 In this video, Simon Clark, a professional road cyclist and road captain with EF Education First professional cycling team who was up in my local area of the Sunshine Coast recently promoting a cycling tour business he's got on the side called One More Right, I'll link to their details below. We'll be sharing with us in this video his expert opinion on why there's a high turnover in professional cycling and some of the fundamentals he tries to educate young riders on when they first integrate into the pro cycling peloton. Before we get into the discussion with Simon, a quick reminder that I'll be giving this road bike away, it's the Merida Sculpture of 4000, not this one in particular, but a brand new one, to a lucky subscriber a week before Christmas, so in about a month. So if you want to go into the draw to win this road bike, don't forget to subscribe below. And some of you, my channel supporters, might be wondering why I look like a 1980s porno star sporting this moustache. And the reason being it's Movember here in Australia at the moment, which is an annual event in November each year which started in Australia in 2003, but has now gone global, where men grow moes to raise funds and awareness for men's health all the way from prostate cancer to suicide prevention. Now the reason why I bring this up is not only is Movember a great initiative, but we've also done some work on this channel surrounding mental health. And a couple of weeks ago, a channel supporter reached out to me with a story that I wanted to quickly share with you now. And that is, it's about 12 months on this channel, I did a piece on a cycling team in Melbourne, they're a community team that's focused very much on mental health. And he watched that video and that was a trigger for him to finally go and have some proactive discussions surrounding the issues he'd been facing mentally. You see, before then he was a fit guy, he ate well, and he was an exercise, fixes everything kind of guy. But as it turns out, from his proactiveness, from the discussions that led him to a professional, despite being reluctant, he was put on some medication and 12 months later, so today he's still on that medication and he's feeling a hell of a lot better. And he is adamant that if it wasn't for his proactiveness and having those discussions, he probably wouldn't be here to tell the story. So the moral of this story is that it's 100% okay, not to feel okay, but it's 100% right to be proactive and have a discussion with somebody about how you're feeling. I'm going to put some contact numbers in the below video description area and let's get into this video. Relentless nature of the day after day? Definitely. There is a high turnover in cycling and it's probably something that's not really documented that much. But even this year, a couple of Aussies in my team from last year, contracts weren't renewed. And I think one of them maybe found another team and one of them had to just go and get a nine to five. It's a tough game. And for me, looking back on the success I've been able to have and my integration into pro cycling and into living in Europe, it's actually more important stabilizing everything you do off the bike. And if you get that right, the on-bike stuff just comes naturally. Because you're a good bike rider. Give me an example of what you're talking about. I'm just finding a good place to live that suits your lifestyle. Everyone might live in a particular town, but that town isn't necessarily good for you. You need to look at where you grow up and the lifestyle that you grew up and performed well living that lifestyle. And you need to try and replicate that when you move to Europe, I believe. And you need to keep everything as similar as possible. The reason you make it in cycling is because of what you did ride at home to get the results that you did to get that opportunity. So why change that? You need to try and replicate that. And that's where people come unstuck. They don't replicate what they did at home, the way they've trained, the diet they've had. They're not living at home, maybe cooked by their family or their mum or whatever who decides what they eat. And suddenly they're in a shopping aisle picking out the food and there's junk and magic noodles and food and there's two minute noodles and whatnot. And it's easy to make bad choices. And then suddenly, okay, that doesn't necessarily affect you overnight. But a whole season of doing that can Did that happen to you when you first moved or you've just seen it unfold with others? I was pretty lucky. I came over when I was super young when I was 16. And so I spent six years Why so young? You were on track originally. Yeah, I was doing track and then I got into the AIS when I was very young. So I managed to have an opportunity to go and live in Europe when I was still a teenager. And so I rode for six years in Europe as a junior and as an under 23 before I turned professional. And so a lot of those mistakes and the learning curve that I went through, I did before I was professional. So I didn't pay, maybe I did, I'm for sure I made some mistakes in that period. But there was less at stake because I wasn't a professional then. And once you turn professional every time you're up the contract, you have to perform. And if you don't perform, then they just get rid of you. And so if you're trying to go through that learning curve and trying to perform at professional level, so you've come from a national level, you've been scouted and they bring you to Europe. And now you need to perform at a higher level in a new lifestyle. And if you don't, then you won't get another job. It's a pretty it's a pretty hard task. And, you know, I don't look down on anyone who who doesn't make it. And actually, because I know how hard it is. And it's a tough game. And the off bike game is actually tougher, I believe, than the on bike game. Interesting. And if you can get that off bike game right, the on bike stuff comes naturally. So it's tricky. And, you know, doing it in the country where they don't speak English, you know, you got to learn a foreign language. You know, even things like, okay, maybe you knew a masseur in Melbourne, or at home, and you went and saw them once a week every week while you were home training. You might not, you might just not think of that when you move to Europe and go, well, you know, or you can't afford it or you're not willing to spend the little money that you're making on your new pro contract, you know, and you don't do those massages once a week like you did religiously when you're at home. And then suddenly, you're not recovering as well. And then you can't train as good. And then you're trying to race at a higher level than what you were racing before. And, you know, it's a bit of a ricochet effect. And then you go to race and kind of get copper hiding. And it's kind of, it's a downward spiral if you don't get on top of those kind of things. Absolutely. No sense. Yeah, I really, you know, as a kind of leader in the team, I really try and work with the young guys, work to these young guys and go, look, I always say to them, as soon as they come to the team, get your off bike life sorted, go to figure out where you're going to live, get a stable lifestyle and sort everything out so that you can replicate what you were doing at home while you live in Europe. Interesting. And have you seen it work well? I've seen it work well and I've seen it not work many times. Yeah. And it's not easy. And then at the end of the day, the hardest thing is when things don't go well, coming back from that. So guys might put on a bit of weight or have a couple of bad races and the team gets stuck into them and said, look, you're not performing. And instead of having a negative response to that, you need to go, right, well, I'm going to prove to them that I am a good rider and I'm going to come back at the next race. I'm going to get back to my race weight and I'm going to perform well. And a lot of people don't have that reaction. And it suddenly, you know, it just becomes this negative thing that the teams getting stuck into them because they're not performing. And then, you know, instead of trying to prove them wrong, they kind of just, you know, goes the other way. That's not. And then you live in another country and, you know, you don't have all your mates with you. And then, you know, you get a bit lonely. And, you know, it's tough. You need to like basically build a whole new lifestyle overseas. Yeah, you know, there's plenty of ups and downs in pro cycling. And, you know, there's not necessarily someone waiting for you at home when you come home from a race. And if it goes badly, you just sit in there and, you know, it can get the better of you. Oh, absolutely. So it's a tough lifestyle and you really have to embrace it and, and, you know, commit to it.