Meg Elliot

Meg Elliot covers cycling as a social world as much as a sport, treating races, riders and infrastructure as parts of a wider culture rather than isolated results sheets. She is a news writer at Cycling Weekly whose work traces how access, politics, psychology, social media and new disciplines are reshaping contemporary cycling. Alongside reporting, she works as a podcast producer and consistently gravitates towards stories that get people outside and moving, whether that means gravel charity rides, ultra-endurance challenges or everyday city riding.

'What barriers? There aren't any!' – unpacking cycling's access problems

A defining strand of Elliot’s coverage is the question of who gets to cycle, on what terms, and how the industry and institutions either remove or raise barriers. In her feature on access problems framed by the dismissive phrase “What barriers?

There aren't any!”, she confronts the idea that cycling is automatically open to all, arguing through reporting that cost, confidence, infrastructure and representation still exclude many people from the sport. She extends this focus to the influence of Instagram and content creators, asking whether cycling influencers help newcomers into the sport or inadvertently raise the bar through bike fits, press trips and aspirational lifestyles that can feel out of reach.

Elliot also examines proposed policy responses, such as higher fines for dangerous cycling in the City of London, using that debate to explore how to build a safer and more courteous culture on the roads rather than treating enforcement in isolation. When she writes about major events, she keeps access in view: in her piece on whether the Tour de France Grand Départ could change how Britain cycles, she balances optimism about high-profile stages in Edinburgh and Leeds with the reality that funding and infrastructure remain obstacles to turning hype into lasting participation.

'My town really exists' – the political power of the Tour de France

Elliot approaches the Tour de France as a political, psychological and social phenomenon, not just a race calendar centerpiece. In her coverage of peloton tactics, she describes the race as “like a game of chess,” breaking down the roles of domestiques, sprinters, climbers and general classification leaders to show how team dynamics and group psychology shape what viewers see on the road.

She then widens the lens to democratic politics, reporting on academic work that links the Tour’s presence in towns to measurable reductions in support for far-right parties, and explaining how visibility, civic pride and shared events can shift voting patterns over time. Elliot is interested in how people watch the Tour as well as how it is raced; her piece on rides, late-night pizza and mimosas collects habits from fans around the world, turning viewing into a portrait of everyday rituals and global community rather than a purely broadcast product. She also tracks the integrity of professional cycling, covering reports from the MPCC that recorded a fall in pro doping cases from 29 incidents in 2022 to 20 in 2025, while relaying warnings that the sport cannot afford complacency and that issues persist at Continental level.

Exploring the mysterious no-man's lands we often ignore – gravel routes and ultra-endurance stories

Off-road riding and long-distance challenges form another core thread in Elliot’s reporting. In her feature on “mysterious no-man's lands” around cities, she follows gravel routes through little-known green spaces on the edge of urban areas, showing how these edgelands offer accessible adventures and charity rides like North London Dirt that connect city streets to surrounding countryside.

She returns repeatedly to ultra-endurance narratives, profiling riders who push the limits for personal and charitable reasons, such as the woman who cycled 900 miles between football stadiums in memory of her father and found resilience in the process. Elliot’s piece on three cyclists who completed a full lap of Britain’s coastline in 2025 combines distance, fundraising and self-discovery, highlighting different motivations while keeping the physical and emotional scale of a 4,000-mile journey in view. She reports closely on gravel racing’s flagship events, covering a rain-soaked Unbound weekend where crashes, mud and exposed rock gardens took out big names including past winners, and following British gravel champion Maddy Nutt’s 27-hour ride at Unbound XL that produced both a standout result and viral attention.

Her trip to Les Gets for downhill mountain bike racing becomes a comparative study, setting that rough-around-the-edges, spectator-friendly discipline against the more data-driven world of road racing to show what each can learn from the other.

This week in cycling social media

Elliot maintains a regular presence in the digital side of the sport through recurring “this week in cycling social media” round-ups and similar pieces. In these columns she collates posts from riders, teams and fans, using humour and curated clips to capture what the community is talking about when racing pauses or shifts focus. One edition framed by Robin Williams on a bike and a ballad for Paul Seixas leans into nostalgia and oddities, making space for both famous bike collections and everyday commuter mishaps.

Another focuses on cyclo-cross “carnage” and unconventional training rides, mixing crashes, resilience and lighter moments like tiramisu-fuelled sessions to show the sport’s capacity for self-deprecation. During the Giro d’Italia she adapts the format into social media dispatches from the race, reinforcing her role as a bridge between live competition, online commentary and fans following along at home.

Alongside these culture pieces, she covers technology and performance-adjacent topics such as fitness wearables, weighing new products like a high-end Garmin band positioned against Whoop in terms of cost, features and appeal to dedicated cyclists.