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Quick-Step scout shares harsh realities of young riders: "There are 16-year-old boys who already have a manager. They drive the riders crazy"
CyclingThursday, 24 October 2024 at 13:15
Soudal - Quick-Step development team riders Gabriel Berg and Cormac Nisbet announced their departure from cycling at the moment and it sparked a debate that is well known, but somehow still remains under the radar: The pressure put on young riders in a time where there has never been so much scouting and expectations on young riders. The Belgian team's scout has talked openly about his riders that decided to leave the sport.
Nisbet said in quite clear words a summary of what the feelings were: "I came to terms with the fact that the lifestyle I once dreamed of as a kid was no longer a future I wish to pursue". At age only 18, the lifestyle already required to become a top rider is something that is simply very hard to achieve, and not many manage to do so. At this young age it already is necessary to give up on many things in order to have the best possible professionalism, but it is a hard balance to make.
"Gabriël does not say anything wrong in that interview. He tells it like it is. Eighteen is also a pivotal age. You have to do more and more for it and, above all, give up more and more," Quick-Step scout Johan Molly told Sporza. "You have to be able to deal with it in order to change your life. It is perhaps also the difference between a champion and the boys who are just a little bit less. You have to be strong in your head". At this time we already have riders winning titles and World Tour races at ages as low as 19 or 20, and so scouts from all teams as a consequence work with riders younger and younger. It is a process that is becoming more and more important as all teams try to bring in the brightest talents as young as possible - with 18-year olds now even being brought to the World Tour directly from junior ranks, in some cases.
"We do have a junior team, but we deliberately do not put any pressure on them. Parents can often play a role, if they believe that their son can become a professional. I go and watch the youth races all over Europe. Never before have there been so many scouts from management agencies at the races," he explains. "There are 16-year-old boys who already have a manager. They drive the riders crazy. They get really worked up".
Nisbet's message was received in the cycling world with understanding, but Molly revealed a detail that shows also the occasional darkness behind such deal. "When Cormac Nisbet announced that he was going to quit, his manager immediately sent us an email with 3 new names of riders who could take the vacant place," Molly told, explicitly saying that the agent's priority was far from being the rider himself. "He was no longer concerned with Cormac. Those managers want their riders to become professionals as soon as possible. I think that Berg and Nisbet are not the last young riders to drop out. We will encounter that with our Belgian riders as well".
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