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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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is underway, and Abby, Matilda and Loren are on the ground for Escape Collective writing and podcasting from the race this week. Make sure to tune into The Tour Daily – Wheel Talk Edition (available in all of the usual podcast places) and keep tabs on the website for the best reporting from the second half of this summer’s Tour de France.
To begin today’s newsletter, we have a story from the Tour that has the propensity to turn sour later in the race, even though there’s no milk to be found.
H(oat) cuisine🍴
The Tour de France is the highpoint of the year for all team sponsors, a period where you can expect maximum eyeballs on your brand, the week where you reap the rewards of the money you’ve put in.
We are big fans of regular sponsors, in other words: companies that sell actual things putting money into the sport. It harks back to simpler times, and comes without the baggage of being funded by the likes of countries or huge energy companies.
So, Oatly oat milk sponsoring EF-Oatly-Cannondale (as well as their men’s team to a lesser extent) is very fun indeed, and it seems as if they are getting bang for their buck as the team announced they would be going dairy-free for the entirety of the Tour de France.
In a press release, the team claim traditional diets that include dairy can hinder a cyclist’s recovery.
“If a rider is lactose intolerant, she can have very severe digestive problems, which disappear when lactose is removed from her diet,” team nutritionist Anna Carceller said. “During intense racing, some athletes have functional intolerances with complex molecules like lactose, developing negative symptoms that can impact their performance and overall wellness. Both of these are medical conditions that have to be addressed and managed properly. Eliminating dairy from a rider’s diet can often solve these problems.” Not only this, but cutting out dairy, Carceller says, may have anti-inflammatory benefits to aid recovery.
“A dairy-free diet is compatible with high performance,” she continued. “Food science has shown us that nutritional diversity can be met in a dairy-free diet, allowing an athlete to have an excellent diet while going dairy-free without problems.”
We are not about to start an argument with an actual scientist, and great that EF are trying something new (as they often are on the marketing side of things). We are also fans of oat milk in general. All we’re saying is that when it gets to stage 5, the riders may be exhausted from hard racing and the demands of the biggest bike race on the calendar, and all they may want is a coffee with some proper milk from a cow with a slice of toast lathered with some delicious butter.
Carceller, the team chef and Oatly have collaborated on a race menu that ensures “they will still have the flavours and textures they enjoy.” Fingers crossed.
An IPSO oopsie 📰
You may recall the story featured in a May edition of Spin Cycle, whereby the Telegraph, a British national newspaper, analysed Strava data and claimed cyclists in London were doing 52 mph in a 20 mph zone and therefore putting lives at risk. This would be an impressive speed, seeing as Dutch mutiple Paris Olympics gold medalist Harrie Lavreysen could only muster 47 mph in the Keirin.
Well, after nearly 100 people made formal complaints, noting the impossibility of what the paper was saying, to the UK’s Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), it’s been ruled the Telegraph was unsurprisingly in breach of the Editors’ Code with their front page story, Press Gazzette reports.
While the Telegraph argued that the story was still of “significant” public interest, drawing attention to the risks posed by dangerous cycling, it also told IPSO it was not able to independently verify the Strava data, which one would think should be the first step before putting a story on the front page of a Big And Serious newspaper.
The paper has issued corrections in print and online, although wasn’t made to do so with the same prominence as the original, misleading story was given. A victory nonetheless for common sense and media standards. Hooray.
So long, and thanks for all the fish 🎣
There I was, just trying to enjoy my Sunday, watching the end of the Olympics, flicking through the Sunday Times, when suddenly I’m face-to-face with our old friend the pollution billionaire Jim Ratcliffe holding a big, unhappy-looking salmon.
Now, with Ratcliffe a significant stakeholder in the sport of cycling as the owner of one of the most expensively-run teams, it’s worth keeping an eye on what he’s up to.
The reason for his appearance in camo jacket, ankle deep in a river, fish in hand, is because he’s bought up vast swathes of Iceland in order to protect Atlantic salmon.
A noble cause, sure, there are worse things for billionaires to spend their money on. The Icelandics are, however, understandably concerned a non-resident has bought up more than 400,000 hectares (almost 4% of the country’s land), and are now looking to cap the amount of land a non-Icelander can purchase and own. When asked by the reporter if there was any other individual who owned as much of Iceland as he did, Ratcliffe responded: “Possibly the church.”
Ratcliffe has not revealed how much he paid for the Icelandic land, although accounts from a holding company suggest a figure of £39 million, the rumoured budget to fund the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team for one year. On the face of it: the land is a bargain.
What are his plans for the land? Helping restore a salmon population that has dropped by three quarters since the 1970s, planting half a million trees as well as more broadly protecting the area from developers.
“It’s really all about the salmon,” Ratcliffe said. “Time is running out but we might be lucky.” Given he’s also recently invested €4 billion into a ethane gas cracking plant in Antwerp and put €20bn into a joint venture that builds petrochemical complexes in Beijing and Shanghai, time might be running out for all of us before too long the way he’s going.
Elsewhere in the article, Ratcliffe bemoans the decline in British public services, despite moving Ineos to Switzerland in 2010 because of a spat with UK Inland Revenue over a tax bill, while the £30bn man himself moved to tax-free Monaco in 2020.
So long Jim, we’ll say as climate Armageddon greets us, and thanks for all the fish.
Feed Zone 🥖
😎 Charlotte Kool won the opening bunch sprint of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Read our stage report here.
🇳🇬 Nigerian cyclist Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye got a last-minute call-up for the Keirin and sprint competitions at the Paris Olympics, but her federation didn’t have a track bike for her due to the late notice. Luckily, the German Cycling Federation leant her one in big Spirit Of The Games energy.
⏩ Less than 24 hours after winning silver in the Omnium, Polish rider Daria Pikulik will line up at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift for Human Powered Health, as will Canadian Maggie Coles-Lyster (Roland), both amongst the riders making a quick turnaround from track back to road for two of the biggest events of the year.
🥇 Our Kit Nicholson has the only round-up you need covering all the action from the track last week at the Paris Olympics. Read it here.
👋 Julian Alaphilippe called Patrick Lefevere last week to let him know he was leaving, the Soudal-Quick Step boss has told Het Nieuwsblad.
🍫 Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) beat Alaphilippe in a two-up sprint to win the Clásica San Sebastián on Saturday. Lotto Dstny’s Lennert Van Eetvelt was third, seven seconds adrift, while there were top 10 finishes for Americans Kevin Vermaeke (DSM Firmenich-PostNL), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).
⌚ Speaking of Hirschi, it was announced on Monday that the Swiss rider will join Tudor Pro Cycling in 2025 on a three-year deal. Tudor is also being mooted as a possible destination for Alaphilippe, as well as TotalEnergies.
🦄 French road race champion Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) beat Lotto Dstny’s Pascal Eenkhorn and Groupama-FDJ’s Brieuc Rolland to win La Polynormande. Fun extra fact: Eenkhorn translates as acorn, while eenhorn means unicorn and eekhorn means squirrel (at least according to Google Translate). How fun.
🫣 A worrying fall at the Circuito de Getxo for Lidl-Trek’s Juan Pedro López, who squeezed just underneath the barriers as he slipped on a corner. “I just saw the video of my fall,” he said afterwards. “How lucky I was … this is cycling, I will come back in the best possible way.”
Cycling on TV 📺
Tuesday August 13th
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – Stage 2
(03:30-16:15 ET/08:30-11:15 BST/17:30-20:15 AEST) ITV/Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – Stage 3
(09:30-12:15 ET/14:30-17:15 BST/23:30-02:15 AEST) ITV/Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour du Limousin – Stage 1
(07:00-10:40 ET/12:00-15:40 BST/21:00-00:40 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Wednesday August 14th
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – Stage 4
(07:30-10:30 ET/12:30-15:30 BST/21:30-00:30 AEST) ITV/Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour du Limousin – Stage 2
(08:20-12:00 ET/13:20-17:00 BST/22:20-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Tour of Denmark – Stage 1 (TTT)
(10:10-11:45 ET/15:10-16:45 BST/00:10-01:45 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Thursday August 15th
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – Stage 5
(07:30-10:30 ET/12:30-15:30 BST/21:30-00:30 AEST) ITV/Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour du Limousin – Stage 3
(08:20-12:00 ET/13:20-17:00 BST/22:20-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Tour of Denmark – Stage 2
(09:45-11:45 ET/14:45-16:45 BST/23:45-01:45 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Tour of Leuven
(09:00-11:30 ET/14:00-16:30 BST/23:00-01:30 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇨🇦
Vuelta a España – Team Presentation
(14:00-15:10 ET/19:00-20:10 BST/04:00-05:10 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Friday August 16th
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – Stage 6
(07:30-10:30 ET/12:30-15:30 BST/21:30-00:30 AEST) ITV/Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Peacock🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, SBS🇦🇺
Tour du Limousin – Stage 4
(08:20-12:00 ET/13:20-17:00 BST/22:20-02:00 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Tour of Denmark – Stage 3
(09:45-11:45 ET/14:45-16:45 BST/23:45-01:45 AEST) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
🐍 Snake bite of the week 🐍
“Found out there are some venomous snakes in Andorra,” American mountain bike champion Bjorn Riley posted on Instagram after getting bitten by an adder whilst out riding. “Can’t complain though, got some splendid time in a heli.”
A big yikes, but don’t worry, the fact he’s posted it on Instagram and also has more recent story updates featuring him at the beach and eating sushi in Girona signals he’s made a full recovery.
And finally …
Confusion at the Romanian Tour of Szeklerland, where Mihai Simion reports that Astana Qazaqstan’s Lev Gonov assumed the yellow jersey was for the GC leader, but yellow is for the sprint leader and red for the overall.
Luckily, by the end of the race, Gonov had captured both yellow and red jerseys.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“I currently find myself in Cairns, Australia while travelling for work,” Dean Harris writes in, attaching today’s featured laundry machines. “There are many more things here that are trying to kill me than at home in Sydney.
“Anyway, I thought the ‘out of order’ sign in the hotel laundry was a nice touch for the next time you need to report on the UCI, Nacer Bouhanni punching someone, or Antonio Tiberi shooting cats.”
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 Dean Harris and Kit Nicholson for contributions to today’s edition and a big thank you to all of you who have signed up already as Escape Collective founding 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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Spin Cycle
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