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Ever wondered what life is like as a professional cyclist? Australian ex-professional cyclist Mitch Docker takes you inside the world of Professional Cycling. Bringing you the stories behind the individuals in the sport - from the pros in the peloton to staff behind the teams - to commentators & legends, plus training insights & debriefs on major races throughout the year. It’s all here! Newly retired from the professional peloton, Mitch is exploring his new pelotons - all the pelotons that exist outside of the world tour - bringing you new stories from within the cycling community. His spin off series, Talking Luft - a bit like the DVD Extras - is where cycling style & culture takes centre stage. Talking cycling caps, bikes, kit, coffee stops, training loops and all the best things about riding a bike. Listen to all episodes here weekly! Find all our episodes, merch and more at lifeinthepeloton.com
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Talking Luft! With Niki Terpstra
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
This week, I’m Talking Luft with the great Dutchman himself, Niki Terpstra.
He’s one of the most successful classics riders of our time and a proper one-day racing legend - he’s won just about everything there is to win up north, from E3 Harelbeke to Dwars door Vlaanderen (twice), and of course his epic solo victories at Paris-Roubaix in 2014, and Tour of Flanders in 2018, where he became the first Dutchman to win the great race since Adri van der Poel in 1986.
He’s a two-time Olympian, a 6-day champ, a World Championship silver medallist on the track, and he rode for some of Europe’s biggest teams from Milram to QuickStep and Direct Energie. He retired at the end of the 2022 season, but when you were racing Niki Terpstra, you always had to be on your game. You never knew what he would pull out of his hat, and if he went away up the road, chances are you wouldn’t see him again.
But today, he’s getting the full Talking Luft treatment – the usuals like casquette style, World Champ rainbow style, and favourite cheat meals (tiramisu – nice). We talk all things retirement and the inevitable question – do you miss it? It’s something I’m hearing more and more from us recently retired pros, but the level of racing has jumped up so much in recent years that very few people seem to miss being out there, taking risks, suffering, amongst the carnage – and Niki is no exception.
It was a pleasure to sit down and chat with Niki Terpstra, and I hope you enjoy listening to this episode of Talking Luft!
Cheers,
Mitch
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
My Everesting
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by Rapha
Would you ride up and down a mountain all day in an attempt to reach the virtual height of Mt Everest? I didn’t think it was for me either, but I decided it was a trend I needed to try for myself! If you haven’t heard of Everesting, come along as I make my attempt to reach the lofty heights of the majestic Everest, with a day riding the slopes of Mt Macedon.
At first glance, it might sound crazy, but the idea behind this episode was to get to understand what the trend is all about, and why so many people have jumped on board with it. Everesting evolved during the pandemic to become a challenge that pros were taking on, and I was introduced to it during that time – it was all about speed, and how fast could you do it, and that really deterred me. To be quite honest, riding up and down a mountain all day just seemed boring and unnecessary, and didn’t appeal to me at all.
But it was a conversation with Andy Van Bergen earlier this year that changed all of this and piqued my interest in trying it for myself. Andy told me the story behind the event and the background to the idea – and I really liked it. As we talked, it occurred to me that the whole thing is just another way to challenge yourself. It’s a challenge that anyone can take on, in their own way – you can do it from your own backyard or your lounge room if you like. And
as you might know, that’s something that I love to explore and to encourage others to get involved in.
Getting Andy’s perspective on it was key for me to understand what it’s all about, to learn all the tricks that go along with it, and to work out if it’s something that I would love or hate. I also chatted with Lachy Morton to get a different perspective – he’s coming from the other end of the spectrum, the elite level, where he’s trying to go for the record. From there, I decided to put together all that knowledge, and make my own Everesting attempt, and to take the listeners along on the journey, so you can form your own opinion about whether it’s something you want to tackle for yourself.
I hope you enjoy the listen and get inspired to take on some new challenges for yourself!
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
The Race Communique - La Vuelta a España edition
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by Rapha
We’re back with the third installment of The Race Communique – where we get back to our roots chatting in depth about what’s happening in the pro peloton. This week we’ve got the whole gang back together, with Luke Durbridge, and Tom Southam, both joining me on the pod.
I couldn’t wait for this opportunity to really pick apart all the happenings of the Vuelta – and there was a lot to unpack. Of course, the incredible performance by Sepp Kuss, but also the drama surrounding Jumbo’s dominance and team leadership. When has a team last finished top three in a Grand Tour?! We take a deep dive chatting about Jumbo Visma and their incredible dominance this season – winning all three Grand Tours in the same year with different riders, which is virtually unheard of. I get a DS and rider perspective on whether Jumbo made the right call in how they supported Sepp and talk about some of the weirder optics we saw playing out on the road as the team tussled with the decision over ultimate leadership.
And on the flipside some underperformances at the Vuelta – what happened to Remco, it wasn’t a terrible performance by any means, but it wasn’t up to expectations - so was it pressure or was it form in the third week? Beyond the Vuelta, we also cover some of the latest advancements in the world of aerodynamics and chat about some of the strange aspects of team culture that play out during transfer season.
So, sit back and enjoy this insight into the pro peloton and the world’s biggest races on The Race Communique!
Cheers,
Mitch
Wednesday Sep 13, 2023
Sepp Kuss - More Than a Super Domestique
Wednesday Sep 13, 2023
Wednesday Sep 13, 2023
Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by Rapha
It’s great timing to have this guy on the pod, he is the man of the moment and has been dominating the Vuelta a Espana – I’m talking of course about Sepp Kuss.
I was so excited to get Sepp on the pod to learn a bit more about this enigmatic American rider and hear the backstory of his meteoric rise to the top ranks of the World Tour. He’s something of an anomaly in the pro peloton, having tread a very different route to the top of the sport. He came through the junior ranks as a mountain biker, having grown up in the remote, mountainous city of Durango Colorado, which is known for its incredible trails and vibrant mountain biking community. On moving to Boulder to study at university, he discovered road cycling and started racing on the American circuit.
During his early days of racing, when he was just starting to capture the attention of American teams, it was a meeting with Jumbo-Visma DS Grischa Niermann that catapulted Kuss from a relatively unknown, new on the scene young American talent, to European pro, and one of the most sought-after domestiques in the sport - and more recently, bona fide Grand Tour contender.
He’s part of a new generation of incredible American talent coming through the ranks, which is so exciting to watch, and we delve into some of this to see what the cycling landscape is like in the US currently in the post-Lance era, and where the future of the sport is headed. We also chatted about the pressures that come with being a Grand Tour contender, and whether he feels the pull to ride as a GC contender himself. We talked about what it’s like being the main support to these superstar riders, as well as the personalities and quirks among some of the sport’s biggest names that Sepp has ridden for.
I hope you enjoy the listen!
Cheers,
Mitch
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
Talking Luft! With Andy White aka FYXO
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
Talking Luft is back, and I'm chatting with my friend Andy White aka FYXO, to put him through the full Talking Luft treatment!
Last week on Life in the Peloton I sat down with FYXO to talk about a whole range of fascinating things, from what it's like to work as a bike messenger, to the underground subculture of alley-cat racing, and all things fixed gear riding - plus a whole lot more. It was a super fun episode and I loved getting to know more about one of the more niche ‘pelotons’ out there. If you haven’t listened to it, head over and check it out.
But today, we’re on the Talking Luft program! You know the drill by now – I put FYXO through his paces with a little quiz, I tried to squeeze some extra fixie knowledge out of him, and he’s a bit of a style guru so it was a great chance to get a bit of a glimpse into what’s cool in the world of fixed gear bikes and alley cat racing.
I won’t spoil it for you but get ready to hear about FYXO’s love of the history and nostalgia of retro 90’s cycling– he’s a fan of the full Indurain casquette style, he loves a beanie, and he’s been known to be partial to a skin suit. I hope you have as much fun listening along as I had putting this one together!
Cheers,
Mitch
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Fixed Gear Riding with FYXO aka Andy White
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Wednesday Aug 30, 2023
Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by Rapha
We’ve finally got him on the pod – a spot that in his own words, he was born ready for, and I couldn’t be more excited to chat with my friend FYXO (aka Andy White), to take a deep dive into the fixie world. It morphs nicely into the trajectory that Life in the Peloton has taken this year, where I’ve been talking a lot about uncovering all the different pelotons out there, and this is one of the most niche pelotons of them all.
Andy and I go way back to our days racing the club scene in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, where he used to race on an old vintage steel bike. He spent time as a bike courier in London, where he worked during the ‘heyday’ of the profession – where businesses would courier documents around the city in the same way we now send an email. It was a bit of an unexpectedly cool, cult profession at the time, that came with a bit of street cred. It was also from within the world of bike couriers that alley cat racing kicked off – which is an underground subculture of unstructured night races around the city, usually starting from the pub after a few pints.
He has dabbled in all aspects of fixie riding since settling back in Melbourne, most notably setting up his brand FYXO, which was all about bringing fixed gear bikes into the country during the boom in fixie riding that happened a few years back and documenting his adventures around the world riding alley cat races. It’s fascinating to hear about how Andy became immersed in this world and raced the alley cats in the cities of London and New York, before eventually bringing alley cat racing Down Under, and typically in his own unique way - in a style that he calls alley cats for the masses. The largest of these is the Melburn - Roobaix, which is now in its 16th year and has become synonymous with fixed-gear riding in Melbourne. It combines many of the different subcultures of cycling and the result is a fun, epic day of cycling, and something that I love being part of.
I hope you enjoy listening and learning more about the intriguing world of fixie riding!
Cheers,
Mitch
Wednesday Aug 23, 2023
The Race Communique - Episode 2
Wednesday Aug 23, 2023
Wednesday Aug 23, 2023
Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by Rapha
It’s just me and my old mate Luke Durbridge this week, with Tom Southam out on the road at the Vuelta a Burgos, but we’ve got plenty to get through on this edition of The Race Communique.
It’s a bit of a tricky part of the year – it has been a long season and the hype and glory of the biggest races have subsided following the TDF and the World’s, it’s the summer holiday month of August in Europe which lends itself well to lying around on the beach and relaxing, but there’s still plenty of races on the calendar and you need to keep your head switched on.
We recap the incredible ‘Super World’s’ with all the action from the road, track, and the spectacle of having all disciplines of cycling together in one giant festival. We really dig into the incredible World’s Road Race – epically long at over 270km, a 57-minute stoppage due to protesters, and the 48-plus corner circuit around the streets of downtown Glasgow with the atmosphere and the unbelievably high level of racing – there was a lot to unpack.
And we chat about the lead into the upcoming Vuelta a España, with a look at the course and some predictions about the types of epic battles we can expect when it hits the slopes of the Tourmalet and l’Angliru.
So, sit back and enjoy this insight into the pro peloton and the world’s biggest races on The Race Communique!
Cheers,
Mitch
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Understanding Nutrition with Will Girling
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
It’s hard to find someone more knowledgeable about sports nutrition than Will Girling – he has been a nutritionist at all levels of the professional cycling world, from Continental to pro-Continental, up to World Tour level, and he’s been the nutritionist at EF Education-Easy Post for the past several years, where we first crossed paths. He also holds a Master of Sports Nutrition and is currently working towards a Doctorate – in short, he knows his stuff.
So while he knows top-level nutrition as well as anyone out there, what I mostly wanted to talk to Will about was how amateur and weekend warrior cyclists should approach their nutrition, to prepare for racing and maintain optimal nutrition in general, and how they should approach recovery nutrition - since they need to get themselves back to work on Monday morning following an event, rather than having time at home to recover like the pros. Will has some fascinating insights and learnings that he applies from the pro level back to the everyday cyclist (and athlete), as well as heaps of personal experience of his own preparing for and doing the ultra-distance bike-packing expeditions around Europe that he loves.
Turns out there’s a bit more to it than just carb-loading the day before the event, so sit back and enjoy the listen and I hope you get a few tips for your next race!
Cheers,
Mitch
Wednesday Aug 09, 2023
Talking Luft! Tour de France History Edition
Wednesday Aug 09, 2023
Wednesday Aug 09, 2023
This week on Talking Luft we’re taking one last look back at the 2023 TDF, where I took my History of the Tour de France quiz to the masses! Or better put, to a whole bunch of current pros and DS’s that I managed to pull aside for a chat on the roadside of the Tour, to put them through their paces - including Caleb Ewan, Mat Hayman, Ian Stannard, Jai Hindley, Luke Durbridge, and Neilson Powless, among others.
It required a bit of specialist TDF knowledge, and a bit of historical insight, plus a few just for fun, like whose legs would you want in this year’s TDF, would you go full polka dot with the KOM jersey, which is the hardest of the Grand Tours, what does ASO stand for, and can you name the five winners of five or more Tours?
I’ve gotta say, some of the efforts were a bit woeful, and a couple were a little bit controversial, but we had plenty of laughs and I hope you enjoy listening along!
Cheers,
Mitch
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Maghalie Rochette - The Cycle
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by Rapha
I’ve got something a bit different for you on the pod this week, but it’s a fascinating topic and one that has really gained traction in women’s sport over the past few years.
I’m chatting to Maghalie Rochette - she’s a Canadian cyclo cross rider and mountain biker, she came to the sport from a background in running and triathlon, and she also has her own successful podcast called Fever Talk. But what sets Maghalie apart is that she is known for talking openly about racing as a female and all the struggles that come along with that. On her pod she launched a super successful series where she goes into depth about the challenges for women racing during their menstrual cycle, and in doing so she has created a whole platform where people feel comfortable talking about this topic that was previously something of a taboo.
It’s so refreshing to hear how open she is about it, and fascinating to hear how she has used the science to figure out that not only is it something that does not have to hold you back, but it’s something that can actually make you stronger. We are so aware of the difference between men and women in the professional sense – the prize money, the racing, the equality and the wage gap, but it’s interesting to hear about the physiological differences. And it’s refreshing to hear Maghalie’s take, that racing as a female doesn’t necessarily mean it is harder – it just means it’s important to understand your body so that you can turn it into an advantage.
It brings up some interesting questions that are relevant to both male and female athletes on how we can use science to understand our bodies better, and in the process learn how to get the most out of ourselves during training and racing, to learn to listen to your body, and how to find the balance between performance and wellbeing.
I hope you enjoy the listen!
Cheers,
Mitch