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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Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
Opening Weekend is almost here! For traditionalists it's the true start of the cycling season. But if that were true, then what about all of the nonsense we've experienced so far already in 2025?
Before that, we've got whoever made Visma-Lease a Bike's kits mistakenly thinking their products are tougher than the sun (but maybe the sun isn't tougher than the team's saddles ...), Remco Evenepoel with a new look, the latest from the Ineos hellscape and a new celebrity cyclist to add to that particular pantheon.
The dog's (bit my) bollocks 🐶
In one of the most wince-inducing cyclist injuries of 2024, if not all-time, Q36.5's Frederik Frison revealed he was bitten by a dog in his private parts last spring.
To make matters worse, later in May at the Four Days of Dunkirk he crashed and broke several bones. Fortunately, he's healed up and back in action in 2025. "I have to say that things are going well," Frison, clearly an optimist, said to Wielerflits during an episode of their Alpecin Barbershop interview series.
"Of course it's not like before, there's a scar. But it doesn't bother me on the bike or in everyday life. That's the most important thing. It is something incredibly annoying and people make jokes about it. Me too. That should be allowed, I can really laugh about it. But as a rider and a person it is a very annoying injury. It would have been better not to have experienced it. But what I'm saying is, they're still animals."
Wout van Art on your leg from the sun 🧴
Hopefully this image won't provide you with a jump scare as you drink your morning coffee, but it looks like the white lettering on the Visma-Lease a Bike shorts doesn't provide very good UV protection at all, judging by this photo Wout van Aert uploaded to Instagram.
Maybe he was caught out by the wintry sun in the Algarve? Unless this is Richard Plugge's latest sponsor activation effort, probably slightly better vibes than selling his crashed Vuelta jersey? That's a tough call.
Speaking of crashes, that scar tissue on his knee is so unbelievably gnarly? Imagine he can get his children to behave just by threatening them with a peak at it. I know it would work on me. Finally, judging by the size of his thigh muscles we reckon Van Aert could leg press a car.
A Strava average of .438 ⚾
Maybe we're the last people in cycling to find out about this, but turns out one of the greatest baseball players ever, Barry Bonds, is also a monster cyclist.
Having averaged one ride nearly every couple of days since 2010, he's clocked up 86,000 total kilometres, and also jointly holds a 31-second Strava segment just across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco that has over 121,000 attempts.
Imagine not only being able to say you hold the fastest time on a popular segment, but that you also share it with Giants legend Barry Bonds. Let's just not make any jokes about the easy link between cycling and steroids in the comments people, come on, we're better than that ...
Thanks to Bernie Langer for sending this one in, who we're presuming is not two-times Masters winner and golfing legend Bernhard Langer ...
Feed Zone 🥖
😮 A banger of a stat from Bence Czigelmajer: Jonas Vingegaard is the only rider in the world who over the past three years has started the season in a stage race where the first day was either cancelled or didn't count towards the general classification. 2023, O Gran Camiño: cancelled because of snowfall. 2024, O Gran Camiño: cancelled due to strong winds (although UCI points were awarded to the top three). 2025, Volta ao Algarve: cancelled because 90% of the peloton sprinted in the wrong place.
⚽ Bahrain-Victorious (the sports investment arm that gives its name to the cycling team) has secured a sponsorship deal and the naming rights to the stadium of La Liga 2 club Córdoba CF. We can imagine Fred Wright as a Declan Rice workhorse marshalling the midfield, Matej Mohorič the mercurial winger, Jack Haig in net, and of course Pello Bilbao is the impish Spanish false 9.
📺 Sneaking in a rare piece of self-promotion, this week we did our annual men's WorldTour draft and if you are so inclined you can see all of the Escape Collective crew's faces on our YouTube version of the podcast, which is something we've been trying out recently.
🍊 Rabobank is a cycling sponsor once again, returning to Visma-Lease a Bike to take up a place on their sleeve from July. Dane Cash has more on this story here.
⏱️ The 2026 Tour de France will begin with a team time trial in Barcelona.
🙏 Former NBC Tour de France broadcaster Al Trautwig has sadly passed away due to complications from cancer at the age of 68.
Cycling on TV 📺
Saturday March 1st
Faun-Ardèche Classic
(07:00-09:00 ET/12:00-14:00 GMT/23:00-01:00 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - Men
(07:00-10:15 ET/12:00-15:15 GMT/23:00-02:15 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸🇨🇦FloBikes, 🇦🇺Staylive
O Gran Camiño - Stage 4
(09:30-11:30 ET/14:30-16:30 GMT/01:30-03:30 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - Women
(10:15-12:30 ET/15:15-17:30 GMT/02:15-04:30 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸🇨🇦FloBikes, 🇦🇺Staylive
Sunday March 2nd
Faun-Drôme Classic
(07:00-09:00 ET/12:00-14:00 GMT/23:00-01:00 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes
O Gran Camiño - Stage 5
(07:30-09:30 ET/12:30-14:30 GMT/23:30-01:30 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes
Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne
(08:30-11:00 ET/13:30-16:00 GMT/00:30-03:00 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes, 🇦🇺Staylive
Monday March 3rd
No live racing ...
Ineos' foolproof way to win hearts and minds 💂♀️
We often give Ineos Grenadiers a hard time, not necessarily without reason, and we've heard through the grapevine that we are now unsurprisingly blacklisted, which makes sense after we've tried and failed to get a text back over the past few months.
Turns out this is a lucky twist of fate, as the British team's latest method of dealing with media who are writing about them in ways they don't like is to light up their phone telling them they are both shit and unprofessional. Absolutely charming!
Comfortable seating of the week 😮💨
Take a moment to realise just how comfortably you are currently sitting before looking at what some of the Visma-Lease a Bike riders are paid to sit on.
Never thought I'd say this, but I think it's time to pray for some select Danish and Belgian butt cheeks.
After consulting our resident saddle expert Ronan McLaughlin, he explained these saddles aren't necessarily anything new, and in fact they were sat on (as much as that is possible) by Tadej Pogačar last year, with Visma and UAE since swapping saddle sponsors, and so our praying should have actually started in 2024. No wonder Pogačar was so fast, he was desperate for a proper sit down.
I'm reliably informed Ronan has a full explainer on these saddles incoming on the website, so keep you eyes peeled and your butt puckered for that.
And finally ...
When Remco Evenepoel rocked up to the Soudal-Quick Step recon for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, he quickly had to address two lines of questioning.
Firstly, no, he wouldn't be racing Opening Weekend, he's just itching to be back in the fold post-injury and so literally went along for the ride.
Secondly, will he be keeping the moustache and beard he was sporting betwixt golden collar and helmet?
"That was for the film [premiere of 'Patsers', a tale of the Antwerp drug world]. I'll take it off when it's time to race again," he told Sporza, apparently with a wink. Where do we sign the petition for him to keep it? There's a real dearth of facial hair in the peloton currently.
Corrections Corner 🌶️
Yes, very sorry, didn't realise our readership was filled with sauce experts, because apparently Oscar Onley had smothered his rice and boiled eggs with Sriracha hot sauce rather than ketchup. Although one person thought maybe he was trying to send a hidden message in the pattern the Scottish rider had decorated his plate with. We are still investigating this possibility.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
"This pic was taken in Williston, FL, on my way to a 67 -mile gravel ride through the Goethe State Forest in Bronson, FL," writes in Brian Knight, attaching today's featured laundromat. "Didn’t have time to go in but the name of laundromat just struck me as perfect for you."
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 Bernie Langer, Chris Marshall-Bell, Kit Nicholson, Ronan McLaughlin and Brian Knight 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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