Spin Cycle

Abby, Loren, Matt, and Gracie wrap up the season by handing out some awards to the best team, best rider, best race finish, and more.

Merida and Polygon have just announced some interesting new gravel bikes, and Campagnolo's new Hyperon road wheels are a far better value than the flagship version. But what we're really interested in this week is Focus's new Izalco Max semi-aero road racer. It's supposedly faster, stiffer, and lighter than before (naturally), but also unabashedly less comfortable. Is that a good thing?

On this week's Placeholders, Dane Cash and Kit Nicholson join Caley Fretz to discuss Sepp Kuss's victory parade in Durango, the Tour route unveiling, gravel, and more ...

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