Michael Hutchinson

Michael Hutchinson is a writer, journalist and former professional cyclist. As a rider he won multiple national titles in both Britain and Ireland and competed at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games. He was a three-time Brompton folding-bike World Champion, and once hit 73 mph riding down a hill in Wales. His Dr Hutch columns appears in every issue of Cycling Weekly magazine

As a writer, he wrote the award winning The Hour about his attempt on the sport’s most famous and sought-after record. He followed that up with Faster, about the training, the science the genetics and the luck behind the world’s fastest riders, and Re:Cyclists, a history of cyclists from 1816 to the present day.

He’s written for outlets ranging from Cycling Weekly to the New York Times, and has presented and and commentated for the BBC, Eurosport, Channel 4, and Sky Sports.

Before he did any of that he was a legal academic at Cambridge and Sussex universities. He now lives with far too many bicycles in London and Cambridgeshire.

Latest articles by Michael Hutchinson

'The other problem is that it’s not going to slow things down very much' – rating the UCI's rules and regulation updates of 2025

The UCI’s tireless crusade for a safer, slicker sport produced plenty of talking points in 2025

'You've heard of junk miles? Well I've invented junk intensity' – Dr Hutch on why you should ditch training and just go for a ride

Half-arsed training isn't even fooling Dr Hutch himself

By Michael Hutchinson Published 28 December 25

2 Comments
'When I get in from a ride I now have to carry out an electronic device charging audit' – Dr Hutch on the tech perils of modern cycling

Weighing up the mixed blessing of cycling gadgets

By Michael Hutchinson Published 22 December 25

12 Comments
'The Tour de France throws a match into the box of fireworks and lets the whole lot go off at once' – Dr Hutch on the madness of cycling's biggest race

The Doc hails the dizzying insanity of sport's most dazzling spectacle

By Michael Hutchinson Published 16 December 25

'When I look back at what has been going through my mind, I find the tapes are missing' – the joys of cycling on your own

Riding alone is a blissfully thought-free zone for this rider

By Michael Hutchinson Published 10 December 25

3 Comments
'It's a dull stretch of tarmac and I've spent 170 hours of my life on it' - Dr Hutch has tackled the same stretch of road more times than he'd like

The Doc takes a ride down memory lane - for the 2,000th time...

By Michael Hutchinson Published 5 December 25
'I’m the cycling equivalent of the reserve goalkeeper for Plymouth Argyle' - How Dr Hutch explains why he's never ridden the Tour

The Tour de France is still the only race that counts for ‘them’, says Dr Hutch

By Michael Hutchinson Published 22 November 25

The UCI's latest rule changes are designed to make us all a little more old-fashioned

Cycling's governing body likes nothing more than to measure things. And then decide they're banned.

By Michael Hutchinson Published 15 November 25

3 Comments
'Even dropping dead on the spot would have seemed overly aggressive on my part' - Dr Hutch on the trials and tribulations of ultra cycling

Saintly helpers make ultra-distance time trials tough to quit

By Michael Hutchinson Published 25 October 25

3 Comments
The end of the Giro d'Italia was the essence of cycling – 'someone else should do it,' is our mantra

Dr Hutch on Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz vs Simon Yates at the Giro d'Italia

By Michael Hutchinson Published 19 October 25

'My downstairs loo features a couple of pictures of me racing. I look ridiculous' - Dr Hutch wonders if TT helmets have ruined cycling photography

The UCI's new rule, banning TT helmets from road racing, couldn't have come soon enough for some people

By Michael Hutchinson Published 12 October 25

2 Comments
The stress-free way to deal with a major technical issue on your bike, is to ignore it

When Dr Hutch clattered through a massive pothole, he didn't dare check his rim. He figured he was better off not knowing

By Michael Hutchinson Published 4 October 25

2 Comments
If you had any talent people would get offended if you didn't make the most of it

Dr Hutch was regularly told that he was wasting his time if he didn't try road racing

By Michael Hutchinson Published 28 September 25

2 Comments

Some riders joined us on the road, they'd clearly been sent by God just to annoy my friend Bernard

Four riders good. Eight riders very very bad, says the Doc

By Michael Hutchinson Published 20 September 25

2 Comments
Jeremy Vine has had enough of the online abuse and threats, and you can't blame him for that

Sadly no drivers watched the videos and thought 'Oh my gosh! I did just that the other day, and that poor rider must have been terrified!'

By Michael Hutchinson Published 12 September 25

4 Comments
'The better it is the less there is to talk about' - the impossible task of the post-ride chat

Dr Hutch fails the post-ride family interview every time

By Michael Hutchinson Published 7 September 25

Being a pro cyclist was sanctioned selfishness, but now I have to go to birthday parties

Cycling Weekly's columnist, Dr Hutch, is out of excuses to get out of bad social events now he doesn't have to train as much

By Michael Hutchinson Published 27 August 25

5 Comments
Motor racing drivers take a test, so why not pro cyclists?

Points could be up for grabs for knocking riders off bikes, soaking your manager in energy drinks and dodging TV cameras, imagines CW's columnist

By Michael Hutchinson Published 18 August 25

2 Comments
If safety was really the priority of racing, we’d be doing it online

We’ll need to get more radical to reduce the risks of racing, says CW's columnist

By Michael Hutchinson Published 20 April 25

The thing that bothers me most when I look back at old school training is that right now we’re doing something equivalently misguided

Our columnist's old training diaries reveal old-school levels of lunacy

By Michael Hutchinson Published 13 April 25
I don’t think I’m alone in often having an internal monologue going on when I’m riding

Self-talk can be a double-edged sword, says CW's columnist

By Michael Hutchinson Published 6 April 25
200 skinny bike riders doing 50kph is still too much like a high-speed Where’s Wally: The case for colour-coded helmets

Will this bright idea ever gain the recognition it deserves?

By Michael Hutchinson Published 30 March 25

3 Comments

In the world of dashcam videos, the comments section is the most intelligent bit of the experience

CW's columnist goes down a dashcam footage rabbit hole

By Michael Hutchinson Published 23 March 25
You might think racing in the UK is on a downward trajectory at the moment, but we’re not back to 2005 just yet

We can still fill a velodrome, which, is an improvement on CW columnist Hutch's experience

By Michael Hutchinson Published 16 March 25
If we all work together we can make sure Geraint Thomas won’t retire until he’s 50

Inner demons provide the best pep talks, suggests CW's columnist

By Michael Hutchinson Published 2 March 25

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