Cycling commentator and former pro rider Brian Smith has decried the amount of pressure young pros face as they attempt to forge a career in the sport, saying that “the enjoyable side of things has gone for a lot of the riders”.
His comments follow a year during which several riders have hung up their racing wheels while still in their twenties, often citing burnout or ‘falling out of love with the sport’ as part of the problem.
Smith, who was a high-level pro in the 1990s and now commentates for TNT Sports, told Cycling Weekly: “Young riders are becoming robots, where everything’s measured. Their nutrition is measured, training’s measured – everything’s measured. It’s just robotic. It’s just not enjoyable.”
“Cycling is getting younger and younger… there’s people in their early 20s thinking, ‘I’m not going to make it as a pro’,” he said. “There’s teams signing up junior riders, bypassing some under-23s now.”
On the one hand, Smith told us, the riders of his era missed out on modern coaching and nutritional developments, something he says that personally he would probably have thrived on: “I was so serious. I was always trying to do things better. I was always looking at going the extra mile. When I was racing in Britain, I was possibly the hardest trainer – a training machine. I was quite proud of that.”.
Even Simon Yates, last year’s Giro d’Italia winner, surprised many when he announced his retirement at the start of 2026 – not just because it was sudden but because he was still relatively young, too.
