RIDER'S BLOCK
Stress can paralyse many riders when the desire to avoid disappointment – whatever shape it takes – becomes overwhelming. With mortgages to pay and mouths to feed, it’s clear why. But in perversely counterintuitive fashion, this stressful remit can also include fearing success.
Several years ago, I covered the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne weekender. As chance would have it, I ended up staying at the same hotel in Kortrijk as Team Sky, as the Ineos Grenadiers were then. The hotel was the British team’s annual Belgian home, their base for the whole classics season. They knew the staff by name, slept well above the quiet streets and it was a short transfer to the races. Though there were many races, spread over an even longer period than a grand tour, the hotel was as close to a home from home as the team could get. This all fashioned an easy, calm, almost Zen-like atmosphere, at odds with the intensity of Sky’s grand tour set-up, and resulted in a fascinating, flowing chat with Sir Dave Brailsford where he talked about the pressures associated with maintaining success. He then threw in a curveball – that some riders become fearful of success; that the repercussions of victory become self-defeating and can lead to self-sabotage.
"You want the fortune, the glory, but that brings with it expectation and pressure, which becomes crippling. You almost fear what happens if you’re successful"
DR JIM TAYLOR
“He was
