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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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
Happy Labor Day to everyone who celebrates. And yes, it did kill me a bit to write labor without the ‘u’, but a day off for people who work seems like as good a reason as any to spell things wrong. Plus, I did a quick scan of the Labor Day Wikipedia page and as far as I can tell there isn’t a controversies tab so everything’s all good.
It’s also been a day off for the Vuelta a España, as Primož Roglič continues to chase down Ben O’Connor, who will be doing his best to not look like the Slovenian’s dinner during week three of the Spanish Grand Tour. Come on Ben! We’re rooting for ya.
A fist bump with Denmark’s friendly ghost 👻
A fun story to begin with, from former rider turned Kasper Asgreen’s official biographer, Per Bausager, who revealed a soul bond exists between Asgreen and Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe rider Primož Roglič.
“In one of our conversations for the upcoming book,” Bausager said on Facebook, reported by Danish outlet Feltet, “Kasper Asgreen talks about an episode from stage one of the Tour de France in 2020, where he got into a positional battle with Roglič, which made the Slovenian go crazy, shouting obscenities at him.”
The next morning, Roglič approached Asgreen to apologise, greeting him with a fist bump, an action that was repeated every day up until stage 20, when Roglič lost the yellow jersey to Tadej Pogačar.
“As they rode into Paris the day after Roglič had lost the Tour to Pogačar on the Planche des Belles Filles,” Bausager recalled, “Asgreen told Roglič: ‘You see what happens when you forget to say hello’.”
Fast forward four years, as Roglič caught and passed Asgreen on stage 13 with the Dane having been in the break, the Slovenian apparently fist-bumped the Dane.
“Now he damn well shouldn’t lose another Grand Tour by not greeting Asgreen,” Bausager finished. Who knew Roglič was so superstitious!
Sean Kelly speaks his mind
A fascinating piece of analysis on live television from Eurosport’s Sean Kelly, that of course caught the attention of certain segments of Twitter, but don’t let that distract you from it. Let’s begin with what Sean Kelly said during stage 13.
“Any time you get a shot of the rear end of the peloton, you see the same riders. And I think in this race they’re going overboard. We often talk about the riders [at the] end of the season, the fatigue is there,” Kelly said on live commentary.
“We did talk a number of years ago as well, pushing the riders maybe, the doping aspect of it, is that a problem as well? The UCI have to do something about it because if it continues on, the last three, four or five years, all of the races, they all want to make it more difficult than [the last] one, and it’s just getting out of hand, I feel.”
We’ve thought about what he’s trying to say here, and asked around for opinions, and as far as we can gather, rather than accusing current riders of doping, the former champion cyclist is saying that if the races are so hard it can cause, or at least tempt, riders to dope in order to be able to keep up. He’s potentially not, as it sounds, calling out a lack of doping enforcement, but more worrying what the effect on how the races are being raced will impact the behaviour of the peloton.
Kelly is, obviously, an experienced head in the sport, and is worth listening to. It’s an interesting stance we haven’t necessarily heard echoed a lot, when certain segments are more concerned with analysing power numbers and climbing times in attempts to detect malfeasance. More interestingly, and helpfully, Kelly is looking at the machinations of the sport a bit more zoomed out, in how what happens on the road can effect what happens off of it.
Whether he’s wrong or right, it’s food for thought.
Feed Zone 🥖
⏱️ Wout van Aert will skip both time trial events at the upcoming World and European Championships, instead opting to fully focus on the road races.
🤔 Filippo Ganna will also not contest the time trial at the upcoming European Championships in Belgium, Het Laatste Nieuws reports. “It’s nothing specific,” sports director Zak Dempster told the Belgian newspaper when asked what was wrong with the Italian. “He doesn’t have any specific symptoms and he doesn’t feel ill. It needs to be investigated further to see if he has a specific illness or something. There’s just something wrong. We need to stay calm now and draw up a plan to get him back to his level before the end of the season.”
🇳🇿 New Zealander Aaron Gate took the overall victory at the Tour of Hainan and the 34-year-old will step up to WorldTour level next year as he swaps Burgos-BH for Astana Qazaqstan.
👬 Friday’s Vuelta a España stage winner Kaden Groves has told CyclingNews he’d like to ride the Tour de France alongside fellow sprinter and Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen next year. “We are different types of sprinters. I myself am better in the sprints with a smaller group, so hopefully there is room for both of us in the selection. We have already proven in the past that we can race well together,” he said.
🦵 Mathieu van der Poel abandoned the Renewi Tour due to knee pain caused by his near-crash during the stage race’s time trial. “It was decided not to take any risks with regard to the rest of his program,” his Alpecin-Deceuninck team said in a statement.
🩻 Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) broke his collarbone in a crash at the Renewi Tour. His season may now be over.
😔 More time out for Thomas Gloag, who has broken both elbows in a fall during a training ride, his Visma-Lease a Bike team announced.
✍️ Double stage-winning Vuelta a España revelation Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma) has been linked with a move to Ineos Grenadiers, Ciclo21 reports. The British team has also announced the signing of 23-year-old Axel Laurance from Alpecin-Deceuninck.
🇩🇰 Søren Kragh Andersen has signed a two-year deal with Lidl-Trek, moving over from Alpecin-Deceuninck.
🛶 22-year-old Norwegian Johannes Staune-Mittet had a contract with Visma-Lease a Bike until the end of 2026 but Wielerflits reports Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale has bought out his contract and the 22-year-old will move to the French team next year.
🚵 At the weekend’s Mountain Bike World Championships in Andorra, Evie Richards and Victor Koretzky took home the short track rainbow jerseys, while Puck Pieterse and South Africa’s Alan Hatherly won the XCO titles.
Cycling on TV 📺
Tuesday September 3rd
Vuelta a España – Stage 16
(06:30-12:00 ET/11:30-17:00 BST/20:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour of Britain – Stage 1
(09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/23:00-01:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Wednesday September 4th
Vuelta a España – Stage 17
(08:30-12:00 ET/13:30-17:00 BST/22:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour of Britain – Stage 2
(09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/23:00-01:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Thursday September 5th
Vuelta a España – Stage 18
(08:30-12:00 ET/13:30-17:00 BST/22:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour of Britain – Stage 3
(09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/23:00-01:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Friday September 6th
Vuelta a España – Stage 19
(08:30-12:00 ET/13:30-17:00 BST/22:30-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour of Britain – Stage 4
(09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/23:00-01:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Tour de Romandie Feminin – Stage 1
(08:00-11:00 ET/13:00-16:00 BST/22:00-01:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
🙄 Patrick Lefevere taking digs at outgoing riders of the week 🙄
The Earth turns and Soudal – Quick Step boss Patrick Lefevere says slightly unkind things about his own riders in the press, particularly those leaving the team. It’s the same old story.
This time, in his Het Nieuwsblad column, the 69-year-old Belgian decides to probably say more than is professionally necessary with regards to the departures of Fausto Masnada and Jan Hirt. Of course, great for us who need things to report on, less so for riders on the team who presumably worry when the weekend rolls around what will be included in their boss’ newspaper column.
“With other riders it’s a very business-like no-brainer,” Lefevere says in comparison to Julian Alaphilippe and Kasper Asgreen, stalwarts leaving at the end of the year that Lefevere is sad to see go.
“In that category is Fausto Masnada, with whom we had very little pleasure. That had a lot to do with injuries, but also with his headstrong racing behaviour. In Lombardy 2021 he was really good, but he ignored Davide Bramati’s instructions by riding full-on with Tadej Pogačar.
“Jan Hirt is also leaving the team and I think that’s a shame,” Lefevere continued. “Of course he has every right to cash in his eighth place in the Giro with Israel-Premier Tech, but his explanation was strange. ‘I want to stay, but my agent sees it differently.’ Well, I thought it was the riders who decided their own future.”
For Hirt, he’s switching out Lefevere for Sylvan Adams, so seems he has a penchant for outspoken bosses.
And finally …
Is that a deep sense of foreboding I can feel? A bee trying to chase UAE Team Emirates off of a Grand Tour podium (even if it is just the day’s sign-on)? Let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come, of Visma-Lease a Bike, nicknamed the bees, hitting back after Pogačar and UAE dominated the first two Grand Tours of the year, and now their former rider looks likely to win the third.
Corrections corner 😖
“Hey Jonny,” writes Luke Bradley. “It’s time to plump the cushions in corrections corner. It wasn’t the onions on feet that brought tears to my eyes, it was the inference that Hurt is by Johnny Cash. Hurt is originally by Nine Inch Nails.”
What I’ll say to that, Mr Bradley, is that Reznor was so blown away with Cash’s cover, that Reznor proclaimed: “That song isn’t mine anymore”.
But in all serious, yes, quite right, I promise I’m not including these like easter eggs to farm email engagement. It’s just the fallibility of the human condition x
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“Stumbled upon this nice place while on holiday in Argelès-Gazost in the Pyrenées,” writes Martin Schmidt, attaching today’s featured laundromat.
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: [email protected]
Until next time …
That’s all folks! Thanks to Martin Schmidt and Luke Bradley for contributions to today’s edition and a big thank you to all of you who have signed up already as Escape Collective founding 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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