Well then, 3 years have passed since I last posted here, I think the website deserves a little update. Something from me, personal, over why the 2021 Paris-Roubaix preview was the last one and what I've been up to. Nothing fancy, very structured, just words as they come.
So, in late 2021 I was ready to go all-or-nothing. Likely my last chance to get into the cycling world. If you don't know, when I was younger I used to want to be a cyclist myself, in 2016 I raced as a junior in Portugal and at the time - as I usually like to "brag" - I had João Almeida and also Olympic champion Iuri Leitão in the same peloton. On my end, I had no legs and no head to be able to be anywhere near the level of riders like that.
In 2017 I created Cycling Cronics, what was actually a blog to write stage recaps and previews. Did it for a couple months, then stopped, looking back everything I was doing was in a super ineficient way but it was something, an experience, maybe that little shot payed off later. Soon after I joined Etape.CC, Benji Naesen was part of the team, I was only 17 and I did my first text interview with Frederico Figueiredo... The project only lasted a few months and I funnily can't find it anywhere on the internet anymore, but maybe someone more tech savy could potentially do it.
Then in March 2019 I created this website, EchelonsHub, and created 480 posts, most previews. March 2019 to October 2021, so almost three full seasons writing previews, sharing them on Twitter... I always felt like I was very good at analyzing road cycling. All tactics, all if's and why's, all details of all riders, their styles... Everything about previewing races: How riders race in different kinds of profiles, climbs; what makes a good leadout for the sprints; what tactics do riders use at every moment of every race... I won't try to go too deep but it's the building of a mental library of information that I then used to preview races. And they were well accurate, I think I got a small audience who felt the same. I also interviewed a few riders, texting them through Twitter, I believe in 2020 I talked with Tom Pidcock and that was a nice detail to have at the time.
But then October 2021 came. I had finished college a few months ago, a Geography bachelor, and did not have a job. I wanted my job to be, well, cycling, in whichever form. I had for months looked to get payed advertising on this very site, but was unable to. I can share that the previews had around 100-200 views on average, not bad I assume, but I understand why they wouldn't. Also I was just a kid. But I had talent that was seen.
At the end of the 2021 season the 'famous' CyclingMole, another preview expert, stopped collaborating with Ciclismo Internacional, a Spanish website that also had it's previews in English. I reached out to Pablo and he said he knew me, was interested, and I got in the website right away. Cannot share too many details but it was not a job, but I was actually taking over the previews of a site that's literally known (in my eyes) for the previews. That was something to be proud of. A couple months later I was contacted by the folks on Zweeler, telling me they were interested in creating a news website for Cycling - they had done so, successfully, for Tennis and Darts.
I began both positions at the same time, both different. In Ciclismo Internacional, I wrote my extensive and detailed previews all throughout 2022. Worth nothing that if I hadn't found a position, and went to work elsewhere, I actually would've stopped creating content in cycling. But I didn't. With 'CI' I enjoyed a spell that gave me more prominence, a simple but successful collaboration that I am thankful for. At the end of the 2022 season I would leave the website so as to focus fully on CyclingUpToDate, in which I would not only write my previews (now for Cyclocross too, I believe the only one to do so in English at the time... Maybe that is still the case?) but focus on the 24/7 chaos of running constant news.
A brand new website, created out of 0 in late January 2022. It is funny to look back, and see how far we've come. I personally add that there wasn't a single moment where I had doubts about the future of this project. It just HAD to work, there was no failing... The amount of work done at the time was a true testimony to just how dedicated I was to placing myself in the cycling world and making it my job. The team behind me did a great job sharing my work, giving visibility to work that was consistently improving.
It will always improve, it's never something in which you can achieve perfection, but I've got specific things in my life where I feel like I am great at handling this 'you can always improve' mindset. This was one of them. It became my job. I was not a journalist, I refused to call myself one until this year actually, but I thought I knew the cycling world like the back of my hand and that it was something valuable in some way to a news website. With this, I then also throughout time help built the current CyclingUpToDate team whom I trust and am so proud of. On the day I write this, it's only a team of four writers (with several of other languages, but I'll get to that) and it's a weird 'non-traditional' team but one that functions so well and smoothly. Non-traditional is actually a pretty good way to describe our website, we could never match the incredibly talented and full lineups of other English websites in terms of quality, so we focused on how to be the best we can with who we have. The answer was that the level and numbers we'd reach would be much superior than what I ever thought when I started, and it was a wildly successful strategy.
Alongside CyclingUpToDate came CiclismoAlDia, our Spanish project in late 2022... Then (much due to my influence) CiclismoAtual came in 2023, whom I ocasionally work with on content I find to be valuable to our Portuguese audience. There's only a few journalists that actually make a living out of covering cycling in the entire country, this one continues to be a secondary project to me but with it's own team capable of handling the job, but I hope it becomes a top news site in my own country as well. For this, I already interviewed some of our best riders, conducted a recent investigation into a lot of... wrongdoings in our peloton, and more. Late 2023 also saw the Dutch WielrennenUpToDate and German RadsportAktuell be born. Our company is incredibly devoted to the creation and development of news websites, create a mutual collaboration, and build an entire ecosystem.
In 2023 it became one of the top English news websites, non-ironically. It was a big reward. In 2024 it stabilized itself as one, being near the top is as you probably realize also a 24/7. There are so many quality news outlets that we cannot afford to let off the gas at any point, but what we've built works so smoothly that I continue to not have a doubt over the website's longevity.
In 2024 I also set out to improve my work professionally, get experience, meet more people in the field. First and foremost, having a salary now (unlike when I was in a blog all by myself) allowed me to put focus on some quality content, long-form content, and ideas I've had built up over a long time and put them out, regardless of the feedback.
A funny story, I had been thinking about reaching out to MTB Youtuber Bryan Kennedy, known as 'BKXC' for almost a year. Now I had a platform which I could use to convince him to talk to me and well, be quality work with exposure that's also beneficial to him. One night in the shower it just popped in my mind 'nothing changed, but I feel fully ready to do it'. The same night I emailed Bryan, we connected, we talked through Zoom and I wrote an interview... the entire topic was about 6/7 hours work in total and earned less than 1000 views and I got no extra money from it, but it was work I loved. I was so proud of how it went, Bryan is one of the two people I think to myself that truly inspire me. At the time and currently, his content and personality has no equal in my point of view. A note, I really do encourage you all to watch it!
This year I had a months-long battle to get my Portuguese press card. It arrived now, finally, in December. I'm 100% a journalist, I like to congratulate myself because I built every obstacle to not call myself one over the years. I have covered the Vuelta a España 2024 on the ground throughout the first 3 stages in my home country, an historic achievement for the country and appropriate location for my 'debut'. I watched my first Cyclocross race in real life on the same weekend I covered a CX race as a journalist, which was the 2024 European Championships in Pontevedra, a 3-hour long bus ride away from home. Now in December, I travelled to the Alicante area and was present in the media days of Jayco AlUla, Bahrain - Victorious and UAE Team Emirates. I conducted my first 1-to-1 long interviews, Eddie Dunbar was my first, the next morning Afonso Eulálio was my first in my native language. The off-season has been in place for two months and I'm properly eager for the start of the 2025 season, I love road cycling and I do miss it (even if cyclocross somewhat fills the void at the moment).
I believe I can improve significantly at what I do still, but I'm equally proud of how far I've come already at just the age of 24. Doing a podcast, doing Youtube content with ProCyclingManager and such are ideas I would love for the future, always have but I have a limit to how many things I can dedicate myself fully to.
I keep the EchelonsHub website noted in my Twitter bio because it's where everything developed, where I did my first quality work, and well just because I feel like it. It's part of my story. Likely no-one has wondered what happened to the website since all my readers came from Twitter and you would all know where I then started to work. But this place continues to exist, it's not just history and in the past. Maybe if I forgot something then I'll write up another post but, I feel like it's the right time to make this one.
This was, as you may notice, a quick write. No pressure, no going back to check words, just letting out my thoughts in one go and however it comes out is fine. I really appreciate everyone who's supported me over the years and I hope to be able to fully reach my potential when it comes to my journey through cycling media.
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