🗝️ Introducing: From The Vault
The future of cycling is always layered upon its past — in legends retold, results reinterpreted, and forgotten names rediscovered. In my library, tucked between dusty Tour guides and fading Miroir du Cyclisme specials, lie hundreds of volumes, magazines, and clippings. Some iconic. Others utterly obscure. All part of the sport’s slow sedimentation.
From The Vault is a new monthly series that opens those shelves — sometimes literally.
On the last day of each month, I’ll pick a book, a magazine, or a document at random. No chronological order, no agenda. Just a chance to revisit a moment, a name, or a forgotten argument. One issue at a time. Sometimes it’ll be a statistical oddity. Sometimes an anachronistic claim. Sometimes just a photograph that no longer makes sense.
Think of it as an archaeological fragment from cycling’s printed past — paired with a short reflection, a quote, and a footnote.
📁 From The Vault is available exclusively to paid subscribers of VeloStatistics. Once a month — carefully scanned, lightly annotated, and always a little dusty.
Alongside the regular series, there will occasionally be From The Vault Specials — longform features published at irregular intervals. These are often historical previews of major races (like the Vuelta or the new season), or retrospectives on past seasons, based on archival material, but always with an eye on what’s to come.
The first entry revisits Wieler Revue no. 14 from July 1994, where two young climbers — Marco Pantani and Mikel Zarrabeitia — are profiled as equal heirs to the mountains. What followed is a tale of divergence, obscurity, and myth.
🗓️ New instalment every month — published on the last day.
For now, the series will run at least until the end of the year, while we see how it resonates.
Wieler Revue no. 14 – 15 to 28 July 1994
“Pantani soared. Zarrabeitia counted.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to VeloStatistics’s Substack to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.