GOING PRO

Welcome to the newest addition of the infamous R.O.O.T.M.! As per usual, the Twin Six cohort has surprised yet another T6 team member (in this case, me ..) with the dubious challenge of writing something that most of you will find interesting. I say dubious because by no means am I as wordfully talented as some of the other members of our group here. In fact, I am more likely to make up a word like wordfully rather than craft something that actually makes coherent sense. Now that I have dusted the pressure off my shoulders in keeping to an otherwise creative and high standard… I leave you with the following and hope the majority of you find it a little interesting, and more than not, a good reason to keep at the challenge of racing towards whatever your goals may be in our two wheeled adventures.

My name is Adam Carr, and I am a first year professional road cyclist with the Adageo Energy Pro Cycling Team. This is a first year Division 3 UCI Continental Team that grew out of a successful Southern California elite program with a great club of riders supporting it. The main idea behind the team is to take the successful Liquid Cycling Club of 400 members and its now professional program, Adageo Energy, and pool its resources to capitalize on plans for long term success. I strongly feel a professional team that has a solid foundation, within a club, is the absolute best way to grow any racing organization. A professional team is often able to garner far more media and advertising strength that can be mutually beneficial when spread across the larger umbrella of a club. In a nutshell the Liquid Fitness Club and Adageo Energy Pro Cycling Team are much like a family that supports each other in a way that allows us all to collectively pursue an otherwise demanding sport of playing on bikes. We each have our own goals and dreams and one of the best ways to work at them is with support.

A good piece to start with and in fact one of the best pieces of advice I can leave you with, is to never let anyone tell you that you cannot do something. Don’t even allow the thoughts to creep into your mind and be relentless in your persistence in both your work and overall effort towards the sport. That’s possibly the best advice that was ever given to me and I can only pass it on as it has served me well. As cliche as that may come across you will find it to be true more than not.

It takes a village… there is no question in my mind that the old adage holds perfectly true to professional athletics. Pick your sport, pick your person, and sure enough you are bound to find a pyramid of people that have helped to support the athlete to his or her own success. For a good while I was determined in this sport to take on the world alone. I was pretty convinced that giving 110% of my own effort and I could do just about anything. For a percentage of the population out there this is true - but I can honestly say that the percentage is amazingly small. The fact of the matter is that this particular sport, be it mountain biking at the top level or road cycling at the top level, is just far too demanding.

The higher you climb in any sport, things get exponentially more demanding as the years go on. The travel gets greater, the entry fees sky rocket, and the time you must devote goes through the proverbial roof. For myself my support network includes my family, some very close friends, a mentor or two, various teams throughout the years, my coach, and various sponsors. The connections you make through the rigors of ascending the ranks are absolutely important if not infinitely helpful in your overall success. The best situations that have been handed to me in cycling have been from doing my best not to step on too many toes and being generally friendly to the masses. And above all giving back when the opportunity presents itself. Succeeding in professional sports in my eyes is a two way street and to some extent it is worth while for everyone to give back as it has the ability to give so much to each of us. It is not always possible to give back exactly what has been given to you as some people have the ability to give far more than you can imagine, however every little bit helps. Good karma folks - i’t’s real.

When I first started this sport the expenses were far beyond what myself or my family could have imagined. Having a supportive elite team that chose me as the prerequisite Category 5 racer at the time was a blessing. A club team would have been equally as helpful. The only difference being that I was the only young and lower categorized racer amongst a bunch of semi-pros. This meant I was the little brother who took most the abuse but all in “character building” fun (right guys?). In general though it was an environment that lessened the financial load a little and helped with guidance from time to time pointing me in the right direction.

In the ideal or rather one of a few common routes to becoming a professional begins with said athlete racing for the local grassroots club. The club then mentors them and helps them through the categories until said rider can either move to an elite team or a higher end development team. From here the racer goes on to compete in races beyond their region and in the long run hopes to make a jump to the professional ranks. However, not many athletes are lucky enough to experience the “ideal” and by no means was I the ideal. There are probably a 100 different ways to find your way into the professional ranks of any sport. For me however I had the foundations set with the help of my first team as I mentioned. This team helped me to develop some of the more lasting relationships in my career and friends of which will be there till the end. Following this team, I rode with some larger clubs who did not have elite teams but were willing to help a young racer try and achieve a few goals. Throughout this time I worked for various companies that would also help sponsor me through the years and do what they could as to further my ambitions. I raced as an “individual” and not on a team for several seasons until this previous season where I was able to land a spot on a larger national level elite squad. From there I was given the ability to race at some of the biggest races in the country which allowed me to make more connections and be seen as I cut my teeth on some of the harder races. In conjunction with my last season I also took on the help of my coach Matt McNamara. Reluctantly so, but only because as I mentioned, I always thought I could do everything myself. Having the guidance of someone that is far more experienced than yourself and that is able to keep the greater picture in perspective is incredibly helpful (think about the pyramid here). Ultimately it helped me raise my level both physically and mentally by a factor of ten. By no means was it a perfect season though and had an equal dose of ups and downs. However consistency was my game and realizing that Matt helped to develop those strengths.

This brings me to the last jump in what ultimately is only the next chapter of my cycling career. Becoming professional. To be honest, it takes an unbelievable amount of hard work, constantly placing yourself in the best possible position to succeed, solid consistency, and above all, luck. It’s hard to accept that however and perhaps it’s not true but from where I stand, you can only do so much before you have to leave it up to a little chance. There is no question in my mind that many decisions I have made were basically me taking a leap from a cliff only hoping to land right side up. It doesn’t always happen but if you are constantly working at it and always doing all that you can to be in the spot to succeed then that little bit of luck when it comes along makes all the difference (throw in a little risk for good measure).

I have no doubt that the above will make sense to some of you and leave others shaking your head. Simply put though, establish a support network, always work hard, and never stop working hard, and be friendly and gracious whenever possible. Beyond that, hope for a little luck and while you’re at it, do your absolute best to be really fast (that’s assumed right?)! But remember that winning isn’t everything in our sport. Being dependable, trustworthy, and hard working is. Winning is something that can be taught, being fast is something that can be trained for; however a hard work ethic and the willingness to give everything to the greater good of a teams efforts or sponsors that pay your bills is something far more appreciated and just in matter of fact .. a necessity.

As I mentioned this is only the next chapter. Being a professional athlete has so many extremes that not everyone becomes aware of until they are in the mix. There are guys being paid millions of dollars and guys being paid nothing, only hoping at the chance to make a living. This is just a reality of the matter and to some extent part of the craziness of it all that attracts me. We all race together, we all travel together, and when it’s seen through my eyes I like to think they serve as examples of what is possible. I am not saying I will achieve it but again, if you work hard enough at it, how can it not be possible? That’s just me though and optimism is a staple in this sport to deal with the ups and downs.

Above all though I would like to thank the people who have supported me in this endeavor and an even bigger thanks to Twin Six and what is arguable the coolest clothing out there. I hope that you have enjoyed my thoughts and as with most of my opinions - take them with a grain of salt. You can keep up with my adventures through my first professional season here at Twin Six or on the Adageo Energy website.

Happy trails and race hard and please, enjoy the ride,

Adam Carr

http://www.adageoenergyprocycling.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adageo-Energy-Pro-Cycling
http://twitter.com/adageocycling
http://www.sterlingwins.com/
http://twitter.com/itsacarr

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