ANDY MCGRATH

WHO IS ANDY MCGRATH?

Andy McGrath is the cycling journalist who has written the definitive modern biographies of three very different riders — Tom Simpson, Frank Vandenbroucke, and Tadej Pogačar. His Tom Simpson book won the 2017 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, the highest honour in British sportswriting, and his Vandenbroucke biography is the only credible English-language account of one of the sport's most tragic talents. As former editor of Rouleur and a long-form contributor to the Guardian and FT, he sits where most cycling fans wish they could — close enough to the riders for real access, far enough away to write honestly about them.

KEY IDEAS

The major positions McGrath is known for in cycling and endurance sport.

• →Cycling journalism's golden age was built on long-form access — the era of riders sitting down for hours of interview is largely over, and that loss is showing.
• →Tom Simpson's death at Mont Ventoux is the foundational story of professional cycling's drug culture — the modern peloton is still living in its shadow.
• →Frank Vandenbroucke is the warning sign nobody wanted to see — extraordinary talent paired with managed mental illness, in a sport that had no framework for either.
• →Tadej Pogačar is the most studied modern rider because the journalism finally caught up — his openness has reset what fans can know about a Tour winner's daily life.
• →Books outlast features — the long-form biography is the format that survives the news cycle, and the one most cycling fans actually keep.