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Welcome back to Spin Cycle! Escape Collective’s news digest.
While the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift rages on (head to the Escape Collective website for the best Tour Femmes coverage money can buy), the men are revelling in the aftermath of their Grand Boucle.
Jasper Philipsen seems to have a new set of wheels, Jonas Vingegaard is showing the world what a good dude he is, Astana are cutting quarry and race footage together to make Instagram reels (yep) and Richard Plugge is still stinking up the gaff. But at least this time it’s quite funny and at the expense of Patrick Lefevere.
The Richard Plugge charm offensive continues
Jumbo-Visma boss Richard Plugge is really on his troll shit, high on his own supply after winning two Grand Tours out of two so far this season.
Not content with spinning Groupama-FDJ boss Marc Madiot up into an indignant rage, Plugge has now turned his sights to Patrick Lefevere, who is looking to support Remco Evenepoel to a second-straight Vuelta a España title to put off any possible desire of his star rider to leave the Soudal Quick-Step team. While Plugge has not intended to disrupt those very specific plans by also bringing Jonas Vingegaard to Spain to co-lead alongside Primož Roglič, he is definitely taking a lot of delight from the fact.
“His facial expression was priceless,” Plugge said.
“I was on the phone with him and then he asked me if we were going to the Vuelta with only Primož. I told him afterwards that Jonas was going too. You should have seen his face, haha.”
We’re not sure what Plugge is compensating for with this victory lap, but it’s kind of hilarious. Desperately need him to take on big Davey Brailsford next!
Meanwhile, Jonas Vingegaard gives back
While Plugge is doling out lessons in how not to have any grace and decorum, Jonas Vingegaard’s victory lap is a palate cleanser in the wider world outside of the narrowness of sporting competition.
The Dane has had a busy week, visiting a care home for the elderly in his hometown of Glyngore, which was inundated with crowds, and inviting a kid with cancer that he’d read about to visit him and receive an autographed yellow jersey. He was also presented with a gift basket to the immense delight of his wife Trine and once again appeared in front of huge crowds on the balcony of the Rådhusplasden in Copenhagen.
Finally, on stage in the Tivoli Gardens, where the 2022 Tour teams were presented, Jonas Vingegaard was on stage doing a Q&A with Mads Pedersen, and we got to see him laugh for maybe the first time? As in, properly laugh. A laugh erupting from his tiny little belly.
Unfortunately, the clip cuts out just after the joke is made, and the auto-translate doesn’t seem to accurately reflect what’s being said (unless the Danes’ sense of humour is wildly different to every other culture on Earth) but it’s just nice to see Vingegaard relaxed and enjoying himself after everyone’s decided he’s a robot (okay, we were a part of that, sure).
Feed Zone ?
? Jumbo-Visma won the most prize money at the Tour Hommes, taking home €666,280, while DSM-Firmenich won the least, a measly €12,180.
?️ Mattia Cattaneo and Josef Cerny have signed contract extensions with Soudal Quick-Step until 2025.
? Jasper Philipsen’s girlfriend has revealed the sprinter received death threats via social media during the Tour de France.
?? A change of plan for Dylan van Baarle, who will now be lining up for Jumbo-Visma at the upcoming Vuelta a España.
?? 37-year-old Alessandro De Marchi will race another season for Jayco-AlUla, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
? After nine Tour de France Femmes riders finished outside the time limit on stage 5 but were allowed to continue the next day, it turns out they were halted by a train crossing with 2 km to go. So the race organisation took pity over the incident? Not so, said one of the riders, Marjolein van’t Geloof, who says the jury measured the time they were stopped and so the gruppetto had to sprint for the line, making it in with 17 seconds to spare.
? The Belgians are an organised bunch. Turns out they’ve got their national championship road race courses sorted up until 2030. The 2029 course will feature roads that were used in the 2021 Leuven World Championships.
Jasper Philipsen’s new set of wheels
We now (basically) have confirmation that sour Alpecin-Deceuninck bigwig Christoph Roodhooft looked like he was chewing on nettles for the entirety of the Tour de France because a big fat bonus was due four-time 2023 stage winner Jasper Philipsen. At least judging by the sports car he’s been spotted presumably whipping around Belgium this week.
Surely this is a new purchase? And he didn’t already have a Skoda green jersey-Pantone ready to go pre-Tour. Also, can’t tell if the SeaSucker-ed green jersey winner’s bike on the back is simply a great flex or the most gauche thing the humble streets of Belgium have ever seen.
Or as Discord member ‘Nina M’ writes: “Even as a proud member of the war on cars, I have to admire the commitment to driving both an impractical sports car and a car to transport your bike to highlight your status as a pro athlete.”
We’re not sure on the exact timeline of events, but maybe he was en route to a Dutch criterium where he sprinted against a bunch of kids, thankfully without any use of his elbows this time.
Cycling on TV ?
Saturday
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, stage 7
GCN+ (10:00-13:45 ET/15:00-18:45 BST/00:00-03:45 AEST)
Coverage also available for American viewers on Peacock premium
Clásica San Sebastián
GCN+ (09:00-11:20 ET/14:00-16:20 BST/23:00-01:20 AEST)
Tour de Wallonie, stage 4
GCN+ (11:20-13:20 ET/16:20-18:20 BST/01:20-03:20 AEST)
Sunday
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, stage 8
GCN+ (09:00-12:00 ET/14:00-17:00 BST/23:00-02:00 AEST)
Coverage also available for American viewers on Peacock premium
Circuito de Getxo
GCN+ (09:00-11:00 ET/14:00-16:00 BST/23:00-01:00 AEST)
Monday
Tour de l’Ain, stage 1
GCN+ (09:00-11:00 ET/13:00-15:00 BST/22:00-00:00 AEST)
? Don’t clean SDWorx’s dirty dishes for them quote of the week ?
“When I was young I would never put my dishes in the dishwasher. Mum would do it and then tell me I should do it. But she did it so I didn’t. One day she stopped and I had no clean dishes. So I started loading the dishwasher. In conclusion, the peloton should let SD Worx chase.”
Can we have more racing parables from Chloe Hosking, please?
And finally…
Forget about the Succession-esque backing music of this “thank you Kazakhstan Minerals” for a second, I need a video of Mark Cavendish driving a massive digger stat. Stat means now!
Corrections corner ?
“Wow, the third stage of the Tour de France Femmes must be the longest stage in history, it lasts four days!” EC member Dan Gerous commented on Monday’s instalment as we comprehensively botched the TV Guide. “Not to be outdone, the organisers of the Tour de Wallonie have announced their fourth stage would also last 4 days!”
Primes (for helpful members) ?
Thanks to ‘The Mamil’ on Discord for forwarding over Dante Humphrey’s photo of Jasper Philipsen’s green motor. He’s a 16-year-old from Colorado who has spent July racing in Belgium and having a blast, we’re told. You heard about him here first.
? Send us yer laundry pics ?
Thanks to Geoff McIntosh for sending in today’s laundromat photo (you can even see him in the reflection of the glass if you look closely). He writes:
“Here’s the laundry from my recent trip to Malolo Lei Lei in Fiji.” Ooh la la. “The dryers are of the not-accurately-named-at-all Speed Queen variety.”
So, Fiji is the new destination to try and beat. Good luck.
As always, we are accepting your own 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 …
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