The New York Times shuttered its sports section in 2023 and it had stopped covering professional cycling and the Tour de France years earlier.

That did not mean the Times would stop covering sports. In 2022, it had purchased The Athletic for $550 million. Now, if you subscribe to the Times, you can read The Athletic.

Cycling fans are lucky to have an enterprising young journalist, Jacob Whitehead, who normally covers football—or what Americans call soccer.

Fortunately, he’s expanded his beat to include cycling.

Whitehead’s first story examined how Remco Evenopeol would be starting for Belgium's national soccer team if he had not started racing a bike.

Last summer, Whitehead gave voice to Muriel Furrer, who was killed following a crash at the Women’s Junior Road Race World Championships in Zurich. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that nobody—neither her team nor race officials—knew where she was for 90 minutes. Hopefully, in time, his story will lead to improvements in rider safety.

Whitehead and I talk about his path to The Athletic, his love of sports, and predictions about who will win the Tour de France.

You can connect with Jacob on BlueSky and X.

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OUR MAN IN PARIS

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