Looking at the life of the pro rider from the fan perspective, it’s hard to imagine that there isn’t a load of fun to be had to make up for the hardships of the peloton. After all, the bit where you bundle into a bus with a group of your peers and travelling the world sounds closer to Cliff Richards’ ‘Summer Holiday’ than any kind of hard knock life.
But, as newly-retired Canadian pro Mike Woods points out in his latest blog entry, bike riders are far from immune to modern loneliness – even if they are rarely alone on the road. Bluetooth headphones connected to the usual devices are de rigeur, he says, resulting in the riders cocooning themselves in a one-person electro-shell. It’s a far cry, says Woods, from days of old – or, as they are otherwise known, the pre-internet age.
“Cycling, in the modern era, can often be a lonely sport,” he wrote. “If you go on the team bus of most WorldTour teams during a transfer, most riders, directors, and staff aren’t chatting. They have their Bose over-the-ear headphones on, their iPads, iPhones, or computers out, and Netflix is in abundance.
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“I remember talking to Juan Manuel Garate, my first WorldTour director… telling me that in the 90s, pre-smartphones, when he did his first Grand Tour, guys would come back to the hotel, throw their bags in the room, and then go check out what was going on in the town.