News About the Future

Some notes about the future of Wheelysports

When I started this newsletter a year ago, it had two purposes. First, I wanted a creative outlet—as much as I’m given a free hand to write how I want at FanGraphs,¹ it is nice to have something low stake’s that’s entirely my own, and most importantly has nothing to do with baseball. Second, I hoped it would become a kind of semiprofessional side hustle.

At least so far, it’s been more successful at the first than the second. I have no one to blame but myself—running a paid subscription newsletter aimed at newcomers to one of the most niche professional sports out there is a hell of a specific needle to thread. The Twitter-Substack right-wing online edgelord beef didn’t help, seeing as almost all of my following was on Twitter when I started up. On top of that, I’m awful at self-promotion, petrified of rejection, and pathologically averse to networking.

So for Year 2 of Wheelysports, I’m going to be reimagining the newsletter. The big change will be a reduction in frequency from two posts to one. Too often I’d come to writing the newsletter after already having spent all day writing a different article, and I’d end up forcing things. Not in 2025—this year it’s going to be all killer, no filler. That’s not to say I won’t occasionally post more than once a week. During the Tour de France, or Ardennes Week, for instance. I also might end up throwing out some shorter and more timely posts when circumstances dictate, now that I don’t have to worry about saving up my good stuff for Friday. And that could start as soon as next week, as I’m trying to finish up my Top 40 Most Interesting Cyclists list before the Tour Down Under.

And as you might imagine, that’s going to come with a reduction in the subscription price: It’ll be $3 a month now, rather than the current $5. I never took too much stuff behind the paywall, and that’ll remain the case. But now that I’m running this more for fun, rather than as a second job, think of a subscription as less about buying content than tossing me a few bucks to keep the newsletter running.

Which brings up point no. 3: In the next few weeks, I’m going to be moving this newsletter off Substack and to a different host. Where and when remains undetermined as of this moment—I had it in my head that I was going to do this over the holidays, but I’m also moving at the moment, and anything that can’t go in a cardboard box is back of mind until next week.

I hope to make this transition as simple as possible, but I’m sure I’m going to click the wrong button somewhere and screw everything up. So please be patient. In the meantime, I’ve turned off paid subscriptions until everything gets settled down and Wheelysports 2.0 is fully realized.

Thank you all for your support over the past year; I try not to think too much about how more than 1,000 people have signed up to get emails about bike racing from a baseball writer, because I’d never stop laughing if I did. I hope you’ve had fun reading, and that we’ll continue to have fun together in the future.

Thank you, as always, for patronizing Wheelysports.

1. For good or ill, I’ll be the first to admit