Welcome to Daniel Benson’s Cycling Substack

Taking you inside the world of professional cycling with exclusive interviews, breaking transfer news, race analysis and opinion-based stories laced with anecdotes from over 20 years in the sport.

If you’re looking for in-depth coverage from men’s and women’s cycling, then this is the place for you.

I’m Daniel Benson and I’ve been writing about cycling since before power meters, marginal gains, social media, and even the internet. I’ve covered 15 editions of the Tour de France, the Olympic Games, every Spring Classic, and several World Championships. I’ve interviewed stars from Chris Froome to Lance Armstrong, Mark Cavendish to Alberto Contador, Lizzie Deignan, Annemiek van Vleuten, and Jonas Vingegaard.

Since 2008 I’ve been the editor-in-chief at some the biggest cycling titles in the world, including CyclingNews, VeloNews, and Global Cycling Network.

I’ve now decided to go freelance and that means putting my heart and soul into a project that I have complete control over. Honestly, that’s incredibly scary but quite exhilarating at the same time.

What I’m offering

The first few posts will be free, and there will be the occasional freebie but my exclusive stories will need support from you lovely people. 💗

I’ll post content here several times a week, giving you an inside line on everything I can related to the best sport in the world. From the outset, supporting subscribers can expect:

🚨 Latest updates from the cycling transfer market

🚨 Transfer analysis and insight stories from the men’s and women’s WorldTour

🚨 A weekly interview with either a pro rider or high profile personality within cycling

🚨 Daily Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes insight and analysis

🚨 A bi-weekly op-ed or retro feature looking back at the last 20 years of cycling

🚨 A monthly ‘Ask Me Anything’ about pro cycling, what goes on behind the scenes and what working with teams and riders is really like. Send your questions in and try not to get me sued.

Why subscribe?

Being completely honest, I can’t do this without your support.

I’ve never embarked on a solo project like this but I can say without any doubt that I’ll give everything to make this work by creating engaging, insightful and hopefully, on occasion, content that has previously been described in some quarters as ‘tolerable’.

So, if you want to read exclusive interviews and get the latest transfer stories, or if you want to read about the time a rider forced me to change hotel rooms; why an ex UCI President screamed at me in front of a hall full of dignitaries; when the organiser of one of the biggest races in the world absolutely lost it during a call; when an ex-rider tried to start a fight with me in a bar - maybe this is why I’m not employed - or any of the several times people in the sport have simply emailed me ‘fuck you, Benson’ then this is the Substack for you. 

Will you see my byline anywhere else?

Sometimes, because while Substack is a great new adventure, and I’ll care passionately about providing you with great content, I still need to pay the bills. I’m basically including this because I don’t want you to feel disheartened if you see my name (on relatively rare occasions) on other titles.

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