A few weeks ago, I was riding the Buxton Mountain time trial. After the race, I had a brief chat with Mike Cuming, asking him how his season as professional at Rapha Condor JLT was going. He replied. ‘not great. It’s been a tough year.’ It made me realise the difference between an amateur and a professional. I can turn up to the races I feel like doing. If I do well, that’s fine. If not, I may be a bit disappointed, but as the saying goes ‘don’t give up the day job’. But, when you’re a professional, your health, fitness and form are everything. The rewards are high, but for every winner in a major stage race, there are 179 other riders hanging on and not quite taking the win they need for their next contract.
When you bump into people at races, you always become interested in following how they get on. I remember a few seasons ago meeting Mike Cuming and Richard Handley, in their first season at Raleigh. It was at a few end of season hill climbs, and they came across as great guys, passionate about cycling, but quite relaxed and humble at the same time.
Back to Buxton, and Mike mentioned he was off to race the Ras in Ireland and then over to the Tour of Korea. (a bit different to my schedule of looking forward to the Ashton Clinton bypass…) I wished Mike the best of luck, and I was kind of glad I wasn’t in his shoes.
I’d kind of forgotten about the brief chat, until I visit Cycling Weekly this morning and see Mike Cummings has won the UCI 2:1 Tour of Korea. Sounds a really tough stage race. Mountains, team time trials and 25 hours of racing over 8 stages.
“…Cuming started the race well, with a fourth place in the opening stage and seventh on the key mountain-top finish on stage three…. Cuming put himself in the lead group on hilly stage six to work his way into the yellow jersey, and then successfully defended the lead on the final two stages.” (Cycling Weekly)
As they say in cycling: Chapeau!
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