RIDE Cycling Review is Australia’s premier magazine about the world’s most beautiful sport. The publisher also produces the official Aussie Tour de France guide, which always astounds me with its quality of presentation and is my constant companion for those three weeks in July. Rob Arnold, the Publishing Editor, recently invited me to the RIDE Media HQ to see where the magic takes place.
RIDE is a quarterly magazine which averages around 280 pages every issue — jam packed with reportage from the Grand Tours, bike and product reviews, and cultural insights into the Australian road riding scene. I have a great passion for magazines, print media and publishing so it was indeed an eye-opening experience to see the small office where a major cycling publication is put together.
It’s a small office in an industrial suburb of Sydney, staffed by what seems to be a minuscule number of staff for such a heavy tome. It’s a virtual museum of professional cycling memorabilia, collected by Rob over a long career of covering major races. The magazine has been published by Rob and RIDE Media since 1998, so you can imagine the memories of racing he has collected.
Here’s a few snaps I shot while I wandered around, regaled by tales of the peloton and Rob’s 16 years of writing for LeTour.fr, the official Tour website. The RIDE website is a comprehensive summary of Australian and international racing, so make sure you check that out too. The latest issue, #ride65 is out on Thursday October 2nd, and it’s a whopper. An electronic version is also available on Zinio.
This is The Wall, where each spread is laid out once it has been signed off.
Nice snapshot of Rob and Eddy in front of the Lotto bus.
An incredible collection of Australia’s Cycling magazine from the 50s and 60s.
A tourism poster from Briançon, Europe’s highest city, and a flower stuck in the frame from the 2000 TdF winner’s bouquet.
Rob used to race BMX and this is his GT, topped by his Cannondale Black Lightning, with Campagnolo’s first black gruppo.
A miniature model of Miguel Indurain’s Pinarello TT bike, autographed by ‘Big Mig’ himself.
One of Rob’s BMX trophies.
An autographed poster from Bradley McGee.
A very impressive bike book collection, as you’d expect.
An early photograph of Robbie McEwan performing his, now trademark, victory-wheelie manoeuvre.
The famous Lotus TT bike.
A very young Cadel Evans, winning one of his first road races.
An original Clamont TT bike by Geoff Scott, which were used by the Australian Institute of Sport.
An autographed poster of Greg LeMond… “Tailwinds forever!”
RIDE Media HQ has an in-house workshop, used for assembling all the test bikes. There is a shelf above it with a thousand off-cut carbon fiber steerer tubes and ISPs.
There’s also an excellent in-house photography studio, and amazing photographs on the walls.
Eddy Merckx calendar from 2005. Every month was quite frame-able.
Each issue features a retro ride, usually from the collection of the legendary Warren Meade, a preeminent Australian collector.
This is a virtually brand new custom ‘Carbine’ built for a certain Merle Wheeler, who sounds like an awesome bloke. There were also the original ‘pre-CAD’ plans for the frame, which was based on Coppi’s geometry.
The detail and paintwork on this well-preserved specimen was mind-boggling — another reason to pick up #ride65 on Thursday — it’s fully featured in the next issue.
