Rouleur Rouleur Magazine Issue 32

Olympics: past, present, future - Herne Hill to Stratford

Total expenditure for the 1948 London Olympics was £732,268 - around £20 million in today’s money, compared to the £9.2bn budget of the 2012 version. Author Janie Hampton looks at the cycling events of the Austerity Games.

The new Velodrome in Stratford is a triumph. Ian Cleverly sits on the Siberian pine boards and talks track design with Ron Webb and architect Jonathan Watts, then steps outside to discover the battle for legacy by users of the much-loved Eastway circuit.

Tony Doyle, one of Britain’s greatest stars of the Six-Day circuit, takes Graeme Fife through his career and onto his current mission to get the kids of Southwark on bikes. Michael Breckon achieved his ambition to reach the Olympics as manager of the Canadian cycling team in 1972. The Englishman found himself in the middle of a terrorist massacre in Munich.

Herbie Sykes and photographer Timm Kölln continue their fascinating GDR series and uncover remarkable Stasi files on the stars of East German cycling. Ian Cleverly and Andy Waterman go deeper into Oregon in search of framebuilders and wheel manufacturers. Ridley, the Belgian bike company with the un-Belgian name, get a visit from our man Jordan Gibbons.

Two special mentions: if you enjoyed the first part of Morten Okbo and Jakob Sørensen’s Belgian road trip with Brian Holm in issue 30, the second installment of The Quick and the Dead is even better. And Guy Andrews and Joe Hall take a long, hard stare at the history of shades in the peloton, from Persol to Oakley and all stops between, in a beautifully presented special feature.

Plus columnists William Fotheringham, Matt Seaton, Paul Fournel and Johnny Green in this 204-page issue.