Old man Williams

At 31 years of age, I am relatively old to be joining the professional ranks of cycling. Most come in somewhere in their early 20's and work their way up from there. Despite this, I am by far, not the oldest guy in the peleton either. Hard men like Jens Voight race well into their 40's.

 

On Team Novo Nordisk, I am the oldest rider on the team.

Most of the other riders are much, much younger, without a lot of experience in the peleton, never-mind living out of home. So what does this mean for me? Well, with my infinite wisdom and life experience, I need to help the younger riders learn the ways of the world.

 

I'm not sure exactly what that entails but I'm assuming its advice like: Resist the urge to buy Cocoa Pops for a breakfast cereal just because you are away from your parents that never let you have it. Staying up until 3am watching music videos isn't a good idea when you have a big day coming. And you can't survive on pasta, olive oil and cheese alone.

This role makes me feel old. Damn old. Perhaps I can turn things around and simply live vicariously through them? Convince them to do all the things I never got around to. Or maybe I could go Mr Miyagi and teach them abstractly by making them do all of my chores. It's worth a try.