KEY TAKEAWAYS
I chat with former Irish TT champ, Conn McDunphy about the lifestyle & sacrifices necessary to try snag a precious World Tour Contract.
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“I was told that unless you can win in Ireland, you can't go anywhere. So I was lucky enough for trying hard enough for whatever way you want to look at it. So like in my second year, U23, I won a fair few races in Ireland, one stage of Ulster, had the jersey and stuff like that.”
“My first year in the genre had 74 race days, which is insane. You know, it was just broken after.”
“By the time you actually qualify for a cycling or a sport or a fun thing, you're most likely at a level, like Sam Bennett, where you don't actually need the fun thing anymore because you have a contract to this stage.”
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Today I'm going to chat with Irish professional cyclist, Comma Don't Be. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question, this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman, welcome back to the Roadman Cycling Podcast. It's another week. I'm going to kick off this week slightly on Orthodox, so I know we normally do interviews on Wednesday, but we mix it up with the Sam Hills with the Academy interview last Friday. So I thought, you know what, I'm going to keep an interview tradition of a few really cool guests lined up over the next month. I'm going to do slightly more interviews than normal over the next month. I'm just playing around with format. I still love the Roadman Boyz short form ones, but I do dig into it a little bit more in the guest interview. So really the format is going to be whatever way my mood sway is. If you have any opinion on it, hit me at DM over on Instagram. It's just Roadman.soichling over there. Today I'm going to chat with former Irish elite national time trial champion, Colin McDonoughy, who's currently writing for Evo Pro Cycling. We're going to talk all things cycling, but specifically I wanted to focus on the grind. takes to make it as a pro cyclist, the obstacles, the crashes, the financial hardships and the difficulty because often we see the iceberg. We see the tippity iceberg only. We see the success stories, the art success stories of Sam Bennett, Nicholas Roach, Ryan Mullen. But we don't see under the water. We don't see that body of hard work and sacrifice that goes into getting to that end point. Kahn is still on that journey of sacrifice and that's what I want to talk to him about today. Before I dive into that, let me just remind you about Patreon. Patreon is how we fund the podcast. The podcast is entirely funded off that at the moment, but I also like to call it my beer fund. So it's all we ask is the price of a point of beer once a month. So if you'd see me out and about, if you see me in a coffee shop, if you see me in a pub and you'd be willing to buy me a beer to tank me for the work on the roadman podcast for facilitating these interviews, You can virtually do the same here. The link is in the bio but it's www.patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. Five of them on it's not gonna break you. Without further the jail let's jump in and chat with Mr. Khan McDomphy. Nice to meet you. Nice to have a manta. Yeah, that's all good. I'm here in Injorona. I've been training away on my stress day recovery week this week and yeah looking forward to getting crack around the podcast. Yeah I'm very jealous I had to short commute about five minutes to come around to record the podcast and it is on a prompt and coming around and I was literally watching out for all EC patches on my five minute commute. If it helps at all it's all you see here as well. It's cold it's only as Jon has always but tends to be always sunny but I know people who fell off on the ICS lay in so it's not warm. Good effort. I can't help but you can just vlog for me face. Yeah. You would have got some crack out of it before you had a stack that coming around on the Brompton Academy laptop to record the podcast. No, you're lucky. You probably break the laptop on the way up to show. How long have you been out in Toronto for how long have you been out in Toronto for? How long have you been out in Toronto for how long have you been in December, I've been out since the first of December. I went home for Christmas, and then I came back out again on the first of January. Trying to be on good, so basically I started with new coach, started with him in November. I'm basically just going to big training blocks. So one pre-Christmas, where we did like two 30 hour weeks, hour weeks that they like and then chill over Christmas and then I'm at the end of a block now. So I've done 60 hours and almost 60 hours in January. So it kind of, that was in a bit of a bag yesterday. And so I'm happy for a few days. Very different place since we wrote. So that day I wrote with you, we've gone out, you actually didn't come out but your housemate writes for, hey, is it Hagenaccent's Fairmen's? I always book that name. I just call them actually on but yeah, I'm vaccine. Yeah. So his con's housemate is Joe Labrich and it was Joe's birthday. We all went out to the nightclub with excluding con. I managed to catch COVID in the nightclub. And so that's six hour ride we don't I actually had COVID for that. But it was like, it was like, I hadn't kicked in or whatever. So yeah, but it was in the system because two days after that, like I was erode with a another lad who's been on the podcast, Jack Ultra so I can stay road with him the day after I wrote with you.
And it was like a four hour cruise, you know, for a while. And I was like, I am coming apart bad here. Like what the fuck is going on? I just put you in a box and I thought that's what I was thinking. I was like, me can't be gone that well. Like I'm in a bad way here. Then the next morning I woke up and I was like, you know, I've got, you know, the locals call it your own. Oh, you just, you know, you just ride for too long and you're just too fucked. I was like, I've got a guy, he's just your own all-eater series. So I'm just going to book a flight home because I've been there for about four weeks. Booked a flight home, went to get me PC or a test. It was positive and it's like, fuck sake. So did you have to do quarantine here? I had quarantine there, yeah. So I only got home on Christmas Eve. You're lucky to be at home for Christmas and also? Yeah, and I live off a good man. On a very doubtful list, man listens to the podcast. good man working for a Gloveau, the equivalent of Uber Eats in Giroud and a Greco, he was hooked up. Me and Joe were only talking about Gloveau. We were walking, we were in there for a walk after dinner last night and we were giving out that, I don't know, do you know the street of the stone bridges? I think it's called Santa Clara or something. Basically it's a road and everyone walked on the road and when we're coming back from train and ride, we ride on the road obviously and there's always people walking in the street, always giving out there's people in the street and we were those people on the walk last night and we nearly killed a poor Lobo man who was riding delivering food I suppose and then we got into the conversation it's like, Lobo isn't even like a deliverer and it's just like it's just kind of like shitty, almost trying to be delivery but it's not quite. I'm not going to abuse it so much. You kept me alive during my isolation. Because there was no one around. Obviously I could have reached out to, you know, just a few Irish people in town and stuff. But it's like, oh, you know, I don't want to be making my problem there. Probably going to get in the drop me off groceries and stuff. So I was like, oh, fuck, I'm going to live off Glove. Oh, well, he's a good man. I feel like the Glove-O lads are calling it like category four riders that you'll start in Ireland. They're on these electric bikes. So they've got a lot of speed, but not a lot of boy handling going off. So it's going for recipe for disaster. It's kind of the opposite of the rest of the people to see rock around drone. Have you ever seen a guy in drone who rides around with no wheel on the front? He just wheeled his round of legs. I just to say, he had stolen that bike and the way it was on the lamppost. I actually found out today he's a stunt actor. So he just rides around looking for, I don't know what he does be doing like, but He's, he's, he's, you get take part in movies and stuff and uh, so yeah. He's not, he's not, he's not an actor like. I wouldn't imagine there's a lot of work for a lot who just wheelies as an actor. It's a good idea to get into that myself. Similarly, there's like two hours of age is riding around your own and no front wheel. Like big trying to plan, big trying to plan. Tell them if you need to coach to hit us up. You came through, you're with EVO Pro Cycling now, but you came through the French system. Obviously, I spent the year out there as well, so I kind of know what it's like. But I suppose for anyone listening to the podcast who's on the way up and they're contemplating, they have that dream again to the world tour. And there's a couple of different ways to get there. I had Sam Hill on the podcast there on Friday, and Sam Hill was wanted to learn to enter Zwift Academy, then he went to the Zwift Finals out in New York, ultimately he didn't get the contract, it was Alex Bogdag, I think got the contract, but Sam Hill chose to go that route to try and get a contract, obviously worked for Jay Voian, but you've chosen to go the more traditional route, I suppose the more a proud enough path trodden in Ireland from, I think, you know, Shea Elliott was probably on the force to go over to Stephen Roach, to a doef, you know, we put a lot of gold roiders through that path and you went that way. Did you give much thought to go on that path or was it just something you kind of fell into? But yeah, so basically when I started, so I started in a small, starting in Bumboyne through, I probably didn't know, Tashlabri. My father, like, of the best, my grandfather's cycles in the 40s and basically my father met Tashlabri on the road and he's like should bring condoms with clothes because I've been kind of my father being discouraged from riding by my grandfather and so he took up psych and was like 40 and and then I wasn't let start cycling.
I was always a big cycling fan, started cycling when I was 15 or 16 and then kind of outgrew inspiration, cycling club in the blind because they weren't really racing club, joined Luke and and that's where we kind of started training properly and then my first year at under 23, started training properly. I was coached by a guy called Nico Angelica, so he probably knows that Nico and he kind of put no illusions in our head as to how hard it is like because that ultimately like I reckon is probably the hardest sport you can do you and give or take. So yeah, like I was told that unless you can win an Ireland, you can't go anywhere. So I was lucky enough for trying hard enough for whatever way you want to look at it. So like in my second year, U23, I won a fair few races in Ireland, one stage of Ulster, had the jersey and stuff like that. I think it's got a voice though, because if you're not winning in Ireland or if you're listen to the podcast in the UK, if you're not winning in the UK, when you move to France, the racing is that much harder. I remember coming home from France to do the Ross and it's like the eight easiest days of the entire season, even though it's a 2.2. The racing of France is just, it's upper level and it's completely delusional to think you can step there unless you're winning in Ireland already. For sure. It's also so different because in Ireland, you have to ride hard all the time and then you can be able to sprint at the end. That's the people that win, unless you can ride away on your own. In France, obviously, there's this mantra of them being so skinny and not eating and doping and all this. But ultimately, they are really skinny. The minute they put pressure on the pedals, they go for alcohol-beheld. And it's so punchy. And that took really takes from getting used to, you know? For an Irish rider who, like me personally, I'm not a punchy rider at all. like I'd be more of a time trialist, kind of, I suppose a diesel if you want to put it, but I don't really like that term because it's kind of for that. And not nice to accept. But yeah, it's like the nature of French racing doesn't necessarily suit me, but it is just so much harder. I, for example, this year, when I changed over, or last year, sorry, when I changed back over to Continental Lab with EVOPro, I didn't notice the change in level from a French group to France, the N1 to 1.1. I thought it was a 1.1 were almost easier. Well, I did exact same experience when I went from France to the US. I actually felt it was probably marginally a step down then the French level. And the reason that level in France sometimes four times a week. The thing is completely different rates than my first year in No-Jant. And like no, John Sir was with me on the most highly renowned DN1 teams in France for many years. Like, it's a good team and we were just racing. We barely had to train, it was great. But like my first year in the genre had 74 race day, which is insane. You know, it was just broken after. Yeah, you know, there's a French there. I'm not sure familiar with the Le Métier, and it's kind of like the hard work or the apprenticeship for the craft is the English translation to it. And that's what it is. They literally, your throw lads into this environment and you see who can survive. Some kind, some kind, like life's not glamorous out there. No, not at all. Like for example, my first year in Nojans, and I'm part of my second year, but obviously my second year in Nojans was the COVID year. So it kind of got halted. Like our team house, if you wanna call it, that was a prefab that you go to school in. And it was just grim. I was sharing my first year of sharing with Daramahani. And we were cooking on a hot place that was the soil of microwave. And we were using a bathroom sink to do our washing open. It was just, it was gross though. I remember this day, I actually just started talking. I remember that we used to have to go to races where we were staying over noise. And you have to bring your sleeping bag. Because to be known, to be known linen on the beds. Well, that's well and existence as you stay in there or what do they call them? A jeet, staying in a jeet. And you got to bring your pillow, your sleeping bag or your bed linen. And yeah, if you don't forget it, you're going cold. It's absolutely bizarre. Well, did you get paid when you were up in France? Yeah, I was lucky in that, yeah, I got paid. So the first year they have this thing in France called the service the week. So that was 600 Euro a month. And that was my first year. And then obviously after, I didn't have a bad year. I didn't have a good year, but I finished my first year in a genre for the few top fives.
So the team was like, okay, we'll pay a bit more. And then 2021, I was comfortable. It's like I wasn't. That's a government almost social welfare to like, so city, isn't it, rather than from the team? In 2020, sorry, in my first year in Ojond, yeah, that's like, it's a service to be, it's like a volunteer thing. So they, I think I'm not sure whether they're actually supposed to be giving it to bike riders, but like, like they are. Because I didn't get it when I was there. I'm not sure. It was, I think it was an age thing because I wasn't U23. So I didn't qualify for it when I went there. I was teammates by Aaron Bughal who was U20 train, he did qualify for it. So we had a massive difference. We lived together and we had very different spending power because I was only getting 50 or a week, but he was getting 50 or a week plus the welfare. So he was balling outrage just like Jay Z around the town, boy. Coffee's and luxury's like that. Yeah. Cause like we were talking to me and Dara were in, basically where no is it's quite near the nearest noise town would be Chantilly. And it's basically where the king of France, or did they still have a king? When they did have a king, he'd get, like, have his marriage, get married and stuff. And proper noise town, fancy town, like in the north of Paris, that kind of region, there isn't that many noise towns. So that's the only town that has a decent cafe. So we spend a fair amount of time in the cafe. And one day in the cafe, we met these American girls. And basically, they were saying that they were on the service to the family. We were like, what? How is that possible? So over the American or English or somewhere, anyway. And we didn't understand how they were on it. And basically, that's why it's designed for us. Design for people who, they were teachers. And it's designed for people who come over and help volunteer as like an actual normal human job rather than a cyclist. Yeah, and how much do cycling Ireland help you out in your sort of, you know, journey from domestic rider trying to make it as a world's order? Well, yeah, ultimately cycling, it's not cycling Ireland's job to help riders because that would be seen as favoritism like, and I was, I have been quite fortunate in that, like I have received opportunities, I suppose. But on the other hand, I've also felt like I've been afflicted a few times, but we were guys with them helping. Like for example, I was coached for the past two years by Tommy Evans, I'm sure you know Tommy, like he's one of the best Irish riders probably ever. And like that was completely like on-site now. but I can't fault them in that regard. So... Yeah, but it's almost like what is the, you know, the purpose of Silicon Ireland, I think broadly it's to promote cycling within Ireland. So you kind of have this, you know, it's more, I think the catchphrase initially came from Winnensport and Katie Taylor was on it, but it's kind of the idea of can't see me, can't see me. So you need to have role models out there. Like I'm sure, you know, you had role models like when I was starting I was looking out at Roach I'm looking at Dan Martin and stuff and thinking, fuck, that's where I want to get it. But without those people there, the next generation can't strive. So it's definitely in cycle learning to interest to get Reuters like you who are on the cusp and get them into World Tour. But it just feels like at times they don't do enough to help, you know, make those connections, help try and get you placed on teams, help you get stash years. And then even the carding system and the funding system is so broke, Because by the time you actually qualify for a cycling or a sport or a fun thing, you're most likely at a level, like Sam Bennett, where you don't actually need the fun thing anymore because you have a contract to this stage. Yeah, it's difficult. I see where they're coming from, but it's also like where I'm at. It's also it's it's shit like. But like, for example, the gym, when I was after your U23 was in in his book, I was like really stuck for a gym program and like in the winter, you know, and I didn't really have a gym and like that's kind of, that's really kind of important at the moment. And I was asking, because I live quite near Abbottstown and near the Sport Island Center and I was like, I dropped Brian Nugent, the message, I think it was Nugent or Southern Army basically, and I was like, can I use Hoppin' the gym? And he was like, I'd love to let you hop in the gym and use the sport ad facility, but there's only three cyclists who have access. Dan Martin, Nick's Roach, and I'm not sure who the third one was, but like they don't live in art. So it's just basically no, it's like no Irish cyclist has access to the gym unless you're on the National Track Squad or something similar.
So yeah, it does need to be looked at, but I don't know the right answers, you know? And it's a phenomenal setup up there because obviously I had access with, I just point and on the power squad. I know I had access up there because we were a cowardice. You know, it was a full-stricken experience because, you know, on the power squad, I came to the power squad really at the end of a serious cycling career. You know, I needed that sort of support, you know, eight years ago. I didn't need the access to physio, sports psychologist, you know, but it's a funny one there because then that's diminishing the role of power sport and that is is there actual Olympics? And that's the kind of dichotomy of being a tandem rider because you have one party on the bike, on the back who's visually impaired. And this is his actual Olympics. And then you have an able body going on the front who is, it's not a real Olympics for them. It's a parallel Olympics. So it's difficult to balance those sort of competing mindset sometimes on the tandem. Yeah. Yeah, I know that's, that's interesting way to put it like But going back to the whole, you wish you had support when you were a writer, it's very difficult as a national governing body, like you said, now, to dictate who they can give back to. There's some guys racing at home with full-time jobs who are just as strong as me, or just as strong as, why don't they get it? And they've got to pay for their gym. And why should I get it just because I'm a full-time bike rider? But there's always those arguments. Yeah, but does the difficulty like yeah on doubt leaves this difficulty in a sign and who you give support to but just because there's a little bit of friction in making that decision does that justify complete inaction and not looking after any. Yeah, there's like I don't have the answer to that question. And like I'd love to see like a wider you know like here you might do like a G and they have a panel where they have, you know, they might have dirty guys on the panel or whatever, and all tortoises, guys on the Dublin panel all get access to, you know, strength, condition, and sports psychology, physios. It seems such an easy thing to do to pick a wide panel and say, this is the cycling Ireland panel for the season. All our national teams will be drawn from this panel, and everyone on the panel will have, you know, some level of support. I'd like to think that they do have a long list for events, whether they're released or not, or whether they're announced or not, is another question. And obviously, whether they even have one, because I'd be unaware if they have, because I've not been obviously included in that. But even say that, if they have a long list for events, being major championships, your opinions world if you're an under 20 tree all nations cope I think they do have written in 20 trees so far somewhere and like the likes of that like that that that longness would be the panel and then then those guys like sure half of the Irish like is aren't even based on so like they would be you wouldn't get not many people actually using their facilities and unthread the season as well, ideally we do gym work, try the season, but it's very hard to manage the load. You know, the funny thing is even, you know, road man's cycling as a coaching company, like we're given access to our clients to resources that, you know, guys who are trying to make a pro don't have, it's insane. You know, like we can reach out and work with, you know, top physiologists and strength and conditioning experts and build a strength training program I mean, to a members area and guys have a login and they can look at video demos and they can see how many sets of each exercise are meant to do. We can give them access to sports psychologists in the resource areas. But as you're trying to make it as a pro, you don't always have money to sign up to coaching companies like this. And you need this stuff more than your average Joe because you end up becoming the inspiration for that average Joe. Yeah, I just think it's a very broken system you're nearly within cycling Ireland, you have to succeed in spite of cycling Ireland, not because of it. Yeah, I suppose the cream will always come to the top, like, but there's also lots of people who fall through the gaps. So, it's about minimizing the people who fall through the gaps. And with regards to the strength and conditioning thing, like that's still a bit taboo and it's not really like up until like the past maybe two or three years, like I wasn't pushing the gym. Like, you know, it's like if I'd been in the gym in the lead up to the ends of the world, for example, where I wrote the TT, I reckon I'd have gone far better, you know, but like when I won the national chamois, I was in the gym right up to it like two weeks before, lifting heavy weights.
And I convinced that that helped me significantly. Yeah, but it's almost how information flows though. And it takes just so long to flow down to lower income levels. It's, you know, it starts out because obviously with the podcast, I'm looking up and I get to chat to, you know, the top of the top inside world tour teams, be it Reuters, directors, coaches, S&C experts. And you can see what they're doing. You can see how their portion D envelope, the R&D that's going into, you know, developing Reuters for them. And then you see it's filtering down into, you know, clients who are paying a lot of money for programs like some of the top end ones, we're offering. And it's filtering down that kind of socioeconomic ladder almost. And, you know, it's sometimes taken two years before it's becoming to your average Joe ambitious kid who's on the way up. No, for sure. And I also think that it regards to strength conditioning. and actually human physiology and training. Like we in Ireland and the UK are actually quite much further ahead than they are in France and Spain, maybe, because like for example, I have a good friend whose father was top 10 in the Tour de France like, and like he should interior, he wrote his father wrote a map by it. They should know like how to train. Like, but he doesn't push the weight, he doesn't push the weight rack over the winter, like for fear of putting on muscle mass and stuff. And we know now that it just doesn't, it just doesn't work like that. But like it, and it stops injury increases like your mass sprint power. And like, there's so many benefits to it. But it's just the tanking is so kind of far behind that like, it's actually good that we have access to it in Ireland and stuff? How long is your rope? Like, by that I mean, how much time have you got before you have to get a World Tour contract before this life becomes unsustainable? Like you talked about, you've done 60 errors already in January. That doesn't leave you a lot of space to go and get a power time job, get a full time job. So I assume that you're full time and you're living on savings or you're living on hand So how long is that sustained before? Yeah, well, so at the moment I'm also a psychic coach. So that has happened. So basically in 2020, I crashed bad in a race in the Alps, and I cracked my scope. So basically I was flying down in the center of the front, and I was maybe 15 riders left in the race. in the race, so I was there. And next thing I remember is we're going over top of the climb and it's raining. And next, straight after that, I wake up in hospital. Well, apparently it was eight hours, six, seven, eight hours there where I was transporting two helicopters. And yeah, I woke up with a share of panic, asking my DS, is the race over? Is the race over? And he was like, yes, it's over, you idiot. But I've got no recollection of what happened between when I crashed and when I woke up, but I went planning to end the scent into the last hairpin on the scent. It was a speed bump. And the first one I took the corner, I fell off, second one, I fell off, over the fifth one I fell off, using my head as a brake. And hit the back of my skull right below my helmet against a block on the side of the road. You know, the way in the Alps they have those surrogate blocks. And I cracked my ostigle of condyle, which is basically what protects your brainstem. And I currently have part of my ostigle condyle lodged in my brainstem. It's going nowhere. It's like my knee. It's a, it's a, privacy fused. So it's, it's, it's safe. Well, basically long story short, this whole process made me realize that like, Like, one day we were just going to be gone. Like, there was six hours there, I had no recollection. So I was like, I'm just going to try and, obviously I don't want to be in the same position. Like, I'm 24 and out. I don't want to be 27, 28, see the holes and answer the dream. Because like, yeah, at some point you do have to move on. Well, I'm in the position now that I'm not coughing anyone, anything. I'm genuinely enjoying myself. And until I get to a point where I feel like either I need to kind of move on or I'm start costing people something like I think life's too short to be worrying about oh shit I need to get an image to get her or because ultimately like if when it's all over like it's just going to be blank I think the most boring is that you spent time doing what you actually want to do rather than going, suppose, with the norms of getting a job, getting a bar, getting a wife, you know, that's my thinking. It's definitely a good philosophy. And I definitely didn't have that majority when I was in your stage, because I come out, I went masters and post grads always that bit older, coming through the whole process.
But I had this idea that I had to keep stepping up that if I didn't step up, that it was time to call a quits. And, you know, even, you know, I would have worked to encourage John McKenna for years in our short, you'd know, and he kind of had this similar idea that you have to step up, have to step up and as soon as you stagnate, it's time to call a quits. But looking back, I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do, like, you can turn the switch back to being a normal person very, very fast. But kind of my tip and points, similar enough to yours and it's interesting that we kind of responded to it in different ways. I was racing a criterium in Detroit. And my team actually chose at the last minute not to go to the criterium because I was living in Toronto. It's Toronto is pretty close to Detroit. I still went. So I raced on the Saturday and I'd normally be part of this big, you know, you see them on YouTube with, you know, nations number one based and stuff. Part of this big lead out train and, you know, I'd be a small part of it. and then I drop off and, you know, finish 60th or whatever. But because I was there on my own and the team hadn't gone, on the Saturday, the big lead out trying starts. And I just got to kind of sort around, and although I can't really sprint, you know, from the lead outs, I was good enough at hopping around from trying to trying. And I ended up just, even without sprinting, just sort from the try and end up coming fifth. And I got a chunk of prize money. And I was like, oh, this is nice. I hardly had to do anything, just sort of the try and end, and I got fifth. And then the next day, I tried to do the same again. And at about 200 meters ago, there was a massive bunch crash. And I went down real bad, and I broke. Color bone, bunch of ribs, finger, collapsed lung, broken shoulder sockets, absolutely fucked up. And a combination of the US healthcare system in shit, I ended up having to drive back to Toronto six hours with those injuries, like collapsed lung in the back, early braid. And just having this period of introspection, I'm like, you know what, is there, does the risk to reward here make sense for me? Because, you know, like you, you know, having to travel in a helicopter, you can die down this shit. And it's, you know, so many injuries are for keeps, like sitting here, I can still feel the effects of that crash just sitting here doing a podcast at the moment. And so that made me kind of reflect on, you know, what's the upside versus what's the down so it at this part. It's interesting you kind of have the same experience but you spawn it in a different direction. With the benefit of hindsight, I actually think yours is a healthier way to look at it. Yeah, I hear you. But also that's that. I think that perhaps maybe if I remember if I could remember the crash and if I could remember how it happened, I don't know if I could look at the way I look at it. Because I've got no, there's a better 30-minute window there. I've got most of the memory back, but still, from the minute I went over the top of the climb, I've got no, like, thought it's blank like. So I reckon if I remember the feeling of, my, if we were going out hitting my head, or I don't know if I could fully commit to going down the sand fast again, like, so, you know, it's like, it is, yeah, it's, it's different. and it was, it does put things in perspective, but like, I think this too, your experience is completely, I'd say I would be more edging towards the way you reacted to it if I could remember. Yeah, but you know what, like, just reflect on it now, it's, you know, it's a high-risk sport for sureable. You know, also, you're saying I'm not sure how much you're following Irish news recently, like the young girl that was out running the gakil just gone for a jog. You know, the effects COVID had on people, life isn't without risks. You know, the thing that you can walk away from cycling all of a sudden, you know, you've no risk in your life. Like one of my good mates, a teammate, you know, a lad, you know, fairly well from race and Sean Lacey. Like he had an accident, they were training a few years ago and he never cycles again after. That's just out training. That could easily be me commuting around on the Brompton. You got hit from behind by a car. It's not even related to competition. It's just out cycling that can happen. Yeah, the bike is a dangerous sport though. I heard it quite interesting analogy recently. It's the only sport in the world where the pitch is constantly changing. Yeah. So like, imagine a football player at the what a pitch that was changing or like, like, and it is like, it's dangerous and you might come right in the corner and it might be a parrot in front of you and after you act with that, just ultimately we're doing it because we love it, you know?
And it changes so fast. Like last time or not the last time the previous time before that I was in Jirona, I was over on the training camp. And you know, you're cruising down to the coffee shop and one of the guys that's there, you know, not super experienced but also just very unlucky. He wasn't particularly paying attention. He hit a stick on the road, lost his hands off the bars, went down and he ended up breaking his hip. And you're like, it goes from, we're cruising to the coffee shop in the sun on a recovery day to a broken hip so fast. I've never seen a sport that has changes in fortunes so fast. Yeah, but it's also quite nice being on the edge of whether, I thought maybe I'm saying like, oh, almost almost dying every day is kind of a nice brings you back down to Earth and they kind of. Yeah, I think every bike rider has to have a little bit of that. What's like look like after cyclone? I'm not sure to be honest. Like obviously I've got a coach and a few riders at the moment. I'd like to think that I want to keep that up for a good while. I have a mechanical engineering degree. So I got that in DIT because I wasn't good enough as... So basically, I was second year junior. I was in freshman year in college. So I was kind of lucky in that I started to do it early. And then I wasn't good enough first year, second year, and second year to go full-time, or I didn't think I was anyway. So my degree was only three years. So in theory, I could go work as mechanical engineer, not that I know what mechanical engineer does, and it was just kind of bad. But yeah, that's what I have. I've got something to sit back on anyway. So I'm not sure I want to work as mechanical engineer though. Is there anyone you kind of, you know, a guy a mentor is man. I remember a few years ago, he just gave me this great quote that I don't even think he, I appreciated the significance of us when he was saying it, but I love diary and right now, so I remember jotting it down. I was just jotting it down. I literally just happened to page on my diary every day for months on end. It was just like successfully, it's close. And it's this idea that if you have someone that you go, fuck, his life is cool. I really like the way he's carved out of living. I like the way he's vibe. You can walk backwards from where he is now and go, okay, well, this is what he's done a year before he got there. This is what he's done two years before he got there. You can almost retrace his path to success. So I definitely have a couple of guys that I'm going, oh yeah, that's, I'm definitely trying to retrace their path. But is there anyone you can look at and go, you know, outside of the world of soil, because obviously, you know, you know, like, sagans, it's often to be amazing to do that. But if you went to the alternate route, do you have anyone that you're looking at and gone? Well, that's, that's a pretty cool way of living in your life? It's not something I've ever really taught about to be honest, but ultimately, I think that if you've done it yourself and you've been quite successful, if you're going to, the amount of effort and time that we put into cycling, if we put that into any other walk of life, ultimately, we're going to be successful in my opinion. So it's not something that I tend to to really stress over and I've not really looked or thought about who I look up to or anything like that. But maybe there is just something not thought about. That's what we do here, Connor. It's just meaning a live chat. It's just like a little therapy session. Area B, man. Let's finish off this one. Take me back to the Time Trial Champs in 2020. Yeah, over here. Talk to me about how big was that for you? I was massive like it was, I don't cry very often. But like when I won that, I was on the turbo, my father was there and I just burst my butt. A burst out crying and yeah, so like I did, basically I had the perfect preparation for it. So obviously COVID hit, I went home in March, stayed there, stayed at home until first week of August. And the team had what do we have? So we had a group different team time trial. So the final week of August, first week of September, then I had a three-year-old Normand. So that's a three-year-old team time trial for 50K and Corona, Champinoa. And like I knew I was going well, because I was like one of the strongest writers in the group time trial. which is like an hour long effort. Three on Armando, I actually blew my lights at those Billy Big Balls. Rode ran the first lap, this basically two laps, 26 kilometer circuit. And Rode ran the first lap at like 400 normalised or something. And then the second lap literally like suffered like a dog.
And then I was second in Corona Chomping Off and behind the French amateur, from Champ. So like I knew it was going well. We were doing, I was working very closely with Tommy Evans at time and we were doing like proper hard sessions, like lots of kind of intermittent, intermittent like threshold work and probably two of those sessions, we locked the tempo work and like just hard, hard training. But like in the back of my head, yeah, we were training for National Challenge. but like I honestly didn't think that I was going to do very well. Like I was more kind of going in there, didn't really care, just kind of trying to get the best out of myself. So I got to the champs, had my equipment down, which I was happy about. Like I got a new wheel built up by Cliff Mulhurn, the best the if you want to build wheel, build, use the mount to build your wheel and in double anyway. And build wheel, build by him, had my tires, had chains, you know, you know yourself time traveling and so much down to equipment nowadays. And then I had like obviously had the all the S and C, it was doing that all the way up until two weeks before. But even still, I went down there, ragged the course. And like, I knew it actually wasn't a course for me, to be honest, like it was a flat main road out and back. I had a bit of a technical turn, which ultimately helped me win the thing. But yeah, like it really wasn't that suited to me. But anyway, yeah, I went down. I wasn't really putting any stress on myself. I was literally just laughing before I start. And I tend to go the best when I'm not stressed. So yeah, I still did my warm up. Got started at TT. Got a few minutes I had to throw it, and I was like, shit, I feel good. I was riding. I was up on any projected powers. And I just kind of smiled at myself. And yeah, I got our finish line. I really felt like I got everything out and warming down the turbo afterwards. And I was told that I won. And it was like, it was just a moment of like, who was on the party of that day? It was me, Nico, and Lindsey Waffen. So like, what's going through your head at that point? Is it just vindication of all the hard work? Is it a thank you for all the people who've given you a leg up along the way? Or is it just a very private moment? It just took me a bit of time to process it. Because obviously it was just something that I... Yeah, it was such a shock. It's not something that anyone can ever take away from me. even if most I can experience tomorrow, like it's like one, one to see the elite national challenges. I think that's the thing. And when you go abroad, you know, when you start winning in Ireland, and then you make the choice to go abroad to France, and you have, you know, two, three years, whatever it is, racing abroad, you end up, you know, if you had a state at home during that period, you could have put your name on a lot of, a lot of trophies. but your best form is miles away from everybody back home to see. So sometimes people don't know how well you're going. So when you look back on a cycling career, like I'm talking really about myself here, but projecting onto you a little bit, when you look back on your cycling career, you can look and go, okay, I've won the Des Han, man, I've won the Che Elias, but you never really see what the next step up looks like. And you've never tested yourself to see where the limit is, Or you can go like you've done and you can keep pushing and keep pushing and keep pushing and see where the ceiling is But to have something like the time trial champs like no one can ever take it from you So, you know, if you make world tour or if you don't make world tour It's still going to be something that you'll be 30 years from now sitting back on fuck it. I was national time trial champion. That's pretty cool Yeah, that's the thing like ultimately to be honest like while I'd love to I genuinely would love to get to the world tour Honestly, I don't care whether I do or not like like if I do great, if I don't, that's not the end of the world. Like something I'm actually really looking forward to this year is with EVO Pro. We are racing, we're going to be racing the big ones at home. Like the Elliot, the Han, and the Ross. What else is there? Ross, Moon, maybe. Like there's, there are races, like I've been on podium the Elliot. not never on holding the hand. And like, there are races that before I finished racing, I want my name on those trophies, you know? And like, that's kind of, that's genuinely exciting because it's been a three or four years since I've raised the home. So it's kind of different kind of, I don't know.
Just kind of put things into perspective because when EVO Pro, the first year EVO Pro existed, obviously I wasn't on the team, but it is the first year that the Ross disappeared. And when the on-post team were in existence, half their wins would have been at the Ross. And that's how, like, when I was growing up in cycling and looking at like, idols, say, in cycling, I was like, the on-post team, they look fast, but they always look pro, they look just proper good. I remember when I was 15, when I was in the inspiration, I was like, the bumboyne obviously, and the Ross used to start in bumboyne. I was like, Sam Bennett would have been on the team. It was the year Connor Don was in the jersey. I don't know what year that was. Oh, that was two thousand and 13. Yeah, so like, I would have just started like the Atlanta and then, and then I saw it like the on-post team. And I don't know who, Hunter Don was riding with Carrick at the time, I just remember seeing this massive car. of us, Karakkei, one of the four stage. Yeah, and that was just going to be one of my first lasting memories of how cool the on-post team looked and stuff. It's just a pity that now this year it might change, but people of that age, well, I must support with ages, I was 15. That was just really cool. that really motivated me to kind of start training properly. And hopefully Evo can do that this year. It should be cool to say I'm sort of bittersweet. If I'm racing, I won't be enjoying seeing you as rockin' up, but if I'm not, it's great to see the colors back. And it's great to see, you know, a team that people can look up and strive towards. And, you know, Morgan Fox is on a great job putting it all together. And pretty much out of the loinblo as well, I'm host, you know, had huge financial backers. and it seemed like pretty widespread media support and approval. Well, Morgan's had none of that, and he's pieced together an unbelievable roster year on year and an unbelievable calendar. That's the thing. I got some with respect from Morgan. But all the kinds, when he was a racer, he was crazy. And I think you pissed a lot of people off as a bike rider. But those bike riders that he pissed off are now race organizers. And I think you know yourself. If you piss someone off on a bike, they'll actually respect you off it. So now he's getting lots of race invites. And he knows what races we need to be riding. And the race organizes respect him for pissing them off in bike races. So it's really cool. It's a really nice project to be part of, to be honest, especially after. Morgan's right man. He's a good, good dude. I had him as a director for a year. Con rep, before we wrap up, what's your share out on your social so people can follow you and see how you get on and see if you crack your skull off any more walls this is. Please go. Yeah, no, just on Instagram, I suppose. Con, comment, don't do I think? Yeah, simple. But yeah. Easy, Bill, Con, thank you for your time. Best look for this season. I'll definitely have to get you back on towards the end of the year and see if you're at any closer snagging that world for our contract. Let's go look forward to it. Cheers, Scott. Talk to you. Wanted it. No, man, before you rush off, I want to mention something completely new. We've recently just formed the new Roadman Cycling Club. So there's two elements to this club. One, it's a virtual club. You can join it anywhere in the world. And two, it's an in-person club based in Ireland. So if you're a racing cyclist in Ireland, then you're looking for a team to race in the colours of next season. If you're looking to hang out with some amazing people and do group rides on the weekend, go and check it out. It's roadmancycling.com forward slash roadmancc. The link is in the show notes. Hope you can join us as part of the new Roadman Cycling Club.
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