Aaron Borrill

About

After obtaining a BA honours degree from the University of Cape Town in 2004, I quickly moved through the ranks of print media – magazine journalism more specifically. After a stint at the Absa Cape Epic as Content Manager, I relocated to the United Kingdom with my family in early 2019 and got offered a position at the world's biggest cycling publication, Cyclingnews.com, as Tech Editor. After a few months, I was also given the editorship of Bikeperfect.com, a mountain-bike platform covering news and buying advice. After three years, I grew Cyclingnews and Bike Perfect’s traffic footprint by 70% and affiliate revenue numbers by 2000% - not to mention shaped both platforms into world-dominating cycling tech hubs. In 2022, I was offered the editor role at Off-Road.cc to lead the editorial team and implement my learnings, structures and leadership values, and to shape content output across all digital touch-points. Prior to moving to the UK, I was head-hunted by Grandstand Management (facilitators of the Absa Cape Epic, Perskindol Swiss Epic, FNB Wine2Whales and the UCI XCO Stellenbosch World Cup) to manage, edit and curate the company’s content channels. Previous roles include the editorship of online platforms at Bicycling Magazine SA, Media 24, a 5-year stint at TopCar Magazine (Media 24) as Associate Editor as well as Motoring Editor at GQ Magazine - a position I held for 3 years. Over and above these roles, I actively contributed to a plethora of online and print publications including Cars.co.za, Kulula's in-flight publication, Vida magazine, T3.com, SpeednSound, Wanted, GQ, Glamour and Conde Nast House and Garden. I’m currently still a member of the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists and a four-time South African Car of the Year Judge (COTY). My passion for storytelling has earned me myriad awards - the most notable of which was the 2014 SAGMJ Magazine Journalist of the Year Award (New Media/online journalism). Having tried every form of cycling since starting the sport in 2013, I've only recently discovered where my on-the-bike talents lie - time trialling. I had a breakthrough year in 2021 winning the FCCC Regional 10-Mile (both road bike-specific and TT), 25-Mile and Hill Climb Championships as well as competed at the British National Closed Circuit Championships. I'm also a semi-professional cycling eSports athlete racing for BL13 in the ZRL Premier Division, ZGP and was selected to captain South Africa at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 UCI Cycling eSports World Championships.