COMMENT: Mental health in the cycling industry

OK, bear with me. We don’t usually do this kind of thing here at CIN, but let’s face it, we’ve been through some extraordinary times lately together, as an industry.

2023 was a horror show for many, and I’m not particularly talking about balance sheets here, but more like the redundancies, company administrations and the like, affecting individuals and their families.

Maybe you were lucky enough for those things not to happen to you personally. But maybe you saw it happen to friends in the industry, colleagues and acquaintances? All of which have been taxing on mental health and pretty stressful, I think we can all agree.

At this point, I’ll confess I’m not an expert on mental health, but what I am able to do is speak up about the topic. We know that cycling and exercise are linked to better mental health, but I’ve bounced around this industry since 2008 and chatted to many of you at various shows, events and on the blower, but I’ve never heard anyone mention mental health before… until the tail end of 2023, that most difficult of years. Since late last year, I’ve exchanged emails with company bosses that have had to make difficult decisions and chatted to a few individuals at Core and iceBike* this year, and they have tentatively touched on the topic of mental health.

So, I’m doing the same here. It was mentioned very briefly in my seminars at iceBike* in Feb (thanks again to Madison for letting me shoot my mouth off), purely to raise the topic more widely.

At this point, I’ll share a video on the topic. Brace yourselves, it is related to football, but it’s still worth your time:

This might just be the most important thing I’ve ever written and shared. That’s not very hard, I hear you cry, but that advice to check in on the people around you is one that you we can all carry with us.

If we’re going to ‘build the cycling industry back better’ after this difficult period, I hope we can have mental health and the wellbeing of people in the industry high – higher? – on the agenda than may have previously been.

Thank you for reading.

(If you’re looking for something from someone who really knows what they are talking about on mental health, this seems a good starting point: www.mentalhealth.org.uk)