Escape Collective - Members Only

Today on the show: Ayuso brings his energy to Lidl-Trek, Mathieu-Mania has arrived, and Mathias Norsgaard is spilling the beans on what Oier Lazkano is really like.

Today on the show: Oscar Onley is offski, Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe are flying a glider, and Ronan is here to talk about tyres.

Geek Warning time! Factor’s new One aero road bike, SRM’s non-power pedals, and whether riding bikes ever feels like work are all things Dave and Ronan discuss this week.There’s a bit of happy news for Spotify users, with our member-only channels now available on the green app. If you’ve been missing out on the Ask a Wrench segment (this week with Brad Copeland) because you’re loyal to Spotify, then now is the time to jump in.Time stamps:3:00 - Factor’s new One14:00 - New non-power pedals from SRM23:00 - Cube’s recall25:30 - Do we ever get sick of bikes?37:30 - PSA for the bearings on your bike40:15 - Ask a Wrench (Members Only)41:00 - When to replace a punctured tubeless tyre49:00 - How much of a difference do a few millimetres make?57:00 - Pressures for winter tyres

Mikel Delagrange is the reluctant face of Team AMANI. While he prefers the title of 'Head Cheerleader,' he was left to carry the torch after the project's founder, Sule Kangangi, tragically died in a high-speed crash in Vermont. Now leading the mission to dismantle the barriers facing African cyclists, Mikel oversees a unique ecosystem: From building a high-altitude training center in Kenya to the Migration Gravel Race. With a moonshot goal of fielding an all-African team at the Tour de France, Team AMANI is fighting to ensure the next generation can bridge the gap to the sport's highest levels.

In this episode of Performance Process, we finally dig into the tyre-testing project that quietly consumed most of my year.Nine months, six tyre widths, hundreds of test runs, three road surfaces, four identical wheelsets, and far too many cold late-night tests than any sane person should attempt. But it was worth it.Today, Ronan is joined by John Buckley the founder of Streamlines Aero, the company behind the hardware and technical support so crucial to this testing. Together, we break down how the test protocol worked, why it’s different, and why those differences matter. We also unpack the major findings: why pressure mattered more than width in this dataset, why some long-held assumptions didn’t hold up in the real world, and how tyre temperature turned out to be one of the biggest and least appreciated variables affecting performance.This is just the beginning. Later in the episode we explain where our tyre testing goes from here and what to expect in the new year.

This week, Wheel Talk continues the offseason interviews with a conversation with Ellen van Dijk. Ellen and Abby talk about Ellen's delayed retirement, her bid for the 2024 Olympic time trial in Paris, her pregnancy, and her time with Lidl-Trek vs. other teams.

Today on the show: Ineos has a brand new kit (which hasn't put off new signings), Premier Tech’s phone has been blowing up, and cycling on TV could be getting all mixed up once again.

Today on the show: Riders are getting fined in Calpe for having Spotify Wrapped playlists, Pogačar is the new Damien Hirst, Wout van Aert is the new David Cameron, and we may have an answer to whether we could keep up at the Singapore criterium.Today on the show: Riders are getting fined in Calpe for having Spotify Wrapped playlists, Pogačar is the new Damien Hirst, Wout van Aert is the new David Cameron, and we may have an answer to whether we could keep up at the Singapore criterium. Want to get the Member Feed on Spotify? (This is new!) Head over and follow these instructions. 

This week’s episode is perhaps a little more behind the scenes than most. Ronan tells Dave about his nine-month tyre-testing project and why he is now ready to actually test tyres. There’s chat about the struggles in picking products for our favourite things lists. And you'll hear a conversation that involves a lot of cliches such as ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ and ‘listen to your bike and body’. Of course, there’s a PSA, and somehow the conversation even turns to elephant asses. Oh yes, the Geeks cover some real ground in this one!Members of Escape Collective get all of that plus the Ask a Wrench segment (with pro mechanic Brad Copeland). It’s a big segment this week with five questions answered, but like every other week, it’s only available on the member-feed. Speaking of which, members can now access these episodes on Spotify!Time stamps:00:45 - Ronan’s long-awaited tyre testing15:10 - The struggle of picking our favourite products23:00 - It’s the last 5% that counts the most39:00 - The latest Rabbit Holes42:00 - PSA: The organised mess51:00 - Ask a Wrench (members only)52:00 - Servicing hubs and dealing with freehub drag1:01:25 - Singlespeeds and chain wear1:08:30 - Toe spikes and dealing with faulty shoes1:14:00 - Our preferred safety window for Hookless Road1:21:00 - A torque adapter question

This week, Abby talked to Gracia Sotomayor, the artistic cyclist from Peru. Sotomayor grew up knowing that, as a woman in a man's world, she had to be a certain way and do certain things. She had it all – a stable, good job, a home, and a partner to take care of her, but she was unhappy. When she started riding her fixed gear bike, everything changed. A few years later, Sotomayor was living in Germany, training to become Peru's first artistic cyclist on the world stage. Now, she inspires Spanish speakers everywhere to gain confidence and independence through cycling.

Today on the show: Geraint Thomas is now the Head of Phwa at Ineos Grenadiers, Jonas Vingegaard is looking ahead to his next career and we have Van der Poel and Wout van Aert’s cyclocross plans.

Welcome back to the Rabbit Holes podcast! This episode is an audio version of one of Iain's investigations – a journey into the vast bike industry ecosystem that is AliExpress. What's it like buying a bike from the platform? How do you know if you'll end up with something good? And, is it possible to end up with something you'll actually want to ride at the end of it all? We get our credit card out and go shopping ... and it's fair to say, it's a pretty bumpy ride. This podcast is an Escape Collective production, and is only possible through the support of our members. To become one of those, sign up at EscapeCollective.com/join. Sign up to the Rabbit Holes feed for future episodes - we've got a great one in the works. 

Last month, I traveled to the Great Karoo in South Africa for the inaugural Nedbank Gravel Burn. It is the latest brainchild of Kevin Vermaak, the man who built the legendary Cape Epic.I cannot overstate how spectacular the experience was for me. While the riding was incredibly challenging, the event's culture was the true standout. It was a rare leveling of the playing field: World Tour pros like Tom Pidcock. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, and Alison Jackson,  Ivan Glasenberg’s cohort of Glencore billionaires, all telling the same war stories from the road around the campfire and and dinner tables as us weekend warriors. Pretentiousness was left at the gate. For a week in the Great Karoo, we shared the same tents, the same food, and the same challenges.Typically, on this show, I wait for a business to mature for at least ten years before we profile it, afterall, an overnight success takes about a decade to buid. but given Kevin’s track record and the instant impact of this event, I’m breaking my own rule. I have no doubt Gravel Burn will quickly become a fixture on every cyclist’s bucket list.In this episode, we aren’t just talking about the ride; we’re dissecting the business model of an event like this, the critical choices made, and where it goes from here.Here is my conversation with Kevin Vermaak.

Welcome to the first-ever Spin Cycle Book Club. Today, we're talking about Le Fric by Alex Duff, a deep look into the most powerful family in cycling, the Amaurys. 

Big wheels, a product recall, and another rant about poor bike design – oh yes, it’s time for Geek Warning.This week Dave and Ronan return to your digital radios. On the list is a sneaky disappearance of a liked SRAM product, news from UCI regarding 32in wheels, and a recall from Trek. Some time on the tools has Dave ranting about a particularly bad example of internal cable routing, and of course, there’s a PSA.Members of Escape Collective get access to the full episode, which includes our popular Ask a Wrench segment (this week with pro race mechanic Brad Copeland). Just a note that we had an audio issue, and so Ask a Wrench this week has us answering two questions rather than the usual three. Still, there’s plenty of ground covered.Happy geeking!Time stamps:4:00 - SRAM quietly discontinues older AXS rim brake options7:20 - UCI leaves the door open to 32in wheels in MTB12:00 - Trek’s big recall of little things17:10 - Rant time from Dave24:00 - PSA for another place to look for a creak29:00 - Ask a Wrench (Members Only)32:00 - Corrections Corner for the previous Ask a Wrench34:00 - Can a chainring wear out before a chain?41:00 - Shimano 105 shifter levers not engaging