Tony has been writing for Cycling Weekly since 1994, although it was only when he began the What’s He On? column two years ago that readers became aware of him. Judging by the letters and emails which arrive at CW’s office, it’s safe to say that they either hate him or can just about stomach him.
He says his favourite piece of criticism came from a guy whose letter began ‘Dear Tony, I just want to say how much I hate reading your column…’ but he points out that not all the letters are quite as blunt as that one.In fact, most people who possess anything like a sense of humour seem to like the back three pages which comprise ‘What’s He On?’, a weekly Top 10 and the spoof advice column ‘Ask Tony’.
Last winter he was invited to seventeen club dinners, and his speeches seemed to go down well as they reflect the things he writes about in CW, and already the invites are coming in for next winter.
‘I love doing the club dinners’, says Tony. ‘It gives me a chance to meet the people who read the magazine, and I also get feedback about the stuff I write. And apart from that, I like standing in front of people with a microphone in my hand, so maybe it’s a bit of an ego thing as well. If I can get off the stage without any bottles being thrown at me, that’s an even bigger bonus.’ He acknowledges that his lack of cycling knowledge does wind some readers up, but says ‘I’m not a real cycling journalist. I’m a journalist who happens to have been a cyclist, and there is a bit of a difference there. I mean, I’d be no good doing race reports or anything like that because I don’t know enough about the riders, so I just stick to what I can do, which is the WHO? stuff, and the occasional interview.’
Tony, who is 45, has a day job as a features writer for The Evening Leader, a daily paper which covers Chester, Wrexham and Flintshire, and his column every Friday provokes nearly as much reaction as ‘What’s He On?’
Instead of taking the piss out of people and things connected to cycling, Tony targets politicians, the Royal Family, the Church, the police, local councils – in fact anybody who he feels needs a good slap in print.
He hasn’t always worked in journalism. Prior to the day he decided to, as he puts it ‘get my life in order’ Tony worked as an engineer – he admits he was possibly the worst engineer ever, as he didn’t know the difference between a sensitive drill and a bastard rasp – a window cleaner, a delivery driver, a factory worker, a loft insulator and a shoe shop assistant.
Oh, and he worked in a sex shop for twelve months, a period which he describes as ‘interesting’. Oh yes, and there was the brief modelling career in 1980, which saw Tony rolling around with naked women pretending to do the Wild Thing. This tragic venture was captured in Rustler magazine, and there are still a few copies doing the rounds in the cycling world…
Many of the experiences from his, shall we say, career, have been captured in a book Tony is working on at the moment. Pinball tells the story of his working life from the age of 16 until he went to university at the age of 33 – he has a degree in politics and international relations – and anybody who is desperate enough to be looking at this website can read it here.
As well as recognising the limits to his skills as an engineer, Tony describes himself  as ‘the worst ever professional bike rider’. He took out a pro licence in February 1980, and by March realised it was a mistake. Prior to this misadventure, he had raced with reasonable success in criteriums around the north west, and a swift look at his CV reveals that he has crossed the finish line first on 37 occasions. This is put into perspective when you realise that Tony’s younger brother, Mark, won 38 races in one season. Mark went on to win two national road title, the amateur in 1981 and the professional championship in 1986 when he rode for the Raleigh team.
The Bells are a cycling family, as Mike was also a handy rider who made a name for himself in criterium races across the country during the eighties and nineties. Youngest brother Robert also dabbled briefly, but after riding one road race, decided that cycling wasn’t for him and returned to a lifestyle which involves something to do with guitars and keyboards.

Tony says his racing days are well behind him, but has recently been heard talking about getting on his bike again. He says this came about after spending two weeks in Trinidad and Tobago and comparing his Zeppellin-like stomach to the guys who were racing there. But whether he gets back on the bike or not, Tony says he will carry on writing about cycling. ‘I’ll probably overstep the mark one day, and I’ll be down the road, or the magazine might get fed up with me, but until then I’ll keep doing it. I wouldn’t know what to do with spare time if I wasn’t doing this. Well, I would, but at my age, I’m not sure it would take up that much time…’

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