Writen by Quick Step minded of Quick Step minded and winner of the season 17 Press Release Competetion (and yes, Finz entered!!!).
  
  You have rode to glory that many times, you have shined at the biggest cycling stage there is and have a closet full of trophies, and then suddenly when you hit the magic OCM-number 31, the doubts starts creeping in. It doesn’t matter how great you were, every star has to deal with it.
  
  Usually the doubts start with the manager of the team. Although he has shared a lot of happy moments with the rider in case, the sponsors put a certain pressure on him, they want to see the future of the team secured, and the future, that is youth. Usually it’s a slow process. You become 30 and your become one of the veterans of the team now. So you not only have to race, but also guide the youngsters into the world of professional cycling. You have to share the secrets of the hard world cycling is, having to invest a lot of time in them. Because of that, you lack the time for proper training and you start to perform less. You know the reason, but does the outside world do? No, so the rumors start, ‘he is getting old, he is over the top’. Then the sponsors of your current team hear those rumors and start asking questions. Why do they pay such big wages for an old, not-performing rider? So they make some phone calls to the team manager, asking for an explanation. They get one, but are not satisfied with it, it all resolves around one thing for them, Results!
  
  So the manager has a talk with his star. He has taken his best wine for the occasion and has a conversation with his star-rider who he has seen growing from a local talent to a worldwide star. It isn’t

easy for him to confront his beloved rider, but the never-ending pressure of the sponsors weights on his shoulders. Being afraid to lose his job he has to obey them.
  
  They shake hands at end the conversation, but is it a handshake out of appreciation, or only a formal one? It is the latter. ‘After all what we have been through, how can he doubt me after just 1 bad streak in my already long career?’ The rider’s confidence starts to shrink and this is when the real troubles start. He lets his rigorous training-regime slip a bit, and results are lacking even more now. So then the manager puts up a deadline. ‘In the coming … weeks you’ll have to get some podiums in the races you participate in, if not we will have to review your future with the team’.
  
  This has a contrary effect than the one that was hoped for. How can they handle a rider with such a splendid career like this? Respect, that’s what you should get, time as well, knowing that you can lose some of your abilities, but never your class. But the months pass, and it seems you’re step by step coming back to form, although you had a rough time the first few weeks after the deadline-talk. Nevertheless, some days before your 32nd birthday you are wanted in the office of the manager. He starts to talk about how great years it were etc.. and you already feel it coming, you are going to get fired. And yes, after having to hear half an hour of lame excuses of the manager – the time that he was your closest friend seems long ago- , he says it. Disappointed, but with the fire in you to prove the manager wrong, you close the door and immediately start sending your CV to several teams.
  
  After some weeks, still no

answers. What went wrong, didn’t they receive your CV, are they gathering the money to hire you or are they waiting for the right moment? You decide to phone them one by one and ask why they didn’t answer yet. After you made those calls, you are a broken person, having heard the same answer over and over again: There are no big performances of you in the last months at your previous team and you aren’t getting any younger, so we decided not to hire you.
  
  Devastated and broken you decide to retire the sport you loved and still love. Knowing there are still a few more big results in you, but no one wants to give you the opportunity for showing that, it hurts even more. Long time ago when the career just started you hoped for a worthy retirement, but instead you are left in the gutter with only the glory of past times to still hang on to. You reflect on your career and the point it went wrong, coming to the conclusion that getting to a respectable age was the point-of-no-return.
  
  If,..., if only more managers would believe that age doesn’t really matter we wouldn’t get scenarios like the one described, and we wouldn’t have millions of fans with bleeding hearts, seeing their hero, the man who they have idolized during their childhood and admired during their further life, disappear in complete silence without even anyone hardly noticing he’s gone.
  
  Sadly enough, this is the story of several of the greatest riders to ever grace the game…
  
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