Grumpy, intelligent, funny and fierce (in a good way, well… usually) John Stevenson, a bona fide legend of cycling journalism has died from cancer. 

We really will not see his like again. 

It’s a cliche, but in John’s case it’s true and, as he would have pointed out, phrases become cliches when they state “the bleeding obvious” in a simple relatable way. 

During his time at road.cc John was news editor, reviews editor, buying guide supremo, and editor at large. That list of job titles though doesn’t reflect the effect he had, his influence in making this website what it is. He was a force of nature and in the course of his journalistic career his influence went far beyond road.cc.

In one way or another he helped shape Cyclingnews, Bike Radar, road.cc and the hugely influential Mountain Biking UK magazine – he also played a key part in the launch of Cyclist. His contribution goes beyond just the publications he worked for, John was a discoverer and nurturer of talent, a person who for all his legendary fierceness was always generous and not at all fierce in offering good advice to junior colleagues and those new to the writing game. 

John wasn’t trained as a journalist, but he was an excellent exponent of the craft. He had high standards, always had something interesting to say and said it in an interesting way. When he had an opinion to express – which was often – he would back it up. That was the approach he always tried to instil in the teams he worked with. 

That’s not to say he couldn’t be withering in his criticism. He could, but he didn’t wither down, he saved that for his peers and in particular the boss class… it could be a bumpy ride having John work for you. I can’t speak for others, but I would liken it to having some nordic thunder god on the payroll, an impression heightened by John’s general thunder god appearance.

I won’t pretend I knew John well, we worked together on and off for (unbelievably) a fair chunk of 20 years which involved much bumping along and arguing. We liked each other (I think) and I certainly respected him – we definitely regarded it as a coup when he joined the team at road.cc.

In the interests of balance in which (I think) John would have approved I should also say that he could be infuriating, stroppy, needlessly rude and though I’d be nothing other than shocked if he wasn’t a staunch republican – a right royal pain in the arse. BUT he was a great man to have in your corner, he was always a good journalist, but on his day he could be brilliant, intelligent, funny, informative and concise all at the same time. Not many people can do that.

There are a lot more good and interesting things to say about John, but they are for others that knew him better than me to say – for starters, he’d have hated it if I got a fact wrong. So hopefully we can add more to this piece in the coming days. 

Finally a word to John, sorry about the ads fella, but you died at the weekend which makes it harder to turn them off… on the other hand, I know that wherever you are you’ll have your ad-blocker turned on anyway. 

Vale Mr Stevenson, we WILL miss you.