Getting Somewhere
"Trying to become a pro cyclist" has been, for the last 3 years, the standard response when someone asks me what I’m doing with my life at this moment in time. But, truth be told, until fairly recently not even I knew what that really meant.
Sure, it was a goal, but one so out of reach that it didn’t bear thinking about, which I think disconnected me from what ‘pro cyclist’ actually meant. The perception of a professional bike rider has gone from being a supernatural being; to a peer, albeit a much more advanced one. That’s a big wall to get over (almost as hard as the Muur).
Don’t get me wrong, I have always tried my utmost to improve and move forward, but the steps have always seemed so small in comparison to the colossal end goal. It is like laying one brick every day, and sometimes even accidentally knocking one off again, in a bid to build a mansion. It is sometimes easy to get lost in the complex vastness of it all.
However, as I said, in the past few weeks and months the big objective seems to have come into a better focus. I have made a lot of progress so far this year – physically, mentally and professionally, which probably helps, and as a result the route to the top tiers of the sport has become a lot clearer in my mind.
Riders who a year or two ago I would have classed as ‘way out of my league’, could now respectably be classed as beatable; races which even last year I would have been pleased to start, let alone finish, I am now aiming for results at. More importantly, I feel like a racing cyclist again, attacking, sprinting and playing poker, not just another young buck in lycra getting his head smashed in every week trying his best to hold on to the wheel i n front.
I am not saying I’m almost there by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe I’ve just finished laying another storey with my ‘brick a day’ tactic.
Cycling is both the most complex beast I know, yet also the simplest. At the end of the day, it’s just riding a bike, but the amount of factors that contribute to being able to do that successfully are infinite.
In the last couple of weeks I’ve made the winning breakaway twice, coming away with a 5th and 6th place, and an ever growing confidence and motivation to outweigh the initial disappointment of not capitalising and taking a win. The fact that during my three years in Belgium the disappointments have gone from not finishing, to not making the breakaway...to not winning, shows the progress I’ve made though, so hopefully that will continue.
Josh