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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle! Escape Collective’s news digest.
We are back, having replaced the ‘Don’t Open The Fridge!’ doping news with trinkets such as Primož Roglič’s podium antics, Mads Pedersen drinking a big ol’ beer, Intermarché-Circus-Wanty weirdly having the best Twitter presence in the WorldTour, and a Continental rider taking bonus seconds in order to shout out his YouTube channel.
The only way to get through life is to occasionally put your hands over your ears and focus on shiny distracting things. If anyone’s found another coping strategy we’d love to hear from you.
Anyway, don’t look up (or down) and on with the show!
Telemark this one down to being out of practice
Without consulting your preferred cycling statistics compendium, there was another way to tell that the Vuelta a Burgos was Primož Roglič’s first race back since his victorious Giro d’Italia: he was out of practice with his trademark telemark podium celebration. The Slovenian wobbled while on the podium for the fifth and final stage where he both took the day’s honours and overall classification. A statement of intent ahead of the Vuelta a España.
While Roglič may have fallen down the pecking order at Jumbo-Visma with the emergence of Jonas Vingegaard, some stats shared by Twitter genius @ammattipyoraily show just how successful the Slovenian has been already in his career despite beginning ‘late’ and only joining Continental-level Adria Mobil at the age of 23 before really getting going at Jumbo-Visma at 26 in 2016.
Not only is Roglič the seventh active pro to reach 75 professional victories, he is also the only non-sprinter: Mark Cavendish (162), Peter Sagan (121),Arnaud Demare (93), Alexander Kristoff (88), Elia Viviani (87), Edvald Boasson Hagen (81).
Alongside this, @StatsOnCycling totted up the number of leader’s jerseys worn by active pros, and Roglič tops the list with 125, followed by Chris Froome (83), Tadej Pogačar (64), Remco Evenepoel (61), Geraint Thomas (46), Jonas Vingegaard (44), Julian Alaphilippe (43), Simon Yates (36) and Rohan Dennis (35).
Assuming he was doing the telemark since or near the beginning of his winning days, he’ll likely be getting close to doing as many telemarks on a cycling podium as he did during his competition days as a ski jumper.
Mads Beerdersen
In further podium news, Spin Cycle is obviously all about podium beers. In the spring, we are happy to settle with the 0.25cl frothies available for the victorious three at Amstel Gold Race (and it’s even better when Tadej Pogačar downs the whole thing, particularly if Ben Healy is looking on full of admiration).
But as we get out the other side of the Classics and through the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, the beers can really start to flow as the peloton has one eye on the off-season.
Take the Bemer Cyclassics, where the podium is gifted gigantic Erdingers, so large and European that either you have to stick a flake in the top and treat it like an ice cream or you have to delve a paw inside the glass and flick away the metric tonne of foam sitting atop the amber nectar.
Of course, these novelty-sized beverages are too large for even the likes of Mads Pedersen (who won the race in spectacular fashion) to completely quaff, but the good news is the Primus Classic (renamed the Super 8 Classic this year) is only three weeks away, where a litre of beer is awarded to the victor.
A much more manageable quantity to have a go at, as Jordi Meeus did last year. Now we just have to hope this year’s winner has what it takes.
We will bring you more on this story as it develops.
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Life on the Continental circuit can be tough. The salaries of WorldTour stars are merely a pipe dream and most riders will only be semi-professional racers.
Second jobs are therefore often required, and Team Coop-Repsol’s 22-year-old Anton Stensby found a great way to combine his various hustles into one at the Arctic Race of Norway, nipping ahead from the breakaway to nab some blue jersey points, knowing the motorbike camera would then pull up alongside and giving him the opportunity to tell people to subscribe to his YouTube channel.
Feed Zone ?
?? Fabio Jakobsen won two stages of the Tour of Denmark while Mads Pedersen took the final stage 5 time trial to secure the overall victory.
? EF Education-TIBCO-SVB will sadly disappear from the peloton next year due to a lack of sponsors, owner Linda Jackson confirmed this to CyclingNews. The unaffiliated EF Education-Cannondale, which is instead under the same structure as the men’s WorldTour set-up, will begin at Continental level.
? Stephen Williams (Israel – Premier Tech) won the ‘tough and bleak hill ride’ of stage three (as described by Wielerflits) at the Arctic Race of Norway en route to claiming the overall title.
? James Whelan took his first pro victory on a tough mountain stage of the Volta a Portugal, racing for the Portuguese Glassdrive Q8 Anicolor team.
? Marianne Vos and Niki Terpstra were victorious at the UCI Gravel World Series in Halmstad, Sweden.
✈️ In great news for the environment, Mathieu van der Poel took a private jet home from Malaga for the Etten-Leur criterium in order to not further cut his holiday as short as he would have had to if flying commercial.
?? EF Education-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz is not fit in time for the start of the Vuelta a España so will be missing from the start sheet.
? Having not raced so far yet this year, Sarah Gigante will make her long-awaited comeback at the Tour of Scandinavia this week.
? 22-year-old Carlos Rodríguez looked almost certain to be on his way to Movistar, but Gazzetta dello Sport reckon there’s a good chance he’ll remain at Ineos Grenadiers. This worrying video showing his Tour de France crash has also been uncovered online.
? Following a thigh infection, Elisa Longo Borghini is back on her bike and could race again before the end of the season.
? The top favourite for the Tour de l’Avenir, Jumbo-Visma Development Team’s Johannes Staune-Mittet, was forced to abandon after a big crash on the first stage.
?? The organisers of the Tour of Turkey say that Mark Cavendish will be at their race in October.
? EOLO-Kometa’s Lorenzo Fortunato will step up to the WorldTour with Astana-Qazaqstan next year.
? Lidl-Trek are still careering down the middle aisle and filling their trolley with as many available riders as they can get their multi-coloured mitts on – Ryan Gibbons is the latest arrival from UAE Team Emirates.
Cycling on TV ?
Tuesday 22nd
Tour de l’Avenir, Stage 3
GCN+ (09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/23:00-01:00 AEST)
Wednesday 23rd
Tour de l’Avenir, Stage 4
GCN+ (08:00-10:00 ET/13:00-15:00 BST/22:00-00:00 AEST)
Renewi Tour, Stage 1
GCN+ (09:00-11:30 ET/14:00-16:30 BST/23:00-01:30 AEST)
Tour of Scandinavia, Stage 1
GCN+ (10:00-12:15 ET/15:00-17:15 BST/00:00-02:15 AEST)
Deutschland Tour, Prologue
GCN+ (10:05-12:05 ET/15:05-17:05 BST/00:05-02:05 AEST)
Thursday 24th
Tour de l’Avenir, Stage 5
GCN+ (08:15-10:15 ET/13:15-15:15 BST/22:15-00:15 AEST)
Renewi Tour, Stage 2
GCN+ (09:00-11:30 ET/14:00-16:30 BST/23:00-01:30 AEST)
Tour of Scandinavia, Stage 2
GCN+ (10:00-12:15 ET/15:00-17:15 BST/00:00-02:15 AEST)
Deutschland Tour, Stage 1
GCN+ (09:05-11:05 ET/14:05-16:05 BST/23:05-01:05 AEST)
Vuelta a España – Team Presentation
GCN+ (14:00-15:10 ET/19:00-20:10 BST/04:00-05:10 AEST)
Friday 25th
Tour of Scandinavia, Stage 3
GCN+ (06:30-08:45 ET/11:30-13:45 BST/20:30-22:45 AEST)
Tour de l’Avenir, Stage 6
GCN+ (08:30-10:30 ET/13:30-15:30 BST/22:30-00:30 AEST)
Renewi Tour, Stage 3
GCN+ (09:00-11:30 ET/14:00-16:30 BST/23:00-01:30 AEST)
Deutschland Tour, Stage 2
GCN+ (09:05-11:05 ET/14:05-16:05 BST/23:05-01:05 AEST)
Mountain bike
UCI MTB World Cup – Pal Arinsal, Downhill Junior Women
GCN+ (06:40-07:10 ET/11:40-12:10 BST/20:40-21:10 AEST)
UCI MTB World Cup – Pal Arinsal, Downhill Junior Men
GCN+ (07:10-08:15 ET/12:10-13:15 BST/21:10-22:15 AEST)
UCI MTB World Cup – Pal Arinsal, XCC Elite Women
GCN+ (11:30-12:30 ET/16:30-17:30 BST/01:30-02:30 AEST)
UCI MTB World Cup – Pal Arinsal, XCC Elite Men
GCN+ (12:30-13:15 ET/17:30-18:15 BST/02:30-03:15 AEST)
? Best fake album of the week ?
Maybe it’s just us, but it’s giving big Prodigy ‘Fat of the Land’ vibes.
? When one Vuelta team says what everyone else is thinking quote of the week ?
“Ayoo chill guys”
Sending three-time Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič to the Spanish Grand Tour would be enough to jangle the nerves of the rest of the GC hopefuls (and anyone else hoping to win a stage featuring an uphill sprint finish) but in their quest to seal all three Grand Tours in 2023, Jumbo-Visma will also take Jonas Vingegaard to the Vuelta.
Alongside their two leaders, as the Dutch team announced their eight-man squad, Sepp Kuss will ride his third Grand Tour this year (and hopefully be rewarded with a pay rise in the off-season) while further muscle in the shape of Wilco Kelderman, Dylan van Baarle, and Jan Tratnik form an imperiously strong line-up for what is usually supposed to be the most fun and relaxed Grand Tour of the three.
For Remco Evenepoel, the challenge of a title defence has now doubled, and even UAE Team Emirates’ twin attack of Juan Ayuso and João Almeida pales in comparison, while Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas may just have to hold on and hope for the best.
Intermarché-Circus-Wanty, however, aren’t prepared to just go quietly into three weeks of getting dropped by the Jumbo train day-after-day. With a very un-Belgian “Ayoo chill guys”, they succinctly summed up how the rest of the teams in the 2023 WorldTour must be feeling.
And finally…
Not many F1 drivers, or any sportspeople for that matter, spend their weekends at gravel races. Even fewer do it dressed as characters from the Simpsons.
? Send us yer laundry pics ?
“Here’s a laundromat photo from Leadville, Colorado,” Jeff Dieffenbach writes, having supplied today’s laundromat for the featured image backdrop. “Shot a few days before the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race. Rumor is, one of those washers/dryers contains Caley’s laundry.”
As always, we are accepting your own 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 …
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