Welcome to the roadman cycling podcast
Welcome to the roadman cycling podcast. My name is Anthony Walsh. My path to hosting this podcast, it's been anything but straight. My background, I'm a lawyer by trade, but as I was making my way through law school and finishing up my professional qualification, I was just getting better and better at cycling. I was learning lessons, I was iterating and I was learning fast. And as soon as I graduated law school, instead of going to practice law, I had a dream to become a professional cyclist and I decided to go and chase that dream. I got my first contract in France near Bordeaux with a team called Apple J Super U. It was a difficult year but on from that I progressed and I moved and went to Canada the following year and onto the United States to race for a stellarless oncology. The following year for my first paid contract. It was out there that I realised that cycling and the dream that I thought it was that that it just wasn't for me. You know, the US is a long way from Ireland and the level of sacrifice was just too high. There were so many missed birthdays, missed graduations, missed wedding anniversaries, broken promises, and it was honestly desperately homesick. So I made the difficult decision to stop racing with a stellar oncology for the following year and to come home to Ireland. It was a really hard decision, but when I got home, I taught, you know what, I've spent seven years gone through law school, it's time to be a grown up. But I got in the entrepreneurial book when I was away. I set up my first coaching company, the same coaching company that I have now, Roadman Cycling, but under a previous name, A1 coaching. I set that back in 2012. But when I get home, I got this notion that I needed multiple streams of income. So in the space of a few years, I bought a cafe in Dublin, I built an app called Pocket Coach, which is actually quite a big deal. We ended up raising a bunch of venture capital, but that had its own challenges because I was trying to work US errors from a Dublin base. I built an event pre-registration company with a friend from Doha, and I set up a social media market and agency based in Dublin. All this had me just so busy chasing what I taught my vision of success was. I was making more cash than I ever had before, finally had money in my pocket. But I noticed something strange. I was still riding the bike, almost 15 hours a week. but my body wasn't responding to training the way it used to be. And I was starting to put on weight, my six pack was disappearing, I was starting to get love handles. And honestly, if I'm gonna be a little bit vulnerable to you guys, my happiness levels were at all time lows. It was around then I decided to press pause on everything and decided to pursue one single focus of chasing happiness from my life. That was the start of a crazy journey that led me right here today. I've seen the power of cycling as a transformative tool to change lives because it changed my life. But now it's my mission to spread this message as far and wide as I can. I coach people now on the lessons I've learned through my coaching company, Roadman Cycling, and I've been hosting the Roadman Cycling podcast since 2019. Honestly, it's one of my favorite things to do. In this podcast, we explore the central message, how do I use cycling as a tool for health, happiness and longevity? That's our mission. I get to share inspiring stories, insights and interviews five days a week, every single weekday. I chat with the most brilliant minds in sport and fitness. I chat with world-class athletes, authors and fitness experts. As we explore what makes people great and how you can improve your life as well through the lessons and stories Dave learned. Every Tuesday and Thursday, I release an interview long-form episode with an incredible person. while every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I do shorter solo casts, which I call Rollman Buttes. Indeed, I try to impart little nuggets of wisdom, which have the power to change, not just your cycling performance, but your life. Now, because I've been recording the podcast for such a long time, and with the cadence that I have on the podcast five days a week, I've built a really big back catalog, archive of episodes, and I know it can be intimidating to know where to start. Some firm favourites have been my episode I recorded with Tyler Hamilton, former US postal rider, where he talks about the daupant culture in the sport and where the difficulties telling his parents that he doped, but also a moment that just gave me goosebumps where he talks about the pride he had in handing back an Olympic gold medal and how that was a prouder moment than winning the Olympic gold medal. It was crazy stuff. I've spoken with Jani Brackovich as he talked about winning stages up up the west against Alberto Contador while simultaneously battling and eating disorder and making himself sick in the bathroom all during these races. I've talked with Sven Tuft about wearing the maglia rose, how important that was for his career but also this dichotomy that he's a cyclist first and foremost in a very controlled environment but what he really loves is the wilderness, he loves the wild so we talked him around tips, techniques and strategies to live ancestrally and get back in touch with nature and my solo episode on the importance of the group ride is a massive fan favourite. Folks please take one second to subscribe to the show over on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. I personally read every single review that's left over there and that always puts such a big smile on my face. Thank you so much for checking out the show, thank you for subscribing, leaving a review and sharing it with friends in WhatsApp groups, club mates, training partners. And now it's time folks to go outside, ride your bike and become a roadman. Welcome to the roadman cycling podcast. You