Oct 1, 2020
The Rouleur Longreads Podcast: Learning to Fly from Rouleur 20.6
"I didn’t want a Stone Age ecosystem, a ready-meal career path. I wasn’t for UCAS statements, study placements, three-year degrees and guessing how to succeed.
I needed anarchy. A world with a clear winner: always the strongest, the smartest, finishing first. Throw away the protocols, policies, processes… no thanks to 9am and waiting for the clock to strike five.
I craved a wave of noise, colour and zeal. Klaxons, chaos and bup, bup, beeeep. Moments to unfurl on a team car bonnet, opportunities to be hurled like live grenades: forward and back until they explode.
I wanted to be riding, or lying down,
Lying down, or sitting up,
Sitting up, or eating up,
Anything else
Was wrong.
This awe-inspiring, time-consuming wave is cycling. I wanted to ride that wave, to achieve perfection.
I wanted to be a professional cyclist."
Not just any cyclist either, but the second coming of Sean Kelly. It didn't go quite as Daniel Stewart had hoped. In our latest issue's longread, the Iri…