Winning Magazine. Why did you love it?

[ballpindriveway]

No-nonsense race reporting resplendent with beautiful pictures, often blown to two pages, showing head tube badges and grimaced faces in equal measure, Winning Magazine was all that other magazines of its era, most notably Bicycling, was not. We used to pay a ridiculous sum in the States to get this little yellow magazine from the local out-of-town newsstand, but those first few minutes with the slender journal were usually spent on the street bench poring over the pages just moments after paying for it.

Why did you love it?

 

[laziali]

Remember it well. The only decent pro cycling news available where I lived in those days were airfreighted copies of Winning and Velonews. Although it was a bit US-centric (obviously), it was well written with glorious photography. I used to really love the cover photos during the Tour - the 1991 series was particularly good.

 

[pmcg76]

Remember it well. The only decent pro cycling news available where I lived in those days were airfreighted copies of Winning and Velonews. Although it was a bit US-centric (obviously), it was well written with glorious photography. I used to really love the cover photos during the Tour - the 1991 series was particularly good.

Winning was my magazine of choice until Cycle Sport appeared in 93. Winning had become very US centric by then, there was almost as much coverage of races like West Virginia Montain Classics etc as there was of the European races. Cycle sport was even more glossy and was much more informative about pro cycling in general, I learned a lot of my cycling history from Cycle Sport.

In saying that, no monthly magazine has been able to produce race reports like Winning managed to do. The internet has made such a magazine redundant. I still pluck an old Winning out of my library for a nostalgic look now and again.

 

[usedtobefast]

it was tops back then. pics and reports.

 

[movingtarget]

Winning Magazine

True, there are no cycling mags like that now. I actually found an old copy with some books. It had Greg Lemond on the cover. There was also an English magazine around in the 70's & 80's which had glossy pages and it was only about 40 pages long. It had great photo's and summaries of all the classics as well as Tours. It also covered the track cycling and 6 Day Season as well as the World Championships. Cannot remember the name of it. Cycle Racing or something like that. One of the worst now is Pro Cycling. Hardly any coverage of actual races. Cycling Weekly is probably the best and most informative now.

 

[Anonymous]

I still have my "Winning" cycling board game put out by the mag. You should see the thing...terrible game, but pretty funny...

 

[Kublai]

It's the content

Maynard Hershon's Bike Shop articles, always read them first.

 

[Kublai]

Publication Team

Jean Claude Garot was publisher, no idea where he went. Agnes Pierret was on his staff. She was director of World's in Mendrisio last year.

 

[Vanderaerden's perm]

TDF Specials

I particularly used to love the Tour De France Weekly newspaper-style issues. I still have a few copies from the late '80s. The monthly edition was a great magazine and helped me to understand a sport that I was just starting to get into. The fantastic photography and features made it easily accessible to non-cyclists (my brother really got into reading it even though he's no cycling fan). Yes, it got a bit US-centric towards the end, but in it's day it was the best around by miles.

 

[laziali]

Winning was my magazine of choice until Cycle Sport appeared in 93. ...

In saying that, no monthly magazine has been able to produce race reports like Winning managed to do. The internet has made such a magazine redundant. I still pluck an old Winning out of my library for a nostalgic look now and again.

Absolutely agree that Cycle Sport became the read of choice from '93 onwards. They had some really insightful writers back then. Also agree that nobody, but nobody, could produce such a compelling race report as Winning.

Anyone remember the feature inteview in Winning with Robert Millar (it would have been around the time he left Z)? Now THAT was an insight.

 

[laziali]

Maynard Hershon's Bike Shop articles, always read them first.

Nice one Kublai - me too