This is more than a month overdue...
Published by Halverde on 3/08/2007 at 13:42.
...but at least it's not as delayed as the final part of our Top Five Videogames About Cycling thing. There's not actually much point in us doing this since neither magazine is on the shelves anymore, but we need to keep it up so we'll know which magazine is better next year when we're living in abstract poverty in London and can only afford to buy one cycling monthly. Just pretend it's February 5th, and we'll try to make this as quick and painless as possible.
Cycle Sport versus ProCycling: February
Last time we did this we accused both magazines of being interchangeable. That's really not the case, even though they've both got features on Bettini and a load of photos from the Quick Step training camp and we can't remember which of these four photos come out of which magazine. One magazine is better, we're sure, and we're going to find out which it is.
Bettini!
Cycle Sport
This month's Cycle Sport is a money special, which is good because the one thing we love most about cycling is the money. They've also littered the magazine with images made in Adobe Illustrator, which we should appreciate more than we do since we know how long all that rubbish takes to make. Other than that, it's fairly standard Cycle Sport fare: Boring, meaningless open letter to the UCI, some stuff about wristbands, and a sly dig at David Millar. The Quick Step features and the photo pages are worthy of attention, the rubbish get-this-every-single-year thing about team building exercises less so. Broomwagon is normally funny, but we're in a grump because he totally copied what we said about the Floyd Fairness Fund and indirectly mentioned our mortal enemies at Podium Cafe.
Bettini!
ProCycling
ProCycling's redesign has either settled down or is just growing on us. We think it's probably a little bit of both. But Dope Of The Month is still shit. Other than that and the bizarre eight page article on descending, the magazine is excellent. Superb columnists and, more importantly, a varied and interesting selection of features -- the magazines are supposed to be scraping the bottom of the barrel at this time of year, not producing their finest work. We're trying to find something nasty to write, but we fear our reputation as cycling journalism's most scathing renegades may well already be damaged beyond repair. At this rate we'll be writing press releases within a year.
Bettini!
Conclusion
ProCycling wins, quite comprehensively. This is the kind of comeback we all wanted Jan Ullrich to make, but instead he decided to go and mince around in Austria.
Bettini!
Current score
ProCycling 1 - 1 Cycle Sport
Getting exciting, maybe? Expect the next round in a few days, when we can be bothered to go and buy Cycle Sport.
Cycle Sport versus ProCycling: February
Last time we did this we accused both magazines of being interchangeable. That's really not the case, even though they've both got features on Bettini and a load of photos from the Quick Step training camp and we can't remember which of these four photos come out of which magazine. One magazine is better, we're sure, and we're going to find out which it is.
Bettini!
Cycle Sport
This month's Cycle Sport is a money special, which is good because the one thing we love most about cycling is the money. They've also littered the magazine with images made in Adobe Illustrator, which we should appreciate more than we do since we know how long all that rubbish takes to make. Other than that, it's fairly standard Cycle Sport fare: Boring, meaningless open letter to the UCI, some stuff about wristbands, and a sly dig at David Millar. The Quick Step features and the photo pages are worthy of attention, the rubbish get-this-every-single-year thing about team building exercises less so. Broomwagon is normally funny, but we're in a grump because he totally copied what we said about the Floyd Fairness Fund and indirectly mentioned our mortal enemies at Podium Cafe.
Bettini!
ProCycling
ProCycling's redesign has either settled down or is just growing on us. We think it's probably a little bit of both. But Dope Of The Month is still shit. Other than that and the bizarre eight page article on descending, the magazine is excellent. Superb columnists and, more importantly, a varied and interesting selection of features -- the magazines are supposed to be scraping the bottom of the barrel at this time of year, not producing their finest work. We're trying to find something nasty to write, but we fear our reputation as cycling journalism's most scathing renegades may well already be damaged beyond repair. At this rate we'll be writing press releases within a year.
Bettini!
Conclusion
ProCycling wins, quite comprehensively. This is the kind of comeback we all wanted Jan Ullrich to make, but instead he decided to go and mince around in Austria.
Bettini!
Current score
ProCycling 1 - 1 Cycle Sport
Getting exciting, maybe? Expect the next round in a few days, when we can be bothered to go and buy Cycle Sport.
