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,
The Tour de France is in full flow and we can't get enough of it. What a race so far, and with plenty of fun stages left to run. Even if Tadej Pogačar does soon find a pressure point and applies the requisite force to put the race to sleep, we're sure there will be enough to keep us all entertained. Don't worry.
It's a real mixed bag in today's newsletter, but we believe it accurately reflects the Tour in all of its beauty, humanity and oddity.
Oh, and a note we forgot to include before pushing out the email, we're considering sending Monday's newsletter on Tuesday's rest day, just so we can take stock after what should be an eventful Bastille Day.
Yellow jersey muscle memory 🫢
After Tadej Pogačar sealed his 100th professional victory with his stage four win at the Tour de France, he signed a couple of jerseys for sponsor Continental before jumping up onto the podium.
Thankfully, the switched-on ASO employee was alert to the prospect of Pogačar's muscle memory kicking in as he signed the first two jerseys and then was ready to carry on to the pile of yellow underneath (which was for Mathieu van der Poel).
In his defence, he'd just done a Big Exercise, and the jerseys are a slightly similar hue. Maybe this was just Pogačar's latest attempt at a marginal gain, getting the inevitably yellow jersey signing done in one fell swoop (the very next day he would end up in the race lead).
A new way to pay your respects 😳
The Tour de France is all sunshine and rainbows and rolling green hills and mountains and sunflowers. There is obviously a darker side to the race, the environmental cost, the crushing of most of the peloton's dreams (not everyone can win), and the pressure cooker that those within the teams have to endure for an entire month.
We can now add to this list: fans standing on graves to get a better look as the riders crested the Côte de Saint-Étienne-au-Mont en route to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
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