Placeholders: GC Wout won't
The Placeholders crew talks Wout van Aert's GC chances, league talks, Saudi money, Quintana's return, and gravel at the Tour de France.
Nov 01, 2023•42 min•Ep. 195
Spin Cycle
All the cycling news, analysis, and banter you need. Become a member to get premium content, extra episodes, and ad-free listening at escapecollective.com.
Check out our other podcasts on your preferred podcast platform:
- Geek Warning - how bikes work and how to make them better
- Wheel Talk - all things women's cycling
- How the Race was Won - racing and tactical analysis
- The Rest Day with Jack Haig - insights from within the pro peloton
- Overnight Success - The founders and innovators in the cycling industry
Escape Collective is entirely member-funded. If you like this podcast please consider supporting us by becoming a member: https://escapecollective.com/member/
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Episodes
Wheel Talk: End of Year Awards
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.
Oct 31, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 194
Geek Warning: Tire pressures are trending lower, but road racing frames are getting … stiffer?
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?
Oct 26, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 193
Placeholders: Sepp Kuss gets a parade and the Tour route is unveiled
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 ...
Oct 25, 2023•47 min•Ep. 192
Wheel Talk: The ups and downs of being a woman in cycling journalism
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.
Oct 24, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 191
Pretty Serious Bike Racing: Closing the book on the 2023 season
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.
Oct 23, 2023•43 min•Ep. 190
Performance Process: From sh*t to superpower with Jumbo's performance director
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...
Oct 20, 2023•42 min•Ep. 189
Geek Warning: The road drivetrain market is starting to get very crowded
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.
Oct 19, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 188
Placeholders: Cycling needs Pippo Pozzato’s dreams
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.
Oct 18, 2023•44 min•Ep. 187
Wheel Talk: The future of women’s cycling is bright!
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.
Oct 17, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 186
Geek Warning: We’re listening, too
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...
Oct 13, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 185
Placeholders: The merger that wasn’t
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.
Oct 11, 2023•43 min•Ep. 184
Wheel Talk: The problem with Jumbo-Visma
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.
Oct 10, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 183
Pretty Serious Bike Racing: He won another one?
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.
Oct 10, 2023•40 min•Ep. 182
Performance Process: Everyone fails at 40 minutes
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...
Oct 06, 2023•34 min•Ep. 181
Geek Warning: Hookless rim designs are coming after your aluminum wheels now, too
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 e...
Oct 05, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 180
Placeholders: Too Jumbo for their own good?
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...
Oct 04, 2023•55 min•Ep. 179
Wheel Talk: Recognizing the best domestiques
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.
Oct 03, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 178
Pretty Serious Bike Racing: Overachievers and underachievers, Lombardia looming
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.
Oct 02, 2023•53 min•Ep. 177
Geek Warning: Snap, crackle, pop, Shimano finally deals with its broken crank problem
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 ...
Sep 28, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 176
Introducing: Performance Process Podcast
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 t...
Sep 28, 2023•5 min•Ep. 175
Placeholders: Body fairings, Vegas trips, and merger rumors
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.
Sep 27, 2023•49 min•Ep. 174
Wheel Talk: Good tactics or questionable move?
Abby, Loren, and Gracie break down the European Championship road race and chat about gardening (plus maybe a little about the Kardashians, sorry).
Sep 26, 2023•47 min•Ep. 173
Pretty Serious Bike Racing: When is a teammate not a teammate?
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.
Sep 25, 2023•49 min•Ep. 172
Geek Warning: Recalls, weird brand choices, and more recalls
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 a...
Sep 21, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 171
Placeholders: Final thoughts on the Vuelta and Jumbo’s dominance
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.
Sep 20, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 170
Wheel Talk: Canyon-SRAM’s redemption arc
Abby, Loren and Gracie are back to chat about the Tour de Romandie, some transfers, and dolls.
Sep 19, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 169
Pretty Serious Bike Racing: A thrilling final week of Grand Tour racing
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.
Sep 18, 2023•48 min•Ep. 168
Emergency Vuelta Pod: Order is restored
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.
Sep 14, 2023•39 min•Ep. 167
Geek Warning: Specialized and Giant have very different takes on what makes the ideal endurance road bike
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. Time...
Sep 14, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 166
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