6 Things I Learned Living with WorldTour Pros for a Week

So you said you want to be a real pro?

Various bikes from previous years (except the Enve up front). The main bikes were kept downstairs.

I spent just over a week living with 3 WorldTour pros leading up to the Traka. One technically is on a Pro Team, but for all intents and purposes, that team operates at WorldTour Level. What does this mean? They ride at the top level of the sport for teams that go to the Tour de France every year. This is the gold standard in our sport. For all that gravel pros are hyped and XCO athletes are impressive, the WorldTour is the undisputed pinnacle of cycling for men and women. This is my second year staying with them, and both times have been eye-opening and humbling, but it has also been reassuringly normal to live with these real pros. Here are a few observations.

It’s a 24/7 job.

Even at my level, far below that of these pros, being an athlete is a 24/7 thing. For real pros, it’s even more so that way. Every gram of food is tracked, and your life is watched and monitored in every way. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing. When I mean every gram of food is tracked, I should really say every kilogram. That fridge is not big enough for those riders. However, they get paid by teams to do this, and those teams want performance at the end of the day. I typically was the first up each morning, but the one morning I was not? That was when the anti-doping tester came (who, by the way, was very nice). Each of the riders has to provide a window every day when they are available to be tested, and they must be in the place they stated they would be. No 5-minute errands, naps, or anything else that might prevent a tester from coming. In this case, it was around 7 AM. Blood and urine samples were on the cards. If you can’t pee enough? Too bad… the tester will be there until you can. Of course, this is all crucial for maintaining a clean sport, but the “wearabouts” requirement must take a toll, especially since one mistake, like not being where you say you were going to be when the testers come, can lead to a missed test, and with enough of those, a doping infraction.

Teams, like any employers, can be shit.

Last-minute race call-ups to events no one has heard of, being hung out to dry after being promised selection for a race, and being strung along during contract negotiations... sound familiar? Racing is a job. At the end of the day, some employers suck, be they Fortune 500 companies or pro cycling teams. Don’t like being micro-managed? Don’t be a pro cyclist. Some teams are worse than others, but every part of your life is tracked in some way: diet, weight, training, location, exact results, etc.

The old school mentality still lives on, but the younger generation is all right.

There are still some DS’s who think that certain foods are bad and that you’re too fat. Luckily, it seems like the teams these three are on now don’t have as much of that, but it’s clearly still a problem. Despite that, this generation sees through that, and the good teams have moved beyond this.

Pros do not really take care of their bikes.

OK, sorry, but bike maintenance might not be a skillset that is used often amongst these pros. They clearly know how, but when you’re riding 5+ hours per day on bikes that are meant for training, why would you care? My favorite moment was seeing a chain that was noticeably too long for one of their bikes. Why? “Because [they] changed chainrings and didn’t feel like shortening the chain,” said another. Ok then.

Salaries are generally good, but shockingly low for some.

Honestly, I was impressed by the salaries these riders commanded. They are all super strong, of course, but they are also young and cycling is such a shit way to make money, so I was happy to hear they are making very good livings. However, hearing the salary of one rather big-name rider made me gasp. “That’s all!!?!” You need a better agent.

It’s a small world.

Imagine living within a 1-mile radius of all of your co-workers. That’s sort of what Girona is like. The guy who crashed you out last week? You might see him doing intervals? All of the gossip and drama seem to spread pretty fast in such a small circle. Girona is a VERY nice place, but I can imagine this gets old quite fast.

Bonus: salad bowls are for eating out of. When you ride a lot, you need to eat a lot. I do the same thing… guess that’s one thing I can say I’m as good as a pro at.

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You probably can guess who these riders are. Quite honestly, they are three amazing humans. Beyond being fucking strong, they are humble, kind, funny, and super smart. It was an honor to get to live with them for a week.

Something from the UAE Tour