It's really not great and so I got home for the month of August, had like time with family, you know, and I was just training and just mentally getting that balance back. So I was using some racing in Ireland but not a whole load and then yeah, so those two things I combined really helped to turn my season around a bit. Then obviously I had like the Ross with the Irish team which again gave me this like huge confidence boost because I was climbing with like, you know, when you look at that you've got girls from SD works in your wheel or like TIPCO. Then you're like, oh, I'm actually not that bad. And then after that I went back to Belgium and then I had a great like, I had a great climbing race, stage race in Belgium and you know I got to wear the the time race jersey against like World Tour pros who I've been like admiring for years and I kind of was just coming into nationals just with this confidence that I hadn't had in I don't know if I've ever had that confidence on the bike because I'd always been kind of doubting myself and now coming into nationals they gave me this edge like I was I was saying it I was waking up in the morning and saying Imogen Carter national champ funny 21s like it's happening and I was saying it's like my mom before I left I was like mom on Sunday I'll be back here with the national champ jersey and my mom's like I can't say it and I said say it out loud like I was just really I just felt like everything was coming together at the right time and it's not often that happened so I was very happy. So let's talk about the double edge source social media because you know obviously I didn't do the podcast before like we built the coaching company of social media. And it was, you know, early, you know, myself and the other one, the last little iron we started with an A1 show. And I can totally remember that feeling of insecurity around social media, because when it's gone, grace everyone's your biggest cheerleader. But you know also that there's an undertone of people who don't like social media, who don't respect social media and who will just look at you as social media person and put any opportunities you're getting down to the fact that you have social media and not that you're a good boy grider. When things are going bad for you, is that difficult to take? Yeah, it is so awful. Like I do a sports psychology journal so I'd constantly be writing about it and I would just be, I was thinking that exact same thing and it's something I really, really hate for people to think about me is that I am only getting things because of my page. Obviously my page helps hugely with things like, you know, if I need like helmet or shoes, you know, it helps massively with that because there are things, I couldn't be a cyclist if I didn't have my Instagram page because I don't, it's so expensive. So obviously it's great in terms of of sponsors, but you know, I work my ass off and I hate to think that people might just think, oh, well, she does is like, take a picture and then she just has gotten everything through that. And it happened at the end of July, as someone actually said it to me, because, you know, I got onto the Mova Star esports team at the start of the year and someone said to me and I will never forget it. She said to me, it's a girl who was like, you know, had a lot of friends who were world tour like prose and... They were in Shamer. Well, no, I'm not going to. 100% I'm not doing that. And she says like, oh, you know, everyone thinks you only got on the Mavasar team because we're in Scampage. And I just remember thinking like, what a shit thing to say. What a shit thing to say like, like, you can't fake what's, my Instagram doesn't give me what's, you know, doesn't. And I just thought, I want a shitty thing to say to really knock somebody, because it did like, it had, I already felt deep down that people might think that I solely got it because of my Instagram, and I'm sure my Instagram didn't hurt, but like, I worked my ass off with that. And like, that's the kind of thing where you think, Oh, you know what, I wish I didn't have that. So I could just say, actually, no, I got it because it worked hard, you know? Well, you know what I mentioned, it's no different. It's just, sometimes it's always been like this.
Every job's always been like this. 99% of people got jobs because their friend recommended them. And this is just a modern, you know, it's sort of mutation of that, my friend recommended you. It's a shop window to showcase talents that you have. You can't showcase talents that you don't have. You know, the fat dude who's sitting now watching Netflix all night, like there's no pictures on, you know, there's no width selfies that can be taken there. But I sort of came to a place with social media. I'm with this podcast in general because, you know, with a lot of the genre talking with transgenders and sports or something, you're always going to offend people. And I just try not to on the fence at all. I go, these are my opinions based off my value set. And my value set may not even be legal at times, but it's my moral code. I had stuff around COVID where I took a lot of stick early, where I was like, you know, I'm not doing this to 3k restrictions because it doesn't make any fucking sense to me. And it's, you know, I'm not taking my guidance from idiots that I don't really respect. I'm, you know, I have my own moral code. And I took a stick from that. But I just came to a place with it where I think, you know, I have a group of people, some close friends and family, and I massively care about what they think and then I massively don't care about what anyone else thinks. Like, you know, you can have opinions all day long. I just don't care. They just wash off because you know, we all have opinions and you know, we get to disagree. Like me and you can disagree on so many things and we can still be friends like, yeah, well, I do feel there's a, it speaks more to the insecurity of the person who's delivering a comment like that girl said to you done it does to anything you're doing? Yeah, no, I agree. And I think there's such a sense of freedom when you actually get to the stage where you think actually I don't care what other people are thinking like you have your that's why coming home in August was really important for me because I just had my family around. I had people who you know love me around me and I didn't have to to think oh are they thinking I'm not putting in the work or whatever it's just kind of um yeah and I you know I I obviously, I love social media as well. I can't say, I mean, for every negative, I have thousands of positives. There's so many lovely people who are like supporting me and who are like, yeah, I see the work you're putting in and I'm really delighted for you, which has only been highlighted in the past like a couple of weeks and so on, the national side. People have been so nice. And yeah, I think you're always gonna have those horrible people who just want to put somebody down. And it's easy for people to put someone down. If you're putting yourself out through all the time and you're doing something that a lot of people might feel uncomfortable doing, posting a lot online or whatever, people are happy to just talk. It's the unrestricted access to an iPhone as well where we were talking yesterday briefly about your Instagram TMs being just overloaded and you're like, it's not the best way to get me anymore on Instagram TMs. But I know the volume of messages I get in relation to the Nickel Roch podcast to drop a few days ago when this comes out, it'll be a few days ago. And I know even in the 24 hours after that, like the amount of TMs I'm getting for people that agree that opinions disagree, opinions fucking hate me, love roach, love roach hate me, it's like, it's like, I don't care, stop sending me messages like, I don't care. But it's crazy if strangers can just get such intimate personal access to it. I mean, that's a weird thing still. Yeah, it is. But I think that's actually like a wonderful thing as well. Like, it's a wonderful thing about cycling in general, like not just social media, like the reason I think a lot of people like cycling is because you can get so close to cyclists, like you can literally be at the finish line and touch them and be right beside them talking to them. And like I think that that Instagram is just like a continuation of that. For me, that's how I've been able to like keep connected with people. I've got people around the world like, you know, Florida and like like Texas and Australia who were like, like in Spain and you know, they were constantly like sending me a message being like, oh, you know, just like a little thing saying something they've seen about me and you know, that kind of stuff motivates you.
And I think that's such a wonderful thing about cycling slash social media is that they can get close to the cyclists that they like. And as long as they're not like super, like if they're inappropriate or something, obviously that wouldn't be nice, but if they're nice kind people who are genuinely supportive, then it's lovely. I can't think of two more polar opposite places in the world and the west of Ireland and Belgium. I can think of a lot of similarities between them actually. Well, just the shit weather actually. The shit weather. Every time I go to the west, I'm for anyone listening internationally, so I'm in Dublin on the east coast of Ireland, Imigence on the west coast. I'm quite built up where I am. I go to where you live to recharge and recess. And I love going, sort of in Le Hinch, around Laskanner and stuff. And you get to live there, but then you go to the place where maybe it's just my negative association with Belgium and race there, but it's such a shell. I've actually, I've fully moved home now. Oh, I do. So I left, yeah. So I left, so I moved to Belgium in 2018, and I lived there for three years and was going out with a guy from Belgium and we recently broke up so I have moved home to Ireland and I never liked Belgium like I could never feel at home there and I always knew that I wanted to move back to Ireland now I don't think I'll be here like you know I'm hoping to actually move to Jorona at some stage in the new year but you know I I feel like Ireland is especially the west of Ireland here where I am is just so beautiful and you know I actually feel as well that I get better. I get more fit when I do my training in Ireland than in Belgium because Belgium is so flat. Yeah, you can get the same WhatsApp or whatever but it doesn't feel like I build fitness. I actually feel like I go backwards a bit in fitness when I am in Belgium. So here I've got different terrain that I can get the hills in and the road is a bit harder to train on as well because the surface isn't that good. So I feel like actually building fitness here, obviously the weather doesn't help but when the weather is, when it's not raining, it's actually great. Well yeah, I know you're big into your morning routines and you're sea swimming and I know you're immensely proud of your family and stuff and having that base and that connection and then that kind of foundation. Like anytime I've had that and long periods at home when I was trying on the way up until I just, I felt so much better in my training. And it was that extra, you know, you can't put the, you know, it's the X factor or whatever. You can't quantify it in the data, but a trainer just goes better. Yeah, happy head, happy legs. I completely stand by that. Like, and you know, my parents are so supportive. like they literally, they're like, even at times when I felt like, even though from the summer, my mom would always be like, just keep going, like keep following your dream. Like, you know, they're so supportive. My mom will, I feel like when I come home, I regret like 10 years, cause my mom will. Every of those. My mom will like, just make sure, you know, everything's done behind the scenes. Like, you know, she's just everything. Like if I, you know, is there any special food you need? Like, you know, lovely dinners. my dad is super into cycling as well. So he'll be like, you know, can I help you with the bike? Is there anything I can do, bring me to a race? You know, it just, they're so supportive. So yeah, it gives you definitely that extra percent, you know, when you're worrying about going and, I don't know, doing a food shop or something like that, you don't have to worry about that. It's, it takes just stress off, doesn't it? You need that as well. I think a lot of people that are listening to this, they'll think our champion, they'll see your Instagram and they'd be like, image is balling around in cash, getting paid for cycling. Oh my God. Like, I am weak when people think that I've got money. I have no money. Like, I literally don't make any money from cycling. And I think that people think, you know, I'm so big pro, I've got no money. And I, yeah, I've got amazing sponsors. He's sponsored things for me, which is fantastic, but I don't have them like, scod every example of giving me a car while I'm home because I sometimes work with scoda.
And so that's how I have the car. And, you know, I've got my bikes from Canyon because I was riding with Momsstar. So now I have the bikes from Canyon. I don't have those like material things. There isn't a lot else. It's funny because now that I don't really care about that stuff, I actually care about, you know, this is a career. Now I talk about Saetland, we coach, That's the business that's from the own fall time. I'm not going back to law. Our companies are like, oh, you know, yeah, like we can't pay you in cash. We can pay you what a helmet. And I'll be like, OK, just let me check with her electricity and see what they accept the helmet's payment. Yeah, it's hard. Like I feel that I don't have the not. I sometimes have paid works through social media, but like it very rarely happens. So say, for example, last month I had two jobs I did through social media, which will pay enough now for the next couple of months. And I do some bit of coaching on the side with Panache as well. So I have money coming in through that, but I don't live lavish at all. I'm happy to live with not a whole lot. And obviously I've then got this part of my parents, like I'm staying at home now, so I don't have like expense going out on rent and that kind of thing. So yeah, it's, yeah, it's definitely a lot of sacrifice, you know, you're not, especially as a woman in cycling, you're not making a whole load of money, you know, I think people aren't really aware of that. Yeah. But I also think that I'm guilty of that. If I go onto someone's page and I see, oh, wow, they've got like whatever 80,000 followers or 90 or 100, whatever it is, I'll think, oh well they must be you know pretty comfy but it doesn't translate. You know what I think there's just a gap and people should be monetizing those followings. I think you know if you're if over 20,000 followers you should be monetizing those but I feel like we're athletes that there's a gap between now and a lot of them know how to build followings but then the understanding of how to monetize the following stops and they don't have the time to dig into that when they are all very monetizable followings. But that's definitely a different tangent we could go on down another day. I think that's why it's important to have like an agent or something like that, to just kind of, you know, especially the the side of sport and social media, obviously like with beauty bloggers and stuff like that. That's all being very established. So now people understand how they can make money and companies don't, you know, take advantage. But sport and social media is very different. And that's still like growing and people are still learning. Well, there is a gap between women and men in cycling at O'amens. I was reading the other day and it was Omelem, I was going to butcher this, Omelem Hint News Belt this year. And the winner for the women's race was Anna Van Bregen. I'm not sure if you remember this. And she got 930 Euro for the win. And David Ballerini won the men's race the following day and got 16 grand. Don't you want to talk to Euro? But did you not seem to prepare every day as well? It was like one 13th or even less than that. Whatever the women got was one 13th of what men got. And like, I mean, the thing is, I think that now, now the fact that we do have social media and that people can actually voice their opinion on these things, I think the days of those huge discrepancies between the men's and the women's prize funds, I think those days are numbered because I think that people are just getting a bit like, yeah, what is going on? Like the women are putting in the work, they're showing up to race, they're sacrificing things, you know, they're putting in the same work. Yeah, maybe they don't do like a seven hour ride like someone in the mail post would because they don't need to, but they're putting in the same, like, they're putting in the work that they need to put in to get the best results. And you can't expect people to just keep thinking it's okay to pay them one 20th of what you pay the men. And I think we saw that as well in like the start of Bianchi prize fund earlier this year was really low for the women in comparison to the men. And they did crowdfunding to get it up to the men of the men's. Like for me, that is embarrassing for the race organizers.
If I was a race organizer, I'd be like, hey, I'm actually really embarrassed by that. So, you know, let's, you know, and I'm gonna be publicly shamed because I've done that. So next year, we're gonna make it equal, simple. You know, that's what I would do because you people are talking about it now. And I think previously, like, people maybe wouldn't have said anything online or would it just be like, oh yeah, that's just how it is. But now I think people are like, hey, why is that actually happening? Like, why are they thinking it's okay to do that? So I think the days of it are numbers. Well, I just pulled up the party ribbait price from there as we were chatting. So the prize purse for the men total take on prize. Sorry, the winner I think was 30 grand for the men and the winner for the female was 1500. So here you'll get a laugh out of this one. Or you might not get a laugh out of this one. I had Sony car Brelley at 40 to one. So I almost made as much money watching the race as Lizzie Deuigle-Mays for winning the prize. It actually makes me think, who was frustrated. Wow. Hey, that's a good bet. You were saying about it. Oh man, the bookies are so bad. I actually coached one of the founders in Paddy Power. And they just, they priced the stuff so badly. It's like, they don't understand that some races suit some Reuters or, you know, someone might be from this town or is director, might be from this town or a sponsor might have a particular interest in this. They just think like the last race equals that Reuters form. I was like, Sonny Cabrelli is obviously on some sort of new training plan this year. Oh, God, he further than that. Okay. So the fame on what he is flying. So I was like 40 to one makes no sense. Wow. But I was there many people I wonder if you could put a bet on Sonny Cabrelli because I wouldn't have everybody who's just thinking, I had Vanderpaul just to cover the spread there in case. So Vanderpaul came in because I had a few orders like Jasper Stoy even in Sophot's mouth so I bet. And Mads Pedersen as well. But I had the Vanderpaul one is basically breaking even or is any of the rest of them one. I basically couldn't lose just the way I was looking at it. But that's a bit depressing though isn't it that you made nearly whatever the same amount as Lizzie Duyton. Like that is, that's so wrong. That is so wrong. I mean, it's just such a simplistic way of me thinking about it, but why can't they just have the prize mark? Like, I get that there's like more advertising and la, la, la, la, but you have to give not incentives, but you have to make people feel like they're respected. Like, they're working. You know, I think it's from my end, it's like, I suppose I feel like I'm quite impartial because I do enjoy watching the girl cycle and I enjoy watching the lad cycle and I want see them bulk too well. But then at the same time, I even as a cycling fan, I don't feel like the girls have helped themselves in it. There's I don't know many of the female writers. And you know, when you're watching like a football match or something, and you don't know any of players, you're less connected to them. It feels like there's a detachment from the fan to these writers. And that's why I think what you're doing with social is brilliant. And I feel so differently about that because I think it's because I follow all of them. I feel like when I'm watching it and like say Cassie Nirodoma is up the front, I feel like I not personally know her but like I feel really, I really hope she wins because I've seen how hard she's worked. Like you know that and maybe it's just because I follow them, I'm in that bubble, I'm following these people I admire them, you know I see the work they put in and I do think again yeah there's that connection because you can see that someone's working. It's such a chicken and an egg because they need to get paid well to stick around, to build these profiles, to get very nice and well. I think it's very short. So it's Trek, I've come out and said they're matching prize money. And I just think, I look at it. We've a Saturday spin and it's literally a coffee run on a Saturday tray hours. We get you out and you're up in Dublin sometime. And it's a mix of males and females. And the girls are spending as much money as the guys are spending on their bike.
They're not racers. They're girls who like doing sportives, like staying face, maybe they sported doing a multi-day sportive like a whole cruise. But they'll spend 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 grand on a bike. And what brand are they going to buy? It's Trek because they're matching the wages. So it's just for me, it's baffling that companies aren't seeing the bigger picture on it. Yeah. I mean, I just think it's, I feel like all the discussions are happening that it is changing. and I just hope it gets a move on and changes quickly. I think I would have killed if I was your coach the week before the Nationals when he decided to do a 346 kilometer. Anything with the end of challenge at the end of it, the kind of challenge, what was the thinking with this? Yeah, so actually, do you know I did that the week for the Nationals and I was really lucky. This is why Dan from Dig Deep has been just so instrumental to me having a good end of season. The months before that he had just tailored my training, so I was hitting the intensity I needed for a hard road race at Nationals, but I was also getting into the work for that stuff, the long gravel ride. It wasn't that I was out doing crazy long hours the month beforehand, but what I had been doing was, you know, I was saying earlier, I had like my V02 efforts in the morning, like towards the end of that session, I would turn off my fan. So I was getting ready to like adapt to the heat. And then in the afternoon, I would do like a longer, like a tempo effort. And that was also getting me ready for like racing, just at that intensity for a long time. And I guess that I went into it not thinking like I have to go full gas for like 15 hours. I went into it thinking, I'm going to survive this. I know I had something really big the next week and I really use that week between the challenge and the nationals just really relax and recover. But yeah, there was 346 kilometers and I think it was like 70% gravel maybe. How long is it? I was cycling for 13 hours and 51 minutes. That's grim. Yeah, it was pretty grim. And the thing about something like that is it's like, not so much physically demanding. Obviously you're very tired after, but you're not like constantly like going into zone five, you know, you're just in zone like one or two all day. But mentally it is so challenging. Like mentally you get the same with anything where you're doing it for like a long period of time. You get brought to like pretty grim places in your head. You're like, what am I doing here? like, why am I doing this? And mentally, I knew that going into it. So I was quite prepared to have like times where I really wanted to give up. But yeah, it was like, you know, it was an amazing experience. I was so lucky to get to go there with Mava Star and Canyon and like the support that I had from Mava Star and Canyon was just like next level, like the Canyon guys were so fun to be around. And they They were so kind, like when I crossed the line, they were like cheering, like popping beer, like spraying beer everywhere, just like the nicest community, like environment to be in like doing something like that. And it just, it was a really good experience. And I really wanted to do that kind of gravel stuff moving forward. I would really like to do some kind of gravel racing next year, definitely. I'm the exact same now where I'm like, I've got hooked on the gravel stuff. Like I this year I rode the Wicklow Way over two days. I was two nine-hour days, so literally just packed up the tent and the cooker and stuff. It's true and it's out of the bag. I rode for nine hours and then just stopped, pitched up tent, cooked up some food. And I went again the next day, but it's just, it's so different to racing. But it's so much fun. Like if you love riding the bike, the gravel stuff is just, you have a smile on your face all day. genuinely like it's really enjoyable because sometimes on the road yeah it can get a bit repetitive with gravel you're like looking for your line you're you know it's just you're seeing more you're not just you're also a lot of the time don't have to worry about cars which is a really nice part of it yeah it's just a really different side of cycling and I'm really lucky now that I have to gravel bike for over the winter because it just makes your winter miles so much more more enjoyable actually.
Yeah, I snagged a Kanye and Grab a bike as well. I love it. It's really fun. I've got that one with the double handlebar. I'm not really sure what it does. Do you have that one? I've got the double handlebar. I think it's because when you're doing a really long, like a lot of the gravel races in America, like 160 kilometers or thereabouts. So like, it's, for me, it's really helpful that you can use all the different positions on it so that you don't get like a, you know, sometimes you feel really rigid and you've been running the same position for hours and hours. Yeah, and I wrote some trails that were probably closer to mountain bike trails on it last week in the Wicklow Mountains and the double bar definitely acts as a mini shock absorber. So it's like having a small little bit of suspension. Yeah, they have a flex zone on it. I think. Yeah. You can do that. I am worried because gravel, you know, it's not like road you do crash more on the gravel. I am worried if you broke that bar, it would be harder to replace. Yeah, true. Didn't think it after. No. I'll have to just send a panic email to you. Yeah, see, I'll be sending a panic email to you. And what's the plans for next season? Or can you talk about the plans for next season? Well, yeah, I suppose I can talk about it. So nothing is properly signed during place yet. So after the gravel race that I did with Momster, I think the plan was that Momster were hoping to kind of set up some kind of gravel team, but that has fallen through, which is fine, but I really wanted to keep riding on my canyons and canyon really wanted me to keep riding on my canyons. So I've actually been put in contact with Alps and Phoenix's women. Yeah, so I'm going to, Well, hoping to go to Plandro Pure, which is a UCI team. And yeah, I'll be doing a UCI road races with them and hopefully some gravel races with them as well. So nothing is signed yet, but that's what's in the in the fight lines. Do you have an idea of the sort of calendar you've been riding? Yeah, so I was talking with him yesterday. It's like, I'm still gold raised the age based on the age. a plan to go to the end. It's all like the classics and then I'm hoping that they're doing as well some of the races in Spain because I've really, what has been highlighted to me over the last couple months is that I'm a really good climber so I just need to get some climbing races in. So that's, I'm hoping that we'll be doing some in Spain as well. And if you pull that off you're going to base yourself in Gerona? Yes, the plan is to move to Gerona in January, I'm hoping. So yeah, I just need to get my life so really really. Have you been over or off? I've actually only been over it like once for that battle race. But I had always wanted to spend the winter there and had never done it because, you know, I was living in Belgium. And now I'm just like, OK, let's go, let's do it. I love it. It's okay. But the time this podcast comes out, I'll actually be in your own. Are you living there? Or are you going? No, so I'm going, we're running a camp there from the 17th. So I got a little bit before and then staying a little bit after about, I literally go out to Toronto every opportunity I can. Yeah. I was right. It's such a good mind. I run for a French team in 2012 or 2013 and we went there on a training camp. And at the time, Michael Barry was coaching me. He was riding for Skye when he was one of the kind of forced, you know, he's like Columbus. He's one of the four settlers in Toronto. He went across with the US post, the last liquid Armstrong and him copy. And today we're looking for a base that was close to an airport, great training. And they found your own. And so they were going to the forced rail and glows to settle in there as boy gracers. And so he was always saying, you just got to get there. You got to get there and went there in 2011 or 2012. And I just got absolutely hooked on the place. So I go back and literally trade four times a year if I can. Yeah, it was mad like when I was there the day after the gravel race, went to get a coffee the next morning and like it was about nine o'clock and you're watching all the pros just like rolling out and they're like Sunday morning spin and like wow this is so it's the place to be I think if you want to you know be in a good training place surrounded by like-minded people yeah it looks like the place to be.