I meant to write this during the Tour de France, but didn’t have the time.
I adore bikes. I live and breathe riding bikes, reading books about bikes and cycling, talking with friends about our rides (less numbers, more words, please!), and thinking about future rides. I also work in a bike shop and own a (very) small bike company. I am happily and ever-more-deeply-daily immersed in bikes, and have been for the last 15 years or so. But I never cared about contemporary pro cycling. Pro cycling history, absolutely. Current cycling? For some reason, just no.
However! Thanks to the Spin Cycle podcast, I am now a happy modern-day pro cycling fan! Why and how did this happen?
I think it’s because, while I don’t find the racing itself nearly as compelling as, say, a great pro basketball game (or even a great middle-school basketball game), I find pro cycling as experienced through the lives and lenses of Iain Treloar, Caley Fretz, Jonny Long, Dane Cash (whose picture on the team page is very handsome, congratulations and feel better soon), and Co to be incredibly entertaining. The EC team’s individual personalities are the perfect seasoning to make the otherwise bland flavor of pro bike racing compellingly appealing.
I still won’t watch pro races live, because I’d rather be riding my bike than watch other people ride theirs, but I never miss a 6-10 minute stage highlight replay, and I look forward to every Spin Cycle podcast and EC race recap article in a way that I never thought I would.
Thank you Escape Collective folks for further enriching my cycling life and adding value to my subscription. I originally became a member because every now and then there was a compelling seeming article that I wanted to read, and I would enjoy an episode of Geek Warning every now and then. Now, I’m pretty much all in!