 I'm curious to understand, I know from my experience to seeing Kamakim at Inform running a cycling team, it's a massive job. So I'm just keen to understand why you do it, why you're passionate about it. So I've been sniffing about the local area. I know there's only so many videos that I can do of me riding around Nusa before you guys get the shit, so it's time to mix it up. And there's a, I guess it's a new local emerging cycling team out of the Sunshine Coast. And this morning we're going to go riding with the managing director of that cycling team. We're going to go head out to the Sunshine Coast University and I'll explain why shortly. But this individual who manages the team, he's also a very well regarded legend of the track and is also a cycling coach. So very excited to share this video with you today. Okay, so I'm here with Ben Kirsten. He's a legend of the Aussie track scene, 30 national titles. He won a gold medal in the Comm Games. And now he's actually, well, got into cycle coaching with the New South Wales Institute of Sport. Yep, yep. And now he's a managing director of the Australian Cycling Academy. So we're heading out to the uni today. I'll talk to you shortly about why. But Ben, can you just tell us a little bit about what is ACA? ACA, Australian Cycling Academy. It's a tertiary aligned program up at the University of Sunshine Coast and we're sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Council. So we've got lots of assets to drive, sort of economic impact with training camps and training programs all for the region and to drive people to come here, this beautiful area on their bikes. One of our biggest assets is our men's continental race team, which has been very successful and all of this is under a year old. Yeah. And we're just talking before, one of your riders just won the Aussie men's title, Michael Freberg. So just can you talk us through that? Was that expected, Michael Freberg from your team to win the Aussie men's title, road titles? Yeah, look, Freebie is a freak. I rode with him on my last year on the road in the same team and I've known him ever since and he told us when we're looking to sign him, he said, I'm going to win road nationalism. He said, well, give us a look at today's plan and we're like, okay, you might. So yeah, we brought him on as a really good mentor role and to guide the other guys as an ex world champion. But he specifically said, you know, three months out, I'm going to win this and if I don't, I'll come very close. So we supported him as best we could and he turned up and he beat the best riders in Australia and some really big teams and it's a phenomenal effort from him and really good for the team, obviously. So I'm a label. And today we're heading out to the Sunshine Coast University. So what's out there for you guys? That's our hub. That's all their infrastructure is there. They built us a service course. We've got a big office there and all the high performance training facilities are there and the staff, the riders are based there. They go to school there, uni there and they do all their training there. So this is where all the action is. So Ben, before you show us around here at Sunshine Coast Uni and your facilities, I'm curious to understand, I know from my experience to seeing Camakim at Inform, running a cycling team, it's a massive job. So I'm just keen to understand why you do it, why you're passionate about it. Yeah, as you said, running the team, it's a big enough job as it is. But I think I wouldn't be passionate just about running a bike team. I wanted to do a little bit more and in terms of the riders development and all the things that I felt were missing in the pathways in Australia for developing cyclists and that was education and mentoring and more relation to sort of high performance development. So what we could do for them, there were all the add-ons besides just providing a racing environment or a race team and a bike for them. So what we've created here at the Australian Cycling Academy is all of those things that we really wanted to do different and I guess it really stems from the two things, the tertiary alignment and the high performance alignment here at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Yeah, it definitely wasn't around when I was going through those pathways and yeah, it wasn't really offered or supported and I've just seen the real negative impact of that riders when they eventually have to retire or forced to retire, they have no idea what they're going to do. It just was really unnecessary and unfortunately in the last few years, a lot of our friends have sort of committed suicide and passed away and I think a lot of that just stem from those development years in their cycling and all of cyclists actually that have done this and it's just a scary number and it's not okay and I think if we can do more in their development and give them more opportunities in life besides cycling, I think we can try and reduce that risk. Yeah, that's awesome. So can you show us? Yeah. So this is a... So normally there's a lot more bikes in here, isn't there? Yeah, it's our service course. It's normally a lot cleaner and a lot full of bikes but we've just received... Wow, look at that thing over there. So I'm immediately drawn to the attractive looking road bike, that Ridley. So you ride Ridley? Yeah, we do ride Ridley, we're very fortunate to be supported by them and FB Sports who distribute them in Australia. They've been rather known as all you... Yeah, we're on Noah's, that's a Noah Fast. They weren't ready, they've just come out. So they weren't ready in time for Nationals. So fortunately for me, only staff got a couple of test ones but they weren't enough for the riders. So their last year's bikes, which the same model, which is the Noah SL, they're obviously good enough. We just won the national title with Michael Freberg. So they're on those this year. So Freberg was on the Noah, was he? Yeah, he was on the Noah SL, not the Noah Fast. So we'll keep that up our sleeves next time. Yeah, cool. So what actually goes on in here? Outside of obviously storing a lot of bikes that are not here at the moment. Yep. So our mechanic sort of works here through the day, building stuff up. We've got some higher bikes that we have, some here, some out. What are the high bikes for? For hiring out to the public. Just the public? Yeah, yeah. I think you had a lot of it. Yeah, yeah, we do high bikes. It's a bit of a silly question, what's a high bike for? We're like in years. We thought it was always a good... Cause you always got leftover bikes from the year before. You're trying to sell and that sort of thing and yeah, we wanted to be able to offer something to the community. And I think higher race bikes was there and we do training camps and training programs. So they all sort of fit well together, come for a camp, get a bike, get a training program and all done here at the university with our high performance staff. So that's all tip top. And you've got some other facilities. So this is obviously where you do all the bikes. What about, what do the riders get access to? We get access to everything. So there's a gym over here. We'll go have a look at later. It's hot and cold, plunge pools we can look at. There's a swimming pool here. Can we have a, oh no, wouldn't mind going. Yeah. A fun pool up to this morning, right? Let's go fire it up, it's so sweaty. And then all the labs and everything are over here on the other campus that we have access to. What's all the labs? Those biomechanics and all the testing facilities. So yeah. So yeah. Should we go check it out? Yeah. Got to do some filming. Is that all right? Yeah. So Ben, just in the gym here. So how do the riders use the facilities here? And who rides their programs? Yeah, so the high-performance staff at the uni, strength and conditioning staff, they ride all the programs. So your riders have access to the full-blown strength and conditioning coaches? Yeah, yeah. So besides the odd five, six staff, we have at the ACA, we've got another 10 or so that we have access to here. So we've got psychology and biomechanics and strength and conditioning, nutrition, et cetera. So yeah, it's a mini-institute of sport. Yeah. Yeah, it's quite big. Yeah. And it's super cool. And then everything they've got is individualized and all their training sessions are run by the staff. And so yeah, we're not down here doing sit-ups with them. We're upstairs doing some planning. So it's all good. How often are the riders in the gym, Michael? We've got them in three times a week. Three times a week? So yeah, we do a lot of touch time with the riders every day. So they're either staff are riding with them or they're here at the gym or at the Ergo or doing Zwift sessions. So yeah, it's pretty cool. What are they doing, like beach weights or full-blown strength? It's all biceps, all biceps. Or are they doing a lot of legs and core? We do live up in the Sunshine Coast. They need really good bicep and ab combo. No, but yeah, people just think because you do a row, you don't need to do gym, but especially coming from the Institute of Sport, where I was sort of developed as a coach to just see how important it is for endurance athletes to have symmetrical strength and good activation and good core and all of that. So it's mostly core, to be honest, but a lot of symmetry and single leg stuff. So yeah. You would have spent a lot of time in places like this in your career? Yeah, too much. Brings back bad memories. I think we should be talking. Yeah. Oh, locked. So they're like chambers, are they? What is that over there? Yeah, it's the plunge pools. Yeah, right. So how do you use these? Oh, they just use them for recovery. So hot and cold or just cold, usually. So after big sessions, they like to do it. So I don't know, there's a lot of study in behind it. Some people still aren't 100%, but at the moment they're in your career? Yeah, I used to use it a lot. So back when I was riding in the dark ages, it was the latest thing out. And I just found it really good. Like you do a massive ride or a massive gym session and you jump into ice bath and you're sort of going home and your legs actually feel like they're recovered. So if it's nothing more than that, at least that's good because yeah, there was a lot of swelling and tearing and stuff that you do to your legs, especially in the gym. And the ice baths were great. And the hot and cold, getting the blood moving around and circulating again and getting all the bad stuff out of your legs tend to work quite well. But I think jumping in an ice bath was brilliant after a hard session. Yeah, okay. So did they do it after just gym or also if they've gone out and done a massive ride? A bit of both. And leading into competition as well, we'd like to try and do it after everything. Yeah, just keep them recovered, especially up here on the coast. Yeah. With the heat, the sort of the training keeps on draining when you get home. Yeah. It's kind of slow your metabolism down. So I think getting them in here and getting them in the ice baths is being quite good. Yeah, cool. Yeah. And I think they want to add one more sport in the future. Thank you. You've still got those big truck thighs and hips there. Can't get rid of them. Especially when you're fat. They just keep multiplying. Yeah, so this is our new office. So they gave us a bigger office recently. So the USC's been really good to us here and I don't think you could get much of a better view. Yeah, that's fantastic. And we've just started hanging stuff up. So we've got some posters. We've got some photos we need to hang up on the wall. What are the goals for the team this year? What are you trying to get out of 2019? Yeah, look, we had a massive year last year. 54 wins, 96 podiums in 10 countries. So in 12 months, so it was epic. That's in your first year. In 12 months, yeah, straight off the bat. So obviously really helped having the track guys in the team, the national and Olympic track guys. So they certainly tallied up a lot of those wins. But for us this year, I was like, we've relocated four more kids here at Sunshine Coast to go to uni here at USC. So we'll have 11 people studying at USC next year. So it's nearly, every rider bar the guys in Adelaide, the national guys will be going to university. And then two of those aren't doing it here. So pretty much the whole team is going to uni here. So it's pretty awesome. And they moved here and relocated and they train here every day in all facilities. So I'm saying that the biggest thing for us would be to really improve on that daily training environment for those guys and integrating the psychology and the career mentoring and having daily touch time with them in the gym or in the labs and all of that. So yeah, I'll chop off a few wins if we can to make sure that we're here having these epic training days with all of these guys and really making a difference there. Yeah, right. And what about longer term? So obviously now you're setting the foundations of the team and what you're creating. What are you trying to do over the next five, 10? Was it just building on what you're creating right now? Yeah, I think we just really want to nail this all of it. Not just the racing bit, but really have some big wins. So yeah, have a bunch of guys turning pro every year and then bunch of guys finishing uni every year. Some guys going into the workforce, you know, and all of them being happy. Yeah. And not, you know, living off the skin of their ass. So we're trying to, we're trying to get them some work and employment here as well. So there's all these little things that the uni's providing so that going and doing public speaking and stuff like that. So the more of that we can add to it. I think the better for them. And then longterm, I think, yeah, we have plans to go sort of, you know, pro-continental or something like that. So, yeah, we'll see how it all goes. That's awesome. Thanks for showing us around today. Really appreciate it. Coffee shop's just opened up downstairs, so. Here we go. Shall we go? Thanks, mate. Appreciate your time today. Yeah. Gotta shake my hand now though. Oh. Thanks, mate. You're welcome. So to wrap up this video, I'm around the corner for my favorite cafe here in Coulomb. They do raw organic food and they do these Snickers pancakes, which are unbelievable. I'll show them to you in a second. I don't know about you, but listening to Ben Kirsten talk today about the ACA, his philosophy, what they're trying to achieve there, really synergizes with the way I personally look at bike riding. You know, it's not just about racing and winning events and all that kind of stuff. That stuff's obviously pretty important, but it's also about, you know, using cycling as a centerpiece to cultivate a group of people in a positive way. And I'm really eager to, you know, we've only just scratched the surface today, go further behind the scenes with ACA. They're actually hoping to get me down to the tour, the sun tour, so I can share some behind the scenes with you there. But I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you the audience, what are your thoughts? Do you want to see more of this type of content with ACA, learning more about their riders, what they're trying to achieve, et cetera? I'll be really keen tonight below. Gonna eat my Snickers pancake and I'll catch you all in the next video.