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
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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
If the cycling world is an ocean, Tadej Pogačar is a whale shark, which means cycling media is the remora ‘sucker-fish,’ feeding off of scraps in a somewhat mutually beneficial relationship.
But like all relationships, as we’ll see in a minute, they shine brightest at the outset before reality kicks in. With Pogačar, he spices things up by giving cheeky soundbites and wearing iconic jumpers, which often means that this sucker-fish rarely goes without a meal. [Turns out this analogy is actually pretty on the nose – Ed.]
Look how much fun we’re having
After a break-up, some people are inclined to show off just how much fun they’re having in their new life.
Take Demi Vollering post-SD Worx-Protime, off for a morning run with her new colleagues at FDJ-Suez, where the smiles are so wide you’d think they were sponsored by a toothpaste company.
Check out tomorrow’s Wheel Talk newsletter for a full breakdown of an interesting interview Vollering recently gave to NRC where she said that in the last year Lotte Kopecky and her became more distant, and that Vollering would go into every race with a plan for herself as well as the team’s plan for Kopecky. Meanwhile, the signing of Anna van der Breggen was unexpectedly sprung upon SD Worx-Protime’s riders, and subsequently Vollering took Van der Breggen off of her TrainingPeaks account post-Tour de France.
While discussing Vollering actively pushing out how much of a good time she’s having since leaving SD Worx-Protime, one person said to me: “Every new romance is fun until the real work starts.”
Gin tonic please
Tadej Pogačar has been deep in his pre-Christmas media and promotional rounds, giving time and soundbites to everyone who contributes to his stonking salary. Everyone gets their pound of flesh eventually!
While doing some promotion/celebration with his agency, Pogačar teamed up with Felix Großschartner to win the padel tournament (surely this time he could have let someone else have the glory, ffs) …
… before he donned this festive jumper politely asking: ‘Gin Tonic PLEASE’, a maybe not so subtle hint that he would like to be left alone for five minutes to enjoy himself without answering questions about 2025 before 2024 is even up.
However, he plucked up the required effort to answer a question about his partner Urška Žigart joining AG Insurance-Soudal next year.
“Urška is going to the same team as Remco,” Pogačar told Sporza. “Will she share my secrets with him? I don’t think they’ll ride together often. Urška would leave Remco behind too quickly.”
One last fun bit of Pogačar promotion. A new MyWhoosh poster reads: “There must be a reason why Tadej chooses MyWhoosh,” to which professional cycling nerd Cillian Kelly responded: “Because he’s contractually obliged to.”
Feed Zone 🥖
🎨 Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert will “discover new colours” other than their usual flourescent yellow and blue kits next season, boss Jean-François Bourlart has teased in an interview with Wielerverhaal.
🎧 “Several top riders have told me that they want to get rid of the earphones,” UCI boss David Lappartient has told TutttoBiciWeb.
🇩🇰 Former junior World Champion Julius Johansen has signed for UAE Team Emirates to complete its 29-rider roster. The 25-year-old Dane rode for Intermarché-Wanty in 2022 and 2023 before spending this last season with Portuguese Continental team Sabgal/Anicolor.
🇨🇴 Nairo Quintana has told the EFE news agency he will race the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España in 2025.
Cycling on TV 📺
Tuesday November 26th – Thursday November 28th
No live racing …
Friday November 29th
Track
UCI Track Champions League, Apeldoorn – Round 2
(13:00-17:00 ET/18:00-22:00 GMT/05:00-09:00 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max 🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
🗓️ Announcement of an announcement of the week 🗓️
You know what the only thing better than an announcement is? An announcement that an announcement is going to be made, of course!
Alpecin-Deceuninck boss Christoph Roodhooft told Sporza over the weekend that Mathieu van der Poel’s cyclocross programme will be announced this week.
As the UCI Cyclocross World Cup series kicked off in Antwerp with Eli Iserbyt and Fem van Empel taking the wins, the likes of Van der Poel, Van Aert and Pidcock will soon be joining them to likely mess things up for the dedicated cyclocross riders.
Pidcock hasn’t said anything about when he’ll next be at a CX race yet, while Het Laatste Nieuws reckons Van Aert will get involved around Christmas, as he continues to recover from the knee injury suffered in that Vuelta a España crash.
But in further signs of cycling media’s plight during these winter months, another headline to beat the above Van der Poel announcement of an announcement from Dutch website Wielerflits reads “A milestone for Remco Evenepoel: more than 100,000 subscribers on YouTube.”
And finally …
If you thought the cycling world needed another high-end expensive bike then you’re in luck! As footballer Lionel Messi is apparently releasing a customised collaboration next year.
According to Relevo, the Argentinian is an avid cycling fan and will release a special edition model in collaboration with “a world-class cyclist,” with the price estimated to be between €10,000-€15,000. Do say: probably a good thing one of the world’s most famous people likes bikes. Don’t say: who, exactly, is this for?
Corrections corner 😖
“Those look less like shakers and more like grinders, though I’d be happy to be mistaken on this one,” writes in the eagle-eyed Karl Cunningham about the amenities of the Visma offices displayed in Friday’s edition. “Maybe you could request a set for inspection?”
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“Here’s a laundry pic from the far reaches of the globe, Moonah, Tasmania!” writes Troy Fyfe, attaching today’s featured laundromat. “Ok, it’s not that fancy but it’s somewhat local. My partner and I happened to be passing one Sunday afternoon when it was empty. My partner uses it for towels and bedspreads on occasion, we had more machines open but the owner came out the open door and closed a few before we could make up an excuse that photographing laundries was ‘our thing’.”
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 Troy Fyfe, Joe Lindsey and Kit Nicholson 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
Enter your email address to get our unique spin on news from the world of cycling delivered directly to your inbox!
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