In episode 97, I catch up with one of the most fascinating cyclists in the modern peloton, Matej Mohorič. Matej is well-known for his impressive record of wins and his fearless riding style, but also for his eloquent and candid interviews that he consistently delivers. In our conversation, we discussed the classics, what it takes to win, and the challenges of gravel cycling, including his experience in winning the world gravel championship. We also delved into Matej’s expertise in descending, which many consider to be the best in the world.
00:00 Introduction and Matej’s family
3:52 How to improve your descending
11:51 Openness in the media
13:56 What does Matej do in his down time
19:03 Matej’s gravel world championships
29:03 How to best film gravel races
30:31 Should gravel races be longer
31:58 Matej’s gravel set up for worlds
34:10 Why Matej wants all road riders to race gravel
36:02 How to win Roubaix in Matej’s opinion
41:15 What Matej would look for in a young rider
44:31 Matej’s dream meals
45:26 Slovenian cooking
48:13 Why Matej loves Australia
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Hey uh how do I pronounce your first name is it mate mate mate beautiful okay have you ever met a Jethro before if I ever have you ever met some I ever met a jro before uh I don’t think so okay why is it not
Very common no no no it’s I’ve never met anyone called my name and I haven’t met anyone who’s met someone with my name yet oh yeah that yeah it doesn’t seem weird at all to me because I’m not native speaker that’s interesting a name yeah I’ve B
Bounced into a some pretty weird names before but yours is definitely not on that list oh wow that’s good it must just be here this must be Australian thing um firstly thanks mate I really appreciate appreciate your time by the way very um yeah very very cool to speak
With you um well why we start is that okay yes beautiful um mat where are you are you in your house uh no I’m actually in Slovenia visiting my kids uh not too long before I go back to Monaco for some more warm temperatures uh to get back into
Training routine I didn’t know you had kids I have two kids yes and what what are their names uh the older one is called Julia she’s three and a half and the younger one is called Oliver uh he’s one and a half Wow have have uh has Oliver Julia
Ever been to one of your races at the end uh not really Julia was at tour of Slovenia one time yeah and that ended up very bad uh I took her to to the sign on and on the way back we tripped and fell and she cut her uh cheek actually
And she had to get stitches so my heart was uh hunting for the weeks afterwards now it’s okay because you can’t see the scar is almost invisible now but uh was pretty bad at the time so it doesn’t bring good luck to to have them visit races
When when you first became a um a father did you find yourself um being a bit more cautious when you in races following that time because I’ve heard that from other cyclists before uh I was always cautious in racing doesn’t look like that but uh in
My mind I always uh by a lot of attention so the the the first thing that I try to pursue is not to crash always has always been like that will always stay like that yeah uh I need to touch wood now but I don’t crash that often anymore because of my own
Mistakes um my teammates are for sure we make fun of me because of saying this they always do but it’s yeah I don’t I don’t feel like I take any risks usually in racing uh except few uh exceptions here and there but um yeah I always try to stay within my
Limits I remember um well actually that makes me think of a question um for average cyclist just Average Joe’s like me and most the people listening descending I think is one of the things that uh is hard for people to get right and maybe it’s because we don’t maybe we’re not we
We’re not having to descend at speed so perhaps uh it’s a bit difficult it’s when we do corner at speed we don’t quite get it so I wondered when you’re out there training and practicing your descending um or just any cornering at high speeds what’s the main sort of
Thing that you’re always like like you’re always looking to do are you focusing on you know the exit of the corner are you thinking about how your weights positioned or is it just a natural thing for you there’s many things the main thing is to crash I think about not
Crashing I always have that in front of my mind I always um imagine there’s a big truck coming the other way uh in a blind corner or uh stuff like that I always try To foresee what’s what can potentially go wrong oh but uh to yeah on top of that so the second thing on my list is uh to take the the the right line through the corner that’s probably the most important thing yeah so I try to
Give myself as much space as I can to take the corner as wide as I can and kind of Hit the Apex late if possible and then come out on the other side also as far as wide as I can yeah to use
Them as much l as I can and uh that it makes sense also in open traffic you you don’t I don’t I would never cut a corner I would never I would always stay on the far far right side of the road even I would not even go and
Try to hit the apex not even of My Own Lane because there’s always people that can come uh the opposite direction that can take more than their own lane no if they have wide vehicles or whatever then you always need to to foresee that because
Still we don’t we are not not inside a car with six airbags no it’s just us and the bike so uh you need to make sure you don’t make you don’t put yourself in danger no but obviously um having grown up in Slovenia we have so many small and
Twisty and very technical roads uh that I grew up on cycling for so many years that you get better or really good at uh predicting uh the traffic around you or what others do and also the corners and the surfaces because I probably each training right
Every 30 seconds in the technical bits I do a corner no and in some if I go to Spain to training camp then I do 12 Corners in the whole day or I don’t know not that many you know that there’s a huge difference yeah in in how many or
How tricky a parkour is and if you go to us then you do four Four Corners you know it’s not like four corners on a highway so yeah so there is definitely a difference to that and then yeah if you take the right racing line um you
Basically did 80% of what you needs to go fast and efficient and safe also yeah and then uh building on top of that I also now subconsciously um make sure that I lean the bike in the right way I apply pressure to the to the pedal on
The outside to make the center of gravity lower if I go full guys I even pull on the pedal on the inside really so I do the push down power on the outside and pull up as much as I can on the inside and that makes the bike very
Stable when you lean it and I only lean the bike I don’t I try to not lean myself at all so I apply pressure so to say at vertically on 90 90 degrees on the on the bicycle try to put put as much pressure down as I can and uh keep
Myself stable on almost on top of the bike it’s exactly the opposite of what the motorcycle riders do because there the motorcycle uh is the by by far the heavier part of the system and on your bicycle uh you are much more heavy than your bicycle no so you do the opposite
Of what they do and uh and I try to also use my site you always need to look uh to a point that is the furthest point that you can see at that moment so you always you don’t look in directly in front of you you look as far
Ahead as the road you can see so to say and when you when you recognize that there’s no danger or you know which line you’re going to take then you look closer in front of you and you switch that view uh probably more times each second
To assess the the line and like directly what’s happening directly in front of you and also where you will go in couple of moments time so it’s quite a it’s a process and I think doing more of it you get better at it and for sure my normal
Is probably crazy fast for most people I think yeah like even in the car or uh driving normally I probably have a different uh yeah different uh I perceive what’s normal differently to other people and yeah it’s just from practicing I think or from growing up in that way also yeah
It’s a good point about where you ride too having lots of Corners to navigate just on a normal training ride versus yeah other countries um I always found it weird I I’ve seen lots of videos in Europe of other Pros out training on the hills and stuff and like I would see
Them they might have a GoPro on them or something like that and I often see them taking both sides of the lanes you know like both sides on open roads and um you know cars could be coming other way and in Australia I would knew we would never
Do that um really strange and it makes me think of those videos I don’t know if you’ve seen on YouTube but the um that guy called saffa Brien he does those ascending videos and um he did one basically he his YouTube channel is just him fully sending downhills like crazy downhills
And he just has cameras on him he got Tom he got Tom P to do one with him once and Tom almost crashed he almost lost his you know his rear wheel and um yeah you’ll like him they’re really something but he takes a lot of risk yeah saff
Brian called he’s called uh I think he’s calls himself like Pray For Speed okay I will I will check him out but uh and it’s really I don’t think that’s that’s something that you want to I don’t know maybe it’s nice to watch I I don’t I
Personally wouldn’t take risk to uh to shoot videos I take plenty of risk in racing sometimes and I don’t really like it I like to go fast but not uncomfortably fast yeah I love to go fast actually but yeah comfortably fast you know comfortably fast and everybody’s comfortable is different um
Yes exactly yeah you your Milan Sam rmo win that was one of my favorites of yours and just one of the great cycling moments but I wondered do you ever rewatch the video of you to send uh not personally no but they make me rewatch it at
Events often so yeah I’ve seen I’ve seen against your will yeah um okay so one thing I wanted to know is uh one of the reasons why I really um you like he as a cyclist and and and a person of how you come across in the
Media mat is is you’re always so open with your interview after races before races um you know on podcasts like this and I wondered why do you think you are that way why are you such a uh you know conversationalist and so open about your you know how you’re
Feeling and your thoughts and stuff what do you think you on that one I don’t know it’s probably um the kind of person I am uh the kind of person my parents uh yeah raised me uh to to become um I might be it’s not always easy for us
Um to express yeah what we feel and what we want to say in a foreign language uh English not being first language of most writers but uh yeah Slovenia is not a big country so we end up using English most of the time to do anything on the
Internet or uh watch movies or read books so um yeah I uh got pretty comfortable with it over time and um yeah it’s not too difficult for me to to speak in English or Italian or some other foreign languages now so that makes uh makes it a little bit easier
But yeah probably also the the type of person you are or uh yeah the intellect you have um I don’t know I was always uh enjoying myself when I had to go to school to to listen to the lessons or to learn anything new so that probably also
Helps if you’re more of an introvert then uh makes it more difficult to to say to others what you feel yeah yeah okay well mat I’d love to get the audience to know more about you and you’re doing that already you’re doing a great job and I wondered in your
Offseason which you might be sort of in now maybe starting to get back on the black again I’m not sure but what do you like to do in your offseason when you just at home of course seeing your kids and your family but is there
Any types of you know do you do other Hobbies do you go fishing do you I don’t know do you do boxing I don’t know puzzles Lego what do you like to do so uh the off season yeah the famous offseason I’m not a big off season guy like it’s not
Uh I’m not the guy that Waits uh the whole last part of the season for the offseason to start and then go drinking and eating all you can eat buet I’m exactly the opposite I would probably perceive a healthy lifestyle if I had an office job so uh I’m also very passionate about
Cycling in private life uh cycling is and always will be my my biggest Hobby and uh I would most likely go cycling every day after uh after a job if I had if I did something else for a living yeah and uh being um quite successful especially after this season has been my
Most successful season so far um I was actually lucky for the first time in a couple of years to not be injured or seriously sick in the during the offseason but uh I’ve had uh many many things to do uh we are almost never um home uh uh I’m also almost never in
Slovenia so um tasks start to accumulate and you make a list and then you’ll try to check out the part of that list during the offseason when you are supposed to have more time but uh especially this year I had literally zero free time so far yeah uh because I
Do book um a significant part of each day uh to spend with my kids now that I can yeah uh because there’s not many days in a year when I can so um yeah it’s a little bit tricky uh I wouldn’t say that I like to complain about it but uh it’s
Just the way it is um but I don’t mind to go uh yeah back to my more regular routine of training and testing and having or taking some fre time for myself um each day no to relax and to chill because yeah it’s been a really busy uh
Past couple of weeks for me uh also because we work hard to get ready for next season to plan to explore the the the details that we want to make better and it’s all hard work nothing comes for free and if you just uh chill for whatever five weeks or six weeks and
Then come to the first training camp and you haven’t been to a v tunnel you haven’t uh discussed uh what you want to change on your bike and so on then yeah you’re probably not in the same uh level than the ones who did so uh yeah then it’s not fair to complain
Afterwards that the other are faster if you didn’t do your homework so uh yeah it’s just the way it is and uh from the training standpoint of view I always like to uh take some time for uh for myself from the last race to the first
Training camp so in this year it was from 15th of October to basically 5th of December I take all this time yeah evenly I don’t really uh do three weeks off bike or uh not doing any sports like some people I prefer to take myself more
Time uh so I treat all this period of whatever six seven weeks and uh just pursue a healthy lifestyle routine I try to squeeze in a sports activity uh on most days uh even if it’s just 20 minutes running or one hour on home trainer yeah
Or sometimes I do a longer ride if the weather is nice and I have time uh but yeah as I as I said I was quite busy this year so I struggled a little bit but I still got uh around 10 to 12 hours uh training in
In every week so uh that’s pretty uh yeah on point for what I want to do okay okay all right so you love it that’s really good to know um when I well one thing I’d love to talk about is the World Championships um of gravel now
MATA in Australia um um I commentate all of our big Australian gravel races uh and some other Road and cycle cross but we have two UCI World Series qualifiers here in Australia now one’s on the western side so Western Australia called seven and uh there’s another one called
Gravista which is on the East Coast now seven in 2026 um where I live it’s called in West that’s going to be the world Champs so um we’ll talk about that in a moment but the gravel World Champs How would how would you describe the course because and and the the terrain that
You’re racing on when you won because the second year that they’ve had the World Championships I felt was the real world championships the first year I don’t think they got the yeah they didn’t quite get it but the second year it seemed to me like that was proper
Gravel so I’m not probably the best person to ask because this was my first ever gravel race yeah what was your first impression yeah yes but but I did ride a lot of gravel before and uh also I’m quite comfortable on my mountain bike oh yeah and uh that
Sort of stuff I ride sometimes with the guys who who do Enduro or not downhill but yeah Enduro or or mountain bike yeah so um I would personally say that the that this course was definitely reflecting the spirit of gravel um on paper there might have been quite a few
Kilometers of asphalt but that didn’t make any harm to the fact that in my opinion the course was uh a proper hard day of graveling so to say because the asphal part was just were just there to connect different yes very beautiful trails and sections of yeah
Gravel um and on in those 170 kilom I think um there was just maybe around 15 kilm where it was better to draft so to stay in third fourth or fifth wheel or even further back uh and all the rest even the parts on asphalt was either
Climbing on a very steep climbs right or descending or uh just so technical that you were more efficient sitting on the front than drafting uh actually some of the easier section of the course where you could eat something and assess the situation War gravel most of the asphal sections
Except for the one straight on from the start there was like five or six kilometers on a proper big road right uh in a running to a very tricky section of of gravel where you basically crossed a river yeah uh and that was super nasty with big big rocks and a super soft
Terrain where you basically dived in with your bicycle was not Compact and I thought that was really good to have that section of asphalt of five or sixk because then everyone that didn’t have the best grid position yeah would make their way back to the
Front and I think this is good for the sport to allow everyone to to to to fight and get in position before the real nasty part of the course started and then moving from that on there was not a lot of time to actually um to actually uh yeah
Um sit on the wheel and rest I think the rest of the course was pretty technical at Parts even like probably better suited to uh probably better suited to um to a mountain bike yes really yeah I think so like some of the descents were pretty pretty technical
With big rocks and uh roots and all that sort of stuff wow so yeah okay and that first the first half an hour looked absolutely hectic because there was a riter one of the US guys Pac mclavy I think it’s how you say it he uploaded a
Really cool video um um of his onboard GoPro from that first half an hour and it he was coming from the back and it looked absolutely crazy um that first half an hour were you where were you in the first half an hour you must have
Been near the front surely uh so I had starting position three uh because I was the third best ranked guy because they took the UCI rankings of all the disciplines so any discipline you competed in they took the ranking and they basically halfed the points that you accumulated ah except for the gravel
Ranking they kept all the points I see uh so I ended up being the third most awarded rider in the on the St list so I started from the front but uh obviously I yeah it wasn’t that big of a difference um because of that huge
Section of the big roads coming into the the river crossing but I imagine if you didn’t if you were not in position there which probably happened to to that guy then that was a big ask to yeah to get back to the to the front because
Yeah actually like to to do a move on on that big road it’s more of a road racer kind of thing yes uh so yeah it’s not easy because it’s the speeds are even if you’re on gravel bikes the speeds are pretty high and it’s pretty get pretty nasty and yeah
There’s some probably pushing and shouldering involved so it’s not easy but yeah if you were not in front at that point I think like my teammate started at the far back because they had basically zero points yeah yeah they still got to the front like in two
Minutes they were both there and some other guys from from the back uh um uh so um what’s the name of um the American who won the Unbound uh oh Kean he he he got he got to the front in like two three minutes he was already
There and yeah yeah he was very handy and strong but if you didn’t get into position when you had to yeah you’re gone that Mak things very complicated and I did actually after that River Crossing um lose FOC for a little bit or I didn’t know the course into enough
Detail to know that I have to um make sure that I stay in top 10 or whatever and I briefly went back to like 40th or 50th on a section where I would probably be better if I if I invested more energy to be in front and then yeah I had to
Really make some uh some risky moves to get back to the front yeah I enjoyed that bit I’m sorry that they didn’t show it on television I think it would be more uh yeah better to see or more attractive to see than than the actual final where they probably had too few
Motorbikes to to show most groups anyways uh I think the footage this was okay but it only showed more or less the first three groups uh or the final the first three Riders because we split up but I think uh the footage of AG is can get really
Really good quite soon I think we have the technology with the drones and motorbikes and helicopters so I think it will be like in a couple of years I I feel as if this discipline is going to really explode and uh be very become very popular I I agree I agree and the
The coverage at at this race where I where I am um seven which which is the world Champs in 2026 um we we’ve got we’ve been triing many different ways on how to broadcast our race and um I’ll I’ll have to send you the YouTube video of our race cuz we
We at the moment what we’ve been doing and um building up is we actually have a you know like imagine like a golf cart but like a 4×4 off-road golf cart and um we follow in front of the race and then in the back of the golf cart there’s
Like a tray and we sit in that tray and we film and try and live stream the race as it’s happening in front of us and uh so ahead of the race and because of the seven course it’s quite climbing it’s very there’s lots of elevation um it
Means we can be in front of the group and not really disturb the race too much you know versus if it was a flat race you you might be contributing to drafting that sort of stuff and then when it’s when it’s the descents we get
Out of the way and get in behind them and then come back around at other points but getting the coverage right is difficult cuz often where the course go there’s poor reception so we’re yeah that’s one of the challenges we’re working on at the moment is how to get it perfect and
We’re using starlink you know putting starlink um you know the the internet things out on course and it’s yeah it’s going to be interesting but I agree with you I think it’s going to be crazy and I reckon drones are the future hey like what they um have you seen them use the
Drones in Pyle cross yeah but that’s different because you basically are only covering an area of not even one square kilometer and here you probably travel from A to B which makes things a lot more complicated I think maybe helicopters is the answer I mean helicopter for sure like in
Racing it’s just uh it could probably have the drones for the most attractive parts of the course where you might not necessarily be able to follow with a quad or a motorbike uh they had a really good um idea of bringing Enduro Riders on Enduro motorbikes uh in gravel World
Championships so one was following me with a go GoPro that was somehow connected to probably 3G network and that also worked really well so I think that’s also an option you need to have a coverage of the signal otherwise it doesn’t work yeah or someone on like an
Ebike like an e- bike that would definitely work uh yeah well this is one thing that I’m really interested about is is the do you think the world championships for gravel is long enough in terms of distance I think I don’t know depending on what people think is the spirit of
Grael uh Unbound and those other events are definitely longer but gra World Championships was the hardest activity I’ve done this year really so yeah yeah it’s harder than a Lombardy or a or um what else like flers or r or all those places yeah it was 6,000 kilo
Juice wow was it 6,000 yeah yeah around 6,000 maybe a little bit more than that in five hours one for one yeah in five hours wow that’s crazy there was some of those places they get close to that but I’ve never passed 6,000 KJ in a ro before my
Teammates have had but they are less efficient than me yeah so in a road ring there’s a bigger difference in how much energy you spend if you’re not very good at hiding in the Pelton you spend more yeah here there’s less of a difference because there’s less dra drafting in general so it’s
More like a Marathon run like you can be with someone but that doesn’t necessarily make a difference if the terrain is very hilly and Technical so when uh in the leadup to the world champs did you spend a lot of time researching and planning for your your
Bike nothing no and the bike arrived the frame set arrived on Tuesday uh because there was some last minute adjustment of the paint job or whatever I saw like a prototype frame naked not painted during the tour but I didn’t build it up and then uh I was
Busy racing a lot in the time after the tour and uh so the bike was basically only ready on like on Tuesday evening and I rode it first on Wednesday for the first time and then I traveled on Thursday and I wrote it in Recon on Friday and Saturday and then i
R on it and then Merida obviously uh took it to the to the new silx launch for journalists and now they’re keeping it for some other exhibition stuff so I I don’t I don’t currently have it likeing a new a new uh bike with the with the paint job of the world champion
But yeah did you what who chose your tire pressures I chose my tire presses I’m really good at that it’s I use the same experience I have on the road uh so I went I decided to go a little bit higher than probably most of the other Riders
But I think that was a good call because I was still afraid of the of the big rocks and sharp other sharp objects because if you go yeah if you go with a with a high pressure I think you are less likely to to cut your tire on a on
A a rock or something if you hit something really hot and I did like two or three times during a race because not always you see it or even the rider in front of you doesn’t see it and he doesn’t point it out and you you hit something really hard and then if
You’re a little bit lower on pressure it happens also in par B you can easily like Tire get so much squeeze that you can cut it with your Rim so it’s not if you have to stop it probably you lose more energy than if you run a little bit high pressure which
Probably cost you a little bit of energy on the on the ra terrain but then yeah who who do you who from the Professional Road pelaton do you not want to ride the world championships in gravel next year I hope everyone does I I hope all the big Riders do I think
It’s good for the sport for the discipline to grow yeah I’m not afraid of even if I don’t end up wi winning I prefer to lose against the biggest Riders than to win if yeah if they are not there you know what I mean like it is the World Championships it’s like the
Minority of of some gravel Racers complaining that there was w t Riders on the start because but I think it’s good for the sport because if you are better it was a proper gravel championships this year like not a road course yes so if somebody is better in that than you then
Like it’s the same as mountain bike guys complaining that Tom pit cook is coming to the start of the race if he’s better in mountain biking than you guys then you guys should probably change something no it’s the World Championships is the biggest race of the calendar you can’t be world champion not
Being the best at what you do no AG I definitely hope that all of the big names get to the start that have a chance of I think after this year we’ll see a even way more turn up because it was it was great this year but I think
Even more um which would be really cool uh yeah oh yes so um leads me to Ru that’s one of my favorite races to watch and uh I guess it’s one of everyone’s favorite races to watch but Ru seems like one to me um mat that
You can definitely win it does seem like it’s in your wheelhouse but you need a lot to go right like everyone does and I wondered next year I assume you’ll be giving it a crack but what do you think is the most what are the most influential pieces of the puzzle when it
Comes to rub that you need to win you know is it all about positioning or is it team strength is it uh your equipment is it feeding um luck like what are those factors that you you just need to go right to get to get the victory in that race do you
Think uh every year you have a shot no it’s a race that has the biggest the longest list of potential contenders because it’s literally like not everyone can win not many people can uh objectively win Flanders uh but there’s quite a long list of people that can if things go
Right if the Starsign win Robo so uh yeah many things need to go right uh I personally feel like it’s Christmas Day every year on the day of rub yeah last year I was fortunate to have two Christmas days together with World Champ with grael World Championships when I can actually
Uh yeah take some off-road sections at full speed without uh feeling the pressure of uh my bosses supervising me and giving me full stress in case something goes wrong we told you you shouldn’t do this you should take care of yourself not hurt yourself so yeah uh
It’s it’s a special day and I think the the the biggest influence in R now the race has changed in the last couple of years since 2021 that we start using uh tubular tires uh tubless tires uh this has made it a lot more controlled so there’s less luck involved
More technique and more knowledge about pressures and uh different setups and uh you can basically be 95% sure you are not going to have a mechanical if you choose the right equipment uh or if you have a mechanical it’s your own fault whereas before it was pure luck like it you couldn’t do
Nothing if you hit a rock you you had a puncture and that was it because you had a snake bite and now snake bites are eliminated unless you ride a super low pressure which I shouldn’t do anyways um so yeah I like it a lot more now um it’s different and special because
There’s a lot of dting involved so it makes a huge difference uh between Riders uh so the more efficient you are the less energy you spent and I’ve been in front of a race before uh with a teammate finishing I don’t know 10 minutes behind me and him and them
Having more average power than me being the same size more or less so it makes a huge difference on how efficient you are how close in a draft you dare to write uh during that race because yeah there’s always a risk reward ratio involved yeah uh so yeah a lot of things
That go into consideration but obviously the position in the pelaton is the most important when you hit The crucial sectors if you are five wheels too far back then your race is done you are not going to be in the front selection and then uh towards the end of
The race if you do do manage to get yourself in the final out of trouble then um yeah it’s just about Alx unfortunately for me like you need to be your aerobic fitness needs to be through the roof like you need able to repeat sub maximal efforts over and over
And over and over again like all those sectors are ridden at probably 90 more than 90% of what you are normally able to do if you go full full gas in training so if I can go if I go full in armar it’s about I don’t know
How long like three minutes or something or even longer yeah if I go full in training I can do about 500 watts SE and uh in in the race you do all of those sectors at like 40070 or sometimes at 500 so some some sectors you would
Come to 98% of what you would be able to do if you just did that yeah and you need to do this over and over and over and over again until you die or come to the bedro so special race yeah oh it’s a special race I love it we we love
Watching it here um and it’s it’s often at not a bad time for Australia as well it’s not too bad you can it finishes around 12:00 I’m pretty sure about midnight so you know okay we know how you feel after because we’re up at one o’ yeah yeah yeah uh okay last few
Questions to wrap it up um imagine mat you were a director in a team and you were looking for writers to join your team uh Young Riders or you know under 23 or younger what what attribute would you be looking for specifically um in a rider
That you would like to bring on your team a young Rider what’s some what’s you know would you like would you be thinking just all about their power or would you be thinking um their General attitude or whether they’re a good team player or they have a specific quality about them
What would you be looking for so I would take um to start with they need to have talent they need to be gifted physically to be able to to not necessarily in that moment have the power but to be able to that you see in them that they have the what it what
You need to to actually with training be able to reach a certain level no yeah yeah then moving on from that if you need to choose from more individuals because there’s many individuals that have this physical ability uh then I would strongly um consider their personal so how determined and focused and
Perfectionist are they like if they are able to set high goals and if they are uh yeah willing to work hard to reach them I would probably observe their work ethics and consistency over time uh also speak with them to see what type of person they are no because if
They if you crack Under Pressure then if you if your anerobic threshold is Skyrocket High then doesn’t doesn’t help you know if you feel sick uh the night before the race or if you can’t sleep or or stuff like that so uh there’s many things that are important also being a team
Player um the actual lifestyle of professional bike rider is not very simple you need to make a lot of sacrifice in your private life to be able to do this job you need to sacrifice l night parties uh drinking alcohol girls uh you need to
Be uh away from your family most of the time away from your parents some young guys now they struggle to get away from their parents when they are 18 19 20 years old you are likely to have to move abroad to do your job properly so these
Are all factors that you need to take into into consideration you need to be able to take care about yourself you need to be able to wash your own clothes to cook your own foot and you need to do it well to be able to do this job uh
Properly you need to be reliable uh so you need to to trust this individual to to actually take the flight and get to a race and be yeah reliable in person in general not all people are like that so yeah many factors there’s not yeah it’s
Not easy to be a team manager I think it would have its challenges for sure sure yeah uh okay if you um you get a chance during the year to go out to a nice restaurant right somewhere local maybe somewhere in Slovenia what are you hoping on the menu what would you order
At a nice restaurant at any place I always order or try to find a restaurant uh with the local Specialties so I like local food I like to try different things um yeah I I I always enjoy if yeah if they make traditional food from ingredients that
They get from yeah farmers and locally in general so I think that’s the big to go if you’re in Poland to go to a Polish restaurant if you’re in Slovenia to go to a Slovenian restaurant it’s not always easy but uh it always works if you manage to find a nice place what’s
What’s a traditional uh Slovenian dish that would be served at a restaurant in slovia uh there’s many uh so Slovenia is a small but very diverse country so our culture our culture is a mixture of Austrian so so to say the culture that you would normally find in the Alps
Because we are on the edge of it like I grew up on the very edge of the AL then uh with Italian influence from the West also Balan influence from the south and uh Hungarian influence from the East so we are kind of a mixture of all this and
It brings up some very nice dishes so there’s many local dishes that you can’t find uh what would be one international cuisine I would say what would be dish I don’t know um my favorite in the summer is Filan paprika so it’s like a Peppers that are filled with um mixture of ground
Meat and rice oh and tomato in a in a served in a tomato sauce with mashed potatoes on the side nice I I’m not sure where that’s stolen still where they still that from if it’s from Hungarian culture or or ABS but uh it’s very tasty and good I don’t know
You can the taste of in this moment but it’s like yellow peppers yeah yellow peppers filled with I didn’t see that anywhere else like many dishes are based on potatoes right and uh local yeah local Meats Meats of all kinds potatoes uh cabbage celery uh all the all the vegetables
That grow underground like beets or yeah potatoes carrots uh yeah all those sort of things uh quite rich and there’s many dishes that are super good taste or even good for you as an athlete but it’s uh Italian cuisine is completely different we mostly use Mediterranean diet in in
Cycling or Sports in general because we think it’s the healthiest but some of the things that I make for myself at home are genuinely better for me than uh what is usual at traces I would say that’s really interesting okay uh and finally a oh yeah when you’ve been to Australia quite a
Few times I’m pretty sure uh you’ve done yeah you you’ve done a few different races in Australia done her of sun to done everything um when you what do you think of like what what do you think of Australia do you I don’t know what do you think I think it’s
Uh one of the nicest places in the world with one big uh uh uh how you say exception not exception or a a bad thing that it’s on the other side of the world it takes like a 36 hour flight to get there which cost like two apartments in Slovenia you know like
This is an issue like you got to blame blame the tectonic plates don’t blame us Jesus chist once do you do you remember if you could at least build a bridge or something you know like have you have you do you remember what the big what the world was called when
It was all one you know Pangia uh something on P starting with a p yeah p p I think yeah yeah yeah so at one point we were all together yeah that would have been more efficient that would beu as well imagine The Grand Tour
It take ages is yeah it would be a grand grand tour you know yeah super Grand oh mat mate thank you so much for um your time it was really interesting uh getting to know you more and I think everyone on this podcast will or listens
I think they’ll have a new fan and you m if they’re not already because uh you certainly been one of my favorite cyclist since you started many moons ago there thank you thank you for having me uh and looking forward to the world championship shs in uh in Australia in
You said 2026 no yeah in it’s called nup it’s in nup nup I will look it up maybe I come to do Recon the year before o that will send shivers down the spine of everyone I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be a big big big event in 2026 if you can
Pull off the win mer will probably uh award me with my own waiting gold then uh oh I reckon we got a lot of gold in in in Australia so yeah good chance best of luck for your uh Christmas time I hope you get spend some more time with your
Kids during Christmas mate and um have a great uh season next year yeah thank you thanks for having me no worries take care yeah take care cha Chow bye bye
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