“Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart”. This isn’t a line from a poem about the amount of work a rider puts into making the Tour de France ruining the romance of it, but it could be. The race did predate WB Yeats’ Easter, 1916 by over a decade, but that poem is about rather less trivial matters than a bike race.
Still, too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. The sacrifices that the 184 riders at this year’s Tour made just to get to the start line are innumerable, and would seem alien to most of the fans watching the bike race. As the race gets faster and harder, more is needed just to get to the base level for the whole peloton, not just for those who are aiming for the yellow jersey.
Days at altitude are increasing, and even if riders aren’t racing, they’re away training. While a weekend in a hotel here and there might be a treat, to be living out of a suitcase for weeks feels less appetising, especially as riders almost never have agency over which hotel they stay in. It’s rarely The Ritz.
“My whole life’s a sacrifice in some ways,” George Bennett of NSN Cycling explains to Cycling Weekly. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it, because you love what you’re doing, and it’s a super exciting process, but since January, we’re living in this bubble of sleeping in altitude generators, I’ve done eight weeks without seeing my partner. It’s not what I have to do, it’s more what I don’t do. I don’t go for a beer with the boys, because I’m worried about getting sick.
“All these things you really lock down on before the Tour, I think I’m not alone in that. The whole peloton makes these sacrifices. We do a lot of things that are really hard, but it’s more about what we don’t do.”
Another day, another hotel
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Being away from home is a recurring theme when asking riders about the sacrifices they make to be a professional bike rider at this level. Those who are younger might enjoy the thrill of adventure, but as they grow older, different commitments cause more pain.
“It’s the things out there that people don’t really see,” Picnic PostNL’s John Degenkolb says. “The family, especially, has to make sacrifices for you not being there for many, many weeks you’re not there. You cannot just be like a normal father at home. It’s a period of time in your life that is limited, so if you don’t make those sacrifices, then you’re not competitive. It’s the price you have to pay in the end.”
Tomš Skujiņš of Lidl-Trek echoes this: “I wouldn’t call them sacrifices, they’re just choices. Spending a lot of time away from the family is probably one of the biggest ones now, as I have a young family with two daughters.
“This spring I was home for a very long time which was nice, because I was super sick, which obviously is not nice, but good side, down side. Since the beginning of May, I have slept in my house less than 10 times, and we’ll be at the end of July now.”
To be exact, Dylan van Baarle of Soudal Quick-Step has counted: “Since 20 May I have been home for four days, I think that says enough.”
Of course, it isn’t just the time away which would seem alien to us about the life of a pro rider. “Saying no to some of my favourite foods is another one [sacrifice], and my favourite drinks, is another,” Skujiņš explains. “Heat training is something I don’t enjoy and people would find crazy. After a hard day already, riding indoors, dressed in more than you would outside is something that seems quite silly.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“In general, it’s just about dialling everything up a little bit before the Tour,” stage winner Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) tells CW. “Before the Tour, you need to be in your own bubble, you can’t do anything you would normally do off the bike. Be a bit more focused on nutrition and recovery. With the altitude camps, I was pretty strict on myself to get to the best shape possible.”
Altitude camps are a common theme when riders are asked about the stark choices they have to make, but being a pro cyclist does just seem sometimes like a life stripped of a lot of fun.
“My birthday was at an altitude camp,” Pinarello Q36.5’s Fred Wright says. “I’ve obviously missed the World Cup, and the heat in the UK at the moment. It would be so nice to be in a pub just enjoying the games. We get to watch them, but it’s not the same as being in the UK in the summer. I guess just less time with my girlfriend, too, it’s not just these four weeks. It’s commitment to an altitude camp, the build up races beforehand.
“We’re close to the finish line now. It starts a lot further back than the first day of the Tour. It’s such a weird bubble that we live in. There’s a lot of weighing of food, which to a normal person, would be considered quite toxic. It’s part of our job, so you get quite used to it.”
It isn’t always this bad, especially if you’re not a GC rider. Schmid explains: “I try to really enjoy the winter and when I’m training in November, December I try to have a good time off the bike, because I know how many sacrifices I will have to make in the summer, so I really try to recharge, and enjoy the time at home.
“For us, it gets normal that during the year you’re so dialled in, going from race to race. It’s a lot of unpacking, and moving onto the next thing.”
Next time you watch the Tour, and you’re supporting or cursing your favourite rider, make sure to think about the amount of work that has gone into getting to this point. Even the rider who finishes last will have sacrificed a whole part of their life to reach here. Just hope their heart hasn’t completely turned to stone.
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