the bike industry? Well first, the industry creates new standards for no reason other than to sell us new stuff. Second, the industry tells us one thing is really important before going in a different direction entirely and telling us that was what was really important the whole time. Third, the industry creates new categories that are just rehashing old categories and pretending they’re doing something new. Fourth, the industry relies more on marketing than real innovation.
The Skills That (Used to) Pay the Bills
By necessity, my mountain biking has changed since 1991, when I bought my first, fully rigid 26″ wheeled bicycle. The adaptations have come in fits and starts. First, suspension (although barely) entered the picture and then bigger wheels (27.5″), then more suspension, then even bigger wheels (29″) and then dual suspension.
Tour de France Hommes - 5 Things
The men’s Tour is over with some predictable results and some less predictable outcomes. In my preview, I predicted two of the three podium spots, although they weren’t exactly wild guesses. As usual, the day-by-day of the race was fun, never failing to serve up the drama, never failing to make me wonder what would happen the next day.
Sound is Frictive
You know what makes ninjas so cool? They move silently up drainpipes, across rooftops, always in the shadows, before they do whatever ninja job they have planned. You think the ninja’s main weapon is a throwing star or a katana, but it’s not; it’s silence. Now fair play, I’m not often on my way to do an assassination when I’m on my bike, but my joy at moving through space at speed is compounded if I’m also doing it silently. My road bike is a wraith, whispering over the asphalt.
Video - FDJ-SUEZ Prepares for the Tour de France Femmes
The Tour de France is over, and the Tour de France is about to begin. As the men wrap up in Paris, the women set off from Vannes, and all the big teams are desperate for a win. Will Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney defend her title or will some like FDJ-Suez’s Demi Vollering rise up and take the biggest win of the year? You don’t have to stop following the Tour, just because the Tour ended. VideoTour de France FemmesDemi VolleringFDJ-SuezShimano
Bike Adjacent
Last year my friend Bob asked me if I wanted to work on a zine with him. The idea was to do a print piece for cyclists that wasn’t about bikes, but about all the other things that cyclists are interested in. Because it’s Bob, I said yes. Also, because it’s Bob, the zine turned out to be an elegantly laid out, nicely printed magazine, not a copy shop paste-up job. As Whitman sort of said, “The bike contains multitudes.” Like a cultural blackhole, it draws everything around it into its gaping maw.
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