Spin Cycle

Another great episode this week with Abby Mickey, Loren Rowney and Gracie Elvin.

They talked about Classic Brugge-De Panne and Gent-Wevelgem, specifically SD Worx-Protime’s tactics and the sprint finish where Lotte Kopecky made the difference for Lorena Wiebes.

In order to really pick apart the sprint finish on Sunday they watched it live while recording. If you’d like to join in you can find the video we watched here.

In our final episode of this limited series, we turn the floor over to member questions. Thank you to everyone who became members throughout this series. Every single one of you helps make us produce more content like this. If you're not a member, you can join here: https://escapecollective.com/join/

You can listen another podcast you'll enjoy about 'Why are modern bikes so expensive' podcast here: https://escapecollective.com/why-are-modern-bikes-so-expensive/

Cosmo Catalano and Dane Cash have plenty to talk about after a week that was absolutely jam-packed with racing. The E3 Saxo Classic, Gent-Wevelgem, and the Volta a Catalunya all get the How the Race was Won treatment as the Tour of Flanders looms.

Welcome to the first episode of The Rest Day with Jack Haig! This new podcast is hosted by Bahrain-Victorious' Jack Haig and will take you behind the curtain of pro cycling. The first episode is a chat between Jack and his roommate, Wout Poels, discussing Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico from the inside. 

We don't often think of a saddle as a performance item. Sure, the wrong saddle or poor fit can lead to performance-sapping discomfort or injury, but using the saddle to promote, maybe even improve performance, is something we rarely hear about. But that's precisely how Wove suggests we should think about saddles, and after a year or more of using both it's saddles, I tend to agree.

As such, that saddle-centric performance bike fitting is the topic of this week's Performance Process podcast, as I invite Nick from Wove onto the show to discuss everything from his bike fitting philosophy to the evolution of Tadej Pogačar's position.

Four weeks on from Thomas De Gendt's now infamous crash, Zipp has released its findings and explanation, but many questions still remain.

In this podcast, Ronan is joined by David Morse and Nathan Schickel from Zipp as he seeks the answers to the questions many have been asking.

There’s certainly been a lot of outrage over the price of bikes in recent years, and for sure, when the price of a new bike falls inline with a new Ducati, it’s bound to give people pause. There are more ultra-expensive flagship bikes than ever before, but are mainstream bikes more expensive in general? Not really. And in fact, you can pretty easily make the argument they’re not only more affordable, but also a lot better, and the real problem might not be with bike prices, but how the bike industry markets itself.

Yeti is also back in the XC game with the resurrection of its storied ASR nameplate, and while it sounds like a heck of a bike, it also raises some questions about the direction of mountain bike suspension in general. Do more e-bikes equal more bikes sold? Salsa sure hopes so with a recent pivot in its product range. And if you haven’t removed your crankset in a while, one listen to our PSA this week might have you heading into the garage.

Timestamps:

0:56 – Dave makes his case for why you should buy a 3D printer
4:28 – Yeti’s back in the XC race bike scene!
22:25 – Salsa is jumping into the e-bike market, and at a very enticing price point
32:17 – Bikes aren’t really more expensive than they used to be, but the bike industry sure seems hell-bent on convincing you they are
45:25 – We hate to break it to you, but your frame is anything but waterproof
51:44 – DT Swiss has some ultralight carbon fiber XC race wheels on the way
53:06 – WTB has brought back the Solano name, this time for a new short-nosed saddle
54:29 – SRAM’s wireless Blips can now be used on their own for more flexible cockpit setups
56:15 – Finish Line is cooking up a new range of hot wax and drip wax chain lubes
58:38 – Strava has some new features for cyclists

Kit Nicholson and Dane Cash join Caley Fretz to discuss Mathieu van der Poel's longterm deal with Canyon and extension with Alpecin-Deceuninck, whether the pros should be friends, and what's coming up in the Spring Classics.

Loren, Gracie, and Abby are back to talk about Trofeo Alfredo Binda over the weekend and look ahead to Brugge-De Panne and Gent-Wevelgem coming up. Plus, if you haven’t seen Miss Americana on Netflix … well, now you’ve got your night planned for you, you’re welcome.

Why are bikes so expensive? In this episode, Factor's Rob Gitelis speaks openly, providing an insight deep into the world of premium bicycle manufacturing and breaking down the costs of making a modern high-end bike. More broadly, Gitelis talks us through some of the inner workings of the manufacturing facilities brands employ, staffing models and transient workforces, and his fears that a repeat of the Covid boom and bust is just around the corner.