Spin Cycle is Escape Collective’s news digest, published every Monday and Friday. You can read it on the website (obviously) or click here to have it delivered straight to your inbox.
Hello!
Welcome back to Spin Cycle.
Yes, the story of the week is undeniably that Victor Campenaerts has been revealed to be the bottle pisser. He fessed up in one of his vlogs, giving a full explanation and saying he won’t be doing it anymore.
It was the perfect story to guide us through this middle Giro week. While that story is likely one of the main ways we’ll fondly remember this Grand Tour, let’s begin this newsletter by scrolling back a bit to revisit Tuesday’s time trial.
A ‘terrible’ TT 😱
It’s been something of a sleepy yet enjoyable middle week of the Giro d’Italia. So much so that Tuesday’s 42 km flat time trial provided the most excitement by a country mile.
“Jonas how was that for you and the team?” came the question post-time trial effort that saw the Dane ship a minute to Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) as well as a handful of seconds to a bunch of other GC contenders.
“Terrible,” came the half-jokey response, with a laugh. Even if he didn’t put further time into his maglia rosa rivals as some expected, his relaxed manner will likely drum up extra fear in anyone who wants to challenge him as we head towards the main mountain serving of this Grand Tour. One explanation then came on Thursday when it was revealed that Vingegaard had been a little bit ill.
“Some guys had some coughing fits and a tickle in their throat, but everything seems fine again now,” Visma-Lease a Bike sports director Jesper Mørkøv told Feltet. “Jonas was one of them too, but everything seems to be okay.”
Post-time trial the Dane had reason to be in good humour, after Movistar’s Lorenzo Milesi one-upped Enric Mas’ women’s kit mishap by wearing an ice vest for the entirety of his TT effort.
“No comment,” Milesi posted on Instagram afterwards, with a hiding-behind-your-hands emoji.
The image of GC rival Felix Gall will also likely have cheered Vingegaard. I mean, move over Primož Roglič, we unfortunately have a new worst-dressed-against-the-clock.
The helmet we could deal with. That’s where cycling’s at in 2026. The sweaty hair and sunglasses combo beneath, though? Maybe Milesi’s ice vest wasn’t such a bad idea after all…
Ultimately, the flat time trial provided the most GC intrigue of the week, leaving us uncertain ahead of Saturday’s first category summit finish, and had enough hijinks to put a smile on our faces.
Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun 🐰
One unexpected benefit of retired athletes’ proliferation within sports media (and obviously we’re talking specifically about cycling) is that now they too can feel the pain of teams restricting media access to riders.
Bjarne Riis, working for Danish outlet Feltet, complained about Visma-Lease a Bike not making Jonas Vingegaard available for interviews on Monday’s rest day at the Giro d’Italia. The Dutch team giving the explanation that Vingegaard had already done a lot of media on Sunday evening.
Riis argued Vingegaard should be made available to media as team sponsors expect visibility throughout the three weeks, whether that be on television during the race or through media appearances.
Visma boss Richard Plugge didn’t take this lying down, responding: “If a sponsor’s interest in us depended on one interview on a rest day, that would be a big problem.” Zing, Richard.
But not content to let Visma have all the fun, Netcompany-Ineos was also up to its old tricks too.
Did we do a good job with this story?