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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
It’s been a surprisingly big week in cycling, with Patrick Lefevere announcing his retirement from running Soudal-Quick Step, Ilnur Zakarin revealing he previously made big bets at the Tour de France dinner table, and the result of the latest battle in the peloton’s ongoing milk wars. What off-season?
The end of an era 👋
That’s it then, as Patrick Lefevere retires as CEO of Soudal-Quick Step at the end of the year, and recently installed COO Jurgen Foré steps up to run the show instead.
“The last dinosaur,” was the headline L’Équipe ran with, maybe a bit cheeky, but we reckon the 69-year-old will have enjoyed it.
Yes, his team won a lot of bike races. Yes, he gave the media a lot to write and talk about. Yes, he said some truly heinous things that were befitting of a Stone Age mentality. Comparing Sam Bennett returning to Bora-Hansgrohe as a woman who returns home after being a victim of domestic violence. Putting the blame on the 18-year-old woman involved in the gross Iljo Keisse incident in Argentina, accusing her of just wanting money. His (unsuccessful) run-in with Marion Rousse. We could go on. And on and on.
Maybe it was the UCI (the UCI!!) finally deciding that Lefevere’s behaviour was intolerable enough to fine him for his sexist comments that paved the way for his decommissioning. The eras changing as we move out of the sticks and stones mafioso age of cycling and into one of science, technology and petrochemical billions determining might in the peloton.
Some positives about Lefevere for a bit of balance: he always made himself available to the media no matter what dumb questions you asked him, and in a world of music streaming services he was a vinyl record, albeit with a distinctive and coarse patois. On multiple occasions he called me “boy,” which was highly amusing. And not to white knight it too much but interacting with him as said boy probably gives me an entirely different perspective on him.
A controversial figure whose departure removes some of the colour from the sport, but it’s probably time. Maybe it’s best to remember him by all the photographs of his toes he’s uploaded to his Instagram account over the years.
Oh! I almost forgot our Spin Cycle (probably) exclusive: Lefevere will be continuing with his regular Het Nieuwsblad column, so really, he’s not going anywhere.
Ilnur Zakar-all-in 🎲
You might be forgiven for wondering why on Earth former pro Ilnur Zakarin is posting Facebook statuses about times he’s illegally bet on the Tour de France while racing in it, but scroll down further to his second-most-recent post and he reveals that since retiring from cycling two years ago, he is very, very bored.
But yes, back in 2018, when Zakarin rode for Katusha-Alpecin, he went down to dinner after stage 7 and saw teammate Marcel Kittel at the table, who had won five stages at the Tour the year before but had so far gone win-less that edition.
“I saw that he was already eating his third plate of pasta,” Zakarin writes. “I asked: ‘How are you bro?’ He replied that he had a feeling that he would win the stage tomorrow and that his feeling had never let him down. I laughed, but I did store the information and had the same feeling.
“After dinner I quickly went to my room and wrote to a friend that he should bet 100,000 on Kittel winning a stage,” Zakarin continues, and we presume he means rubles rather than Euros, considering that would mean he bet €1,360, which sounds much more likely.
“My friend, who knows about racing, said it was a bad idea. But my feelings turned out to be stronger and I’m still counting on it. Of course, I sent the money right away and waited for the next day. It should work and I would earn a lot of money. I woke up the next morning full of energy and had a big breakfast. I wished Marcel good luck, protected him from the wind, brought him food and protected him all day.
“After the finish I immediately asked him how many places he had finished. He calmly answered that something had gone wrong. Since then I haven’t bet on sports anymore.”
A cautionary tale, you could say. Although the blasé nature with which this story has been told (as well as Kittel responding saying he should have eaten two more plates of pasta that evening) makes you wonder whether betting is more commonplace that you thought?
It’s one explanation as to why Zakarin descended like a stone in so many bike races, throwing away very decent chances at victories. To be clear that is a joke. Please don’t sue us Ilnur in order to fill up your Bet365 account.
Feed Zone 🥖
🚂 Retiring Swiss road and track cyclist Claudio Imhof has announced his next career: becoming a train driver!
🪨 No more big minerals for Mark Cavendish who will not take a management position with XDS-Astana Team next season, Dan Benson reports.
⛽ XRG is a new a sponsor that will appear prominently on Tadej Pogačar’s rainbow UAE Team Emirates jersey. XRG is the newly launched investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil company, which will focus on natural gas, chemicals, and lower-carbon energy solutions, apparently.
🩻 Eddy Merckx required a total hip replacement following a bike crash on Monday, a procedure he’s told Sporza “went very smoothly.”
💨 UAE Team Emirates has said it will no longer use carbon monoxide to measure haemoglobin mass, with the UCI coming out later in the week saying it will seek a ban on carbon monoxide inhalation for performance gains on medical grounds.
Cycling on TV 📺
Saturday December 14th
Cyclocross
US National Championships – Elite Women and Elite Men
14:45 ET (Women); 16:00 (Men) FloBikes 🇺🇸
X20 Trofee Herentals – Women
(07:42-08:57 ET/12:42-13:57 GMT/23:42-00:57 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max 🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
X20 Trofee Herentals – Men
(08:57-10:20 ET/13:57-15:20 GMT/00:57-02:20 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max 🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Sunday December 15th
Cyclocross
UCI Cyclocross World Cup, Namur – Women
(07:30-09:00 ET/12:30-14:00 GMT/23:30-01:00 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, UCI’s YouTube🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺 (or FloBikes in US and Canada)
UCI Cyclocross World Cup, Namur – Men
(09:00-10:30 ET/14:00-15:30 GMT/01:00-02:30 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, UCI’s YouTube🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺 (or FloBikes in US and Canada)
Monday December 16th
No live racing …
🌐 Humanity-friendly cycling sponsor of the week 🌐
It seems like the milk lunatics have won this battle, as DSM-Firmenich will no longer be a title co-sponsor of the previously named DSM Firmenich-PostNL and the Dutch team has announced a new co-title sponsor: Picnic! An online supermarket in the Netherlands.
For Brits, it’s like a Dutch Ocado. For Americans … my only reference is if Trader Joe’s didn’t have physical stores and was online only? That’s not a bad idea, actually, would make it much easier to get my hands on its Everything But The Bagel seasoning.
Does this mean we have a new most humanity-friendly team title sponsors? I think so! John Degenkolb certainly looks pleased, but that could also be due to his signing of a new two-year contract to keep him at the team until he’s a billion years old. At least it feels like he’s been racing for that long.
And finally …
There is, obviously, always a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future. Will AI render us all useless as the machines do everything, even the washing up? Will the tundra soon melt and the peat release enough carbon dioxide to warm the Earth by multiple centigrades in a matter of days? Will the Chicago Bears ever sort their shit out?
One thing is for sure, however, you will be able to watch the Deutschland Tour until the year … 2050!
Yes, ASO has guaranteed the Deutschland Tour for 25 years. Is this all part of Ralph Denk’s Big Mountain Sausage Emporium Plan? We hope ASO got a good rate on what is effectively a bike race mortgage. Good to know that for 10 years after Juan Soto has stopped playing for the Mets I’ll still have something to occupy my time. Wild, need to know more.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“Waiting on my sleeping bag to dry after coming back from a warm bike packing trip in Gran Canaria,” writes Alan Stafford, attaching today’s featured laundrette. “A local Spar up the road’s laundry station in Kildare, Ireland.”
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 Alan Stafford 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
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