WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 So I was looking through the stack of source 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:04.660 material you sent over for today's deep dive. 00:00:04.860 --> 00:00:06.559 Yeah, the giant pile of articles. Right, the 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:09.160 giant pile. And I got stuck on this one word. 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:11.400 I mean, it's in the title of half the articles. 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:13.339 It's all over the fan forums. I think I know 00:00:13.339 --> 00:00:15.279 exactly which word you're talking about. The 00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:19.079 animal. The animal. Ellen Van Dyke. Right. And 00:00:19.079 --> 00:00:23.800 I have to be honest here. Usually when we look 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:25.760 into women's sports or really any elite athletes, 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:28.980 the nicknames are, well, They're elegant, right? 00:00:29.140 --> 00:00:32.939 Yeah, totally. You have things like the queen 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:35.740 of the classics. Or for the men, it's the professor 00:00:35.740 --> 00:00:39.600 or the sheriff. Right. But the animal, that just 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.340 feels so different. It feels almost, I don't 00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:44.340 know, aggressive. Is that actually a compliment 00:00:44.340 --> 00:00:46.780 in the professional cycling world? It is the 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:49.460 ultimate compliment. But you are completely right 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:51.979 to pause on it because it tells you, well, everything 00:00:51.979 --> 00:00:54.000 you need to know about why we're doing this deep 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.289 dive on her today. Okay, lay it out for us. So, 00:00:56.289 --> 00:00:58.409 to set the context for you listening, we are 00:00:58.409 --> 00:01:01.770 recording this in February 2026. And Ellen Van 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:04.329 Dyke has just retired. She officially hung up 00:01:04.329 --> 00:01:06.290 her wheels at the end of last year, the end of 00:01:06.290 --> 00:01:10.109 2025. End of an era. Truly. And that nickname. 00:01:10.730 --> 00:01:13.189 It wasn't given to her because she was wild or 00:01:13.189 --> 00:01:15.849 chaotic on the bike. It was given to her because 00:01:15.849 --> 00:01:18.530 of her capacity for suffering. Suffering in what 00:01:18.530 --> 00:01:21.790 sense? Like enduring crashes? Because I know 00:01:21.790 --> 00:01:23.450 we have some brutal injuries in these notes. 00:01:23.670 --> 00:01:25.510 No, no. Although she did plenty of that, and 00:01:25.510 --> 00:01:26.989 we will definitely get to the crashes later. 00:01:27.150 --> 00:01:29.250 I mean metabolic suffering. Oh, interesting. 00:01:29.510 --> 00:01:32.150 See, in cycling, you have riders who win with 00:01:32.150 --> 00:01:35.010 pure tactics. They sit in the wheels, they hide 00:01:35.010 --> 00:01:37.530 from the wind, they protect their energy, and 00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:40.590 then bam! They sprint for the last 200 meters. 00:01:40.769 --> 00:01:43.329 Exactly. They are snipers. But Ellen Van Dyke 00:01:43.329 --> 00:01:45.730 was a blunt instrument. The animal implies a 00:01:45.730 --> 00:01:47.390 rider who can just go to the front of the pack, 00:01:47.569 --> 00:01:49.849 stick her nose right into the wind, and hold 00:01:49.849 --> 00:01:52.450 a power output that literally breaks the people 00:01:52.450 --> 00:01:54.689 who are just trying to follow her. So it's not 00:01:54.689 --> 00:01:58.129 about being tricky. It's just about torque. Raw 00:01:58.129 --> 00:02:02.510 wattage. It is entirely about the engine. The 00:02:02.510 --> 00:02:05.849 ability to endure physical pain longer than anyone 00:02:05.849 --> 00:02:08.530 else in the field is willing to. Wow. And our 00:02:08.530 --> 00:02:11.389 mission today is to unpack exactly how that engine 00:02:11.389 --> 00:02:14.150 was built because, and I think this is the most 00:02:14.150 --> 00:02:16.150 fascinating insight from our source material, 00:02:16.750 --> 00:02:20.509 Ellen Van Dyke did not start as a cyclist. Right. 00:02:20.590 --> 00:02:22.650 She spent the first decade of her athletic life 00:02:22.650 --> 00:02:25.969 on ice. Exactly. Speed skating. Which, knowing 00:02:25.969 --> 00:02:28.250 she's Dutch, feels almost mandatory, doesn't 00:02:28.250 --> 00:02:30.770 it? It basically is a religion over there. But 00:02:30.770 --> 00:02:32.870 if you want to understand why she became a five 00:02:32.870 --> 00:02:34.889 -time world champion and why she could hold a 00:02:34.889 --> 00:02:37.550 brutally painful aerodynamic tuck for an hour 00:02:37.550 --> 00:02:40.090 straight, you have to look at the biomechanics 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:42.349 of speed skating. But before we get deep into 00:02:42.349 --> 00:02:44.349 the physics of it, let's lay out the timeline 00:02:44.349 --> 00:02:46.689 for everyone, because this career, it spanned 00:02:46.689 --> 00:02:49.669 nearly two decades. Two decades is just an eternity 00:02:49.669 --> 00:02:51.949 in pro sports. Right. Most pro cyclists burn 00:02:51.949 --> 00:02:53.770 out in, what, five or six years? Pretty much. 00:02:53.789 --> 00:02:56.400 But she is a monument. Retiring at the end of 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.060 2025, she really defined what I like to call 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:01.280 the long game in women's cycling. The long game. 00:03:01.379 --> 00:03:04.840 Yeah, she overcame this incredible fourth place 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:07.659 curse. She survived horrific injuries and she 00:03:07.659 --> 00:03:10.060 reinvented herself multiple times over different 00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:11.979 eras of the sport. All right, let's start at 00:03:11.979 --> 00:03:13.520 the very beginning then. You mentioned the ice. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.469 Take us back to her origin story. Harmelin, right? 00:03:16.650 --> 00:03:19.050 Harmelin Utrecht, right in the heart of the Netherlands. 00:03:19.250 --> 00:03:22.509 So I want you to picture a really flat, watery 00:03:22.509 --> 00:03:25.490 landscape. And in the winter, all those canals 00:03:25.490 --> 00:03:28.830 freeze over solid. Sounds beautiful. It is. And 00:03:28.830 --> 00:03:30.870 Ellen started skating on them when she was just 00:03:30.870 --> 00:03:34.150 a kid. By age eight, she's doing these long natural 00:03:34.150 --> 00:03:37.330 ice tours. And by 12, she's training daily at 00:03:37.330 --> 00:03:40.500 the local rink. Daily? At 12 years old. That 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:43.120 is the Dutch discipline for you. And she wasn't 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:45.240 just showing up to participate. She was fiercely 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:47.979 competitive. The records show she was top 10 00:03:47.979 --> 00:03:50.199 at the Junior Dutch All -Round Championships. 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.360 Okay, so she was elite. Very much so. She actually 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:55.659 held a local track record for the 5 ,000 meters. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:59.000 Right, so she is a high -level skater. But help 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:01.719 me bridge this gap here. Because I watch speed 00:04:01.719 --> 00:04:04.780 skating and I watch cycling. And sure, I get 00:04:04.780 --> 00:04:07.460 that they both require big leg muscles. But... 00:04:07.740 --> 00:04:10.460 Are the sports really that physiologically similar? 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:12.539 They seem totally different, right? Yeah, one 00:04:12.539 --> 00:04:14.620 is sliding on blades, the other is pedaling in 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:17.040 circles. How does one actually translate to the 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:19.670 other? It's a really great question. On the surface, 00:04:19.850 --> 00:04:23.250 the motion looks entirely different. But physiologically, 00:04:23.550 --> 00:04:26.350 the two sports are practically cousins. Think 00:04:26.350 --> 00:04:29.209 about the body position of a speed skater. Picture 00:04:29.209 --> 00:04:31.430 them flying down the long straightaway of a rink. 00:04:31.529 --> 00:04:33.509 Okay, I've got it. They're bent way over at the 00:04:33.509 --> 00:04:36.790 waist. Chest is almost parallel to the ice. Hands 00:04:36.790 --> 00:04:39.490 usually tucked behind their back. Perfect. That 00:04:39.490 --> 00:04:42.470 is called the skating crouch. Now, think about 00:04:42.470 --> 00:04:44.790 what muscles have to be engaged to hold that 00:04:44.790 --> 00:04:48.110 shape. To stay in that crouch, your body is in 00:04:48.110 --> 00:04:50.629 a state of constant isometric tension. Mainly 00:04:50.629 --> 00:04:52.810 in the glutes and the lower back. Exactly. The 00:04:52.810 --> 00:04:55.029 glutes and the lower back. You aren't just pushing 00:04:55.029 --> 00:04:57.009 laterally with your legs. You are holding up 00:04:57.009 --> 00:04:59.689 a heavy torso against gravity and against wind 00:04:59.689 --> 00:05:01.990 resistance. So it's basically like doing a wall 00:05:01.990 --> 00:05:04.839 sit. A wall sit while moving at 30 miles per 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:07.399 hour on razor blades. That sounds exhausting. 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:10.839 It is. Now, transfer that exact physical demand 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:14.120 to a time trial bike. In a time trial, which 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:16.899 they call the race of truth, you are trying to 00:05:16.899 --> 00:05:19.779 make yourself as small as humanly possible to 00:05:19.779 --> 00:05:22.860 cheat the win. You literally fold your body in 00:05:22.860 --> 00:05:24.899 half over the handlebars and you have to hold 00:05:24.899 --> 00:05:29.009 it there for 40, 50... Maybe 60 minutes. I see 00:05:29.009 --> 00:05:30.949 where this is going. So for a normal cyclist, 00:05:30.970 --> 00:05:33.649 getting into that folded position is just sheer 00:05:33.649 --> 00:05:36.810 agony for their back and hips. Exactly. Most 00:05:36.810 --> 00:05:39.689 road cyclists spend years trying to train their 00:05:39.689 --> 00:05:42.089 core to just handle that position without losing 00:05:42.089 --> 00:05:44.430 power to their pedals. If you aren't used to 00:05:44.430 --> 00:05:46.470 it, your diaphragm gets completely compressed. 00:05:46.730 --> 00:05:48.910 You can't breathe properly. Your lower back just 00:05:48.910 --> 00:05:52.259 screams at you. But for Ellen Van Dyke. She had 00:05:52.259 --> 00:05:53.899 been doing that since she was eight years old 00:05:53.899 --> 00:05:56.360 on the canals of Utrecht. Her body was already 00:05:56.360 --> 00:05:58.540 perfectly molded for the aero tuck. Precisely. 00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:01.959 She had developed what biomechanists call a posterior 00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:05.019 chain. The glutes, the hamstrings, the lower 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:08.560 back. Hers was made of absolute steel. Wow. So 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:10.480 when she started getting on a bike at age 10 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:12.800 just for summer cross training, she didn't have 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:14.959 to learn how to suffer in that weird hunched 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:17.459 position. She just had to learn to pedal. That 00:06:17.459 --> 00:06:19.819 is a massive head start over the competition. 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:22.540 And there is one more vital layer to this skating 00:06:22.540 --> 00:06:24.980 connection, the rhythm of the power delivery. 00:06:25.379 --> 00:06:27.420 What do you mean by rhythm? In speed skating, 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:31.930 you push, then you glide. Push, then glide. It 00:06:31.930 --> 00:06:35.209 requires a very specific high torque output. 00:06:35.449 --> 00:06:38.129 It is not a rapid light spinning motion like 00:06:38.129 --> 00:06:41.550 you see climbers do on a bike. It's a slow, grinding, 00:06:41.629 --> 00:06:45.310 heavy motion. And that translates perfectly to 00:06:45.310 --> 00:06:48.129 pushing a massive heavy gear in a cycling time 00:06:48.129 --> 00:06:50.170 trial. It translates perfectly. So she's got 00:06:50.170 --> 00:06:52.810 all the physical tools ready to go. But looking 00:06:52.810 --> 00:06:54.889 at the source material here, she also had the 00:06:54.889 --> 00:06:57.089 mental tools because she wasn't just a physical 00:06:57.089 --> 00:06:59.769 powerhouse. She was incredibly academic. This 00:06:59.769 --> 00:07:01.790 is a detail that I think gets overlooked in all 00:07:01.790 --> 00:07:04.370 the sports highlight reels. Ellen Van Dyke is 00:07:04.370 --> 00:07:07.230 incredibly smart. She did not sacrifice her education 00:07:07.230 --> 00:07:10.110 just to pursue sport. Which is rare at that level. 00:07:10.250 --> 00:07:12.810 Very rare. She graduated from Minkema College 00:07:12.810 --> 00:07:15.290 and then went straight into the Vrije Universiteit 00:07:15.290 --> 00:07:18.449 Amsterdam. And wait until you hear what she studied, 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:21.009 folks. What was her degree in? Human movement 00:07:21.009 --> 00:07:24.589 sciences. Get out. That is just too perfect. 00:07:24.709 --> 00:07:27.670 It really is, isn't it? She earned her bachelor's 00:07:27.670 --> 00:07:30.699 in 2011. Now think about what that specific degree 00:07:30.699 --> 00:07:34.800 entails. It's all about biomechanics. It's exercise 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:37.959 physiology. It's the literal physics of drag 00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:41.160 and force vectors. So when her coaches are sitting 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:42.980 there telling her to adjust her saddle height 00:07:42.980 --> 00:07:45.500 by two millimeters or to change her hand position 00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:48.519 to improve her aerodynamics, she isn't just nodding 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:51.259 along blindly. She actually understands the math 00:07:51.259 --> 00:07:53.360 behind what they're saying. She understands the 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:56.079 why. And in a discipline like time trialing, 00:07:56.100 --> 00:07:58.379 which is basically just a complex math equation 00:07:58.379 --> 00:08:01.399 on wheels. Power versus aerodynamic drag. Exactly. 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:04.480 Having that academic knowledge is a lethal advantage. 00:08:04.699 --> 00:08:07.120 She knows exactly how much energy she is expending, 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:09.439 how her muscles are recruiting that energy, and 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:11.779 exactly where it's going. She even started a 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:13.579 master's degree later on, though the sources 00:08:13.579 --> 00:08:15.680 note she had to pause it when the Olympic preparations 00:08:15.680 --> 00:08:18.420 became too intense. Makes sense. Okay, so we 00:08:18.420 --> 00:08:21.939 have this cerebral, incredibly powerful, former 00:08:21.939 --> 00:08:24.639 speed skater, basically the ultimate prototype 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:26.439 for a cyclist. But she eventually had to make 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:28.740 a choice, right? You can't be a world -class 00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:30.819 speed skater and a world -class pro cyclist forever. 00:08:31.230 --> 00:08:34.610 No, the human body just cannot handle that dual 00:08:34.610 --> 00:08:37.350 training load at the elite level. The critical 00:08:37.350 --> 00:08:40.129 year for her was 2007. She was 20 years old at 00:08:40.129 --> 00:08:42.649 the time. And what happened in 2007? Well, she 00:08:42.649 --> 00:08:45.009 was up for selection for the regional speed skating 00:08:45.009 --> 00:08:47.570 team. And in the Netherlands, making that regional 00:08:47.570 --> 00:08:50.210 team is the primary gateway to becoming a professional 00:08:50.210 --> 00:08:53.330 skater. Okay. But at the exact same time, she 00:08:53.330 --> 00:08:56.549 had just won the Dutch National Cycling Championship. 00:08:57.240 --> 00:08:59.100 For the fifth time. Talk about having a good 00:08:59.100 --> 00:09:01.679 problem just sitting there deciding which professional 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.000 sport should I completely dominate today. Right. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:06.620 But she had to choose. And she chose the bike. 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:09.340 And frankly, the cycling world should be very 00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:10.919 grateful that she did. So she joins a cycling 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:14.399 team called Frenden van het Platteland in 2006. 00:09:15.179 --> 00:09:17.740 And almost immediately, she starts winning stages 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:20.700 in major races in France and Italy. She did. 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:23.539 But... And this is a really big, but she also 00:09:23.539 --> 00:09:25.700 started breaking things. The crash. The crashes. 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:28.919 The toll on her body started early. In 2006, 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.399 she fractured her clavicle, her collarbone. Ouch. 00:09:32.539 --> 00:09:35.379 Yeah. It's almost a rite of passage for pro cyclists 00:09:35.379 --> 00:09:37.840 to break a collarbone. But for her, it was the 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:41.440 start of a very painful recurring pattern. However, 00:09:41.580 --> 00:09:44.000 the real test of her character early on, the 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:46.220 moment where I think the animal was truly born, 00:09:46.340 --> 00:09:48.899 it wasn't a crash. It was a rejection. The 2008 00:09:48.899 --> 00:09:51.720 Beijing Olympics. Beijing. She was young. She 00:09:51.720 --> 00:09:53.740 was young. She was incredibly hungry. And she 00:09:53.740 --> 00:09:56.360 was targeting two very specific events for the 00:09:56.360 --> 00:09:59.639 games, the individual pursuit on the track velodrome 00:09:59.639 --> 00:10:02.840 and the time trial on the road. OK, let's break 00:10:02.840 --> 00:10:04.600 those down one at a time. Let's start with the 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:06.700 track. What happened? So she went to the track 00:10:06.700 --> 00:10:09.460 world championships in Manchester in March 2008. 00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:12.559 This was the final qualifying event for the Olympics. 00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:15.220 To get her ticket to Beijing, the rules stated 00:10:15.220 --> 00:10:17.860 she needed to be in the top 11 in the UCI world 00:10:17.860 --> 00:10:20.500 rankings after that race. Okay, top 11. She rode 00:10:20.500 --> 00:10:23.279 a genuinely great race. She finished fifth on 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:25.799 the day at Worlds. Fifth at the World Championships. 00:10:25.980 --> 00:10:28.600 That sounds like an absolute lock for an Olympic 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:31.350 spot. You would think so. But the ranking system 00:10:31.350 --> 00:10:34.809 was cumulative over the entire season. So despite 00:10:34.809 --> 00:10:37.269 that amazing fifth place finish on the day when 00:10:37.269 --> 00:10:39.309 the officials tallied up all the points for the 00:10:39.309 --> 00:10:42.419 year. She ended up 12th in the overall ranking. 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:45.399 Oh, no. You're kidding. She missed the Olympic 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:49.620 cut by one single spot. One spot, 12th place 00:10:49.620 --> 00:10:51.879 after years of training and sacrificing everything. 00:10:52.100 --> 00:10:54.500 It is just gut -wrenching. That is awful. But 00:10:54.500 --> 00:10:56.340 wait, she still had the road events, right? She 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:59.399 was the Dutch national time trial champion. Surely 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:01.399 she gets to go for the road race. This is where 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:04.120 the story gets pretty ugly. And I think it highlights 00:11:04.120 --> 00:11:06.500 a side of cycling that the sport doesn't like 00:11:06.500 --> 00:11:08.279 to talk about very often, which is this immense 00:11:08.279 --> 00:11:11.470 obsession with weight. Oh boy. The Dutch national 00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:13.649 selectors looked at the time trial course in 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:16.070 Beijing. It was routed near the Great Wall, and 00:11:16.070 --> 00:11:18.830 it was quite hilly. It wasn't a massive high 00:11:18.830 --> 00:11:21.970 -altitude mountain stage, but it had significant 00:11:21.970 --> 00:11:25.590 punchy elevation gain. Okay, so a hilly course. 00:11:25.970 --> 00:11:28.929 Then they looked at Ellen. Now, remember everything 00:11:28.929 --> 00:11:31.090 we just discussed about that speed skating physique. 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:36.139 She is incredibly powerful. She is tall. She 00:11:36.139 --> 00:11:39.179 carries real functional muscle mass. She is not 00:11:39.179 --> 00:11:41.720 a 100 pound climbing specialist. I think I see 00:11:41.720 --> 00:11:43.279 where this is going and I don't like it. The 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:46.720 selectors told her. explicitly to her face that 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:49.659 she was, quote, too heavy for the Olympic course. 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:52.340 Unbelievable. They said her power to weight ratio 00:11:52.340 --> 00:11:54.240 just wasn't good enough to get over those hills 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:56.539 fast enough, so they left her at home. Too heavy. 00:11:56.659 --> 00:11:59.879 I mean, she is an elite athlete at the absolute 00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:03.120 peak of human conditioning, and a panel of selectors 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:05.860 tells her she's too heavy. For a 21 -year -old 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:08.059 woman, that has to be incredibly psychologically 00:12:08.059 --> 00:12:10.919 damaging. It's completely brutal. They basically 00:12:10.919 --> 00:12:13.559 treated her like a faulty math equation instead 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:16.340 of a human competitor. They just looked at the 00:12:16.340 --> 00:12:18.840 watts per kilogram numbers on a spreadsheet and 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:21.460 said, computer says no. So picture her sitting 00:12:21.460 --> 00:12:23.320 there. She's got a rejection letter for the track 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:26.379 in one hand, missing by one spot. And she's got 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:28.740 a body image critique keeping her off the road 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:31.139 team in the other hand. Most people would just 00:12:31.139 --> 00:12:33.620 crumble right there. I know I would crumble. 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:35.799 I'd probably throw my bike in a canal and never 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:38.559 ride again. And that right there is the massive 00:12:38.559 --> 00:12:41.700 fork in the road of her career. This is the defining 00:12:41.700 --> 00:12:44.720 moment. Because she didn't go home and quit. 00:12:44.899 --> 00:12:46.820 I mean, she might have cried, sure. But then 00:12:46.820 --> 00:12:49.299 she got really, really angry. Good. The very 00:12:49.299 --> 00:12:51.860 next day. I mean, literally 24 hours after finding 00:12:51.860 --> 00:12:53.779 out she missed the Olympic track cut in Manchester, 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:56.940 she decides to enter a different race at those 00:12:56.940 --> 00:13:00.000 same world championships. A race called the Scratch 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.929 Race. Okay, explain the scratch race to us. Is 00:13:02.929 --> 00:13:05.029 that just another type of time trial? No, it 00:13:05.029 --> 00:13:07.309 is the exact opposite of a time trial. A scratch 00:13:07.309 --> 00:13:09.970 race is a mass start bunch race on the wooden 00:13:09.970 --> 00:13:12.110 velodrome. So everyone's on the track at the 00:13:12.110 --> 00:13:14.210 same time? Everyone starts together. It's usually 00:13:14.210 --> 00:13:16.850 about 10 kilometers or so. And the premise is 00:13:16.850 --> 00:13:19.470 simple. The first person across the finish line 00:13:19.470 --> 00:13:22.769 wins. But because of that, it is pure chaos. 00:13:23.009 --> 00:13:26.309 It requires throwing elbows, playing deep tactical 00:13:26.309 --> 00:13:30.190 games, surfing wheels, and usually having a massive 00:13:30.190 --> 00:13:32.950 explosive sprint at the very end. Which sounds 00:13:32.950 --> 00:13:36.490 completely antithetical to a steady -state, pacing 00:13:36.490 --> 00:13:39.210 -focused time trialist. It's not her natural 00:13:39.210 --> 00:13:41.929 habitat at all. Not even slightly. So she enters 00:13:41.929 --> 00:13:45.490 this chaotic bunch race, basically entirely fueled 00:13:45.490 --> 00:13:48.169 by rage and rejection. Oh, it happens. She doesn't 00:13:48.169 --> 00:13:50.730 wait around for the sprint finish. ignores the 00:13:50.730 --> 00:13:53.070 tactical games everyone else is playing. With 00:13:53.070 --> 00:13:55.470 eight laps remaining in the race, she just attacks. 00:13:55.850 --> 00:13:58.370 Just goes for it. She pours all of that frustration, 00:13:58.529 --> 00:14:00.690 all of that rejection from the selectors straight 00:14:00.690 --> 00:14:03.649 into her pedals. She goes completely solo off 00:14:03.649 --> 00:14:05.370 the front. She just rode away from the entire 00:14:05.370 --> 00:14:07.190 peloton. She just rode them right off her wheel. 00:14:07.529 --> 00:14:10.090 And she held off the entire chasing field for 00:14:10.090 --> 00:14:12.429 eight laps and won the world title. Oh my God. 00:14:12.470 --> 00:14:14.690 Talk about making a statement. Just, you won't 00:14:14.690 --> 00:14:16.809 take me to Beijing. Fine, I'll just take a rainbow 00:14:16.809 --> 00:14:19.620 jersey home instead. Exactly. And this response 00:14:19.620 --> 00:14:21.580 established her psychological profile for the 00:14:21.580 --> 00:14:23.580 entire rest of her career. She learned how to 00:14:23.580 --> 00:14:25.519 channel massive disappointment into absolute 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.379 dominance. She doesn't wallow in it. She works 00:14:28.379 --> 00:14:30.759 through it. That is such an incredible turning 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:34.220 point. So she has a track world title. But clearly, 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:37.120 as we look at the trajectory, the road was her 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:40.659 real future. And as we move into the early 2010s 00:14:40.659 --> 00:14:43.159 in the source material, she enters what we can 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:46.019 definitely call her golden era. The golden era. 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:47.679 He joined some of the biggest teams in the world. 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:52.139 First, HTC High Road, and then Specialized Lululemon. 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:54.740 Now, if you followed cycling at all in that specific 00:14:54.740 --> 00:14:57.059 era, Specialized Lululemon was the team. They 00:14:57.059 --> 00:14:59.500 were the Galacticos of the women's peloton. But 00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:02.159 they were famous and feared for one very specific 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:06.960 discipline, the team time trial, the TTT. The 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.500 TTT. I feel like this is an art form that is 00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:11.620 kind of dying out a bit in modern cycling, unfortunately. 00:15:11.860 --> 00:15:13.759 But back then it was huge. For anyone listening 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:15.620 who hasn't watched one, can you explain how a 00:15:15.620 --> 00:15:18.899 team time trial actually works? Sure. Imagine 00:15:18.899 --> 00:15:22.019 a pace line of six riders on time trial bikes. 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:25.460 They are riding in a single file line, literally 00:15:25.460 --> 00:15:28.120 inches apart from each other's wheels, moving 00:15:28.120 --> 00:15:30.860 at nearly 40 miles an hour. They have to move 00:15:30.860 --> 00:15:34.039 as a single organism. No room for error. Zero. 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:37.200 The rider at the very front is breaking the wind. 00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:40.240 They are taking 100 % of the aerodynamic drag. 00:15:40.379 --> 00:15:42.960 It is agonizing. But the riders tucked in close 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:45.700 behind them are saving maybe 30 % to 40 % of 00:15:45.700 --> 00:15:47.500 their energy because they are in the slipstream. 00:15:47.700 --> 00:15:50.460 So the whole strategy is to rotate who is at 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:52.480 the front. Right. You smash yourself at the front 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:54.600 for maybe 30 seconds, pushing massive watts, 00:15:54.779 --> 00:15:56.659 and then you peel off to the side, drop back 00:15:56.659 --> 00:15:58.379 to the rear of the line, and recover in the draft 00:15:58.379 --> 00:16:00.960 while the next person takes over. Specialized 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.559 Lululemon turned this rotation into a literal 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:06.279 science. And Ellen Van Dyke was the engine room 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:09.299 of that train. Exactly. Because she was so incredibly 00:16:09.299 --> 00:16:11.360 strong, she could take much longer turns at the 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:13.980 front. While a normal rider might pull for 30 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:16.500 seconds, Ellen could pull for a minute or more. 00:16:16.679 --> 00:16:19.100 She could hold the speed artificially high, while 00:16:19.100 --> 00:16:20.940 the smaller climbing specialists on her team 00:16:20.940 --> 00:16:23.419 sat in her draft and caught their breath. That's 00:16:23.419 --> 00:16:26.659 a huge tactile advantage. And by 2011, she really 00:16:26.659 --> 00:16:28.759 starts winning individually on the road as well. 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:31.519 The sources highlight her winning the Ladies 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:34.950 Tour of Qatar. Now, looking at Qatar, it's flat, 00:16:35.090 --> 00:16:37.929 it's intensely windy, and it's sandy. It sounds 00:16:37.929 --> 00:16:41.110 miserable to race in. It is a race designed for 00:16:41.110 --> 00:16:43.409 the hard men and women of the sport. It's all 00:16:43.409 --> 00:16:46.250 about surviving crosswinds. In Qatar, if you 00:16:46.250 --> 00:16:48.690 lose focus for one second and let a gap open 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:50.470 to the wheel in front of you during a crosswind, 00:16:50.590 --> 00:16:52.559 the race is over. The race is completely over. 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:54.740 You get blown backward into the desert. But Ellen 00:16:54.740 --> 00:16:56.940 thrived there. She won the overall golden jersey. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.320 She won the points classification. And she won 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:01.460 the young rider classification. She just cleaned 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:03.940 up everything. But there is a story attached 00:17:03.940 --> 00:17:07.079 to that specific Qatar win in the source material 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:09.759 that really stuck with me. Because it isn't about 00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:11.480 the racing at all. It's about what she did with 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:14.700 the prize money afterward. Yes. This really reveals 00:17:14.700 --> 00:17:17.460 the human side of the animal. Just a few weeks 00:17:17.460 --> 00:17:20.779 before that race in Qatar, her teammate... Carla 00:17:20.779 --> 00:17:23.539 Swart had been killed. Oh wow. That's tragic. 00:17:23.779 --> 00:17:25.839 It was an awful training accident. She was hit 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:28.720 by a truck while out on a ride. The entire team 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.180 was just completely devastated. They were deep 00:17:31.180 --> 00:17:34.140 in grief. And when Ellen won Qatar, which actually 00:17:34.140 --> 00:17:36.900 carries a pretty decent prize purse, she didn't 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:39.839 keep a single cent of it. She donated all of 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:42.220 her winnings directly to Carla Swartz's family. 00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:44.440 That really shows the level of loyalty there. 00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:46.359 It wasn't just a group of coworkers. It was a 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:48.480 family. It really galvanized them as a unit. 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:50.799 They were out there racing for something much 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:52.849 bigger than just keeping those. sponsors happy. 00:17:53.250 --> 00:17:56.049 And I truly think that unity and trust is a big 00:17:56.049 --> 00:17:58.609 part of why they were so utterly dominant in 00:17:58.609 --> 00:18:00.490 the team time trial in the years that followed. 00:18:00.710 --> 00:18:03.009 You have to trust the wheel in front of you with 00:18:03.009 --> 00:18:05.609 your life. That makes total sense. So we roll 00:18:05.609 --> 00:18:09.009 into 2012, London Olympics, and she makes the 00:18:09.009 --> 00:18:11.460 team this time. No more of that too heavy nonsense 00:18:11.460 --> 00:18:13.420 from the selectors. No, they couldn't ignore 00:18:13.420 --> 00:18:16.099 her anymore. She made the Olympic team for everything. 00:18:16.299 --> 00:18:18.880 She did the road race, the time trial, and the 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:21.319 team pursuit on the track. A completely packed 00:18:21.319 --> 00:18:24.339 schedule. Very packed. In the road race, she 00:18:24.339 --> 00:18:27.319 played the role of the loyal soldier. She rode 00:18:27.319 --> 00:18:30.960 as a domestique for Marianne Vos. A domestique. 00:18:31.339 --> 00:18:33.380 That's the French term for servant, right? The 00:18:33.380 --> 00:18:36.539 helper riders. Exactly. In pro cycling, you often 00:18:36.539 --> 00:18:38.359 have to sacrifice your own chances of winning 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:41.380 to help your designated team leader win. Ellen 00:18:41.380 --> 00:18:43.319 buried herself into the ground, chasing down 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:46.940 attacks to help Vos, and it worked. Vos won the 00:18:46.940 --> 00:18:48.900 gold medal for the Netherlands. So that was a 00:18:48.900 --> 00:18:50.980 massive success for the team. But what about 00:18:50.980 --> 00:18:53.680 her own target event? What happened in the individual 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:56.740 time trial? She finished eighth. Eighth. And 00:18:56.740 --> 00:18:59.319 for a rider of her absolute caliber, eighth place 00:18:59.319 --> 00:19:01.859 is a failure. What went wrong? Was it the course 00:19:01.859 --> 00:19:04.160 layout in London? Did she have a mechanical issue? 00:19:04.539 --> 00:19:07.759 No, it was entirely in her head. She openly admitted 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:10.200 it in interviews later. She said she was, quote, 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:14.109 afraid to start too fast. She hesitated. Interesting. 00:19:14.250 --> 00:19:16.829 See, in a time trial, it's a very delicate balance. 00:19:17.089 --> 00:19:19.289 If you hold back too much in the first half of 00:19:19.289 --> 00:19:21.869 the course to save energy, you can never mathematically 00:19:21.869 --> 00:19:24.430 make up that lost time in the second half. You 00:19:24.430 --> 00:19:27.109 have to be willing to ride right on the absolute 00:19:27.109 --> 00:19:29.430 limit of blowing up from minute one. She played 00:19:29.430 --> 00:19:32.049 it slightly too safe and she lost. It's kind 00:19:32.049 --> 00:19:33.950 of ironic that for someone whose nickname is 00:19:33.950 --> 00:19:37.099 the animal. Her big weakness in that moment was 00:19:37.099 --> 00:19:39.759 overthinking it and being too cautious. It was 00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:43.079 a very rare moment of doubt for her. But, and 00:19:43.079 --> 00:19:45.240 here's that psychological pattern repeating itself 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:48.119 again, she didn't let that failure break her. 00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:50.779 She used that London disappointment as premium 00:19:50.779 --> 00:19:53.859 fuel. Because 2013, 2013 was essentially the 00:19:53.859 --> 00:19:56.460 perfect season. Let me look at this list of wins 00:19:56.460 --> 00:19:58.799 from the notes for 2013. She wins the overall 00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:01.720 at the Energy Vox Tour, the Grasse Orlova, the 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:04.630 Belgium Tour, and the Holland Ladies Tour. She 00:20:04.630 --> 00:20:07.369 is winning multi -day stage races now, not just 00:20:07.369 --> 00:20:10.190 one -day efforts. She was completely untouchable 00:20:10.190 --> 00:20:13.410 that year. But her main obsession, the big target 00:20:13.410 --> 00:20:15.849 on the calendar, was the world championships 00:20:15.849 --> 00:20:18.809 in Florence, Italy. She wanted that individual 00:20:18.809 --> 00:20:21.549 rainbow jersey in the time trial. She needed 00:20:21.549 --> 00:20:24.390 to erase the memory of London. And the preparation 00:20:24.390 --> 00:20:27.450 she did for Florence was borderline obsessive, 00:20:27.450 --> 00:20:29.910 right? The sources mentioned something about... 00:20:30.250 --> 00:20:33.230 5 .0 a .m. training sessions. This is where that 00:20:33.230 --> 00:20:35.710 human movement scientist degree really comes 00:20:35.710 --> 00:20:38.470 out to play. She traveled to Florence well before 00:20:38.470 --> 00:20:41.269 the race. She knew the course was highly technical. 00:20:41.430 --> 00:20:43.690 It had lots of sharp corners, tricky descents, 00:20:43.690 --> 00:20:46.410 narrow roads. She wanted to ride the perfect 00:20:46.410 --> 00:20:48.930 racing lines. The fastest path through every 00:20:48.930 --> 00:20:51.869 single corner. Exactly. But you can't practice 00:20:51.869 --> 00:20:53.829 the fastest racing line through a city street 00:20:53.829 --> 00:20:55.910 when there's normal daytime traffic. You have 00:20:55.910 --> 00:20:58.670 to use the whole road. So she got up before the 00:20:58.670 --> 00:21:00.910 entire city of Florence woke up. Every single 00:21:00.910 --> 00:21:03.809 morning, 5 a .m., writing the course over and 00:21:03.809 --> 00:21:06.089 over and over again in the dark. She even mounted 00:21:06.089 --> 00:21:08.109 a camera and video recorded all the corners so 00:21:08.109 --> 00:21:10.250 she could go back to her hotel room, watch the 00:21:10.250 --> 00:21:13.250 footage on loop, and visually memorize her exact 00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:15.549 breaking points. That is just next level dedication. 00:21:16.299 --> 00:21:19.740 And it paid off perfectly. On race day, she absolutely 00:21:19.740 --> 00:21:21.859 destroyed the field. She won the individual time 00:21:21.859 --> 00:21:25.099 trial world title very comfortably. And just 00:21:25.099 --> 00:21:27.319 to put a cherry on top of the week, she drove 00:21:27.319 --> 00:21:30.480 that specialized Lululemon train to a gold medal 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:32.839 in the team time trial as well. Two world titles 00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:34.880 in a single week. She was the undisputed queen 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:37.380 of the clock. But you know how sports media is. 00:21:37.500 --> 00:21:39.660 People always love to put athletes into neat 00:21:39.660 --> 00:21:41.900 little boxes. They say, oh, sure, she's a time 00:21:41.900 --> 00:21:44.019 trialist. She can ride fast in a straight line 00:21:44.019 --> 00:21:46.980 alone, but she can't win a real road race. She 00:21:46.980 --> 00:21:49.099 can't win a classic. And Ellen took that narrative 00:21:49.099 --> 00:21:51.640 very personally, which brings us perfectly to 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:55.059 2014 and the Tour of Flanders. The Rondin Flandrin. 00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:57.839 Yeah. One of the monuments of cycling. For you 00:21:57.839 --> 00:21:59.660 listening, if you don't know Flanders, it is 00:21:59.660 --> 00:22:03.000 pure chaos. It is raced over ancient cobblestones 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:06.700 of incredibly steep, muddy farm roads with thousands 00:22:06.700 --> 00:22:09.519 of Belgian cycling fans screaming in your face. 00:22:09.700 --> 00:22:12.440 It is absolutely not a race designed for a pure 00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:15.200 steady state time trialist. It requires explosive 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:17.539 punch. It requires agility and bike handling. 00:22:17.700 --> 00:22:20.500 But Ellen had a plan, didn't she? She did. She 00:22:20.500 --> 00:22:23.200 knew she couldn't out -sprint the smaller, explosive 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:26.180 riders over the top of the short hills. So she 00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:28.420 decided to just turn the most famous road race 00:22:28.420 --> 00:22:31.279 in the world into a time trial. How do you even 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:33.359 do that in the middle of a chaotic road race? 00:22:33.539 --> 00:22:37.779 You attack from incredibly far out. With 25 kilometers 00:22:37.779 --> 00:22:40.859 still to go in the race, she just rode away from 00:22:40.859 --> 00:22:44.099 the front group. 25 kilometers solo. In Flanders. 00:22:44.140 --> 00:22:46.859 Into a headwind. That's usually tactical suicide. 00:22:46.980 --> 00:22:49.779 For almost anyone else, yes. But for the animal? 00:22:50.440 --> 00:22:53.279 That's just a 30 -minute sustained effort. She 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:56.000 put her head down, engaged a massive gear, and 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.380 basically dared the rest of the peloton to try 00:22:58.380 --> 00:23:00.160 and catch her. And they couldn't do it. They 00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:02.180 couldn't even get close. She crossed the finish 00:23:02.180 --> 00:23:05.000 line entirely solo. And the sources note that 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:07.299 she considers that Flanders win to be equal in 00:23:07.299 --> 00:23:09.599 importance to her world titles, specifically 00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:11.619 because it proved to all the critics that she 00:23:11.619 --> 00:23:14.000 was a complete cyclist, not just a specialist. 00:23:14.380 --> 00:23:17.740 So by 2014, she is literally on top of the cycling 00:23:17.740 --> 00:23:21.450 world. 2013, 2014. These are her absolute high 00:23:21.450 --> 00:23:25.269 watermarks. But as we know in pro sports, gravity 00:23:25.269 --> 00:23:28.690 always wins eventually. And after this massive 00:23:28.690 --> 00:23:31.990 peak, the source material shows we enter a period 00:23:31.990 --> 00:23:34.390 that looks really, really tough on paper. Yeah, 00:23:34.470 --> 00:23:37.509 I call these the dark years, or at the very least, 00:23:37.509 --> 00:23:40.089 the frustrating years. And it started with a 00:23:40.089 --> 00:23:43.210 new nemesis for her. number four the fourth place 00:23:43.210 --> 00:23:45.769 curse you know there's actually a lot of psychological 00:23:45.769 --> 00:23:48.009 research on olympic medalists regarding this 00:23:48.009 --> 00:23:50.190 the studies show that silver medalists are often 00:23:50.190 --> 00:23:53.130 miserable because they just missed gold bronze 00:23:53.130 --> 00:23:54.930 medalists are usually thrilled because they at 00:23:54.930 --> 00:23:57.589 least got a medal right But fourth place, fourth 00:23:57.589 --> 00:23:59.390 place is a very special kind of torture. You 00:23:59.390 --> 00:24:01.130 are the very first loser. You get nothing but 00:24:01.130 --> 00:24:03.529 a pat on the back. And Ellen just started collecting 00:24:03.529 --> 00:24:05.809 fourth places like they were trading cards. Rio 00:24:05.809 --> 00:24:09.390 2016 Olympics. The time trial was her absolute 00:24:09.390 --> 00:24:11.670 obsession for four straight years after the London 00:24:11.670 --> 00:24:14.309 disappointment. And she finished fourth. Ouch. 00:24:14.670 --> 00:24:16.849 Just mere seconds away from the podium. That 00:24:16.849 --> 00:24:18.609 has to haunt you late at night. You just sit 00:24:18.609 --> 00:24:20.490 there thinking, man, if I had just taken that 00:24:20.490 --> 00:24:23.640 one corner a tiny bit tighter. if I hadn't touched 00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:27.440 my brakes on that one descent. Exactly. The counterfactuals 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:30.599 just eat you alive. And it wasn't just Rio. She 00:24:30.599 --> 00:24:33.099 was also fourth at the European Games road race, 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:35.079 which was especially frustrating because the 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:37.400 sources say that was due to a mix -up with team 00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:40.039 tactics on the road, and she was constantly finding 00:24:40.039 --> 00:24:42.519 herself finishing fourth in these bunch sprints. 00:24:42.599 --> 00:24:44.920 It just seemed like she was permanently stuck 00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:47.559 one single step away from the glory. And while 00:24:47.559 --> 00:24:50.200 her soul was taking a heavy beating from all 00:24:50.200 --> 00:24:53.259 these near -miss results, physical body was taking 00:24:53.259 --> 00:24:56.240 a literal beating from the tarmac. The injury 00:24:56.240 --> 00:24:58.779 list in this period is just horrific. The crash 00:24:58.779 --> 00:25:02.319 years. It started in 2015 at La Course by Le 00:25:02.319 --> 00:25:05.039 Tour de France. Massive pileup in the rain. She 00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:08.140 goes down hard. Broken collarbone again. Just 00:25:08.140 --> 00:25:11.359 brutal. But 2016 was so much worse. She was racing 00:25:11.359 --> 00:25:13.539 en loupette news blood. She crashes heavily on 00:25:13.539 --> 00:25:15.980 the cobbles. She breaks multiple ribs. Have you 00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:18.259 ever broken a rib? I haven't, but I hear it's 00:25:18.259 --> 00:25:20.059 a nightmare. Yeah. You can't breathe deeply. 00:25:20.140 --> 00:25:22.660 You can't laugh. You can't even sleep. And worse 00:25:22.660 --> 00:25:25.319 than the ribs, she had a potential punctured 00:25:25.319 --> 00:25:28.180 lung scare from the impact. She had to be hospitalized. 00:25:28.660 --> 00:25:31.359 And this is the critical moment where the physical 00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:33.880 trauma really starts to accumulate in her mind. 00:25:34.299 --> 00:25:36.640 Every time you hit the deck at 40 miles an hour, 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:39.720 your brain naturally registers that mortal danger. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:42.599 It starts to plant this insidious seed of fear. 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:45.119 You start asking yourself, is this really worth 00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:47.279 it? Honestly, most normal riders would have just 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:49.640 retired. Right then and there. Yeah. I mean, 00:25:49.640 --> 00:25:51.500 she already had the world titles. She had the 00:25:51.500 --> 00:25:54.759 Flanders trophy. Her legacy was secure. Why keep 00:25:54.759 --> 00:25:56.519 putting yourself through the meat grinder? Because 00:25:56.519 --> 00:25:58.799 she knew deep down she wasn't actually done yet. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:01.259 She knew that massive engine was still fully 00:26:01.259 --> 00:26:03.740 operational. She just needed a total change of 00:26:03.740 --> 00:26:07.059 scenery to reset her mind. So in 2019, she leaves 00:26:07.059 --> 00:26:09.859 her old squad and moves to Trek -Segafredo, which 00:26:09.859 --> 00:26:11.880 is the team now known as Little Trek. It's a 00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:14.460 fresh start. New kit, new bike, new vibe. And 00:26:14.460 --> 00:26:17.579 it worked wonders. She took on a new role as 00:26:17.579 --> 00:26:19.480 a mentor to the younger writers on the team, 00:26:19.539 --> 00:26:22.000 but she definitely kept winning herself. She 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:24.180 actually won the European Time Trial Championship 00:26:24.180 --> 00:26:28.259 four years in a row from 2016 to 2019. She basically 00:26:28.259 --> 00:26:30.740 owned that European jersey. But the really big 00:26:30.740 --> 00:26:33.240 prize, the World Championship Rambo jersey. Yeah. 00:26:33.299 --> 00:26:35.579 That had completely eluded her since Florence 00:26:35.579 --> 00:26:39.690 in 2013. That is a massive drought. for a rider 00:26:39.690 --> 00:26:42.289 of her caliber eight full years and you have 00:26:42.289 --> 00:26:44.470 to understand in professional cycling eight years 00:26:44.470 --> 00:26:47.789 is an entire lifetime entire generations of riders 00:26:47.789 --> 00:26:50.450 come into the sport peak and retire in an eight 00:26:50.450 --> 00:26:53.049 -year span a lot of the media and the fans had 00:26:53.049 --> 00:26:55.470 completely written her off as a serious contender 00:26:55.470 --> 00:26:58.490 for the world title enter the 2021 world championships 00:26:58.490 --> 00:27:01.430 and fittingly it was held back in flanders belgium 00:27:01.430 --> 00:27:03.789 the site of her greatest road race victory she 00:27:03.789 --> 00:27:06.250 was 34 years old at this race she was lining 00:27:06.250 --> 00:27:08.230 up against phenom women who were in their early 00:27:08.460 --> 00:27:11.539 But on that specific day, the animal came roaring 00:27:11.539 --> 00:27:13.440 back. She powered through that core. She was 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:15.539 perfectly paced. Her aerodynamics were flawless. 00:27:15.700 --> 00:27:18.299 And she took the massive win. Bridging an eight 00:27:18.299 --> 00:27:20.599 year gap between world titles is almost unheard 00:27:20.599 --> 00:27:23.200 of. It really speaks to her incredible daily 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:25.779 discipline. She never let her fitness slide. 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:29.200 She stayed at that razor edge elite level for 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:31.960 a full decade. It's astounding. And the crazy 00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:34.119 thing is she wasn't even done making history 00:27:34.119 --> 00:27:37.579 after that. Because in 2022, she decided to take. 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:40.319 on what is arguably the ultimate physical challenge 00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:43.480 in all of cycling, the hour record. Oh man, the 00:27:43.480 --> 00:27:45.799 hour record. For those listening who might not 00:27:45.799 --> 00:27:48.640 follow track cycling, this event is equally simple 00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:51.599 and deeply sadistic. You go to an indoor velodrome, 00:27:51.700 --> 00:27:53.980 you get on the track by yourself, and you just 00:27:53.980 --> 00:27:56.519 ride as far as you possibly can in exactly 60 00:27:56.519 --> 00:27:59.599 minutes. It is the distillation of pure suffering. 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:01.420 And remember, she's doing this on a track bike. 00:28:01.519 --> 00:28:03.880 There is no freewheel coasting on a track bike. 00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:06.380 It is a fixed gear. If the bicycle is moving 00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:08.700 forward, your legs have to be moving. No micro 00:28:08.700 --> 00:28:10.779 -rests. None. There are no hills to coast down. 00:28:10.940 --> 00:28:12.799 There are no road corners to freewheel through. 00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:15.920 It is just you, the black line painted on the 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:18.799 wood, the intense g -force in the banked corners, 00:28:19.019 --> 00:28:22.059 and a... rising tide of lactic acid. What is 00:28:22.059 --> 00:28:24.400 the actual pacing strategy for something like 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:26.619 that? Do you just go out as hard as you can and 00:28:26.619 --> 00:28:29.339 hold on? It is a terrifying tight rope walk. 00:28:29.799 --> 00:28:32.299 If you go out just slightly too hard in the first 00:28:32.299 --> 00:28:35.529 10 minutes, Your legs completely blow up at minute 00:28:35.529 --> 00:28:38.730 40 and the attempt is ruined. But if you pace 00:28:38.730 --> 00:28:41.450 it too slow and conservatively, you miss the 00:28:41.450 --> 00:28:43.990 record distance entirely. You have to ride directly 00:28:43.990 --> 00:28:46.750 on the precipice of muscular failure for an entire 00:28:46.750 --> 00:28:49.849 hour. And she chose to do this attempt in Grenchen, 00:28:49.930 --> 00:28:52.470 Switzerland. Why go all the way there? Altitude 00:28:52.470 --> 00:28:55.109 and air pressure. The air up there is thinner, 00:28:55.250 --> 00:28:58.109 which means there is less aerodynamic drag pushing 00:28:58.109 --> 00:29:00.369 against her body. Again, we see the human movement 00:29:00.369 --> 00:29:02.609 scientist degree coming into play. Every variable 00:29:02.609 --> 00:29:04.630 was calculated. And what was the final result 00:29:04.630 --> 00:29:08.029 after the 60 minutes were up? 49 .254 kilometers. 00:29:08.410 --> 00:29:11.589 Good Lord. Nearly 50 kilometers in an hour from 00:29:11.589 --> 00:29:13.809 a standing start. That is basically sprinting 00:29:13.809 --> 00:29:16.529 speed held for an entire hour. It was the absolute 00:29:16.529 --> 00:29:19.289 ultimate animal feat. It was just a pure test 00:29:19.289 --> 00:29:22.150 of the engine. And just to prove to the world 00:29:22.150 --> 00:29:25.269 that her 2021 title wasn't some fluke, she went 00:29:25.269 --> 00:29:27.910 over to Wollongong, Australia later that same 00:29:27.910 --> 00:29:31.210 year and won her third individual world time 00:29:31.210 --> 00:29:34.829 trial title. So at age 35, She was arguably producing 00:29:34.829 --> 00:29:38.130 better numbers than she was at 25. Exactly. Which 00:29:38.130 --> 00:29:40.089 brings us to the final chapter of our source 00:29:40.089 --> 00:29:43.130 material, the winding down, looking at 2024 and 00:29:43.130 --> 00:29:45.490 2025. Right. So she's still highly competitive. 00:29:45.589 --> 00:29:48.130 The notes show she was winning time trials at 00:29:48.130 --> 00:29:51.369 smaller stage races, like the Omlup on Borsell, 00:29:51.569 --> 00:29:54.390 and getting stage wins in the Volta Extrema Dura 00:29:54.390 --> 00:29:57.789 in 2024. But... 2025 was officially designated 00:29:57.789 --> 00:30:00.390 as her farewell season. And she had this one 00:30:00.390 --> 00:30:03.250 last incredible flash of brilliance that really 00:30:03.250 --> 00:30:05.650 proved a major point. It happened at the Amstel 00:30:05.650 --> 00:30:09.170 Gold Race in April. Another absolutely huge historic 00:30:09.170 --> 00:30:11.930 spring classic. She finished second. Second place. 00:30:12.049 --> 00:30:13.990 So she is standing on the podium of one of the 00:30:13.990 --> 00:30:15.950 most prestigious one -day races in the entire 00:30:15.950 --> 00:30:18.349 world right in her final year. That definitely 00:30:18.349 --> 00:30:20.390 proves that physically she wasn't washed up at 00:30:20.390 --> 00:30:21.950 all. She wasn't getting dropped from the Peloton 00:30:21.950 --> 00:30:25.329 because of age. Exactly. Which makes her actual 00:30:25.329 --> 00:30:28.509 stated reason for retiring so profoundly powerful 00:30:28.509 --> 00:30:31.890 and honestly so refreshing. Yeah. Let's really 00:30:31.890 --> 00:30:34.470 dig into that because she officially announced 00:30:34.470 --> 00:30:38.650 her retirement in July 2025. And in her press 00:30:38.650 --> 00:30:40.650 release, she didn't say, my legs are tired. She 00:30:40.650 --> 00:30:42.410 didn't say, I've lost my power numbers. What 00:30:42.410 --> 00:30:45.490 did she actually say? She explicitly cited, quote, 00:30:45.670 --> 00:30:49.710 fears of crashing. Wow. That hit me really hard 00:30:49.710 --> 00:30:51.670 after everything we just discussed. You have 00:30:51.670 --> 00:30:53.789 to deeply connect that statement back to the 00:30:53.789 --> 00:30:56.269 history we covered. The broken collarbones, the 00:30:56.269 --> 00:30:59.190 shattered ribs, the punctured lung scare, the 00:30:59.190 --> 00:31:01.990 multiple hospital visits. She explained that 00:31:01.990 --> 00:31:04.490 in the highly chaotic, stressful finales of modern 00:31:04.490 --> 00:31:07.009 races, with the peloton speeds getting higher 00:31:07.009 --> 00:31:09.069 every year and the physical risks getting bigger, 00:31:09.210 --> 00:31:11.230 she found her hand reaching for the brakes when 00:31:11.230 --> 00:31:13.390 she used to just pedal through the danger. Her 00:31:13.390 --> 00:31:16.089 self -preservation instinct finally overrode 00:31:16.089 --> 00:31:18.930 her competitive instinct. Precisely. She found 00:31:18.930 --> 00:31:20.890 herself actively worrying about the fall rather 00:31:20.890 --> 00:31:23.849 than obsessively focusing on the win. And I think 00:31:23.849 --> 00:31:27.250 that is the exact moment an athlete knows it's 00:31:27.250 --> 00:31:30.009 truly time to go. When the inherent risk of the 00:31:30.009 --> 00:31:32.650 job entirely outweighs the reward of another 00:31:32.650 --> 00:31:34.549 trophy. Especially when you factor in that she 00:31:34.549 --> 00:31:36.569 had absolutely nothing left to prove to anyone. 00:31:36.789 --> 00:31:39.170 She has the multiple world titles. She has the 00:31:39.170 --> 00:31:42.049 monuments. She has the hour record. Why risk 00:31:42.049 --> 00:31:44.430 your long term health and mobility for just one 00:31:44.430 --> 00:31:47.630 more generic race win? It was an incredibly mature, 00:31:47.849 --> 00:31:51.089 highly self -aware decision. It is a very rare 00:31:51.089 --> 00:31:54.150 thing in sports to see an ultimate warrior type 00:31:54.150 --> 00:31:56.769 athlete voluntarily walk away while they are 00:31:56.769 --> 00:31:58.829 still physically capable of standing on major 00:31:58.829 --> 00:32:02.500 podiums. Usually they fade away into total obscurity, 00:32:02.519 --> 00:32:04.740 or worse, they get violently forced out by a 00:32:04.740 --> 00:32:06.400 career -ending injury. She went out entirely 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:08.640 on her own terms. She really did. So let's pull 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:10.660 back and summarize this massive legacy we've 00:32:10.660 --> 00:32:13.700 just outlined. Three -time individual road world 00:32:13.700 --> 00:32:16.839 time trial champion, world track champion, the 00:32:16.839 --> 00:32:19.579 UCI hour record holder, Tour of Flanders winner, 00:32:19.779 --> 00:32:22.559 and a European champion more times than I can 00:32:22.559 --> 00:32:24.400 even accurately count off the top of my head. 00:32:24.750 --> 00:32:27.289 Looking at all of that, she is, without a doubt, 00:32:27.390 --> 00:32:29.670 one of the greatest Dutch athletes of all time. 00:32:29.789 --> 00:32:33.359 Not just cyclists, athletes. Period. Agreed. 00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:35.900 She successfully bridged the gap between the 00:32:35.900 --> 00:32:38.460 older, grittier guard of women's cycling and 00:32:38.460 --> 00:32:41.019 the hyper -modern, highly technical wind tunnel 00:32:41.019 --> 00:32:44.119 era of today. She emphatically showed that you 00:32:44.119 --> 00:32:46.579 can be a specialized time trialist and a classics 00:32:46.579 --> 00:32:49.500 generalist. You can be a deeply analytical academic 00:32:49.500 --> 00:32:52.279 and you can still be the animal. For me, it's 00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:54.500 the pure mental resilience that really sticks 00:32:54.500 --> 00:32:57.180 with me from this deep dive into the source material. 00:32:58.430 --> 00:33:00.910 Bouncing back from that massive 2008 Olympic 00:33:00.910 --> 00:33:03.609 rejection. Bouncing back from the Rio fourth 00:33:03.609 --> 00:33:06.150 place heartbreak. Bouncing back from literal 00:33:06.150 --> 00:33:08.650 broken bones to win world titles an entire decade 00:33:08.650 --> 00:33:11.509 apart. She completely redefined the concept of 00:33:11.509 --> 00:33:14.069 longevity in a punishing sport. She proved that 00:33:14.069 --> 00:33:16.049 being the animal isn't just about outputting 00:33:16.049 --> 00:33:18.309 raw physical strength on a bike. It's about the 00:33:18.309 --> 00:33:21.009 stubborn, uncompromising refusal to give up when 00:33:21.009 --> 00:33:23.710 things go wrong. So as we close the book on the 00:33:23.710 --> 00:33:26.349 incredible career of Ellen Van Dyke, here's something 00:33:26.349 --> 00:33:29.559 for you to mull over. In cycling media, we so 00:33:29.559 --> 00:33:32.319 often glorify the sheer danger of the sport. 00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:35.759 We highlight the spectacular crashes, the incredible 00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:39.099 risks, the 60 mile an hour daredevil descents. 00:33:39.140 --> 00:33:41.680 We package all of that into the promotional highlight 00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:44.559 reels to sell the sport. We definitely do. But 00:33:44.559 --> 00:33:46.519 Ellen Van Dyke, who is objectively one of the 00:33:46.519 --> 00:33:48.799 toughest, most resilient riders to ever touch 00:33:48.799 --> 00:33:51.900 a pair of carbon handlebars. retired explicitly 00:33:51.900 --> 00:33:55.180 because the sport became too dangerous for her 00:33:55.180 --> 00:33:57.759 comfort. It raises a deeply provocative question 00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:00.660 for the future of the sport. Exactly. In our 00:34:00.660 --> 00:34:03.160 endless quest for faster bikes, more technical 00:34:03.160 --> 00:34:05.220 city center courses, and more dramatic racing 00:34:05.220 --> 00:34:07.920 footage for television, are we pushing the human 00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:10.380 element too far? Did the animal retire because 00:34:10.380 --> 00:34:12.639 she couldn't keep up physically? Or because the 00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:14.800 sport itself evolved into something where mere 00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:17.119 survival became more difficult than actually 00:34:17.119 --> 00:34:19.599 winning? That is absolutely something to chew 00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:21.719 on. Well, Ellen, if you happen to be listening 00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:24.800 to this deep dive, enjoy the retirement. You 00:34:24.800 --> 00:34:27.760 have earned every single second of rest. Thanks 00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:29.400 for listening, everyone. We will catch you on 00:34:29.400 --> 00:34:31.400 the next one. Ride safe out there.