Issue 102 - True Grit

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“The day after an ultra event, you wake up and feel like you’ll never be the same” Lachlan Morton

In this edition of Rouleur, we celebrate grit, defiance and tough cookies who take the routes less travelled, confronting challenges in the process – whether they’re the sporting ones they signed up for or more profound issues that emerge unexpectedly.

Read the cover story

We’ve got Lachlan Morton going around the world in 80 ways, tackling all terrain with a smile. Emily Chappell fights an evocative existential battle on Mont Ventoux while Isla Short makes light work of the Highland snow in a Rouleur Explore debut on the trail of folk hero Rob Roy with Orbea.

Meanwhile, ahead of LeBlanq’s sumptuous seven-course summer feast and cycle with Eddy Merckx, Bradley Wiggins, Sean Yates and Michelin-starred chef Ashley Palmer-Watts chew the fat about the Belgian legend and their own careers. Expect tangents and colourful stories galore.

We recount the tale of the leading 17-day Ore Ida women’s race in America: the UCI called it too hard and refused to ratify it; the organisers didn’t care. It was a beacon of inspiration for women racers during the 1990s downturn in the international scene.

There’s an Amanda Spratt interview, Svein Tuft on his GBduro off-road epiphany, a photo tale of two starkly different world cyclo-cross champs - pre-pandemic and mid-pandemic – and a lively history of Lotto-Soudal, the Belgian team sponsoring for almost 40 years, featuring Thomas De Gendt.

Plus columns from Ned Boulting, Orla Chennaoui and Lotta Henttala.

Enjoy our mix of resilient, globetrotting adventurers. Whatever the challenge encountered, cycling is evidently a very good answer.