Last month, in my contribution to Escape's Collective Favorites entry for water bottles, I stated my (and my family's) goal to trend away from purchasing and using items made from plastics. Well, at least for items that directly or indirectly come into contact with my body. While I realize microplastics are everywhere, and even having the choice to limit my exposure is a privilege, I'm trying to do what I can to reduce those particles from entering my body – from wearing wool and cotton clothing to using metal drinking vessels and glass food storage containers.

It's no secret that tiny pieces of plastic and forever chemicals are everywhere, and avoiding them is next to impossible. However, studies showing a connection between plastic/chemical consumption and significant health risks, such as this one, are overwhelming. So, I figure it's worth the effort to minimize exposure as much as possible. And, anecdotally, I'm of the opinion that drinking coffee from my titanium coffee mug tastes better than out of a plastic-lined paper cup, and riding in a technical wool jersey offers better temperature regulation and moisture wicking than a synthetic alternative.

Collective Favourites - Water bottles

Plastic, metal, soft, hard - these are our favourite water bottles.

Escape CollectiveSuvi Loponen

I'm apparently not the only one, as many commenters responded to the Favorites article in agreement, sharing personal experiences with metal hydration bottles and even adding a hybrid model to the list that I was not previously aware of (from Keego, but which didn't make this test because it appears quite different from the full steel bottles looked at here). Of course, metal sport bottles are nothing new, with the likes of Sigg and Kleen Kanteen entering the market decades ago. However, cycling-specific bottles have recently gained popularity for their particular shapes and high-flow spouts, which cater to cyclists better than standard cylinders with screw-top lids. However, they're hard-sided and heavier than plastic, so your fans might not appreciate it very much when you throw a metal bottle while they cheer for you along the sidelines.

Metal bottles are a tradeoff from the plastic ones that have been cycling's mainstay since high-density polyethylene (HDPE) gained prevalence in the 1950s. For example, metal versions are often slightly heavier, don't fit as well in some standard bottle cages, can be tricky to clean, and flow too fast (or slow) for some cyclists' liking. Yet, they can offer better temperature regulation, are more durable, leave fluids tasting better, and, importantly, don't leach tiny plastic particles and chemicals into beverages.

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Escape CollectiveJames Huang

The biggest upside to metal cycling bottles is their double-walled insulation. Similar to the double-walled Thermos I used to take to construction job sites – which would keep my coffee warm for the entire day – insulated metal water bottles use the same type of construction to separate cold liquids inside from warmer air temperatures outside. This is in comparison to plastic containers that are more porous and allow warm air to seep in faster over time.

Insulated bottles also present a tradeoff between size and capacity however, as the insulated double-wall construction takes up valuable interior space. For comparison, a non-insulated 26 oz Purist bottle is about the same size as the largest 21 oz insulated Bivo Trio. That's a difference of five precious ounces of liquid that desert dwellers like me need every drop of. Additionally, the extra material creates a weight penalty. The 26 oz Purist weighs 140 g less than a comparably sized 21 oz Bivo Trio, with the latter holding less liquid. This is one reason why, even in extremely hot weather, I opt for higher-volume, non-insulated options.

I've been acquiring and using bottles from Bivo, Tiibo, and CamelBak, comparing each in terms of weight, size, cage fitment, temperature regulation, flow, and ease of cleaning to build on Escape's previous exploration of insulated stainless bottles.

My time spent temperature testing, cage fitting, guzzling water, and writing was funded by Escape's wonderful members. Thus, to read the contents of this article below, you must be a member. If you haven't already done so, please consider signing up.

Bivo

I'll kick off this roundup with Bivo. I've been using stainless steel bottles from the Vermont-based brand since its inception nearly five years ago. It currently offers the widest selection of metal cycling-oriented bottles on the market, featuring both insulated and non-insulated versions in two sizes each. Bivo appears to be the leading brand in the space, fully committed to building a robust product lineup and associated instructional content around its bottles.

Israel-Premier Tech announced Monday that "the decision has been made to rename and rebrand the team, moving away from its current Israeli identity." The announcement comes only a few weeks after the team's presence at the Vuelta a España drew protests on an unprecedented scale that led to route changes and two stages being neutralized. More recently, the team came under pressure from two key backers, co-title sponsor Premier Tech and bike brand Factor, to rebrand.

Israel-Premier Tech to decide whether to drop ‘Israel’ from name and branding

Sponsors are agitating for a change, and in a confidential memo sent out to riders, IPT said it is “engaged in meetings and conversations regarding the team identity and branding.”

Escape CollectiveJonny Long

Beyond rebranding, the team will also see co-founder and co-owner Sylvan Adams "step back from his day-to-day involvement," according to the release. He "will no longer speak on behalf of the team, instead focusing on his role as President of the World Jewish Congress, Israel."

In a separate statement, Adams expounded on the change, saying that he would be "suspending all active involvement with the team."

After two rounds in South America and six rounds in Europe, the UCI XCO World Cup series heads stateside for the final two rounds. The penultimate stop of the 2025 World Cup in Lake Placid had everything you’d want: dominance, home-soil heroics, and drama. Jenny Rissveds continued her late-season resurgence with a flawless win in the women’s race.

A few hours later, Christopher Blevins sent the home crowd into raptures, outduelling his Specialized teammates in a tactical thriller to secure both the race victory and the overall series title.

Brief Results

Women's elite

1st. Jenny Rissveds: 1:20:15 (Canyon CLLCTV XCO)
2nd. Evie Richards: +2:16 (Trek Factory Racing Pirelli)
3rd. Samara Maxwell: +2:31 (Decathlon Ford Racing Team)
4th. Savilia Blunk: +2:36 (Decathlon Ford Racing Team)
5th. Alessandra Keller: +3:35 (Thömus Maxon)

Men's elite

1st. Christopher Blevins: 1:19:54 (Specialized Factory Racing)
2nd. Adrien Boichis: +0 (Specialized Factory Racing)
3rd. Mathis Azzaro: +2 (Origine Racing Division)
4th. Martin Vidaurre Kossmann: +2 (Specialized Factory Racing)
5th. Simone Avondetto: +4 (Wilier Vittoria Factory Team)

Women's elite: Utter domination from Rissveds

From the moment the elite women took off in Lake Placid, it was clear Jenny Rissveds had arrived in the US with the momentum she had found in the latter part of this season. After a chaotic start loop where Laura Stigger briefly escaped and traffic snarled behind, the reigning World Champion methodically worked her way to the front, and then, as we have come to expect this year, never looked back.

By the end of the first lap, Rissveds had erased Stigger’s slim early advantage and begun to open daylight on the field. While Savilia Blunk and Evie Richards fought to establish order in the chase, Rissveds simply rode away, settling into her rhythm. Her gap continued to extend to 40 seconds, all within the first 20 minutes of racing. On her own, she set an unrelenting pace on the climbs and danced through Lake Placid’s rocky, rooty descents, always looking in control.

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Escape CollectiveAlex Hunt

Behind, the podium battle was anything but settled. Richards took charge of the chase midway through lap two, with Blunk glued to her wheel and Ronja Blöchlinger lurking not far behind. It was unfortunate for Samara Maxwell, who repeated her teammates' misfortune from Lenzerheide, crashing and temporarily dropping back to seventh, before recovering brilliantly. By lap four, she and Alessandra Keller had reeled in the trio of Richards, Blunk, and Blöchlinger, igniting a fierce five-way scrap for the remaining podium spots.

Rissveds turned the screw lap by lap, and by the penultimate lap, she had nearly three minutes in hand. Barring all but catastrophe, the win was a done deal for the World Champion. Now the focus shifted to the fight for second. Maxwell set the tempo in the chase before Blunk countered, and with two laps to go, the three riders, Maxwell, Blunk, and Richards, were inseparable. On the final lap, Richards launched one last-ditch attack, shaking free of both Blunk and Maxwell to secure second place.

But there was no touching Rissveds, an utterly dominant performance crossing the line alone, 2:43 ahead of Richards, sealing her second World Cup XCO victory of 2025. Maxwell completed the podium after holding off Blunk in the closing metres.

Men's elite: Blevins does the double in his home race

The men’s World Cup finale in Lake Placid delivered wheel-to-wheel all-out racing down to the line. From the gun, attacks, counterattacks, and a nail-biting duel ignited the race, with no single rider able to get away.

Straight off the bat, Dario Lillo launched himself first through the short start loop. Once things settled, a large lead group formed, with Maximilian Foidl, Simon Andreassen, and Christopher Blevins trading turns on the front as riders jostled for position on the opening climbs.

By the end of the first lap, 12 riders were all within touching distance of each other, but Blevins was setting the tone for what was to come. The American drove a fierce pace that steadily thinned the group. Fabio Püntener briefly asserted himself at the front, midway through the race. This upping of the pace established a five-rider move that included Blevins, Adrien Boichis, Mathis Azzaro, and Luca Martin. Behind them, Simone Avondetto and Marcel Guerrini led the chase, desperately trying to claw back seconds.

With three laps to go, the front of the race swelled again; the front five were joined by four chasers, putting nine riders all within a handful of seconds, each waiting for someone else to blink. Avondetto was the first to lay down his cards; his surge shredded the front group back down to five. The Specialized Factory Racing trio of Blevins, Boichis, and Vidaurre found themselves controlling the front of the race. With the trio working well, it was hard to look past the win coming from one of the three.

Coming round to take the bell, Blevins retook the lead, Püntener briefly threatened, but Boichis countered hard on the climb, gaining a small gap. Although it was enough to close down Püntener's attack, it wasn’t enough to keep the home hero Blevins at bay. Roared on by the American crowd, he launched his own move on the final ascent, powering past his teammate to take a dramatic win.

Even with one round remaining in the series, today's win puts Blevins out of touch in the overall standings, handing him his first series title in XCO.

Behind Blevins, it was his Specialized Factory Racing teammate Boichis who crossed the line in second place, with Azzaro getting the better of Vidaurre in a two-up sprint for the final podium spot.

Hope is one thing. But reality is another. We can hope that one man's domination could be stalled either by the nature of a course or the work of another rider/team, but reality has a habit of stomping all over optimism, as it did at the European Championship in the form of Tadej Pogačar.

And why shouldn't he? Last weekend, he reminded us (as if it was necessary) that he's on top of the world; this weekend, he showed that he is – naturally – the best in Europe too.

But the race was made by others. Team Belgium led the way with a plan, plenty of star power, and the protagonist.

In Rwanda, second-place Remco Evenepoel ended the race like a cartoon character with question marks encircling his golden helmet after hours of mechanical alarm bells, but at the European Champs in France, he and Team Belgium threw everything and the kitchen sink into their attempt to topple Tadej. It didn't work. And perhaps they'll be left asking what, if anything, more could have been done. But they followed through on their promise, and at the very least, managed to make 30-40 km of the race exciting to watch.

"We’re going to race atypically,” Serge Pauwels, former pro and current national coach, promised Het Nieuwsblad before the start. "Does that mean we’ll take less initiative? I’m not going to say. But we have something special planned. Whether that will materialise, we’ll see."

Step one: Send out a satellite rider

The Godfather Part II, Shrek 2, The Dark Knight, Top Gun: Maverick, the 2025 elite men's European Champs road race. What do all of these have in common? After tomorrow, they may all go down as superb sequels to a main event, maybe even superior to the original. Maybe.

Sequels are notoriously hard to pull off, and we don't get them often in cycling, especially when the big names seem to take such care to avoid one another outside one or two big events. And almost never in the same season. But the European Championship road race has this year managed to attract a peloton of 2025's stage racing protagonists, in particular the big three: Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel, as well as João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, and a collection of climbers and hilly Classic types including reigning Faun-Ardèche champion Romain Grégoire, Mattias Skjelmose, Mads Pedersen (who may or may not be ill), Marc Hirschi, Christian Scaroni and Toms Skujiņš.

It's a relatively small, even tiny peloton at just 101 starters, a list that would not be out of place at one of the weird and wonderful post-Tour de France criteriums. Only the Euros actually matter; the winner gets a shiny new jersey (to add to their collection?).

The big draws are of course Pogačar, Evenepoel and Vingegaard, and the promise of a showdown the like of which we've not witnessed since the first week of the Tour.

One week after winning the World Championships in Kigali, Magdeleine Vallieres was already back on the start line at Giro dell'Emilia in Italy. On the eve of the race, a very excited Vallieres got to see her new digs for the next 357 days. EF Education-Oatly, known for their loud and unforgettable takes on national champion jerseys, kept it 100 with Vallieres' rainbow jersey, thanks in part to UCI rules about the design.

Friday was even better than Christmas morning for Vallieres, as she was showered in new, very colourful gear from the American team and its sponsors, with photographers Ashley and Jered Gruber on hand to photograph the happy occasion.

“I am super excited to race my bike again,” Vallieres said. “It will be my first time racing in the stripes, and then with the new bike, new helmet, and new Wahoo it is going to be super. Whatever happens in the race, it is going to be special.”

With only one win under her belt, and not even a WorldTour one at that, how exactly did Magdeleine Vallieres win the World Championships in Kigali? The Canadian couldn't control how the bigger nations negotiated their tactics and how the rest of the peloton took on the most challenging Worlds course in recent memory, but she could control her own preparation. So she did.

With a boost from an EF Education-Oatly training camp in Andorra, and the French Grand Tour itself, Vallieres went all in on the Worlds road race.

"I was already targeting the World Championship, from the beginning of the year, I would say," Vallieres told Escape Collective. "I knew, looking at the course, that it was a course that could suit me, and my coach, looking at it, said it was actually a really good course for me."

With that knowledge in mind, Vallieres targetted the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. It was already a big deal for her American team, who planned a pre-Tour altitude camp in Andorra. Vallieres, a key climbing domestique for the team leader Cédrine Kerbaol, got a real taste for targetted prep in Andorra in July. She then carried that into her own camp before the Worlds.

A suitcase full of maple syrup and dreams of Europe

Magdeleine Vallieres Mill is finding her feet in the WorldTour, and loving every second of it.

Escape CollectiveAbby Mickey