By, Lenore Pipes
Riders like Olympic silver medalist Emma Pooley who just received her
geotechnical engineering PhD from ETH Zurich, one of the best
universities in Europe, Elise Delzene who won the French national road
championship race as a full-time engineer, and even full-time
chiropractor Eric Marcotte who won the USA national championships this
year, are constant reminders that many pros are able to both race at
the highest level and still contribute to society. Based on my
experiences this year, I bet they are incredible people to have as
teammates.
I have been a student for most of my life, a cyclist for much less
time, and a professional cyclist for even less. Because of this, it
was only natural to apply the formula that had gotten me through
academia to sport. From my earliest memories to today at 28 years
old, my life has been consumed with performing well on homework,
exams, and grade reports. For cycling, I figured that just as long as
I did the homework (the training), I could ace the exams (the races),
and have a stellar grade report (race resume). After I finally
started to get results at important races, I thought that if I
continued to improve my race resume I would be asked onto the
appropriate team. With trying to juggle everything else going on in
my life, I felt that this was the most comfortable way to approach my
new hobby.
When I was invited to ride for Colavita-Fine Cooking this year, I
finally accepted that my initial approach to cycling had been wrong
all along. Cycling is a team sport! Cyclists are people not defined
solely by their palmares but by their personalities and character and
relationships and responsibilities. Teammates have to be able to race
together, travel together, and overall get along well together.
We have to be willing to commit to a unified race strategy yet
individually endure an unbelievable amount of suffering if that is
what is required. We pretend that we are well (olive) oiled machines
set out to execute a well devised strategy based on thousands of input
variables. Unlike in science, we can't control all the inputs.
Instead, we are emotional beings reacting to each other and the
physical stresses that come with the controlled chaos of each race,
making split-second decisions to accomplish as many of the team’s
goals as possible. This is the beauty of the sport and why it is
important to have just as much mental toughness as we have physical
strength. Whether the race unfolds favorably for us or not, I
remember that we need to keep doing our homework, cultivating our
relationships, and reevaluating our strategies.
In 2-3 years I will graduate and won't be a student anymore and
sometime in the future I won't be a professional cyclist any more.
Until then, I'll be focused on being as valuable a team member as
possible and a person that both academics and bike racers love to work
with.
geotechnical engineering PhD from ETH Zurich, one of the best
universities in Europe, Elise Delzene who won the French national road
championship race as a full-time engineer, and even full-time
chiropractor Eric Marcotte who won the USA national championships this
year, are constant reminders that many pros are able to both race at
the highest level and still contribute to society. Based on my
experiences this year, I bet they are incredible people to have as
teammates.
time, and a professional cyclist for even less. Because of this, it
was only natural to apply the formula that had gotten me through
academia to sport. From my earliest memories to today at 28 years
old, my life has been consumed with performing well on homework,
exams, and grade reports. For cycling, I figured that just as long as
I did the homework (the training), I could ace the exams (the races),
and have a stellar grade report (race resume). After I finally
started to get results at important races, I thought that if I
continued to improve my race resume I would be asked onto the
appropriate team. With trying to juggle everything else going on in
my life, I felt that this was the most comfortable way to approach my
new hobby.
finally accepted that my initial approach to cycling had been wrong
all along. Cycling is a team sport! Cyclists are people not defined
solely by their palmares but by their personalities and character and
relationships and responsibilities. Teammates have to be able to race
together, travel together, and overall get along well together.
individually endure an unbelievable amount of suffering if that is
what is required. We pretend that we are well (olive) oiled machines
set out to execute a well devised strategy based on thousands of input
variables. Unlike in science, we can't control all the inputs.
Instead, we are emotional beings reacting to each other and the
physical stresses that come with the controlled chaos of each race,
making split-second decisions to accomplish as many of the team’s
goals as possible. This is the beauty of the sport and why it is
important to have just as much mental toughness as we have physical
strength. Whether the race unfolds favorably for us or not, I
remember that we need to keep doing our homework, cultivating our
relationships, and reevaluating our strategies.
sometime in the future I won't be a professional cyclist any more.
Until then, I'll be focused on being as valuable a team member as
possible and a person that both academics and bike racers love to work
with.
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