Conquista -The Cycling Quarterly
Issue 7
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KITTEL NOT KITTENS
It is often observed that the richness of cycling is largely derived from its sheer diversity. The variety of disciplines: road; track; time-trial; hill-climb; cyclocross; all the various manifestations of mountain biking and bmx; and of course trials, offer scope beyond the mastery of any single athlete (except perhaps Marianne Vos). And, we’ve not even covered-off all the UCI officially recognised disciplines in that list. If yet more diversity were needed we can throw-in bike polo, artistic cycling and cycle-ball (yes there is a version of football you play on bikes). And that’s just the competitive stuff. How about touring, commuting, bike couriers, even spinning? Ok, not spinning. Our world offers endless possibilities for rich and varied content and to us, the more random and unexpected the better. Of course we like to dabble at the so-called “highest” level of the UCI World Tour – after all that’s an environment we know very well, but it is our belief that there are so many more interesting and engaging stories out there waiting to be told, that to devote our entire magazine to such a narrow definition of our wonderful sport would be criminally neglectful.
Alternatively we could just publish hundreds of pictures of cute kittens, and no doubt this would (inexplicably) be phenomenally popular with thousands of people. But that would be easy. And spirit-crushingly dull. Here today we reinforce our pledge to you, our reader, a humble promise to try to bring you the best of honest cycling reportage. Join together with us in our campaign, preserving the spirit of slow journalism, celebrating beauty and panache. Repeat after us “KITTEL NOT KITTENS”.
As in all previous issues, this time out we have tried to sprinkle a little diversity amongst the more predictable, so in between the stock coverage of freakishly-skinny-white-men-looking-tired-while-riding-expensive-carbon-road-bikes you will find some more human stuff too. For your entertainment we punish ourselves by riding the full length (and some) of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege – a tale of camaraderie, suffering and ricecakes. And a reminder that just getting out and riding your bike often brings unexpected pleasures.
We are immensely proud to bring you a stunning gallery by Gianfranco Tripodo – introducing ‘The Roosters’ – a group of friends riding fixed through snowy Spanish mountains. (Please check our blog piece profiling the video of their ride – we are pretty confident you won’t be disappointed).
We profile Squid – a New York City cycle messenger, who also steals our cover shot. Suze Clemitson goes behinds the scenes at the Tour or Turkey to give us her unique perspective on life within the race bubble. Indulge yourself in the beautiful artwork of the Red Hook Crit posters and, inspired by the Giro, allow yourself to drift back in time a little as we celebrate the Lion King himself Super Mario Cippolini, who could doubtless deliver a gallery of outrageous skinsuit shots alone. Sean Lee is back, this time with his take on Mont Ventoux – The Brutal Giant, and we take you into the workshop of the Bamboo Bicycle Club with insight into their ingenious designs. This issue’s coffee stop is our very own favourite Bold Street Coffee, who’s beans have facilitated so much of what you read in Conquista they should probably be a sponsor. Of course there are also the aforementioned skinny dudes to stare at too. Tino Pohlmann takes us back to last year’s Tour with some inspired images, and we debut the talents of Dan Monaghan with shots from the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire. Something for everyone we trust.
In other news we continue to evolve the way we work and during the early part of 2015 we agreed a few collaborations which are taking us in new and interesting directions. In Isadore Apparel – the cycling clothing company founded by the Velits brothers – we feel we have found a kindred spirit. A passion for the beauty of our sport and a refusal to compromise form for function. We look forward to working with the guys for a long time to come and have some exciting projects in the pipeline already. Velocast – The Cycling Podcast are someone else we have great admiration for. It’s a real pleasure to work with Scott and John to bring a series of interviews to life throughout 2015 and you can hear some of that content on our website under the ‘Conquista Audio’ tab. We are also profiling riders from leading Women’s team Velocio-SRAM, so have a listen to their playlists featured on our blog – roundly endorsed by team manager Kristy Scrymgeour who says “I won’t let them play that rubbish in my car”.
If you haven’t yet done so please think about a digital subscription for yourself or a friend. We strive to offer outstanding value for a modest outlay. Every issue we set-out to limit to a sensible number of pages, but it seems each time we end up including way more stuff than we anticipated. There’s yet more ‘overspill’ on our blog, so please do take a look there from time to time. As ever, thank you for reading.
Keep ‘er lit..
Benjamin & Trevor
Conquista CC 