OBEYING THE LORE
“You are a professional now, and this is your big chance – you must do everything you can to take it. Look after yourself, you must be the best you can be for the team, it’s your job.”
These were the welcoming words a cyclist received when joining their first big European pro team – a traditional introduction that went on for decades. The key message was: there are rules to follow.
A long list would be spooled off: things you should and shouldn’t do, things you could and couldn’t eat. It was handed down from champions, but was laced with old wives’ tales and occasionally an added pinch of science. Not following the rules risked being labelled ‘not serious’ and would cling to an under-performing pro like a nasty smell. The best got away with breaking them, the rest had no choice but to conform.
Looking back with the benefit of modern science, some of the rules appear quite ludicrous, but a few still have merit. For many of these edicts, what they lack in scientific rigour, they make up in psychological influence – a rule doesn’t have to be based on proven fact in order to be effective. So let’s reflect on the rules and beliefs by which pro cyclists navigated their trade until the Nineties – not unlike ‘The Knowledge’ used by London cabbies to navigate
