Escape Collective

Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano break down the action from the first few stages of the 2024 Giro d'Italia and also discuss the Vuelta España Femenina, a bit of Eschborn-Frankfurt, and what's coming up at the Giro. 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.

Dan Bigham once said something along the lines of, get aero and train the body to sustain it: it's easier than getting stronger. As much as that makes sense, it's also not how we have typically thought of bike fitting. Our focus has typically been on comfort, power production, perhaps symmetry. But like so much in cycling, how we think about bike fitting is changing. In this episode of Performance Process episode Ronan is joined by Daniel Schade, CEO of Gebiomized and the fitter working with Bigham at at the Ineos Grenadiers to find a balance in those aero positions , to discuss how bike fitting is changing and the pros and cons of some of the current trends. 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.

On this special episode of the Wheel Talk podcast, Abby calls up Matt de Neef to briefly discuss stages 5 and 6 of La Vuelta España Femenina, with audio diaries from Alessia Vigilia (FDJ-Suez), Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Cannondale), Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Elynor Backstedt (Lidl-Trek). 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.

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.