Advice for a long-term passion project?

Hi all!

I'm looking to start a blog in a cycling niche which is a big hobby of mine. I've been involved in it for probably more than half of my life and I have a lot of knowledge and experience in this area (way more than your average enthusiast). I run some other small sites in other niches on the side, but I find it boring and uninspiring to work on them longer-term. In this niche, though, I know I could be quite happy running it for a long time, as I already do a lot of reading/researching etc. for my personal enjoyment. So I would like to monetize it somehow.

• So idea number 1: informational blog where I write about and summarize current research to provide other athletes some "edge" for their performance. There are guys who do really good podcasts on this as well as on YT (they're mainly selling coaching services), but hardly any blogs. Some articles of such a blog would be entirely non-monetizable as there are no products related to the topics (for example, when talking about some aspects of human physiology). Others could be more monetizable such as reviewing the science on, say tire rolling resistance, and then I list a bunch of tires that have the best rolling resistance (with aff links). Or nutrition, and suggest best nutrition products. Or do a deep-dive in chain friction (with my own infographics) and then provide a list of best chain oil/wax.

• Idea number 2: simpler review type site where I only talk about "best" gear and "best" ways to buy it. There's one really good website doing this, run by a single author, where it feels really personal and not spammy at all. Maybe I could do something similar? This would be more direct way to monetization, but more competitive and less interesting personally.

• Some kind of mix of both?

So in general, how would you recommend me to monetize my passion?

Mix it up and make sure your informational content links to your money content.

People don't really like pure review sites, as they want to browse and learn a bit before making a decision with their wallet.