How To Become A Pro Cyclist with Jack Burke

Everyone knows AJ from her incredible dance videos but did you know she lived in a tent for 4 years while trying to make it as a cyclist? AJ's one of Canada's best female cyclists and we finally got to share all kinds of wild stories from her time at the Olympics, her first years in Europe on some wild teams and what its like to spend the winters training in North America while living in a tent. We ran out of time before we ran out of stories so hopefully this is just part 1. Thanks AJ! 

Harry Sweeney is in his second year in the world tour with Lotto Soudal. We recorded this episode in Livigno where we both are for altitude training camps. Great conversation and plenty of laughs from what it took for him to make it from Aus to the big leagues in Europe, the how to's of altitude training, racing in the world tour and setting yourself up in Europe. 

so many incredible stories that left me stunned. Jani had a long career at the very top of the sport, winning the Dauphine, top 10 in the Tour de France and being teammates with some of the all time greats in cycling. I hope you enjoy and thank you Jani for being so open about the highs, lows and the real cost of achieving all you did. 

Toms is a world tour pro in his 5th year with Trek Segafredo. Toms raced for various French Continental teams for 3 years before coming to North America where he raced for the Hincapie team for 2 seasons then turned pro with Cannondale Drapac after some amazing seasons in the North American scene. Toms then moved to Trek from Cannondale where he's been since and is now in his 7th season in the world tour. 

Jan and I were teammates in 2019 on Leopard. He raced for Leopard through till the end of the 2021 season and for 2022 is on Bike Exchange - Jayco, making it to the world tour at 26 years old.  

This is the second part of telling my story about testing positive and being wrongly accused of doping. 

Quinn is a Durango Colorado native and one of the brightest young talents on the bike coming out of the U.S. He's also one of the youngest riders in the world tour after skipping the U23 catagory and going straight from junior to the world tour. Before jumping on the road bike Quinn was a mountain biker and Skimo racer. He may be the only junior athlete to be on the podium at the world championships for both road cycling and skimo. 

Mike Creed is widely recognized as one of the best directors in the sport and while he's been offered jobs in the world tour, he's chosen to work with the best U23 riders in the U.S on the Aevolo U23 team. Mike started racing super young and rose to the very top of the sport where he was teammates with Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie at U.S Postal. Feeling the pressure to perform Mike shares stories you wouldn't believe about how he pushed it too far and what he was willing to do to make his cycling dreams happen. 

At one time one of the greatest cyclists in the world. Before that he lived like a hobo, dropped out of highschool to climb mountains and explore. From Alaska down to Mexico on a thrift shop bike and self welded up trailer to tow his gear and dog named "Bear". Sveino can only be reffered to as a legend even though he's often described as the Chuck Norris of cycling. Google his name and you'll read stories of him fighting off a wolf that attacked his dog in the middle of the night with a hockey stick up in the Yukon. You can't make this stuff up. Sveino could fill endless podcast episodes with stories and I've been fortunate enough to call him one of my close friends and mentors for some time so I wanted to get out more of the stories not yet publicized. Svein's been and continues to be a mentor to the current best cyclists in the world and has given more to developing and helping young Canadian cyclists than any other club or organization yet never has asked for any recognition. Please enjoy stories beyond imagination from a man unlike any other. 

In 2013 I tested positive for a banned substance after winning the biggest race of my life. To this day I remain the only athlete in the history of anti doping to be found completely innocent and not recieve a ban or even a repremand or first strike. I was found to "bare no fault" and while there was a perfect storm of events that caused this positive test result, I also caught some lucky breaks which allowed me to be the only athlete able to prove a negative and prove I had done nothing wrong. My life still went into a tailspin and I was treated no different than Lance and every other doper who claimed they didn't do it. I'm actually grateful for this experiance now and how it's shaped me but it's been 7 years and this is the first time I've openly told the full story. My appologies for the rambling and jumping around. I wanted to make this as clear as possible but there is so much to tell and I've pushed it out of my mind and tried to forget about it for almost a decade so dredging it all up to a microphone was difficult. If this is news to you, I'm sorry for the shock factor and if you've heard parts of this story before, I hope this fills in any blanks.