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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Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
This edition is coming to you fresh out of our brand new website back-end, so if anything looks a little bit funky we ask for your patience and to please accept our apologies, this factory will be back up and running at full steam with all the creases ironed out before you know it.
Right, more interestingly, it's been another bumper week of cycling news, all the boxes ticked. Drama, intrigue, cute animals, you get it. You know what you're here for. Let's crack on.
Netflix Tour series is Unchained and allowed to go roam and be free, no longer on our TVs 📺
The only BA-DUM cycling fans will be hearing after this June is Primož Roglič's arse hitting the floor in another likely Tour de France uncoupling, as Netflix has ditched its Tour de France Unchained series after three seasons.
The final season, filmed at last year's Tour de France, will air this June, but the camera crews will not be present at this year's race, as first reported by Le Parisien.
"Usually, at the end of January, we are already contacted by Netflix for filming in the spring with some of our riders," a staff member of a French team told the paper. "This time, we haven't had a single phone call. It seems that the message is clear," before adding: "With Pogačar crushing everything, the suspense seems complicated to maintain."
The non-renewal of the Unchained series comes despite good viewership globally, but slightly disappointing figures in France itself, with the French series intended to shore up subscriber numbers in the country. Caley has more analysis here if you fancy.
Elsewhere, in medium-to-big-screen cycling news, there's apparently a new Gino Bartali biopic in the works, with everyone's favourite berated drummer Miles Teller in line to play the Italian champion cyclist.
Who else is asking for freebies? 🤔
Remember the story last week about Tom Pidcock asking for a free GCN subscription?
Well, we've heard whispers that we can go one better than a millionaire unashamedly asking to save £30 a year, how about the son of a billionaire doing exactly the same thing?
Said billionaire may or may not own a cycling team, but to protect our sources we won't get more specific than that, there are a bunch of billionaires with sons knocking about in our sport.
Ratcliffe fleeing his sinking ship? 👋
In completely unrelated news, it's been another stellar week for Jim Ratcliffe and his god-given right to fritter away his hard-earned billions on things that don't work.
On Monday it came to light that New Zealand Rugby were launching legal action against Ineos after the chemicals company dropped a sponsorship agreement, before Ratcliffe was once again cast as Manchester's modern-day Scrooge after announcing he would cut another 200 jobs from Manchester United Football Club to try and fix their dismal finances, which surely he would have known about before buying the team, right?
Anyway, back to something more cycling-adjacent. Why all this belt-tightening from a man supposedly worth $15 billion or so? Maybe it has something to do with The Chemicals not doing so well at the moment, with ratings agencies downgrading Ineos' outlook to 'negative', and its debt pile forecast to reach almost £10bn this year.
Considering the rugby sponsorship deal he's seemingly reneged on was only worth about £3.64m a year, where does that place the future of a rudderless cycling outfit likely costing him at least 10 times that? Things are not looking great ...
Feed Zone 🥖
👎 A Movistar duo have earned the second and third yellow cards in the men's peloton, Iván Romeo at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana for contact with Gianni Vermeersch and Ruben Guerreiro at the Tour of Oman for deviating during the stage two sprint and causing multiple riders to crash.
⭐ The UCI is investigating the recent nightmare edition of the Étoile de Bessèges, Het Nieuwsblad reports, with a fine, supervision and the employment of more experienced staff expected to be handed out by cycling's governing body.
👶 35-year-old Chantal van den Broek-Blaak has decided to call time on her professional career as she is expecting her second child.
🚓 Three years after being released from prison, former road and track star Jack Bobridge has spoken publicly for the first time. Matt de Neef has more on the story here.
😎 Adam Yates thwarted David Gaudu to win the Tour of Oman on the final stage to Green Mountain. By the way, Gaudu's fetching sunglasses from Monday's edition are actually sponsor-correct Julbos. Thanks to Matthew Bart, who if he doesn't work for Groupama-FDJ/Julbo already should definitely hit them up now about a position there.
Cycling on TV 📺
Saturday February 15th
Tour de la Provence - Stage 2
(08:30-10:30 ET/13:30-15:30 GMT/00:30-02:30 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸🇨🇦FloBikes, 🇦🇺SBS
Vuelta a Murcia
(10:00-11:45 ET/15:00-16:45 GMT/02:00-03:45 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes
Cyclocross
Exact Cross, Sint-Niklaas - Women
(07:40-09:00 ET/12:40-14:00 GMT/23:30-01:00 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes
Exact Cross, Sint-Niklaas - Men
(09:00-10:20 ET/14:00-15:20 GMT/01:00-02:20 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes
Track
UEC Track European Championships, Heusden-Zolder - Day 4
(12:20-15:55 ET/17:20-20:55 GMT/04:20-07:55 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+
Sunday February 16th
Tour de la Provence - Stage 3
(09:45-11:10 ET/14:45-16:10 GMT/01:45-03:10 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸🇨🇦FloBikes, 🇦🇺SBS
Clásica de Almería
(08:30-10:30 ET/13:30-15:30 GMT/00:30-02:30 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes, 🇦🇺Staylive
Figueira Champions Classic
(10:30-12:30 ET/15:30-17:30 GMT/02:30-04:30 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes
Cyclocross
X20 Trofee Veldrijden, Brussels - Women
(07:40-09:00 ET/12:40-14:00 GMT/23:30-01:00 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸🇨🇦FloBikes
X20 Trofee Veldrijden, Brussels - Men
(09:00-10:20 ET/14:00-15:20 GMT/01:00-02:20 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇺🇸🇨🇦FloBikes
Track
UEC Track European Championships, Heusden-Zolder - Day 5
(08:20-11:25 ET/13:20-16:25 GMT/00:20-03:25 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+
Monday February 17th
UAE Tour - Stage 1
(04:10-07:50 ET/09:10-12:50 GMT/20:10-23:50 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+,🇺🇸Max, 🇨🇦FloBikes, 🇦🇺Staylive
Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior
(09:00-11:30 ET/14:00-16:30 GMT/01:00-03:30 AEDT) 🇬🇧Eurosport/Discovery+, 🇨🇦FloBikes
Revenge tour of the week
At the FDJ-Suez team presentation this week, Demi Vollering once again reiterated how much happier she is at her new squad compared to the prison sentence she had to endure at SD Worx-Protime.
“I often had to grit my teeth, I couldn’t be myself,” Vollering told AFP of what it was like at her old Dutch team, before adding she also often felt she had to “walk on eggshells.” Whereas, at her new job: “I get the impression that they look at me as a person first, and only then at the athlete.”
I mean, Vollering is only answering the questions she's asked, and doing so honestly too.
You can imagine, however, that SD Worx-Protime are getting rather sick of hearing how awful they all were, and so when it came time to face each other this week at the ... wait for it ... Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana, our popcorn was at the ready.
Not just that, but Vollering's main competition would come from her old coach Anna van der Breggen who has returned to the peloton. The result? Vollering won the first stage by 30 seconds. We're already looking forward to the next instalment of Vollering versus her old team.
And finally ...
Thibaut Pinot will, we're pretty sure, be the gift that keeps on giving until the day we die. And we'll probably die before him, which is fine. Don't think I could deal with having to mourn this wonderful man. Let's give the cow its dues too: what a lovely cow that is.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
"Spin Cycle photo submission here," writes in Birks via Discord. "Thought you'd appreciate one with Old Trafford just about visible in the background."
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: jonny.long@escapecollective.com
Until next time …
That’s all folks! Thanks to Birks, Matthew Bart and Kit Nicholson 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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