The Empty bucket and the Cobblestone hero !

The Kerry football manager Jack O’Connor once told a friend of his to ‘watch out for feckers that empty your bucket’ . When asked to expand on this he explained that sometimes the phone will ring and the wife will hand him the phone and he’ll be stuck there for an hour listening to all the whingeing and moaning that someone has to say . When he get’s off the phone he is wrecked and almost needs a lie down . Then someone else might call who is upbeat and positive and after five minutes chat he will feel revived and energised .

He went on to say that it’s important to watch out for people who ’empty your bucket’ . Negative people who get you down . And he said that there were 2 types of these . The ones who empty your bucket all in one go , who you can identify easily , and avoid , and the ones who empty it drip by drip . They are the dangerous ones because you don’t even realise that they are doing it .

Most top athletes , and especially cyclists can be like finely tuned animals . The presence in a cycling team of an upbeat character can lift the spirits and also the performance of the team as a whole . Self confidence is hugely important although it is important to get the balance between confidence and arrogance right . They will avoid negative characters like the plague .

Yesterday Fabian Cancellara completed a historic double by winning his second Paris Roubaix in dramatic fashion just one week after decimating the opposition in the Tour of Flanders .

After the race he said that he knew that once he had a 10 metre gap  it would be very hard for his opposition to close and that they would be scared of him . That was not arrogance , but a superb athlete in the  form of his life acknowledging the physical and psychological advantage he had over the rest .

Speaking to his fellow riders , they all say that Cancellara is one of the nicest guys in the bunch . No throwing his weight around or looking down on riders from smaller teams . He smiles easily and has a great rapport with all the mechanics and back up staff on his team .

The way that he rides is a great example to any young cyclist  . He does his share of work in the race without wasting too much energy , but when he goes on the attack it is full steam ahead . There’s no half measure , he is fully committed . Yesterday he attacked with 50k to go and was never seen again .

He is a positive rider , always attacking and working hard , thus making himself stronger year by year . Negative riders who try to be too ‘cute’ never make it to the top step of the podium in Roubaix or many other podiums for that matter .

Barry

thecyclingblog.com