Spin Cycle is Escape Collective’s news digest, published every Monday and Friday. You can read it on this website (obviously) or have it delivered straight to your inbox.
Spin Cycle
Enter your email address to get our unique spin on news from the world of cycling delivered directly to your inbox!
Get our unique spin on news from the world of cycling delivered directly to your inbox!
Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
The Vuelta a España is in full flow, hot days on huge gradients while you sit comfortably on your sofa, watching the exertion of others. What better way to begin closing out the summer?
With temperatures in Spain higher than a teenager caught sneaking round the back of a school bike shed, and the Giro d’Italia always encumbered by snow and general bad weather, people have returned to the debate of whether these two Grand Tours should switch places in the calendar. It appears, on the face of it, to be an idea with merit, but this is cycling! It’s not supposed to make sense!
What have they done?
A cracking stage win for Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale’s Ben O’Connor, who admitted himself he “was in his own world” on stage 6 as he finished 119 total kilometres off the front with a show of strength, not losing much time up to the summit finish to take out a massive 4 minutes and 51 second lead on Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in the general classification.
Obviously, O’Connor did a similar thing at the Tour de France in 2021 when he won a breakaway stage and zoomed up the GC, into second behind Tadej Pogačar, ultimately dropping down to fourth by Paris.
Will he hold faster against lesser opposition this time? There is still a lot of climbing left (as much left as the entirety of this year’s Giro d’Italia, GCN’s Daniel Lloyd points out) but according to the bookies he’s now second favourite behind Roglič to win this Vuelta, which is quite the turn up for the books.
“What O’Connor did was incredible, I’ve rarely seen that,” Red Bull sports director Patxi Vila told CyclingNews. “Going up the last climb he just didn’t lose any time. I would never have expected that it’s a real surprise.”
An extra layer of intrigue added to this Vuelta a España, how long will O’Connor hold on? Vamos Ben!
Oh, Decathlon has gone. and. ejected Lavenu ⚡
Now in the meeting rooms of Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale’s Chambéry HQ there was violence, and lots of firing to be done, no place any longer for former team boss Vincent Lavenu, and you can blame it all on a lack of communication.
It’s the end of an era, as Vincent Lavenu, the man who founded the Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale squad back in 1992 (as Chazal-Vanille et Mure-Vetta) has been fired by his own team, reports L’Équipe.
This story begins in 2022, when Lavenu was effectively forced to sell his team to long-term sponsor Ag2r, with the insurance company’s directors installing a new boss: Dominique Serieys.
Initially, Lavenu was allowed to stay on as general manager but under supervision, before being demoted down to sports director this year and then after the Tour de France informed that he was fired.
After hearing this news at the team’s service course in the Savoie region, Lavenu apparently fell ill and the emergency services had to be called. He has apparently now hired a lawyer from Lyon to deal with his dismissal.
Why the huge turnaround in organisational stature for Lavenu? Undoubtedly, we haven’t heard the full story yet, but sources told L’Équipe it had to do with Lavenu not informing the team’s board quickly enough about the doping investigation into Franck Bonnamour, who was suspended by the UCI due to anomalies in his biological passport, and then dismissed by Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale in March.
Double Stannards, says Robert
A little bit more doping-adjacent news sadly! With his partly-backdated four-year ban for an anti-doping rule violation now complete, Robert Stannard has signed with Bahrain Victorious and will return to racing in the coming weeks.
Stannard has said he had to make the hard choice to accept the ruling to expedite his return to competition rather than fighting to clear his name, arguing that “athletes with [biological passport] violations have not returned positive blood or urine tests for anything. They alleged that it could only have been caused by ‘illegal means,’ but throughout the entire process, provided no evidence of any wrongdoing. No evidence of doping is collected or required for them to reach this judgment.”
His new Bahrain Victorious team also came out to bat for him, saying: “It has never been specified whether [Stannard] is accused of using a prohibited substance or a prohibited method.” The team also claims that Stannard was “able to provide explanations for what they [the UCI] had identified as ‘abnormal values.’”
The UCI, dropping a press release down from up on high, has now hit back at Bahrain Victorious’ statement, which has been removed from their website, saying the team’s statement was “clearly incorrect and misleading” and that the tribunal had rejected Stannard’s “explanations and held that he used a prohibited substance and/or method as evidenced by his Biological Passport.”
One thing that would help stop this from becoming a he-said/they-said is further information on the exact circumstance of the biological passport anomaly. Just a thought.
Feed Zone 🥖
👊 SD Worx-Protime’s Barbara Guarischi has hit back at criticism levelled at her team at the end of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift: “There are days when everything goes well and you win (and everyone is a friend) the media/people are excited and you are a hero. There are also days when everything goes wrong and you lose (and there are real friends) and the media/people are all against you because you are a loser.”
💇♂️ Australian sprinter Kaden Groves has renewed with Alpecin-Deceuninck for two years, while New Zealander Sam Gaze will also be staying at the Belgian team.
🇩🇪 Jonathan Milan edged out Lidl-Trek teammate Mads Pedersen by just two seconds in the opening 2.9 km prologue at the Deutschland Tour and then won the bunch kick on stage 1 for good measure before Pedersen then took stage 2!
👋 37-year-old Edvald Boasson Hagen (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) will retire at the end of the season, his team has announced.
✍️ Alex Aranburu will swap Movistar for Cofidis next year, while Pascal Eenkhoorn will move from Lotto Dstny to Soudal-Quick Step.
🇨🇿 “I don’t even see myself as a sprinter but rather as a specialist for the classics,” said DSM Firmenich-PostNL’s Pavel Bittner after beating Wout van Aert in the Vuelta a España stage 5 sprint.
🐝 After the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the four-month ban German Anti-Doping handed to Visma-Lease a Bike’s Michel Hessmann for testing positive for a banned diuretic, his lawyers have reached a settlement with WADA, which allows Hessmann to return to competition in March 2025 . However, he will have to find a new team as Visma-Lease a Bike have announced they will not be renewing the 23-year-old’s contract. According to AS, Movistar are interested in signing him.
🤔 Patrick Lefevere has reacted to the announcement that Julian Alaphilippe will move to Tudor Pro Cycling next year: “He was not just a rider. Julian is like a child that you give up,” the Soudal-Quick Step boss told Het Laatste Nieuws. “Julian had two very weak years, 2022 and 2023, and I didn’t want to pay that money anymore. He has every right. But ‘business wise’ I also have to make certain choices.”
😲 Multiple Paris Olympics track cycling medalist Matthew Richardson has announced a switch of allegiance from Australia to Great Britain. “I was there with the Australian team, but sometimes I would sneak out for small, secret meetings. Then I would come back,” Richardson told the Telegraph. “That was the only way to do it. I had to keep it a secret, to prevent them from [not] selecting me for the Olympics.” The Australian federation is now looking at the possibility of applying a two-year non-competition clause.
👕 As cycling clothing company AGU faces collapse after failed takeover talks, the AGU-supplied Visma-Lease a Bike squad has assured everyone they have enough clothing to last the rest of the year and they will have a new supplier for 2025.
👶 There could be another new UAE wunderkind on the blocks as Spaniard Pablo Torres of the UAE Team Emirates development squad won stage 5 of the Tour de l’Avenir. France’s Marion Bunel won the opening stage of the women’s Tour de l’Avenir.
🔮 Another departure confirmed for Lotto Dstny, with Andreas Kron having signed a two-year deal with Uno-X Mobility.
🛒 Anna Henderson has signed a three-year deal with Lidl-Trek, leaving Visma-Lease a Bike where she has raced for the past four years.
💂♀️ Ineos Grenadiers have signed a British rider, with Samuel Watson moving over from Groupama-FDJ.
Cycling on TV 📺
Saturday August 24th
Vuelta a España – Stage 8
(08:30-12:00 ET/13:30-17:00 BST/22:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Deutschland Tour – Stage 3
(09:05-11:05 ET/14:05-16:05 BST/23:05-01:05 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Tour de l’Avenir Men – Stage 6
(08:40-10:30 ET/13:40-15:30 BST/22:40-00:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Tour de l’Avenir Women – Stage 3
(06:15-08:40 ET/11:15-13:40 BST/20:15-22:40 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Classic Lorient Agglomération
(08:10-11:10 ET/13:10-16:10 BST/22:10-01:10 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Sunday August 25th
Vuelta a España – Stage 9
(08:30-12:00 ET/13:30-17:00 BST/22:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Bretagne Classic – Ouest France
(06:40-11:10 ET/11:40-16:10 BST/20:40-01:10 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Deutschland Tour – Stage 4
(09:05-11:05 ET/14:05-16:05 BST/23:05-01:05 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇨🇦
Monday August 26th
No live racing …
📉 Getting dropped quote of the week 📉
Earlier this week, stage 4 of the Vuelta a España saw Primož Roglič win yet another stage of the Spanish Grand Tour and (temporarily) wear the red jersey.
On the hellish gradients of Pico Villuercas, many GC contenders dropped, unable to hold on and forced to watch the others forge on ahead. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) lost half a minute, Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose a bit more, while Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) and Cian Uijtdebroeks lost a minute and a half.
Many told tales of tough days out on the bike, battling 40 degree centigrade heat, but if we’re awarding consolation prizes for best post-race quote, Carapaz takes it:
“I tried to hold my own as best I could, but I just couldn’t go any faster,” the Ecuadorian began. “We did our utmost. It was a day to survive as best we could. I think we succeeded reasonably well. In the final I had a shortage of water. It was very hot and at one point I was in a zone of despair.”
Head to this edition’s corrections corner for our very own zone of despair 😉
And finally …
A little bit of drama at the Tour de l’Avenir, where Italian Ludovico Crescioli refused to pull through for German Ole Theiler as the pair held their gap just ahead of the stage 2 finish line.
After Theiler opened his sprint, Crescioli came around him and celebrated emphatically, which did not go down well with the 21-year-old, who threw up a middle finger.
Unfortunately, the official finish line photos conveniently were direct head-on shots, with Theiler obscured behind. Luckily, someone else was on hand with a side-on view to get us the goods.
😵💫 Corrections corner AKA zone of despair
After a fairly clean run of about six months, coincidence would have it that when we opened the reply button to this email as a direct line to my inbox I would drop two absolute clangers. Move out the way ‘Lotte Kopecky is riding the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift’, make way for the 25 de Abril Bridge in Lisbon is not, it turns out, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, huevos on our face as we enjoyed Mikel Landa’s lack of care for specific bridge knowledge, and understandably our inbox filled up with people pointing out our error, much to our great shame.
Had we not been watching last Saturday’s time trial? Of course not! Like children in the Victorian era, time trials should be seen and not heard. Just a results sheet that’s passed around at the end of the day and greeted with a nod before we all get on with our lives. And really, who would choose a Vuelta time trial over Aston Villa vs West Ham b2b with dinner with your sister’s family-in-law! Priorities. But yes, sorry, we hope you get a kick out of our stupidity and as always, we aim to keep doing better.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“Together with my husband Ian, I’ve been making a cycling + Olympics journey,” writes in Flora Marriot a few weeks ago, attaching today’s featured laundry photo. “We started from Rotterdam on 27th July and cycled south for a week, reaching Paris on August 1st. We stayed for one week, watching the road race and also were lucky enough to see kayak cross, table tennis, taekwondo and skateboarding. Now we are heading northwest to the port of Caen, where we will catch a ferry back to the UK.
“Yesterday in a small Normandy town I spotted this outdoor laundry and took some pics in case they are of use to you.”
As always, we are accepting your laundry photos (especially ones with the doors open so we can Photoshop riders inside the drum) to star in Spin Cycle. Either send them via the Discord or shoot me an email: [email protected]
Until next time …
That’s all folks! Thanks to Flora Marriot for contributions to today’s edition and a big thank you to all of you who have signed up already as Escape Collective founding members. If you haven’t there is no time like the present. To smooth the process just click this link here and hit the Join Today button in the top right of the page.
Every edition of Spin Cycle is available for free so please share it with your friends and help us enjoy limitless growth. You can give them this link to take them to our most recent edition.
And if you’ve been forwarded this email from someone else and want to receive it straight into your own inbox while it’s still hot, you can sign up by clicking the button.
Spin Cycle
Enter your email address to get our unique spin on news from the world of cycling delivered directly to your inbox!
Get our unique spin on news from the world of cycling delivered directly to your inbox!
Did we do a good job with this story?