Financial Struggles in Amateur Racing

I came into the sport having heard many stories and watched a few documentaries telling of the tales of the lack of glory on the road to the top. Eating whatever you can afford, and sleeping on the floor at peoples houses because you can’t afford your own rent. Even at the pro level there wasn’t an abundance of money, especially compared to the NBA or NHL. Whether this is right or wrong, I came into the sport sort of expecting nothing to be given to me. I am finding in the amateur scene around here, many athletes seem to expect lots from their team and sponsors. Many of these athletes don’t even get top end results, so why do they think they deserve special treatment? Surely they have seen the same documentaries, and heard the same stories I have?

We are living in an age where people see what other people have, so they think they need all of that as well. Everyone wants top end bikes, clothing, race support and vehicles to get around in. All of this on top of not having to work to pay for it themselves. If you have personal sponsors such as family that are willing to help you with this, then don’t take it for granted. The sport is insanely expensive to try and move up in between race entries, travel and feeding those legs. You should enter with the mentality that you are going in with nothing, trying to spend the bare minimum (because that’s all you have), and anything you happen to get is extra and be very thankful for it. Now if you are top end cat 1 and winning races all the time, then sure you can start to ask for more from your sponsors.

The sport itself has become much more expensive. Compared to 20 years ago, the costs have gone up 5x, and the prize money has decreased by at least the same amount. This is partially due to rising insurance costs, and policing costs. It would be amazing if the government could figure out a way to cut the costs of police for special events, because it isn’t just bike racing that is suffering from this. On top of this we have a decrease in sponsorships from companies. This could be due to the recession, or all of the drug fallouts and companies not wanting to ruin their image. Cycling needs to find a good way to attract sponsors and keep them around because there is no other source of income. Unfortunately there are no ticket sales to spectators to keep things going like there are in other pro sports. Also it is sort of frowned upon for some reason to wear a pro team kit if you weren’t on the team (I do it anyway, think of all the kids on city rinks playing hockey in their Leafs jerseys!) so there isn’t much income from team merchandise.

In the end, people seem to want something for doing nothing but riding their bike. In this technological age, people think “why pay someone when I can figure out how to do it myself?”. And with social media, companies are easily able to advertise for themselves, so you have to ask yourself what more can you offer them that they couldn’t do themselves. At the end of the day sponsorship is payment for advertising of a product or service. Teams like Silber have been doing a great job promoting the products of their sponsors and it impacts all those people who are on the fence of choosing between two or more components. “If Ryan Roth can be so good with that POC helmet, then they must be good and I won’t regret spending that money on that”.  Basically, if you can find yourself a sponsor, do what you can to help them out so they feel it to be a worthwhile investment so you might have a backer for the following season.

Having myself not been at the top level, you might say I don’t know much about what is going on in the sponsorship end of things. That is totally correct, but this was mainly about the struggles seen in amateur racing, and to acknowledge many riders seem to want special treatment without giving back. Part of the blame can be passed to team directors, as they should make it obvious what they want from their riders, on and off the bikes, to ensure their sponsors are kept happy. There is lots of work to be done to get cycling back to the glory days of the 90’s, but at least acknowledging the issues is a good start to getting back on track. I think Oleg Tinkoff is doing a great job trying to get things working at the pro level, and we can all work together to get things working again on the amateur level.  

At this point I need to thank my parents for all of their help, without them I definitely wouldn’t have the funds to compete. Thank you for helping me do what I love!

My thoughts on weight training for cycling…

Let me first start by saying that I am not entirely sold that weight training helps a lot. There is a lot of work that you have to do in order to keep the strength gains for the season. I do think it is an amazing tool to stress your body a bit differently and develop some of those stabilizing muscles. This should help with injury prevention when you are putting in all of those hours when the warm weather returns. As a guy with small legs, I always come into the weight season with high hopes of developing some Chris Hoy style, monster legs. I just want to go through some thoughts on some of the major exercises people hit.

The dream. 

Squats:

This is everyone’s go-to. But why? For cyclists, their back is their weak point in this exercise, not their legs, so they won’t be doing much for building leg power. They might also injure themselves (see cyclists having a big egos and wanting to show off their leg power). On top of that, as far as specificity goes, it would then be great if you need to put out big power while sitting straight up. Perfect for those attacks in the feed zone while you are trying to eat. However, it is a great tool for building the glutes, but I think cyclists should stay light with high reps.

Deadlifts:

I love this one, the Romanian deadlift. Keep the legs mostly straight and just bend at the hips with your back straight. Great for building that pull-back strength in your pedal stroke. Wrist straps are for babies, and our grips aren’t that great with our tiny arms, so invest in some chalk if your gym allows it. If you want to work more glutes and stabilizing muscles, then turn this into a one legged deadlift. The additional benefit is you will be lifting lighter weight so it will be easier to hold. Also with less weight you are less likely to hurt your back.

Leg press:

This should be everyone’s go-to. You are bent in a position to mimic your position on the bike and you are just working on the feeling of smashing those pedals down. All of the stress is off of your back which allows you to maximally stress you leg muscles. I think there is footage somewhere of Chris Hoy doing 600+kg, yes kg, so the bar has been set. What do you got? With that he has many gold medals, so this must be the magic maker.

Leg extensions and curls:

Because why not? If you want to see muscle growth you need to tear those muscles apart. This is a bit safer way to do it than doing squats and deadlifts with high weights that could end up hurting you. Save these for the end and use them to give your legs a kiss goodbye.

Calf raises:

This is mainly for the ego. You can’t tell me in a group ride you don’t check out the person’s calves ahead of you. Then you question if yours look that chiseled. Make sure you are the one with the golden calves, and rock those raises!

Remember they look better with a clean shave!

Core and upper body:

These are for whatever looks you want to have during the part of the year where you are allowed to return to a ‘normal’ weight. On top of that, they are great for strengthening the bones which can help in injury prevention in the event that you crash. Core should be kept up year round, but the higher the weights you are doing in the free-weight department for your legs, the less core-specific work you need as the core gets a killer workout stabilizing you back in those exercises.

Don’t be afraid to question your weight routine and change it up. Also if you are new to weights, get a personal trainer to help you work on your form. Weights can help add some power, but they can also mess your body up if done poorly. My coach Jeff Kehler was able to help a lot with this while doing kettlebell workouts that past two winters. Alright this is the part of the season that you are allowed to have fun doing something else, so enjoy it! Now go to the gym and legally pump some iron!