From the brink of quitting, to leading us at Roubaix…
WORDS: REBECCA BLAND
IMAGES: HONOR ELLIOTT
Next month Majo Van‘t Geloof will be one of our leaders at the second ever edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes. A strong rider with a powerful sprint, she is a force to be reckoned with, particularly if it comes down to the Roubaix velodrome.
Majo has already performed well this season, with a fifth place this week in Nokere Koerse, a sixth place in Le Samyn des Dames, and a couple of top 20s thrown in to boot – so it seems crazy to think that she almost walked away from the sport for good just a two seasons ago.
A couple of years after signing her first pro contract – and while graduating as a physical therapist along the way – Majo realised she had lost her love for cycling, and seriously considered leaving bike racing behind.
“The first two years that I was a pro I was okay. I went to an Italian team with a really strict, old-school style of cycling. I had to do a lot of climbing races, and I wasn’t really good at it, didn’t get any results and actually thought about quitting.”
In 2020, however, she signed for Drops Le Col, and thus the trajectory of her career was altered.
“I’m going to do this for one year and if I don’t enjoy it or I don’t meet my goals, I’m going to quit.”
“So I was like ‘Okay, if this is it, I don’t enjoy it. I’m going to stop and I’m just going to do something else.’ And then I came into Drops, and thought I would give it one last try. I set the goal for myself, ‘If I don’t succeed in cycling, if I don’t reach my own goals in one year, I will stop and focus on physical therapy. I’m going to do this for one year and if I don’t enjoy it or I don’t meet my goals, I’m going to quit.’ And that year was 2020.”
We all know what happened in 2020. The pandemic hit and with it the race calendar was decimated. Professional cyclists around the world were left with no structure, no goals to set, no races to train for – but with all this free time to ride, Majo rediscovered her love of two wheels.
Riding with freedom
Being able to train more freely instead of constantly racing, Majo began to find a balance, and last year, she tells us it finally clicked. Racing for so many days of the year can seriously wear down an athlete.
Instead of riding in every race she could, she began to focus on her own goals – race less and train more.
“I'm well-rested, I'm enjoying it. I'm doing fewer race days but I'm performing better on the race days. I think last year is really when it clicked for me to change my behaviour to focus more on cycling and my rest, and not try to do everything and try to do as much as possible, but focus on certain goals and get more into that side of things.”
Majo is wise beyond her 25 years, with an openness and matter-of-factness that Dutch people are often known for! She recognises that being a professional cyclist is a dream job for many, and aims to be optimistic about her career, even when she has to “ride five hours in the rain”.
Still, cycling wasn’t her childhood dream, although she did have a poster of Mark Cavendish above her bed. Initially, she wanted to be a doctor but settled for physical therapy, which is what she continues to do alongside her cycling. Cycling can be fickle, with one bad injury or one crash being enough to end a person's career, it's a practical move from Majo to have this backup plan.
It is, however, a plan she hopefully won't need to rely on fully for a good while yet. She agrees that the best athletes are selfish – their entire lives have to be tailored to their goals. This tunnel vision can seriously affect athletes' mental health, particularly if their results aren't what they hoped for.
“You have to decide for yourself, what makes me feel happy in life? Is that fully 100% being a pro cyclist, or do I get happy doing other things? And I think that's why mental health is such a big deal in sports because people get so focused on the sports part and get so selfish that they forget about other things that make them happy. And then when the cycling is not going well, their whole life is just not fun anymore.”
2020 proved to be the respite from over-racing that Majo needed, as she returned from that year with a new vigour for riding. Now she is about to lead our team at one of the most prestigious bike races in the world, backed by a better balance between work, cycling, and happiness. We’re excited to see what the year – and the pavé – has in store for her.