KEY TAKEAWAYS
65 top 10 Grand Tour Stage finishes and a career spanning almost two decades, Nicolas Roche announced his retirement this week. I chat about regrets, highlights and the next chapter.
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“I think I'm third or fourth writer with the most grand tour finishes in the Peloton. So there's those are the things where I was just like, all right, I did do quite it off, but it's hard to think in, you know, I've always been someone who, I didn't get excited about all that.”
“Andrew was saying, but, but, but, but, but, but, you're 37, you've done this for, for 17 years is not a failure. You should see it as a success and you should be grateful and happy and look at you've done 17 years, you haven't done five or six, you've done 17 years and not be disappointed because you didn't make it 18.”
“I think I've inspired more people not by winning races but just with my general attitude and being kind of an ambassador and carrying the Irish flag on the international scene. I think you know I always try to talk as an Irishman and bring higher the colors and you know the the country up.”
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Today I'm gonna speak with Nicholas Roach. 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 another Roadman cycling podcast. I have a return guest on the podcast today, Nicholas Roach. And it's a big week in the life of Nicholas Roach, because he has announced his retirement as a professional cyclist. He's had a long and decorated career, they've seen many changes in the Peloton, in the Stuyler race, in training methods, nutrition. We talk about all that plus personal life and what's for him after cycling. I'm going to jump into that in one second. But before I do, I just want to do a quick little shoutout to a website that I've probably visited daily for the guts of 15 years. And I don't normally do shoutouts on the podcast like this, but it's a sticky bottle. And it's just any Irish listeners will know it. StickyBottle.com. And StickyBottle, like many publications, they struggle to monetize. But we shouldn't confuse companies that struggle to monetize with companies that don't have a place. Because if you're an Irish cyclist or if you have any interest in Irish cycling, this is a website you've probably checked every single day for going on a decade. And now they've changed our model and they're looking to monetize and they're looking to get a small contribution. Like the price of a point of beer, the same as this podcast, wants a month to keep them afloat. And you can do that head on over to Sticky Bottle. I'd highly encourage listeners to do it just because it's a worthwhile publication. It's how we get all our local news. And it's how we create that next generation of stars like Nicholas Roach. Like one of my earliest goals in cycling was the precursor to Sticky Bottle, which is called Arcytland. One of my earliest goals in Saigon was to get a mention on www.RASYCLEN.com. I remember it was such a buzz on a trail when I did finally get that. So go ahead on over to the key button and check that out. And without further ado, this is a great chat. Really had so much fun chatting to Nicholas Roach. Welcome back to the podcast, Nico. Morning, how are you? Nico, welcome back, I should say. Yeah, it's been a while. It has been a bit. I think this is the second or third time, maybe. I think third time was the last time during covid was it? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think last time you were recideless you came on To sell that could have been a week ago I'm still I'm still recovering from there. Just just added a hot shower after good training So I'm still a cyclist. I'm not a professional cyclist. Yeah, we're just shot in our fair there I had a four-hour spin around the mola and you the four-hour spin around Monaco It's funny like the last month I've been training quite a lot with Richie Porte and I've been avoiding the medone and every time we come back he always likes to go and do an extra hour of the medone and I went up that Terbi which is a climb just beside it. And then today I was able to friend and I said ah let's go and do the medone. I said come on I've been avoiding that climb and I overdosed it. I said okay we just go and do team a mid-own and back. So we did a nice little loop and then behind me. So it was a smashing day for it. I listened to, I don't normally go in for the Armstrong Dope and chat around that area because he's just so done and nobody wants to talk about it. But Armstrong had his forced appearance that I've heard on someone else's podcast the other day. He was on Dr. Peter Attina's podcast. He's kind of a biohacker medicine dude. It's a cool interview if you get a chance to listen to what he was talking about the Medone and his power up the Medone. He tested before his first tour away and going up the Medone and for 30 minutes, 500 watts he averaged. Well, that's two minutes quicker than my record. My record was 32 minutes. Fuck. And I think so at the time I must have been around 70 kilos and I must have done, I think around for 24, 25 watts. So that's quite a bit of a difference, but I guess for the two minutes difference. I know Richie's breaking the 30 minute record, Richie Porte. And actually the day that I've done, well, there's a few that broke the record now. I think Podgecar, Roglish, I think even Fruhme, there's like four or five of them who's been on the 30 minute mark on the middle. But I think there's questions of where they start. So I don't know how, you know, there's like two, three points. So no one really knows where I'm strong started. There is an official start, but no one knows if I'm strong. I actually started a bit further down or whatever. But anyway, rough take a give or take. But if I want to watch this, it's huge. And when I did that climb, I did most of it on Richie's Wheel.
Richie was doing some kind of a threshold effort. And I said, I'll jump on your wheel. And then he was like, all right, just stay on my wheel. And then go full gas. That asked two or three minutes to go and get your vehicle. He was going to be a hand. when we're chasing, striving and stuff like that, we have a bit of fun. So we, you know, it has to be also a bit of fun, not always, always full gas and pressing sets and doing specific training. So that was about, I think it was last, no, no. Yeah, it was last year before the tour, actually. So I was in a good shape. Got numbers, got numbers. Who are you trying to with these days? I'm really continuing trying to with the same lots. Yeah, mainly, mainly Richie. I train a lot with Richie. And then we have a little group, you know, I used to train a lot with Michael, but since Matus, but since he's changed teams. And this year has been, it's been just, just crushing each other's path, where normally I was kind of on a similar program than him. So, and we had the same coach, so it was quite easy to train together. But, but mainly, mainly Richie or my brother Alexi when he's off work. I had a few dads I trained with background with Philippe Schilber. And then a couple of my friends who have like a bike shop just down the road. Usually some days when I feel I want to do something different, I usually kind of do two hours on my own and then he has on his lunch break, pick him up at 12 and then go and do another two hours with him. So I have kind of a split day rather than just going on my own all the time. In a perfect world, would you have crossed the lion last week in Wicklow, hands in the air? I thought about it. And to be honest, when I was up the road with Eddie, I thought I was like, All right, this is destiny falling in place. And then when I saw him go down, I was like, ah, crap, that's it. And I knew that once, once a workshop was done, there was no second shot because we spent a lot of energy up the front with the headwind and we committed. And it was all in. So I was like, okay, this time around is like, all it works with Eddie and I'm first or second. Or we get caught and I'm gonna be struggling because that headwind was just a killer in a smaller group. What happened, Dunbar? He loves the Altar, Mac. I came in actually, yeah, it just had been a really, really heavy shower on that lap. And he came in a bit hot in one of the corners in the front wheel and... You must have answered yourself in a two-up against Dunbar. Yes, and no, it was still a long way to go. He could have dropped me on the climb, could have attacked me. It's too easy to say, oh, yeah, I would have beaten him in a sprint. I probably would have but there was also a couple of climbs to get there so he could have attacked me on the climb and right away from me so It's easy to say I would have beaten him. I think it was a fair 50 50 He was he was quite tonic on the climbs. I was a bit powerful on the flat So I think I would have been a really exciting finish between the two of us But I think regardless even though you didn't obviously you know So England's not a fair retailer would have been cool to finish as national champion But in some ways, it's nice to finish full circle back in Wicklow. I'm sure you spent a lot of miles and a lot of hours there as a kid trying to come back full circle, so to speak, to there. Most have also had a bit of a special feeling. Yeah. I mean, I saw on one of the the internet sites that had like Nick the Stroach finishes where it began. And it couldn't have been summed up in a better way. And the team talked about my race program and you know, when I was going to race the Tadding Classics and everything, I said, no, I said, listen, if I stop my last race, I don't want to do some random race in Italy with no disrespect to the random race in Italy, but I wasn't going to finish my career in, you know, Tur de Piamante or Trevale Varizine or even Lombardy, that wasn't really a race that meant something to me. And the country, for example, for Dan, who's won it, who's been four or five times top 10 or five even, I understand Dan wanted to finish one last time in number D. But for me, it was like the only race I had since and I had a bit of a special feeling was the Irish Championships. And I had to also see when the Shay was organizing the race that I was gonna retire them there. I just told him that I wanted to hold off the announcement because I wanted to be there. I have some of my friends from France through over because they knew it was my last race and we had a nice dinner and evening with some other friends in Dublin.
It was a cool day, but in a selfish way, I didn't want it to be something big and have everybody come and tap in my shoulder and all that, I said, all right, that would happen at some point. I wanted to be like some calm. I was already really, really, really nervous about it. And it was this kind of mixed feelings of happy and not happy. And it was tough. During the race, I got goosebumps and Andrew came up in the car and said, all right, Nico, that's it, congrats. It's been great. I've been working with Andrew for the last 10, 11 years, more than 12 years. But we, talking about where it started, Andrew and I used to go around Roundwood, Lara when we were 12, 13, and sometimes go on five or six hour rides and get completely lost. But that was the fun at the time. There was no Garmin or Google maps to get you back home. So when you went off on your adventure trip to Roundwood and ended up in Wicklow Gap, it was a long way back when you were 12 or 13. So yeah, I think it was in a way, I kind of saw it as like, this is the way it happened. It was great for me to have my last race in Ireland and meant something a lot more than a new race. But you know, I rode this morning, as I say, around Stomoland and on the roads, it's like what's a Tuesday morning here and on the roads. I'm passing groups of Fove out, I'm passing groups of Fove out, we get to the coffee shop, there's cyclists there. Like when you're talking about when you're out riding where Andrew McQuaid back in the day, like I was riding around then as well. There wasn't many people on the roads. Like, you know, I don't want to say it's entirely you, but there's a big part of your dad and you that have inspired an entire generation of Irish Reuters out onto the roads. There's like a critical mass out in the roads nearly now at the weekends, where I'm living in Clontarf all around Clontarf, Mallahoy, Port Maranuck, Sutton. You don't want to be going out with your car. just look behind cyclists all day. That must be a pretty special to have, you know, inspired because I know like my background is law and the reason never insane, like, why are you still doing a podcast? You're early getting paid any money for that, which is not just going and working in law. And for me, it's like, if I can change or even be a small part of someone's story, inspired them to be a little bit healthy or a little bit happier, true to bike. I love that. I get such a fucking kick out of that. Do you have a similar sort of, do you look back on your role within our cycle and think yeah I've won some big races but actually it's bigger than that I've inspired a lot of people here. Well you know what I think I've inspired more people not by winning races but just with my general attitude and being kind of an ambassador and carrying the Irish flag on the international scene. I think you know I always try to talk as an Irishman and bring higher the colors and you know the the country up. It wasn't just about a Nick Russvodge, the cyclist as an individual. I can never realize how big or how small it is, but you know, when I read some of the comments last week on my Instagram and my Twitter about my retirement. And a lot of them were like, you know, you inspired me, your determination, your gentleman, your behavior. And I think that has even more, more effect on me than if it was, I you inspire me because you want to turn to France. Because at the end, you know, turn to France is just about okay, legs and whatever. But I think where I'm the most proud was, was I think I inspired them with my, with my determination with trying, with crashing and coming back and always fighting it, which is, which is what is all about life, isn't it? And I think, you know, last year it was kind of the first time where I really realized that I was not a a role model but that was I was important to to some other people when everyone was locked in and I was doing all these hours on the home trainer and I was getting all these messages saying thanks because we see you doing all this work on your home trainer and it gives me the motivation to say oh Nico's doing four hours on the home trainer and I'm lazy doing one I have to go and do one and I had a lot of text about you know very not professionals well I had a few texts and professional psychos who could train outside saying Nico keep it up you know we're thinking about you, which was really nice. For example, Aru, who is not really my, you know, I don't have much contact with him. We've cycled together for many years and during lockdown he was like, Aneko, I see you on your balcony. Congrats, keep it up. It must be hard for you. I'm feeling for you. Take care of it, which is quite nice. But a lot of the messages I got were from January just people following my Instagram and saying, thanks, Aneko, you got any motivation to do one hour today.
And then I went for a run. I was like, okay, I tried running as well. And I And I felt that I was helping people to stay active during that very, very difficult time. And then in the evening, I would share a glass of wine and put a photo bottle of wine, which also made that it's not only that cycling that is also life and enjoying a bit of life. You need a balance between both things. And it was perfectly fine to have a glass of wine. And it was also fine to go and do a couple of hours on the air go. And last year, that kept, it was a kind of a relationship where having all these messages of people telling me that I was motivating them, was motivating me to continue. It was cool because I knew that when I went on a home trainer and I posted myself, and I looked pretty stupid on my balcony doing a selfie with my shirt off and the sweaty computer in front of me, well it wasn't just that. It was also saying, guys, come on, let's go and stay fit, let's do something and I'll get through this quarantine together or this lockdown together. But what's cool as well, we're in kind of a instant gratification, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook culture where everybody's chasing shiny objects. They're all looking for the quick fix, whether it's the, you know, remember something about Mary Jo looking about six minute apps, you know, everyone's looking for a fast fix, whether that's a fast health fix, a fast career fix, get rich quick scheme, or like instant gratification without dopamine hit from just being happy from scrolling and getting likes on their photos. But to step away from the instagramification and to stay in a career for that long year after year, that's just hard work. It's a sport more than any other that's just built on consistent hard work, discipline, sacrifice, hard work, discipline, sacrifice. And to roll that template year after year after year, here. We've seen Tom Dumaland taking breaks from the sport because, you know, it's just, it's a pressurize sport. Do you think when you sit back quietly and reflect with a point again us, you'll go fuck, I'm proud of how many years I kept that rolling for. Yeah, well, that came to me again from, from Andrew a couple of weeks ago and when I was talking and I was talking about how was I going to announce it. Inside of me I felt that I didn't know how to feel about it if it was failure because I didn't reach 20 and my goal was to go to 20. Or I should be grateful of having managed to get to 17 and proud of going to 17 in one of the most competitive business. And Andrew just takes me one day and I say I feel cracked because Okay, I'm at a point where it's just getting tough, struggling with contracts, and this time to do something else, I'm not enjoying it as much. It was a combination of stuff like I mentioned. And Andrew was saying, but, but, but, but, but, but, you're 37, you've done this for, for 17 years is not a failure. You should see it as a success and you should be grateful and happy and look at you've done 17 years, you haven't done five or six, you've done 17 years and not be disappointed because you didn't make it 18. And then I started thinking about it and I said, yeah, he's right. I did do whatever and then I look at statistics and yeah, one of the most writers with the most grand tour finishes. I think I'm third of fourth writer with the most grand tour finishes in the Pentaton. So there's those are the things where I was just like, all right, I did do quite it off, but it's hard to think in, you know, I've always been someone who, I didn't get excited about all that. So when people tell it to me, I kind of for a moment is like, oh yeah, it's not so bad. But for me to kind of go and reflect and say, oh yeah, I was great and I was this and I was that. No, it's more that I realized slowly but surely because like I said, I read the comment and for me to see the impact that my retirement letter or statement, gosh, it just really, really was hard warming because I realized how much impact I had globally in the business and I felt right. And I was like, okay, if I got all this support and even had guys saying, oh, think about it again and come back. Are you sure? And there was some funny comments there, obviously. But all that, then I realized, okay, at least I'm going out in a nice way with a lot of support, a lot of wishes for the next part of my life. And I felt that I got a lot of taps on the shoulder, which was great. What changed, Nicole? I remember you get that article 22, three years ago in the Times where you said you're hoping to go until 40, was it just a really pragmatic decision in I'm not taking a smaller contract that I'm on or I'm not willing to step down to keep going? No, there was, well, that was also part of it. is the moment you have to set yourself a limit.
Just because, you know, in a very, let's say, emotion-free thinking, it's today by starting on working on my future, it's also important to seize opportunities that I might not have in the next few years. So there's a moment where you say, okay, when you're a cyclist, you can only focus on cycling. When you do something else, maybe you make less money that the smallest contract I could have gotten in cycling, but it also gives me an opportunity to start working on my future. So there's a moment in my life where, maybe if it was a year ago, I would have gone for smaller contracts in cycling. And say, okay, I need to do one more year because I'm not ready mentally to stop because cycling is also, it's more than about money. And I never cycled from money. I made decisions in my teams to where I wanted to go, not because of the salary. So money was never something that was involved in my choices, but this time around, I had to set a barrier and say, okay, is it worth having all these, you know, contrains in your lifestyle, the training, the traveling, the crashing, at this level in my life? Or is it better to take an offer that's way below that and risk stopping and starting to build on what I hope will be the next 20 or 30 years of my life. I have opportunities. I've been contacted by some companies for working over the next few years, things I want to develop. And I made that call. It was like, right, like I said, there was a moment where I felt that I've had some of the biggest crash in my career in the last two years. And also, strange enough, I felt that not about money, but I just felt that the teams were just, there was a moment where I felt almost unwanted, you know? There was a moment where when I was talking with the teams, we weren't even going to talk about money. I was like, ah, too old. And I was like, you know, I'm the present still. I'm not the past. I'm still better than most of the 19-year-olds K2-turn Pro. Take Remko and Pajikar, apart. And when my own team were telling me, yeah, but that's it. We've you've done your job here at a team we don't want to. I felt really, really frustrated about it. But is that something that's covered in the last few years where experience seems to be less valued? So experience is not valuable because the teams are getting more and more and more and more structured. Before a rider had the experience and he was playing, you know, the sports director, he gave you advice and coaching, he gave you advice from the Trician. And I remember riders from other teams giving me calls saying, okay, Nico, this is the first time I'm doing Turvuelta. You're kind of the specialist of Turvuelta. Can you give me some advice? Today, no, because the teams want to control everything. The problem when you have experience also means you have an opinion, not just in cycling. I think in every job is very much the same. So you have to think that your opinion is only valid if it is to defend the point of view of the team. If you bring a different opinion by your own experience and you go against the team's ideology or tactic, or it becomes problematic. So your opinion is not valued for one and two, you're a problem. For me, there's still a place for the road captain. And I just look at the world and I look at the criticisms of Merck's of Remko and the run-off to that. And then I'm not sure if you're saying the world's and Remko roiding in this super domestic completely unnecessarily hard and then pulls off, leaves everyone isolated, like 25k to go. And you're like, it's clearly for television that he's done that. It makes no fucking sense. He's done that for a statement. He's done that for a statement. He's done that to say, look, Merck's, I can do it, shut up. But isn't the statement for anyone that knows that about Saiklin, like this kid doesn't know what he's doing, like a clearly needs a road captain to pull him and say, you're a fucking and the child's listen to me. But they're the mistake then comes from Bernard and from Jasper's student who are with them. They just need to slap them and say, like, cock yourself on. There's no radio in words, remember that? Yeah. So... Is it a case that he's such a big character that they won't go up and have that word at him or he's just gone so hard to conquer, to have the word with him? I don't know, that's something you'd have to ask them and I didn't get the information. But when I looked at him pulled that hard, I was saying, why is he doing it? And I was like, okay, he did it because he wants to show Merck's that Merck's because Merck's had said wasn't it that he shouldn't be on any team because he's selfish or something I remember. So, so in that in that case, in my opinion, they made a mistake to to make him pull. They should have been making him attack even early in the race because he definitely had the legs to make some damage. But I think there he was just making a statement saying, all right, guys, you you don't trust me.
Look, I'll pull I do my job. Now is your guys to take responsibility. Yeah. And in a way, it was ballsy enough for him to do it. Because then then he doesn't get any blame for it. He's like, guys, look, I did my job. Now, why did you guys win? Maybe next time think about me. He was good to do that. It shows big balls, big character from him. Do you have any regrets looking back at your career now? If your idea is going to exercise, I call it the general's tent, where I kind of just at the end of the day, I look at my day and go, what do you have done out in different? If you look back at your career with that same sort of philosophy. Well, there's, yeah, I think, you know, the first years of my career when I was starting to work towards GC, racing and all that, there's many times I, because I was always the, like the top 10 guy GC, not the winner, and for me, it was so important to make it in that top 10, and I was mainly between seven and 12, And at the time, the point schemes were, if you're nine to get points, if you're 11, you don't. You're talking about that as you do, there it is. Yeah, as you do, there it is, yeah. And that there were times where I think I should have been more aggressive again. And those, because then the last few years I was a lot more aggressive and had fun in a different way. Where back then I was so obsessed with making into the top 10. And for me, at the world through 11, to enter the top 10 in those big races was already so difficult, but I was capable of doing it. But like I said, I was fighting between seven and 12, and a lot of times I've been 11 to 12, and the odd time, nine to 10, in those big, on those one regraces. And there's a few times, for example, where I look back at Dan, who's the perfect opposite where some years he just didn't care and just went for it. And he's won some fabulous wins, just by saying, I'm just going for it, doesn't matter what happens. And looking back, there's a lot of times I missed out on potential wins by trying to secure a top 10 in GC, rather than saying, oh, there's an opportunity for me to go, I should go first. In the last couple of years, I was a lot more aggressive, but already even with Saxo Bank. Even when I did GC, I was a lot more aggressive and kind of went all in and see how it goes. And it worked a lot better for me than I was, look, it's kind of funny that in those AG2 Oreos, I was four years, they were most likely some of the best years of my career. And I only had one win, which was the hour championships, had many, many seconds, third thoughts, I've been top 10 in almost every race in the calendar, but it was just not getting any wins. And then eventually afterwards, when I was a little bit more aggressive, open, more minded, I was able to get a little bit more wins. I was talking to a client yesterday and he's talking about wanting to be a boy, grace her. And he rides his bike and stuff at the moment. And he was talking about wanting to be a boy, grace her. And I was like, are you sure you want to be a boy, grace her? Like talking about the level of commitment that's there. And he's like, you know, what have three weekends spoke to between here and Christmas to go away with the messes and I was like, you know, the boy's got to be witchy like if you want to be a boy, grace or the bike is part of your life. And I was reflecting back as a chat to him on my last relationship, which when I was trying to make it as a pro and I was like, I totally torched that relationship. You've spoke to image on your sort of personal problems. Do you have any regrets about sort of how much sacrifice the bike took away from your personal life? No, because on the opposite, I think sometimes by trying too hard to make the relationship work Sorry for my language, but I messed up both I was going to say a big effort there, but of course I have this point. No, and in the end I was traveling so much and every time I was home, I don't have to be at home. I just created myself in a new altitude camp to go away. And then I eventually married a girl that I had probably seen two weeks over three years. And then when I got injured and spent a bit of time at home, I realized that I was making the biggest mistake in my life. But it was today, so I was married to her. So I think there was a bit, and also in a few times where, like, for example, on my only moon I took my bike for me and I was in in November we went on a okay we were I was looking up we were I told her we we could go or anyone was in Bora Gora so kind of a powered paradise but I said all right we can do a week eight days there and then coming back we can stop in Australia but I need to take my my bike because then I need to start training I didn't want to do more than so many days off the bike and and yeah so on my own my own moon I would go Actually that backfired because that's when I got bitten by the redback and ended up being three days in hospital.
But my director for Aqua Blue for years used to always hate me. This award comes before so I claim that's professional. And that's the part that people don't see is the boy on the honeymoon. Everyone sees the Instagram photo of you crossing the loin but they don't see that personal sacrifice that goes into. Yeah and then you know I mean during that relationship or during relationships, there's writers who are capable of it and you know to get Mary settled down, had kids and lived happily ever after and then most likely divorced when they were 40s when they retire. But at that moment I just realized straight away that I made the biggest mistake in my life, the most expensive mistake of my life too. And I'm still paying for today and having, that's probably why I said I wanted to go to the 40 to continue paying for this Of course, but good, no half-joker side. You have to be a little bit selfish in cycling. And sometimes when I try to be less selfish in trying to manage both, I made a mess of it. I think, you know, or you're lucky enough to find someone who fully understands you. And you have this bond that's behind you. and it works because like I said I have friends of mine that you know that I've been married almost during all their career and have kids and they're living happily ever after and there's so many of the other riders who they they survived or they were afraid to divorce during their career because look to the year I divorced was the worst year out on my bike 2018 the action never really made it back because then I wasn't considered our top rider anymore I was only considered a helper so So, salary crash, mentally, it was very, very difficult. So, I understand why some riders wait till they're actually finishing their career to divorce. And if you look at mainly, not only in cycling, in most sports, a lot of riders, they prefer to kind of fight through their problems for the next few couple of years and make it to the retirement and then divorce after retirement. I just felt that I was still young and life is long and it wasn't fair for me or for her. And I just thought, all right, I'm just gonna make the call and yes, it's gonna affect my career. But that's it, I just have to accept it and try and make the most of it, but it wasn't easy. So yes, a lot of times I think it's actually, there's an extra challenge for an amateur rider than a professional rider, because you're a balancing kind of relationships and sport or normal life slash relationships and sport, but your amateur rider is trying to balance little bit more, you're still trying to balance your sport, relationship, but then you have to throw in a 40-year-a-week job. And it's that extra kind of piling on the cortisol and the stress levels. It's trying to come home from a nine to five job and do intervals. Do you think you could see yourself cycling to a good level, put holding down a job if the professional cycling had the that's taken off for you. Well, look, that was one of the biggest battles I had with my dad, wasn't it? I just knew how much cycling took. And I said, all right, I need a full year off. He only gave me six months, but I said, all right, I'm going to take a year off and focus on cycling only. And then if I don't make it, I don't make it. If I make it, well, that's it. So I can understand how difficult it is. And a lot of my friends here, like I said, I go sometimes on his lunch break with my friend that has a bike shop, I have another friend who works here in Monaco who's the same when he's available sometimes like, oh, Nikka, I just finished work at four o'clock. I used to sit on the bike, but it's still an extra hour and I go out within an extra hour. So I know how it is for them, how difficult it is to manage the life, the kids, the daily job and a bit of fitness. It's quite difficult to be really competitive. I think back in Ireland, it's possible because of level, everyone's a bit in the same scenario. In France, no, because you will get this contrast with guys who are just cycling on smaller match teams, still getting a bit of revenue from racing, where in Ireland, almost everyone's on the same level. Or okay, you have one kids, two kids or five kids or no kids, but you usually the nine to five job, the evening swift sessions and the Sunday morning spins, maybe get another day on the half day work and trying to manage the Friday night dinner with the Mrs and the Indian Korean Saturday night with the neighbors and it's a lot of work. But I can remember the layers to the onion and like I was winning in Ireland and I signed for the division national team in France. And it was like, you're coming home for the Ross and it was the fucking easiest eight days you're seizing. Like you're like, holy God, it's like 5K an hour slower. Like I don't think Irish Reuters realize how high the level is out there. And to think that you guys are level up from that again, it's like, right?
I was like, I don't want any part of that shit. That's some say, you know, masochist stuff that they're there on that every day of the week. Well, I think, I think the last two, three years, Roddas have started to, to get a feeling about how good the world's level is. Because, you know, a couple of years ago, when I'd go to Ireland and the guys, if they beat me, it was like, that's where I was good as in, in the championships. where now I think they're smart enough to know that, okay, they beat me on that day for whatever circumstances, but they're miles away from what we do in the world, and in a more respectable way, they totally understand that. And when you speak with them, you also feel it, that they just know that, okay, it was good, we race each other and they beat me and whatever, and it was fun. Where before they felt that, okay, I was, you know, almost saying, oh, I should be pro too, is like, no, it's not because you beat me on a one day race in Ireland that you should be pro. But you know, I think I have the voice for the amateur lads here. And what we do is we look at your data from the last mountaintop finish in the third week of a grand tour. So we take your most fatigued state and then we take our best ever day. We add 20 watts. We take off five kilograms. So we go, I'm almost as good as Nick. Oh, almost. Do you look at the, like I seen a pitcher coming up last week, I'm not sure who shared on my timeline, but was you, I think it was Frankie Campbell who's still my director at Dan Morrissey, he's a great lad. I know he's a lot of time for you. It was Philip Duygnan yourself and Pottie O'Brien. And you know, you guys kind of made it to different levels. You know, you obviously had a long prosperous career. Philip had a shorter, quite prosperous career and Paulty didn't make it at all. For young kids listening now, is there something you think separated, from Kieran Kelly to Paulty to you to Philip, was it work ethic, was it talent or is there anything you put your finger on or was it look? There's everything. I think it's just not one thing. It's obviously having hard work, sacrifice is in there, but I'm not at home. I don't know what what party or Keon Kelly were doing when they were when they're at home. So I'm not going to judge at all because I have absolutely no indication. But for sure already natural, this position in talent is a big one. And then obviously that added to work, seizing opportunities, making the steps. You know, it's a combination of things. It's very difficult. I don't think there's one thing that defers me to them. It could be just five really small things but just done a little bit better. But isn't it so funny you have these moments in your life where life just becomes totally different? Like if you hadn't got that pro contract, you know, I'm sitting in Dublin there, you're sitting in Monaco, we could potentially be having this conversation where you sitting in your house in Dondrom and you're a carpenter and you've just podiumed in the Irish National Championships. Yeah, it's such a, you know, one small decision can lead you on a totally different path. You had a great interview with our Australian Shains Stokes last week, but one of the lines in it that just struck me is like, how much you actually cared about this. And it was more of a profession than just the job. You were talking about how when you weren't selected for Team Sky, how you just bald and tears all night the four-seventy weren't selected for the Tour de France. Can you remember what that was like? And was that like a young kid still on the way up? Or do you still have those kind of same sentimental feelings towards Tour de France now? Well, it was still my fifth or sixth tour. So maybe more than that, actually. So it was more than, it wasn't just about a young guy growing up. I just felt that it was just, for me at that moment, I felt it was unfair because I should have been on that tour. And it was just political because I had signed in a different team and it took me out of the third team five days before the tour because I was in it. And I just felt that, you know. When you say political, what do you mean by that? Because I had signed in a different team. For the basic names. The way it works in most teams or most years is, well now it's different again because the contract season is a bit more, let's say stable and secured, but that year I had signed, Richie had wanted me to join him in BMC and the deal was on really quick during the season. And basically Sky before the tour, I told me, here's your contract, for this is like five days before the tour, here's your contract to resign. I said, I can't, I said, okay, you wanna, you signed elsewhere, okay, that's it, you can stay home in July. That's kind of the way it went. Oh, that's court drugs. Yeah, but that's the same for me, but also for 10 other riders.
It's not my case. That's the way the business works. I was smart or stupid or what it is because it's enough to pay me till December. But that's the way it is. I was just angry because I felt that it was the first time in my career I didn't go to the tour since my first tour. And I felt I was one with the tour. And that no team could afford not taking me. So maybe it was my ego. maybe it was everything altogether, but for me, the tour was my more than any other race. The tour was just something special. When I started the year, my aim was to be in shape for the tour, not for anything else. And then from that went on to the Vuelta. You had a crazy amount. I think like 65 top 10s in grand tours. Do you look back on that with parades? Do you look back on that as missed opportunities? Or how do you view those years? going to take it specifically around those content over years at Saxo Bank, really in service of others. And I know we do have this romantic notion of the domestic as soitlin fans, but that's easy for me sitting here because I'm not you. Do you look back on that and go, fuck, they were like you mentioned Dan, they were all opportunities. Yeah, maybe I did go into the kind of super domestic a bit early in my career. And the times I had opportunities, every single time I had a bit of at least to play around, I managed to put a result. So I was getting results three months of the year. And then for the other part of the season, pre that I was always in the service of someone. So for sure, maybe I could have, you know, a lot more results still. Looking back at those top 10s, there's two way of seeing it, is like it's top 10s in the biggest events on the planet. So most likely always arrived with some of the best riders on the planet. So it's not in bad to be beaten by one. And obviously when I look on the other side of the medal, it's like that was 65 times, I've won him one too. So that's 63 times that I've missed on winning a stage. Yeah. Look, it's, as you say, it's the very best athletes on the planet you're pitting yourself against. But I'm sure as you sit back and you reflect over the next few months and years, there'll be a few adults where you're like, I had the legs that day, I had the legs that day. And for me, I know, when I kind of stop chasing a cycle on full time, I kind of said, you know what, I got, I'm not going make it as a cyclist. I got to think about something else. It was kind of a weird moment because for those few years, how I viewed myself, my own self identity, even forgetting how other people view me, how I viewed myself was as an athlete and as an athlete and a cyclist, I had this kind of set of habits I get up in the morning, I put my kid on, I go out the door, you've been doing this for almost 20 years. Is it going to be hard to change how you view yourself? What is the next version of nickel? I definitely need to keep fit. I definitely need to keep fit. So like I said, look, I've already been on the bike three, four times this week. Not a lot, two, three hours, but just to get the mind going. I don't want to be putting on weight. Also, because I still believe that I want to have fun on the bike and you know when you're out of shape, it just gets tougher. So, you know, when the guys come back from the holidays and they start back training in November, I want to be fit enough to go with them and still have that enjoyment a couple of hours. Okay, I'm not gonna do the five, six hour loops with them. I'll turn off at some point, but just to be able to be fit enough to go with them and for myself, already in the winter, I hate myself when I put on a few kilos. So I'm gonna try, obviously I'm gonna put on a few kilos, but I don't want to put too much of it. And you never know, next year also, I wanna try different things. I might go and do some gravel racing, I might go and do some mountain bike racing. And I don't wanna go there and get humiliated, so I'm quite competitive to start with. So I'm definitely gonna continue being shaped. I'm not gonna go out on the bike every single day. And if it rains in December and five degrees and half snowing, I'm definitely not gonna go on the bike. But you know, like as much as I can, I'd go on the bike and a couple of days ago, I was playing paddle with some of my friends or pilots in different race cars, going back in tomorrow, playing a game on Thursday night with Mike and Mattious as well in the paddles. So I'm trying to do a few other sports that I haven't been able to play the other years. So this stuff going on, but like I said, I still want to keep fit.
Would you be tempted to throw on an Orwell jersey for the Ross next year? Maybe not next year, but it has crossed my mind because I'm probably the only Irish rider who hasn't ridden the Ross. And I've always said as a joke that I will not stop, that the year I stopped being professional cyclists, sorry, I might call oral and do symbolically a Ross with oral as a vet. Maybe it's not this year. I'm a lot through to kind of refocus on this year, but I think in the next two or three years, I wouldn't be a surprise if I came back and be the local with oral and erasing for the best home hour rider. get the county writer fuck. Yeah, that's what I was looking for. The county writer. Yeah, cheese and pearls on my watch. That's something that I have in the back of my mind, just for the sake of saying, you know, I'm a man of the rest, no one's a scientist if he's not a man of the rest. It's cool. Because what I can't remember what you're your dad when I put he was super young. I think he was 79. What the fuck like you must be in 1718 or something when he won that. But it's yeah, obviously any Irish writer has I had Chris Yo-Yenson on the podcast, I'm not sure if we can call him Irish, but he's an Irish accent and he's going to sell to Irish and he knows. Exactly. He's born in Wicklow, isn't he? Yeah, he is. He's properly Irish. I think I'll title the podcast, the Irishman. But he's like wants to come back when he's finished because he hasn't ridden a Ross. So he's like, I'm fucking all over. And so it's formidable taught you and you will get some back to Ross. You're an county writer. Nicko, before I finish up, last question, what's the future hold? What are the plans? Are you looking forward to it? Or are you going to get a little bit nervous stepping into this new chapter? Well, I'm really nervous for all the changes that it brings is not just about, like I said, from my hectic couple of years with the divorce and stuff, it's not just about retirement and sitting in my house and moving on to the next job. It's about, I would most likely have to find a different place than Monaco now. What is that? Sorry, why is that? Just because I won't have the revenue to be able to justify being here. Okay. So that's a start. And also, it also means things like going back to court with my ex-wife because I have a stupidly high pensioner I'm paying over the last couple of years. So that needs to be revised. It means also looking for work. So it's not like I said, for a lot of riders is I am going on a pension and they want to go on a holiday and enjoy life a couple of months where I've been spending the last two weeks on the phone trying to find opportunities. And lucky enough, I think Andrew is going to take me as a consulting job with 20 sport management. So we're not quite sure what that means yet. But I will be involved with the company and with the team, doing it bits and pieces and starting to work with younger riders as well, which is pretty cool. I'll be opening a bike shop in Galway, my second bike shop in Ireland. Ah, class. So at the moment, we're sitting on the project, but hopefully for April. Brilliant. So I'll be coming back in Ireland most likely in December and January for two months to really, really work on that as a product manager and get the shop going. So that would be fun to be back in Ireland for a couple of months working that I'd be back and forward between Galway and Dublin. So that's quite exciting. And then after that, well, hopefully I've been talking now with some of the TV companies to try and get me on board to do a bit of commentary over the next year. So hopefully I'll get some positive responses in a couple of weeks. Yeah, Nick, I'll look from where I'm sitting. It looks like you have a super exciting, start of your career rather than the end of your career. So yeah, look, I think you're gonna knock it out in a park, so best to look with it. Thanks, good talking to you. Cheers, I got it. Right, I'll stop that there.
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