Some rubbish about magazines that we're going to drag out for the rest of the year - part one
Published by Halverde on 1/05/2007 at 13:46.
Welcome to the first annual Procycling vs Cycle Sport competition. Every month we'll take a look at the two magazines and use our honed "this is definitely an objective opinion" skills to determine which is the better and attribute the winner a point. In the event that the year ends with both magazines tied on six points each then... well, we don't know. We'll probably toss a coin, or see which editor is most willing to send us free stuff.
We like this format because:
- It gives us at least one thing to write about a month, unlike the ProTour
- We get to undermine other people's creativity without doing anything creative ourselves
- Neither magazine are in a position to copy it from us
Procycling
Procycling was the better magazine in 2006 (although there really wasn't much to choose between the two since they ran pretty much the same stories). But something has gone horribly awry in the new year. A hideous redesign, overly casual writing styles and the introduction of features such as "Fox Watch" all conspire to make it read like one of those tedious men's magazines aimed at serial masturbators with only a fistful of braincells.
Nuts
Things we like:
- It's a climbing special
- Fifty greatest climbs
- Rasmussen interview
- A really good calendar, that we've lost
Gay Times
Things we don't like:
- Lance on the cover
- Yet another pointless head-to-head interview, this time featuring the ever dull Tom Danielson
- That stuff about sportives
- Foxwatch
Cycle Sport
And so Cycle Sport joins us in 2007 as well, complete with possibly the worst magazine cover ever. Luckily the content is much more appealing, offering a wide selection of articles and features. They also balance their staunchly anti-doping stance with lots of things to whet our appetite for the coming season, which is good because we need constant reminders that cycling isn't completely rubbish.
Country Life
Things we like:
- Giro d'Italia photo special
- Broomwagon on top form
- The thing about our mate Pippo Pozzato
Generic DerailedUK Fanzine
Things we don't like:
- Yet another pointless interview involving Oscar bloody Pereiro
- The never-even-remotely-interesting Cycle Sport Challenge
- The fact that they're rating unquantifiable things on a scale of ten - we invented that
- It says "OUTSTANDING VALUE" on the front cover
Conclusion
Cycle Sport wins it this month. The photographs are excellent and there's much more variety in the features when compared to Procycling's shamelessly incline-centric agenda. But both magazines are probably worth your money this time around. You know, this could end up being a very close fought battle.
Next month:
More of the same. Although we can imagine ourselves getting very bored of this.
We like this format because:
- It gives us at least one thing to write about a month, unlike the ProTour
- We get to undermine other people's creativity without doing anything creative ourselves
- Neither magazine are in a position to copy it from us
Procycling
Procycling was the better magazine in 2006 (although there really wasn't much to choose between the two since they ran pretty much the same stories). But something has gone horribly awry in the new year. A hideous redesign, overly casual writing styles and the introduction of features such as "Fox Watch" all conspire to make it read like one of those tedious men's magazines aimed at serial masturbators with only a fistful of braincells.
Nuts
Things we like:
- It's a climbing special
- Fifty greatest climbs
- Rasmussen interview
- A really good calendar, that we've lost
Gay Times
Things we don't like:
- Lance on the cover
- Yet another pointless head-to-head interview, this time featuring the ever dull Tom Danielson
- That stuff about sportives
- Foxwatch
Cycle Sport
And so Cycle Sport joins us in 2007 as well, complete with possibly the worst magazine cover ever. Luckily the content is much more appealing, offering a wide selection of articles and features. They also balance their staunchly anti-doping stance with lots of things to whet our appetite for the coming season, which is good because we need constant reminders that cycling isn't completely rubbish.
Country Life
Things we like:
- Giro d'Italia photo special
- Broomwagon on top form
- The thing about our mate Pippo Pozzato
Generic DerailedUK Fanzine
Things we don't like:
- Yet another pointless interview involving Oscar bloody Pereiro
- The never-even-remotely-interesting Cycle Sport Challenge
- The fact that they're rating unquantifiable things on a scale of ten - we invented that
- It says "OUTSTANDING VALUE" on the front cover
Conclusion
Cycle Sport wins it this month. The photographs are excellent and there's much more variety in the features when compared to Procycling's shamelessly incline-centric agenda. But both magazines are probably worth your money this time around. You know, this could end up being a very close fought battle.
Next month:
More of the same. Although we can imagine ourselves getting very bored of this.
