Spin Cycle is Escape Collective’s news digest, published every Monday and Friday. You can read it on this website (obviously) or click here to have it delivered straight to your inbox.
Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle,
Not to over-egg the pudding, but today's newsletter features three absolute corking stories. We have the full run-down of Bee Movie: Juan Ayuso edition, TNT not being able to get enough of hot mics while broadcasting live, and Lance Armstrong has invested millions into an AI camera that wants to analyse your bowel movements. Have I died and arrived in Spin Cycle heaven? If so, please do not resuscitate, things are pretty good here.
Son of a bee sting 🐝
It's been quite the couple of weeks for Juan Ayuso. Suffering through injury at the Giro, maybe seeing his Grand Tour leadership dreams at UAE crumble forever, all while everyone else takes part in a bit of a pile-on (we're guilty too) for his perceived lack of teammateship.
This week he was noted to not have trained with his teammates during Monday's rest day, before it was confirmed he always prefers to train alone (I feel ya, Juan, but also, there is no 'I train alone' in team, only tea, and everybody's sipping).
Then, having shipped 35 minutes on stage 17, this photo of Gianetti and Matxin looking less than impressed started doing the rounds.
But then, finally, a redemption arc appeared. On the morning of stage 18, Juan Ayuso appeared in front of the TV cameras to reveal he'd been stung in the eye by a bee the day before, and was valiantly going to try to ride the stage to support his team. Bet the rest of the peloton were buzzing to have a rider who could only half see surfing the wheels.
Ayuso ended up abandoning the stage, swinging around a corner and straight into a UAE van. Maybe to never be seen again. Nah, we will see him, maybe just in another jersey. UAE has insisted Ayuso will not be going anywhere, which is what you say either if your rider is indeed not going anywhere, or you're trying to keep the price relatively high.
It could be worse though. You could be Ineos' Josh Tarling, who sadly crashed out the Giro and almost immediately morphed into cycling's answer to Skeletor Mauro Gianetti, which must have been a bit of a shock for his family and loved ones. Imagine the pay's not bad though.
Cooking green beans with a hot mic 🔥
Spare a thought for the presenters and commentators who've brought us the Giro d'Italia via TNT this month. Forced to broadcast for hours while not a lot happens during the flat and uneventful stages, all the while, the viewership hold their employers in contempt for providing a worse service at a higher price.
What do you mean worse service? Well, it's complicated. Because on the one hand, mistakenly broadcasting an unaware Robbie McEwen live on air at least twice this week is both a recipe for disaster and lacks the professionalism that we were promised by the price hike from TNT.
Did we do a good job with this story?
