WHOOP Podcast - Leading On and Off the Bike with Pro Cyclist Alison Jackson

Episode Date: July 19, 2023

On this week’s episode, Jeremy Powers WHOOP Senior Sports Marketing Manager, Endurance Sports is joined by professional cyclist Alison Jackson. Alison is a female professional racing cyclist riding for team: EF-Education First-Tibco-SVB. She is a two-time and current Canadian National Road Champion, the 2021 Canadian National Champion for Time Trial, she represented Canada at the Tokyo Olympics, and back in April, she won the 2023 Paris-Roubaix Femmes. Jeremy and Alison will discuss Alison’s life growing up and finding endurance sports (3:15), winning the famous Paris-Roubaix Femmes (10:37), Alison’s passion for entertaining fans (18:20) the emotional impact of winning Paris-Roubaix Femmes (25:31), being a team leader while also being a creator (30:30), putting yourself out there on social media (35:30), Alison’s motto throughout her career (39:50), her hobbies and life outside of cycling (42:58), the Tour de France Femmes and the state of women’s cycling (47:25), how Alison deals with negativity and down days (54:15), and what Alison has learned from WHOOP (58:25).Resources:Alison’s InstagramSupport the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

What's up, folks? Welcome back to the WOOP podcast, where we're on a mission to unlock human performance. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of Woop, and this is a great episode. Here is Jeremy Powers, Woop Senior Sports Marketing Manager, being joined by professional cyclist Allison Jackson. And if you don't realize, Jeremy Powers, formerly professional cyclist himself. So this is a great duo.

Allison is a female professional racing cyclist riding for team EF Education First, Tibcoe SVB. She is a two-time and current Canadian National Road Champion, the 2021 Canadian National Champion for Time Trial. She represented Canada at the Tokyo Olympics, and back in April, she won the 2023 Paris-Roubet Femm. With the Tour de France Fem coming up next week, we had to sit down with the comment. conquer of the cobblestones herself to dive deep into the world of women's cycling. Jeremy and Allison discuss Allison's life growing up and how she found in endurance sports. She came a long way from a farm in Alberta, I'll tell you that. Winning the pari, Robe femme, her emotions around winning one of the biggest single-day races of the year.

Her passion for entertaining and social media, Allison's become a bit of a viral sensation. what it means to be a team leader and racing in the Tour de France FEMM. For all you members out there on Android, good news. We have Google Health Connect now integrated with WOOP, so you can seamlessly export WOOP data into Google Health Connect and send your Google Health data to the WOOP app. And as a reminder, we also integrate with iOS, Apple HealthKit, so you can do that as well.

If you're new to WOOP, you can use the code. will at checkout and get a $60 credit on apparel and accessories. That's at whoop.com. If you have a question once you answered on the podcast, email us podcast at whoop.com or call us 508-443-4952. Without further ado, here are Jeremy Powers and Allison Jackson. All right, Allison, welcome to the Whoop podcast. Thank you for being on. It's actually an honor to have you on. It's really cool to be able to sit here with you. And yeah, I've just been following along over the last couple of years, of course, on social media like many of us have. But for the Whoop podcast listeners, I think we're going to need a little lay a little groundwork to be able to

give a little context on who you are and where you came from. So if we can get the people up to speed with who you are a little bit and go push the way back time machine button to go back to the beginning. You grew up in Alberta, in Canada, which is the upper west corner of the country, if I'm not mistaken, is that right? Well, the furthest west. Yeah, I mean, it's still central because we got a lot of northern Canada still to go. I raced, actually, the tour of Alberta many, many moons ago, which was a stage race in Alberta. So I got to tour Alberta myself. But, yeah, can you bring us back to kind of how you grew up and how you got started and what your childhood was like a little bit?

Yeah, Alberta is a beautiful province with the mountains, you know, we got Banff, we got Lake Louise, Jasper, beautiful places everyone hears about. that's not where I'm from. I'm from way much more east of that flat lands where it gets flat and flat and where you, if your dog runs away, you can see them going the next day still. But yeah, just grew up small town, 4,000 people, farming town, grew up on a farm. Yeah, did a lot of farm chores growing up, riding a long, long bus ride to school. Definitely no cyclist in town. This is actually my next question, which is, and at some point you found endurance sports.

Yeah, you know, so I always just had a lot of outdoor energy as a kid, and I really wanted to be a farmer when I was younger, but I had a younger brother that my dad just really wanted to be the farmer. So then instead of, I kept being like, pick me, pick me, I want to go into the field, but that didn't happen. So instead, I just had all this outdoor energy that, yeah, my parents just put me in in all the sports because in a small town, when you're a sport kid, you end up playing all the sports so that you can have a team. So, yeah, I just grew up just really, yeah, wanting to be the best at every sport that I was put in, beat the boys. Yeah, and then, yeah, did a lot of team sports, also did some gymnastics, was in ballet. Yeah, it wasn't really until I was in college that I got into any of the endurance sports and also for totally different reasons. one of my life goals was learn how to surf so I'd started swimming all the time so that when the time came

I wouldn't die but I could session the surf all day and then I was doing this trek in the Himalayan mountains in India so I had been doing some running training like endurance stuff because it's high mountain altitude up there and then yeah after my first year of university I came back to the farm someone who had been working for my dad had left a, we say Canadian tire special, which really is like a Walmart bike, just left at the house, and I was like, I'm going to ride it to town. So that's like 20K on the, on Alberta gravel. You know, I started doing all these things, a little bit endurance style. Someone was like, oh, you train for a triathlon? And I was like, a what? Like, what is that? But there's a little club in town, just basically that one summer. I trained with them for a couple

weeks and then went to a race qualified for worlds amateur triathlon worlds and then was like all right one of my life mottoes is do well with what you have right now so in that moment i just you know took stock of what i had in my life and it was like well i've got a bit of talent here i've got you know the time uh maybe opportunity to try this out so like let's go all in and see what happens yeah because you found um triathlon and then it from what i read you also went to school for running You had a scholarship. Yeah. So after, you know, I joined a running club that in the end, a local university was just

starting up their kind of cross-country running program, had sent their athletes to this local club. So I show up and I was like, oh, great. All these other university age, like similar age people are at this club. Next week, they all show up with matching jackets. I didn't get a matching jacket because I wasn't at the university. But they let me ride the bus with them to this cross-country race and whistling. and I won and so yeah the scholarship offer came up and yeah really we had a great coach that turned

me into a great runner I mean the first year running indoor track 3K I got lapped I was totally like one of the last people finishing get lapped awful but two years later then I I won that race that championship race Canada West championship for yeah two two years back to back just really became you know, dove right in and, yeah, really became a runner by the time I graduated. Yeah, you were two-thirds of the way there. If you were riding and you were running already, then you were pretty much ready for triathlons. Yeah, I guess so. Just jump right in.

But you made it, you made a career as a pro cyclist. So at some point, you had to have picked up or gotten the itch for professional cycling or realized at some point that people were doing this thing and that you might be able to have a go at it. Yeah, you know, I think I just, I just love everything. honestly and whenever so I when I did triathlon I swam with a swim club and then I cycled with a cycling club and ran with the university so whenever I was mind you this never happened when I was in swimming I never thought oh I just want to be a swimmer but when

I was with a cyclist I just want to be a cyclist and everyone was encouraged me to try to race and then when I was just when I was running I also just thought I just want to be a runner like I just love everything I wanted to do it all. But really, at the end of my university degree, I really just wanted to be a pro athlete. And I also forever have had this like Olympic dream. So then I kind of had some options, like do I try to go long distance triathlon, but then, you know, you miss out on the Olympic dream thing. You know, running, my time's never plateaued. So is there potential there or cycling?

I only, you know, had went to some kind of local races, BC Super Week, had won some races there against pros. so really it was just a bunch of unknowns but the you know a walk-on-spot contract offer came for cycling so I was like all right that's it I'm taking that as my godsend and I'm going to dive right in and see where it goes you took it to the top you're an Olympian you went to Tokyo 2020 yeah super cool you're a national champion criterion which is for anyone that's just listening to the Wu podcast it doesn't know that's like small laps in a downtown setting think like you know maybe a less than a mile but you do like four of them. So Criterium National Champion, time trial, national champion, which is against the

clock. You're very aerodynamic, very cycling, time trialing. And then you're also a 2021 national champion in the road race, which is the long, you know, really hard road races that people typically see one day, though, like a Tour de France, where you outduled other Woup athlete Magli Rochette for the title there in 2021 for the Maple Leaf jersey. You want to stage the Symac Ladies Tour and the World Tour in 2021 against riders like Marianna Voss, who a lot of people say is like the queen of cycling. She'd been around forever. And this year, you won quite possibly one of the most beautiful cycling races in the entire

sport. It's a one-day race called Perry Roubaix. And for anyone, it doesn't know, it's like just the most beautiful race over the northern France cobblestone roads that's extremely treacherous and not only do you have to be amazingly talented, but you also have to have a lot of luck to not flat or puncture or be caught in the wrong thing or just to have a strong. of bad luck but um but it's i think the third edition um you've raced all three but this year you win yeah yeah that that's the best one for knowing that followed the race i mean it was it was a

it was a it was a funny race because a lot of people um expected the break to get reeled back in but you were in it and you you played a hand and i'd love i'd love to just hear about how you went into that race and of course i'd love to hear the whole story like what do you think of when i talk about peri ruby it's still of course fresh in your mind it's only been a month or change now yeah you You know, the periurbate comes at the end of two months, basically, of all these one-day races, one-day classics that are super intense, and there's so much pressure to perform in these one-day races. And so far, we haven't gotten a win.

And basically, when we go into the race, that's what we want. And that's what I have had on my, you know, written down as goals. I want to win a World Tour race, a spring classic race. And we had kept losing. And mind you, in cycling, you're going to lose more than you win. that's you know we have 200 starters and there's only one winner so you know the chances of winning right it's the odds are against you but coming into this this race i think i just had all all the losing before just really heightened the fire in me that i was going to do whatever it took to

to win this race and not wait for wait for anything to happen and in peri ruby there's so much that's out of your control the race favor is being bold and being ahead of the race. The plan for our team was not that I would ride in the early break. I'm really good at positioning and getting tougher when the race gets tougher or when it gets hard matching what that effort takes. But I also just wanted to be in the action. So as, you know, I was riding near the front,

just watching how the race was sort of playing out and seeing that there's this big breakaway that was going away and then bridge to it and that's, you know, how the race was won. But so far in three editions of Peri Roubae, this is the longest one that we've had. And we've had, what was added was a really big lap before going into the cobbled sections. The years previous, we did these really short fast, fast laps where everyone is fighting for position to just stay safe and try to get to the cobbles first in like a clear position. this year because of this like longer lap um i felt that the breakaway had a chance to at least get ahead

and when you can get ahead of an entry these cobblestones with a smaller group um it's so much less chaos you really just get to take your time you get to pick your line um and it will help you have better luck um because this race yeah punctures crashes are just there's so many more that happened in this race and other races just for how the park horse is um so anyway and we had quite a we had a really big group and i think with this race because we don't have such a long history um of seeing how this race plays out then it's harder to predict and so okay we you know teams maybe weren't expecting that this kind of break would go but and also having you know good riders in it and I think the whole time I just when I found myself in the break I decided this is the

this is the move this is my my play for the day I'm gonna see it through I'm not I'm not gonna sit up or you know try to play a game to save energy for the final this is this is the tactic I've employed and I'm gonna go all in so I really just I wrote there's a lot of girls that you know, started sitting on, not riding. But I think for me, I kept riding through every time consistently. And I think by doing that, it showed by example that I believe that this could make it. And I think that helped other people believe or like, oh, okay, like Allison, maybe she's a strongest in the break, but she's riding at full. Maybe we, you know, maybe there's something for us here too. And, you know, other girls were getting frustrated too.

that some were sitting on, and I would just say, well, what is your plate? What's your tactic? Because when you start thinking of what other people are doing, you really have to be your own best cheerleader. And that's for me. I just wanted to be in that action. I wanted to ride with heart and really try to take this to the final. It is a little bit of a chess game and psychological.

So you're like trying to drum up support for your agenda, right? Like you have a play. Someone else has a play. But you, yeah, by committing, people are like, okay, that's their play. Like she's committed and also knowing that you, you know, your palmers, your results already would speak to that and be like, okay, actually, she's committed, I'm going to commit more. Whereas if you were skipping turns, like not pulling through as much or doing this or that,

the riders would be less enthusiastic. And it came back to like 10 seconds. The big group that was chasing you all behind, like, you know, really like a, yeah, just like a carrot, just like trying to get to you was like, only like 10 seconds. They could see you. And they thought it was going to come back. But then, but then, like, the race keeps going out. And I think that that's, as a fan of cycling and as someone that's raced it, that is what

makes it so exciting. That is what fans love to see. It's like, oh, this is happening, but it's so unpredictable and it doesn't come back. Yeah, you know, and that's the thing about sport is you have to, you actually have to watch it. You know, there will be favorites of who will win or whatever, but we're out there for four and a half hours and there's a lot happening in that time. And it's a storyline and you've got to tune in to watch the story.

storyline and how it plays out and also sport is so exciting because there's upsets and there's underdogs that show up and you know bad luck happen or bad luck or off days happen to the you know who we think are the favorites and so you got to tune in to watch and that's why you know we love sport um and why it's such an entertainment um for fans and also i think you know you it takes it takes being a talented rider um it takes you know good training all those things but also for sure there's that that luck and that game in cycling and and i remember from a team car um i was getting you know the time gaps and it was coming down coming down and and then but when we get to that you know 5k to go and i look back and i can see that group and i just think

no way have i been riding out in the front for 140k to to just let be consumed with 5k to go and so then at that point i was like i'm going full and so i put in a four and so i put in a full big turn over the cobblestones um and then basically you know telling to other girls like this is our this is it's now or never and but what i think also happened was when you're the chase group and you're coming and you see that the time gap is coming down coming down and now you kind of assume you you know what pace that little break in front of you is holding and you can match it and you can you know measure effort of okay we've we've caught them but the thing is we changed pace so now we're in the front we're actually started going harder so and you don't as a group

behind you don't know that's happening you can't see the the pace pick up but that gap is going out and out and out and now there's trying to play the tactical game of you know saving it for the sprint and us in the front group we're just all we want is to to make it to the final because for any one of those girls in that break even if we're top 10 in a peri ruby that's a huge result and um so i think that's what just kept us motivated. There's there's three of us that were really motive, three or four of us that really wanted to pull through picked up that pace and then yeah, that's just, you know, how racing goes and what made the difference then to, for us to keep our gap and to get into the velodrome just with the small group. You won. I sure did.

I watched and I think the coolest thing for me is that, you know, we're talking to someone that's not just a great cyclist and a great athlete and a great person, but also, someone that's also a great entertainer. You know what? I say, I've said this in other interviews and stuff that I'm an entertainer. But what I love about being on the bike is that it provides, it's entertainment. And when you can watch athletes who really spice up the race or whatever, like you love it. You want to watch that. And I admire athletes that are like that. And that's who I want to be on the bike. But I'm absolutely the entertainer off the bike. I've been like that since I was a kid,

always, you know, at the birthday parties. Like I'm the one that's like, put, on the charades or the show for everyone else i just want everyone to have a good time so yeah that's me through and through yeah because i love it because like most people are looking at cycling and think like oh man they're doing 10 watts per kilogram 5 000 watts net spring and there so look how fit they are and you know oh my gosh look at the pain on that bike but like the if you haven't seen this for anyone that's listening like you have to go watch the innate emotion that comes out when Allison crosses the finish line and you immediately which we're going to get to just know that like innate like you knew innately like you didn't think about it wasn't planned you won you're like okay great

you immediately start to just boss the crowd by busting out into something that's authentically you you start dancing which is we're going to get to this but you you just start dancing like it's such a it's such a boss move to to pull off like a life achievement. right, a huge career moment, but then also to just bust out and start entertaining in dancing after the finish. You know, it's also funny people ask like, oh, did you plan that? Well, no, but honestly, I am so enthusiastic. It just, that's what's going to come out of me.

Just, you know, I am so excited for achieving this thing and it's so cool. And how else do you express yourself? I had no, I really had few words. I just had dance moves. I texted all my friends in like a group chat, like a bunch of my friends and I are in a group chat. They're all, you know, cyclists or ex-cyclist. And I said this is, this is the biggest personality in our sport right now. Wow.

Yeah. Thanks. I said that because I think like if you look back and you say like, oh, Peter Sagan used to like really be a crowd entertainer or you look back at some of these athletes that have really not just been great cyclists, but I've also like taken the sport to a place that's bigger than the sport itself. Cycling is kind of a funny, funny group. People that are fans are fans, but they have to become a fan for a long time. this is something that you know anyone could watch and be like that's so cool that they raced over these like cobblestone roads and then you know someone that started everyone that when they lined up had an opportunity to win that race they really did yeah but but through the

chess and through the good luck and through the fortune and through excellent training and all of this and then just to have this come out like that and for you to be able to take it past just that you won the race and to be able to entertain people I think yeah I think it's really cool well you know I really, I do love, I guess I just, I love sharing my joy with others. And I, I remember when I first, I started following these, basically it's like a, on YouTube, like these little dance classes. And it's so funny. And I just, I, but I loved it. I had such a good time. And then I was like, to my teammates, like, yeah, I'm, I'm just going to do this little dance thing. And then, and then, you know, trying to get people to join in and

at first like everyone just like no no no no one wanted to join me but they everyone wanted to watch and what i think from that point it's like when someone sees when you see someone loving their life and and having so much joy in what they're doing you just want to you want to be around it or you want to be a part of it somehow and it it also like it gives off just a great energy to others and then and so basically i just like kept doing it and then teammates started joining in and then you know it's also like something i think dance like in north america too we're we're pretty awkward in general but also i think we think too much about ourselves um you know don't want to look silly or whatever and and you know uh that doesn't matter

to me it goes out the window because when you have such a good time who cares it's really just about like the joy of the thing but what i love is that i think yeah Who I am and how I present myself as a cyclist, I love how it can bridge the gap between more than just people who love cycling, people who love sport, or people who just love seeing something funny or seeing something interesting or someone really enjoying what they do. And also what I love is that there's something for the whole family, basically. you know kids or or you know maybe there's you know one partner that's really into cycling and someone is not but but then you know they know who I am they know my name because of these like silly things that I do so yeah I really love what it is doing to the sport and and honestly yeah I'm a big personality and then also you know by winning this race it's kind of all these things that

come together to be like you know now we know the name Allison Jackson but really in the women's Peloton, there are so many great stories. And I think it's because as our sport is developing, so many, when I started, like we had to work and ride bikes. And we, so many athletes, female athletes have a full education or they're doctors or they've had other careers almost and then, you know, transitioned fully into cycling. So there are some great characters out there. But I think we got to, we got to help them pull out those storylines. lines, you know? And how I do it for myself is just very, yeah, overt and I love sharing it with others. Like, I love interacting with my fans when people make comments on posts and stuff. I just,

yeah, I just love sharing my joy. I definitely want to talk about the social media queen that you are on the web right now. I just wanted to ask one more question about Perry Rubet. When you, we talk a lot at Whoop about people being really like care a lot about things. like themselves. They're trying to, like, get a little bit more from themselves, or they're trying to have a balance point in their life, or they're trying to learn something about themselves. They're trying to find one percent here as like a top athlete. You might be looking for like a, you know, oh, if I do this thing with my sleep routine, I'll sleep better or when I'm on the road. This thing really affects me or whatever. But the, but, but I look at top like people

that would, you know, look at something like this or they have a team of people that would care about these types of things, like whatever that, whatever it is. Like for some reason, you care about the details and when you unlock such a big achievement like peri ruby do you do you like i want to say emotional but does does it like raise the hair up on your arms like when you look at when you look at what happened at peri ruby have you watched the video and is there an emotional response to it like achieving such a big unlock yeah so i say you know what was my goal entering that race was to win so even when i cross the line and sometimes you know it looks like i'm in shock but really it's like it's this feeling realization that I did it

this win is actually mine because there's so many times when you can get close and then you know you go home you have a sleepless night because you just think of all the little things that you could have done you know to try to get yourself a better position but to actually win this race and I also think of all the times that I've reconned this velodrome and you get to do the lap and you just imagine what it would be like to win

So to make a dream really come true, it is absolutely just like a wonderful feeling and something that in, you know, the weeks post the race, I just really soaking up the atmosphere, the fans, my family, the people, my team, everyone involved wanting to congratulate me, just soaking that totally deep into my bones because, you know, will I have this moment again? I don't know, but athletes were so, it's so easy for us to already look ahead to the next event, start setting new goals, and a lot of times we kind of forget that you got to, for how many years that I've been in the sport, eight years it took to get to this win. How many times have I tried to win a big race and have just fallen short or whatever? So I really was just like, I'm celebrating this and soaking it in. and my friends here, so I live in Gerona, Spain throughout the season. And when I got back, my friends had thrown a surprise party.

We watched the end of the race. But what was so beautiful was watching my friends, how they would have on the day been watching and cheering for me and also that it meant so much to them. And their reactions or they're, you know, rooting for me, but not, oh, it might not happen or, you know, saying things like, oh, well, if she gets second, well, or, you know, if she gets on the podium, that would be awesome, you know, almost trying to make excuses for me so they could still champion me however it finished. But watching how much it meant to the other Canadians, you know, no Canadian has won a big,

one-day classic race like this. And so to see that something like this and from people who have seen you, through all the ups and downs of the sport, they understand themselves that it's so hard to get. here you know we're all we're all trying to win big bike races and it's really hard to do and so yeah just seeing how this win has this ripple effect um on you know my close friends but then you know people beyond i'm locking that in my heart is a is very special yeah yeah champion mindset but um you know i just yeah i love the emotion you know it's uh it's really cool to see how much it means because you work towards something so long and then you achieve it.

It's like you said, hundreds of race starts, lots more, way more bad days than good days. But it is that champion mindset where you're like, yeah, and today's a new day, draw a line in the sand and I'm going to walk forward from here. And when you start at the beginning of the race, you have the opportunity to win it. If you're not into sports or you don't think that way, it really is like a champion mindset when you think of it that way because you're like, you're okay with defeat. You don't accept it, but you have to.

Someone's better on that day. but on this day the biggest arguably race of the year one of you were that yeah yeah it's really cool and it's thanks for sharing how it how you came back and all your friends it's yeah i love that i think it uh it just shows how powerful sport is for me and what it can what it can do for people so i do want to talk something more exciting not that i was like but but i do think that all of the front facing putting yourself out there for everyone that doesn't know alison's got a massive following on social media. TikTok, Instagram, but you become really well known for, like, your danceoffs.

For, when you joined EF, there was a fake smoke machine coming out of, like, a cave, and you guys were singing like a Celine Dion song or something like that. Was it Celine Dionne Dion, yep, go Canada. So I think it's really cool because we could obviously tell from just talking to you so that you're very extroverted, you've got, like, you know, you've obviously also got this very serious athletic side to you as well. You've got, you've got, clearly got like the competitor, but, you know, you're a purebred extrovert, and I just wonder how that balances.

And I think you've talked about it a little bit, but I think it's, I think it's contagious and I wanted to talk about it from a team environment and how you've come into this team because you've written for this program previously. You left, you came back, you've been on different teams, but I'm curious about, of course, your social media, but also how you've been able to interlace being a really serious athlete and also bringing that into the team and creating like a positive environment through being all those things that I already said. Yeah, it is funny.

You know, I've been on some programs that maybe thought that, you know, maybe I'm not taking it so seriously. But I've always been able to back it up with results. And I think then people allow me to be who I am. But I think I always say, I'm going to race better. My legs are better when my heart is happy. And as top level athletes, we are looking for all those one percenters, you know, and and we'll get to the charts and the science.

But we have to remember that we're humans. We're not just robots and there's things that are going to be meaningful to us or that motivate us that are outside the realms of training. And I know that for myself and I also know how to tap into what's really good for my heart and then we'll be really good for my performance because when I'm in the bike race, when I feel spicy or jazzed up about the chaos and I want to enter into that, that's when I'm a good bike rider. And if I don't feel like I can out of my heart of love of the sport and love of the chaos

and, you know, being a little bit crazy, you know, I wouldn't be daring or I wouldn't be bold to, you know, go beyond what you sometimes believe your body can do. and so when I come to a team I really also tried to find that out for other athletes and I think we'll see people have a longer career when you enjoy all of it when you enjoy the training and when you enjoy the racing so I try to help my teammates find a little bit more of that of that balance but for sure when it comes to race day there's there's marker or I'm able to turn it on and off pretty quick of real fun to real sort of serious or focused bits.

But coming back to the team, I knew with a new sponsor EF education coming on and just the brands and partners that the team has really love the storytelling and this fun vibe. So I knew that my personality was really going to thrive here. And it's been so fun for me to work with the media and marketing teams of all the different brands. It just gives me more ideas of things to create. And I love collaborations. And so you're talking about the Celine Dion video. I was like, all right, team, like, I've got this idea. I've had this idea. But I want more. Like, I want lights. I want, you know, and they're like, we've got a smoke machine. And I was like, bring it. Like, so, and I think that's also, you know,

now, you know, being team leader for a little bit or team captain on teams, you earn that. role when you can really motivate your teammates or when they respect you and i do that on the bike but also off the bike it really matters if off the bike if your teammates trust you if they want to champion you then that's an environment and the team that's going to perform well in races if i can help people enjoy their life more enjoy bike racing more and also recognize that what we do is such a special beautiful thing that later when they look back on it to just know it that it was such a rich time and that they really, you know, lived it in the best way. That's just what I want for, for everyone.

When you talk about, you know, team leadership and bringing the team up, it also requires you to, in the social media sense anyways, like put yourself out there. And I think also with your teammates, it's you, you know, you have to, you also sometimes, like, we get things wrong. Like, well, you know, we made that call on the road and it was the wrong one. And we're going to own that. We're going to move on. So it's like, there's highs and lows, which you've clearly stated in, like, social

media you know you're painting a whole picture for yourself like it's the real person that's there what was that first step like for putting yourself out there because i think some people listening they think that it's you know dancing on camera or you know being you know so much out there opening yourself up to that um i know you said a little bit as like hey it makes me feel good in my heart like this is what i need to like express myself but on the other side of it i i i'm always curious about when you take that first step to saying like oh you know what i'm going to take this i'm going to put myself out there people are ultimately going to like either like or they don't, right? They kind of are attracted to their own personalities. So I think my question is

around, you know, how does it, there's going to be days that are better than others. There's going to be things that like slam or don't. How do you deal with that? And what is your mindset around like, you know, good race, bad race, good TikTok or Instagram video or, you know, there's just, there's just a lot of like negativity in the air around these things. How do you, how do you overcome that? It's a big part of kind of our culture today is like people are, you know, it's really easy to just hop on and say things that are negative or to this or that. So I was, I was just wondering because you have truly, like, more so than any other cyclist that I know, put yourself out there on social media to be, you know, I think in a very positive way, 97, 8, 9% of the time.

I guess it's like I've always made videos and silly things, you know, and then, but I love sharing, like for me, really when I started sharing things on Instagram or a little more like dancer storytelling was during the pandemic and really I just needed to make myself laugh that's how I was going to cope with you know being at home alone I had so much time on my hands and then you know I would just be like I'm home alone I'm just killing myself laughing at the things that I'm doing and then then thinking sometimes like man is this like such an inside joke it won't be funny to anyone else but I was like I think it's so funny like I wonder if other people think it's funny and then it was getting great responses and so that I was and and that's the thing I just love sharing my joy but I also

I have such a high value of people and their uniquenesses and their quirks and I think it's beautiful and that's what like humans are wonderful beautiful things and I think when I allow myself to be my weird self and as quirky and just as who I am it really allows other people to be who they are and and so, you know, I'm going to be the first person to do it, but what I recognize is just that it allows people to really, hopefully, you know, to accept themselves a little bit more or like, oh, okay, I like this weird thing and I'm like, that's awesome. Because when people are really passionate about something, no matter what it is, it's weird or whatever, but if they're really passionate about it, those are the people I want to be around

and they want to hear from them and want to learn why they're so passionate about whatever it is. So that's sort of my baseline, you know, understanding of humanity and people. And so then, yeah, that's basically where I present myself. It sounds like it brings you some balance. Like, you know, you've got this, like you said, you can like almost put the jacket on or take it off, right? Like you can be this very serious competitor, but you can also be this like lighthearted person that's fun having a good time and like making a dance video or taking a picture. But I also think it seems like it maybe is like a balance point for you. Yeah. And also you're saying like, you know, sometimes there's going to be.

you know videos that really hit like viral video million views i'm like wow that's amazing and then there's other that's like really i'm i also actually i think all my videos are so funny but you know some that just like oh doesn't hit but whatever we have to understand that there's an average so like sometimes i'm like oh this one's really good but in order to have an average you have to have ones that are just not good right to have you know and i feel like i have a pretty good average but There's going to be ones that just don't make it. But I think I enjoy what I produce. And that's, for me, that's good enough for me.

Yeah, when you're not looking for validation or affirmation from others and you can take it from, you know, either from like a deeper, like, faith point or, you know, how you see yourself, that's going to be a much healthier base for when you're trying to project to a world that can be very, very negative. And, you know, I take that in bike racing too, and that's resiliency. also you know a lot of times and I have teammates you know currently that you know breakout season or you or the year before you're like wow okay you know I was always top 30 next year I'll be top 20 next year top 10 and then I'm winning races but life and also cycling

is not linear that way you're going to have you know you're going to want to see progression but it's not going to be just exactly that linear you're going to have you know a great race and then you might really have no results or nothing and nothing's working out maybe it's injury maybe it's just whatever else is going on and you have to allow that to happen and not you know get so negative about it because you know as we know in life you're going to have these ups and downs and and you just got to hold on and you know keep cheering for yourself believing in yourself believing in the work and in the storyline and the process so that you know you're ready for like that next moment when all the things come together for for you know a better

result so yeah i think i think it's this balance of perspective and and also sort of seen a bigger a bigger picture and making sure that your validation of who you are comes from a deeper source than you know any of these externals you talked earlier about about like a motto that you had kind of in a similar vein where it's like you got to do kind of you got to do the most with what you've got can you can you say yeah do well with what you have right now where does that where does that come from because that's also similar like it comes into the same similar vein yeah yeah so it's that actually comes from like a story it's a biblical story um but and it's really it's not how much you're given so you know i can think of that as like talent or resources or whatever i could look around and see that oh i mean

people kids in europe they started riding bikes way before me i got my first bike when i was 19 oh disadvantage well instead of seeing it that way i just think okay well well actually, what do I have right now? You know, I might not have had all of that, you know, bike racing growing up, but right now I have, you know, extra time on my hands. Maybe I just become a student of bike racing. I'm going to watch all the bike races. You know, what can I do right now? Or, you know, sometimes it was like I race for an Italian team and I was out here and we're racing all the time and I was like, okay, what I have right now is the opportunity to get into the bike races. I have the opportunity to learn another language. You know, you got to see

what the opportunities are and then really dig into that and then just try to manage the negatives because you're not going to be able to have a perfect storm, you know, in every scenario or every team that I moved to. I try to look at what's really good about this program. And then I'm going to dive full in 100% into those things. And it might not be all the things that you want. And it might not be all the things that you want or that you think will make you a better rider, but the things that are really good in the program, those are going to be great. So just like soak in all those things, learn as much as you can from those parts, sort of manage the rest. Yeah, I think that's, yeah, basically that's been my motto ever since I've been young growing up, saying yes to opportunities

and then just exploiting absolutely what I have right now in the moment, and then reassessing, taking stock of life and what are what I have what are my resources at at other points as as we go along so I guess with that I wanted to just talk a little bit about other things that are sort of outliers for you things that you do that are peculiar we see you cooking a lot we see you doing different things on your stories so I feel like you know we need to know more about you through your through your social media because you're so willing to share but what are some of the other things that um that you do that are maybe like a quirky but also that people like you know making videos and TikTok is not something that everyone does like um putting um like

making poutine waffles and putting them in your pocket and bringing them with you to to training rides um you know like these you know these different things i think show a lot of your personality and your creativeness um so i was wondering if you'd run us through like a handful of things that you um you know do that keep you smiling that are outside of some things we've already talked about. Yeah. So I'm 34 and also one of my other mottos is that you have to be brave to be bad at something new. And I think a lot of times adults, we are very comfortable and we like being good at something. And by the time, you know, when we're adults, we found something that we're pretty good at. And so we're really comfortable staying there. But to try something new, oh, it's awkward. You know, the learning phase, it's, it doesn't

look great but you know as kids we understand that you're you're kind of all your peers are maybe not great at something and you learn together and it's fine and we tell our kids it's fine to fail and then but if you keep trying you know you're going to learn a skill well that still applies to adults but we're yeah less brave to to sort of kind of be seen as funny to try some things well but I am not so um a few things that and in the off season I always try to learn something new. So in this last off-season, well, I've really wanted to perfect my past to making, which my roommates love, actually. Then I have my sister's family. They're really into golf, and my nephews, who are four and six, they've been hitting the golf course. And I've

been watching, and I'm like, you know what, if I ever go golfing with them, I'm absolutely going to lose. But I can't let that happen. So now I have a putting, a little putting green, and in my house on my patio that I... We're actually looking at it right now. That I pull out to practice just so that I make sure that I win. Those kids are not getting an easy win at all ever. So I've been doing that. And I've also, this winter, taking up skateboarding, which is so dangerous.

Holy moly. But basically, I just want to be able to do one trick so that, you know, just to be cool for the kids basically, like any kids on the street, you know, where I can walk up and be like, oh, I kind of know a trick. Let me try. And I'm just like this, you know, old lady. And then kickflip and then mic dropping. I'm out of there. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, we're here. You know, that's just the competitor in you. It's like I was trying to get the IT set up here, meaning like all of the microphones and stuff as we have a chopper come across. No, no autographs of Allison, please. She's not doing any media right now.

there as the helicopter comes over. Now, it's just like the champion of mine said it. You're just like, you're not going to let your nephews or your nieces. You're not going to let them take the win. You're going to be practicing in your off time getting these puts right so that when you show up to mini golf, you smash them. That's 100% right. I actually remember, so I love my nieces and nephews, mostly because they're about the only

people that match my energy. But I remember my oldest nephew when he was three. And we're running, like we're chasing the ball for the dog. But basically, we're running after the ball every time. And we're running. And he's getting a little slower. But we just keep going. We keep going.

And then I look down, like, he's got beads of sweat coming down to his face. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Dude, three-year-olds, are they allowed to sweat like that? But one of my favorite things, too, is like, I will never be the person that says, all right, we should sit down? Or like, should we go inside? Because it's my own little competition that doesn't matter to anyone else. But to me, yes, for my nephews to have to be like, we should sit down or like, maybe we should stop running right now.

And I'll be like, okay, but then I know I've won. I love that. Well, I want to talk about also this summer. So like what you've got coming up? Because we know that you're training in the off season for serious stuff like golfing with your niece and nephews. And you're also probably working on a thousand creative ideas for new Instagram and TikTok. reels and videos, among many other things, but you also have a lot of racing coming up. Yeah, yeah, that's the thing too.

I mean, after Perry Rube, we still had two races that we had to, you know, finish out that week, and we've got, yeah, lots of goals. And now, you know, checking off some on the goals list, we can add some more in. So, yeah, looking forward to the summer's racing. You're going to be doing the, or potentially. I don't want to say you're going to be, but it sounds like there's a good chance or you're on the long list to do the tort of first. France Femm's, which is going to be exciting.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that race to get to be a part of another big historic sort of moment and momentum within women cycling. Yeah, it's a big one and it's also so visible, which is really exciting. Can we talk about that, I guess, women's cycling in general and Tort de France Femmes? And Perry Rube, you know, Femmes presented by Avex Swift. Zwift is, of course, a big partner in making these events possible. And, you know, I think women's cycling right now, in my perspective, has someone to go. But I also think it's in the best spot it's ever been in.

Yeah, it's really cool to see the progression from when I jumped in to all the things that, you know, have been added to the calendar and have been added to working conditions and the world tour. And we have, you know, some legends in the sport that, you know, once they retired from bike racing, they've really committed to pressuring the UCI, pressuring the ASO to make things happen for us. And so the Cyclist Alliance, I just admire so much the women that have been a part of that to really push forward and not just talk about how there's a gap between men's cycling and women's cycling, but actually make things happen.

Because that conversation for a while was just that. It was just a conversation. But we have fans that, you know, they'll find that very obscure, like, Twitter feed or, like, whatever, you know, camera that's in the caravan that you really can't see anything in the race. But people are, you know, fans really want to see what's happening. And so we also have, you know, the fans to thank for really pressuring organizations to show their races. Yeah, so it is a really exciting time when we have, you know, the Tour to France. which as a Canadian, you know, I say I'm a professional cyclist and people will say, oh, so do you go to the Olympics?

Or they'll say, like, the Tour de France. You know, those are the reference points for what a sporting accomplishment is. And now I can say yes to both those things that, yeah, we have the opportunity as female cyclists now to be on the biggest stage and be connected with the long history that Perry Rube has on the men's side and the Tour de France has on the men's side. It's a lot of positive things that you said there. What needs work in the women's felt on? What's like kind of the top two, three things that you think need work in the women's belton?

Yeah, for sure, TV coverage right from kilometer zero. For example, periubay, that's a race people really want to see from zero to the finish because there's so much action. And really, the cameras only turn on, you know, much later the break was already established. So, so, and the fans are asking for it too. Um, and, and then I think when there is a consistent place where you can go to watch the, the sport, then fans will stay when it, when it's, when they're not sure when they can watch it or where it will be found, then you're going to lose the audience. Um, then I also think now

we need to have more, so we have the world tour, um, but we also need to develop out the, the building blocks to get there, um, and have more U23. standalone events, also a standalone U-23 road race and time trial at world championships. Right now they're trying to put the U23 women's race inside the elite race, which just makes tactics weird. And then it also excludes a lot of riders from competing at world championships because nations only have a certain quota. They'll only have a team of six allowed, and they have to split that now between

do they want to have a, you know, a chance of winning the U-23 title or the elite title? And so, yeah, we need to separate those things. And then, yeah, I think just help build that pathway from junior to U-23 to elite. You'll go to the Tour de France. You already said it earlier in this interview as a leader to EF. You'll be one of the, you'll be like the team captain. Yeah, team captain. Well, team captain is a little different than leader.

team captain will be on the road decision making, guiding the team, taking in all the information of what's happening on the road, and then making decisions, which I love to have that role. And I think overall the tours, you know, we'll have to see the players that we're bringing and what our goals will be. But I really want to be able to put my hand up for a stage to have my shot at taking a win. Yeah. And what do you think you need to, what we be looking to improve on? You've already had great for them.

You've taken some great, like, you've been on the podium a bunch already, like early season. You've obviously won pari rubé. You've been having, like, I'd say, a great year. You've been in the mix, a lot of races. What will you try to work on now to be able to be your, I think you'll, I'm assuming, you'll try to be at a peak for the women's tour de France? Yeah, yeah, that's the plan. You know, we've been working hard towards that on different things.

So taking a closer look at the courses and trying to mimic some of, of, you know, what that TSS will look like in training and day after day sort of riding. Yeah, and it's, I mean, when we get into stage racing, it's, like, I'm a, I'm a really good one-day classics rider, so this, yeah, we'll take a little bit more training, sort of that fatigue resistance going into it, which makes training not as fun. It's very hard, but, you know, we do that for the hope of glory later. Yeah, and then what I'm really passionate about to, is like what I hope my peri ruby win has done for the team is allowed my teammates to think oh maybe that could be me and and believe in themselves and then and then also be able you know

they'll have the belief in me that I can do it what I want to do is from my experience of racing and the teams that I've been on I want to be able to teach that to my teammates so that we come in with a really strong team because I've been at you know big bike races trying to win it on my own and it's, you can't do it. The field in women's racing now is too deep. You have to have really strong teammates in order to make it to the final and make a win happen. So really just trying to tap into teaching my teammates just more teamwork or some of the

skills in the Peloton or developing our tactics together. Because I think if we come in with a really well-oiled unit, we're going to be at the pointy end of the bike race more often. I just want to tap into. but you've talked a lot about like leadership and I think there's like a quote you know like success leaves clues I don't know who started but like it's kind of this whole thing like you've had success at perrube you're bringing like a lot of time in the peloton you're bringing a really positive environment bad day happens what do you say to the team in those instances like tour de france you're

there bad day yeah you know what's interesting as a team captain yeah it's going to be my approach is absolutely going to be different per person and really seeing what they need it's also going to be so situational what happened in the race why didn't we make it but but what's always going to be good is so we're going to need to be critical like if we missed the mark there's a reason why and we got to take ownership for what did not go well because if we can take ownership for it then we can try to fix it if it's something that was out of her control or if we're always passing it off as you know a problem that was not us then we can never really move forward or learn to change or try to think creatively and how we can bypass whatever was was going

wrong so we're it's going to be critical and there's probably going to be some hard talks but always there's always going to be something positive that happened in the race and whether you know is it a tangible thing was it a mindset thing was there some small part in the race we we really need to be able to take moments and celebrate the small wins to just keep ourselves going because I think we can be very athletes can be very critical on our on ourselves but we also equally enough need to champion ourselves in the small moments in the small wins so we can take into the next i think an attitude of excitement that you know maybe we could do better is going to be a better attitude than i was so bad i'll never make it because with that attitude then already yeah you're not going to

make it you have to think but what if i can yeah i always i always would say it to myself like every day is a great day with the right mindset right like i've literally told myself that a thousand times like oh yeah we could look at this three different ways you could also go up to the to the counter at the airport and you could say like yeah i need to check in for my flight or you could say like hey i oh sounds like that person in front of you was a jerk um like i'm really sorry for that and like i you know like i'm a new person like i'm here to it right but with the right mindset like there's two totally different outcomes like one person's a jerk and then you're a jerk behind it's like it starts to ruin that person's day but you can also like with the right mindset you're

like, actually, I'm going to be a bright, shining star here. I'm going to give them this energy, changes the whole outcome of the day or for that person and for you. Yeah, absolutely. And I think being able to experience something not great and then put a pin in it and shift, it's really hard to do and that's a skill that you have to learn. But exactly like you say, like maybe you're having such a terrible time, but one good thing happens, you've got to latch on to that because sometimes when we're in such a gloomy

place we don't have the eyes to see the beautiful moment that's happening right in front of us so we got to be able to separate those things or put it recognize that i mean it's still a tough time like in a bike race yeah we still miss the mark or it's you know you know we made mistakes you got to still recognize that and sit with that it's uncomfortable but also be able to put a pin in it so you can see the other things that are really beautiful that's happening all around it or at the same time I wanted to talk a little bit just about WOOP, you know, we're on the WOOP podcast. But I was just curious to know, you know, what it is about, you know, in general, like in cycling, we, we, there's so many things that you can measure.

You can get spun out with them. You can measure power, heart ray. You can measure, you know, you can journal. You can do so many things. Therapy, sports, psychology, different languages. There's a lot of things that you could spend your time on as a professional athlete and And whoop is one of those things that we really believe in. And, you know, it's a huge part of the people that work here and, like, making it a perfect

product to be able to help people get, like, a little bit from themselves. I'm curious if there's anything that you see in the team or that you've learned from whoop over, you know, the last year or whatever, how long you've been using it on and and off that has stuck out to you that's been something that you've implemented in your life or that you've seen someone else grow from that's been able to help them. Yeah, well, I mean, sleep is such an important part of recovery. and it's one of those things that we just take for granted sometimes. So for me, I swear, my special power, my superpower is that I can sleep anywhere at any time.

That's amazing. Yes. And for the career that I live in, this is really good. But what's interesting is when we can make it measurable. And also, you know, our sleep is not static, as in we don't need the same amount of sleep all the time. You know, how do we recover best from like a really long effort? versus a rest day or things like that so that's interesting just more data to sort of put in but and then also having extra data uh you know we wear the whoop when we sleep but also when we

exercise so it it adds uh it fills out the picture for my coaches a little bit better and i totally am like i ride by heart and i'm by passion i ask heart i ask the questions you know to pitch him to my coach he gives me like a you know all the science and that's great um but once i just believe in something that i'm all in but i leave all the science to someone else which is why we have so much so many staff members on the team and coaching um because there is so much data analysis and science and they look at all that so whoop is just another great tool that i also can give all the data to to the coach to look at and to match with you know what's going on in training and you know what are we getting you know just from my comments right um because how how what the data

says and then also how we're experiencing it you got to put those two together to create you know fill out this this full picture yeah yeah it's definitely um i think for for probably for someone for someone like you i don't i don't know you forever but from what i can tell for what i can see is like you might need to be held back a little bit like you might want to be like hey we noticed you had a 20 strain today but it looks like there was a two hours of dancing uh in there yeah on my training peaks too we have this like pie chart right where it's like how you know how much of your training is is uh cycling there there's a little pie chart for uh a little slice that's for you know the core workouts or the strength stuff there's also a little slice there for you know

ticot dance dancers because uh yeah it does take some energy you know of course there's a lot takes and um yeah i think that's the thing is like it does paint like a big picture like a full day like like yeah you know what you did on the bike there's a power meter there's a heart rate monitor you got like other things that you're like measuring everything with and then you've got your comments like how you're feeling but then you've got like this well i like went down and i did two hours of dancing and then i also like did an hour of putting so that i can smash my knees and nephews and then i also took the dog for a walk downstairs like i was just yaving around that stuff adds up and that's like but i know alza we said it was supposed to be a rest day you're like oh yes yes but we can see that

you know also you know there's a few of my teammates who who love that we have a group chat on the who which is really fun but also can be a little bit invasive into your life I'll get I'll get a text message in the day just being like Allison like what was going on you only slept for four hours and I was like oh yeah uh you know I was out at the cafe but you know they're playing some music and we stayed out a little later you know what it's so funny some of my teammates are really like into this but also we're also competitive too so it rank you on like recovery strain score like sleep like i want to get that 100 percent so sometimes it becomes also this like fun little game that we play within the team yeah no i do know because i'm also on there

with like friends and family and yeah no i know they they know everything it's uh i think it's good because it also pushes you right like oh yeah like i know like you know i got to get i got to get on line like literally i'm on this right now i'm on a big tour of europe doing a lot of you know different things for for work and uh you know people can tell like hey it looks like you're looks like you haven't really have been sleeping very much. Like, that's because I'm traveling and I'm in a different hotel every week. Thank you very much. Checking in.

Like, what? Is this a work trip or what is this? It just reminds you of like, yes, I'm out there. Well, Allison, it's been amazing to get to know you. Thank you for sharing so much with us here on the Woop podcast. We're wishing you a ton of success in everything that you've got coming up this summer and beyond. Thank you for being a Woop Ambassador and for believing in the product, for using it,

and for being such a great leader and an advocate for science. It's really great to spend the time with you and wishing you all the best and everything to come. Thank you very much. Thank you to Allison for coming on the WOOP podcast, and congratulations to her on an amazing cycling career. If you enjoyed this episode of the WIPP podcast, please leave a rating or review. Check us out on social at Woop at Will Ahmed. If you have a question, you want us to answer it on the podcast, email us, podcast at Woop.com. Call us 508-443-4952.

We're going to answer your questions on a future. episode. If you're thinking about joining Woop, you can sign up now for a free 30-day trial. That's at Woop.com. You can alternatively use the code Will and get a $60 credit on Woop accessories when you buy a prepaid membership. That's a wrap, folks. Thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next week on the WOOP podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green.