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.
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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
The main story of the past week has been the fallout from Mathieu van der Poel not being chucked in bicycle prison for riding on the footpath last weekend, which we’ve covered in depth (and, of course, may be a little bit biased about, but nevertheless factually correct, so …)
Enough is enough on that one, book closed (for now at least) and we’ll move on with the more pressing matter of whether Mark Cavendish is actually going to retire or not. Oh, actually, there is some new Mathieu van der Poel stuff right at the end. We can’t help it if he keeps doing stuff!
Lott-oh 😲
Lotto-Dstny look to be in a spot of bother, having not yet found a replacement for departing co-title sponsor Dstny.
This means there is a significant budget shortfall for 2025 currently, which in turn has stopped rider renewals from taking place. This includes long-term (apart from eight months away with DSM) rider Harm Vanhoucke, who has got sick of waiting for Lotto to sort themselves out and put pen to paper on existing verbal agreements to instead sign with Q36.5 for next season.
This is a worrying development so late in the season for other riders in the team who are waiting on renewals, and for a team that will next year celebrate its 40th anniversary. Come on Belgium, is there not a tiling company or glue factory that can spare a few quid?
Knighty night? ⚜️
Naturally, we’ve been following the will he/won’t he of Mark Cavendish’s retirement very closely indeed. On one hand, we don’t really understand why Sir Mark Cavendish won’t just come out and tell us what he’s doing next, as he continues to train, and whispers circle as to a future with Astana Qazaqstan, potentially either as some sort of coach or ambassador (I mean, who else do you want talking up your minerals more than a man who’s won 35 stages of the Tour de France?!).
But in the meantime, Mark Cavendish made a trip to the palace to receive his (very well-deserved) knighthood from Prince William in what is (un)officially one of the most royal and official CHAPEAUS you can receive as a Brit.
“I didn’t honestly know I’d be nervous, but I’m so incredibly proud of representing the country,” Cavendish said.
“I’ve still got races this year. I’m still training for them, it will be really nice to race as a Knight Commander,” before quickly clarifying: “I’ve already said I won’t do another Tour de France. That’s public knowledge.”
So what can we expect? Well, Cavendish will be at the Tour de France Singapore Criterium, which should be his curtain call, and with him pluralising “races” we expect he’ll also be fitting the sister Saitama Criterium in Tokyo into his schedule. He’ll be handsomely paid for his appearances, hence why he is charitably calling them “races,” and we can expect him to “win” at least one of the scripted showcases.
But training for them? Is that the canary in the coal mine that speaks to a desire for more racing in 2025? Is he switching to gravel? Who knows?!
Team boss Alexandre Vinokourov has apparently been saying “I still need to find a job for him,” with “him” being Cavendish and these murmurings being reported by Wielerflits, while Vino told Dan Benson that the 39-year-old continuing to race “makes no sense.”
But should Cavendish summon up a private sponsor, it might start to make a bit more sense for Vino. Whatever Cavendish decides to do next, we wish him the best and will continue to follow along with interest. We do kind of hope he continues racing though …
Feed Zone 🥖
🤩 “Woo-hoo,” was Wout van Aert’s Strava caption as he completed a 32.6 km ride in just over an hour around his home region of Herentals in Belgium – his first outdoor ride recovering from an injured knee at the Vuelta a España.
✍️ Visma-Lease a Bike’s Tour of Guangxi victor Milan Vader will ride for Q36.5 next year, multiple sources have told Wielerflits.
😷 Mischa Bredewold will not race the UCI Gravel World Championships this weekend in Leuven after contracting COVID-19.
🗣️ The retiring Grace Brown has been elected the new president of the women’s professional racing union The Cyclists’ Alliance, and will take over from Iris Slappendel.
🇱🇻 The big news of this week was Latvia protesting Mathieu van der Poel’s footpath riding during last Sunday’s Worlds road race. You can find more on the story here.
🇦🇪 Elisa Longo-Borghini has signed a three-year deal with UAE Team ADQ, leaving Lidl-Trek after five seasons with the American team.
🗞️ You can find all this and more in our Daily News roundup. All the news you need on one lovely and clean website. Lovely.
Cycling on TV 📺
(the clocks change in Australia this weekend so we would highly recommend double checking timings while we pick our melted-by-maths brains off of the floor)
Saturday October 5th
Tour de Langkawi – Stage 7
(02:50-04:30 ET/07:50-09:30 BST/16:50-18:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Giro dell’Emilia – Women
(06:30-08:00 ET/11:30-13:00 BST/20:30-22:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, Staylive🇦🇺, FloBikes🇨🇦
Cro Race – Stage 5
(07:00-09:00 ET/12:00-14:00 BST/21:00-23:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Giro dell’Emilia – Men
(08:00-11:30 ET/13:00-16:30 BST/22:00-01:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, Staylive🇦🇺, FloBikes🇨🇦
Gravel
UCI Gravel World Championships – Women
(08:00-10:10 ET/13:00-15:10 BST/22:00-00:10 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
MTB
(The following Australia times are all for Sunday morning)
UCI MTB World Cup, Monte-Sainte-Anne – Junior Women Downhill
(11:15-12:00 ET/16:15-17:00 BST/01:15-03:00 AEST/DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
UCI MTB World Cup, Monte-Sainte-Anne – Junior Men Downhill
(12:00-13:00 ET/17:00-18:00 BST/03:00-04:00 DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
UCI MTB World Cup, Monte-Sainte-Anne – Elite Women Downhill
(12:45-13:55 ET/17:45-18:55 BST/03:45-04:55 DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
UCI MTB World Cup, Monte-Sainte-Anne – Elite Men Downhill
(13:55-16:15 ET/18:55-21:15 BST/04:55-07:15 DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Sunday October 6th
Tour de Langkawi – Stage 8
(02:55-04:35 ET/07:55-09:35 BST/17:55-19:35 DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Paris-Tours
(09:00-11:20 ET/14:00-16:20 BST/00:00-02:20 DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Cro Race – Stage 6
(07:00-09:00 ET/12:00-14:00 BST/22:00-00:00 DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Coppa Agostoni
(09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/00:00-02:00 DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Gravel
UCI Gravel World Championships – Men
(08:20-11:30 ET/13:20-16:30 BST/22:00-01:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
MTB
(The following Australia times are all for Monday morning)
UCI MTB World Cup, Monte-Sainte-Anne – Elite Women XCO
(10:45-12:55 ET/15:45-17:55 BST/01:15-03:55 AEST/DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
UCI MTB World Cup, Monte-Sainte-Anne – Elite Men XCO
(13:15-15:50 ET/18:15-20:50 BST/04:15-06:50 DST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Monday October 7th
Coppa Bernocchi
(09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/00:00-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
👴 Retirement round-up of the week 👴
There’s a theme developing today, isn’t there?
Well, while we have experienced first-hand the great crowds at the Saitama Criterium and know they will provide a good send-off for Cavendish, Simon Geschke’s farewell at the Münsterland Giro in his native Germany just seems like the right way to say goodbye, and we’ll never tire of a bicycle guard of honour.
Yes, maybe Cavendish will get a photo next to Marcel Kittel dressed in a gi (Kittel and John Degenkolb were present at the Münsterland Giro to hoist Geschke on their shoulders on the race podium), but Geschke got THIS GUY. And, it must be said, he looks much more chuffed to be getting a photo with the medieval re-enactment man than the medieval re-enactment man seems to be with meeting a Tour de France stage winner.
Elsewhere in the world of cycling retirement, Q36.5’s American Joey Rosskopf (35) is saying goodbye to the peloton after a career of more than a decade.
But while he won’t be racing anymore, he doesn’t fancy a move away from the sport.
“I need a job!” Rosskopf said on Instagram. “I am still inspired by what the bike does to people’s lives and would like to remain active in any sector of the industry. I am open to suggestions! As everyone knows, I am hungry to take steps and keep learning.”
Come on, someone hire Joey.
And finally …
Sure, you may not acknowledge the existence of the UCI’s version of the Gravel World Championships, but as La Flamme Rouge has pointed out, it means we will see both Mathieu van der Poel and Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas compete in the same race (yes, they may be rolling out seven minutes apart as Bottas is racing in the 35-39 category but let’s not worry about that). Really, what other sports do you get this sort of crossover in?
Should Van der Poel ride on any footpaths this week (surely an even bigger no no in a gravel race?!) then we absolutely need a cameo of Toto Wolff storming into the UCI commissaires office screaming a version of “no Michael, no! That was so not right!”
Weekend listening 🎧
“This seems very on brand,” writes Molly, attaching a link to the music video for Mitraille’s thematically aligned ‘Laundry Tonight’, “especially since they’re a Belgian band!”
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“Hola from Calafell on the Catalan coast,” writes Paddy Q, attaching today’s featured laundrette. “This lavadora was at a campground where each street was named after a city of the region, and being on Euskadi street warmed this jaded old cycling fan’s heart.”
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 Paddy Q for contributions to today’s edition and a big thank you to all of you who have signed up as Escape Collective 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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