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Welcome back to Spin Cycle! Escape Collective’s news digest.
The Tours are now over. The yellow jerseys have been decided and it’s back to counting down the days until you can once again experience the warm, fuzzy feeling that only July bike racing in France can provide.
So today we’ll tie up a few loose ends from the Tours and look ahead toward the final blockbuster events in the season. We’re not exactly convinced on this mega Worlds sandwich between the Tours and the Vuelta a España, but we’ll reserve judgement. After all, it’s better than nothing, and certainly better than a Glasgow kiss.
That takes the biscuit
As noted Big Fans™ of proper commercial sponsors in cycling, we were over the moon when we saw the biscuit-based wheelery on display at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift time trial.
The biscuits in question are from St Michel, who are co-title sponsors of the St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93 squad. A great ? brand ✌️ activation ? for one of the smaller teams at the Tour, you may think. Unfortunately, a cursory glance of the St Michel Wikipedia page shows that the biscuit company, despite being charged with the sole mission of making biscuits, have managed to be big-time racists. And we mean big-time. Admittedly, it was back in the 90s. The 1990s that is, so they should have known that ‘human zoos’ are not a thing that should exist, or that they shouldn’t have a biscuit named after a slur. That is the extent of their ‘controversies’ tab on Wikipedia, so it seems they may have learnt from their huge mistakes…but still.
So, on the face of it we have a whimsical and lighthearted story that actually belies the true evils of the world, and more specifically, marketing. Instead, let’s see some Bora-Hansgrohe tap-shaped handlebars, and if they could be functional that would help wash the bad taste of the St Michel biscuits from our mouths…
The fighting talk begins
We would argue the one thing missing from the Tadej Pogačar/Jonas Vingegaard duopoly is some good old fashioned fighting talk. Step forward Remco Evenepoel, who continues to talk the talk and then walk the walk despite having to carry the weight of Belgium on his slender shoulders.
On a weekend where he showed his form by winning yet another edition of the Clásica San Sebastián, Evenepoel also had time to disparage the claims he’s looking for the exit door at Soudal Quick-Step as well as digest the news that Jonas Vingegaard will join him on the start-line of the Vuelta a España. And that was before Tadej Pogačar had confirmed he will be at the Worlds road race this coming weekend.
Ahead of these much-anticipated contests, and amidst the ongoing talk that Evenepoel is the one current rider who can hope to match up to Vingegaard and Pogačar, the Belgian was asked how far he is from their level. And Evenepoel provided the best response possible: a vague numbers-based claim.
“That is a very difficult question,” he answered. “We will never know, maybe after next year’s Tour [which should be Evenepoel’s debut at the race]. But if I can believe all the calculations that have been made on the basis of the watts per kilo, then Tadej and Jonas have shown figures in the Tour that I have already achieved. Although they did, of course, [do those numbers] day after day.”
A pleasantly, only slightly disguised piece of fighting talk, which we don’t often get that much of in cycling.
“I think both of them have reached an incredibly high level this year, really impressive,” Evenepoel continued. “Now it’s up to me to work hard in the coming year so that I can take big steps forward to get close to those two super good and crazy riders. I hope to be able to compete with them in 2024.”
We hope so too.
Feed Zone ?
?? After four years on the Jumbo-Visma Development Team, Irishman Archie Ryan has signed his first professional contract with EF Education-EasyPost.
? In further EF news, the American squad has signed 21-year-old club rider Jardi van der Lee, with team boss Jonathan Vaughters says he’s taken “a risk” on the inexperienced racer due to the numbers he’s exhibited in training and during eRacing before following up with some victories in U23 races.
? Arnaud Démare will move to Arkéa-Samsic for the rest of the season tomorrow when the transfer window officially opens, Le Parisien reports.
? Ag2r Citroën’s Alex Baudin tested positive for Tramadol at the 2023 Giro d’Italia, which is against UCI Medical Rules, and has had his results from the race expunged. As it’s a first offence, he will not receive a ban or suspension.
?♂️ Alexey Lutsenko won the Circuito de Getxo solo at the weekend, even after going the wrong way on a descent while off the front.
? Here’s something a bunch of people, including us, seemed to not know. If you’ve been caught in a crash in the finale and want the 3km rule applied, you should raise your hand across the finish line.
Cycling on TV ?
Tuesday
Tour de l’Ain, stage 2
GCN+ (09:00-11:00 ET/13:00-15:00 BST/22:00-00:00 AEST)
Wednesday
Tour de l’Ain, stage 3
GCN+ (09:00-11:00 ET/13:00-15:00 BST/22:00-00:00 AEST)
Thursday
Tour de l’Ain, stage 1
GCN+ (09:00-11:00 ET/13:00-15:00 BST/22:00-00:00 AEST)
Track cycling
UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Day 1, Glasgow
GCN+ (04:30-11:45 ET/09:30-15:45 BST/18:30-00:45 AEST)
UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Day 1 Evening, Glasgow
GCN+ (12:40-16:40 ET/17:40-21:40 BST/02:40-06:40 AEST)
Friday
Track cycling
UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Day 2, Glasgow
GCN+ (04:25-11:40 ET/09:25-15:40 BST/18:25-00:40 AEST)
UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Day 2 Evening, Glasgow
GCN+ (12:10-16:40 ET/17:10-21:40 BST/02:10-06:40 AEST)
Mountain bike
UCI MTB World Championships – Downhill, Junior Men & Women Finals
GCN+ (10:30-13:30 ET/14:30-17:30 BST/23:30-02:30 AEST)
? Demi Vollering joins the war against smartphones quote of the week ?
“I think especially in these times, when children are increasingly indoors and on their phones, it is so important that they just go outside and discover who they really are.”
People we didn’t expect to be adding to the list yelling at all of us to spend less time on our phones…Demi Vollering!
The Dutch winner of the Tour de France said she hoped her victory would inspire more kids to get on the bikes and be active instead of spending time on a device that can access almost the entirety of recorded human history and connects you to nearly 7 billion people across the world.
Luckily, SD Worx’s payroll and HR software is available on desktop, not just smartphones.
And finally…
So many great scenes atop the Tourmalet at the Tour this weekend just gone, including Lucinda Brand dancing along to the music from the roadside fans as she ascended. If you’re in the mood, a bit of music and levity from spectators must add to the experience. If you’re suffering, however, it’s hard to think of anything more tilting than a bunch of people having a great time soundtracked by Europop.
Clarifications corner ?
Good news this week, as instead of corrections we bring clarifications to our previous reporting. Does this mean we should be more diligent in our work or just that our community of readers are a cut above? We’re going to go with the latter.
First off, Laurens Stevaert informs us about Jasper Philipsen’s sports car from Friday’s edition:
“The Green Porsche has a license plate starting with a ‘Z’,” they write. “Which in Belgium is only for garage test drives (more or less), so probably just a wrapped sponsor/marketing car for the post-Tour crits.”
And next up, also from the comments section of Friday’s edition, we have Claus to give some clarification on laughing Jonas Vingegaard:
“As for why that clip of Jonas and Mads is so funny, you would need the context of the 15 seconds before that clip: Jonas is being his serious self saying how surprised he was with his own performance in the TT. Mads breaks him off saying “Bullshit, you weren’t surprised” … and then that’s where that clip follows…”
Thanks to both for the insight!
? Send us yer laundry pics ?
Today’s laundrette photo comes courtesy of Katelyn Connell, who writes:
“I was on vacation with my family in Amsterdam and Paris (traveling from the Boston area in the US) and had to grab some laundromat pics to send! The highlight of the trip was swooning over the Dutch bike infrastructure.”
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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