Svein: Great question. That’s one thing I see right, is a lot of the younger riders I work with, or mentor, they are so caught up in what the World Tour riders are doing, right? So they just see that as the only way, and I’m always trying, I’m over there in the corner kind of like, there’s different ways to go about this. And my number one thing I try and preach, and it’s always hard to like a younger person, that’s an older guy, even if you have a bit of experience in that world. But the number one thing I preach is that you have to love this more than anything. My point is always that it gets very hard. It’s a very difficult world to navigate and not only is the training and the day-to-day – like consistent workouts and all that stuff – difficult, but it’s all of the other things: Trying to figure out contracts and stress and living on another continent and a million other things that go with it. And I’m not sitting here saying, “Oh, that’s so hard,” but you’ve got to love this so much that none of that really bothers you. For myself, when I look back I’m like, well, what was that for me? It was just that I loved being on my bike every day, so becoming a bike racer was just kind of a side effect of that, right? I wanted to race bikes and anyone who races a bike and wins a bike race wants to keep doing it. I mean, it becomes very addictive. But at the base and the core of it all was that I just loved riding my bike, so for me it was very simple. I never saw that life as a stressor or I never saw it as like, oh, this is so hard and I’m sacrificing so much. And I hear professional riders say that now and I get it. Like, it’s hard. You know, anything at that level is hard, but when at the core and foundation of it is that you just love it so much, it’s not that hard, right? There will be hard days, of course, but most of the time it’s pretty awesome. I see in the younger people that they want it now. They want to be pro and they don’t know actually what that is. I’m just like, take your time, there’s no rush. Everyone’s under this idea that they have to be professional at the age of 18, signing these multi-year contracts, and if they’re not, they’re just a piece of garbage, you know. And I think that’s a horrible thing that’s been bred into cycling at this stage, right? A lot is getting lost in this drive for just the ultimate top performance and this generation will pay for that a bit. I see it already younger riders, just quitting, you know. Like, very good, very talented riders just like they have a World Tour contract, and they’re just like, “No, this is not for me.” Like, they’re burning out. If you’ve been doing the one-percenter since the age of 12, I’m sorry but you’re probably already cooked by the time you’re 20.

Gabriel: Yeah, washed up. That’s great advice. Here’s a fun one. So, as we discussed on the episode, you have recently co-written a book with Richard Abraham called, We Will Never Be Here Again. A listener pointed out that Richard Abraham is a very-well established sportswriter in the United Kingdom, which I wasn’t aware of. And one of the most unusual articles he ever wrote, which appeared in Rouleur magazine, was titled “Les Effaceurs,” about the workers who erase graffiti on the roads of the Tour de France.