Hello again all – since La Vuelta things were going well; a good block of training and a successful Tour of Britain for me and the team. The only issue being a crash that caused concussion for myself on Stage 3. Despite it only (seemingly) being a small hit, the symptoms have been ongoing and 2 months later I’m still not back unfortunately. We don’t know when I will be 100% symptom-free just yet, but doing what I can to recover as quickly as possible. Ah life sucks sometimes.
But I’ve been trying to stay positive and keep busy while I’ve been home-bound. One activity has been embracing my inner-numbers-geek and creating a questionnaire which some of you may have filled out (as polls on my Instagram stories). I have separated the results into 2 categories: Cyclists and Non-cyclists (cyclists being full or part time professional athletes). The idea being to give some sort of comparison between the two, and wonder why differences might occur (the evaluation is subjective and just my own opinion):
Question 1: Which cycling event would you most like to win?
We see quite clearly here that over half of the cyclists went for the World Championships. In the cycling world I would agree, and say it is the most coveted jersey for sure, those rainbow bands are a rare and unique thing for our sport. I think for the general public the TDF is the cycling event that everybody knows. We’ve had multiple winners from the UK so of course that sways the vote a lot based on popularity alone. But I think winning any of one of these three would be the career-defining moment for most cyclists.
Question 2: What is your pre-race / breakfast carb of choice?
This one surprised me a bit – I expected a bit more for bread on both sides! Again this is possibly telling of a UK-based audience, as I know a lot of my European colleagues are big fans of bread for a pre-race meal. But as you can see, cyclists love their rice. Low fibre and very high carb, it’s the most popular choice and what I go for when I can too. At first it felt a bit weird putting honey and banana on rice, but I tell you – it’s good! More mixed results from the general public, again as breakfasts perhaps don’t need to be quite so carby for day-to-day life, and so a bit more variety there.
Question 3: How many languages do you speak?
I am always a bit envious of all my teammates who can speak at least two languages – cycling is such an international sport and brings together people from all over the world. For English speakers though there is very little need to have a second language, as it’s known across most of the world anyway, which reflects in both charts. Still there are a few differences you can see, with cyclists generally being a bit more international and well-travelled than a lot of the (mostly) UK population.
Question 4: What kind of car driver are you?
Ah I had a suspicion this might be the case… cyclists, in my opinion, are usually pretty fast or confident drivers. It’s the same thing as being comfortable moving through a bunch, and having that thrill for speed! Also some more cyclists don’t drive, probably because we can ride everywhere. Over half of the general population said average speed which makes sense – most people are not often railing corners or taking racing lines on bikes like we nutters are used to doing.
Question 5: Do you prefer to be at home more or travel all the time?
Despite a large sample size, very even results across the board. I don’t think this has anything to do with cycling, I think it’s just the way different people are and what suits you best. I know lots of cyclists who love being on the road and many who are more home-bodies like myself.
Question 6: What coffee do you go for?
A milky coffee the most popular choice on both sides, but as expected some more black coffees for the cyclists. It’s often not about the taste, just the necessity for caffeine pre training / race! Interestingly a quarter of the non-cyclists don’t drink coffee. I don’t know exact reasons but perhaps to lower the amount of caffeine intake per day when it’s not necessarily needed.
Question 7: Do you enjoy your job?
Well it’s nice to see that most people do enjoy their job overall! Definitely a bit of difference with more of the non-cyclists voting for ‘it’s ok’ or ‘no’. I do stick to the theory that being a professional athlete is genuinely one of the best and luckiest jobs in the world. It’s hard of course, in other ways to a normal job, with pressure, injuries, funding etc… but it doesn’t last long so worth making the most of it.
Question 8: Do you / are you studying for a university degree?
A lot more non-cyclist have got degrees than cyclists as you can see. There is definitely not a right or wrong answer with this one. I myself don’t have a degree, but I do kind of wish I had had the time to study for one, so as to keep my options more open for after my cycling career. At the same time though I am happy with the path I am on and see where it leads me. You do need a degree for a lot of jobs, but don’t need one for just as many – being a cyclist for example.
Question 9: Your parents / older relatives are/were…?
Here we see that most people do not have parents for pro athletes, cyclists included. It perhaps helps a little if your parents are sporty, but that is still not a hindrance to being a professional athlete. This graph shows this well – there are probably some extremely good sporting genes hidden in a lot of people who are not into sport, and some people who enjoy sport but innately don’t have the most optimal genetic makeup to make it to the top.
Question 10: In what (other) sport would you be a professional in?
An open-ended question, but some clear results still. Running taking the large majority for both sides. Sports like Motorsport, Equestrian, Football and Triathlon popping up in both polls. Again this is not an accurate representation of the whole population, as my audience is generally cycling-based, but does tell us there is a lot of overlap with runners, cyclists and triathletes. (And a thank you to the tiddlywinks enthusiasts making a name for their sport…)
Of course there are reliability and accuracy issues with my questionnaire, for example most of my audience is from the UK, and most of a certain demographic, but still, we do come out with some interesting results which I hope you enjoyed looking through.
And so yes my planned summer of racing has been postponed. It’s a bitter pill to swallow – I was due to ride some of the biggest races of my career, but those dreams will have to wait a little for now, and I am motivated to be at my very best going into my next races when they come!
Thanks for reading!
Abi
