Spin Cycle

This week is a very special episode. Abby sat down with friend of the podcast Rebecca Charlton to chat about cycling through pregnancy, missing the first Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and the backlash of covering men’s cycling as a woman.

Ruth Winder joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to wrap up the 2023 road racing campaign. The crew talks Guangxi and Chongming Island, and ponders some of the broader questions of the season.

To listen to the full episode, sign up at Escapecollective.com/join.Given the team's incredible success in 2023, one could be forgiven for assuming Jumbo-Visma is Dutch for jumbo victory count. With 70+ wins and all three Grand Tours in the bag, including a clean sweep of the Vuelta podium, the team has enjoyed success that even the most dominant of current and former super teams could only dream of. But it hasn't always been that way. We sat down with Jumbo-Visma's performance director Mathieu Heijboer to find out how they did it.

Who said road riding was dead? Clearly a lot of industry folks haven’t gotten the message. Lauf just introduced its first road bike, Classified and TRP are seemingly teaming up for an integrated wireless electronic road groupset with Classified’s novel two-speed rear hub, and Ingrid Components showed a prototype mechanical road lever with Shimano flippy-shifter vibes.

This week's episode dives into Pippo Pozzato's dreams to rebuild Italian cycling, taking cues from Flanders Classics. Plus Ronan, Kit, and Caley discuss an interesting (and TT-heavy) Giro d'Italia route, the young Brit who beat Remco Evenepoel in a big time trial, and, of course, a bit of Jumbo-Visma news.

This week Abby, Matt and Loren talk about some exciting up-and-coming riders, as well as the dilemma of Lidl-Trek’s five new 18-year-olds, the Tour of Chongming Island, and more.

Welcome back to Geek Warning, the show that proves the world of cycling tech never stops. This week we published our vision for covering tech news. In response, many of you asked for links to see and learn more of what we discuss in the Geek Warning podcast. And just like that, we present links! Zwift has launched its Hub One smart trainer with a single cog. Ronan is working on a review, but in the meantime you can read what DCRainmaker thinks of it. The recently announced Shimano crank recall is picking up steam as other countries roll out their respective recalls. However, it appears to be getting uglier. We discuss BMC’s new all-rounder race bike, the Teammachine R. This bike left Ronan rather impressed, follow the link to find out why. The Gravel World Championships offered a glimpse at a new Merida Silex. Meanwhile, Canyon’s long-awaited Grail CF is finally here, a bike James has a full review on. We also touch on new mountain bike wheels from Princeton CarbonWork's off-shoot brand P1 Race Tech. And being a new week, there are of course, new chainrings from Wolf Tooth. Timestamps: 4:58 – Zwift goes singlespeed and many tangents 16:05 – Shimano crank recall is getting uglier 21:50 – BMC’s new “not an aero bike” aero bike, automotive collabs, and narrow handlebars 43:05 – Princeton CarbonWorks launches for mountain bikes 46:50 – More new products from Wolf Tooth 49:50 – New gravel bikes from World’s 57:00 – How we’re thinking about covering tech news

Iain Treloar and Jonny Long join Caley Fretz to talk about the Jumbo-Visma merger that ultimately did not happen, the Ineos Grenadiers, Gravel Worlds, and Thibaut Pinot's retirement.

This episode was supposed to be about team captains but got slightly derailed by two topics none of us thought we would have to talk about in 2023: no live coverage of Gravel Worlds and the working conditions at Jumbo-Visma’s women’s team.

Cosmo Catalano and Dane Cash discuss Tadej Pogačar's second Monument of the season and third straight victory at Il Lombardia, as well as talking gravel, Paris-Tours, and MTB World Cups.

Welcome to a taste of the first episode of Performance Process, a podcast dedicated to making you a faster cyclist. To listen to the full episode, you'll need to be a member. You can sign up at Escapecollective.com/join. All members will receive an email with instructions for adding the private member feed to their podcast app of choice. This first episode focuses on optimizing for the hour record with guest Jonny Wale, delving into the processes behind the ten successful hour record attempts he's been involved with. That includes both Dan Bigham's former record and Filippo Ganna's current record. It's a fascinating chat and we hope you enjoy it.

There has been a slew of wheel introductions recently, with some of the most interesting ones being from Zipp (lightweight carbon XC!), DT Swiss (“Aero for All”!), and Mavic (hookless aluminum gravel!). Wait, what? Yep, Mavic is now so progressive that its new aluminum gravel wheels feature a hookless profile, and we have some thoughts on the idea. Timestamps: 1:37 – A close at DT Swiss’s new “Aero for All” aluminum wheels 8:27 – This most definitely is not the Mavic of yesteryear 15:04 – Zipp enters the XC wheel market (and their carbon road wheels have quietly gotten heavier) 25:56 – Bontrager cozies up with Look for a new range of clipless MTB pedals 32:57 – Wahoo Fitness continues to streamline its operations 35:58 – Brighter days are hopefully ahead for Parlee Cycles 41:35 – The indomitable and indestructible Surly Cross-Check is no more 46:30 – Dave is obsessing about what spare parts and – of course – tools to carry on his new bike 52:59 – James’s safety rules of the road 57:52 – More power or less weight for eMTBs? 1:02:08 – Choosing the right chain lube is about saving money, not watts

Jonny Long, Kit Nicholson, and Ronan Mc Laughlin join Caley Fretz to discuss the latest in the Jumbo-Visma Soudal-QuickStep potential merger saga, Alex Dowsett's new book, and more...

With no WWT racing since the last podcast, Gracie took charge of this episode. The crew spends most of the time discussing the best domestiques in the peloton, plus the different kinds of domestiques and who qualifies into which category.

Abby Mickey joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to discuss the highlights of this past weekend's racing, field questions from Escape Collective members, and look ahead at Il Lombardia.

Roughly a decade after problems first started surfacing with its bonded aluminum road crankarms, Shimano has finally issued an official recall for certain Ultegra and Dura-Ace models – and we have some thoughts on the matter. SRAM is also making its long-awaited entry into the e-MTB scene with its new Powertrain system, Specialized wants people to start thinking about e-bike performance a little differently, X marks the spot for Pinarello, and there’s some dodgy stuff going on out there when it comes to ultralight road wheels. Timestamps: 5:16 – Shimano’s bill has finally come due 22:35 – SRAM is now entered the e-MTB game 27:45 – How much does e-motor efficiency matter? 32:05 – Pinarello’s new endurance road bikes 40:31 – Canyon sure does like its CP0018 three-piece integrated cockpit 46:28 – Ignore those ETRTO rim dimensions at your own peril 51:50 – Introducing Ronan’s new podcast: Performance Process! 55:58 – Dave has gone down the eMTB rabbit hole 1:00:01 – Should MTB rims switch to Schrader valves? 1:04:22 – Ronan’s view on aero gains? Testing, testing, testing

What's this? A new podcast? You bet. Performance Process is a new podcast from Escape Collective exclusively for Escape Collective members. Ronan Mc Laughlin and Caley Fretz, the podcast was born from a simple idea: the best performances don’t just happen, they are the result of a combination of processes. Be that training, testing, coaching, or the latest science, we will be joined by a new guest each episode to delve into the processes that produce performances with the people who understand them best. If you enjoy maximising your own performance, this is definitely a podcast for you. Likewise, if you want to make sense of the latest performance innovations or how the best riders keep getting better, Performance Process is the podcast with the answers. The first episode will drop next week, and we'll publish a new episode every other week. If you're already a member, you'll receive an email with instructions for accessing episodes of Performance Process. If you're not a member yet, head to Escapecollective.com/join to fix that right up.

Jonny Long, Ronan Mc Laughlin, and Dane Cash join Caley Fretz to talk about what Jonny calls the "British equivalent of crit beef," Mauro Schmid's travel plans, and, of course, the reports of a possible Jumbo-Visma Soudal-QuickStep merger.

Abby, Loren, and Gracie break down the European Championship road race and chat about gardening (plus maybe a little about the Kardashians, sorry).

Ruth Winder joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to discuss the entertaining road race action from the European Continental Championships as well as the 2023 Grand Tour season as a whole.

This week’s Geek Warning has James, Ronan, and Dave covering a broad range of topics from Fulcrum’s new road wheels, a new airless tyre, and a tyre that’s recalled for being unwantedly airless. There’s also a surprising amount of chat about e-bikes, but perhaps not for the right reasons. There’s the new Moots entering the space, but not with its expected material. Rad Power promises safer batteries, which is great, but also feels late. And yet another recall has us asking whether cheap e-bikes are a responsible product. Timestamps: 4:45 – Moots takes an Express train in an unexpected direction 16:00 – New mid-range performance road wheels from Fulcrum 21:40 – Another attempt at the airless bicycle tyre? 25:42 – A road tyre recall from Pirelli 28:52 – Rad Power announces safer batteries, bit late? 34:38 – And another recall, this one impacts 45,000 bikes! 46:42 – Ashton Lambie gets out of a stick’y situation 51:50 – High-priced wheels are on Dave’s mind 56:45 – A PSA for Shimano Di2 users

Jonny Long, Kit Nicholson, and Ronan Mc Laughlin join Caley Fretz to discuss their final impressions of the 2023 Vuelta a España and Jumbo-Visma's dominance, some chatter around Mark Cavendish racing on, and more. Plus, the crew dives into a Sepp Kuss-related Weekly Pain competition.

Abby, Loren and Gracie are back to chat about the Tour de Romandie, some transfers, and dolls.

Abby Mickey joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to discuss the dramatic final week of the Vuelta a España, the race in general, and the Human Fly, and also to take a closer look at the women's Tour de Romandie.

Jonny Long, Abby Mickey, and Dane Cash join Caley Fretz in the immediate aftermath of stage 18 of the Vuelta a España, where Jumbo-Visma seemed to decide to back Sepp Kuss in red after several days of drama.

Specialized announced its latest Roubaix and Giant launched its fifth-generation Defy Advanced this week, but while they’re both “endurance road bikes”, they could hardly be more different. We’ve also got a new aero all-rounder from Ridley, fancy 3D-printed titanium derailleur hangers, new indoor developments from Wahoo and Zwift, a whole day of hour records, thoughts on the UCI’s minimum weight limit, and a word of caution to maybe not trust that little map on your GPS computer *too* much. Timestamps: 6:55 - A Specialized Roubaix, but no Cable Cobbler (yet) 21:45 - More endurance road bikes and Giant’s new Defy fills a gap. 32:20 – Silca has derailleur hangers with holes in them 38:45 - News from Wahoo with special guest, GPLama (https://gplama.com/)! 52:22 - A quick mention of Zwift things 54:50 - Ridley replaces the Helium SLX 1:01:30 - A new testing facility at MIPS 1:03:43 - There’s a day of Hour Records and Ronan is very excited 1:05:50 - The UCI weight limit is on Ronan’s mind 1:11:14 - A PSA that James and Dave hadn’t considered.

Emergency pod! Stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana was a banger, but not because of any of the performances. No, it was the intra-squad squabbling of Jumbo-Visma that caught our eye. Let's discuss. Warning, if you haven't seen the stage this pod is ONE BIG SPOILER.

Jonny Long, Ronan Mc Laughlin, and Kit Nicholson join Caley Fretz on this week's Placeholders to discuss those bottles we see at the finish line, watches on the podium, Jumbo-Visma's approach to the Vuelta, GCN being for sale, and much more.

This week, Abby, Matt, Loren and Gracie talk about the Simac Ladies Tour and the career and legacy of Annemiek van Vleuten.

Abby Mickey joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano amid a busy slate of September racing. The crew talks Vuelta, SIMAC Ladies Tour, and Canadian GPs, which means plenty of discussion of Evenepoel and Kuss, SD Worx and sprints, and uphill surges in North America.

The Placeholders crew debates Sepp Kuss's chances at the Vuelta a España and discusses the route of the Tour of Britain. Plus, the first ever Weekly Pain with three contenders battling for points.

Trek has just announced its fourth-generation Domane AL, and it’s even more of a budget-friendly workhorse than before. Over on the Bontrager side, its new ProV all-road/gravel models are the latest to switch to thermoplastic construction (courtesy of CSS Composites). Also, want to know more about Columbus’s new Trittico component family for internal routing? We’ve got the scoop. Timestamps: 3:22 – The skinny on Trek’s new (and very versatile) Domane AL entry-level “road” bike 13:50 – Bontrager’s latest road wheels signal a possible widespread shift to thermoplastic carbon fiber rims 25:35 – What the heck is a Reaver? 28:58 – Supacaz is getting into eyewear 37:59 – Columbus has a new turnkey internal routing system for small builders 48:18 – Dave exercises a remarkable level of restraint at Harbor Freight 55:25 – A dream comes true for James 1:00:06 – It turns out torque wrenches need time to warm up, too

Lots of bike racing for Abby, Matt, and Gracie to chat about this week! The one-day GP de Plouay on Saturday, where aggressive tactics led to a reduced bunch sprint with a surprising winner, the young guns got to show off at the first-ever Tour de l’Avenir Femmes, and we’ve got six stages of racing in the Netherlands and Belgium coming up this week, the final race for Annemiek van Vleuten.

Jonny Long joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano after nine days of racing at the Vuelta a España. The crew discusses the battle between Remco Evenepoel and Jumbo-Visma, smart moves and questionable decisions, and what's next. Also, the podcast looks at two different approaches to a sprint in Plouay.

Two episodes of Geek Warning in one week? Oh yes! This second episode has a more familiar format, but there’s still a twist. First, we have James and Dave chatting about what’s new this week and their thoughts from the MADE bike show. And then, you’ll hear from famed frame builder and Escape Collective contributor Rob English about the show, plus thoughts on the handmade scene. Timestamps: 2:35 – A brief recap of new gravel and road groups from Shimano 14:57 – Layoffs at Wahoo 17:50 – James and Dave chat Made. 32:18 – Hello Rob English!

Kit Nicholson and Jonny Long join Caley Fretz on this week's Placeholders to discuss whether Remco Evenepoel is growing into patron status, a saddle height kerfuffle at DSM, and more. Plus, we hear from Tour de l'Avenir winner Isaac del Toro, and Dave Rome tells us more about a new wheel size.

Welcome to a special episode, brought to you by the geeks of Escape Collective. In this deep dive, tech editor Dave Rome interviews Nick Legan and Dave Lawrence from Shimano about all that’s new (and not) in the latest GRX 12-speed mechanical groupset. At some point in the chat it’s mentioned that new 105 12-speed mechanical is also inbound, and so the conversation covers that, too. Tune in to hear about all that’s new, how HG+ works, an explainer on freehub compatibility, cable durability concerns, and a few bad (excellent) puns.

Loren Rowney, Abby Mickey, and Matt de Neef get together to talk about the Tour of Scandinavia on this week's episode of the Wheel Talk podcast.

Ruth Winder joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to discuss the many talking points in the early goings of the Vuelta a España, a strong showing by Annemiek van Vleuten and a gutsy performance by Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig at the Tour of Scandinavia, and more.

Iain Treloar and Dane Cash join Caley Fretz on this week's Placeholders to discuss news out of the Rwandan cycling scene, the Tour de l'Avenir, Jumbo-Visma's recent doping positive, and more. Plus, this Weekly Pain quiz comes down to the wire ...

This month's episode of Overnight Success is a bit different. For a long time now, we've been asked to share the origin story of CyclingTips in this podcast, but we always knew there was more to come in this journey. But now that the story is complete, we figured this is a good time to tell it. Instead of this being a monologue, Wade asked Mitch Docker (from the Life in the Peloton podcast) to host this episode. Mitch's journey with Life in the Peloton is similar to my own in many ways, and I'm enjoying seeing him take his own path and making a success out of it. It's hard to say if CyclingTips was a success or not. It depends on how you measure it. Like countless other media brands, CyclingTips is no longer in existence. But at one time it was a daily destination for cycling enthusiasts around the globe, and had a strong place within the cycling community that everyone involved was proud of. The version of CyclingTips that died a quick death was a very popular one. Each year millions of people visited the site. There were thousands of paying members. We ran events. We supported local events whenever we could. We contributed to charitable and social causes. We tried to give a voice to those who didn’t have one. We weren’t the biggest, but we liked to think that we made an impact in our little corner of the world. From the outside, it might have looked like a straightforward path, but as you'll hear it was anything but...

Abby Mickey, Loren Rowney, and Gracie Elvin answer some listener questions and go on some tangents in this latest episode of the Wheel Talk Podcast.

Abby Mickey joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to cover some interesting talking points after an intriguing finale at the Bemer Cyclassics and then to preview the route and favorites for the Vuelta a España and the Tour of Scandinavia.

Dane Cash and Kit Nicholson join Caley Fretz to discuss Mikel Landa, Fabio Jakobsen, and other big transfers, the MTB race start order kerfuffle at Worlds, and Richard Freeman. And of course, there's also another riveting edition of the Weekly Pain quiz.

This week's Geek Warning episode is a little different. With James off racing bikes, and Dave travelling (for work), the Geeks instead gathered to answer a bucket full of tech questions from Escape Collective members.Joining James and Dave are former MTB World Cup mechanic Brad Copeland and dream bike builder Zach (of Boulder Grupetto). Don't worry, the regular weekly show will return soon! In the meantime, enjoy and please let us know what you think of this format

The band is back together! This week, Abby Mickey, Matt de Neef, Loren Rowney, and Gracie Elvin chat about the ITT and road race at the Glasgow World Championships. Buckle up! It was a wild race!

Ruth Edwards and Kit Nicholson join Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to break down the action from the time trials and the women's road race at Glasgow Worlds.

Abby Mickey, Matt de Neef and Loren Rowney are joined once again by Matilda Raynolds to preview the women’s elite and U23 road race at the Glasgow World Championships.

James, Dave, and builder of dreams Zach are back and cover a broad spectrum of geeky topics. Specialized has a new iteration of the Tarmac. Ridley has a new bike with Fast in its name. Lezyne has even more products and Velocio clothing expands into mountain bike. We also summarise our thoughts on the Classified two-speed hub system. And so much more geeking. 4:36 – A quick corrections corner, oops 6:36 – A speed sniffing bike from Specialized 23:00 – Ridley’s new TT bike and Ronan isn’t here 28:49 – A torque wrench for News Tools Day 31:04 – Lezyne and a lot of (too much?) choice 36:15 – Velocio goes mountain 39:45 – It’s Classified, but our thoughts are not 55:22 – Too many logos are on Dave’s mind 1:02:20 – Crazy track bikes from everyone 1:03:44 – MVDP, crashing, and Boas 1:08:55 – A PSA on cleats

Iain Treloar and Dane Cash join Caley Fretz to cover some of the key storylines from Glasgow "Super Worlds," including star turns from team bosses, Mathieu van der Poel's busy day in the road race, up-and-comers, and more.