Tom Owen Cycling Content

Road Cycling UK is one of the UK's best-known cycling magazines. In the past six months I have contributed several pieces to the magazine, including features, race reportage, photography and comment pieces.

In 2015 I was invited by Visit Andorra to watch the eleventh stage of the Vuelta á España, the first ever to be held entirely within Andorra. The historic stage turned out to be decisive in the battle for the red jersey and also saw the departure of Chris Froome after a nasty crash.

In 2017 I began a monthly column for RCUK covering my experiences of a first season of amateur racing.

For a full list of pieces, visit my bio page on RCUK.

Continuing a relationship with L'Eroica that began in 2015, I covered the 2016 Eroica Hispania for The Telegraph. The event is only in its second year, and it was fascinating to see the way the concept has been interpreted in another country.

I provided copy for the piece, as well as snapping some photos during the ride. 

Read it in full

Since attending the Eroica as a guest of Brooks I've been providing them with copywriting support. In 2016 I produced a feature for the 2016 Brooks Bugle – which is found in-store at Brooks stockists and distributed with new Brooks purchases – as well as providing general editorial support for the magazine. I have also helped Brooks with the launch of a national print ad for their new C13 carbon saddle, and even stood in as a model for their 2017 catalogue shoot.

Donhou Bicycles is one of the UK's leading custom frame builders. They were one of the British brands invited to take part in the Rapha Continental film which was made to mark the Grand Depart in Yorkshire in 2014.

Since March 2015 I have been supporting Donhou with their email and blogging campaigns, helping spread the word of the launch of their new Signature Steel series and gathering stories from Donhou owners and their adventures.

Donhou Bicycles website

ColourBolt design and manufacture high-quality custom bicycles for the discerning cyclist. The company is the baby of creative powerhouse Jay Pond-Jones, who also dabbles as a top advertising creative director and TV producer. I support Jay with the digital side of his marketing, helping to keep on top of his website. I recently helped him produce a piece on one of his bikes for celebrated gentlemen's magazine, Port.

Louis Garneau is a cycling brand with a long history of performance excellence. In 2016 they moved to a new website, with a fresh focus on dynamic, engaging content that told a story and engaged their audience. They asked me to write product copy that reflected this new ethos for their new summer range.

To further drive engagement with consumers, Garneau asked me to produce blog content that would deliver useful insights into participation in cycling and triathlon.

Visit the new Garneau brand site.

In May 2016 I wrote a feature on mountain biking in Romania for Mpora, Europe's largest adventure and outdoor sports online magazine.

We spent three days exploring the Carpathian mountains in the Transylvania region of the country, experiencing some pretty thrillin singletrack, downhill and a fair amount of pushbike too.

Read the article on Mpora.

Cycling magazine feature written for independent publication, Boneshaker Magazine. My adventure climbing Bali's Mount Batur.

Illustrations by Ross Becker

Published by Boneshaker

I produced features for the Revolution Cycling Series programme, including:

A profile of Sir Bradley Wiggins and the formation of his new squad, Team Wiggins.

An interview with Christian Grasmann, captain of German track team Maloja Pushbikers. Cover feature.

An interview with Heiko Salzwedel, head of men's endurance at Team GB cycling.

Feature on the rivalry between Australia and Great Britain, with an interview with Luke Rowe of Team Sky.

Images provided by Speak Media. All rights reserved.

Crankk is a new urban lifestyle cycling brand. Originating in Poland they have big plans to conquer the cycling world, one city at a time.  To help launch the first Crankk clothing collection (along with their new website) the guys at Crankk decided they needed a native English-speaking, specialist-cycling copywriter.

I produced all the copy you might imagine a new brand being in need of; from the overriding brand manifesto, to individual product descriptions. I also shared some tales from my experience on the road that have appeared on their blog.

And to help increase visibility I've also leveraged contacts in the cycling press to get Crankk's gear reviewed by top publications.

I first discovered London cycling brand, Svelte, when one of their ads popped up in my Facebook feed. It was a picture of an extremely lairy pair of armwarmers and instantly I was intrigued.

I approached the team at Svelte about doing some content for them and was delighted to hear back. 

I've written stories for Svelte on riding 'the world's most dangerous road', as well as America's largest National Parkway in the Appalachian mountains around Asheville, NC.

I've also provided the brand with stories on my trip to Baños in Ecuador. Which you can see here.

Pannier.cc is a brand dedicated to travelling cyclists and their Journal is a repository of fascinating, inspiring stories. I was honoured to have one of my pieces, about a trip to Spain to watch the Vuelta a Espana in Asturias, featured on the site. Read it in full here.

Feature in Conquista Magazine covering the development of cycling in Bali and Indonesia.

Images belong to Tom Owen. All rights reserved.

Beginning in February 2017, I was approached to help Britain's newest cycling-specific media brand, Bike Channel, to produce digital news and feature content – with the goal of driving more traffic to the brand's site. 

This has so far involved an interesting mix of race reports and previews, as well as plenty of story-driven travel content. 

Visit the Bike Channel website.