Escape Collective

Pretty Serious Bike Racing: Overachievers and underachievers, Lombardia looming

Abby Mickey joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to discuss the highlights of this past weekend's racing, field questions from Escape Collective members, and look ahead at Il Lombardia.

Geek Warning: Snap, crackle, pop, Shimano finally deals with its broken crank problem

Roughly a decade after problems first started surfacing with its bonded aluminum road crankarms, Shimano has finally issued an official recall for certain Ultegra and Dura-Ace models – and we have some thoughts on the matter. SRAM is also making its long-awaited entry into the e-MTB scene with its new Powertrain system, Specialized wants people to start thinking about e-bike performance a little differently, X marks the spot for Pinarello, and there’s some dodgy stuff going on out there when it comes to ultralight road wheels.
Timestamps:
5:16 – Shimano’s bill has finally come due22:35 – SRAM is now entered the e-MTB game27:45 – How much does e-motor efficiency matter?32:05 – Pinarello’s new endurance road bikes40:31 – Canyon sure does like its CP0018 three-piece integrated cockpit46:28 – Ignore those ETRTO rim dimensions at your own peril51:50 – Introducing Ronan’s new podcast: Performance Process!55:58 – Dave has gone down the eMTB rabbit hole1:00:01 – Should MTB rims switch to Schrader valves?1:04:22 – Ronan’s view on aero gains? Testing, testing, testing

Introducing: Performance Process Podcast

What's this? A new podcast? You bet. 
Performance Process is a new podcast from Escape Collective exclusively for Escape Collective members. Ronan Mc Laughlin and Caley Fretz, the podcast was born from a simple idea: the best performances don’t just happen, they are the result of a combination of processes.
Be that training, testing, coaching, or the latest science, we will be joined by a new guest each episode to delve into the processes that produce performances with the people who understand them best.
If you enjoy maximising your own performance, this is definitely a podcast for you. Likewise, if you want to make sense of the latest performance innovations or how the best riders keep getting better, Performance Process is the podcast with the answers.
The first episode will drop next week, and we'll publish a new episode every other week. 
If you're already a member, you'll receive an email with instructions for accessing episodes of Performance Process. If you're not a member yet, head to Escapecollective.com/join to fix that right up. 

Placeholders: Body fairings, Vegas trips, and merger rumors

Jonny Long, Ronan Mc Laughlin, and Dane Cash join Caley Fretz to talk about what Jonny calls the "British equivalent of crit beef," Mauro Schmid's travel plans, and, of course, the reports of a possible Jumbo-Visma Soudal-QuickStep merger.

Wheel Talk: Good tactics or questionable move?

Abby, Loren, and Gracie break down the European Championship road race and chat about gardening (plus maybe a little about the Kardashians, sorry).

Pretty Serious Bike Racing: When is a teammate not a teammate?

Ruth Winder joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to discuss the entertaining road race action from the European Continental Championships as well as the 2023 Grand Tour season as a whole.

Geek Warning: Recalls, weird brand choices, and more recalls

This week’s Geek Warning has James, Ronan, and Dave covering a broad range of topics from Fulcrum’s new road wheels, a new airless tyre, and a tyre that’s recalled for being unwantedly airless.
There’s also a surprising amount of chat about e-bikes, but perhaps not for the right reasons. There’s the new Moots entering the space, but not with its expected material. Rad Power promises safer batteries, which is great, but also feels late. And yet another recall has us asking whether cheap e-bikes are a responsible product.
Timestamps:
4:45 – Moots takes an Express train in an unexpected direction16:00 – New mid-range performance road wheels from Fulcrum21:40 – Another attempt at the airless bicycle tyre?25:42 – A road tyre recall from Pirelli28:52 – Rad Power announces safer batteries, bit late?34:38 – And another recall, this one impacts 45,000 bikes!46:42 – Ashton Lambie gets out of a stick’y situation51:50 – High-priced wheels are on Dave’s mind56:45 – A PSA for Shimano Di2 users

Placeholders: Final thoughts on the Vuelta and Jumbo’s dominance

Jonny Long, Kit Nicholson, and Ronan Mc Laughlin join Caley Fretz to discuss their final impressions of the 2023 Vuelta a España and Jumbo-Visma's dominance, some chatter around Mark Cavendish racing on, and more. Plus, the crew dives into a Sepp Kuss-related Weekly Pain competition.

Wheel Talk: Canyon-SRAM’s redemption arc

Abby, Loren and Gracie are back to chat about the Tour de Romandie, some transfers, and dolls.

Pretty Serious Bike Racing: A thrilling final week of Grand Tour racing

Abby Mickey joins Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano to discuss the dramatic final week of the Vuelta a España, the race in general, and the Human Fly, and also to take a closer look at the women's Tour de Romandie.