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.
Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
A lot happened this weekend, so grab a brew and settle in for everything bike racing has to offer in this bumper edition: surprise results, squabbling pelotons, internet-famous stewards, big podium beers, final stage scandals, helmet-based shenanigans, and a bike race went the wrong way at the finish, again! How does this keep happening!
An Om-loopy fiasco 😮
We had a peculiar pair of Omloop Nieuwsblad results but that's how we like it. (By the way, when did the 'Het' disappear from the name?)
The men's race came down to a bunch sprint, with Uno-X's Søren Wærenskjold the surprise winner ahead of Soudal-Quick Step's Paul Magnier and Alpecin-Deceuninck's Jasper Philipsen.
You may not know much about the 24-year-old Norwegian Wærenskjold, so we'll bring you a couple of nuggets. Firstly, he said in his post-race press conference that he weighed 92.3 kilograms when he stepped on the scales that morning, explaining that probably made him one of the heaviest riders in the sport not just at Omloop (he is also a gigantic 6'4"). We are all about 'big' guys winning bike races.
More interestingly, he explained to us in 2023 how he turned down a move to UAE Team Emirates because he wanted to "make the morally and ethically right choice, and not put the salary above everything else." Similarly, he declined to race in Saudi Arabia at the AlUla Tour earlier this year due to human rights concerns. Props to Søren, talking the talk, walking the walk, and winning big bike races.
Compared to the maybe perfunctory nature of the men's race, the women's race took place in a bizarro Omloop world, where the peloton let the break's gap yawn out to over 14 minutes, and by the last half hour, they'd only reduced it to a still-whopping 10 minutes. This meant that Arkéa-B&B's 31-year-old Belgian Lotte Claes took the first victory of her professional career, and what a win to have as your first. She definitely earned it too, with rival Aurela Nerlo (Winspace Orange Seal) opening her sprint with almost a whole kilometre remaining, which we loved.
Claes is an interesting character, a former contest on a Belgian special forces reality show (think SAS Who Dares Wins and shows of that ilk), as Cycling Weekly reliably informed us, as well as only being in her second pro racing season following careers as a nurse and duathlete.
The post-mortem from the peloton as to why they didn't chase was as delicious as it always is. "Everyone looked at each other. As a result everyone lost except the winners," offered Lorena Wiebes, very much stating the obvious.
Meanwhile, Demi Vollering had asked her former SD Worx-Protime teammates why they didn't chase, with the reply being that their team car told them not to, apparently much to their annoyance.
Explaining that decision, SD Worx-Protime manager Danny Staam said: “We knew we didn’t have a superior team today, so we wanted to wait for the Muur van Geraardsbergen first to see if Lorena Wiebes would survive it. So today it wasn’t up to us to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. Women’s cycling has evolved, we read everywhere, so other teams have to take the initiative.”
Hopefully this adds fuel to the fire for a women's season that is shaping up to be spicier than ever.
Not to get all town-in-south-west-Hertfordshire on you lot, but what vehicle is this Rik man worth?
While Kaden Groves received a yellow card for celebrating mid-bunch as his teammate Jasper Philipsen crossed the line to win Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on the Belgian's 27th birthday, there was another man that everyone had their eyes on after the finish.
That man is Rik Bossuyt, the steward tasked with helping the race winner proceed past the finish line to the various stops they have to take – media, podium, doping control, all of that jazz.
As our Cosmo Catalano has highlighted, Rik has seen technological advances to his job over the past few years that even AI could never hold a candle to. From running alongside the victor in 2021, to a single-speed bike in 2022, to an e-bike in 2023 and then a scooter in 2024.
So iconic was his scooter (that helped him hit new heights of internet meme-ry) that Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne decided to stick him on their poster for 2025, which also was a thank you to the volunteers like Rik who keep the race running.
So, what vehicle would Rik be riding post-2025 edition? Looks like he was back on an e-bike, but some sort of souped up mountain bike, and now also wearing a helmet for the first time.
Clearly, this bike was Fun, with a capital F, as Rik graciously allowed Jasper Philipsen to commandeer it to ride back to his team bus after he was done with his podium duties.
Next year, let's try and get him a hovercraft or jet pack, really raise the stakes.
Finally, in the inaugural edition of Podium Beer Sip Watch 2025, Jasper Philipsen took a wholehearted glug of his Kwaremont while holding his toy donkey tight. Probably the best two-pronged podium prize going in cycling? Yeah, almost certainly.
Feed Zone 🥖
🇨🇦 Magnus Cort won three out of four road stages at O Gran Camiño while Derek Gee's stage three TT win helped him seal the overall victory at the Spanish stage race.
🇫🇷 Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won the Faun Drome Classic, 23 seconds ahead of Lidl-Trek's Mattias Skjemose with Visma-Lease a Bike's Ben Tulett leading the chase group home in third, almost another minute back.
🇬🇧 An enormous CHAPEAU to all involved as BBC Sport reports the Tour de France Grand Départ is set to return to Britain in 2027, with Edinburgh in the picture to play host.
🥹 The most wholesome moment of Opening Weekend came during a wheel change at Omloop for Arnaud De Lie, who made an old woman's day by gifting her a bidon. The whole video is worth a watch.
A Doubey-ous result 🤔
Against the backdrop of the Rwandan-backed military campaign taking place across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the European Parliament subsequently calling for the cancellation of the Rwandan World Championships in September, the Tour du Rwanda took place last week, with a somewhat scandalous final stage.
TotalEnergies' Fabien Doubey held the race lead by just six seconds over Eritrea's Henok Mulubrhan heading into the final stage 7, but before the start on Sunday morning, heavy rain brought mud onto the course – which was meant to be something of a dress rehearsal for Worlds. Organisers initially decided to change the route, and there was a brief neutralisation led by Doubey before the race re-started.
But 20km later the winds picked up and skies darkened overhead, with Doubey going to the front of the bunch and urging his colleagues to stop, and organisers eventually deciding to stop the race and cancel the stage.
“I appointed myself as the spokesman for the peloton,” Doubey told L'Équipe afterwards. “Many riders came to me so that I could present their demands to the organisation. We could no longer take any risks.”
Mulubrhan saw things differently, however: "It suited him that there was no result today," he said, referring to Doubey. "If we had held this race in Europe, those few raindrops would never have stopped us."
Lotto's Milan Donie agreed, adding: “If we cancel this stage, there would be no more racing in Flanders," while race director Freddy Kamuzinzi said they would never have let the riders take the slightest risk and that teams were complimenting him throughout the week for the quality of the race organisation, adding he "did not know that a single rider could prevent the race from being finished."
Turns out the jury sided against Doubey, handing him a 200 Swiss Franc fine for "inappropriate behaviour that damages the image of cycling", and L'Équipe reports he may be hauled up before a UCI disciplinary commission to receive an even greater punishment. Time will tell if it was worth it for 31-year-old Doubey to have sealed what was his first professional win.
Either way, TotalEnergies boss Jean-René Bernaudeau will be pleased, having enjoyed his team's visit to Rwanda without any concerns whatsoever, judging by his quotes to AFP last week about attending the race: "I have confidence in the strength of the Rwandan army. Today, they are talking more about invading others than being in danger in the country. I have no reason to be worried." Bloody hell, Jean-René, maybe just keep it to yourself next time.
Cycling on TV 📺
Tuesday March 4th
Le Samyn des Dames
(07:00-08:20 ET/12:00-13:20 GMT/23:00-00:20 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max
Ename Samyn Classic
(08:20-11:45 ET/13:20-16:45 GMT/00:20-03:45 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max
Wednesday March 5th
Trofeo Laigueglia
(08:00-10:00 ET/13:00-15:00 GMT/00:00-02:00 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes, 🇦🇺Staylive
Thursday March 6th
No live racing ...
Friday March 7th
No live racing ...
↪️ Wrong turn of the week ↪️
Really, the action and drama didn't stop all weekend, as the peloton once again went the wrong way before the finish line at the Faun Ardèche Classic, with Groupama-FDJ's Romain Grégoire – runner-up last year – then shrugging his way to victory as he was the first rider to follow the course route correctly.
The UCI gave the driver of the TV motorbike a yellow card, having judged he was too close to the peloton in the final kilometre and helped to lead them astray. But Grégoire believes the riders in front of him should have known better.
“I’m standing here with a bit of a strange feeling,” Grégoire said afterwards. “But I think the riders should know the course. We passed this part of the course three times today.”
In similar comments, the race organiser told Wielerflits he couldn't believe the riders went the wrong way on the third pass, but also that their increased effort coming into the finale for the sprint may have meant they were no longer thinking as clearly. As Rob Hatch would say, what a FARCE.
And finally ...
You didn't think we'd miss what was actually the biggest story of the weekend, did you?
After trying out wearing a TT helmet during road races in the Algarve, Wout van Aert spent his training rides leading up to Opening Weekend once again donning an oversized helmet, preparing for maximum sacrilege to his nation's sacred races.
However, on the morning of Omloop, he arrived in the mixed zone with a regular helmet atop his head. Phew, cycling fans could breathe a sigh of relief ... until he was asked about the helmet, that is, confirming he would be switching it before the start.
On the start line, he was indeed back in the aerodynamic abomination, which clearly came as a surprise to his fellow Red Bull athlete Tom Pidcock.
Why did he not just keep his TT helmet on throughout? Was this mind games against his opponents? Is it so uncomfortable he wanted to spend as little time as possible wearing it? Was he worried about being booed on stage at sign-on?
And then, the next day at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, reigning champion Wout van Aert once again wore his regular helmet on the stage at sign-on, and then thankfully kept it on for the entire race. Let's hope his moment of madness has now subsided and this right-minded thinking continues for the rest of the Classics season.
Either way, it looks like Wout van Aert is having a lot of fun at the minute, which makes us happy.
Corrections corner 🫣🏔️
Apologies to Alex S on Discord (and anyone else with a firmer grip of the English language than we have) for our mis-use of the various spellings of peak and peek in the wrong places on Friday. We're going to take a peek at a dictionary this week and hope we've now passed the peak of all peek/peak errors.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
"My two year old doesn’t quite understand the concept," writes in CJ Maycock, attaching today's featured laundromat, "but was quite happy to detour via the local laundromat in Brisbane to get a quick shot of some open doors for you."
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 Alex S and CJ Maycock (and his two-year-old) for contributions to today’s edition and a big thank you to all of you who have signed up as Escape Collective 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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