Segafredo Zanetti sat down with Trek-Segafredo's Irish powerhorse in this week's coffee chat.
What is your morning ritual?
I get out of bed and turn on the coffee machine. I make two double espressos and think about what I’m going to do that day while I drink them, and generally moan and complain about how tired I am!
How do you like your coffee?
It depends. If I’m in a hurry, I’ll just have a double espresso and bang it back. Other times I’ll have a flat white or a latte and attempt some form of latte art.
How many coffees do you have before a race?
I don’t know, to be honest. I always have two in the morning while having breakfast, and then on the team bus, I probably have three more of the Segafredo pods before the start of the race. So, I’d guess around five coffees in total.
Who is your favorite companion for a coffee ride?
I’d say, my girlfriend. I like to go out for a quick cruise with her so I can half-wheel her, even when I’m recovering.
What is your favorite coffee ride?
I don’t really have one anymore, but when I used to live in North Wales, I’d go out with my friend. There was a loop we used to do all the time, it’s only about an hour and a half, but it had a pretty famous climb in it. We’d stop in a seaside town called Conway at a small coffee shop, and they always had these insane coconut chocolate slices. I’d always put away about three of these before riding home – but then I’d have to go the long way back to burn them off again!
How has your daily life changed in the time of this pandemic?
Life has changed quite a lot and it was a struggle with finding routine at first. Luckily, I’d recently moved apartments, so I had been pretty busy. However, in training, it was quite hard to want to hurt yourself when you didn’t know when you would be racing again.
Now that we have an all-clear to return to racing in a few months, and the lockdown in Spain has been lifted, the motivation has returned. But at the start, when we already had one period of lockdown for two weeks, and then they extended it further, it was a big blow to the morale.
I learned to become more time-efficient on the turbo. In the mornings, I was doing an easy hour and a half, and in the afternoon, two hours of intervals, so in the end, I got about three and a half hours of riding per day. I applied the roller rule – three and a half hours on the rollers is the equivalent of seven hours outside, so I think I’m ahead of the game.
How do you invest your free time at home?
Netflix. And the fridge. That’s about it.
