Taylor, welcome to the Roadman Cycling Podcast. Thank you. Nice to be here. Taylor, I'm excited about this chat. Uh, we haven't had I think you could be the first female world throw rider we've had on the podcast. Oo, that's cool. Yeah, we've had a So, I remember I got a message about uh maybe like four months ago from someone saying like, "How come you don't have any girls on the podcast? Is it because it's called Roadman?" I was like, "No, I just don't know that many of the pro girls. I know a lot of pro guys." So then I was chatting to your wife Olivia and she's like, "Oh, you should totally get Taylor." And I was like, "Oh, it's on. I have to get Taylor." Yeah. No, that's great. I'm glad uh I'm glad it worked out. And then hopefully now you can I can introduce you to more. I know plenty. Obviously, you're my hookup now. I'm going to be melting your brain. Definitely. H Let's I'm going to touch on all sorts of weird and wonderful areas. And if you don't fancy a topic, just give it an all pass. All right. Uh, so you grew up in Utah. I did. Yeah. What's that like? I only I had one teammate. I used to ride for an American Conti team, uh, Estellis, and I had one teammate from Utah, and he was a nice guy, but I remember him just like indoctrinating me to how culturally different Utah is from everywhere else. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it it's crazy because there's a million good things I could say about Utah and there's also a lot of just really odd things and, you know, you have the mountains and you have the outdoors and there's so many national parks kind of in Utah and close by and so I got to grow up, you know, with I skied with my dad and I always played soccer and was always outside and that part was really nice. But the cultural kind of division in that uh that especially kind of like the suburbs of Salt Lake City, I think the city itself has become more diverse and has become a bit more eclectic, but the suburbs are still very much super conservative. Everybody is Mormon. And I went to a high school where I think probably 95% of the school were of the faith. And I really wasn't. I kind of faked it sometimes so that I would have friends. But uh it was very different and I didn't realize how how different it was until I left, you know, when I got a little bit older and traveled around realized that all the weird cultural nuances of Utah was not real life. And so then you still identify as Mormon? Oh, no, not at all. I mean, I didn't really I didn't grow up as Mormon. I mean I have some family members who are but they're very open and um that yeah they've always accept like it's mostly just my granny actually and she's like the sweetest person on earth but yeah I I never really yeah was of the faith properly. I just kind of faked it to have friends when I was a bit younger. Um and so yeah but it's an odd it's an odd place to grow up and I mean I have to say I never got into really any trouble because they're very strict. You know, there's no drinking, no sex before marriage. They don't even drink coffee or tea. Like, there's no caffeine. I mean, there's no fun. No fun. Yeah. Zero fun had. Yeah. And quite judgmental, but other than that, but yeah, I never got into any trouble. And so, how does that work? So, I've obviously grown up in Ireland. And we're changing a lot in the last 10 years. Culturally, we're becoming, you know, a lot more liberal. It's a much more open society. But even, you know, I'm my mid-30s. Even like if I go back to when I started college, it was a much more conservative Catholic dominated country. What's sort of your relationship with the Mormon faith and being an openly gay girl? Do those two like colloid or did you have to did you struggle with that? Yeah, I think when I was younger, I actually didn't I didn't realize my sexuality when I was younger. like I had some idea, but you know, when you're young, you don't often fully know what those thoughts are. Um, and then when I got older, it was more seeing the way that all my friends from high school kind of treated me once they they found out about Olivia. It was some, you know, still loved me just the same, and some I don't know will ever speak to me again. So, there's a Isn't that just so bizarre?
So I often think they're underelling themselves a lot. You want I guess you want to benchmark it against like someone on another team. You go, well, I'm similar age, similar experience, similar Palm Marz, similar budget team, you know, I I deserve 45, 50K, whatever it is. Exactly. And it's funny because I'm reading Megan Rapo's book right now and she's talking about how salaries in soccer obviously were horrendous. and so much lower than the men's for so long. And there was also this thing where nobody talked about it. So she's like, if nobody knows what other girls are making, they don't know what to ask for and they don't know what to fight for. And it's it's a similar thing in cycling is I think yeah, even within our team, it's not like we don't ask each other what each other makes, but like I kind of have an idea, but you still don't really know. You see what car they're driving. That's the kind of the joke with the the men's team. They're always like bringing their fancy cars around and one of them asked one of the girls on our team that like, "Oh, oh, it was I think they asked Lizzie, what car do you drive?" And she's like, "I don't know, a black one." Whereas they're all like, "I drive a Jaguar or I have a this BMW with this many horsepower." And and we none of us really care about cars. So even if we made millions, I think a car would be what we spend our money on. What's Ryan Mullen driving? He came up here in a in a Beamer. So I don't know. Some kind of BMW flash prick. Yeah, he's quite flashy. He is flashy. I've had Ryan on the podcast a few times. He's always good fun. Yeah, I bet. So, I think there's a problem in not just women cycling, but there's a problem in male sports in male cycling as well with the way we're generating revenue because really we're reliant on rich businessmen to nearly make charitable contributions to run these teams because they're not getting a return on investment. And I can't believe that we haven't gravitated to a place where, you know, compulsory in contracts is people's social followings going, well, look, Taylor has x amount of followers. She can help you shift, you know, this many bikes we estimate this year, and now they can peg that back to investments. And if it does go that way, which seems to me like a natural way for it to move to a better business model, I think the girls are just so well placed to make a lot a lot of money because it's just so much easier to have a big following as a female athlete than a male athlete. Yeah, it's true. We always kind of joke that like and the and the marketing um people on the team always always kind of joke that it's easier to market the women's team and we're better at social media for whatever reason. I don't really know why. to look at. Yeah, maybe it is that. Maybe. I don't know. But and I think Yeah, I think that would be a much better model for sure. Um, yeah, the cycling model is is broken when it it really does a lot of times it's just like a a rich man that invests in the team and that's so many teams, men's and women's. Thankfully, Tre is I mean, I think we're really lucky because our main sponsor is super solid. Yeah. Trek and Sega Fredo. Did you get a Janaba free sego coffee machine for your house? I have not, but I'm sure I could if I if I asked. Oh, I want one. They're badass. So, have you been over to Ireland with Olivia writing? Olivia is uh Taylor's partner who is former Irish national champion Olivia Dylan. If anyone just is unsure of what the Olivia reference is. Yes, I love Ireland. It's my favorite place to travel. And I'm not just saying that because you live in Ireland and you're Irish. I absolutely love it there. And I've been so sad because this is the first year and since I've known Olivia that we haven't gone to Ireland because of COVID and I miss it so much. Like love I I think it's my favorite place to train. Even though the weather is absolute sometimes, [laughter and gasps] but it's so be like on a sunny day there is not a more beautiful place than Ireland for sure. And I mean she's from Mayo, so we ride around there a lot and like Yeah, it's it's incredible. And and her is like a fairy tale. Yeah, it's gorgeous. Kamara and just Yeah. All those play a island and Yeah. Have you raced over?