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.
Spin Cycle
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Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle, Escape Collective’s news digest.
Right, we’ve got a lot going on today. Yes, we’re going to get to Tim Declercq racing a horse (you did read that correctly) and cyclocross drama arriving supremely early in mid-October, but we’ve got to begin with what’s going on with Tom Pidcock and Ineos Grenadiers. Buckle up!
One big cock-up 🤦♂️
Big news broke on Friday evening when Tom Pidcock announced on Instagram the night before Il Lombardia that he’d been deselected for the one-day race.
Confusion reigned, what was going on? Sports director Zak Dempster looked to protect the Ineos Grenadiers staff at the race but didn’t shed much light on the incident, telling Cyclingnews the morning of Il Lombardia: “It was a management decision on the final team, that’s their right.”
Aside from his original Instagram post saying he was in great shape and looking forward to the race, Pidcock’s dogs’ Instagram account was also getting in on the action: “We drove 12 hours to watch Dad race but instead we’ll be spending 2 extra days with him for our family holiday 🫤🤍.” Not sure dogs should be driving, especially sausage dogs, but we’re getting distracted here.
More intriguingly, and we think it’s fair to relay this information because it’s already in the public realm courtesy of journalist Dan Benson who was also hearing similar things on Friday night: there were rumours going around that Pidcock had been fired by Ineos Grenadiers.
Like Benson, we heard from two different people that this had happened but also had his agent deny it to us, and by Monday it seems that it is indeed not the case. So, was this just an innocent case of crossed wires? Was Pidcock being briefed against by … someone? More to the point: WHAT IS GOING ON?
Team elder (and maybe one of the few reasonable people in a leadership role at Ineos Grenadiers) Geraint Thomas was booked for an Instagram takeover of Eurosport’s account during Lombardia, and was more than happy to give his opinion on what for everyone in the team must be becoming a rather infuriating and distracting debacle.
“I don’t actually know what has gone on, but all I know is, when you’re the highest-paid rider in your team … it’s obviously a really crap situation,” Thomas said.
“He’s not happy, the team’s not happy. How has it got to this point? I don’t know. People who are around Tom I don’t think help. The fact is that he had a great chance of performing today.”
Let’s cleanse our palettes with some good Ineos news via Michał Kwiatkowski, he’s apparently not going anywhere.
Very cross 😡
To be honest we didn’t think it was cold enough outside to start reporting on cyclocross just yet, but then Eli Iserbyt went and got disqualified for stomping all over former teammate Ryan Kamp’s bike and single-handedly putting the cross in cyclocross.
Iserbyt was fined 100 Swiss Francs ($116) alongside his disqualification from the race, and also issued this apology:
“I understand the decision of the jury to disqualify me today in Beringen,” he posted on Twitter. “My acts after the hard crash were made in a rage of anger and don’t belong in this sport. For this I want to apologise to everyone involved. Now I’ll focus on the positive things and look forward to the next races!”
Feed Zone 🥖
🍂 Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won Il Lombardia three minutes ahead of Soudal-Quick Step’s Remco Evenepoel with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) third. Jan Tratnik was too ill to start his final race for Visma-Lease a Bike before joining Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, while Romain Bardet (DSM Firmenich-PostNL) was also unable to start due to sickness.
⏱️ Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) won Chrono des Nations to close out the final race of her career with a victory, while Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) took the men’s competition.
🌍 Eritrean Henok Mulubrhan won the African Cycling Championships road race for the third year in a row, and provided a welcome 250 UCI points for his relegation-threatened Astana Qazaqstan team. South African Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) won the women’s race with a solo attack.
👋 Domenico Pozzovivo (VF Group-Bardiani) brought his 20-year career to an end at Il Lombardia, while the Simac Ladies Tour (won by Lotte Kopecky) saw final outings for Human Powered Health’s Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Alice Wood (née Barnes) and SD Worx-Protime’s Christine Majerus. Abby Mickey has more on Majerus’ standout career.
Cycling on TV 📺
Tuesday October 15th
Tour of Guangxi – Stage 1
(01:05-02:35 ET/06:05-07:35 BST/16:05-17:35 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Tour of Chongming Island – Stage 1
(01:05-02:35 ET/06:05-07:35 BST/16:05-17:35 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Wednesday October 16th
Tour of Guangxi – Stage 2
(01:55-03:25 ET/06:55-08:25 BST/16:55-18:25 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Tour of Chongming Island – Stage 2
(01:05-02:35 ET/06:05-07:35 BST/16:05-17:35 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Track
(All Track Worlds broadcast times for Australia are a calendar day later)
UCI Track Cycling World Championship, Ballerup – Day 1
(12:20-14:30 ET/17:20-19:30 BST/03:20-05:30 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Thursday October 17th
Tour of Guangxi – Stage 3
(01:55-03:25 ET/06:55-08:25 BST/16:55-18:25 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Tour of Chongming Island – Stage 3
(01:05-02:35 ET/06:05-07:35 BST/16:05-17:35 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Track
UCI Track Cycling World Championship, Ballerup – Day 2
(12:20-16:00 ET/17:20-21:00 BST/03:20-07:00 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Friday October 18th
Tour of Guangxi – Stage 4
(01:55-03:25 ET/06:55-08:25 BST/16:55-18:25 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Track
UCI Track Cycling World Championship, Ballerup – Day 3
(12:20-16:15 ET/17:20-21:15 BST/03:20-07:15 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Saturday October 19th
Tour of Guangxi – Stage 5
(01:45-03:15 ET/06:45-08:15 BST/16:45-18:15 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Cyclocross
Exact Cross, Essen – Women
(07:40-08:45 ET/12:40-13:45 BST/22:40-23:45 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Exact Cross, Essen – Men
(08:55-10:15 ET/13:55-15:15 BST/23:55-01:15 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺
Track
UCI Track Cycling World Championship, Ballerup – Day 4
(12:20-16:00 ET/17:20-21:00 BST/03:20-07:00 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Sunday October 20th
Tour of Guangxi – Stage 6
(04:15-05:30 ET/09:15-10:30 BST/19:15-20:30 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Tour of Guangxi – Women (USA broadcast start time is Saturday night)
(23:15-00:15 ET/04:15-05:15 BST/14:15-15:15 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧
Cyclocross
Superprestige, Ruddervoorde – Women
(07:35-08:40 ET/12:35-13:40 BST/22:45-23:40 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Superprestige, Ruddervoorde – Men (Australia broadcast start time is Monday morning)
(09:05-10:30 ET/14:05-15:30 BST/00:05-01:30 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦
Track
UCI Track Cycling World Championship, Ballerup – Day 5
(07:20-11:00 ET/12:20-16:00 BST/22:20-02:00 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇺🇸🇨🇦
Monday October 21st – Friday October 25th
No live racing …
🚜 Fever dream cycling match-up of the week 🐴
If you were anywhere else that wasn’t Belgium, stumbling across Lidl-Trek’s Tim Declercq racing against a real-life, actual horse would likely cause alarm but in this part of the world it just kind of makes sense.
Pleasingly, for a rider like Declercq (35) who has spent his career helping others win and taken zero professional victories himself, he was the first rider in 10 years to beat the horse over the 400-metre course. All these years spent racing other humans when he should have been challenging the animal kingdom!
Would you like to know more about this bizarre cyclist vs. horse event? Unsurprisingly, our Iain Treloar wrote a whole article about it this time last year.
And finally …
We’ll end with some sincerity: a big shoutout to 20-year-old Zoe Bäckstedt who managed to hold on to third overall and take the white jersey at the WorldTour-level Simac Ladies Tour despite having zero teammates in the race after the opening stage. Not sure what the exchange rate is between this and being faster than a horse, but they are definitely first and second in recent cycling achievements (sorry, Tadej).
This time, it is technically called a vacation 🗽
We’re off on a short holiday to New York City! Woohoo! Where, in terms of live sporting options, we’ll find ourselves caught in the Goldilocks ticketing zone between $300 for playoff Mets (I work in the wrong industry for that), $7 for pre-season Brooklyn Nets (does the price mean I’ll get a go in the second quarter?) and $160 Eagles @ Giants, which could’ve been just right if either team could actually play the sport they are tasked with playing.
Anyway, that means no Spin Cycle on Friday or next Monday. Sorry about that, but we’ll be back on Friday October 25th.
🧺 Send us yer laundry pics
“G’day,” writes Poidahdubya, attaching today’s film noir laundry submission. “Here are some pictures I took on my old Canon EOS5 film camera back in 2001 of a laundromat in East Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia. Use none, any or all as you please.”
I think we’ll be returning to bring you more from this artistic laundry submission in the future.
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 Poidahdubya 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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