![\"Fake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/variant_diagonal_grid7.jpg\")
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Culture<\/a><\/p>\n Inside the automated ad-tech machine flooding Facebook with AI-generated cycling misinformation.<\/p>\n Demi Vollering is pregnant, and being cheated on by her partner. Jonas Vingegaard has no time for LGBTQ+ recognition. Mathieu van der Poel has adopted an orphan. Tadej Poga\u010dar is in a feud with Greta Thunberg, telling her to \u201csit down, Barbie\u201d, live on television.<\/p>\n None of that is true \u2013\u00a0but if these headlines sound familiar, it might be because you\u2019ve come across them on Facebook, where a coordinated network of \u2018news\u2019 pages has been spreading misinformation about professional cycling and its practitioners.\u00a0<\/p>\n When one such story popped up in my feed the other day, I was mostly confused and annoyed \u2013\u00a0but then, I became curious about why this was happening, and who was behind it. What is the motivation behind putting rubbish like this out into the world? Who benefits? And what is the process?\u00a0<\/p>\n So, I started looking into it all, half-expecting to find some shit-stirring troll hard at work. But what looked like spam or slop turned out to be something much stranger: a sprawling infrastructure churning out hundreds of articles a day across multiple languages and multiple subjects beyond cycling, feeding traffic into two obscure websites.\u00a0<\/p>\n The stories might be fake, but the business behind them is real.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n We should probably start with the Facebook pages. The first example I came across was a post from a page called Cycling Squad (10,000 followers), but my engagement with that post meant that others soon followed. In total, by following trails of breadcrumbs around Facebook and Google, I\u2019ve now identified 20 such Facebook \u2018news pages\u2019 publishing in five languages (English, Dutch\/Flemish, French, Spanish, and Italian), with a combined follower count approaching 200,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cycling page titleFollowers (thousands)Primary language<\/p>\n Cycling Squad10kEnglish Fake cycling news on Facebook: Language and followers<\/p>\n Each of the pages bears some obvious similarities. Firstly, they all have an AI-generated profile picture and header banner\u00a0\u2013\u00a0not my jam, personally, but this is the world we live in. As if to bolster their legitimacy, many list addresses in the United States (usually in California, but sometimes Nevada and in one case, Maine). Some also have US phone numbers listed.\u00a0<\/p>\n At this point, it\u2019s important you don\u2019t get too excited \u2013 as I did, plotting them on a map of the US, looking for a pentagram or something. But there is something they have in common: None of them are in fact home to a Facebook news site, because all of the addresses are hotels (some two-star, some three-star), seemingly plucked at random like the phone numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The posts that each profile publishes are, likewise, similar, and in most cases feel calculated to fuel engagement with tabloid-esque language and clickbait content. But they feel familiar enough: race photos of faces you recognise with emotional headlines, and a steady stream of updates calibrated to blend into the feeds of cycling fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Iain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Iain-Treloar-150x150.jpg\")
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Fake news makes Tadej cross. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Orange-dots-3.png\")
Chapter 1: The pages<\/p>\n
\nCiclismo Elite Pro10kSpanish
\nWorld Cycle Pulse11kFrench
\nCycling Pulse16kEnglish
\nCycle Pulse12kEnglish
\nSprint Cycle6.2kItalian
\nCycling Weekly14kFrench
\nCycling Central6.4kDutch
\nCycling Pro15kFrench
\nDutch Cycling Legends5.6kItalian, weirdly
\nRace Cycling7.3kFrench
\nCycling Empire4.8kDutch
\nRevved Riders6.5kDutch
\nCycling Race Insider5.7kDutch
\nWorld Cycling Races6.5kFrench
\nRycling Velocity (not a typo)7.9kFrench
\nCycling Velocity Hub4.4kDutch
\nThe Cycling Scoop17kFrench
\nCycling Signal5.3kDutch
\nTwo Wheels Tribe23k French<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-04-at-11.37.32---am.png\")
Not real locations for any of the HQs of these pages, but looks like a nice roadtrip. <\/p>\n
\n Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n
\n \ud83d\udc4eNope\n <\/p>\n