THINK LIKE A CHAMPION
MASTER THE MENTAL TRICKS OF PRO WINNERS
Pro cyclists share many psychological qualities: deep reserves of motivation, a laser-focused commitment to selfimprovement and a ferocious will to win. But what separates the great from the good is something much more subtle yet powerful: the ability to bounce back from soul-crushing disappointments and turn it into motivational rocket fuel.
It's a skill that Slovenian Primož Roglic – the number one cyclist in the
UCI world rankings - has mastered. The 31-year-old Team Jumbo-Visma rider endured a harrowing defeat at the Tour de France last year. Having led the race for 11 days, Roglic began the final time trial to La Planche des Belles Filles on stage 20 with a 57-second lead. But he lost the stage by almost two minutes to fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogaca.
The loss was so cruel that many observers wondered if Roglic would ever recover. The incident echoed that of Laurent Fignon, who lost the 1989 Tour to Greg LeMond by just eight seconds, after starting the final time trial 50 seconds ahead.
“I’d like to say to Roglic that we become stronger when we’ve lived through disappointments like that,” said Tour director Christian Prudhomme. “But, at the same time, Fignon never won the Tour again after 1989.”
DR VICTOR THOMPSON ‘‘ROGLI WAS ABLE TO TAKE WHAT EVERYONE THOUGHT WAS A COMPLETE CATASTROPHE AND JUST ABSORB IT’’
Roglic, however, stormed back to win his first Monument, Liège-BastogneLiège, just two weeks later, beating Pogacar on the line, no less. He then went on to retain his Vuelta a España title shortly after. Where others may have found darkness and despair, Roglic found renewed drive and determination.
This rare psychological gift is known to sports psychologists as ‘resilience’: the ability to adapt quickly and positively to any adversity, crisis, trauma or tragedy. Cycling can be beautiful and rewarding, but it can also be unfair and unpredictable, with the road to success pitted with injuries, crashes, punctures, defeats and disappointments. The most resilient riders learn how to navigate these dark days to come back stronger than ever.
For Team Jumbo-Visma coach Grischa Niermann, this incredible resilience is what makes Roglic so special. “It is impressive that he comes back so well from defeat,” he explains. “Of course, it’s not that it doesn’t do anything to him, but more that it makes him want to work even harder and go for it even more.”
Former Irish pro Sean Kelly - who will be commentating on the Tour for Eurosport ( eurosport.co.uk) this summer - is impressed by Roglic’s resilience. “I was commentating on the 2020 race and both I and Bradley Wiggins were shocked when we saw that time trial,” he recalls. “His helmet was all over the place, the blood was drained out of his face, and he looked in a bad way. That disappointment, after having such a beautiful Tour, was hard for him. But he bounced back amazingly well. He was able to get over it and put it behind him.”
Clinical sports psychologist Dr Victor Thompson ( sportspsychologist.com) says this is a quality all cyclists need. “Roglic was able to take what everyone thought was a complete catastrophe and just absorb it; that is important, for cyclists as well as for people just going to work each day,” he says. “We all know people who get hung up on missed opportunities in sport, relationships, or jobs. But Roglic is not defined by his past. He is always looking for the next chapter.”
EMOTIONAL EQUILIBRIUM
So what makes Roglic so resilient to setbacks? In an interview with L’Équipe, he declared: “Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. When you have done everything you can, you have to accept it.” To journalists, this sounds like platitudes. But to those close to Roglic, it’s an example of his emotional balance. Niermann says Roglic has an ice-cool approach: “At the Tour, when he dropped Pogacar on the Col de la Loze, I was pretty enthusiastic from the team car. But after Primož said: ‘Sorry, I took o# my ear piece as I had to concentrate.’ Emotions can motivate or disturb you. He likes to concentrate on the task.”
Kelly says this composure is the key to his resilience: “When he wins he doesn’t get overexcited and when he loses he doesn’t get too disappointed. Good athletes are like that.”
Dr Thompson says this emotional equilibrium helps Roglic to stay anchored during turbulent times.
“He was distraught after the time trial, but soon after he was able to congratulate Poga ar,” he recalls. “That ability to not have a complete meltdown is really impressive.”
Psychologists refer to the skill that allows you to consciously analyse and control your thoughts as ‘metacognition.’ Even soldiers now practise it: the Master Resilience Trainer (MRT) course, developed by the University of Pennsylvania, teaches US soldiers that knowing how to analyse and regulate your emotions can help to build resilience. Whether you’re a soldier or a cyclist, practising the management of your emotions can help you to keep your perspective in hard times and stop your thoughts spiralling out of control.
However, keeping your cool during life’s ups and downs doesn’t mean you can’t allow yourself a period of disappointment and self-reflection after a setback. Rogli may be a calm character but he admits that his Tour defeat left him tearful. But during this period of reflection, Rogli very calmly analysed his mistakes, in terms of his tactics, training, psychology, kit and performance. As he admitted earlier this year: “I appreciate being told when I’m
‘‘YOU CAN’T CHANGE CIRCUMSTANCES BUT YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR MIND. PRIMO IS VERY GOOD AT THAT” GRISCHA NIERMANN
wrong. I take it as a challenge to become better, to improve.”
Dr Thompson says we should always try to learn lessons from bad experiences: “‘Did I squeeze everything out of myself?’ ‘Did I prepare at my best?’ ‘What can I learn from it?’ Or is there nothing we can draw from it because it was just a freak incident?”
But this soul-searching should always have a positive conclusion about what to do next. Combined research by the Universities of Pennsylvania, Stanford and California found that athletes who focus on an optimistic explanatory response after a setback do better in their next performances than those who succumb to a more pessimistic analysis.
Rogli also wisely limited his reflection to a few days. “He analysed
the time trial data to see what he could learn from it, but if after half a year you still can’t train because you’re so down, that is a big problem,” says Niermann. “Primož has the ability to turn the switch quite fast.”
“Think of your time horizons,” advises Dr Thompson. “Where is your attention focused right now? If you’ve had a setback, and you’re still focused on that, it will define you. Do as decent an objective analysis as you can, then move on.”
FUEL FOR THE FIRE
But Roglic doesn’t just learn from bad experiences; he actively harnesses them as a fiery source of motivation. “When the Tour ended, I told myself that I had worked too hard, that I couldn’t stop there,” he revealed. “I wanted more.”
Research in the journal Psychologyin SportandExercise found that successful elite athletes tend to perceive bad situations as opportunities for growth. Approached with the right mindset, even failure can be a source of motivation. “Primož used his disappointment from the Tour to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Vuelta,” confirms Niermann. “He really thinks like this: the most you learn is when things go wrong. That is what makes you more hungry. If everything is perfect, maybe you lose the need to work hard every day.”
A study published in TheSport Psychologist journal found that athletes can reap long-term benefits from overcoming adversity, including an improved drive for learning, enhanced motivation and better perspective, proving that tough times really can be good for you. But using bad experiences as motivation only works if you have new goals to aim for. As Roglic once explained: “To stand still is to go backwards.” That’s why Roglic refocused on Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Vuelta so quickly. “It is very important to be able to look forward and not mourn what happened,” says Niermann. “You can’t change the circumstances but you can really change your mind. Primož is very good at that.”
GOAL GETTER
In an intriguing revelation Roglic told L’Équipe: “I want to be number one but in truth, what I like most is the buildup to it all. How do I reach my limits?” Psychologists refer to this training strategy as focusing on the ‘process goals’ – those small daily improvements that help to enhance your performance over time. “It’s actually very harmful to have only victory as a goal,” said Roglic. “Me, I’ll be super happy if next season I can improve by 0.5 per cent.”
It's a training philosophy that undoubtedly helped him after his Tour disaster. A paper in PsychologyofSport andExercise found that resilient athletes tend to focus on the processes involved, rather than the outcome of events.
As Dr Thompson explains, ‘process goals’ can help you to focus on the present moment, avoid unhelpful rumination and restore your confidence. “It is about what you can influence,” he explains. “You can influence your training, your metrics, your power
and your speed, and you can gain confidence from that. You think: ‘I am seeing progress. I don’t know what my competitors are doing but this is something I can focus on.’ Over time your confidence will naturally grow again.”
Resilience is a skill like any other: the more you practise handling hard times, the quicker you will overcome new setbacks. Roglič was a ski jumper before switching to cycling, and Dr Thompson is convinced that the crashes and injuries have toughened him up: “He has a lot of life experience and maturity, which helps him to display such resilience.” Roglič says this gives him perspective: “I never dreamed that I would become a cyclist of this level. I love what I do... I know it won’t last forever.”
The good news is that every cyclist has a rich source of life experiences that they can draw on in hard times. “In cycling you do get big disappointments that strengthen your character,” explains Sean Kelly. “You get that by training in all weather conditions, or doing wet races, or coming back from knocks and injuries. That experience all helps you when you lose an event.”
NO GOING BACK
To really overcome any setback you ultimately have to accept that bad luck is just an inevitable consequence of being an athlete. “It was how it was,” concluded Roglič, after his Tour defeat. “I want it to be a little di erent, but I cannot change it.”
Fabled tough guy Sean Kelly remembers having this epiphany during his own hugely successful cycling career. “I was leading the 1987 Vuelta with three days to go but then I got this boil on my bottom and I had to pull out of the race,” he recalls. “That night I was thinking about it a lot, but you say: ‘This is just the sport [I am] in.’ It's not only about being physically good but you need a bit of luck too.”
Dr Thompson also insists that accepting the raw unpredictability of cycling will help you to bounce back from any disappointment.
“There is chaos in cycling,” he explains. “With all the bikes going around, the weather and the road conditions, there’s a lot of randomness that you must accept. Yes, it is about how you prepare and perform, but then you have got this random spice added into the pot by other competitors and chance and conditions. The only question is: ‘Can you hold your head up and say you did your best?’ If the answer is ‘Yes’, that is always enough - no matter what happens.”
‘‘CAN YOU HOLD YOUR HEAD UP AND SAY YOU DID YOUR BEST? IF THE ANSWER IS ‘YES’, THAT IS ALWAYS ENOUGH’’ DR VICTOR THOMPSON