Escape Collective

The Sea Otter Classic just wrapped up literally a few days ago, but clearly someone forgot to turn off the tap of new bikes and gear. Cervelo just announced a redesign of its ultra-popular Aspero gravel bike, and clearly put a lot of thought into what needed to change – and perhaps more importantly, what didn’t. Colnago also just dropped a new gravel bike of its own, the G4X, and Giant finally revamped its Trinity TT bike – no more rim brakes! Dave and James also chat about the eight billion tubeless valve stems out on the market, our favorite mountain bike computer mounts, and some of the latest happenings on the industry side.

Escape Collective's podcasts are made possible by our members. Head on over to escapecollective.com/join to support this show and everything else on our podcast network.

Timestamps:

3:17 – Cervelo’s ultra-popular Aspero gravel bike gets a careful redesign
10:50 – Zwift has added a whole bunch of new features, and some of them sound pretty sweet
15:15 – What’s up with seemingly everyone having their own high-flow tubeless valves now?
28:11 – Pick one! Our favorite mountain bike computer mounts
38:54 – A dirty cassette can easily turn into a skipping chain
43:22 – Colnago announces its new G4X gravel race bike
58:54 – The last holdout of rim brakes in the pro peloton is no more
59:30 – Enve Composites has been sold
1:01:07 – What the heck is going on at Rapha?
1:06:29 – More industry layoffs, this time at Cannondale

On this week's podcast, the crew looks ahead to the Giro d'Italia, where Tadej Pogačar looks like the favorite on a course that should provide wire-to-wire excitement.

Escape Collective's podcasts are made possible by our members. Head on over to escapecollective.com/join to support this show and everything else on our podcast network.

In this two part-episode Loren, Gracie and Abby chat about the opening TTT of La Vuelta and what it might mean for the stages coming up. 

In the second segment, Abby and Loren check back in after the second stage with some audio diaries from riders on the ground including Maike van der Duin (Canyon-SRAM), Alessia Vigilia (FDJ-Suez), Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Brodie Chapman (Lidl-Trek). 

On this week's How the Race was Won pod, Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano break down the Tour de Romandie, where the Ineos Grenadiers put on a familiar show and where Decathlon-AG2R showed us that they are a sprinting team after all.

In this episode of Geek Warning, James is just back from the Sea Otter Classic and Dave is still thinking about chain lube and tools.

On the Sea Otter front, James and Dave discuss new eco-friendlier tyres from Vittoria, new metal bikes from Ritchey and Digit, parts from 5Dev and Xpedo, along with new tools from PrestaCycle and Stan’s NoTubes. Check out James’ Sea Otter Classic galleries for visuals of what was discussed (and so so so much more).

The conversation then turns to larger questions around Stages Cycling and Kona who were both missing-in-action at America’s largest trade show and cycling event.

On Dave’s mind is a better way to apply chain lube following a recent video from Josh Poertner of Silca. Our PSA is less of a public service announcement and more a basic guide into figuring out where noises may be coming from in order to silence them. And then the geeks bring back the Pick One segment to discuss floor pumps.

The episode finishes up with a new crank-related recall from FSA.

All this and more in this week’s episode of Geek Warning – a podcast created for and funded by the members of Escape Collective.

Time stamps:

3:00 - Sea Otter highlights, including things from Vittoria, Ritchey, Digit, PrestaCycle, 5Dev, Xpedo, and more.
26:00 - Unknowns ahead for Stages Cycling and Kona Bikes
36:00 - Circling back to the HighBar helmet strap as seen at Sea Otter
39:20 - A better way to apply chain lube?
45:15 - Chasing down those noises
52:40 - Picking one floor pump
1:02:30 - An explainer on Time’s revamped pedal range
1:06:00 - FSA recalls some its AGX+ gravel cranks

With Classics season in the rearview mirror, Kit Nicholson, Dane Cash, and Ronan Mc Laughlin join Caley Fretz on this week's Placeholders to ponder whether anything can or should be done to make it harder for riders to attack from so far out.

Gracie and Abby are joined this week by Rebecca Charlton to break down La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and lament the end of the Spring season. But don’t despair! La Vuelta España Femenina kicks off on Sunday and Escape Collective is running a fantasy competition just for you! One more reason to text your cycling group chat, subscribe to the Wheel Talk Newsletter and keep an eye on your inbox to sign up.

Cosmo Catalano and Dane Cash discuss La Flèche Wallonne, where the weather made for a more interesting men's race than we often get while the women's race ended with a long-awaited win, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where one rider's dominance made for a less intriguing finish than we might have hoped on the men's side while the women kept it suspenseful to the very end.

In this episode, Jack takes some time to reflect on a difficult few weeks. Pro cycling has ups and downs, and the entry to spring was a down. How does one get through such a period? 

Death, taxes, and wild tech at Paris-Roubaix used to be the three certainties in life, but if the 2024 edition of the Queen of the cobbles taught us anything, it's that the days of wild Roubaix-specific bikes and tech are a thing of the past.

In this Performance Process episode of two halves, Ronan is first joined by the crew at Specialized to talk through how the World Tour pros optimise for Paris-Roubaix in 2024 and how that compares to just a few years ago. In the second half, Ronan welcomes Swiss Side's JP Ballard onto the show once again to wrap all the cobbled classics campaign and tackle some of the more general tech questions the 2024 campaign threw up.

In this jam-packed episode, James and Dave discuss a handful of new gravel and road bikes that caught their attention during the week. Trek enters the rear Radar game to compete with Garmin, yet James’ early impressions of the CarBack raises more questions than answers.

DT Swiss has just released a new mountain bike rear hub with a wholly new ratchet system, you can read about the new 240 DEG hub at escapecollective.com, and a bonus episode of Geek Warning with DT Swiss is also available, too. Meanwhile the coverage of new products from EVT, Fox, RockShox, and more continues at the end of the episode.

On our mind and over the heads of the geek's families is the topic of gravel suspension. The geeks discuss who it’s for (and who it’s not), and why it’s proving to be more than a gimmick.

Plus there’s a PSA, which is likely a repeat on something previously discussed, but that only makes it more important.

Time stamps:

3:00 - Kona’s new gravel bike for mountain bikers
6:30 - FiftyOne’s new Sika road bike
11:55 - Parlee’s new and unexpectedly-European-made Ouray road bike
15:40 - Trek enters the rear radar game with its CarBack
23:15 - DT Swiss’ 240 Ratchet DEG hub
26:30 - Chatting all things gravel suspension (including Cane Creek’s Inverted answer to the space)
43:25 - PSA: Your dropper needs love
47:50 - Classified adds Enve to its partners list
49:25 - New RockShox things
50:40 - Fox overhauls its Transfer dropper
53:00 - EVT enters the portable repair stand game
55:10 - OnGaurd’s new RockSolid angle-grinder-resistant lock

It’s time for another bonus episode of the Geek Warning podcast. Typically only Escape Collective members have access to the full versions of these, but this week we’re feeling generous.

This episode coincides with the release of DT Swiss’ Ratchet DEG system (link to review), effectively an oversized 90T version of the famous Star Ratchet design. Here, tech editor Dave Rome interviews Friso Lorscheider and Brandon Wold from DT Swiss about this new mountain bike rear hub and how it fits into the company’s modern line-up.

The discussion then turns to new spokes, how to choose spokes, and an explainer on understanding DT Swiss’ wheel range names. Geek Warning, indeed.

A special thank you to our members for helping to fund deep dives like this. If you're not already a member, then joining Escape Collective will help us to create more good things and provide you with access to experience it.

Jonny Long, Kit Nicholson, and Dane Cash join Caley Fretz to ponder whether the Ardennes Classics might merit some reevaluation, to discuss World Cup mountain bike racing and the NCL going on hiauts, and to look ahead to a clash between Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.

Gracie, Loren, and Abby call in back up in the form of Matt de Neef to try and figure out what exactly happened on Sunday at the Amstel Gold Race. The shortened race impacted some teams more than others, and a top rider learned a tough lesson.

Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano discuss just exactly how the men's Amstel Gold Race was won, and how the riders who finished both first and second did lots of things right, whereas the rider whose shadow loomed large at the start only finished 22nd.

The 2024 Sea Otter Classic hasn’t even kicked off yet, but the Geek Warning crew has already got a ton of new bikes and gear to talk about this week. All-road/endurance road bikes are clearly enjoying a moment in the sun with the launch of the new BMC Roadmachine and Enve Fray, and Liv has another fresh full-suspension mountain bike landing in shops. Fox has also completely revamped its range of suspension forks for MY2025, Dave and James chat about why they’re big fans of Project321’s third-generation hubs, and James makes a desperate plea for folks to properly wash their water bottles – because mold isn’t an energy drink. Also: more product news from Chris King, Fizik, Castelli, and a neat little photo stick (you know, for the ‘gram).

Timestamps:

2:42 - BMC’s new RoadMachine gets more endurance’y
5:43 – Another endurance/all-road bike, but this time from Enve
11:52 – Another new bike from Liv that’s yet to be released by Giant
15:20 – Fox revamps its entire premium fork line-up for 2025
 25:00 – New hubs from Project 321 are on our mind
36:05 – a PSA related to drinking germs
40:25 – Chris King expands its range of internal headsets (which will fit many existing bikes)
41:45 - Velcro remains Fizik’s lightest option
43:20 – New Castelli Gabba for soggy days
44:30 – The most niche of products: a bike photo stick

Loren is back in the studio this time with Abby and Gracie to take a deeper dive into the racing at Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift and look ahead to the upcoming Ardennes.

Caley Fretz, Jonny Long, and Kit Nicholson talk through some of the side stories that came out of the last weekend of cobbled classics and wonder aloud what can be done to make the sport safer and less full of dumb people who want to throw things at bike racers. Plus, Iain Treloar interviews two confused deer mascots.

Cosmo Catalano and Dane Cash break down Mathieu van der Poel's dominant display (again) on the cobbles, his team's spectacular showing to support him, and the battle for the podium at Paris-Roubaix, and also the crash-marred Itzulia Basque Country.

Welcome to the second episode of The Rest Day with Jack Haig. In this week's show, Jack catches up with Pavel Sivakov to talk Catalunya and the UAE Tour. They talk changing teams (from Ineos to UAE), what it's like riding for Pogacar, and more. 

From next to the Arenberg and inside the velodrome, the Placeholders crew brings you an episode from the ground at Paris-Roubaix. What happened to Quickstep? Will Belgium be mad? What about two world champs winning in one weekend? That was neat. And lots of more, of course. 

Cyclings Holy Week is all about Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix, but sandwiched between those two monuments is the sprinters classic, Scheldeprijs.

Escape Collective was on the ground for the Week and took a trip to Terneuzen for the start of the race named after the river Schelde to record a Performance Process pit walk special.

In this episode, Ronan and Caley take us on a roam around the Scheldeprijs start area, talking flat race bike optimisation, the one bike they’d pick, and much more.

Loren Rowney, Matt de Neef, and special guests bring you all the action from the infield at the Roubaix Velodrome, as the fourth edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift comes to a thrilling close.

From a bar in Belgium straight to your ears: The Placeholders crew preview both of this weekend's Paris-Roubaix races, discuss the Arenberg chicane and the crashes in the Basque Country, and we hear from Emma Norsgaard on what Roubaix means and how to ride it. 

Whew, so much new product news to discuss today, and Sea Otter is still two weeks away! Shimano looks to strengthen its stranglehold on the entry-level market with a new range called Essa, while some updates to the CUES collection may provide some hints at higher-end bits to come, too. Campagnolo finally announces a power meter to go along with the Super Record Wireless groupset launched last year, there’s turmoil at Scott Sports, and some hooked wheel companies are out for blood. Dave and James also discuss the pros and cons of on-bike tool storage along with a PSA that’ll hopefully save you from being awkwardly stuck to your bike, and there’s a whole bunch of new stuff on the way from Rene Herse, Vittoria, Gore Wear, Enve, Hutchinson, Feedback Sports, and Robert Axle.

Timestamps:

1:15 – Dave has some thoughts on T47
5:42 – Shimano is smart to not ignore the entry level market
17:00 – Campagnolo finally announces its Super Record power meter
22:47 – Scott Sports’ CEO is out – or is he? Depends on who you ask.
26:35 – Hooked road wheel companies smell blood in the water
31:16 – On-bike tool storage is a trend we can get behind
38:13 – Check your cleat bolts!
43:50 – Rene Herse now has TPU inner tubes – and they have metal valve stems!
44:30 – Vittoria is getting into running
45:34 – Gore Wear is stepping up its clothing game
46:48 – Enve’s new race day road tires are “like crack”
48:06 – Hutchinson is hoping its new Blackbird road tire can take flight
50:38 – Feedback Sports is almost old enough to buy alcohol in the US
53:10 – Want a nicer Universal Derailleur Hanger? Robert Axle has got you

The Placeholders crew comes to you live from Kortrijk, Belgium, this week, where they tackle life's greatest questions (who's better, Boonen or Van der Poel?), debate the merits of goat-based cobble upkeep, and have some Weekly Pain with a real live member.

One year after her historic win at Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift Alison Jackson sits down with Abby Mickey to relive the day and the months leading up to her victory. The two discuss the plan going into the race, and how Jackson manifested her own destiny prior to winning the Hell of the North. Find the full written piece on EscapeCollective.com.

This week on the podcast Gracie, Loren and Abby break down one of the best races of the year the Tour of Flanders and talk about how Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday gave us an idea of what was to come on Sunday. They also discuss the dynamic of SD Worx-Protime and Lidl-Trek and how the two are circling each other. And Kasia Niewiadoma. We just love Kasia Niewiadoma.

Cosmo Catalano and Dane Cash break down a grueling edition of the Tour of Flanders and ponder whether anyone in the peloton could have done anything to challenge a dominant Mathieu van der Poel.

We're back with a special on-the-ground episode from Oudenaarde, the finish town of the Tour of Flanders. It's wet, it's cold, but we've found a bar and a fire and are ready to talk about a spectacular bike race (even if the last 50 km were slightly less spectacular). As always, for a deep run-through of the women's Flanders, don't miss Abby and the Wheel Talk crew early this week. 

Bridge Bike Works is an upstart brand that's trying to make a go at building premium carbon fiber bikes in Canada. It's not just a geographic thing or a point of national pride here, though. Bridge says it's obviously proud of making bikes in its own backyard, but it's also striving to make better product, period, by keeping the entire process – from R&D to lay-up and curing to paint – under a single unobtrusive industrial roof in Cervelo's old stomping grounds. In this Geek Warning episode, James sits down with Bridge co-founders Frank Gairdner and Mike Yakubowicz to see just what makes the company tick, why it might be smart to start asking about hobbies the next time you interview someone for a job, and how the quest to build its own fork nearly broke them.

The Placeholders crew is together in Belgium and talks through the route, key storylines, and crash-reduced field of favorites for the men's Tour of Flanders. 

Welcome back to Geek Warning! In this week’s edition of the regular show, Ronan and Dave discuss why current road bikes may not be ready for emerging trends in seated positions. Later Ronan shares a PSA related to multi-tools that turns out to be more of a Pick One and a rant.

On the news side, the geeks discuss the new Cannondale Scalpel cross-country race bike. Pinarello has finally officially revealed its Bolide F HR that Italy will race on the track in Paris. There’s more 3D-printed tech to discuss in the hubs of Scope’s new and impressively light Artech wheels. And Dave gets excited at the chance to talk about Feedback Sports’ new Pliers Wrench tool.

As usual, the end of the episode is kept for a quick discussion of other interesting new things. There you’ll hear about Wahoo’s firmware update, another new Mirror saddle (the comfy 3D-printed type) from Specialized, and CeramicSpeed’s new OSPW RS derailleur cages.

Happy geeking!

Time stamps:

4:25 - Cannondale’s new Scalpel is yet another 120 mm cross-country bike option
9:10 - Pinarello’s 3D-printed Bolide F HR track bike is now official
15:10 - More 3D-printed tech with Scope’s new Artech wheels
23:40 - Feedback Sports release a Pliers Wrench
28:00 - The limitations of modern road bike geometry is on Ronan’s mind
40:45 - A non-PSA that unexpectedly into a wider topic and Pick One about multi-tools
53:40 – A firmware update to Wahoo head units
55:15 – Specialized brings S-Works Mirror technology to the Phenom saddle
56:04 - Our thoughts on CeramicSpeed’s new OSPW RS
1:01:00 - Where much of the Escape Collective team will be next week

This week's episode of Placeholders, recorded after a busy weekend of racing – but before Dwars door Vlaanderen ... – ponders which men's Classics team is best right now, riders skipping races to go to altitude, and whether the "Big Six" is really a thing.

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.

Caley Fretz joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to break down all the storylines from Milan-San Remo: Jasper Philipsen as a bona fide Classics contender, Mathieu van der Poel as an MVP teammate, whether Michael Matthews could have closed the door in the sprint, whether UAE could or should have done anything differently, and more.

So many new bikes to talk about this week! Giant’s new TCR is a meaningful evolution of the previous one, but should it have been a revolution instead? Meanwhile, the new Liv Pique offers a preview of the next-generation Giant Anthem, and Specialized’s new Epic and Epic Evo genuinely push the envelope of what XC bikes are supposed to be. And do electronics belong on bicycle suspension? Why does Trek offer seven colors in one model of Emonda? And what the heck does “Ari” mean? All of that and more in this week’s episode of Geek Warning.

Timestamps:

3:04 – Giant’s got a new TCR road racing bike, but is it all it could (or should) have been?
14:04 – Liv’s new Pique Advanced mountain offers a sneak preview of what’s to come in the new Giant Anthem
16:35 – The new Specialized Epic ticks an awful lot – maybe all? – of the boxes.
26:33 – RockShox’s Flight Attendant electronic terrain-sensing suspension finally comes to XC
34:33 – Trek is “right-sizing” in a big, big way
41:01 – US-based consumer-direct brand Fezzari finally addresses the elephant in the room
46:24 – Not everyone wants to know how the sausage is made
52:50 – The suckiest addition to any home workshop

Dane Cash, Jonny Long, and Kit Nicholson join Caley Fretz on the Placeholders this week to discuss this generation of Americans after Matteo Jorgensen's Paris-Nice win, where things stand for the WorldTour sprinters, and what's on tap this coming weekend at Milan-San Remo.

Loren, Gracie, and Abby sat down this week to break down Ronde van Drenthe, look ahead to what some performances mean for the upcoming Cobbled Classics, the return of Ellen van Dijk, and how Trofeo Alfredo Binda fits into the calendar.

On this week's How the Race was Won podcast, Cosmo Catalano and Dane Cash discuss the surprising Paris-Nice podium, Primož Roglič's early season form, Jonas Vingegaard's dominance, and new developments in the Republic of Sprinters after Tirreno-Adriatico.

After two years at home racing the Life Time Grand Prix and working coaching and bike fitting roles, Ruth Edwards is back in the WorldTour peloton and already back on the pro road podium. We sat down with Ruth in Adelaide just days after her first WorldTour race back at this year's Tour Down Under in January to discuss all things returning to professional road racing. 

We kick start the conversation deciding this is not a "comeback" but merely a return from sabbatical. Ruth talks us through the whys of needing to walk away from the WorldTour, why gravel is not for her, and why ultimately the lure of a road return was too much to ignore. We discuss the process of determining if a return is the right idea, setting goals with no idea where your level is, and process for mitigating the challenges that ultimately led to her needing a break just over two years ago. 

Ruth explains why you do things because you want to, not because you should and how the rapidly changing landscape of pro racing was a major motivation in wanting to return.