Cycling and climate change

A feature I had long wanted to write: what is happening with professional cycling and the climate emergency.

In 2021 I was fortunate that I found a publication, Procycling, and an editor, Ed Pickering, who were willing to publish what turned out to be an enormous investigation into the issue.

I tried to answer three main questions: what impact is the changing climate having on professional cycle racing, what impact does the sport have on the climate itself, and what are people doing about it?

In doing so I heard all sorts of stories, some of them inspiring and some of them depressing. I’ve uploaded the whole article below.

Thanks to all the interviewees and thanks to the music of Nick Cave, Neil Young, Massive Attack, Radiohead, Marvin Gaye and Pink Floyd for helping me make sense of many hours of recordings and a first draft that was over 10,000 words long.

(p.s. Ed and I did discuss the idea of illustrating the piece by collecting icons of professional cycling and setting fire to them in front of a white background. It would have been visually stunning but alas our pyromania proved too expensive, risky and time-consuming for what would become the magazine’s final ever issue)