On Monday January 20, we lost our dear friend Ed Hood, a man who for over 15 years helped build and define this site’s unique place in the world of cycling media. Ed suffered a severe stroke in Feb. 2022, which sadly brought an end to his pursuit documenting his great passion for cycle sport. I asked the PEZ-Crew to share a few memories of our time with the great man.
Richard Pestes, Publisher: The only time I had the privilege to Ed in person was at the start of the 2010 Giro, stage 7 start in Carrara – on a drizzly day as the Giro set off across Tuscany taking in several sectors of Strada Bianche. My 2nd daughter was 6 months old, so while prs. Pez was on maternity leave, we went to Italy. Naturally I dragged them along to see a Giro stage, and this was the day Ed and Martin took up the baton to cover the next week of the race.
I always joked with Ed that I couldn’t understand a word he said – my ears weren’t familiar with his thick Scottish accent – but he was always so happy – and grateful to be covering races, inside the velvet rope, and genuinely enjoyed the access that our media credentials allowed, and in turn allowed him to meet, rub shoulders with, and get to know so many of cycling’s cast of characters – from protagonists to bit players – he loved it all. Ed was truly one of a kind. We miss you Ed. – Pez
Ed began writing for PEZ in 2005, when he approached me with an idea to provide some coverage of the Tour of Britain. He delivered on his word, and we never looked back. His tales chasing the Giro, Tour, Vuelta, Classics and Worlds, and in winter the Sixes, are legendary, and gave us something the other cycling media outlets could never duplicate or challenge.
Ed at the Copenhagen Sixes looking after Michael Morkov
His ability to think up creative story ideas – rider interviews, previews, rants, and general musings about cycle sport was uncanny and matchless. He was an editor’s dream, even if we never knew what his next story would be about, we always knew it would be entertaining, thoughtful, and filled with nuggets of wisdom only someone with his pedigree could bring.
In the midst of the chaos of le Tour, Ed knew how to keep it real – likely the only media ever to file a stories on the famous Vacansoleil rest day “moules” parties.
His polite and respectful manner earned him a rolodex of pro cycling’s illuminati that would be the envy of any journalist. I could only guess as to its size, because Ed’s modesty ensured he never bragged or name dropped about any of it.
Of course he’s much more than the journalist I’ve described above, but as a member of the PEZ-Crew, and the world’s cycling media, Ed remains irreplaceable. There is literally no other writer in cycling who did, or could do what Ed did.
Read Ed’s 17+ years body of work creating cycling stories:
- Browse over 2300 of Ed’s stories here on PEZ
- and at his Scottish cycling site: VeloVeritas.co.uk
- Read the Meet Ed Hood Interview here
Alastair Hamilton – Editor & EUROTRASH: Since Ed had his stroke two years ago, I had been dreading receiving ‘that’ message. Before the stroke Ed was full of ideas, his enthusiasm knew no bounds, stories, articles, race reviews – from just about any angle would fly from his keyboard.
My first memory of Ed was a two man team time trial, it must have been in the late 70’s. The start and finish was just outside Paisley, Scotland and it was the typical early season cold and damp weather. I don’t remember the distance or who won, but I remember Ed and his partner at the finish. His teammate was about half Ed’s size and power output (that wasn’t a thing then) and he looked like he had been tortured. As the results were being read out, I remember Ed and his partner both opening a can of beer, I thought ‘this is someone special’.
Ed back in the day
Jump forward about 30 years and I’m editing Ed’s articles, interviews, roadside and race reports. If I needed something on a subject, Ed had it. A roadside from the Giro, Tour or Vuelta, it was there not long after the stage finished, with photos. If you need to know or be reminded of something or someone, Ed knew. Ed was ‘old school’ but he could see if something was good for the sport or just plain stupid, and he would say so.
Every day I would get a text or ten from Ed, not just about cycling, you name it and Ed had his angle. Nothing much got him down and he was always enthusiastic. A few years ago he had a heart by-pass operation, he said: “I’ll be going in the hospital tomorrow, but I probably write something from there.” It took him a few days, but it wasn’t long before the next article came through.
Ed was a great friend to everyone, I can’t remember him thinking bad of anyone, even on occasions when he should have. A gentleman and all round top bloke. He loved to visit me here in Spain and would go the local bar in the village, early in the morning, for a coffee and brandy and just watch the comings and goings, I was always looking forward to the next visit…
Good-bye my friend, I miss you every day.
Stephen Cheung Ph.D. Toolbox Editor: Ed was an inspiration to all of us at Pez. It’s not an overstatement to say that he was the pulsing heartbeat at Pez – the one who most fully embodied our mission to write what we want to read and to truly take us behind the scenes. Through the years, he brought us so many unique stories and interviews. I consider myself quite knowledgeable about the history of the sport, but Ed had me beat by a few dozen country miles. And not only did he know the history, he’s on a first name basis with them and brought us interviews that you never read anywhere else. How big was his reach? I live in the small city of St. Catharines and Steve Bauer, Karen Strong, and the late Gord Singleton are all lifetime members of my St. Catharines Cycling Club. But Ed – all the way from Edinburgh and who I don’t think has ever set foot on Canadian soil – interviewed them all. Plus St. Catharines local and velodrome building legend Peter Junek!
His interviews were always different from the run of the mill. No standard “give us the highlights” questions. It’s clear that Ed really, really had his background research dialed. Plus he had a knack for bringing out his interviewee’s real personality. I never got the sense of him ever trying to idolize or tear down anyone in his interviews. He just brought them to us in their own words and ways.
Beyond his interviews, Ed really brought all of us behind the scenes. Not the highlights that you can see on TV, but the story about truly being there. The smell of the frites in Belgium, the sizzle from the grilling sausages on the Tour roadside, the mood from a small cafe atop the Poggio building as the peloton ratchets the pace and intensity to bursting levels at Milan-San Remo.
Pez is a worldwide digital collection of cycling nuts, but I’ve managed to meet and even ride with most of our crew except for Ed unfortunately. My fond memories of Ed come from the final years before his 2022 stroke. After years of minimal to no cycling, Ed was getting his legs over the bike again. Knowing that I was the site’s cyclocross and gravel fanatic, Ed reached out to me about this whole gravel thing and whether a gravel e-bike was a way to get him riding again. Over a number of emails, I offered him the ins and outs of what to consider, and heartily encouraged him to take the plunge. So my personal favourite articles from Ed were some of his final ones, where he took us on local rides and told us about his part of Scotland in the way that can only be discovered on two wheels. Behind the words and scenery, what I loved most was the sense of the kid reawakening in Ed – once again discovering the joy and freedom that the bike brings.
Fair winds, Ed my friend.
Chuck Peña – Tech Editor & Sock Guru: The cycling world has lost a true legend with Ed’s passing. It’s fair to say that his articles were some of the best writing about the sport. They were more than just reportage. He took you inside to see, feel, and truly experience the sport and its many different personalities.
Like Stephen, I never had the great fortune to meet Ed in person. But thanks to modern technology, I was able to spend time and get to know Ed almost as if we were actually with each other. Trading emails with Ed was like having coffee or a beer with him. Lots of lively conversation over a wide range of topics. Kit fashion. Sock height. Sunglasses. Disc brakes. Electronic shifting. Tubeless tires. Handlebar tape. Usually we’d be on opposite sides of the spectrum, but it was always friendly and good-natured banter. We were thousands of miles away from each other, but felt like we were sitting next to each other at the bar in a pub.
Of course, we’d chat about racing and the state of racing. Ed was a fountain of knowledge with so much personal experience. And a deep sense of history of the sport. I loved talking with him about racers from the past and current state of racing — from racers before our time like Coppi, the riders of our respective cycling generations (Ed was born just a few years than me but was in the cycling game well before my time), and all the way up to Pog. I consider myself someone who knows a fair bit about cycling and bike racing, but Ed knew an order of magnitude more and I always learned something from Ed. And that something was not something I’d have learned from reading a newspaper or magazine article. It would be something I could only learn from Ed.
There are probably two things that stand out most to me about my time with Ed. The first was really learning about Six Days racing. With all his time trackside at so many different races, Ed was someone who you could truly say “he was there.” If you’ve read any of his articles about the Six Days, you can hear the sound of the bikes on the boards and the smell of beer in the air. The other was women’s racing. Perhaps a subject on which Ed and I were on more equal ground in that Ed was not same expert he was about other aspects of cycling and bike racing and I’m a big fan and follower. We had some truly great chats — even debates — and I always wished Ed had more opportunity to apply his keen eye and quick wit to women’s cycling to help bring more attention to and help grow the sport.
But mostly what I remember about Ed — whether it was reading one of his articles or trading emails — is that he always made me smile and laugh.
I could say more because there was never running out of things to talk about with Ed. But I’ll just say that to say that Ed will be profoundly missed is beyond an understatement. Bon voyage, mon ami.
Alessandro Federico – Italian Bureau: The picture was shot after Milan Sanremo 2007, in Sanremo. I don’t remember much of that moment, I can see a glass in front of me so we probably had some good time talking about the race just won by Oscar Freire. I’m pretty sure the Sanremo was Ed’s favorite one, he said me that many times and he attended the race for so many years. He always woke up very early that day, and we’ start texting each other early too.
Because I’m 50, and I’m not anymore the young man in the picture, I’m not sure today about who’s my friend or not – however – looking this old frame, I’m pretty sure one of mine just left.
Ed, I really hope that where you’re now, everyday it’s Sanremo day.
Ale.
Leslie Reissner – Literary Editor: Although I had enjoyed reading Ed’s stories I did not have the chance to meet him until we got together in Berlin at the Six Day Races in January 2013. When living in Germany, I tried to attend the races there as well as in the Netherlands but Berlin was always a highlight for me. Ed offered to show me around at track level and was very generous with his time, given that he was looking after two racers there. He introduced me to Guy East, an American rider, and it was insisted that I pose for a photo wearing his cowboy hat! After years of watching the races, it was a thrill to be mixing it up with the pros.
The Six Day Races were a throwback to a different era of cycling and Ed was brilliant at capturing the atmosphere–part athletic competition, part spectacle (the stayers!), and total party time. His travels to the races around Europe were so well documented that it was like you were there too. In the meantime the Six Days have diminished as there are fewer and fewer events–even Berlin offers only a weekend now and Ed’s pieces, in retrospect were perhaps the last hurrah for a special time. Unique in the English-language world, I think.
As well as his Six Day accounts, Ed’s other great strength was in his interviews–and I think he had the chance to interview almost everyone at some point. As I discovered in my few attempts for Pezcyclingnews, interviewing is a real art and Ed will be difficult to replace as he could draw out even notoriously reticent (that is, most of them) pro racers and get them to say something interesting.
Ed Hood was a great colleague and quite the character here at Pez and his presence has been missed, perhaps heightened with reruns of his classic articles. Only tailwinds for you now, Ed.
Matt Conn – A Global Australian: Oh Ed. Please say it ain’t so!
My PEZ days were always Ed-filled days and there weren’t many weeks where we didn’t have a few different email chats rolling along about racing, about Italy or Belgium, or just about life in general.
Our only in-person meet-up was at the start of Milan Sanremo in 2009 where Ed and Martin passed by the start on their way to cover the whole day. I was doing start line interviews and it was fun to bump into each other as we did our thing and then compare notes before they shot off for another of Ed’s legendary Roadside Reports.
We are all going to miss Ed. His sense of humour and need to remind us constantly that as great as the Tour Down Under is, it isn’t the real start of the road season. That comes at Ghent- Ghent, which the uneducated amongst us mistakenly refer to as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Knowing that this was always an easy way to get a rise from Ed, it was often my go-to if I wanted to stir him.
It’s sad to think that there will be no more cheeky email chains with Ed and his other great mate Al, to be part of anymore. Just looking back through some old ones this week however, has reminded me just how much Ed loved cycling, but especially loved sharing cycling with anyone and everyone.
We’ll miss you “Amigo” and thank you for letting us be part of the amazing cycling universe that you inhabited.
Gord Cameron – Scottish Bureau: Ahead of my first solo trip to cover the Tour de France for Pez, back in 2008, I was feeling pretty nervous about the magnitude of the race and how to handle it all. The logistics, the driving, the exhaustion of weeks on the road, the … politics of the whole thing. The scale of the bureaucracy that could suddenly throw up a wall if there was any problem with issuing credentials once I’d organised the itinerary. Pez suggested I just get in touch with an old head, Mr Edmond Hood, to get some pointers.
Ed didn’t talk about the magnitude of the race, the logistics, the driving. He did talk about the politics of the whole thing. He talked about how to navigate the diplomacy of dealing with the organisers if the situation arose, the culture of the press room, the tension in the cage watching a stage finish.
He talked about the fragile relationship that exists between the riders and the teams, on one hand, and the public on the other. He talked about the privilege of sharing stories, of respecting confidences, of asking the right questions in the right way, of respectful, yet probing, professionalism. He talked about the good fortune of being in a position to channel the atmosphere to Pez’s readers around the world. He could balance the sound and the spectacle of the greatest races with the sombre moments when people’s dreams fell apart.
It’s easy to talk about Ed’s contacts book, which we all envied, and the longevity of the relationships he’d formed inside and around the cycling bubble. That’s not what struck me about Ed when we spoke, or on the occasions we had dinner together.
Most importantly, Ed understood people, and how to communicate. That’s what holds together his body of work, and it is why he’ll be so missed by so many.<
Ed’s funeral will take place on Thursday 6th February 2025, 14:15PM, at Kirkcaldy Crematorium, Rosemount Avenue, Kirkcaldy, KY2 6HQ, Scotland, followed by tea, coffee and a buffet at the nearby Dean Park Hotel.
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