Rouleur

About Rouleur

Rouleur is a premium British cycling magazine based in London, celebrating road racing culture through long-form journalism, photography and elegant design. Founded by journalist Guy Andrews, with its first issue appearing in July 2005 and the company dating its founding to 2006, it set out to offer discerning cyclists something the mainstream cycling press did not: beautiful print, serious writing and a deep reverence for the heritage of professional racing. Published eight times a year, it has been described as the world's leading cycling magazine, with sister editions in Italian and Spanish and an annual live event, Rouleur Live, in London.

Founding by Guy Andrews

Rouleur was the brainchild of Guy Andrews, a cycling journalist who bemoaned the lack of long-form storytelling, continental coverage and quality imagery in the British cycling press of the early 2000s. He took inspiration from Jock Wadley's Coureur – The Sporting Cyclist, the classic mid-century magazine that had combined fine writing with superb photography, and set out to create a modern equivalent. The idea was to produce a magazine that offered more than the fitness specials, bunch-sprint pictures and road tests of expensive bikes that dominated the market, and instead gave serious writing and artistry centre stage.

Rapha backing and Gruppo Media

The vision fitted perfectly with the philosophy of Rapha, the cycling clothing brand founded by Simon Mottram, which put its backing behind Rouleur for the magazine's first 40 or so editions. In April 2013, Rapha sold its majority stake in the magazine to Gruppo Media, after which Rouleur continued as part of that independent publishing group. Guy Andrews remained editor until 2014, by which time the magazine was heading towards its 50th issue and had firmly established itself in the fastest-growing leisure publishing sectors in the UK.

An editorial identity: cycling culture for cultured cyclists

Rouleur's proposition is deliberately aspirational: cycling culture for cultured cyclists. Its high production values make the printed edition something readers want to keep, from the stylishly shot kit in the Desire section to the visually stunning Explore pieces produced in partnership with travel brands and tourist boards. The editorial balances lightness with serious reportage; one award-winning feature followed a group of Syrian cyclists from war-torn Damascus to their new home in Germany over the course of a year as they tried to become professional cyclists. The magazine's pages treat professional racing as both sport and art, past and present.

Editors through the years

Guy Andrews edited Rouleur from its launch until 2014, when he handed the reins to a new generation. Ian Cleverly, who had worked his way up at the magazine, took over as managing editor, later succeeded by Andy McGrath. The magazine is currently edited by Edward Pickering, with Richard Windsor as digital editor and art direction by Enric Adell. Contributors over the years have included distinguished writers from inside and outside cycling, among them Matt Seaton, Morten Okbo, Ned Boulting, Paul Fournel and the filmmaker Jorgen Leth, giving the magazine a literary breadth rare in sports publishing.

Print format and frequency

Rouleur magazine is currently published eight times a year, in English, with the ISSN 1752-962X. Each edition combines long features, interviews with riders and figures from the peloton, photographic essays and the magazine's signature departments covering kit, travel and the business of racing. The magazine's visual identity has been a constant priority, with careful art direction and commissioned photography treating the sport with the gravity of a fine-art subject. It is a title built to be collected rather than discarded, and readers commonly keep their back issues.

Rouleur Italia and the digital editions

Beyond the flagship English-language magazine, Rouleur publishes sister editions in Italian and Spanish, issued six times a year, extending the brand to the heartlands of continental road racing where much of the sport's culture was born. The magazines are available by subscription, delivered to readers' doorsteps or through the Rouleur app. Online, Rouleur.cc brings the brand's features, analysis and photography to a daily audience, with coverage from every major race through the season, tech and kit testing, women's racing newsletters and travel features showcasing the finest places in the world to ride a bike.

Rouleur Live

In November 2015 the magazine hosted its first live event, called the Rouleur Classic, an evening at Vinopolis in London that drew the well-heeled cognoscenti of the capital's cycling community. The event proved so successful that it became an annual fixture, renamed Rouleur Live in 2021. Held in London each November, at venues including the Truman Brewery, the show brings together the biggest brands in cycling, star riders from past and present for theatre talks, the latest technology in the exhibitor hall and a weekend-long celebration of cycling culture, and it is billed as the world's greatest cycling show.

Riding out the pandemic

When Covid-19 prompted the first lockdown in spring 2020, Rouleur faced the same advertising collapse as the rest of the magazine industry; advertising in March and April was decimated. The editorial team responded with a strikingly candid appeal, putting a tweet to readers saying that if the magazine was to continue it needed their help. At the same time, Rouleur threw open its vaults and made all of its back issues free to readers via the Rouleur app, a gesture of solidarity that also served as a compelling shop window. The response was overwhelming, bringing in hundreds, and possibly thousands, of new subscriptions and demonstrating the strength of the community the magazine had built.

Design, photography and the archive

From its first edition, Rouleur has placed imagery on an equal footing with writing, commissioning some of the finest cycling photographers working today and treating the race, the landscape and the machine as subjects worthy of serious visual art. The magazine's own history has become part of cycling publishing lore: its online journal looks back to forebears such as Coureur, and its archive documents two decades of the sport, from the era of Armstrong's shadow through the rise of British Grand Tour champions and the modern WorldTour. For readers, the back catalogue is a history of professional cycling written in real time.

Reading Rouleur: subscriptions, the app and newsletters

Readers can receive each copy of Rouleur's magazines at their doorstep or through the Rouleur app by subscribing, and the app also carries the back catalogue that was thrown open to readers during the pandemic. Online, Rouleur.cc delivers the latest features, analysis and photography from the world of racing, alongside tech and kit reviews and travel features. The brand keeps in touch through regular free newsletters covering racing, tech and women's cycling, delivered straight to subscribers' inboxes, and through its annual Rouleur Live event in London, where readers can hear from the stars of the sport, see the best of cycling technology up close and celebrate a shared love of all things cycling.

Where Rouleur stands today

Two decades on, Rouleur remains an independent voice in cycling media, anchored in print but active online, on social channels and at its live event. Its model – premium print supported by subscriptions, a loyal community and a brand that extends into events and digital content – has weathered the storms that have sunk many of its contemporaries. For the discerning cyclist who wants racing treated as culture rather than content, it continues to be, as one interviewer put it, widely regarded as the best cycling magazine on the planet.