About Tour

Tour

TOUR – Das Rennradmagazin is a German monthly special-interest magazine devoted to road cycling, published by the Delius Klasing Verlag in Bielefeld. First published in September 1977, it is Europe's largest road-bike magazine and one of the oldest cycling publications on the continent. Its pillars are testing and technology, buying advice, training and fitness, national and international racing, and tours and travel. The editorial office is in Munich under editor-in-chief Thomas Musch. Directories attribute the official website tour-magazin.de to the title; the domain could not be independently verified at research time, so no website is listed here.

Overview

TOUR appears monthly and addresses the road cyclist in all their facets: the racer, the gran-fondo rider, the technology enthusiast, the traveller and the fitness-oriented amateur. Testing is the magazine's defining discipline — bicycles, wheels, components, apparel and accessories are tested in the magazine's own test lab and on the road with a rigour that has made TOUR's test verdicts a reference for the industry and for buyers. The magazine's test procedures, including its frame stiffness and aerodynamics measurements, are among the most sophisticated in cycling journalism.

Beyond testing, the magazine covers training science and fitness, racing from the local criterium to the Tour de France, and the great cycling tours and travel destinations — the Alps, the Pyrenees, Mallorca, the Dolomites. The tone is expert and independent: TOUR is known for testing without fear or favour, including the willingness to criticise products from major advertisers.

History

TOUR was first published in September 1977, in the era when road cycling in Germany was still a niche sport practised in clubs and followed through the Tour de France on television. The Bielefeld-based Delius Klasing Verlag — a publishing house with deep roots in cycling, watersports and outdoor literature — gave the magazine a home that understood the enthusiast audience. From the start, testing and technology were central: the magazine built its reputation on the credibility of its measurements at a time when few publications tested bicycles systematically.

Through the cycling boom of the 1980s and 1990s — the era of German Tour de France contenders, the rise of the mountain bike's road-going cousin, the carbon revolution — TOUR grew into Europe's largest road-cycling magazine, with sold circulation reported at 67,333 copies in the third quarter of 2010 and a reach that made it the reference title of the discipline. The magazine documented the professionalisation of the sport, the doping crises that shook it and the renaissance of cycling as a lifestyle and mobility choice in the 21st century.

Today TOUR appears alongside its sister magazines bike (mountain biking), Freeride, E-MTB and MY BIKE in the Delius Klasing portfolio, with the editorial office in Munich. Thomas Musch is editor-in-chief and Uwe Geißler the publisher (Herausgeber). The magazine's article archive documents decades of testing and reporting, a unique resource for the history of the bicycle.

Content

Testing and technology are the core: complete bicycles are tested in TOUR's lab for stiffness, weight and aerodynamics and ridden extensively on the road; wheels, groupsets, tyres, helmets, shoes, apparel and electronics receive the same systematic treatment. The test verdicts — with their detailed data tables — are the magazine's signature and the reason many readers buy it: a TOUR test can make or break a product's reputation in the German market.

Buying advice translates the test data into recommendations: which bike for which rider, which wheels for which terrain, how to interpret geometry charts and component specifications. Training and fitness coverage brings sports science to the ambitious amateur — periodised training plans, interval sessions, nutrition, bike fitting and the physiology of endurance — written with the authority of a magazine that has covered training for decades.

Racing coverage spans the professional calendar — the Grand Tours, the Classics, the World Championships — and the German racing scene, with analysis that goes beyond results into tactics, technology and the business of the sport. Tours and travel present the great cycling destinations with route descriptions, elevation profiles and practical advice, from the Alpine passes to the islands of the training camps.

The test methodology reflects decades of refinement. The stiffness measurements, the aerodynamic drag figures, the wheel comparisons under controlled conditions — these are the numbers that allow the serious comparison, and the magazine publishes them in the comprehensive tables its readers study before spending. The real-road testing — the Alpine descents, the long solo rides — complements the laboratory with the rider's verdict: how the bike feels at kilometre 180, how it handles in the crosswind, whether the position holds up over the long day. The magazine's readers are the self-funded athletes of German cycling, spending their own money on their own machines, and they reward the editorial independence with unusual loyalty.

Coverage & Audience

TOUR is sold throughout Germany and the German-speaking countries at newsstands and by subscription, appearing monthly, with sold circulation reported at 34,627 copies in the fourth quarter of 2024. The readership is the committed road cyclist: predominantly male, technically interested, investing significantly in the sport, and valuing the magazine's independence and expertise.

The title's influence extends into the industry: manufacturers submit their products to TOUR's tests knowing that the verdicts are respected by the trade and by buyers, and the magazine's test standards have pushed the industry toward greater transparency. Among European cycling publications, TOUR's combination of lab testing, editorial independence and racing coverage remains distinctive.

Ownership

TOUR is published by the Delius Klasing Verlag GmbH, based in Bielefeld. The publishing house, founded in the nineteenth century, is one of Germany's leading special-interest publishers for cycling, watersports, outdoor and automotive topics, with a celebrated book programme alongside its magazines. The cycling division — TOUR, bike, Freeride, E-MTB and MY BIKE — forms the core of its magazine portfolio.

The editorial office is in Munich, the traditional centre of the German bicycle industry and media scene. The publisher (Herausgeber) is Uwe Geißler and the editor-in-chief Thomas Musch. Within the Delius Klasing group, TOUR benefits from shared testing infrastructure and the publishing house's deep expertise in enthusiast journalism.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home, attributed in directories as tour-magazin.de, carries test results, news, training content and the magazine's article archive online, with e-paper editions for digital readers. The TOUR brand extends into events — including the TOUR Transalp, the legendary multi-day stage race across the Alps organised in the magazine's orbit — which connects the editorial brand directly with its readers' passion.

Social media and video channels distribute test content, travel features and racing coverage to a cycling audience that lives online, while the monthly print magazine remains the home of the definitive test with its full data and analysis. For the road cyclist, TOUR's combination of lab-grade testing, editorial independence and four decades of expertise continues to define the standard.

The Munich editorial office places the magazine at the heart of the German cycling scene: the Bavarian capital's Alpine proximity, the training roads, the industry contacts. Thomas Musch's editorship and Uwe Geißler's publishership lead the title with the continuity the readers value. The Delius Klasing portfolio — bike, Freeride, E-MTB, MY BIKE alongside TOUR — gives the magazine the cycling-publisher backing: the shared expertise, the test resources, the industry relationships. The test lab remains the signature: the stiffness measurements, the aerodynamic data, the systematic comparisons — the numbers the serious cyclist studies before spending. The training coverage serves the ambitious amateur: the periodised plans, the sports science, the self-coached athlete's needs. The travel features present the cycling destinations: the Alpine passes, the training-camp islands, the great routes — with the elevation profiles and the practical advice. In the European cycling press, TOUR is the reference: the continent's largest road-cycling magazine, the test authority whose verdict can make or break a product's reputation in the German market.