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. Sign up here.
Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
There are a lot of bad things going on in the world right now, so today let us take some light relief in the form of our canine friends. Dogs and bikes always make the bad thoughts and existential dread go away, in our experience at least. Whether that be an actual dog on a bike, a dog in front of a washing machine, or the four-time Tour winning Froome-dog himself.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul 🃏
Originally when this came across our desk, we thought “Ah, how lovely; another trophy for big man Sagan in lieu of an Olympic berth, and he gets to rub shoulders with the likes of boxing’s Anthony Joshua and Formula 1’s Esteban Ocon.” That must have made him feel good, and we’re always inclined to root for the Slovakian.
You might be wondering what’s going on, but thanks to someone who is definitely not Peter Sagan writing the Instagram captions for Peter Sagan’s account, we learn it was a financial trading competition hosted by a company called FlowBank.
Sagan won, by achieving 129.97%, whereas second place Joshua only managed 73.17%. We imagine this relates to the return on their initial investment. We tried to find out more, but the competition’s website is 404ing just days after it took place.
Curious, right? Well, another quick google of flowbank.com reveals the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) decided the day after Sagan won the second annual (and probably final) FlowBank Championship to open bankruptcy proceedings against the crypto-linked business.
Nothing like an ill-fated celebrity appearance to really say “I’m a retired sportsperson.” We just hope Sagan still got his appearance fee, or his winnings from the competition!
Getting an earful👂
The thing about paying someone a boat load of money for them to underperform at the task they’ve been hired to do is that you can upload videos gently mocking them with zero repercussions!
Not that the below video from Israel-Premier Tech sports director Daryl Impey isn’t posted in good faith. Watch as Chris Froome needs to change his radio at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and then needs some tape to keep the earbud in place.
With the Israel-Premier Tech car short on tape, Froome heads to the medical car just in front to get what he needs, bizarrely choosing the side of the car meaning he needs to turn his head around so he can’t see the road while pedalling along at 30+ km/h. It gives Impey a laugh anyway. A distraction not just from Froome’s slow slide into the sea, but the elephant in the room that is The War too. Just focus on the tape, everyone. Think good thoughts only!
Feed Zone 🥖
🤕 Nairo Quintana (Movistar) suffered a broken hand and Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) broke his hip in crashes on the Tour de Suisse’s second stage.
💂♀️ Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) is defiant he will define his role at this year’s Tour de France, we have more on this story here.
⏱️ Victor Campenaerts (32) is set to leave Lotto Dstny at the end of the year and sign a three-year deal with Visma-Lease a Bike, Het Nieuwsblad reports.
💊 The UCI is concerned of the potential impact of the painkiller tapentadol, which is 10 times more powerful than tramadol. We have more on this story here.
😡 35-year-old Pieter Serry (Soudal-Quick Step) was hospitalised with a severe concussion after being hit by a driver during a training ride.
🟨 The UCI are looking at introducing yellow cards and will trial extending the 3 km rule to 5 km at the upcoming Tour de France. We have more on this story here.
🤞 It’s a sign in the right direction towards Tour de France participation, as Jonas Vingegaard has apparently increased his time trial training while at altitude in Tignes. Het Laatste Nieuws also reports the Dane won’t ride the Vuelta a España this year due to family circumstances.
🇨🇴 Egan Bernal and Dani Martínez will represent Colombia in the Olympics road race this summer.
✍️ Mischa Bredewold has signed a new three-year deal with SD Worx-Protime to keep her with the team until at least the end of 2027.
🏔️ The removal of the Nufenen Pass from the Tour de Suisse’s queen stage 6 due to snowfall means the day’s route is drastically reduced to only 42.5 km.
💰 Ridley will replace Dare as the bike supplier to Uno-X Mobility as part of a 10-year deal with between the brand and team, Het Laatste Nieuws reports.
🤩 Toms Skujiņš has signed a new two-year contract with Lidl-Trek.
🧜♀️ There’s a new UCI WorldTour event on the calendar for 2025: A one-day race for both men and women in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the weekend of June 21-22.
Cycling on TV 📺
Saturday June 15th
Tour de Suisse Men – Stage 7
(08:50-12:00 ET/13:50-17:00 BST/22:50-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇨🇦🇺🇸
Tour de Suisse Women – Stage 1
(04:50-07:15 ET/09:50-12:15 BST/18:50-21:15 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, StayLive🇦🇺
Tour of Slovenia – Stage 4
(07:00-09:30 ET/12:00-14:30 BST/21:00-23:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Tour of Belgium – Stage 4
(09:15-11:40 ET/14:15-16:40 BST/23:15-01:40 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Tour Féminin des Pyrénées – Stage 2
(08:00-10:00 ET/13:00-15:00 BST/22:00-00:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Sunday June 16th
Tour de Suisse Men – Stage 8 (ITT)
(09:00-11:40 ET/14:00-16:40 BST/23:00-01:40 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇨🇦🇺🇸
Tour de Suisse Women – Stage 2 (ITT)
(04:30-07:00 ET/09:30-12:00 BST/18:30-21:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, StayLive🇦🇺
Tour of Slovenia – Stage 5
(07:00-09:30 ET/12:00-14:30 BST/21:00-23:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Tour of Belgium – Stage 5
(09:15-11:40 ET/14:15-16:40 BST/23:15-01:40 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Tour Féminin des Pyrénées – Stage 3
(07:00-09:15 ET/12:00-14:15 BST/21:00-23:15 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Mountain Bike World Cup – Val di Sole XCO
(06:30 ET/11:30 BST/20:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max 🇺🇸, FloBikes 🇨🇦, Stan Sport 🇦🇺
Monday June 17th
Tour de Suisse Women – Stage 3
(09:00-11:40 ET/14:00-16:40 BST/23:00-01:40 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, StayLive🇦🇺
Friday vibes x Tech corner 😎📐
While our Ronan McLaughlin presides over the Performance Process newsletter that gives you true insight into the weird and wonderful world of tech, we don’t want him to have all the fun!
Step forward a woman and her dog we spotted while out on a ride around town yesterday. Maybe we’ve been riding around with our eyes shut but we’ve never seen anything like this.
We don’t know what it is, how exactly it works, but we love it. Things can feel a bit gloomy these days so hopefully this helps to send you into the weekend on a high.
In a similar vein, feel free to watch Yves Lampaert build a Lego tractor.
And finally …
In case you missed it earlier in the week (we did), Mathieu van der Poel’s father Adrie still has it. He’s 64 years old and long retired from his own career, but he’s spending his golden years in the best way possible: watching his own son win the biggest bike races on the planet.
Adrie’s not finished just yet, however. Last weekend he took on the Milan-San Remo Gran Fondo. After finishing, Strava proudly displayed his digital gold medal for clocking his longest ride yet, because of course the app wasn’t around for Adrie’s 11 professional Milan San-Remos between 1982-1993.
In more Strava sniping, Wout van Aert posted this caption … we are so ready for the Tour de France.
Mailbag 📬
“I’m working my way through season 3 of ‘Welcome to Wrexham,'” writes in Chris Buonomo in Los Angeles, CA. “And one minor bright spot of the show so far has been the positive reflection of cycling, whether it’s b-roll of people riding around town or the Cycling Keeper plugging his YouTube channel. In the mainstream American media landscape, cyclists are either dopers, losers, or people with suspended licenses, so it’s enjoyable to see them normalized for a change.
“One other thing I noticed this season is a big Mont Ventoux sticker on game day announcer Mark Griffiths’ laptop. Then in a later episode I realized there’s also a ‘Wallers-Arenberg’ sticker. So not only is he the lovable club grandpa who uses one of those old-timey lip microphones, he also is a cyclist? Or a cycling fan? Curious, I Googled around but couldn’t find anything on him, although results do turn up another Englishman by the same name who runs cycling tours.
“Without any concrete info, I’ll just assume he’s out bagging famous cols on European summer mornings and waving the Welsh flag as the pro peloton rolls by in the afternoon.”
Does anyone know the answer? Get in touch via the comments section or [email protected] and feel free to send in any other cycling oddities you spot out there in the wider world!
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“It’s not a laundromat,” write in Caitlin and Bart Stevens, attaching today’s laundry photo and continuing our dog theme for the day, “but here are some pictures of our washer/dryer set up in Summerville, South Carolina, with our bemused dog named Turk.”
Our first ever submission from a couple that also features a dog. You guys are getting good at this.
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 Chris Buonomo, Caitlin and Bart Stevens and Dave Rome 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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