Is being mentally tough the answer to dealing with hard days in the saddle?
‘Mental toughness is a nice marketing phrase, which is often used as a shortcut to ignore wellbeing, and I find it tends to come from a certain type of coach or rider that doesn’t have great emotional intelligence,’ says Dr Josephine Perry, a sports psychologist who works with elite and amateur athletes.
‘When Romain Bardet crashed on Stage 13 of the 2020 Tour de France, he hit his head, got back on his bike encouraged by his team and rode another 90km when he clearly had concussion. The media coverage afterwards celebrated
