10 Things You Didn’t Know About Cycling Pros
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Professional cycling includes riders from six continents, four disciplines, and countless cultures who race all over the world. Despite this diversity, several traits and experiences unite professional cyclists—and in many ways, unite them with all cyclists.
1. They still get nervous before races of all sizes.
It's not always the biggest and most important races that induce the most nerves. Amanda Spratt says that she always get nervous for the first race of the season. Lizzie Armitstead has repeatedly referenced the pressure of lining up as the defending champion. Emma Johansson says she gets extra nervous for Flanders racing in front of her adopted home-town crowd. And Nettie Edmondson expects extra nerves whenever she pins on a number as a pre-race favorite.
“I definitely still get nervous,” says Edmondson, who races with Wiggle Honda on the road and won gold for Australia at the 2015 Track World Championships in the team pursuit and points races. “Even at the small races, everyone is out to beat you if you’re the big name on the start list. It’s rare that I can just relax.”
2. Your mechanical skills are probably better than theirs.
They get paid to race, not to work on their bikes—and their mechanics have probably requested they keep tinkering to a minimum. While the pros can handle all the on-the-fly fixes they might need to tackle while training, most lack skills that riders without mechanics at their disposal may choose to develop.
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“I love my bikes to be clean, but cleaning is probably all I can do reasonably well apart from changing tires if I have a flat,” says Christine Majerus, who races with Boels-Dolmans and is Luxembourg’s national champion in the time trial, road race, and cyclocross. “The last time I rode my mountain bike, I had a serious issue with my brakes, but I couldn’t find the problem. I went to the bike shop to get it checked out, and it literally took them one second to fix. I was never in and out of a bike shop so fast. These are the moments you really hope people don’t know that you’re a professional.”
3. Their easy days are really, really easy—so easy you could even tag along.
There is a misconception that an easy day for the pros is equivalent to a super-hard training session for the average recreational rider. The logic seems to be that, if their hardest days are so much harder than your hardest days, their easy days must be that much harder, too. Totally not true. The pros simply have a wider range of training intensities and speeds.
While you’re likely unable to keep pace when they dial up the intensity, you should have no trouble sucking wheel (or even taking a pull) when their recovery days roll around—so if you’re lucky enough to score an invite, don’t dismiss their insistence that you wouldn't be holding them back. Believe them when they say you won’t slow them down.
“I was riding uphill on a rest day the other day when I got passed by a runner,” said Chloe Hosking, who races for Wiggle-Honda. “You know you’re taking your rest days seriously when you get passed by a runner.”
4. They take the whole coffee-loving cyclist stereotype very seriously.
You're not the only one who chooses a coffee shop as the meeting place or end point for your ride. The pros do this, too. They also often pack up their personal coffee-making accouterments while traveling to ensure that they are consistently caffeinated. Most WorldTour teams have coffee machines on their buses, and several teams have coffee sponsors.
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“We don’t know many cyclists that don’t drink coffee. It’s such a unifying beverage. It’s how you start your ride. It’s how you relax and reward yourself after intervals and efforts. It’s how you meet new people to ride with. It’s so much more than just a hot cup of awesome,” says Amber Meier, who opened La Fabrica Girona with her husband Christian Meier (ORICA-GreenEDGE) earlier this year. The cafe is a perfect mix of cycling and coffee culture, and a popular haunt amongst the nearly 100 pro cyclists who call Girona, Spain, home.
“Coffee is something that every WorldTour team has in common regardless of sponsors or UCI points,” Meier adds. “We supplied [Team] Sky with coffee during the Tour de France this year, and we had customers wanting to buy the same beans that were fueling the yellow jersey.”
5. They’re not making the big bucks.
WorldTour riders aside, very few professional cyclists are getting rich off the sport. The financial struggles of female cyclists have been well-documented, with many women riding for free or for embarrassingly low salaries. Without the support of parents, partners, or secondary sources of income, their cycling careers would be unsustainable. The men don’t always fare much better. Although a pathway exists for them to rise to the top where top dollars are available, most don’t make that leap to the WorldTour.
“I have been lucky to have an incredible network of support from my family and friends, and without their support, there is no way I would be able to achieve my current level of racing,” says Megan Guarnier, who earned a bronze medal in the road race at the 2015 Richmond World Championships. “When I was first making a push into the professional ranks, I lived rent-free with my generous uncle and worked a part-time job. I now have an incredibly supportive husband whose support, financial and otherwise, allows me to pursue my passion.”
6. They can seriously chow down.
Cooking for pro cyclists? Double or triple that recipe. Power-to-weight ratio plays an important role in performance, so you might not expect the pros to eat a lot. While it's part of the job to be nutrition-conscious, it's also critical to refuel the calories burned when training and racing. And the pros burn far more calories than the average person.
“I always feel sorry for restaurants or hotels where we stop for dinner,” says Majerus. “We’re always hungry. We always want more. We always want it fast. We always want special things. We always mix menus. We are rarely ever satisfied. We are never less than 10 people. If the restaurant would take two days of holidays after our visit, I would understand completely.”
7. You put in far more hours in the office than they do on the bike.
A 30-hour training week is a huge week for WorldTour riders. A 20-hour week is massive for most elite women. You spend far more hours in the office than they do in the saddle. But their work is harder to quantify.
While they might not put in full-time hours on the bike, their work includes travel, massage, medical appointments, sponsor events, and media commitments. Even rest and recovery can be considered part of the job. Wouldn’t you love to say you’re working as you laze away on a Tuesday afternoon on the couch?
“Outside of a handful of one-day races and the odd Grand Tour stage, few races exceed five or six hours, so there’s no reason for training days to exceed that length—especially for women,” says Meredith Miller of Noosa CX, whose professional career spans two decades. “I think it surprises a lot of people to learn we spend less time on the bike than they think. In contrast, they’re usually equally surprised to learn how much time we put in on all sorts of off-the-bike responsibilities that relate directly to our training and racing.”
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8. They spend most nights away from home, in beds that are not always the most comfortable.
It’s not just on race days, either: Teams sometimes keep riders in the same location between two race weekends if it’s cheaper than flying everyone home. Between that and team training camps, sponsor visits and events, and media-related responsibilities, that doesn’t leave much time in familiar digs.
In the US, host housing for pros is common. While host housing can be a fantastic way for teams to save on hotel costs, it can also mean riders end up crashing on couches and air mattresses, or doubling up in beds. In Europe, soigneurs often arrive at hotels ahead of riders and separate double beds into two single beds with the smallest of spaces between them. Beyond cramped sleeping quarters, hotels in Europe often lack air conditioning, have slow or non-existent WiFi, and see poor water pressure. And sometimes, there’s no hotel at all.
“A few years ago, during the Route de France, we rocked up to our accommodations for the night and discovered a less-than-impressive campsite,” says Nettie Edmondson. “There were four bunk beds to a room, and each bed had only a thin pillow and flimsy sheet with no fitted sheet underneath. There were communal showers and bathrooms. Everyone thinks life on tour is blissful, but it’s often not—which is not so ideal when you’re midway through an intense week of racing.”
9. They’re more likely to be germophobes than the general population.
And, in theory, for good reason: Their livelihoods depend on their health. Team Sky conducts a hand-washing clinic for riders, and Cannondale-Garmin delivers a pre-Tour de France speech about the various methods riders can use to limit their exposure to germs. Set foot on any team bus, and you’ll notice hand sanitizer is as prevalent as hand soap.
“I like France. I live in France. I have ridden for French teams for a big part of my career,” Majerus says. “But there is one bad thing about French people that is a nightmare for any cyclist: It’s the kissing when you meet. I try to avoid it because it really is the best way of getting sick. It’s a bit rude to refuse the kiss, but I prefer to be rude than to be sick.”
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10. They share your struggles.
You’ve tested different saddles for months and still haven’t found the perfect fit. It’s dumping rain—again—and you can’t find the motivation for another wet bike ride. You broke your collarbone two weeks before reaching your biggest goal of the season. You failed to eat and drink enough on your century ride, and now you’re bonking badly and getting dropped.
Think only mere mortals struggle in this way? Think again. The pros might train differently , but they have been there, done that, and accepted that these sorts of struggles come with the territory. What they’re usually better at than the general population of cyclists, though, is dealing with and learning from the struggles, and making that a priority. Many prepare mental tricks to keep themselves motivated during hard times or leave themselves encouraging notes on their legs or top tubes. The next time you get stuck in the middle of a hard climb, or check your cycle computer only to find you’re well under your goal pace, remind yourself of what you’re working toward—and that no matter what, you’re on your bike; and that’s never a bad thing.
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