October edition of Procycling now on sale

The latest edition of Procycling is on sale now

The October 2017 edition of Procycling is now available in UK shops. It features the Classics star of the spring, Philippe Gilbert, on the cover.

Many cycling fans had assumed the long diminuendo of Gilbert’s career would continue into 2017. Though he became only the second rider in history to win the Amstel Gold-Flèche Wallonne-Liège-Bastogne-Liège triple in 2011 and followed up with a World Championships win in 2012, his last major one-day win before this season was the 2014 Amstel Gold. However, a change of team, to Quick-Step, revitalised his career and he took a historic and aggressive win in the Tour of Flanders, his first Monument since 2011, and then a last-ditch sprint win over Michał Kwiatkowski in Amstel Gold, his fourth triumph in the Dutch race. In an exclusive interview with Procycling’s Sam Dansie, Gilbert reveals how he carefully rehearsed his Flanders escape with similar long-range (albeit unsuccessful) attacks in Dwars Door Vlaanderen and E3. With only Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix missing from his palmarès, he also talks about his ambition to become only the fourth rider to win all five monuments. In our companion piece to Gilbert’s interview, Procycling’s regular Counterpoint feature, we analyse his chances of success in this goal.

We’ve also interviewed one of the fastest-rising stars of cycling, Primož Roglič, the former world champion ski jumper who has emerged as one of the best time triallists in the world since his very late entry into the WorldTour last year. Roglič won the Serre Chevalier stage of the Tour de France this year, over the Col du Galibier. He tells us about his ski jumping past and his path into cycling, while we also talk to the man who ‘discovered’ him as a cyclist, the Adria Mobil team manager Bogdan Fink. Roglič’s physiological test results at LottoNL are said to have put him in the same bracket as Robert Gesink and Steven Kruijswijk. As he gains in experience, can he emulate their achievements in finishing in the top five of a grand tour, or aim even higher?

Procycling October 2017 features a pictorial essay by photographer Rhode van Elsen at the BinckBank Tour. The Belgian-Dutch race has firmly established itself as an entertaining fixture on the post-Tour calendar and Van Elsen’s pictures capture the unique atmosphere and grit of the race. There is also an eyewitness account of the Tour de Pologne, by Alasdair Fotheringham and an in-depth analysis of the upcoming UCI Presidential election, contested by incumbent Brian Cookson and challenger David Lappartient. Barry Ryan, the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation (out September 29) looks back 30 years to Stephen Roche’s world championships win, and how the often unspoken tension of the relationship between Roche and Kelly ultimately led to that victory. Sadhbh O’Shea caught up with Marianne Vos, to interview her about her rise back to the very top of female cycling in 2017, and Herbie Sykes looks back at the 1981 Clásica San Sebastián, the first edition of the race, which was won by local Basque hero Marino Lejarreta.

Also in the magazine: a Q&A with Lilian Calmejane, Scott Thwaites talks about his Yorkshire roots, the Tour of Flanders and his quest for a victory, a look at how the pros recover during grand tours, a review of the Pinarello Dogma F10, as ridden by Chris Froome, the regular Debrief section featuring analysis, insight and data journalism, Jens Voigt and our diarists, plus excellent action and landscape pictures from the very best cycling photographers.