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Become a Col Collector with Mike Cotty & the Col Collective

Pass-stormer launches website with videos, tips and more

Pass-stormer Mike Cotty and his Col Collective finally have a home on the web with the launch of the appropriately named thecolcollective.com.

As well as the crew's video collection, celebrating some of Europe's greatest mountain roads, there are 'Learn' and 'Ask the Experts' sections offering help with topics like riding in the mountains for beginners; climbing techniques; recovering during multi-day events; and avoiding excess baggage charges when travelling with your bike.

Now Cotty  and his team are calling for everyone who shares his infectious enthusiasm for suffering up hills to get involved too.

Cotty says: "We're incredibly appreciative of all the positive Tweets, photos and messages that we've received already. The community spirit is exactly what The Col Collective is all about, so we're hoping we can bring riders closer together with The Col Collectors.

"Love the mountains? Got a camera? Then you're already there! Just use #ColCollector whenever you post a photo on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr to automatically join our col community."

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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ianrobo | 9 years ago
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With my future plans been following this with great interest and it has been an huge motivator watching the vids and now reading the website.

Fully recommend.

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