From the Tour de France to Coffee Entrepreneur

In 2011 I was racing with UnitedHealthcare. The team signed some European riders to bolster the squad. We had Charly Wegelius who was in his last year before retiring. I didn’t get it. I kept saying to Charly, “You don’t really want to retire man, cycling is awesome.” I didn’t understand the frame of mind he was in at the time. For him, it was enough, he was ready to stop.

Then, in 2014, I got to do the Tour de France. It’s a race all riders want to do in their career. It was a big deal, the highest point in cycling. I think it actually supercedes cycling in general.  Both my parents are originally from Germany my dad is not interested in cycling but he always followed the Tour. How was Jan Ullrich doing? That kind of thing. I came from rural Canada and people there knew the Tour. So, it was a special moment for myself, my family and everyone around me when I got to ride it.

Afterwards, I realized I’ve raced all the races I wanted to do. My wife Amber was obviously a big part of my career and we realized we’ve done everything we set out. All of a sudden, I had flashbacks to Charly in 2011. I finally got him.

That’s when I started thinking of La Fabrica. Coffee to me was a whole new passion, the same passion I had when I was a junior learning to race my bike. Coffee and hospitality inspired me. It gave me new insights and brought new excitement.

I kept racing for two more years until the end of 2016. I still had a contract with the team for 2017 but it was becoming Groundhog Day. Going to the same races…training camps…it was all routine. I’d reached my maximum position in the team. I was a road captain and for my personal progression, there wasn’t anywhere to go. I felt my role inside the team and my salary was capped. I felt like I was stagnating. I could easily cruise along another five years and be quite comfortable but, as a person, I prefer growing.

I loved riding my bike but I didn’t find my identity in racing. So it was a great time to transition to the next phase of our lives.

I needed to let the team know I wanted to get out of my contract. Orica has always been a forward-thinking team and quite open. Me leaving was a better solution because I could have easily had an average year, not taken the training too seriously and collected my paycheck. I didn’t really want to end that way. I’d prefer to walk away and leave the racing environment as a good guy. There are so many young guys looking for opportunities and it would have been selfish of me to hang on. One year makes a big difference in cycling. That opportunity for a young guy might not be there the next year. I had that opportunity and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life so now was the time to make way for someone else.

Racing has changed a lot in the last 10 years. When we started racing, there was still a point where a breakaway could get 10-15 minutes then we start riding on the front to pull it back. In the last few years, once the breakaway gets 2 minutes, we start riding already. It creates a lot of nervous energy in the peloton. It felt a lot more dangerous. As you get older, your tolerance for crashes goes down. When you’re young, you are happy to get stuck in but later on in life, you’re just happy to come home in one piece.

Girona is home for us right now with the three businesses. La Fabrica, Espresso Mafia and TheService Course have given us a great life after cycling. One of the first things I noticed after retirement is that the real world doesn’t move as quickly as professional sports but at the same time, things are moving along at a rapid pace. We wanted to create places where people could slow down for a bit and make connections with each other.

Sometimes we wonder, what have we done. We opened three businesses in a short space of time. But it’s a labour of love. The best part is, it allows me to ride my bike with no pressure. Just for the love of riding. New perspective. Cycling has given me so much and continues to do so.