In Print: Articles of Interest

Dec 19, 2025 at 08:38 PM

I've seen some of those titanium Bromptons, part of their T line, which starts at $5500. While I should probably take a closer look at their offerings, I find it hard to believe that they'll sell more expensive bikes, or that the numbers will stay the same and their margins will improve.

mugwump

Dec 21, 2025 at 01:25 AM

Ok, who was the plagiarist?

https://velo.outsideonline.com/gravel/gravel-gear/editors-note/

David Yang

Dec 21, 2025 at 04:13 AM

Alvin Holbrook. James is super pissed off, for good reason.

Jules

Dec 21, 2025 at 04:32 AM

David Yang said:

Alvin Holbrook. James is super pissed off, for good reason.

Ouch.

Jules

Dec 21, 2025 at 04:34 AM

https://velo.outsideonline.com/urban/urban-culture/lebron-james-canyon-edition-bike/

mugwump

Dec 21, 2025 at 04:49 AM

David Yang said:

Alvin Holbrook. James is super pissed off, for good reason.

for a moment, I thought you meant James Huang.

LeBron James, and his lawyers, is someone Velo can't afford to fuck around with. Few publications can.

And Holbrook was someone Velo seemed to be trying to turn into a celebrity.

David Yang

Dec 21, 2025 at 11:45 AM

Oh I actually did mean James Huang. Turns out Alvin copied nearly word for word at least one of Huang's reviews (the State Ti gravel bike). James has been running his indie substack after leaving Escape Collective a year ago, so Alvin literally stole food from James's table. From what I can tell James has called out that Alvin has plagiarized other writers as well.

Outside/Velo has been promoting Alvin as their go-to reviewer and to me it seemed like an obvious choice. Alvin seemed personable and knowledgeable on camera.

I'm a paid subscriber to James' substack, have been reading his reviews since forever and was sad he left EC, but happy he's doing his indie thing.

Jules

Dec 21, 2025 at 05:13 PM

Pretty ballsy (or desperate) to copy something word for word in the era of the internet and expect to get away with it.

mugwump

Dec 21, 2025 at 06:49 PM

copyright infringement penalties can be a cash payment of up to $150,000 per documented incident

"f you are accused of copyright infringement, the penalties can be steep. The infringer could be responsible for paying the actual dollar amount of damages and profits they obtained. Fees for each individual infringement can range from $750 to $150,000—depending on whether the infringement was unintentional or willful. For an unintentional infringement, the infringer will usually pay actual damages between $750 to $30,000 per work. For a willful infringement, the infringer could be responsible for damages up to $150,000 per work infringed."

"To succeed on a claim for copyright infringement the copyright holder must prove:

There is a valid copyright
The person responsible for the infringement had access to the work
The infringer’s defenses—such as fair use and laches—do not apply"

https://hutchersonlaw.com/what-are-the-penalties-for-copyright-infringement/

Maybe Velo saw themselves on the hook for money that well exceeded Holbrooks salary.

mugwump

Dec 21, 2025 at 06:50 PM

BTW, here's the instagram stories from Huang's perspective

https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18335865724236121/

David Yang

Dec 21, 2025 at 07:48 PM

I'm assuming lawyers and insurance will get involved and I hope James gets compensated and gains plenty of new readers.

What's baffling to me is why Alvin would take a shortcut on what should have been a slam dunk easy peasy review for their sponsors. Like he got to go to Camden Maine to ride awesome bikes with friends for a week and recorded videos and podcasts and wrote articles and got paid for it! Only to derail his career and reputation by copying and pasting someone else's review! And this is presumably after Alvin actually rode the bike and had his own opinions about it! This was such an avoidable self own. 🤷‍♂️

Jules

Dec 22, 2025 at 05:36 AM

David Yang said:

I'm assuming lawyers and insurance will get involved and I hope James gets compensated and gains plenty of new readers.

What's baffling to me is why Alvin would take a shortcut on what should have been a slam dunk easy peasy review for their sponsors. Like he got to go to Camden Maine to ride awesome bikes with friends for a week and recorded videos and podcasts and wrote articles and got paid for it! Only to derail his career and reputation by copying and pasting someone else's review! And this is presumably after Alvin actually rode the bike and had his own opinions about it! This was such an avoidable self own. 🤷‍♂️

Where there is smoke, there is fire. I'm sure if anybody had the stomach for it, they could go back and they'd find many, many other examples.

100% this was not the first time.

David Yang

Jan 06, 2026 at 06:28 PM

CAAD14 leak! Looks like a traditional CAADs of yore with all internal cable routing so it looks hella cleannn.

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/cannondale-caad14-leak

Jules

Jan 07, 2026 at 02:48 PM

Sounds like he left in a huff when told who was going to be given what support in 2026... https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/retirement-bombshell-giro-champion-simon-yates-ends-career-with-immediate-effect/

David Yang

Jan 07, 2026 at 09:26 PM

Jonas better win if he's going to throw his weight around as the team GC.

mugwump

Jan 07, 2026 at 09:37 PM

I don't see it that way at all.

Whenever I see a start of season retirement announcement, I fear doping played a part. He had months to decide. He should have already started training for 2026 a month ago. His team could have used his spot to secure another rider. Training camps have already begun and his calendar has been known to the team for a month. Now with the race calendar starting in a week or so, he kind of leaves his team in a bad spot.

Matt Budofsky

Jan 08, 2026 at 01:52 AM

I wonder if he got to training camp and the spark just wasn’t there anymore, especially after last season being somewhat of a full circle bookend to some big career defining moments

LennartZandbergen

Jan 08, 2026 at 02:10 AM

Yeah if the spark is not there, it must be pretty hard to stay motivated going from offseason to training camp to the holiday season, and then realizing it’s still months of hard work before your first big goals of the season.

Mark Taylor

Jan 08, 2026 at 12:57 PM

@mugwump,Expand on the doping playing a part

Jules

Jan 08, 2026 at 05:48 PM

I agree with @mugwump in that the start-of-season announcement smells. Could be doping, could be they gave him the news he wouldn't have the support this season he though he was owed, or the races he wanted to do.

Any way you cut it, it sounds like an 11th hour decision.

mugwump

Jan 08, 2026 at 07:23 PM

@Mark Taylor

I don't have any evidence. It's just a troubling sense that something else is afoot.

As I wrote earlier, his 2025 season ended months ago. And his 2026 season is at least a month old, and he probably had attended not only at least one training camp, but another media camp. And while he's probably very well paid, there are probably some big penalties for breaking his contract. He also signed a two-year deal, with this being the contract year, and he could have probably just ridden this out in a lesser role, taking on more domestique duties--be there for Jonas, or Matteo, or Sepp or someone else when it matters in a Grand Tour.

Further, the idea that he was upset with team leadership responsiblities doesn't square with his claims that he himself made upon signing with Visma, namely that he had 11 years of team leadership and he was ready for a new role.

And find the "burnout" stories a bit hard to believe. Not that the work isn't grueling, but that it took him until a week before teh season starts to make up his mind that he was burnt out. Or that 'this is the perfect time to step away' as he said.

RyanCollins

Jan 10, 2026 at 12:04 PM

Phil seems to agree with you @mugwump about something being up.

https://youtu.be/6-RpM_MT4Gs?si=D1G-yL1YB0wdIDVv&t=1380

mugwump

Jan 10, 2026 at 11:41 PM

Ryan,
Thanks. (for a second, I thought you meant Phil Liggett--if that guy had brought up doping here, I would have fallen out of my chair)

I should also add that, in my experience, pro racers are pretty sensitive about their teammates, namely, they really believe in treating them well and are pretty upset when they feel a teammate slighted them. Then again, it's my sense that to make it at the WorldTour level, and particularly win a Grand Tour, you've got to be an incredibly selfish person, so maybe he doesn't care about leaving his team (riders and staff) in the lurch--his job was to both support them and make money for them, and now he's not doing either as well as leaving a pretty big hole in their roster.

And here is news about his doping positive. It is from 2016

https://www.dopeology.org/people/Simon_Yates/

Matt Budofsky

Jan 11, 2026 at 03:01 PM

I'm a pretty big Gaimon fan, but more and more, he has been coming off as just bitter and angry. I get that world tour really chewed him up and spit him out and he has beef with specific people like JV, Wagalius and Darius notorious dopers but feels like something behind the scenes changed recently and he's got a new ax to grind

mugwump

Jan 11, 2026 at 10:11 PM

Matt Budofsky said:

I'm a pretty big Gaimon fan, but more and more, he has been coming off as just bitter and angry. I get that world tour really chewed him up and spit him out and he has beef with specific people like JV, Wagalius and Darius notorious dopers but feels like something behind the scenes changed recently and he's got a new ax to grind

Maybe David Millar taking overthe sponsorship reins at Factor and freezing him out has gotten him angry. Or seeing Hincapie seemingly getting a pass from everyone and starting a new team.

BTW, for those who don't want to watch the Gaimon YouTube video, he alleges that WADA knows far more of what's going on with doping than mere positives suggest. This is something I've heard before, but I don't know how this is known. It could just be an assumption that analyzing test results over a long enough time might suggest when someone is doping even when there is no 'smoking gun' found in the testing. The idea being that there are hints but not enough that can be seen as 100% proof.

Gaimon also alleges WorldTour teams have internal testing, and that he wonders if Visma saw something found by internal tests and pushed Yates to retire rather than risking a doping positive, which would both end Yates' career and be bad for the team vis-a-vis sponsors.

A nobody like Michel Hessmann testing positive for a diuretic is one thing. A Giro winner and top rider on the team testing positive is another.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/jumbo-visma-rider-michael-hessmanns-b-sample-tests-positive-for-diuretic/

Jules

Jan 12, 2026 at 04:15 PM

I believe the only thing WADA knows is that the tests are:

1) not black and white, but contextual (red blood cell stuff)
2) obsolete and that there are well known work arounds (microdosing)

Given that the tests are essentially performative, I think the issue is just around cost. Kenyan runners are getting caught almost daily, but if you can afford the medical support you might just beat Pantani going uphill

I'm not so certain about internal testing; I think it's more likely that he just wasn't going to get the support he wanted this year and left in a huff. 100% conjecture on my part tho...

Jules

Jan 13, 2026 at 07:15 PM

https://velo.outsideonline.com/news/fairbrother-500km-mcdonalds/

Ouch.

Matt Budofsky

Jan 13, 2026 at 08:23 PM

Honestly don't know what worse, this or when people would run marathons in col de sacs during covid

David Yang

Jan 13, 2026 at 09:22 PM

Matt Budofsky said:

Honestly don't know what worse, this or when people would run marathons in col de sacs during covid

May 2020...

Matt Budofsky said:

Not sure where to post this, but Everest update!

About 11,000 feet in (7/20 laps down). I’m feeling okay- been munching away on my homemade oat bars, drinking plenty of Skratch and taking my first break now. Epic KOM isn’t the greatest climb to do this on- the rollers at the end hurt when you’re recovering on the descent and the flat section through the castle just screws up the rhythm and pacing you fall into.

Sam’s been taking tons of pictures so I’ll post those here once I finish up

Matt Budofsky said:

Some of the best ones sam got. Really sum up the day from start to finish. Also Phil Gaimon and Alex Dowsett’s responses are in there

David Yang

Jan 13, 2026 at 09:25 PM

(BTW Matty, I loved this so much and it's forever in KCC history and lore)