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MOHORIC OPENS UP ABOUT HOW TOUR DE FRANCE WIN CHANGED HIS LIFE | ROADMAN PODCAST

with Roadman Podcast

46:48·12 December 2023

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Mohorič estimates roughly 35 people directly contribute to his Tour de France results. Coaches, nutritionists, mechanics, logistics — one weak link costs the result. Elite performance is a collective output.
Training camps feel restful compared to home life with young kids. Basic needs (sleep, nutrition, no decisions) are pre-handled at camp. "Sacrifice" rhetoric only works if those foundations are met first.
Training is to prepare for racing, not to prove anything — to anyone, to yourself, on Strava. Half-wheeling and "showcase good sessions" are counter-productive in the race-results sense.
Mohorič's motivation is intrinsic self-improvement, not winning. "Came 22nd after my best effort = good day. Won the race after a major avoidable mistake = still bad day." That inversion is rare and durable.
Breakaway tactics in phases: secure your place, conserve while rotating, read competitors, then become selfish in the final moments once you know you're in the winning move.

TOPICS

CYCLING RECOVERY

Matej Mohoric opens up about what winning a Tour de France stage actually means and how it's transformed his life both on and off the bike. He shares the mindset shifts that took him from a farm kid to a WorldTour pro, and reveals how obsessive attention to detail and a perfectionist mentality — not raw talent — became his biggest competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways

High performance requires 35+ people working in perfect harmony; one weak link directly impacts your ability to perform. It's never about the individual athlete alone.
Training should prepare you for racing, not prove anything to anyone. Half-wheeling and 'good sessions' on paper are actually counterproductive to real race performance.
Break down your end goal into individual physical components (lactate tolerance, VO2 max, aerobic capacity) and train each separately — you'll improve faster than doing the full effort repeatedly.
Being intrinsically motivated by self-improvement beats being driven by results. When you chase getting better at your process, winning often follows naturally.
In a breakaway, you move through phases: securing your place, conserving energy while rotating, reading your competitors, then becoming selfish in the final moments when you know you're in the winning move.

Expert Quotes

"Training is there to train to get better physically better for a race not to prove anything to anyone or especially yourself. If you're happy with your file on training peaks, you probably didn't do the perfect job."

"The best you can do in a race is your best you can't possibly do better than your best. You realize that someone will always be better than you in some aspect, so you don't stress about winning — you stress about doing your best performance."

"I always need to do something I always need to be under a lot of stress to be happy and to be at peace with myself this is just how how I am."

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.

EXPERT
Slovenian WorldTour cyclist Matej Mohorič estimates that approximately 35 people contribute directly to his Tour de France results — covering coaching, nutrition, mechanics, and logistics roles, with any single failure materially affecting the rider's capacity to perform.
Source: Matej Mohorič, interviewed on the Roadman Cycling podcast
EXPERT
Mohorič frames training camps as restful relative to home life with young children — because basic human needs (sleep, nutrition, decision management) are fully handled at camp, preserving the cognitive bandwidth that family life consumes.
Source: Matej Mohorič, Roadman Cycling podcast
OPINION
Mohorič's results-vs-process framing: a 22nd place after a maximally-correct execution counts as a successful day, while a win achieved despite an avoidable major mistake counts as a failure — because process quality, not result, is what's controllable.
Source: Matej Mohorič, Roadman Cycling podcast
OPINION
Mohorič argues high performance is only productive when basic human needs (rest, nutrition, emotional stability) are met first — additional "sacrifice" without those foundations becomes counter- productive rather than beneficial.
Source: Matej Mohorič, Roadman Cycling podcast

KEY QUOTES

“my high performance depends on really hard work of probably directly maybe 35 people um so if one of them gets it wrong I would say it directly affects me and I can't do the same I would have if did that didn't happen”
Matej Mohorič — Professional cyclist, Tour de France stage winner

“the most important thing of all um cycling wise in training uh that I learned is that training is there to train to get better physically better for a race not to prove anything to anyone or especially yourself”
Matej Mohorič — Professional cyclist, Tour de France stage winner

“if I did my best and I lost I finish I came in 20 22nd that was a good day for me and uh if I did a major mistake that I could have avoided and I won the race I still wasn't happy with myself and I think this helped me a lot during my career”
Matej Mohorič — Professional cyclist, Tour de France stage winner

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT9 SECTIONS

Training camps as paid holidays

Obviously this is not your first Victory on the tot mat Mich welcome to the Roman podcast thanks for inviting me how are you my friend uh busy as always looking forward to the first uh team training camp in ALA in Spain in a couple of days uh sorting out the last uh tasks for this busy off season uh that I had so yeah looking forward to the next phase of getting ready for uh for 2024 is it relaxing to go to training camp because you get to leave the kids behind and your girlfriend just takes looks after the kids in a way yes I mean uh I almost take I used to hate training camps because I thought that I was uh better with the routine if I was in charge of everything uh at home because I thought I could uh that my food was better uh that training was better I could uh push harder or uh take it more easy than I than at the training camp because in training camp you you train in a group now so it's not entirely up to you to decide the pace and I thought that I could sleep better at home that my bed was better than the shitty hotel hotel bed and all all that sort of stuff but now uh since uh since I have little kids they opinion has changed ever so slightly so yes I do look forward to go to the training camp I'll miss my children um but uh yeah I think it's I almost feel like as if it's a paid holiday like you know how how sometimes you like uh you win a prize in in some sort of a of a yeah of a game and you're like you get one week in Spain all inclusive I feel a little bit like that yeah would my type of holiday now you can go and get your legs ripped off by the best riders in the world for one week and just suffer like a dog It's usually the other way around like I usually I usually uh people usually shout at me to go slower at the first pain Camp I used to be the world champion of December training camps uh like the world to Riders they divide in two groups the world champions in training and world champions in races you know I think I hope I changed teams in the past couple of seasons I was thinking about my before we were uh we came on I was just sitting down with a pen and paper and I was thinking oh what are we going to talk about and for some reason my first memory of cycling came back to me and I think I must have been like three or four years of age and I had this like BMX and I can't really remember riding it too much I've seen pictures of myself when I was a child writing it but I can't remember it but I can remember like the very first memory of it and me and my friend of mine we're trying jumps on this BMX and we must have been three or four and one of my friends I tried this jump and I landed it and one of my friends tried this jump my best friend at the time Rory haven't talked to him since Rory shout out if you're listening and Rory tried this jump and he didn't land it he went over the handlebars and he smashed all his teeth broke his nose and he was like four years old and I can still remember this I went to his house like an hour later to see if he was okay and there was like handprints in blood on his white front door and this is like scared into my memory so it just kind of got me thinking can you remember the very first time you got onto a bike I don't think I can I remember the day um when my parents took off the balance wheels from my bike uh and then I remember riding my bicycle when I was like five or six I don't think I remember uh anything earlier than that that uh but I have really nice memories of my childhood um I grew up in a small village um in the mountains basically uh not in a city uh and we hang out a lot with the other friends from from the village we we were riding bikes we were playing uh hockey on on roller uh roller skates we were playing football basketball uh um many many different sports and activities but we also had a farm at home so there was not I was not free all the time I I was um helping my parents out um I wouldn't say most of the time but some of the time in the afternoon but I definitely didn't spend any time inside the house we were always outside always walking or playing and uh yeah I have super nice memories of riding bicycles around uh around the forest building uh some trails and jumps but I think I'm pretty sure we were much older than three or four we were like probably yeah nine

The price of high performance

Or 10 when we started to build the first jumps and stuff do you remember we used to make those jumps we used to line people up at the end of the jumps so like you would start the jump and then like the first time on the jump you might have like I don't know two or three people lying after the jump and you had to try and jump the two or three people but then as you got more confidence you would try and jump five or six people but you I always hated being the last person like when someone's going for a new record can I jump seven people and you're the seventh person just lying there praying that this guy can jump to seven people uh okay I thought we were pretty crazy but since you just told two crazy stories I'm now a little bit more at peace with myself so I thought we were risking our lives but uh you guys were definitely next level I would say I want to shift gear a little bit I was at this kind of corporate speaking event uh last week and a word they kept throwing around all the time was high performance and I hear this all the time in kind of busy circles and high performance circles and it's so overused that it's almost diluted to not have the same effect anymore like to write at the level you ride at you pay a price you have to be more disciplined than other people you have to be more committed than other people you have to deal with more ups and downs and the sacrifices you make are absolutely incredible this life isn't for everyone I wasn't able to do this life it wasn't for me but can you help listeners to understand how much actually goes into high performance a lot um it takes a whole team of really high level stuff to be able to support this ambition to be one of the best cyclist in the world I would say uh my high performance depends on really hard work of probably directly maybe 35 people um so if one of them gets it wrong I would say it directly affects me and I can't do the same I would have if did that didn't happen so so um yeah it's not that I can do what I do on my own um it takes the whole team um at home but also in a team environment because also to start with if everyone has as a human being values no in life and um to work perfectly to achieve the high performance you need most of your values um the the needs being met no so you need to be you need to be you need to eat well you need to have rest you need to be happy you need to not have a need to go for a l you need to I don't know there's all different things that you need to to have um if you want to perform no you can't be at stress at home because I don't know you had an argument with your wife and then go to a race and uh and perform or you can't really miss your children and then go to a race and perform or you can't be hungry because you didn't have nothing to eat and then go to race and perform that just doesn't work like this and you need as many of of these things that you need um being perfectly in order to be able to achieve the high performance to start with and then of course um there's a lot of preparation that go in trying to get ready for a for a big performance no uh it starts from a long way out in my case it started um when I was 12 years old I didn't know um or I didn't dream of being a professional cyclist one day I started cycling in a way to to to do something different to escape uh helping my parents out at our farm uh to hang out with my friends who also started toy to to practice cycling um and I just I was enjoying myself I didn't follow the sport of cycling I didn't follow the tour I probably didn't know it existed I I started to follow it when I started to race and I started to realize that there's also professional cycling and it still didn't become my ambition or dream to become a professional cyclist because I had so many other interests in life I love to go to I used to love to go to school um I I I even like to help my parents out I like manual labor I liked um to to learn new stuff um I was interested in in numbers in in so many different uh subjects that I didn't think about being a cyclist um I was also not the best edit from the start there was some of my friends who were more talented than I was at least physically uh um and this is probably also the reason why I didn't dream I I I really liked to do well in races but I was more um

Driven by improvement, not winning

Motivated by the desire to get better at it not necessarily by a desire to win a race I never I Still Still today I don't I dream of winning races but this is not my uh what makes me Propel forward what makes me go and make all those sacrifices I'm a little bit of a perfectionist myself so this is what drives me forward I I like to do things better than I did uh than I used to do like if today I did something wrong I can't wait that tomorrow I can do it better and this is what motivates me um I was always trying to improve my own performance and my own uh yeah my own I was trying to achieve uh the goals that I set for myself I was not necessarily comparing myself to the others if I did my best and I lost I finish I came in 20 22nd that was a good day for me and uh if I did a major mistake that I could have avoided and I won the race I still wasn't happy with myself and I think this helped me a lot during my career um to to stay motivated because yeah there there is always ups and downs there are some points when you are not uh probably achieving uh what you are expected to achieve and I think if you if you are motivated by the work that you do uh it's a better solution than if you are just driven by the uh by the results because if the results don't come for years then maybe you might lose your your focus and ambition no uh but I was genuinely enjoying cycling since I can remember like since I was a little kid so um still to this day I'm very grateful and thankful that I can uh say that cycling is my job and my profession I'm really excited to announce our show sponsor today is Silka for those of you who might not know Sila offers best in the game bike accessories like tools pumps plus all your everyday bike maintenance kit like chain wax and even sealant what sets Silka apart is their commitment to Quality Beauty and craftsmanship trust me these products are built to last I've been replacing my track pump probably on average every 2 years but my dad has had a Silka track pump since I can remember and it's still going perfectly strong almost without a blemish on it so if you want to spoil yourself or maybe you want to treat one of your cycl friends they have so many amazing products over on the Sila website there's torque wrench sets bike bags 3D printed bike computer mounts and loads of other really cool pieces all over there and as a roadman listener you can get 133% of all Silka products just use the code roadman 13 at checkout not only does this get you a fantastic deal but it also lets Sila know that sponsoring this podcast is valuable whether you're shopping for a gift or you're trading yourself Silka has something for every cyclist Who hates the throwaway culture and loves quality so check them out and don't forget to use the code roadman 13 I check out the details are in the description below is it possible to have balance you know if if you have a friend that works in the bank you know they work till 5:00 and then they can come home they can eat what they want they can meet friends have beers they can stay up late they can watch Netflix I guess you're as a parent as a boyfriend you're trying to be many different things you're not just mate the cyclist your mate the F your mate the partner your mate the son like how do you balance those conflicting responsibilities with the need to be just always on as a cyclist for me it's uh this is actually one of the easier tasks that I need to do to do my job well I to start with when I was young I was never um I never had an issue with other responsibilities that I had I love to go to school I never wanted to skip lessons I was absolutely hated for that uh nobody like I was not uh the favorite amongst amongst my friends when I when when we were going to school this is also part of the reason why I was why I felt more accepted when I was uh yeah training cycling in the afternoon with my with other with other friends because we had the same interests and um my other friends at school they hated me because I was a geek I was always the first to raise a hand and I never wanted to skip lessons collectively because I knew at one point we will have to make up for it and I didn't like that idea I liked I always like to make the most out of every moment that I was given I didn't like to hang around and waste time because if you have so many interests in your life you can't satisfy yourself if you if you hang around and if you waste time I never never was

Introvert life as an athlete's edge

A party guy I never liked to go I still don't like to go to parties I don't like uh to get drunk I never even think about trying to smoke a cigarette or something like this uh and this makes uh My Sacrifice to be a professional athlete much easier um I also don't mind um to skip events like I don't know family birthdays or or other stuff I was that does feel like sacrific to you no because I was like always trying to get to get away or to get I didn't want to skip a lesson but I would pay to be able to skip a school trip or holiday that I didn't feel as if there was any use of it except of socializing with your friends no I didn't like that part I was more of an introvert when I was younger and then I became more open when I got older and I maybe changed uh people surrounding me uh with people who had similar interests to what I have well you think that Chang now as you get older like say if your girlfriend her best friend's birthday is on her Best Friend's Wedding and she's like mate like you got to come to this like are you happy to go to that or are you like dodging those situations still I think I still Dodge in those situations I don't like to dress up I hate dressing up I hate uh uh I don't know like sometimes I like but in a more relaxed environment like the official stuff the the the weddings and all those stuff I'm so happy that I can say ah I can't I'm at race or I'm because that happens like 98% of the time I wish I had a race or a train C to get out at those wedd so I love that excuse I don't I don't like fancy dinners or uh yeah uh yeah I don't know I was always like this so I guess that makes one part one half part of of my profession really easy and then uh and then to to move on from that I think there's other stuff um that um yeah where I because of the type of person I am have a much easier job than some of my colleagues because for example um I think I would take same care of my body if I had an an office job for example I would still probably go ride my bike or do some other type of physical activity at least an hour or two hours a day and maybe a little bit try to squeeze a little bit more on the weekend um I would still probably try my best to eat in a healthy way um to drink plenty of water and so on I think uh it makes me feel better uh I don't feel I'm doing a sacrifice when I try to eat healthy and um care about what I put in my body like I realize that our lifespan is not that long like years stick by and you don't even realize and I hate when I have a health issue because I didn't take care of something properly like I didn't I always brush my teeth but I didn't take the same care of my teeth when I was a child that I do now and I hate myself for that uh of course you wouldn't just like H you wouldn't just sit down on the couch and watch a Netflix movie and say I'm gonna have a like a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream though yeah I would never do that like not even in my if I had a different completely different job and if I didn't miss it out man do it I hate I hate it to I don't I don't know I I don't like to chill I don't like to to rest I don't like to I get nervous when I hang around I always need to do something I always need to be under a lot of stress to be happy and to be at peace with myself this is just how how I am and uh yeah so you were saying you're because she's the opposite she loves to I hate to do that so you're saying you're kind of a perfectionist so when you look at last year's training like say we take a period I guess the most controlled period for a professional cyclus is the offseason where you can Implement bigger changes like pedaling efficiency changes position changes because it's difficult to do in between races so if you take a period like the offseason and you look at last year's offseason and compare it now to your approach to this year's offseason do you take lessons from last year and you say hey okay I done this well I done this bad and how do you like deconstruct the best aspects of last year and bring them into this year's training or are you just doing the same thing year after year no you do a different thing year after year Time After Time not just in offseason but also in other phases of season or getting ready or other aspects of your

Learning from mistakes every season

Life entirely I always um try to analyze and think about what happened why something happened how can I improve something to affect the the outcome and uh I try to learn from my mistakes uh of course you need to recognize your mistakes first to be able to move on and I think I'm doing a pretty good job I always felt I was doing a pretty good job of learning from my mistakes and I got uh when I progressed as a child I got I always got better like I started off being maybe not necessarily as good as my friend friends and I slowly closed that that Gap and uh with hard work and doing things correctly and not repeating my mistakes I was able to uh make up for um I wouldn't say the lack of talent but for for that little bit that I missed against the others with some other stuff that I did better I learned to be more efficient in races I learned to read the race better I learn to I learned about nutrition I I realized that if I eat something it it does me good and if I eat something else it doesn't it affects me in a negative way and so on and I was able to progress always um and I still do to this day I after being a professional for it's going to be my 11th season next year your patreon now if you constantly learn you improve a lot and this experience is really crucial and it's so much easier for me now to do something because I know exactly what I'm doing I know what I need to pay attention to to not uh make something go wrong I need I know exactly what I need to eat I know exactly um when I need to take rest I learned to listen to my body I I think the most important thing of all um cycling wise in training uh that I learned is that training is there to train to get better physically better for a race not to prove anything to anyone or especially yourself and I don't think I had the confidence when I started when I in my first years as a professional cyclist or even before as a junior but maybe before I didn't think about this so much because I didn't try to achieve anything I was just enjoying the process that's also a great Point M for listeners who are you know on the group ride at the weekend where somebody just half wheels all day long and in their head they're maybe making sense of it because the half Wheeling they're proving their wor inside the group maybe they haven't TR the people who half whee are normally the people who aren't as fit haven't trained as much so are half whe and half willing to prove they belong to this group but if you use your lens and your analysis to view this that training is preparation to get better for races like it's so obvious that that's the case but we forget about that so like by half wheeling and now training in a zone that isn't appropriate for the training session they're actually making their chances of performing in the race less not greater so I fully disagree with that all right you want me to elaborate on that yeah yeah yeah definitely uh I have 10 years of experience with half Wheeling side of the spectrum I think I think half willing happens when either of the Riders who are in front are not comfortable with the pace or one of them is stressed about training so usually it can be that the the the rider who is half willing is not even wary of that because he's so much stronger than the other guy that he's this is completely comfortable for him yeah and the other guy just can't keep up and half willing happens and this is easy to fix you just need to talk to each other and if the other guy is a nice person and he has empathy and sort of stuff I think he will be more than happy to slow down and wait for a client to then do a higher Pace that is comfortable for him because a point of group right is to write together and to have fun especially in the part when you actually write together and have fun then if you hit a climb of course it's also fun to raise each other a little bit or to do uh efforts or whatever no and then you can adjust your pace accordingly or the other situation when uh when half willing happens I think from my experience is when uh when one of the Riders who are pulling uh usually the one who is half willing who is in front is trying to is much more switched on and focused on the effort now and not as relaxed because he's maybe I don't know if he has efforts he's afraid of the efforts that are about to come or he's thinking about something else maybe they're not talking at that moment they're not engaged in a conversation I think if you're engaged in a conversation half willing helpen

Why chasing good sessions backfires

Happens much more rarely because your brain thinks about the conversation not about the riding pace so you automatically adjust Pace to to fit each other no but if you are yeah if there is silence and you are each focused on your effort then maybe one is more switched on than the other maybe one had more cars than the other uh and he feels more energized and he just rides harder you know and then you also yeah there's always a solution to half wining you just need to acknowledge that not stay quiet and think bad about the other person because he's half willing probably he's not even realizing he's half willing yeah I thinking about it as you're talk if you talk it out it always works out I think as you're talking I'm thinking about times when I've half wheed and you're totally right times that I've half wheed I've been kind of nervous about my training I've been kind of nervous that I have an effort coming up and I'm In My Own Zone and I'm like I need to get I need to get a benefit from this session like I need to be riding harder right now but I'm just in my own tunnel like I'm not thinking about anyone else I'm just like this needs to be a good session today this needs to be a good session today and it's you're stressed about good sessions yeah I realized in that the most important thing that I learned in those 10 years is that training is for training and racing is for racing and I always especially when I was starting out I was trying to achieve good sessions this is the biggest [ __ ] that you can do like the good session is a session that will make you a better Rider not a good session if you did a session that you're really happy with when you open your file on uh training pix or today's plan or whatever software you might use that's I can assure you that's not an ideal session you could have done better for your body and the the the mechanisms in your body that you're trying to trigger to make you a better Rider if you didn't strive for a good session on paper if you know what I mean if you achieved your target average power or your normalized power if you even like try to force or uh yeah if you if you are if you are looking to to to do a certain average power during an effort or or do the effort exactly as it's prescribed you're probably not doing it you're not doing it wrong of course not but you're not doing the perfect job you're doing the perfect job when you understand what the effort is about and you learn to listen to your body and try to act accordingly to that because most of the efforts are there to to do something to stimulate something in your body more often than not isolating one aspect of performance and trying to work on that to make it better by isolating that means that you make the effort as easy as you can from the other sides of the of the performance uh so now now I I use weird words so I need to explain myself like say you train lactate tolerance this is the easiest way to explain it no yeah you can train lactate tolerance by going flat out for 10 minutes really hard sustained effort and you spend say second half of that effort building up lactate and your your body gets better at this but this effort would equally stress the other um the other uh things in your body that happen when you do an allout effort which is the end goal of what you train for to be able to to do A Better allout Effort in a race no so it's this is not necessarily the most effective way the most effective way of doing the best effort in a race of doing this 10 minute effort is to break it down so what it takes for my body to be good at doing 10 minutes all out it takes good lactate tolerance it takes a high V2 Max it takes good aerobic capacity to be able to produce to be more efficient to burn more fat and less carbs and so on no and if you break this performance down into different aspects and you train for each individual aspect it's proven that you get overall better than if you just do what you're actually training for so now if you if you did many 10 minute allout efforts of course you would get better at doing 10 minutes allout but not as much better as if you use that same amount of time and you trained each specific aspect of what it takes to do 10 minutes all out with a good performance if you know what I mean yeah it's a totally different way to look at it you're deconstructing the end results that you're looking for also if you do if you uh repeat that time after time it's much harder to keep doing 10 minutes all out then if you break that down and

Confidence from leaving no stone unturned

You train one day just La tolerance one day aerobic capacity one day this one day that I think that's much easier for your mind and your body because if you train lactate tolerance means you do 30 seconds all out and then you stop for 30 seconds which significantly which which builds up a significant amount of lactate in your legs but you're not actually suffering because your heart has time to to absorb the workload and calm down a little bit and uh your mind as well so you are not struggling as much as you would have if you just did 10 minutes all out and you have more lactate in your legs when you end up after 10 minutes if you do 303s you have probably I don't know all of the lactate 15 whatever if you do 10 minutes all out you probably have less like eight or nine because your heart and your uh breathing is also struggling to go to keep up no but if you make enough space to actually relax your breathing and your heart rate and everything like that then your body can just produce a lot of lactate and therefore it gets better at washing it away so when you put that into practice then when you're in like I'm thinking back to last year okay stage 19 tur of France you know you win stage 19 tur of France come to line with Ben o Conor and Casper ascreen if I remember correct so you're in the break and you know you're probably not the fastest finisher out of these Tre but does the fact that you have gone through this process of iterating season after season and you know you've you know you haven't left any advantages that you could have had you've gone after and chased every Advantage you possibly could does that give you like a confidence when you're in a move like that to think regardless of the result I'm happy because I've done everything I can or is it you have to win that day uh no it makes you more relaxed because after 10 years you make many mistakes you explore your limits and you realize that the best you can do in a race is your best you can't possibly do better than your best and you learn sooner or later everyone even yonas Wingard or tacha they all meet some others that are stronger than them in some aspects so you realize that you're you can't possibly win everything in in any scenario so it's there's always a possibility that someone will be better than you because they are whatever they worked in a more specific way for that or they are more talented or they have better equipment and you accept that so um you don't like you don't force yourself to try to win the race you force yourself to to do your best performance and often that um affect you in a way to uh to make you to to to for your objective performance to be better because you don't strive to win you're are not stressed about winning you're just stressed about doing your best you focus on your own effort you make your own strategy adjusted to what you think or predict the others are going to do and this ends up being a much better and more constructive way of racing than if you just rely on your emotions and try to force to to win or be stressed about winning how do you measure your efforts that day so there's you Ben o Conor Casper Asen I would say Casper was probably looked like he was going the strongest that day he was how do you how do you measure that effort where you got to be collaborative the two you the three of you guys got to work together almost like a team time trial to get to the Finish but then you know you got to somehow change that Dynamic from collaborative to competitive so you beat the other guys how do you measure the effort when you're doing your turns on the front so you're enough effort to bring the group forward but also sparing enough effort that when the relationship turns from collaborative too competitive that you still have a little bit more juice in the tank than the other guys you need to adjust your intermediate goals to achieve uh the bigger ambition which is to try and win the stage so you need to move from intermediate goal to to the next one and next and so on and you need to adjust that as you go so the first goal of course is to actually try to be a part of the winning Breakaway or of the Breakaway to start with and um you already not just necessarily you need to adjust that sometimes like sometimes you need to really force yourself and not think about the final and saving energy for the final to actually get in the Breakaway because sometimes physically and psychologically it's hard to do a close to like a 95% effort uh to actually just be in the Breakaway start with so you need to adjust it so you start to try to be smart and efficient and uh not

Reading the breakaway at Tour stage 19

Spend too much energy to be in the Breakaway then if you say oh maybe this is the move that is actually going then maybe you need to force yourself suddenly that you do almost your uh Peak effort to actually just be in the breakway once you achieve that you move on to the next ambition which is to save the most energy uh when the group is still big when the Breakaway is big and rotating together then you need to thrive to strive to be as efficient as you can be a zero to eat well drink well be focused to not forget about any detail um try to be smooth to yeah to to to be smart to make sure that you know who you're with what are their strength what are their weaknesses think about different strategies observe the others see who's on good day who's not on such a good day um to remember who had difficulties to actually join breakway to start with because then you might adjust your practicing the final accordingly because someone might have spent more energy than the others to actually be in the same group with you and so on and then as you get to the crucial point of of the race in the final when the Breakaway Riders attack each other of course you need to do everything to be in the winning move and it was the moment of um it was the moment that Casper attacked on the steepest part of the last climb when everybody was so much on their hands and knees from the whole day of riding hard that nobody I think dared to follow that move because you also knew that if you follow and enough Riders do the same then you basically uh risk that that others get on the wheel and we were straight after the Steep part of the climb it was an easy part of the climb and you knew that the others are going to get a toe and you're basically done for the day they're gonna get they're going to have advantage over you on the next easier section of the clim so it's always a gamble but I don't know I felt that it was the moment the attack was so violent that nobody even dared to follow me and B Conor were the only ones who had the was to go with him and when I look back I knew straight away that it was a dumb deal nobody nobody else decided to have a go they were all afraid and waiting for each other because you're always in favor if you are the last guy who follows the toe then you're way better off than if you are the third or fourth or the first guy follows no but uh it's always a risk or risk yeah there's always a risk that someone else is joining and then you're flicked and then as you as you move on you need to make sure that you stay in the position to win the stage so if you are off the front you need to work together to put each other in a position to still be uh in the winning move or if you're behind you need to work together uh selflessly to actually write yourselves back in the contention for the wi because if you're not in contention for win then you can't win anyway so you need to forget about everything else and make sure that you're in contention to win the stage and only when you are sure that this is the group that the winner is coming from that group then you start to think self uh then you start to be selfish and you start to think about your Sprint and your strategy in the Sprint and so on and then for the Sprint I only had I knew that Casper was so much stronger and faster B Conor was gonna come over the top yeah I knew that my only chance is for Bane to attack and me to completely rely on Casper on covering that move if Casper didn't cover I wouldn't have cover and Ben would have won the stage which was fine with me but I this was my only ticket for for stage win if Casper covered that and I stayed glutes to his back wheel and tried to come around him in the last 150 meters so yeah it was I think if the Finish Line was 10 meters before or 10 meters after I would have lost but uh fortunately I perfectly timed my bike throw to be able to yet in front of Kasper even though he's much stronger spinter than I obviously you've won Tour of France stages in the past so you have more time to reflect on what it means but in your interview after which went totally viral where you were just super emotional and understandably you know chat to Fred about how difficult it was for the team and the aftermath of Gino as well but in that moment where you said like I wish everyone could have a tour to France stage like what does it mean how lifechanging is it to win a t of France sted there's a huge difference between

Winning is everything in cycling

Winning and coming in third uh I experienced that myself when I finished start on pu the Dom I was in position to win that stage I thought I had a shot uh at one point in the Finish clim like onek to go or something before Mike Woods came really strong from the back and it's a huge difference um because in cycling winning is all that all that counts uh um but I think it's also nice because it shows um yeah that even in life you know there's always even in industry or other businesses like if you are the best you are the only like the only one who's there's only one that can be the best no and that's always the one who gets the most attention and the most uh yeah reward for for their work and this is just the way Society is also if you look at the other things in nature and other animals it's similar no so it's just the way it is and uh yeah there's a huge difference if you if you win or if you come in second especially in the tour and with all the attention that we we get and the the yeah we want to pay the trust of our sponsors back of our partners of our teams of all the stuff that works so hard for us so yeah there's a lot of uh stress and responsibility that I feel on my shoulders I couldn't let you go and finish up without asking San rmo 2022 up to then the greatest ever Descent of the Chessa was 1986 Sean Kelly in Marino Argentine have you seen this one no h go check it out on YouTube I wonder who has the straa record you or Sean Kelly for the downhill I don't know I think there was uh the straa time uh is not the fastest from 2022 but I'm I think that because the segment is so short and the start is GPS wise um quite similar like only a couple of meters away from the first harpin uh it might not be the most accurate thing to measure but I think there is some there are some uh fanss that are really passionate about those times and they timed it on the TV coverage and I think they they I I read someone I'm not sure if it's correct or not but they that my time of The Descent was the fastest in history by couple of seconds which it wouldn't surprise me because the bikes and the tires are much much much faster you can Corner faster and also on the states it's there is no relation to the bikes from the past our bikes are like at that at that speed probably over 40 Watts faster and where did you come up with the idea for the dropper post obviously it's used widely in come up with the idea our head mechanic Philip tishma uh did and uh he suggested that we test that in Winter and I figured in testing that it made quite a big difference um I wasn't sure if it makes me faster but I definitely uh it was much easier to correct mistakes and stay really close to the limit of what the traction what traction you have on the Bice cuz you had that bit where you like overshot sh the corner and you went SL into the the last Corner completely and I slipped on the front on the back everywhere and I almost crashed myself but I somehow managed to to yeah to to keep control of the bicycle and yeah I stayed upright how I was terrified watching that like how terrified must your girlfriend been watching that descent or your parents oh she never watches racing no no my family never watches racing it was shocking mate thank you very much for your time best of luck for the season ahead and hopefully we'll get you back at some point for a bit of an update yeah thank you Anthony hey everybody thanks for tuning in to today's podcast if you enjoyed this click up here and check out my conversation with Fred Wright where he talks about winning the British national championships and tragically losing his friend Gino marer this season also if you have a chance click over here and subscribe to the channel I'm going to see you next day

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How did winning a Tour de France stage change Matej Mohorič's life?+

Mohorič describes the win as transformative both professionally and personally, bringing greater public recognition and shifting expectations around his career. He opens up about how the result affected his daily life, relationships, and sense of identity beyond just the race result itself.

How many people does it take to support a Tour de France rider?+

Mohorič estimates that roughly 35 people contribute directly to his Tour de France results, covering roles from coaches and nutritionists to mechanics and logistical staff. He emphasises that elite performance is a collective effort, not the product of one athlete's sacrifice alone.

How do professional cyclists balance training camps with family life?+

Mohorič describes training camps as comparatively restful when weighed against the demands of home life with young children, because basic needs like sleep and nutrition are fully managed for him. He argues that meeting these fundamental human needs is a prerequisite for training to be productive rather than harmful.

What does Matej Mohorič say about the reality of high performance in cycling?+

Mohorič pushes back on oversimplified narratives around sacrifice and discipline, arguing that high performance only works when rest, nutrition, and emotional stability are already in place. Without those foundations, he contends that additional hard work becomes counterproductive rather than beneficial.

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Key Takeaways

High performance requires 35+ people working in perfect harmony; one weak link directly impacts your ability to perform. It's never about the individual athlete alone.

Training should prepare you for racing, not prove anything to anyone. Half-wheeling and 'good sessions' on paper are actually counterproductive to real race performance.

Break down your end goal into individual physical components (lactate tolerance, VO2 max, aerobic capacity) and train each separately — you'll improve faster than doing the full effort repeatedly.

Being intrinsically motivated by self-improvement beats being driven by results. When you chase getting better at your process, winning often follows naturally.

In a breakaway, you move through phases: securing your place, conserving energy while rotating, reading your competitors, then becoming selfish in the final moments when you know you're in the winning move.

Expert Quotes

"Training is there to train to get better physically better for a race not to prove anything to anyone or especially yourself. If you're happy with your file on training peaks, you probably didn't do the perfect job."

"The best you can do in a race is your best you can't possibly do better than your best. You realize that someone will always be better than you in some aspect, so you don't stress about winning — you stress about doing your best performance."

"I always need to do something I always need to be under a lot of stress to be happy and to be at peace with myself this is just how how I am."

KEY QUOTES

“my high performance depends on really hard work of probably directly maybe 35 people um so if one of them gets it wrong I would say it directly affects me and I can't do the same I would have if did that didn't happen”
Matej Mohorič — Professional cyclist, Tour de France stage winner

“the most important thing of all um cycling wise in training uh that I learned is that training is there to train to get better physically better for a race not to prove anything to anyone or especially yourself”
Matej Mohorič — Professional cyclist, Tour de France stage winner

“if I did my best and I lost I finish I came in 20 22nd that was a good day for me and uh if I did a major mistake that I could have avoided and I won the race I still wasn't happy with myself and I think this helped me a lot during my career”
Matej Mohorič — Professional cyclist, Tour de France stage winner

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How did winning a Tour de France stage change Matej Mohorič's life?+

How many people does it take to support a Tour de France rider?+

How do professional cyclists balance training camps with family life?+

What does Matej Mohorič say about the reality of high performance in cycling?+

MOHORIC OPENS UP ABOUT HOW TOUR DE FRANCE WIN CHANGED HIS LIFE | ROADMAN PODCAST

Key Takeaways

Expert Quotes

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

KEY QUOTES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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MOHORIC OPENS UP ABOUT HOW TOUR DE FRANCE WIN CHANGED HIS LIFE | ROADMAN PODCAST

Key Takeaways

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KEY QUOTES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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