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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
A bumper newsletter for you today, as Ben O’Connor clings onto the red jersey at the Vuelta a España, Andrea Piccolo finds a new career after getting fired by EF Education-EasyPost, Matej Mohorič appears on a TV talk show in the most Matej Mohorič way possible, and Rod Ellingworth has someone sitting next to him in the race car at the Tour of Britain who looks very familiar …
A costly descent
Having fought hard up to the summit finish of Covadonga earlier this week, Vuelta a España race leader Ben O’Connor saved his red jersey by just five seconds. Having spoken to the media, as Daniel Friebe reported, O’Connor began descending back down the climb as he believed the podium was 15 km away, and not 500 m away.
O’Connor was only told about his mistake when he reached the bottom and then had to be driven all the way back up. “He wasn’t thrilled,” says Friebe.
All’s well that ends well, right? Enter the UCI.
The governing body’s commissaires cited O’Connor for: “failure to attend official ceremonies or failing to respect the 10-minute deadline after the rider crosses the line,” and so fined him 1,000 Swiss Francs ($1,100), docked him 20 UCI points and took away the prize money he’d won that day for being in the race lead. That’s going to be one expensive dinner the jury has in Madrid at the end of the race.
Piccolo’s pics 😳
Back in June, 23-year-old Italian Andrea Piccolo was fired by EF Education-EasyPost on suspicion of transporting human growth hormone, a banned anabolic agent, into Italy.
As the investigation presumably rumbles on, nothing new to report there, we can bring you news that Piccolo has dyed his hair bleach blonde. Oh, and he’s started an OnlyFans account.
“Come and get to know a part of me that no one else knows …” reads the description on the website where for $19.99 a month (or 50% off if you pay annually), you will have access to whatever photos Piccolo is posting behind a paywall … although it doesn’t appear he’s actually posted anything yet. To be clear, no judgement here, do what you want, we just didn’t have “Andrea Piccolo gets fired by EF for allegedly transporting human growth hormone across international borders and then signs himself up for OnlyFans” on our 2024 cycling bingo cards.
This move isn’t that much of a reach necessarily, as his girlfriend, Valentina Gomez, with 2.4 million followers on Instagram, is also active on the website. The more you know!
Feed Zone 🥖
💰 Marca reports that while contract talks between double Vuelta stage winner Pablo Castrillo and Ineos Grenadiers are in an advanced stage, there is also interest from Movistar, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Astana Qazaqstan and Cofidis.
👨⚕️ Egan Bernal has undergone successful surgery on his back after struggling with a hernia for years and now hopes to be completely free of back pain: “I hope I’ll be able to push on the bike again,” the Colombian said on Instagram.
🌍 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will compete at the upcoming World Road Championships in Zurich ahead of her full-time return to road racing next season.
😔 Promising 21-year-old Italian cyclist Simone Roganti passed away suddenly last Friday. He had been due to turn pro with Tour de Tietema-Unibet next season.
🏥 Wout van Aert suffered a deep wound in his Vuelta crash but no fractures, his Visma-Lease a Bike team has confirmed. The Belgian requires intensive care and has travelled back to Belgium for treatment. The team later announced Van Aert would not race again this season.
✍️ Sergio Higuita has signed a two-year deal with Astana Qazaqstan, moving over from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
👨🔬 Having announced his frustrated departure from Ineos Grenadiers, performance engineer Dan Bigham will join Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, the German team has announced, with Jonny Wale arriving as part of Bigham’s entourage.
🇨🇦 37-year-old Michael Woods has abandoned the Vuelta with fatigue five days after taking his stage win.
🥶 Tom Pidcock currently has no firm plans to race cyclocross this winter. “Maybe I will plan some races later in the beginning of next year, but there is certainly no rush for that,” he told Sporza.
🇵🇱 Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) is recovering from a ruptured disc in his spine.
💸 Gazzetta dello Sport reports Remco Evenepoel moving to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe for next season is “possible” with talks ongoing.
😐 Happy podium picture of the week 😐
“To be clear not the way we wanted it,” Alpecin-Deceuninck captioned their photo of Kaden Groves taking over the green jersey at the Vuelta from Van Aert, as if it wasn’t clear enough already by Groves’ brooding podium look. Absolutely piercing!
Cycling on TV 📺
Saturday September 7th
Vuelta a España – Stage 20
(06:30-12:00 ET/11:30-17:00 BST/20:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour de Romandie Feminin – Stage 2
(07:45-09:30 ET/12:45-14:30 BST/21:45-23:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Tour of Britain – Stage 5
(05:45-10:15 ET/10:45-15:15 BST/19:45-00:15 AEST) ITV🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Sunday September 8th
Vuelta a España – Stage 21
(10:00-12:00 ET/15:00-19:20 BST/22:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour de Romandie Feminin – Stage 3
(07:45-09:30 ET/12:45-14:30 BST/21:45-23:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Tour of Britain – Stage 6
(05:45-10:15 ET/10:45-15:15 BST/19:45-00:15 AEST) ITV🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Bemer Cyclassics
(07:15-10:15 ET/12:15-15:15 BST/21:15-00:15 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Staylive🇦🇺
Grand Prix de Fourmies
(09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/23:00-01:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Monday September 9th
No live racing …
Tuesday September 10th
No live racing …
Wednesday September 11th
European Road Championships – Women’s ITT
(09:00-10:30 ET/14:00-15:30 BST/23:00-00:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
European Road Championships – Men’s ITT
(10:30-12:00 ET/15:30-17:00 BST/00:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Giro della Toscana
(08:30-10:30 ET/13:30-15:30 BST/22:30-00:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Thursday September 12th
European Road Championships – Mixed Team TT
(08:20-10:40 ET/13:20-15:40 BST/22:20-00:40 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Coppa Sabatini
(08:30-10:30 ET/13:30-15:30 BST/22:30-00:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Friday September 13th
GP de Québec
(10:45-16:30 ET/15:45-21:30 BST/00:45-06:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, Staylive🇦🇺
🤝 Getting the band back together of the week 🤝
Before he heads back to Business Friendly Bahrain Victorious, Rod Ellingworth is fulfilling his duties as the Tour of Britain’s race director, spotted riding in the race car looking very stern with his sponsor-colour-correct-Lloyds Bank lanyard around his neck.
But who’s that next to him driving the vehicle? Surely not his former British Cycling/Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford? Surely they’re not getting the band back together? This must be another clean-shaven, middle-aged glasses man … but who knows for certain …
And finally …
Just Matej Mohorič riding into an appearance on a TV chat show back in Slovenia, parking his bike up just in camera shot and placing his helmet on the table. Love it.
Corrections corner 😖
A big SORee to Canada, who also celebrated Labour Day on Monday and with a “u” to boot and all! Those Canadians, they just get it. Thanks to Ryan Jay Robison and Julian Allen for letting me know.
PSA 🍹🌴
The bumper TV Guide may have been a giveaway that there will be no Spin Cycle on Monday as we’re off on annual leave.
As we won’t see you again until Friday feel free to delete as appropriate in our absence: Oh wow, Primož Roglič won yet another Vuelta, good for him/oh no! Some slapstick catastrophe happened and [insert unsuspecting rider here] won the red jersey instead! And ooh, would you look at this other weird quote/odd crypto scheme/funny video featuring a well-known rider.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“From somewhere in the North Sea,” writes Brendan Uberschar, somewhat mysteriously, attaching today’s featured laundry photo.
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 Brendan Uberschar, Ryan Jay Robison and Julian Allen 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.
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Spin Cycle
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