Turbo Talk: Andy Tennant
Enjoy the film.
Transcript
Andy: “Yep. Sweet. We’re on.”
Gareth: “I did an hour and twenty-five of ‘sweet-spot unders and overs’ today, that was fun.”
A: “Oh, fair play. On the turbo?”
G: “Yeah.”
A: “Right, well, I basically did… I averaged 355watts for two hours.”
G: “Fuck me…”
A: “Yeah.”
G: “You’ve always been a powerful rider though, especially from your track background.”
“I remember meeting you guys at team WIGGINS from Sky’s sponsorship. I remember following you guys in the team car.”
“My cycling went through the roof at that period. Because I was surrounded by you guys and all I wanted to do was ride my bike, harder and faster.”
“What was it like, from your perspective, being in team WIGGINS when we met?”
A: “I think the best way of putting it to people who probably don’t quite understand, we were like the ‘Mini’ of the BMW corporation, as Team Sky were the BMW. That’s the best way I can put it.”
“The ‘fun younger brother’ that just basically pissed about all the time and annoyed everyone.”
“And that’s what we did. The team was fantastic, it’s one of the best years I’ve had on the bike, 2015.”
“That’s my favourite kit of all time (WIGGINS).”
“I like the jersey because obviously, you can see how simple it is. The bikes were white Pinarello’s, we had white helmets, white shoes, black shorts. We just looked, you know, ‘cool as’, really.”
“That’s my opinion. I’ve still got a brand-new shorts and jersey, for the time I retire.”
“I was like a bit of a ‘lad’s on tour’ vibe going on. You know, we all sort of went along, smashed it and cracked on.”
“At every bike race we went to, they’d just be, ‘Is Bradley here?’ That’s all we ever got, ‘Is Bradley here?’”
“Yeah, it was just a great team and obviously we had some fantastic results, Owain Doull was third in the Tour of Britain 2015 (also 1st in the Points classification).”
“I won a couple of UCI races.”
“What summed it up for me, of how big the team was to people, was the Tour of Britain. We had to have barricades around our camper - there was about four people at Team Sky.”
“Everyone just wanted to see Brad and the team. It goes with the celebrity status, you know, we did the Tour of California, I’ve done Tour of Dubai, Tour of Abu Dhabi. I did some of the biggest races you possibly do, in a WIGGINS jersey.”
G: “Yeah, it was incredible and I think it just deepened the nations love for cycling.”
“The Tour of California, what was that like?”
A: “That was my second time to America. But yeah, California as a race was amazing.”
“I got in a break one day. That was a bad idea.”
G: “What was that like, racing in a break in California?”
A: “The worst day ever. It was like, foggy. So all these amazing views that I didn’t see at all.”
“I was in a group with Peter Sagan that day.”
“Because we were in the WIGGINS jersey and we were with Brad, we just got so much more respect. It was unbelievable.”
“We could just ride where we wanted. It was great.”
G: “You had fun, out on the road, but you’re more famous for your track capabilities.”
“What do you prefer, road or track? Or are you ‘just a cyclist’.”
A: “I prefer the road in so many ways because, for me, the road is far more relaxed, it’s far more enjoyable.”
“When you go to the track you’re going to work. There’s no ‘if, but or maybe’ about that.”
“Everything’s ‘analysed, tracked, data'…”
“So yeah, I’ve achieved some things on track. In fact, I can show you.”
“I’ve got one jersey there, which is right behind this computer.”
“I’ve got two medals here from the last track champs and a very messy room.”
“And that is it. There’s nothing. Nothing else in this house, the rest are… there’s a couple in Manchester. I don’t know where my Commonwealth Games medal is, I think it’s at Laurens Nans?”
“Yeah, I wanted more of these stripey ones, to be honest.”
G: “You better get to work.”
“What are your favourite achievements on the bike?”
A: “What I’m most proud of, is probably the Junior World Championships (2005, Individual pursuit), which is the one up there.”
“That was, almost the catalyst for the rest of my career, I’d say.”
“I’d been to the Europeans the year before, but getting onto GB had been a sort of tough process for me.”
“So that was a real ‘surprise jersey’.”
“You know, as an eighteen-year-old. it was just a massive surprise to go and win the Individual Pursuit.”
“So that’s probably the achievement I’m most proud of.”
“I know it sounds really bad… but you’re like, ‘Right, what’s the next thing’.”
G: Whenever you set yourself a goal, it’s never the end result that you’re satisfied with. It’s the process of seeing yourself progress, and work towards your target.”
“I want that feeling of progression back, not the achievement.”
A: “Yeah, I would agree with that. Hopefully, that’s different with my university degree that I’m doing though. I think that will be a relief when that’s over.”
“But yeah, I would say, because you’re seeing improvement, you’re seeing how you could change, how you could be better… It’s why you see quite a lot of athletes get depressed after major competitions. Because we’re like, ‘Oh, right, so, er, what do we do now?'”
“You feel lost because we’re so regimented… we’ve got something to work for, we’ve got a target, and suddenly life just ends as we know it.”
“Yeah, I quite like the process of trying to be ‘the best version of myself’, I know that sounds a bit.. corny.”
G: “As humans, I think we all want to feel like we have a purpose, and if you retire from something that’s been your purpose for a lifetime, that’s not going to sit well... because without that, you know, who are we?”
A: “Yeah, I would agree. I have to set goals for like… you know, retiring from cycling is, erm, ‘more imminent’ all the time, shall we say.”
“But the problem is… so, project ‘GILF’ is starting, it’s what I’ve called it.”
“Yeah, its either I’m going to get ‘dad-bod’, which I’m trying to avoid, or I’ve just got to go down the lines of Brad Pitt from Snatch. So, Men’s Health - that’s going to be my aim.”
“The reason I’m doing this is just so I can keep eating, er, if I’m honest. Because I don’t like the idea that I’m going to have to stop eating lots of food.”
“You know, obviously I’ve got to look for a new career and I’ve got a feeling that’s going to be very frustrating.”
“So I think I’m going to need some form of exercise. The problem if I go cycling is I’ll just be doing the same thing but slower. I’ll get like, a gravel bike or a cross bike and ride that and the mountain bike more. So I won’t be, erm, comparing myself to my former self.”
G: “Look after yourself, look after your body. You’ll feel good about yourself, so when you entering that ‘new world’, of ‘what do I do after I retire from professional cycling’…”
A: “You’ve gotta have the ‘healthiest human system’. There’s a little slogan for you, mate.”
“It could be that, you know, you may be overweight, so you may be looking at trying to do more exercise. For me, the HHS would be far more mental. Obviously, my physical stuff is taken care of, really.”
G: “Yeah…”
A: “But for me, it’s about mental wellbeing, er, which is what you’re alluding to.”
G: “Yeah…”
A: “Looking after yourself, doing things for yourself, doing things that make you and your family happy.”
“It will be interesting, actually, you know, we’re all in this horrible position with COVID-19. I think it’s brought a bit more of a community spirit back together. Hopefully, we’ll see that continue. I think it’s made people appreciate families and life more in general. And you know, take a step back, take stock. Because material things make you happy for a couple of minutes, really.”
“But it’s the memories. The only reason I’ve got a couple of jerseys up because it reminds me that if I work hard and I’m dedicated, I can achieve something. Which is my inspiration for when I crack doing uni work. So there’s a reason that jersey is actually there, to be fair.”
“It’s not for anyone else to see. It’s to remind me to work hard.”
“Because otherwise, I’m just like ‘eurgh, meh’, I’ll watch YouTube or something.”
G: “I’ve got a picture of my Grandad. When I’m on this turbo trainer here and it gets hard… just a little glance over, and ‘come on, we can get through this.’.”
“So, tell me about your uni degree. What are you studying and what do you hope to be when you do retire, eventually, from professional cycling?”
A: “Business and Sports Management.”
“Researched project is going to be on the societal partnership of HSBC and British Cycling and why it’s not just a sponsorship. Quite similar to BSkyB’s to be fair.”
G: “Yeah…”
“British Cycling is going through a transition now, isn’t it? Potentially losing its partnerships.”
“How is this affecting you?”
A: “I’m furloughed like the rest of, unfortunately, quite a few people in the UK.”
“As a very quick direct thing, it’s hitting me financially, there’s no ‘if, but or maybe’.”
“Obviously looking at it slightly bigger, I don’t know if we’ll race this year. Who knows?”
“I’m not trying to plead that I’ve got a bad life or anything, you know, there are people in far worse positions than me. I’m still riding my bike, I’m enjoying life, so I’ve got plenty to get on with.”
“So, I’ll be off to get a job, to tie me over.”
“So, that’s the immediate situation, but that’s no different, unfortunately than most people in the UK. You know, we’re all sort of in ‘a limbo’, really.”
“You know, I’d love to race again.”
“I think Brexit was already going to hit sport hard. You know, sponsoring a cycling team, or any sports team is almost a bit of a luxury to a company, I’d imagine.”
G: “Yeah.”
A: “Any advertising, it’s a bit like, its difficult to really put a number on what you get from it.”
“You know, don’t get me wrong, there are gains in brand awareness and various other buts, but you know, putting a quantifiable number on that is difficult. So, it’s the first thing to go, really.”
“That puts us in a very difficult position. It will be very difficult for all sports to attract sponsors. When you see football getting hit and you see the devastation that is going to cause, not the lower league teams, because that’s inevitable… Premier League teams furloughing staff, it just shows you the situation that we’re in and how bad it is and how difficult it’s going to be.”
“Cycling next year at a domestic level, for myself is going to be difficult. You know, I’ve got a house, I’ve got two kids to pay for, a wife. It’s not like I’m twenty and I can live on tuppence and ha’penny.”
“I’ve had a great career, so I wouldn’t want to put my family through a difficult period by me being selfish, to try and carry on another year of bike racing.”
“If I can and I can do it, I will, but I wouldn’t put someone through that.”
“I’m accepting of that fact.”
“But then we get on to British Cycling. Obviously, HSBC UK activated a release clause in their contract. Most of their money goes into… It doesn’t really go into the ‘elite sports’ like everyone thinks. It goes into grass-roots sports, mass participation and getting people on bikes. That’s what HSBC UK’s initiatives were.”
“There would be people that would be potentially interested in partnering with British Cycling. Why wouldn’t you at the end of the day?”
“They’ve got a very big following, very successful at the Olympics, you know, which is a great catalyst for getting people active and healthy. For a new partner coming on board, they’re going to get two Olympic cycles in three years. You know, that will never happen again… I would hope.”
G: “Talk to me about your journey with British Cycling. You worked your ass off to get into British Cycling and maybe you could give me the story of 2012 as well?
A: “I’ll start you off. So, I was obviously a little fat kid when I was younger, I wasn’t particularly great at cycling.”
“My aim was in 2014 to get onto the GB team, so we had trials. I managed to just make the points race time, I think by about a second. I got a phone call from Marshall Thomas the coach, he said, ‘Andy, you’re not on the squad because we don’t know who you are’. That was basically the reason.”
“I made that my soul aim the following year to get onto that GB squad.”
“I didn’t get invited back to the second one… and I wasn’t impressed, so I rang up Shane Sutton. I got in touch with him and I think he was taken aback by the fact that a seventeen-year-old had the audacity to ring him.”
“So we did the points race trial and I was fastest by about fourteen seconds, so, bear in mind there was Ben Swift, Adam Blythe, Ian Stannard and a few others, which is about a lap of the track.”
“Blythe was convinced that I’d done a lap less than everyone else.”
“That was me onto the GB junior team.”
G: “You were a young kid, you were overweight, you had a heart condition. All you’ve done is fight, fight, fight, fight, fight… then you knock on British Cycling’s door… they tell you to ‘jog-on’… you knock again and they let you in. You’ve always overcome the challenge.”
A: “I’d win the X-Factor with that story wouldn’t I? I’d have a good chance, I’d at least get to the chairs with that story."
“I got onto the squad. That was a bit of an escalator year, really. We went on to win the European Champs, we won the Worlds and then I became a fulltime cyclist.”
“I moved out to Italy and that’s where I really sort of, hit ‘rock bottom’, I’ll call it.”
“I developed an eating disorder out there. I decided that I wanted to get better on the road and obviously we were doing all these Italian races… and the one thing with Italian races… there’s lots of hills.”
“I'm not great on hills… not long hills… not in the heat actually. To be honest, Italy is about as bad as it can get for me.”
G: “Yeah.”
A: “So, I lost loads of weight. If you look at me now I’m about 82kg. I went down to… I think I got to 70kg.”
G: “How tall are you? Because you’re quite tall.”
A: “6’ 4”, so Yeah.”
G: “At 70kg?…”
A: “But I was absolutely and utterly useless. I flew up one hill really quickly, once. But, like, you put me on the track - I was crap. Absolutely crap.”
“I had to move out of Italy. I moved back with my mum and dad, actually. It was like my last chance, really. ‘Last chance saloon’ with British Cycling. Moved back with my mum and dad, that actually when I met my wife (Lauren). It took me six months to get over the eating disorder until then I was just convinced I hadn’t got one.”
“Moving back to my parents was the only way, actually, looking back, that I’d have got ridden of it. If I’d stayed in Italy, It would just, err… The situation just would never have allowed me to get out of that rut.”
G: “Do you think your eating disorder all cam from your childhood, of being overweight? Do you think it all started there? Or was your eating disorder based on you trying to be lighter, so you can be a better road cyclist?”
A: “It was performance-driven. You become so obsessive because you decide, you know ‘I’ve put 500g on, oh god I need to lose more weight’. I think most cyclists are obsessive about anything.”
“Just because I’m aware of it, I just don’t weigh myself anymore. I’m about 82kg, I know I am. Let’s be honest, you can look in a mirror and know if you’ve put a bit of weight on, and I’m training hard, so.”
“Going into a big race I just try and eat a bit less ‘Ben & Jerrys’ or ‘Häagen-Dazs’ ice cream.”
“2009 I was at home, I rode for Halfords that year with Rob Hayles and Ed Clancy. I did my first track competition for… quite a while at the Manchester World Cup.”
“That’s when I got my big shot - Podium Squad. We went and did a 03:53, which at the time was the second-fastest time, ever, in team pursuit history.”
“That put me back on the map, almost, really. We went an got a silver medal in the Elite World Championships in Copenhagen 2010." And that leads me, slowly, to 2012.”
“I went and rode in the team pursuit qualifiers, went and won the World Championships in Melbourne. I didn't ride the final, I was swapped for Burkie, I think it was?”
“So, going into Olympic year as reigning World Champion. Fife of us went to the Olympics and the idea was, that they were going to swap the team around. Essentially, it never happened. I didn’t get put in, they didn’t want to swap the team. As soon as I wasn’t in the semi I realised I wasn’t going to be riding the final either.”
“Er, you know, I saw the lads win. I had to warm-up every session, I had to warm-up before the final. As soon as everyone gets off and they’re all okay, you know, I know I’m not riding.”
“I just watched them win, watched them on the podium and then I went. Packed my bags and just left the village and to Borneo for three weeks. Just was like, ‘Right, off we go’.”
G: “So you dealt with the disappointment of 2012 by just going for a ‘blow-out’?”
A: “Yeah, I just disappeared. I just didn’t want to ride my bike for months. Then yeah, I still wanted to cycle and then it was really into 2016 and unfortunately, a very similar story happened. At least this time I didn’t have to go to the Olympics and sit there and watch.”
“I had a massive argument with the coach, Heiko (Salzwedel), who… to put it politely… we didn’t get on. This time, however, I was on holiday when the Olympics were on, in Bali. You know, I knew I didn’t want to be around it.”
G: “How did you get yourself out of that feeling of disappointment. How did you reevaluate, set some new goals and fall in love with cycling again?”
A: “London was the real difficult one, it was friends and family that got me through. I didn’t think id ever want to ride a bike again. I don’t know what caused the change, I think I just started riding my bike because I got a bit bored and enjoyed ‘just riding’. After Rio, my Olympics were really over. You know, try and look at Tokyo… If I look back now, It was pretty obvious I was never going to make it. I got dropped from the squad in 2017.”
“To be honest, it was actually… the catalyst for that was I crashed in the Europeans. I just randomly fainted during the middle of the team pursuit. I had about three months off the bike, I was really ill.”
“People said, you know I remember reading the comments, people said, ‘He just did this, this, and this’. I was like ‘Nah, I didn't’. I genuinely don’t have any recollection bar waking up. The only reason I know what happened is because I’ve seen a video.”
“To be honest, I fell in love again with cycling because the track went, the stress went - because it was becoming very stressful and quite difficult for me. That went and then suddenly I was just racing on the road.”
“To be honest, I’ve enjoyed it. I fell in love with cycling because I was doing something completely different than I’d done from the rest of my life. I wasn’t trying to do two jobs, serve two masters. I was just racing on the road and I could de whatever training I want. Basically, I suddenly had all this control.”
G: “Throughout your life, from ‘Fat Andy’ to fighting and knocking on the door of British Cycling - you keep moving forward. I think the story of someone like you that can just keep moving forward, despite all the setbacks, can encourage and inspire other cyclists like me, to ask myself, ‘What can I achieve?’ If Andy can keep moving forward, despite being knocked back, what can I keep doing?”
“So, yeah. That’s why I’ve got a lot of respect and time for you, Andy. You know, as a fan and as a friend.”
A: “Cheers, mate.”
“Persistence is key, mate. Being persistent and stubborn twat. They’re the keys to success.”
G: “I’ll tattoo that on me: Persistent, Stubborn, Twat.”
“Tell me about what it’s like, racing with your new team (Canyon DHB P/B Soreen).? Without the pressures of training for Olympic cycles and this kind of thing.”
A: “Well, there’s no pressure, so that’s the first thing. Tim (Elverson) doesn't put any pressure on you and that’s one of the keys. It’s just, its like WIGGINS was. We’re all there just having a laugh and we all want to do the best we can. Tim is one of my close mates as well, so that helps.”
G: “The opposite of Heiko then?”
A: “Opposite of Heiko, yeah. I certainly wouldn’t be going for a coffee with Heiko, that’s for certain.”
“It’s just a really nice place to be, that’s the thing, you know, I’m happy there.”
“You feel part of the family, you know, I’ve been made part of Tim’s family.”
A: “I know you from Cycling, but do lots of other people? Because you don’t race, as such.”
“So, I guess the question is, what are you doing now and how did that come about?”
G: “A good question, actually. I’m a bit of an anomaly in the cycling world.”
A: “That’s a good word, I like that word. That’s a very good word for this situation.”
G: “I’ve always, you know, my parents and grandparents were all cyclists. I’m from a cycling family.”
“But it was through Team Sky, British Cycling, WIGGINS, that I sort of, really fell in love with cycling… It just went to here 👆.”
“I started off at Sky News. I reported on the 2012 Olympics and the Tour de France. It was through that storytelling on Sky News that I was offered a position in the Cycling Sponsorship Team that sponsored all the initiatives and athletes, including yourself.”
“So then I started making films with you guys and I just fell deeper and deeper in love with cycling.”
“Then Sky pulled out of cycling and I was left with this kind of, ‘Now what am I going to do?’ What do I want from Sky? Because Sky wanted to keep me as an employee, so they gave me a new challenge. I had to re-evaluate my purpose.”
“But with cycling, I look back now and realise that I had so many opportunities that I wash I took more advantage of. So I keep kicking myself, ‘Oh, you met this athlete here, why didn’t you do that with them?’ What if, what if, you know? You’ve got all this hindsight.”
“I’m in a place where I think I realise that because I’ve been inspired to become a better athlete, because of what you guys are doing, I can share my experience with other people and encourage other people to become better athletes and kind of be a bit of a ‘shepherd’ in the cycling community.”
“We’re all connected by the bike. It’s like, how do we become better connected by the bike?”
“But more than that, I think people want to work with me because I’m a cyclist and I love cycling. As an ambassador for cycling, it’s just about trying to build a better community, I think.”
A: “At the end of the day you will probably inspire a larger audience than I do, to be honest. The best of the best inspire people. You’ve got a very different narrative and story and I think it’s interesting, especially for a sponsor, I can see why someone would want to work with you.”
“You know, I know from the work you do, how good you are.”
G: “What’s nice is that you guys inspire people like me and hopefully I can inspire a few other people, that can look at me and say, "‘Well, if Gareth can do it, then I can too.” And I think that’s what building a good cycling community is all about.”