Neal Rogers on the FattyCast, Including Actual Breaking News

12.21.2015 | 12:31 pm

I am fully aware (although I find it very distressing) that very few people come to FatCyclist.com for late-breaking news about the important goings-on in the cycling world.

Today — accidentally and very briefly — that all changes. Because the latest episode of the FattyCast (which is available on fattycast.com, on iTunes, directly downloadable, and playable from a little lower on this page), I talk with Neal Rogers. It’s a fantastic conversation with one of the top cycling journalists in America…and it has actual news.

The News Part

Until about a year ago, Neal Rogers was the editor-in-chief of Velo and is currently at Global Cycling Network, the entertaining new-media cycling show. The “actual news” part is that Neal is announcing today that as of January, he’s moving to CyclingTips.com as the US Editor-in-Chief, which we discuss in detail about halfway into the podcast: Neal talks about how this change came about, why he’s making this move, and what he’ll be doing.

Neal also reveals James Huang — well-known for his extraordinary reviews at CyclingNews and BikeRadar — will be joining him at CyclingTips.

CyclingTips had already made a pretty big play in the cycling news world by bringing Shane Stokes aboard last year; with these two additions, CyclingTips will no longer be under anyone’s radar.

[Note: If you feel like you need to skip straight to the news-y part of the podcast, it begins around the 51-minute mark.]

The “Let’s Talk About Bikes and Writing for About Two Hours” Part

While Neal’s new job — and all it implies — is interesting stuff, it wasn’t why I wanted to do a FattyCast episode with Neal. In fact, I had no idea that he’d be changing jobs sometime soon when I reached out to him.

I wanted to talk with Neal because I think of him as a fair-minded, thick-skinned, highly-accessible cycling journalist.

We talk about his first mountain bike (a Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo). We talk about his lack of regret for being a surf / cycling bum for five years after graduating from college. We talk about the surprising lack of respect he got as a bike messenger.

We talk in great detail about his time at VeloNews, from when he moved to Boulder to work as an overqualified intern, to working his way up the ladder, to the very dark times when a lot of the staff was fired and he didn’t know if the magazine would survive.

We talk about how he brought the magazine from a very bad place to the very good place it’s in now. We talk about his move to Global Cycling Network, and  the (big) difference between writing for magazines and writing (and presenting) for video. 

We talk about how he’s had to develop a thick skin. And why he makes himself so available on social media. We talk about asking hard questions, and Neal even answers a few questions posted for him on Twitter.

We talk about Leadville. And cramping. And Strava. And getting time to ride.

It’s a great conversation. Listen in any of the following ways:

• iTunes (Please subscribe and review, OK?)
• On the FattyCast 
• Download or listen using the widget gizmo below: