The Worry Gap
It’s the night before. Your bike is clean, bottles mixed to the perfect ratio, kit laid out on the chair like a chalk outline. And you’re lying in bed, mind stuck in a loop: the scrum of the start, gaps opening, the moment you get dropped in front of everyone.
Whether we’re talking about a local road race or a hard group ride, the riders lined up at the front probably aren’t lying awake the night before.
A 2025 study of 219 cyclists in Turkey (124 amateurs, 95 elites) found that the elites scored significantly higher on mental toughness and significantly lower on anxiety and worry.
The easy read is that elites are simply “built tougher,” but the study can’t actually confirm that. It’s a snapshot, not the full story, so it can’t tell us whether mental strength makes elite riders or years of racing make mentally strong ones. The researchers suspect a lot of it is earned through seasons of start lines, bad days, and pressure survived. To a coach, that sounds a lot like consistency.
That changes what your 2 a.m. loop means. It isn’t a judgement on who you are. It’s what an unfamiliar thing feels like before you’ve done it. It’s a gap in experience, and experience only comes one way.
A few ways to start closing that gap:
Rehearse it. Picture the start, the first climb, the moment your legs begin to sear, and see yourself riding through it.
Check the story. Missing your pedal at the start, getting dropped from a group – these are plot twists, NOT the ending.
Do a smaller version of the scary thing. A slightly easier group ride, a flatter local race. Ain’t nothing to it but to do it!
The riders at the front used to lie awake too.
See ya next week,
Steve