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Steve WorlandSteve Worland 1954 - 2014
Cycling journalist Steve Worland has died of a heart attack while running in Ashton Court, Bristol earlier today.
The doyen of British mountain bike technical journalists, Steve started writing for Mountain Biking UK in the early 90s and was instrumental in building that magazine’s reputation for fair bike testing based on real-world riding.
He went on to edit What Mountain Bike magazine and was technical director of the mountain bike magazines at Future Publishing from 2005 until being made redundant in 2011.
In the last couple of years Steve became a valued contributor to road.cc. He may have helped invent British mountain bike journalism, but Steve loved all types of riding and was a noted road racer and time triallist in his youth. He was also an accomplished expedition cyclist and outdoorsman who rode all over Europe. With Keith Bontrager he took part in the TransRockies in 2005.
Steve on the cover of MBUK in 1991
Steve also wrote or contributed to books including ‘The Mountain Bike Book’ for Haynes and ‘The Complete Book of Mountain Biking’.
To say the road.cc team is in shock is an understatement. Steve was a fixture in the cycling media, always willing to talk bikes or go for a ride. Despite his formidable knowledge of bikes and the reputation that went with it, he was a modest, generous, self effacing man who was always happy to share what he knew.
Steve will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with all his friends and family, especially his partner Jo and their daughter Holly.
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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53 comments
Very sad. RIP Steve.
Very sorry to hear this. I was enjoying one of his reviews just a few hours ago, so a bit of a shock.
So sad, have respected Steve's journalism since the early days of reading MBUK in my teens. RIP Steve and condolences to your family, a legend has left the building x
MTB legend.
Shit and crap.
RIP.
So sad. Thoughts and prayers with family at this time.
Such sad news. RIP Steve. Thoughts and best wishes to those he leaves behind. A life well lived, I'd like to imagine.
His articles have inspired me from childhood, and continued to do so to the present day. His work has just always been there, through my entire cycling life.
When you saw Worland's name at the top of the page, you knew you were in for a treat.
So sad, so so sad.
Read his articles since the early days MBUK and read his article in Singletrack today.
Whenever I see his name I still read 'rugged and windswept' as a middle name!
This is so depressing. Steve was a great writer, and that is only how I new him. I'm deeply saddened.
Such sad news. I've enjoyed his work for many years. I'm sure he'll leave a massive hole for his family, friends and colleagues - my thoughts are with them
Shocking is an overused word, but I am truly in shock. Steve's writing from 1991 is partly responsible for getting me back into cycling after the motorcycle/car years of late teens, and thereby responsible for my current good health over 20 years later.
Godspeed Steve, keep the rubber side down.
Oh no!
I too, as with many of the above, remember Steve's writing in MBUK and MTB Pro from the good old days of purple anodising and one bike that did xc, downhill, uphill and everything in between. Happy days of skinny steel tubes, flat bars and titanium worship that in themselves are much missed.
Having seen his name on here recently it was nice to see that despite all the changes in the media and bike industries he was still plying his trade in the here and now - surely a pretty damned good way of making a living, and living a life.
My condolences to the road.cc crew and his family.
Wow, such sad news. I had the pleasure of riding with Steve a few times, John's eulogy describes him perfectly, I can only imagine how hard it must have been for you to write.
Thoughts are with his family, everyone at Road.cc and everyone else who will be touched by his untimely passing.
Another good guy taken too soon.
My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
Steve loved bikes, he was a great rider and an excellent writer, but what really matters is that he was simply a fantastic bloke. It’s a privilege to have known Steve and called him a friend.
Awful news. Remember his work for MBUK in the 90s.
Condolences to all who knew him.
I have enjoyed Steve's contribution to the cycling world since I was a snotty little kid picking up my first MBUKs in the early 90s. He will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with his family and friends.
So so sad. There are names synonymous with UK cycling and Steve will always be one of them.
RIP.
Hell! Shocking sad news. Read Steve's articles off and on since the 90s. His opinions always came across as well balanced and considered.
A very sad loss to UK cycling, but even more so to his family
Oh no. Shocked and saddened to read that. Sympathy and condolences to his family.
Oh no. Shocked and saddened to read that. Sympathy and condolences to his family.
Sad news..........
Good honest writer..... RIP..
Memorable as the calm voice of reason and knowledge from when I started reading MBUK some 23 years ago and ever since.
Ride in Peace, Steve.
He'll be sadly missed - I always enjoyed his writing
Condolences to his family
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