As Spring turns to Summer, and the racing moves from the Classics to the Grand Tours, we thought we'd celebrate this time of natural change with a look back on how The Road Book has evolved over the years.
We've published 7 editions of our big red Cycling Almanack since 2018, and we've broken down some of the highlights from each of those editions for you. In 2023 we also launched The Road Book 1989, the inaugural edition of a new style of Road Books. These 'Blue Books' take the formula for our standard volumes, and apply it to a year of both historic and sporting significance for Road Cycling, all under the watchful gaze of one of our supremely talented guest editors.
The Road Book 2024
Our most recent offering, and quite possibly the very best yet. The Road Book 2024 covers Tadej Pogačar’s remarkable season – winning The World Championships, a Triple Crown, the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and many more in a display of individual brilliance unparalleled in the modern era.
The definitive summary of the 2024 season also features the words of Kasia Niewiadoma as she breaks down her unbelievable victory at the Tour de France Femmes, alongside a little-known rider called Mark Cavendish. The Manx Missile broke a small, slightly silly record last year, and was kind enough to tell us just how he became the Tour de France’s number one stage winner.
The Road Book 2023
Featuring the words of two of road cycling’s biggest stars in Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering, The Road Book 2023 is our largest edition ever. The two superstars breakdown a brilliant season for their team SD-Worx, unmatched in its degrees of dominance.
We also covered Pogačar and Vingegaard’s remarkable battle at the Tour de France as they continued the defining Grand Tour rivalry of the era. An edition of the race in which we were given the remarkable experience of hearing Pogačar admit defeat live on air. The words: “I’m dead, I’m gone” echoing from millions of television screens across the world, the tolling bell announcing the death of the Slovenian’s dream of victory. Given that in 2025 the race returns to the Col de la Loze, it is the perfect time to look back on just how Vingegaard broke his eternal rival’s spirit, and to analyse just how he might manage to do it again.
The Road Book 2022
“On the last day of the Tour de France, the Tour de France began”
In the wake of 2024’s brilliant rendition of the Tour de France Femmes, relive the race’s ground-breaking inaugural edition - “nothing else could quite match its incandescence; everything was relegated, at least partially to its shade” writes our editor Ned Boulting.
Our 2022 edition also featured Andre Greipal’s analysis of the contemporary state of sprinting, selecting which star he thinks the fastest. Whilst Rouleur Editor Ed Pickering, in his typically gripping style, analysed how the 2022 Tour of Flanders hinted at a significant paradigm shift in cycling: the development of super all-rounders like Pogačar and Evenepoel who can compete at a broader spectrum of races, and the trend towards long-ranged attacks becoming more successful. Three years later, and Pickering must have a crystal ball, with 2024’s racing in particular, being defined by this style of racing.
The Road Book 2021
The inaugural edition of the now annual battle between Pogačar and Vingegaard at the Tour de France takes centre stage in The Road Book 2021 but is accompanied by a series of fascinating essays.
Probably the biggest British star in the Peloton, Tom Pidcock, wrote a very readable account of his experiences coming up through the ranks in Cyclocross, making the transition to road racing, and playing Fortnite with Mathieu van der Poel.
Currently one of Lidl-Trek's key riders, in 2021 Jasper Stuyven walked us through his surprise attack on the outskirts of Sanremo, which allowed him to fend off the chasing pack of favourites and take his maiden Monument victory.
By orders of magnitude the most historically significant piece featured in 2021’s book, however, is Lizzie Deignan’s account of her victory at the very first edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes. Lizzie’s achievement was a monumental moment for women’s racing, and she writes an eloquent essay which more than does it justice.
The Road Book 2020
The Road Book 2020 is the definitive record of the most unforgettable 12 months of our cycling lives. The book which seemed so unlikely at the start of the year, as the world continued to be ravaged by the Covid-19 virus, features over 700 pages of unique insight. The third volume of The Road Book includes ‘In the Winner’s Words’ from 2020’s Giro d’Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart, the winner of the elite women’s World Championships, and Vuelta España Femenina in Anna van der Breggen, and a certain Wout van Aert.
Alongside these brilliant riders’ eye view pieces, The Road Book 2020 included some truly inimical writing from the likes of Max Leonard, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and a certain Rob Hatch. Ned recently confessed to us that Leonard’s piece is one of his personal favourites, a typically detailed and vivid look at the nuanced realities thrown up by the intersect of great wars and Grand Tours.
Rob Hatch, one of the most iconic modern voices of cycling coverage, discusses a truly unique edition of the Giro d’Italia, bringing to life the slow crescendo to the Passo dello Stelvio, on which everything changed. ‘Judge, jury and sometimes executioner,’ as Hatch announced in commentary.
The Road Book 2019
The 2019 season played host to some fantastic racing: think Mathieu van der Poel’s ridiculous comeback to take Amstel Gold, or the riotous edition of the Tour de France which saw Egan Bernal become the race’s first Latin American winner. The 2019 edition of The Road Book, however, was made of so much more with some of the most brilliant pieces of writing to grace our pages featuring front and centre.
Bob Roll’s brilliantly eccentric eulogy for his dear friend Paul Sherwen, who passed away in December of 2018, is perhaps the best of these. An almost unedited manuscript, ripped from Bob’s notebook and handed to Ned on the Champs Elysees, it is one of the most poignant and characterful pieces in The Road Book’s history. A fitting tribute to a much loved, and much missed figure. Another example of exquisite writing comes from Philippe Auclair who made his Road Book debut in 2019. ‘La vie en Jaune: Julian Alaphilippe Relights the French Fire’ is a love letter to the uniquely endearing talent of the maverick that is Julian Alaphilippe.
The Road Book 2018
The inaugural edition of the Road Book set the standard for our big Red Books. A phenomenal season recorded in our unique style, with contributions from some of the sport’s biggest stars.
Chris Froome broke down his first Giro d’Italia victory, a title which meant he simultaneously held all three Grand Tour titles. However, the race had begun with his future far from certain, as his ‘adverse analytic finding’ case from the 2017 Vuelta remained unresolved.
As Geraint Thomas rides out the final season of his stellar career, have a read over the charming Welshman’s crowning achievement: his 2018 Tour de France victory. The mutton-chop sporting superstar walks us through a genuine Cinderella story, as experienced through his own eyes.
The Road Book 2011
Selecting a year to focus the second of our retrospective ‘Blue Books’ on, was in the end an easy choice. Guest editor Andy McGrath sums it up perfectly:
“It stood out among other years like Mont Ventoux on the Provençal horizon: for its vintage Tour de France that twisted and turned, for a spring season that kept everyone guessing unless Philippe Gilbert was on the start line, for a watershed year for British cycling, with a standout performances from Cavendish, Wiggins, Froome and Pooley on the world stage. Also, for the depth of its controversies, tragedies and dramas".
Legend of the sport Chris Froom broke down the roller coaster of emotion that was his first Grand Tour victory at 2011’s Vuelta a España in his article ‘Spanish Steps’, whilst Emma Pooley penned a brilliantly engaging and frankly hilarious description of why she loathed riding the Cobbled Classics. Full of Pooley’s characteristic self-deprecating wit and honesty, it is a piece you simply cannot miss.
The Road Book 1989
The inaugural volume in our retrospective ‘Blue’ series, The Road Book 1989 takes our characteristic approach to recording the events of a season for posterity and applies it to one of the most seismic years in cycling, and European history.
The astonishing story of Greg LeMond’s victory at the Tour de France is told through the eyes of his wife, Kathy LeMond in an exclusive essay of beautiful poignance. Legendary figures from the era, including Sean Kelly and Dag Otto Lauritzen lend their unique perspective in a truly beautiful retelling of a defining moment in history. The events of the 1989 season are set in the context of monumental change with the collapse of the Berlin Wall by our brilliant guest editor, Matt Rendell.
Do you have every edition of The Road Book in pride of place upon your shelves? Which volume is your favourite?
Soon enough, it won't just be Red and Blue books you have to make space for on your shelf, but a very special, and very limited 'Green' book. What on earth could that be about I wonder?
Let us know what you think over on social media: X(Twitter), Bluesky, Instagram
Written by Henrik Bassett
Images supplied by Russ Ellis, amongst others.
Illustrations by Matthew Green
