Spin Cycle: Meals on wheels - Escape Collective

Oct 26, 2024

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.

We’ve returned after our brief sojourn and now find ourselves desperately trying to catch up with what we’ve missed.

So Tom Pidcock isn’t moving to Team Licence Plate anymore? Huh. And Wout van Aert may or may not be dressing up as a giant squirrel on Belgian TV? Sure. And Intermarché-Wanty are having a slumber party in full team kit? Obviously.

We better get started.

When Jayco-AlUla’s Christopher Juul-Jensen popped up on our Instagram feeds wearing a pizza delivery bag, we had to find out whether this was a photo stunt or if he was picking up some extra shifts this winter.

“I was delivering pizzas for a night ;D,” he confirmed for us.

“My good friend [owns] the pizzeria. He helps me every year with [a] charity event, so I helped him last night.”

Let’s hope he adopted a more upright position than he’s used to, else we fear for all those toppings.

Social media is often accused of showing a narrow, sanitised window of only the bits people want you to see of their lives, but in the case of pro cyclists, a lot of the time you’re seeing people who are doing far too much exercise and look, well … tired.

So when the off-season rolls around, it’s nice to see the pros kick back and relax. We enjoy seeing Soudal-Quick Step’s James Knox tacking on far-flung adventures after the end-of-season races in Asia, as well as Toms Skujiņš showing us everything he’s eating, giving a slice of bread a gentle, friendly squeeze before putting it into a pan of egg for some French toast.

But the undisputed king of permanent off-season, AKA retirement, is Thibaut Pinot. Last year, we delighted in his attendance at a Champions League football match holding two beers at once, as well as his link-up with Visma-Lease a Bike boss Richard Plugge for some après-ski in the Alps.

This year, Pinot is in Nepal for some not-so-light climbing. Old habits die hard, though, as he’s still logging it all on his Strava.

Listeners of this week’s Spin Cycle podcast will have heard the bombshell exclusive from roving reporter Chris Marshall-Bell that Richard Plugge will once again be returning to the Alps for a skiing holiday this winter. We’ll have to wait and see if his drinking buddy Thibaut will be joining him again.

💰 Tadej Pogačar has signed a new deal with UAE Team Emirates to keep him with the team until at least 2030, with Italian paper La Repubblica reporting he’s now being paid €8 million a year.

📉 Rapha posted a pre-tax loss of £22.7 million in its last year of financial reporting, the seventh loss-making year in a row for the British brand.

😬 Road cycling and mountain biking have been axed from the 2026 Commonwealth Games to be hosted in Glasgow due to cost-cutting measures.

Friday October 25th

The biggest question dogging the cycling world this past week has been whether the person dressed up as a giant squirrel on Belgium’s version of The Masked Singer is … Wout van Aert!

So this is how Wout is entertaining himself these days? Any think it’s someone else? pic.twitter.com/kpUFdFYLNt

We’re not necessarily convinced (although we wouldn’t have guessed Nairo Quintana would dress up as a chameleon for the Colombian version of the show either) but you can find out for yourself this Friday evening at 20:40 local time (14:40 ET/19:40 BST/05:40 AEDT) on Belgian TV Channel VTM! Just got to call up my cable company to see if they can add it to my package …

Track Cycling

London 3 Day – Day 1(07:00-10:00 ET/12:00-15:00 BST/22:00-01:00 AEDT) Cycling Weekly’s YouTube channel

Saturday October 26th

Track Cycling

London 3 Day – Day 2(13:00-17:00 ET/18:00-22:00 BST/04:00-08:00 AEDT Sunday) Cycling Weekly’s YouTube channel

Cyclocross

Exact Cross, Heerderstrand – Women(07:40-08:55 ET/12:40-13:55 BST/22:40-23:55 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺

Exact Cross, Heerderstrand – Men(08:55-10:20 ET/13:55-15:20 BST/23:55-01:20 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺

Sunday October 27th

Track Cycling

London 3 Day – Day 3(09:00-14:00 ET/13:00-18:00 BST/00:00-05:00 AEDT) Cycling Weekly’s YouTube channel

Cyclocross

Superprestige, Overijse – Women(08:35-09:40 ET/12:35-13:40 BST/23:35-00:40 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺

Exact Cross, Heerderstrand – Men(10:05-11:15 ET/14:05-15:15 BST/01:05-02:15 AEDT) Eurosport/Discovery+🇬🇧, Max🇺🇸, FloBikes🇨🇦, Staylive🇦🇺

Monday October 28th

No live racing …

We don’t really know what else to add to this video. It’s a bunch of Intermarché-Wanty riders thumping the Belgian bejeezus out of each other with pillows, before presumably all jumping under the duvet together to share secrets and whisper about their crushes.

Expect something similar from the upcoming Ineos Grenadiers training camp, except the pillows will be filled with bricks. Only joking, probably.

Teambuilding is going well pic.twitter.com/7BN3XdclOm

Move over Arctic Race of Norway and your salmon cheques, the Japanese Tour de Kyushu is handing out real big fish for their general classification!

TotalEnergies’ Emilien Jeannière looks thrilled, the podium host less so, her thousand yard stare particularly haunting. But better than the fish are the dainty gloves Jeannière is sporting while handling it.

【🏆表彰式🏆】個人総合時間賞 General Classification by @mynavi_PR🎖エミリアン・ジャニエール（トタルエナジー）| Emilien Janniere（TEN） @TeamTotalEnrg#マイナビツールド九州 #TourdeKyushu pic.twitter.com/UocuO8u5ye

After we revelled in Tim Declercq being faster than a horse, Ben Malone got in touch with some more cyclist vs. horse action.

“Nico Roche also took on a horse in 2015,” he said, attaching the below video. “You could bet on this one and it has the full horse racing commentary experience.

Unfortunately, Roche got absolutely smoked by *checks notes* Pat Smullen aboard Moonbi Creek.

“This is a photo of the 24-hour laverie outside Intermarché in Montbron near my in-laws,” writes in Eric Rosoman, attaching today’s featured laundromat. “They thought I was bonkers opening the two unused doors and taking the photo. Don’t worry, I closed them again before I left. (The middle one is a blur because it was on high speed spin).”

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]

That’s all folks! Thanks to Ben Malone, H Lee, Lisa Neumann, Kit Nicholson and Eric Rosoman 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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