The road to becoming a DS - Brett Lancaster, Zak Dempster, Tom Southam, Sam Bewley & Gregory Rast

Life in the Peloton, presented by MAAP

Mitch Docker

Fitness, Sports, Wilderness, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2023

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work behind the scenes at some of the world’s biggest bike races, what happens back there in the crazy, chaotic realm of the race convoy, and what the world of a Directeur Sportif is like? Obviously, I’ve worked up close with DS’s throughout my career, but I’ve never been behind the wheel, and when I was asked to support a couple of riders at this years’ Aussie Road Nats, I realised I didn’t really know that much about what goes into the job of being a Directeur Sportif. So, before I made my big debut as a DS – in the car supporting Brendan Johnston, and Simon Clarke – I needed to learn the ropes, quickly. Fortunately, I’ve got a bunch of Directors at various stages of their careers that I could call on to help me get up to speed before the big day. For this episode, I chatted with seasoned DS’s Brett Lancaster, Gregory Rast, Tom Southam and Zak Dempster, as well as newly minted DS, Sam Bewley. As an ex-pro it was also a chance for me to ask some of the questions about being a DS that really bothered me during my career – like hey mate, don’t you remember what it’s like to be out here riding?! But also, it gave me a glimpsde into how much work goes on behind the scenes, from the race prep, team communication, and logistics, to managing personalities, rosters and team expectations, and I have to say (spoiler warning), it was a lot more than I expected. I asked all the big questions – what kind of rider makes the best DS? Do you even have to have been a rider at all to become a DS? And crucially, do former pros turned DS’s remember how hard it is out there?! Some of the answers surprised me, but it was fascinating to learn from experience, and get behind the wheel myself and road-test my new skills. I hope you enjoy the listen and learning about one of the behind-the-scenes aspects of pro cycling. Cheers, Mitch

Transcript

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0:00.0	Goody, guys.
0:03.0	Gidey guys. Well, welcome everyone. Welcome to Life in the Peloton. I'm Mitch Stocker and this podcast this
0:30.1	year. As you know, is brought to you by our great partner, Raffer. I want to have a quick chat
0:35.8	to you about Raffer and some of the great things that
0:38.3	they're doing, the Raffa Prestige. That was something that I got to do last year in Bonny
0:44.5	Dune of all places. It was a great event, something I had no idea about. The Raffa Prestige is all
0:49.8	about riding for your teammates. It takes place in some of the world's greatest riding destinations,
0:55.4	places you don't often get to ride. This year's Rafa Prestige, the one in Australia, is going
1:00.5	to take place in Ori Wodonga. Personally, I've never really ridden around there. So that's a great
1:05.6	thing about it. I don't know many people that get to travel to these places. Every team must
1:10.2	work together and most importantly
1:12.2	stay together as they navigate through remote routes on an all day long adventure. It's all
1:17.8	about adventure, teamwork and resilience. You get through the day with your team and you get to
1:23.6	celebrate together at the end. Have a cold beer, have a warm meal. That's what's great about it. It's sort of sharing the experience together. If you're in Australia and you want to get involved, you've only got about six weeks, so don't muck around. It's happening in March. Like I said in Aubrey, check it out. I've got my team organized. I'm going to be there. It's a great event. I love these sort of things rappers doing.
1:44.9	It's all about making cycling the most popular sport in the world. On the weekend, I was down at
1:50.4	the Otway Odyssey Mountain Bike event. It was early starts and if you heard my episode I did on it
1:55.9	last year, you know how demanding it is. It's absolutely brutal. Go and listen to that episode,
2:01.5	my opening weekend. It's a real laugh, I can tell you. But one thing I took down with me was my
2:07.4	Athletic Greens AG1 travel packs. That's the way I start every day and it was all the more
2:13.9	important down there because it was early starts before a tough day and I was
2:18.0	glad that I had it with me. I wanted to start every day right. It's one of the things I've
2:22.3	taken over from my pro life. I was taking AG1 when I was racing in Europe because I wanted
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