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.
Make sure you are sitting comfortably and securely before you read the next sentence: there is a lot of cyclocross coverage in today’s newsletter.
Yes, we have been known to borderline deride the weekend practice of lolloping around in the mud as Not Really Our Thing save for slapstick falls and mini dramas, but what can we say, this weekend had everything and thankfully we have all of the clips ready for you to enjoy.
But don’t worry, road racing absolutists, we have our first sniff of 2025 road racing coming at the end of the week. If you’re not in Australia, get your VPN ready …
Lars van der AARGH 😱
There we were, sitting on the sofa channel surfing in between football matches when we were reminded there was cyclocross on the telly! Almost immediately after tuning in, the camera slowly zoomed in to a rider stopped on the course, and as the view became clearer you could see Lars van der Haar casually popping his shoulder back in during the SuperPrestige race at Gullegem.
Once that was done, he simply got up with a shake of the arm and started jogging again, like nothing ever happened. Cyclocross riders are something else. Maybe they are missing that part of the brain that registers pain, or fear, or both.
Mud, sweat and beers 🍺
After winning a supremely muddy World Cup race at Dendermonde on Sunday, Wout van Aert was handing out hugs to anyone who wanted one en route to the podium. Unsurprisingly, he found few who wanted to take him up on the offer, except for one fan who couldn’t resist. Bet he never washes that coat again.
That fan will join a whole host, including this trio below, who will be returning home to put their washing machines through the wringer. But honestly, imagine the satisfaction of successfully scaling a muddy hill on a World Cup course to deliver your pals some beers. This is real (Belgian) guys being (Belgian) dudes in action here people.
Anyway, back to Van Aert, who either was not handed a towel before his flash interview post-Dendermonde victory, or has an appreciation for how ridiculous it would look and didn’t want to deprive us of this sight. It’s excellent, imagine just flicking through TV channels as a non-cycling fan and coming across this. You wouldn’t have a clue.
Along with his victory at Dendermonde, Van Aert also won the day before at Gullegem, admitting he is further ahead of where he thought he’d be post-Vuelta crash and subsequent recovery, which is great news.
Could the secret ingredient be his newest (and smallest) coach? His son Georges spotted watching his dad warm up before Loenhout, his first race back. Having likely already spent most of his life at bike races, Georges seems to have perfected the Belgian backroom staff look of standing there silently, hands in pockets, before dutifully checking the front wheel.
It seems as if Georges’ work has been well-received, as Van Aert pulled a funny face in homage to how his son poses for family photos across the finish line in Gullegem, where coincidentally Georges had to spend his fourth birthday instead of at the zoo, or the frituur … I don’t know Belgian childhood birthday aspirations, just having to guess here.
All in all, it’s great to see Van Aert back to winning ways and having a lot of fun while doing so.
Feed Zone 🥖
🤩 Having disappeared at the end of 2021, development squad SEG Racing will return in 2025 with a mentoring programme.
🇸🇪 Swedish pro Tobias Ludvigsson has called time on his career after failing to find a team for 2025. Amongst the 2024 WorldTour pros currently without a contract are: Kenny Elissonde, Elia Viviani, Michael Vink and Michel Hessmann.
Cycling on TV 📺
Tuesday January 7th – Wednesday January 8th
No live racing …
Thursday January 9th🇬🇧🇺🇸🇨🇦/Friday January 10th🇦🇺
Australian Road National Championships – Elite Criteriums
(16:00-18:45 ET/21:00-23:45 GMT/08:00-10:45 AEDT) SBS 🇦🇺
🫸 Argy bargy of the week 🫷
Not content with Wout van Aert and Big (Shoulder) Poppa Lars van der Haar taking all the spotlight, the women’s race at Gullegem featured some fantastic argy bargy, as Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado took exception to Zoe Bäckstedt cutting across her in the race for second place and so gave her a good old shove, but was then outsprinted by the Brit.
“She passed me and immediately cut in towards me,” Alvarado said afterwards. “That caused her to push against me with her bike. I didn’t like that. She could have done [her overtake], but maybe a bit further [out]. I tried to push her back onto her line.”
Lucinda Brand won that race (and Dendermonde) and so sealed her 31st consecutive cyclocross podium, which is quite the feat.
And finally …
Another name to add to the dropped by Tadej Pogačar list: this dog.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“Greetings from the Caribbean Princess on her way to San Juan, Puerto Rico,” writes Bob Green, attaching today’s featured laundry photo. “Sorry I forgot to open the dryer doors.”
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: jonny.long@escapecollective.com
Until next time …
That’s all folks! Thanks to Bob Green, Caleb Hayter and Phil Long 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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