Welcome to Daily News, your roundup of news items from across the world of cycling. Your usual DN writer Dane Cash is in the final days of his Iberian idyll, so the rest of the EC staff will keep you informed on all things bike racing, tech, industry, culture, advocacy, and more.
Here is what is making the headlines this week …
Friday, October 11, 2024
- Pidcock a surprise (even to him) DNS for Lombardia
- Lotto Dstny is in turmoil
- Gravel Burn: a new South African stage race
- Quick Hits
Ineos pulls team leader Pidcock from Lombardia, reportedly without explanation
Tom Pidcock is a surprise DNS for Saturday’s Il Lombardia race. The Ineos Grenadiers rider posted on Instagram that he has been informed by his team that he won’t take the start. “Just as things were on the up after a turbulent end to the year I am deselected for Lombardia tomorrow,” he wrote. “I am in great shape and was really looking forwarded [sic] to it!”
The British rider, who finished second to Tadej Pogačar at last week’s Giro dell’Emilia, was rated as one of the few potential challengers to the World Champion at the hilliest major Classic on the calendar. A source close to Pidcock said the rider was given no reason for the decision. Pidcock himself certainly seemed mystified, writing, “I guess off season starts early” in his post.
The Olympic mountain bike champion has a contract with Ineos through 2027 but has several times been rumored to be seeking an early exit; most recently he was linked last week to ProTeam Q36.5. Ineos did not respond to Escape Collective‘s request for comment. Pidcock will be replaced in the lineup by Ethan Hayter.
In other Lombardia news, heavy rainfall and flooding in northern Italy has forced organizers to change both the start and finish of the race. The early climb of the Passo di Ganda (9.4 km at 7%) will be replaced with the Selvino before returning to the original course for the Berberino and Valpiana ascents. The finish line is also moved to the Viale Felice Cavallotti. Distance remains roughly the same, up 3 km to 255 km total.
Wielerflits: Lotto Dstny is in turmoil
The Lotto Dstny ProTeam faces significant financial headwinds, as well as management issues, that are complicating its immediate future, reports Wielerflits. The feature story says that budget issues arising from the departure of co-title sponsor Dstny have resulted in severe spending cuts, with riders forced to pay for their own travel and a number of agreed-on contracts for 2025 left unsigned.
After last year’s messy breakup with longtime bike sponsor Ridley, the team appears to also be on the outs with clothing supplier Vermarc, which has outfitted Lotto in its various iterations for 20 years. Team manager Stephane Heulot is blamed for a difficult team culture due to his private and public criticism of riders like Caleb Ewan, who departed after last season. In a statement to Wielerflits, the team largely did not contest the reporting, but said it “regrets that internal issues or even rumors come out in this way.”
It’s not all bad news; even amid the turmoil, Lotto Dstny had a strong season, with 22 victories highlighted by Victor Campenaerts’ Tour de France stage win, and the emergence of young talents Maxim Van Gils and Lennert Van Eetvelt. The team is in line to return to the WorldTour after the relegation cycle closes after next season and keeps Van Gils, Van Eetvelt, and Arnaud De Lie. But in the short term the team is looking at a reduced roster and smaller race calendar, and loses significant veteran talent with Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates), Harm Vanhoucke (Q36.5), Andreas Kron (Uno-X Mobility) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal-Quick Step) all departing, plus the retirements of Thomas De Gendt and Jacopo Guarnieri. [Wielerflits]
Gravel Burn: a new South African gravel stage race
An ambitious new gravel stage race will debut next October in South Africa. The seven-stage, 850 km event – with 11,000 meters of elevation gain – is the creation of Kevin Vermaak, best known as the founder of the highly regarded Cape Epic mountain bike stage race (Vermaak sold the Epic to Ironman in 2017). He’s working with Richard McMartin and Steve Thomas, the former logistics lead and course designer for the Epic, respectively. The route will start in the coastal forests around Knysna and head north into the semi-desert Great Karoo region before turning south again to finish at the Shamwari Private Game Reserve. Riders will stay in camps overnight between stages.
The race will be open to pro and amateur riders, with solo entries only (as opposed to the Epic’s two-rider teams). Vermaak said he is “not recreating the Cape Epic – it will be an entirely different type of event at a different time of the year,” but he does hope to achieve a similar level of organizational efficiency. Registration opens December 3, and the event is scheduled to start October 26. Entry fees are not yet posted. [Gravel Burn]
Quick Hits
Robin Goomes backflipped her way to a win in the first-ever women’s Red Bull Rampage on Thursday evening, narrowly beating Georgia Astle and Casey Brown … Despite several months of rising sales, Giant Bicycles’ year-over-year revenue is down 4.8% in September, another signal of the bike industry’s struggles after the pandemic-era boom … US advocacy and trade group People for Bikes is now offering individual “Foundation” memberships … Teravail released its first performance road tire line, the Telegraph (US$70-$75). The tubeless ready tires come in two casings and three widths, starting at 28 mm.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
- 2025 Life Time Grand Prix calendar is out
- Enve revamps M series wheels
- St. Michel continues, but without its leader
- Daysaver is in the mini pump game
- Quick Hits
2025 Life Time Grand Prix calendar announced
Moderate changes are in line for gravel racing’s most prestigious series, the Life Time Grand Prix. The promoters announced the 2025 schedule and several other details, and the broad gist is that both the calendar and the field will modestly shrink in size as the series enters its fourth season.
One new event – the Little Sugar MTB – will join the series, while two others – Crusher in the Tushar and the Rad Dirt Fest – won’t be part of the lineup in 2025. That reduces the series from seven to six events, with three gravel and mountain bike races each, as the opening Sea Otter round will switch from the Fuego XL MTB event to a gravel race. The Fuego XL will still happen, and is a Leadville 100 qualifier for age-group athletes, but will not be part of the Grand Prix.
Also slimming down is the slate of contenders for the full series. Lineups will be announced on November 7, but for 2025 the roster reduces from 30 men and 30 women to 25 each. Three of those spots will be held back for wildcard entries, with candidates awarded spots in the full series after May’s Unbound Gravel race.
The full series:
- Sea Otter Classic Gravel – Monterey, California – Friday, April 11
- Unbound Gravel – Emporia, Kansas – Saturday, May 31
- Leadville 100 MTB – Leadville, Colorado – Saturday, August 9
- Chequamegon MTB – Chequamegon, Wisconsin – Saturday, September 13
- Little Sugar MTB – Bentonville, Arkansas, Sunday, October 12
- Big Sugar Gravel – Bentonville, Arkansas, Saturday, October 18
Enve revamps its M series mountain bike wheels
Enve’s well-regarded M series of carbon fiber wheels is now 18 years old and for the fifth generation, the brand on Thursday unveiled a completely new line spanning four wheel options from XC to DH. The wheels feature new cross sections for both front and rear-specific rim shapes and roll on Enve’s InnerDrive hubs. Price drops to US$2,300 per wheelset, a $250 decrease.
The wheels are the M5 Pro (XC); M6 (trail); M8 (Enduro/E-MTB); and M9 Pro (Enduro/DH). In keeping with trends, the M5 Pro will be offered in 29″ size only, while the other three will have both 29″ and 27.5″ sizes, including “mullet” mixed-size options. Enve does extensive internal impact testing and says all of its new wheels offer significant improvement compared to Gen 4 wheels. All wheels are backed by its five-year warranty, a pro-rated program that offers free replacement in the first three years and discounted replacement in years four and five. [Enve]
| Enve M Series specs | M5 Pro | M6 |
| Internal width | 29 mm (front) / 27 mm (rear) | 32 mm (front) / 29 mm (rear) |
| Depth | 20 mm (front and rear) | 20.8 mm (front and rear) |
| Bead width | 4.2 mm (front) / 4.7 mm (rear) | 4.2 mm (front) / 4.7 mm (rear) |
| Weight (pair) | 1,341 grams | 1,589 grams |
St-Michel team moves forward, loses Bunel
After rumors that it was in financial difficulty and might close, the Continental women’s team St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93 announced it will continue and apply for the new, second-division Pro Team status for 2025. The team currently has 10 riders under contract with major roster turnover: eight are new additions. But the news isn’t all good: the team will lose its standout rider, 20-year-old Marion Bunel, who will join Visma-Lease a Bike with a three-year deal. Bunel won two stages and the overall at the women’s Tour de l’Avenir and was 17th overall in her first outing in the Tour de France Femmes.
Daysaver joins the mini pump parade
Swiss-based brand Daysaver, best known for its Essential8 multitool, is expanding into high-end mini pumps aimed at off-road riders. The pumps feature a novel head design that can be used directly on the valve or with an extension hose. Like mini pumps from OneUp and WolfTooth, Daysaver’s Incredible (that’s the name) pump range can also be used to stash the company’s latest multi-tools within. It will launch on Kickstarter. [Kickstarter]
Quick Hits
Amid discussions of a 2025 role of some kind with Astana Qazaqstan, Mark Cavendish’s final “race” of the season will reportedly be the Singapore Criterium … Q36.5 will close its Continental team, not great news for African cycling ahead of next year’s Road World Championships in Rwanda … Through a mix of injuries and illness, Canyon-SRAM is now down to just one rider at the Simac Ladies Tour as Zoe Bäckstedt is defending her lead without any teammates … Primož Roglič won’t race Il Lombardia, ending his season after DNFs at his last two races.
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
- Castrillo and Torres sign long-term deals
- SBT GRVL approved for 2025
- New Lapierre gravel bike officially announced
- Shop claims it’s banned from Shimano’s crank-recall program
- Quick Hits
Nobody expects the Spanish acquisition
Two major young Spanish talents have signed with new teams for next year. The Pablo Castrillo sweepstakes is over, with the double stage winner from last month’s Vuelta a España signing a three-year deal with Movistar. Castrillo, who rode this season for Equipo Kern Pharma, had been strongly linked with Ineos Grenadiers initially, but Movistar will keep the 23-year-old breakout climbing talent at home.
Even that impressive three-year deal pales, however, in comparison to the contract that young prospect Pablo Torres just signed. The 18-year-old climbing sensation, who won two stages of the Tour de l’Avenir and almost took the overall from Joseph Blackmore, will step up from UAE Team Emirates’ Gen Z development team to the WorldTour outfit in 2024, and has reportedly signed a contract through the 2030 season. It’s the latest in a trend of long-term deals for touted young prospects as WorldTour teams look to lock up top talent, in particular young riders.
SBT GRVL gets permit approval for 2025
It was touch and go, but the popular SBT GRVL race in Steamboat Springs, Colorado was officially approved for its 2025 edition at a Tuesday meeting of the Routt County Commissioners. The event, which grew to roughly 3,000 participants last year, has dealt with tensions over its impact on the rural Colorado community, in particular ranchers, as well as safety concerns voiced by law enforcement.
After working on short notice to present a plan to address all that, promoters won approval for the 2025 event, with a different, two-day format comprising a non-competitive ride one day and a race the next, fewer entrants, and a date shift to late June.
Lapierre’s new gravel bike is official
After a new carbon gravel bike from Lapierre was spotted at the Dutch National Gravel Champs and the Gravel World Championships, the French bike brand makes it official, unveiling the Crosshill CF, its first carbon gravel bike, designed for both adventure riding and racing.
Drawing inspiration from Lapierre’s Prorace CF cross-country MTB, the new bike incorporates the brand’s 3D Tubular concept, separating the seat stays from the seat tube to improve flexibility and absorb vibrations. The geometry is also vastly revamped but tire clearance remains at 45 mm, slightly below the trend for wider tires in even fast-gravel bikes. The Crosshill CF comes in seven build options with both rigid and suspension forks, and prices start at €2,800. The top-end Crosshill CF 8.0 S features a Rock Shox Rudy 30 mm suspension fork, SRAM Reverb AXS dropper and SRAM Force AXS groupset and is priced at €7,000. [Lapierre]
UK shop claims it was “banned” from Shimano’s crank-recall inspection program
Mapdec Cycle Works, a British bike shop, claims that it has been banned from inspecting Shimano crankarms in the Japanese component giant’s sweeping quasi-recall of Dura-Ace and Ultegra Hollowtech II crankarms, reports Road.cc. Shimano announced the replacement plan last year after years of reports of 10- and 11-speed crankarms suffering corrosion-based failure. The highly unusual recall process from Shimano relies on shops inspecting customers’ crankarms in a pre-screening program.
Mapdec claims that it incurred the wrath of Shimano and its UK distributor, Madison in response to a social media post where the shop said it was simply passing on all customer crankarms as failed. That, as we reported last year, was a common tactic for shops, which were wary of getting caught in a liability trap if a crankarm they inspected and passed later failed. But Mapdec says Madison told them it had been added to a list of shops that Shimano would no longer work with on the recalls. Madison declined to respond to the claims when approached for comment. [Road.cc}
Quick Hits
It’s not quite a six-year contract, but Thalita de Jong will move from Lotto Dstny to Human Powered Health on a two-year deal … Kasper Asgreen moves on from the only WorldTour team he’s ever known, swapping Soudal-Quick Step for a one-year ride on EF Education-EasyPost … Pegoretti continues to adapt to a disc-brake world with a disc version of its beloved Marcelo frameset … Chloe Dygert abruptly DNS’d stage two of the Simac Ladies Tour after breaking her nose in a freak accident bumping into a door.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
- Men’s Tre Valli Varesine cancelled, but not women’s
- Rouvy debuts Route Creator feature
- Strava disallows external links
- Quick Hits
Torrential rain hits Tre Valli Varesine
Despite forecasts in recent days warning of heavy rainfall for today’s Tre Valli Varesine men’s and women’s races, both events started as planned, if only to diverge from there. Two laps of the finishing circuit for the men were initially removed, and just a third of the way in, the race was cancelled outright as riders came together to protest the conditions.
The women, however, did not get such benefit. After one lap of the finish circuit was removed, the women raced in abysmal conditions, with Cedrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT) soloing to victory over a two-rider chase of Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) and Movistar’s Liane Lippert. Just 35 riders out of more than 120 entrants finished the race.
Among the difficulties were ones not strictly due to the weather, including unauthorized cars accessing the course at the same time groups of riders were passing. Brodie Chapman of Lidl-Trek posted later on X that numerous riders had tried to appeal to the race direction for action but went unheard.
Rouvy’s Route Creator goes live
First seen at Eurobike back in July, Rouvy today officially launched its new Route Creator, a tool that allows users to create and customize their own virtual cycling routes, bringing real-life routes to the indoor platform.
The Route Creator takes GPS-enabled video (that the user record with an action camera) and converts it into augmented-reality routes where users can then ride the course, feel the gradient changes and interact with other riders. With the route and video added, users can add a variety of in-route features using 3D models like other riders, start/finish gates, fans, banners, and even timed segments along the route. Routes are stored either publicly or privately on Rouvy’s servers for availability on demand.
The Route Creator is currently available in beta to waiting list subscribers. Escape Collective is on that beta list and has so far recorded and uploaded a ride we will use for a deeper review of the new feature in the coming weeks. [Rouvy]
Strava suspends external links
Strava users noticed late last week that they are unable to add external URL links to activities and posts, and that outbound links in older posts have been removed, reports Road.cc. In a post on its Community Hub, Strava said that the action was in response to “a sustained campaign of inauthentic content posted to the platform” that required it to “filter” links in order to “protect the community from harmful and violating content.”
That action by Strava has several practical effects for users, who can (for now at least) no longer post links to group ride information, event results, or any other outside content. Influencers can’t make paid posts linking to sponsors, and even some past campaign posts have been removed. It’s unknown how long the prohibition on links will last – Strava’s Community Hub post says only that it does not have a timeline for when link filtering will end – or if old links will be restored if it does. When asked for comment, Strava told Road.cc it had no further information to share beyond its Community Hub post. [Road.cc]
Quick Hits
While Demi Vollering-to-FDJ is the final big shoe to drop in the women’s transfer market this year, her SD Worx-Protime director Lars Boom is already packing his bags to move to the French team … Elynor Bäckstedt will up sticks from Lidl-Trek and follow Elisa Longo Borghini and Brodie Chapman to UAE Team ADQ next year … More carbon gravel wheels launched this week: Mavic’s Allroad SL Carbon features a 42 mm depth and 25 mm internal width on a Tubeless Straight Side (hookless) rim. The wheelset is claimed to weigh 1,550 g per pair and will retail for €1,499 … Framebuilder Irio Tommasini, founder of his eponymous Tommasini Bicycles brand, has died at 91.
Monday, October 7, 2024
- Vos wins UCI Gravel World Championships on Gravaa
- UCI tinkers with 3 km crash rule
- Vista Outdoor will sell its bike brands
- Michael Mørkøv hangs up the wheels
- Quick Hits
After Vos’ gravel worlds win, Gravaa system is ready for launch
Marianne Vos won her 14th Elite World Championship in her fourth discipline at Saturday’s UCI Gravel World Championship, outsprinting Road World Champion Lotte Kopecky. Among the tools in her formidable arsenal: Gravaa’s KAPS hub-based tire pressure management system. And straight on the heels of that success, Gravaa is now offering wheelsets for pre-order.
The Gravaa system has been in development for several years. Vos’ male Visma-Lease a Bike counterparts trialled it in several races in 2023, including Paris-Roubaix, but the technology hadn’t been seen in road competition since. But Saturday it popped up on Vos’ Cervelo, and Kopecky at least wondered if it might have been the difference, telling Het Nieuwsblad that she heard Vos activating it regularly and wondered how many watts it was saving. The impact might have been even more direct than that, with Wielerflits reporting that the system saved Vos when she had a flat tire, re-inflating it to give the sealant time to plug the hole.
Gravaa now features two variations of the wheelset for pre-order on its site: one with DT Swiss’ GRC 500 rims (€4,398) and one with Reserve’s 40|44 rims (€3,898), which is what Vos rode on Saturday. Gravaa says that the system – which like a dynamo-powered light runs on power generated as the wheels turn – takes only 4 watts to power when turned on and will take roughly a minute to add .6 bar (9 psi) to a 700x40c tire. [Gravaa]
UCI may tweak 3 km rule for solo crashes
The UCI will reportedly adjust its rule that gives riders who crash inside 3 km to go on most stages the same time as the group they were with, reports DirectVelo. From January 1, 2025 any rider in a group who crashes by themselves (and not due to factors like other riders or fan interference) won’t be credited with the same finishing time.
If in place this year, that would have led to a different outcome for Primož Roglič on stage 11 of the Tour de France. The Slovenian was in a two-rider chase group with Remco Evenepoel when he slid out on a downhill switchback inside 3 km to the finish. Despite stage 11 being a difficult mountain stage with 4,000 meters of climbing, because the finish in Le Lioran came after a short descent, the 3 km rule was in force. [DirectVelo]
Vista Outdoor sells outdoor and bike brands
Vista Outdoor has announced plans to sell its Revelyst division, which includes Giro and Bell helmets, Fox Racing, CamelBak and Blackburn, among other brands, to private equity group Strategic Value Partners for US$1.125 billion. The sale, announced over the weekend, is contingent on plans to sell the other part of Vista’s business, the firearms-focused Kinetic Group, to the Czechoslovak Group.
Vista Outdoor split the company into two divisions and renamed its outdoor group Revelyst almost exactly one year ago, and has worked to sell both since. The sale of the Kinetic Group has struggled to win shareholder approval, and CSG has reportedly upped its offer to US$2.25 billion. Strategic Value Partners, a global investment firm, claims it has assets worth $18 billion across a wide variety of industries including toll roads, building materials and commercial real estate. This will be SVP’s first investment in outdoor sports. [Business Wire]
Michael Mørkøv climbs off
Among the riders to hang up the wheels after this season is one accounted among the greatest leadout men of the past 30 years: Michael Mørkøv rode the last race of his 16-year WorldTour career on Sunday at Paris-Tours. The Danish rider turned pro in 2009 on the Saxo Bank team and counts three national road titles and a Vuelta stage among his own palmarés.
Mørkøv was even more accomplished on the track, where he was a prolifically successful World Cup and Six Days racer. He also won four World Championships (three Madison, one Team Pursuit) and a gold medal in the Madison at the Tokyo Olympic Games (with Lasse Norman Hansen). But Mørkøv is best-known among road cyclists for his leadout capabilities, in particular in the latter half of his career with Quick Step and Astana, where he piloted sprinters like Elia Viviani, Fernando Gaviria, Fabio Jakobsen, Sam Bennett, Tim Merlier and Mark Cavendish to many victories.
Mørkøv was part of Astana’s team for Cavendish’s record-setting 35th stage win this year, and while he didn’t play his usual last-man leadout role on that stage, he was essential to Cavendish’s remarkable 2021 Tour campaign where the Manxman won four stages and put himself on the doorstep of the record. On the fourth and final victory that tied Cavendish with Eddy Merckx on 34 Tour stage wins, Mørkøv’s leadout was so perfect he finished second, beating Jasper Philipsen. Mørkøv will become a national team coach with Denmark in 2025.
Quick Hits
Danny MacAskill has a new video out, with the Scottish trials rider making creative hay out of the headquarters of one of his sponsors, adidas … Mathieu van der Poel has his eyes on the World Mountain Bike Championship next season, but says he is not sure when or if he will race cyclocross this year … Gorka Izagirre is also retiring.
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