Spin Cycle is Escape Collective’s news digest, published every Monday and Friday. You can read it on the website (obviously) or click here to have it delivered straight to your inbox.
Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle.
Today we have Mads Pedersen trying to bust open the Tour de France Criterium Industrial Complex, while David Lappartient is trying to do a (probably?) good thing but then getting turned down by those he's trying to help.
We've also had quite the pro-rider-in-the-wild spotting in London, but thankfully far away from the velodrome on the other side of the city that has been making funny noises.
You're not supposed to say it out loud 🤐
Yes, we're still talking about the Tour de France criteriums over in Asia, but only because Mads Pedersen has broken the unwritten rule that riders are not supposed to shatter the grand illusion of our favourite fake bike races.
We are allowed to joke about it. Partly because we can't even get on the official press trip as "our media is too small" (yes, that was the real response to our request last year. Way to give us a complex about it, ASO). Anyway, here's what Pedersen had to say:
"I have refused a couple of times. You should never say never, but it is the last thing I want to do," the Dane said on his own Lang Distance podcast.
"It's a done deal. It's so awful to watch, because none of the riders are even trying to make it look like they're doing a bike race. It's more important that they're wearing some kind of bike helmet with a top hat on ... in a sumo wrestler's suit. That's what they're paid to do."
Okay, we're glad that Pedersen is seemingly on board with the associated nonsense that comes with the Saitama Criterium (we think?) and understands that is the main area of interest. And yes, we completely agree that the effort levels of performing in a fake bike race need to be upped. Mads Pedersen: voice for the voiceless.
What Pedersen should really do, if he feels so strongly about it, is take up one of the invitations to Japan that ASO keeps flinging his way, and then proceed to throw the script back through the race director's car window, attacking from the gun and either solo-ing to the finish or creating a real bike race behind to try and bring him back. That would be good.
Spotted in ... the real world 👀
We are always up for real world sightings of professional bike riders. Remember Jonas Vingegaard and his big coat?
Luckily, we have eyes and ears everywhere, sending us all sorts of tittle tattle, great and small, to share with the rest of the class to help us all get through the day.
Sometimes, it's just enough to spot a rider in the wild. But today we have the worlds-colliding event of bike celebrity and real-life celebrity coalescence that would have given us the spinniest of spinny heads if we'd seen it ourselves.
Did we do a good job with this story?
