#197 - Eamon Lucas, Professional Cyclist - Faith, Fatherhood & Finding Yourself

I sit down with professional cyclist and soon-to-be plumber Eamon Lucas—a guy whose story blends world-class racing, community roots, personal faith, and the kind of self-reflection most people never talk about publicly.

Eamon and I dive into what shaped him—growing up in Pacific Grove, the influence of his father, and the untraditional path that took him from local riding to battling in the Belgian Kermesse scene. We talk about what “making it” really means, why so many endurance athletes struggle with identity, and how rare it is to walk away from a sport feeling complete.

We explore faith, what it means to actually enjoy your own company, and the uncomfortable emotional work required to truly like yourself. Eamon talks about transitioning from pro cycling into plumbing, surfing as therapy, building a life with his partner, and embracing the next season with humility and purpose.

Nothing Novel: https://nothingnovel.life

SQ Socks: https://stupidquestions.show/pages/sq-merch

Lucas Training Systems: https://l.instagram.com/

Lucas’ IG: https://www.instagram.com/eamon_lucas/

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the Stupid Questions podcast.
Today we're going to be talking with Iman Lucas.
He is a professional cyclist whohas been all over Europe and
here in the US he is also an apprentice plumber in the middle
of an apprenticeship, about to graduate on his own to take on
the world of plumbing. And plumbing is a pretty cool
thing. I've done it for a few summers

(00:22):
as you hear me talk about in thepodcast.
And I have to say, if you have ever had the opportunity to do a
job that allows you to work morewith your hands, you should do
it because it teaches you lessons that you would never
think that you might will learn otherwise.
Yeah. So it's a great conversation.
Today. We talked a little bit about
cycling, of course. We talked about his life, where
he's at right now and the transitory kind of phase of life

(00:44):
that he is going through right now.
So if you want to follow him, check out his stories, get in
touch with his training program or his training company.
I'll make sure to link all that in the show notes.
So I think it's Iman. Lucas Training Systems is what
it's called. Yeah, Lucas Training Systems.
So I'll link that stuff. Make sure to check it out in the
show notes below. If you want to follow the
podcast in a more intimate way and be involved with the

(01:06):
newsletter that comes out weeklythat gives a little bit of a
roundup for the past episodes ofthe week, you can link, check
out that link there and make sure to check out the show notes
as well. For this last thing, I'm
launching a product called nothing novel.
It's or a company called nothingnovel and we make you can
actually see it up there. It might be fuzzy for you.
It's a bar bag and I'm going to be doing some signature series

(01:27):
products with professional athletes and then also just
stand alone bar bag with a nothing novel brand.
And the idea of that is to help it the podcast really a way to
add value back to the community.If you want to help you get an
awesome product and then supportthe podcast through that way,
you can do that. So hopefully it adds value.
Let me know what you think. I'll make sure to link that
website in the show notes as well.

(01:47):
Thank you for listening to my spiel.
Make sure to like, comment, subscribe to all those things.
And without further ado, I want to introduce you to Iman Lucas.
It's amazing now that AI like system that comes with Riverside
now it'll clean up audio and video a little bit if it needs
to, but mostly audio and it doesamazing.
I mean, I have people come in with like dogs barking and you

(02:09):
can barely hear anything and somehow it still does super well
so. Wow.
Well, that's nice. Yeah, it is nice when it's one
man show, but yeah dude, so really quick.
Is it, is it Eamon? Is that how I see Iman?
Iman? OK, yeah.
Is it literally 5050? I was like, before I start this,
how I how am I going to ask how to say it?
Hopefully I'll say his name in the correct way, but strike one

(02:31):
for me. No, you're good man, you're
good. Unique name.
So I give people the bit of the doubt.
Yeah. Do you have is Iman go back in
your family ways or is it like mom and dad just thought this
was a cool name? Iman goes my dad named me if and
it's derived from a Somalian background.
It also has a Gaelic background named after David Bowie's wife,

(02:55):
The high end fashion model Iman spelled.
OK, let's go. But it means it means faith.
OK, cool. Now my missus is calling me real
fast, so I'm just real. Go for it, then.
Do it. Yeah.
Hey, sweetheart, I got Royal Oakstain.

(03:19):
Yeah, Royal Oak. You're welcome.
Bye. I might keep that in.
We're just needing a dresser right now that she she's a big.
We're at least moved in together.
Yeah, and we. Found a dresser that's we the
last two nights we've been sanding it after work and it's

(03:41):
finally down to the staining process and so we're picking
them out. OK, sick.
That's awesome. Facebook Marketplace Find that
you're refurbishing. Yeah, yeah.
Facebook Marketplace Find We've been We've been selling and
we've been buying. Yeah, right on.
Yeah, Yeah, the, the arbitrage world, that's a fun, that's a
fun thing to do. And you're like a handyman.
I I guess you can do construction.

(04:04):
I like to dabble in projects, you know now that I'm kind of
tapering out of professional cycling.
Definitely cutting my new careerpath in plumbing apprenticeship
right now. So nice.
Been enjoying it about 7 weeks in and couple more weeks ago to
wrap up my apprenticeship. It's been going good.
Nice. I did AI, did a few summers

(04:27):
doing all kinds of construction,but two of those summers was
spent doing plumbing and gettingto go under really old houses
and destroy bang up out the old.Galvanized.
Galvanized. Yeah, like nuts, Galvanized
iron, junk or whatever. Galvanized steel pipe.
Galvanized steel pipe. Yeah, dude.
And it was the nastiest but craziest kind of fun come

(04:49):
across. Some were like, completely
zombified, Yeah. And you definitely appreciate a
nice crawl space. Like, man, it's there's no bugs
in here. It's a lot of room.
There's no HVAC systems in your way.
Yeah. You don't look down and you see
a random hole that a critter lives in.
You're like ohh. Paint your hand down and

(05:10):
something grabs your back. Trust.
Me, I just, I'd have just learned with my little crawl
lamp this don't look up. Just you don't want to see
anything up there. It's just nasty.
It just makes you eggy. Cover it all around your face.
So nothing, my painter. Suit on.
I put my hood on. I put my painter suit hood on.
I just look straight ahead. It's kind of yeah.
But it's been good. It's been good.
That's awesome dude, working with your hands is such a is

(05:32):
such AI don't know. Just like a real value add.
I feel like I work on my computer a lot.
Like I, that's just the world that I'm into now and being more
of like a, you know, offer my services as like, OK, it's more
intellectually based, but working with your hands is such
an amazing gift, honestly, from garden to plumbing, construction
and. I just feel like also like, you

(05:52):
know, everybody's cutting their own cloth and everybody has
their own interests and whatnot,but it's it's something that's
pretty timeless and something that will never go out.
Need. Yeah, and like, you could have
all AI, you could have, you know, all whatever you want to
call it. No AI ain't ever going to crawl
in a house. Just no way around it.

(06:13):
So yeah, that's awesome. It's been good to to, to to get
the opportunity. I'm really enjoying it.
Yeah, right on, man. Well, First off, just want to
say thank you so much for comingon, making the time.
I'm glad we were able to make itwork.
It's funny, I had Luke Fetzer on1st and Lucas were going and you
also have the name Lucas in yourname.
So I feel like now we've got thetrifecta, we've had all the

(06:35):
people on. There we go.
You know, those are those are two, two great names that you
mentioned on and off the bike. In their own respects, they're
great humans and they're great bike racers.
And it's like you said when we Igot your first message that Luke
recommended me on the podcast, which is very kind of him.
He's a strapping young man. Yeah.
But yeah, I know it's good to behere.

(06:55):
I'm excited to get a little banter going, talk a little
story and see where this leads us.
Yeah. Man.
So my first question for you, the official one, who according
to you is Eamon. Who, according to me, is Iman?
Iman sorry I. Know you're good, you're good.
Iman is I would just say like man.

(07:21):
So that's a loaded question take.
All the time it. Approaches a lot of ways.
I like to think of myself as just a pretty happy go lucky
guy. I have a lot of passion that
spreads across a wide diversity of hobbies and things to do.
I really love community. I'm a really community driven

(07:43):
individual. I really love to care and to
love and to, to help. At the same time, I would say
I'm also really do like my, my alone time.
It doesn't happen often where I get the feeling to, to be alone
or to be reclusive in a way. But when I, when I get the
feeling I really enjoy it is being with myself, which is a

(08:07):
hard skill to acquire. I think, you know, no phone out
of service with a fishing pole all day long catching fish and
is being with Iman. I really enjoy Iman in those
moments. I'm a creative.
I love to take pictures. I love to, you know, create,
like I said, you know, plumbing and, you know, working with my

(08:30):
hands and watching something come from nothing to something.
I appreciate a lot of beauty andnature.
Yeah. I I'm, Yeah.
That's, you know, in a nutshell.I'm a surfer.
I love the ocean. I love, yeah, Hot sunny days.

(08:50):
I love stormy weather. I love, you know, foggy
mornings. I love watching the sun come
through trees on my commute downto Monterey from Santa Cruz.
Yeah. I love, I love it all, man.
I'm just, yeah. I would just say I Iman is a
very just stoked, caring, excited, optimistic person.
Yeah, that's me. How old are you?

(09:13):
I just turned 33. That's right.
October A. Couple weeks ago, yeah.
Actually 33 years old, yeah. Same.
I turned 33 in September. Right on.
Happy belated birthday you. As well.
Thank you very much. I appreciate.
It. So at 33, do you think at what
point of your life and what how long did it take you or what did
it take for you to get to a place where you realize like oh

(09:35):
I need alone time because you can't?
You struck me as an extroverted ish person but maybe not.
Yeah, no, I would definitely sayI'm an extrovert.
I wouldn't say I'm too introverted or reclusive, but I
would say to be an extrovert, ittakes energy.
Like there's no way around, likehaving to put yourself out to

(09:56):
be, you know, to be not extra, but there and present.
So yeah, the social battery definitely is.
As I've gotten older, I've learned how to control it and
how to manage it and tone it down in certain situations and
tone it up in certain situations.
But yeah, you know, it can't always be flat out.

(10:19):
It can't always be full gas. You, you have to have a little
bit of a moment where you could just shut up and sit down and
just switch it off. I would say I'll be in my later
20s. I really started to enjoy it
where I was starting to find success in my career and cycling
and didn't have to fight as hard.

(10:41):
I'd already, you know, won some races and I've signed some
contracts and I've, you know, done a few things and I felt
personally I could take a break.I can take a breath.
I wouldn't say a break because once, you know, you get to
those, those that level, you don't take a break.
You work harder. But you, you've, you've, you've
cut a good enough groove or yeah, you could switch it off

(11:02):
and you, you know the template you have to run and you can be a
bit calmer. Yeah, that's a good answer.
That's kind of my my answer in regards to the the aloneness and
how that kind of developed. Yeah.
But when I do want it, I don't really want it often, but I do
like it. Yeah.
How often do you think do you like it or what, what, what

(11:23):
circumstances come apart that bring that?
You know, I really find a lot ofmy, my moments of quote,
therapeutic moments in the oceansurfing.
And usually you try to find the most empty, empty best way if
you can, unless you know, yeah, it's, you know, group chat.
You know, the swells going to bepumping and the boys are like,

(11:43):
God, it's firing like where we surfing tomorrow.
But usually, you know, you people are working, people have
families, people have obligations.
And you're just like, I got a quick hour and a half, like
where can I find a little momentfor myself?
And yeah, you know, I, like I said, I'm a big community guy,
so I make an effort to be present in the community,
especially in the surf world. That's a really big respect

(12:05):
issue. So, you know, you see, hi to the
uncles, you talk out there, but you don't really have a lot of
conversation. But I would say when I surf,
it's kind of my my processing moment, my moment to be quiet.
My phone's in the truck, can't talk to anybody on the phone,
can't look at Instagram, can't unplug.
Yes, I unplug. I really focus on, you know, my

(12:26):
turns and what I'm after in thatsurf session and what the waves
are doing and what the birds look like and what the kelp is
under my feet and everything, You know, what the Cliff is
looking like and what the light looks like coming through the
back and if it's backlit or surfing in the evening or it's
rising and the wind. And that's kind of my, my alone
moments because then you get outof the water, the phone's back

(12:48):
in the hand and you're back at home.
And, you know, you're checking, checking that platform and
you're talking to that friend, your girlfriend saying this.
And what's the plan? And you get your job or
notification for the the next assignments at work the next
day. And it becomes a little bit more
chaotic. But those are my those are my
moments of shutting down and having a minute for me.

(13:09):
Yeah. Which of the which of the
character traits or I guess someof the values that you're
talking about here, like alone time being present,
disconnecting community, which of these different aspects of
who you are do you think were developed over time?
And then which ones were like inherently you just kind of grew
up with that, you were the same?Yeah, I don't know.

(13:35):
I really thought about like that, but I would say what comes
natural to me and what I felt, you know, what I've seen growing
up from my parents and my familyand things of that sort.
You know, I grew up in a pretty small town in Pacific Grove, CA,
just down the on the other side of the peninsula from Santa Cruz
and you know, my 4th generation from that town.

(13:58):
And so I just kind of grew up ina town where everybody already
knew our family. You know, everyone had stories
of my dad, Everybody went to high school with my dad and all
the uncles They and I was in thevery just tight knit.
And then, you know, being in thesurf community in an even
tighter knit scene in a local town, also growing up, being in

(14:20):
the fishing community, just it was a that was like a thing of
that was always there just beingin the in the scene and being
able to to manage the scene that, you know, was was.
Got Alexa chiming in for our evening unwind routine.

(14:41):
Hey, Alexa, please shut off. Thank you.
Back to the podcast. But yeah, so that comes natural
to me. That comes easy to me.
Something I would say that, you know, I kind of had to work on
was within that realm. Like you have to show up for it

(15:04):
and like managing, I would just say managing like how much of
yourself you give to a scene. You know, especially like you
get to that certain age, high school, then cycling and you
know, then travelling and tryingto, you know, achieve being a
pro and then coming home and then managing friendships.

(15:25):
And that is managing output within something that comes easy
was not always easy. Then you know, you find yourself
overextending yourself, learningwhere your boundaries are,
learning how to communicate whatyou're needing and what
relationships you're speaking about, whether it would be
friends or family or, you know, girlfriends or whatever.

(15:48):
You know, even the person at theairport ticket counter when
you're tired and you're coming home and you haven't been home
for half a year and your bags lost and you're just like easy
settle down. It's not their fault.
But you know, just learning how to, just learning how to just be
aware of your output in something that might come easy.

(16:12):
Yeah, yeah, that self-awareness,is that something you came about
on your own? Like you're like, oh, I better
figure this out because maybe you had a few instances where
that lack of self-awareness didn't serve you well.
Or is it just something you kindof learned over time?
Was there a mentor involved? I would say my dad was a really
big, you know, influence of like, you know how I am, how I

(16:36):
speak, You know, he's a my dad was a great father.
He's he, he has and has had donea lot.
You know, he's smart. He always had my best interests.
It was never a competition. He always wanted me to do better
than him, which is, you know, ina, in a, in a way, pretty sad

(16:59):
because a lot of fathers are in competition with their sons that
are doing better. And, you know, it's yeah.
I'd say my dad really taught me well.
My grandparents were great couple family friends that
turned into really, you know, uncle figures that are, you
know, second fathers. My mom, you know, she was a very

(17:23):
strong willed woman, worked for granted construction, was in the
military for a short time, ran her own landscaping business,
very strong, independent, but still very, you know, when I was
young, mother motherly and you know, did her did her best as a
single mother. But you know, I think it I
pulled from a lot of people. You can, you know, you have this

(17:44):
big old pot and you can have allthis information and knowledge
and you could, if you take, try to take it all, I think it's too
overwhelming. But there's some things that you
can hold onto and kick the rest out.
And that's, that's a good thing.I like that.
And not take a from him and the rest is gone.
And before you have it, you got,you know, seven or eight, 910
things that are really solid. And then I feel you could take
those 10 things and then developyourself as you get older.

(18:09):
And I have better understanding,you know, so that's what I kind
of can attest to. Yeah.
Community, so you've mentioned community a few times and
especially in this instance whenyou're talking about the
emulation of people who you I guess look up to or you found
value in and maybe in the way that they've conducted their own
lives you saw success in their lives not everybody has that I

(18:33):
mean we live in a time when so many people like when you're
talking about social media like they feel lonely they get kind
of tricked into thinking like, oh I am connected with people
because I heard this really interesting quote today.
I forget who said it, but it waslike we have confused and taught
everyone that connection is actually, or excuse me, that
attention is actually a connection, like attention of

(18:53):
likes or comments and all that stuff.
Does that make sense? Yeah.
So community, like what? What?
What makes a community good or worth being a part of?
Or what would you consider like community?
I would say a group or a congruent of individuals that

(19:14):
show up to better one another inthe group.
And whatever the the common common goal or the commonality
interest of the group of rising it up, that would be my my
definition of a community. And you know what makes the best
situation in the community when everybody has everyone's best

(19:35):
interest for one common goal? Yeah.
So I want to go back a little bit to like when you were, I
guess growing up post maybe highschool or in the area when you
started to 1st get into cycling.I think I read that your dad was
into BMX and he suggested that to you that cycling may be

(19:56):
something that you should look into.
Talk to me a little bit about that.
I guess formative years in your life where you were trying to
start to figure out who is Iman,what should I do?
What's my future? Yeah, so my dad back to him and
that that question, he never like forced me or like pressured
me into one avenue of development rather that be

(20:18):
sports, scholastics, whatever itmight be.
His his biggest thing he always told me was the more you know,
the more you're worth. So he was like, yeah, go
skateboard. Yeah, go race mountain bikes.
Yeah. Go play lacrosse, go wrestle, go
play football, like go see what you like.
And then when you, you know, when you like a certain thing,
get to a point where you have topick, then you're going to know

(20:40):
what you like and you're not going to wonder what if.
So high school played football, I wrestled, played lacrosse.
End of high school, kind of started dabbling in bikes.
So I was a little late to the game on the cycling scene.
Yeah, I raced BMX for a short time when I was young, raced a

(21:01):
bit of mountain bikes on the local level at, you know, the
local downhill series and some floor cross at theater.
Classic was terrible. It was terrible, but it was
good. I enjoyed it.
My dad supported me. You know, he was now like, oh,
my kid lost today, but he alwaystook me back to make sure that
I, I, I could keep trying. And then he was like, why don't

(21:24):
you try riding on the road now? I remember I was like I'm never
going to shave my legs and funnyhow that changed the.
Great deciding factor the. Great deciding factor.
I was like, that is crazy out ofthat thought.
It's wild, but I started riding bikes middle of junior year,
kind of getting ready for lacrosse and I was playing

(21:45):
lacrosse. But he's pretty seriously.
And Fast forward to the end of senior year, I got my first
invitation to race for the US national team to go over as a
junior in April. I was looking at getting
scholarship options at Cal Poly to play lacrosse.

(22:06):
I was still, I was still practicing on the lacrosse field
3 days out of the week, but training the other days, four
days out of the week on the bike, kind of at this
crossroads, you know, I could goscholastically.
I have this opportunity with thenational team and I yeah, I, I

(22:27):
took, I took the national team route and I, I went to Europe
and got it got 1 result. That was enough to kind of, you
know, perk a few years. I went to tour our Tour de
Libidity that summer with my trade team, Specialized Junior
Development, got second overall to Lachlan Morton at that race.

(22:50):
And then I made the world championship team and flew
directly from a bid to be back to Europe with the national team
and did a four week block of racing, including the World
Championships and a few other prestigious stage races after
our before and after. And I was like, you know, I'm

(23:14):
not the best at school. I like to learn and I'm here to
educate myself, but just the overall, I have a pretty bad ADD
and dyslexia and this is it's hard for me to retain
information in the linear way ofschool.
I was like, you know, I'm I'm kind of causing a bit of
traction in the cycling scene. I feel like I'm pretty good.

(23:35):
I'm going to give it a shot. My dad was all for it.
And so from then on out it was let's try to be a pro bike
rider. Yeah, Yeah.
That's kind of how that worked. Yeah.
What did that mean? To have your dad's support?
Because I know I, you may have to remind me, I guess a little
bit maybe your dad's background,but it seems like most parents,
at least my parents and other people, they were like, oh,

(23:57):
college, college, college, you know, this is everything you got
to do. Sure.
My dad's background, he raced BMX from like middle school up
through high school, got pretty good at the national level and
started racing mountain bikes for a local team, started racing
on the road, and then one day hewas hit by a car on Hwy. 68 down

(24:22):
in Salinas. Was in a coma for six days and
at Santa Clara Valley Med for two months recovering.
Long story short, Fast forward seven years, it took him to get
back to sustainability in a normal way of living, and his
dream and goal, As for himself, was to go race in Belgium.
He wanted to go race in Belgium,which is kind of funny because

(24:42):
he'll live. Through you then.
He really, really, you know, I've, I've done it all.
I'm, you know, I like to say I'mpart of the, the Belgian Mafia
and, you know, race for one of the, I'll say the the most
prestigious promes team and won my races over there.
And so it was a really in a nutshell, it was a really, you
know, doing all that and then racing on the UCI teams here and

(25:03):
there. And, you know, it was our
relationship was, yeah, I was living at Forum and I remember a
few times he was like, yeah, youknow, going to prom.
I didn't go to prom. He's like, dude, trust me, go
party in Italy. Probably worth it.
Go ride your butt the next day. Like, and I was, you know, it's
so hard and I, I look back at itnow and I couldn't only imagine

(25:24):
telling my kid that and being like, just trust me.
If you just trust me and you just do this and you fight for
it. If it we, it'll work out.
And I, I called my dad one New Year's in Milan raging.
It's like 3 in the morning, you know, one years old, 21 years
old. I'm like, you are so right.
We're raging right now. And he's like, be careful, you

(25:48):
know, as any father would say. But you know, we've had a couple
of those like aha moments where I'm like, I, I knew what he was
saying now, like he said it seven years ago, but it, it had
to happen seven years now in thefuture where I get it.
And so that's kind of like my dad's background, the support,
the, the, the commitment that weboth had and him, you know,

(26:10):
also, you know, my parents were separated.
So they were both single, you know, and is I live with my, my
mom, my till 8th grade and I live with my dad from 8th grade
till graduation. Wow.
And so, you know, I watched themstruggle and, you know, putting
food on the table and working. And it wasn't easy.
So I took it, took a take, took a village, still is taking a

(26:30):
village. You know, the village never goes
anywhere. It just changes, changes form
and shape throughout the years. But yeah, my, my dad, we got to
live a dream together, which is really special.
Yeah. So that as sad as it is to say,
like that's not a super common occurrence anymore, like sons
who can look to their fathers and one say that they were

(26:53):
there, but two said that they were good fathers.
I would say. I don't know what the percentage
are, but the more people I've talked to and have inquired
about that particular relationship, especially young
men, it seems to be an ever eroding piece of just society.
So I'm wondering as you did havethat and like you can talk about
your father in positive light, not to say that he didn't
probably make mistakes. And likewise for you both going

(27:15):
back and forth. Sure.
How did how did that did you have any influence or did you
have any conversation with I guess the other people who you
met in your circles who maybe didn't have that and you could
see them like struggling to figure out how to have that
relationship. Or I guess I'm just trying to
inquire like how that per affected your perspective

(27:35):
whenever you came to these sections of your relationships
with friends where like maybe they were struggling with their
father? You know, I became close with a
few people throughout my journey, but I think it's
realistically impossible to become close with everybody you

(27:58):
encounter, especially, you know,you find yourself going on the
same trips when you're a junior and then you make the national
team as AU 23 and some guys trickle away and some guys stay
and you become even closer. And then you're really chasing
this dream day in and day out, month in, year in and year out
with these guys and you so you so you get to know them more.
So I would say with the people that I did get to go and be

(28:19):
intimate with as teammates and learn about their lives.
And, you know, directors that, you know, were once you are
just, you know, you've heard about them, but now you're
you're talking, you're you're driving to Germany and you got a
10 hour drive and you known themfor four years and they've known
your development. You're turning into a young man
and you you stop having conversations about, yeah,

(28:41):
random for random, you know, teenager things.
And you're becoming, you know, you're asking about, you know,
marriage and taxes and you know,what about this or what do you
think about that life choice? Or, you know, you get to know
people differently and, you know, you get to learn about
their upbringings and their connections with their families
and their fathers and, you know,their brothers and their sisters
and they might have a falling out or whatnot.

(29:01):
But yeah, you know, yeah, I learned that I would say it's
5050 with the with the group that I can recall that had a
really solid foundation with their family and others that
were like, you know, like they helped me.
Like I'm still a kid, like, but they're not like stoked I'm here
or they always want me to have aback up plan or, you know, my,

(29:23):
my, my a family member is a parent is deceased or it's a
sore subject or, you know, I didn't feel comfortable
continuing down the road in thatdiscussion.
So yeah, you know, it's like yousaid, it's a social erosion that
you see in today's society. So I definitely, I count myself

(29:47):
blessed to to have those formative years of having such a
strong, strong and sweet and rigid man in my life.
I could definitely see a lot of my father's characteristics as
I, you know, start to get into my middle-aged years with a
little twist of Iman. Of course.
I like, you know, I like incorporating my own being in my

(30:10):
thoughts and doings. But my yeah, as a man, I can
definitely see a lot of my father in me.
Yeah. So.
I would imagine he's pretty proud of you.
Yeah, you know, there's time fortime.
I don't really have to look for the gratification anymore.
But I know there's been times I'm like, hey, like am I doing
you proud? You proud of what you see in
like, and I've had my own faults, you know, along my my

(30:32):
journey of growing up. So, yeah, he's been, you know,
wish you would have done something that a little
different or, you know, I wish you would have, you know, acted
a little better there. Damn, that was pretty
impressive. Yeah.
Pretty good kid. Good job.
So, yeah, you know, we've had our we've had our our ups and
downs. But All in all, yeah, I could I

(30:53):
could say he's pretty proud. Yeah.
Sorry. Thought you were her hands, the
whole side. She's good.
But yeah. No, that's yeah, kind of where
I'm at with my dad. Yeah, that's awesome.
When you when you were going through that whole experience of
like it going over to Europe, obviously there's a lot of
change there. Finding out the scene in this

(31:16):
particular type of racing you did.
I cannot pronounce it the K. How do you say it Criss cross
cross? Cremes, cremes.
Cremes So as you're finding yourstride in that, was there ever a
moment or multiple moments when you were like, I don't know if I
made the right decision? Like should I be here?
Maybe I need, maybe I'm done, maybe I don't know.
Did you ever have any doubt or were you a pretty full throttle?

(31:39):
Man, I was, I never thought I was done.
Of course you have your, your, your Strat, your, your problems.
You know, life isn't always a linear projection, but I always
knew that's where I needed to be.
And that's where I always found myself ending up.
I'd always come home in November, late October, and I'd
always go back in February. And it just, you know, I, I had

(32:03):
the support, I had the team, I had the, the results I had so
thankful. Now I look back at I had because
like, I, I didn't know kind of what, which direction this
podcast was going to go. But I kind of thought to myself
like, OK, we're probably going to touch a bit on bit on
cycling, probably some life stuff like we are, but you don't

(32:25):
really see many kids kind of taking the career path that I
took a little unorthodox, unorthodox in, in the way of
making it or what I I think I made it.
I mean, I, I hadn't had a job until six weeks ago my whole
life. Like, so it might not been World
Tour, It might not have been glamorous.

(32:45):
I didn't do the Tour de France. But I still, you know, I still,
you know, couple points in my life held UCI licenses.
I still raced against Mark Cavendish.
I just, you know you, I've, I'vedone it.
Yeah, I want to, I want to keep on that for a second actually
about the what you just said, which I think is super profound
that, you know, according to you, you made it.

(33:06):
A lot of times I think people, especially younger guys, it's
like they're chasing something that would be a verification
from others that they made it solike.
Don't get me wrong, like I definitely was looking for
approval. And along the way, you know,
like I, I, I had a lot of help and I, I lived with, you know,
Lawrence Tandam, who was, you know, top ten in every Grand

(33:29):
Tour and rode for Rabobank and, you know, rode for Dumalon when
he won the pink jersey and Rasmussen back in back in the
day when he won the pink jersey.And, you know, not that I was
looking for validation during mytime so intimately with
Lawrence, but you know, I had a father Lawrence because I was

(33:49):
living at his house and he helped me get on Dereka or
Delta. I had a coach Lawrence, and then
I had a friend Lawrence. Oh yeah.
You know, I, I never knew who I was going to get, but I always
knew there there was care. And I was a young man looking at
someone who has achieved so much.
Of course I looked up to him as a family man, as a cyclist, as
an individual. So yeah, there was always, you

(34:10):
know, a chase of some satisfaction and pleasing.
But I also knew like I'm just a normal little small town kid
from Pacific Grove. Like what do I have to offer to
Lawrence? Like he's financially set.
He has his own family, he has a friend group, he's established
that he has a company like and like what I've found is like

(34:35):
along our relationship development.
This is, you know, a, for instance, in this one way to
answer this question. Is this like, it's just so, it
was so real, you know, like our,our connection, like there was,
there was no fakeness about it. Like I, I still, he still calls
me son #3 like, and I and he's still pop aloud to me like he's

(35:01):
so many people want Lawrence for, you know?
A. Promotion of a brand or you
know, a an endorsement deal or whatever it might be.
Not everybody, but you know, he has a platform.
He has, he has a lot to offer. But I, I just love Lawrence
because he freaking wanted to help me.
You know, he just really is opento he, he built out his whole

(35:23):
man cave just so that I could live there.
Like that was the origination oflike the man cave being built
out. And I met him when he moved to
Santa Cruz in 2015. And I just told him I went out
training to train with him everyday, every day.
I remember so many days with Lawrence.
And I was just like, I'm just trying to make it like I'm just
trying to live this dream. I'm just trying to chase his

(35:43):
dream. And he was like, well, you know,
we'll keep in touch and we'll, you know, we'll, we'll keep
training together and we'll see what happens.
And you know, if things go in the right direction, I'll open
my mouth. And things went in the right
direction and he opened. His mouth it's hard, the.
Rest is history. So, yeah, you know, it's just
yeah, to answer that question kind of went off topic a little

(36:03):
bit. Sorry.
No, no, no, but yeah, no, it's pleasing people and you know,
have living up to that. Yeah, for sure.
But yeah, like I in the beginning, I feel like I'm
pretty happy go lucky in this bring a lot of originality to a
a conversation and A and a relationship across the board.
And I think that's pretty hard to find and I'm grateful for the

(36:27):
people that see that in me. And then, you know, it just
transpires or develops into whatit's supposed to be.
Yeah. Well, the the humbleness
required or I would even go as far to say like the coach
ability or the teach ability, I feel like is what most people
who are greater in a specific skill set or whatever it might

(36:49):
be or more advanced in their knowledge or understanding.
It's typically those aspects of who we are that I think that
intrigue them that we want to because there's a hunger like
everybody. If we see someone who's hungry
on the street, if you're a half decent person, you kind of wish,
man, I wish I could help them. And sometimes you do.
So I feel like it's similar for our for our mental faculties.

(37:10):
If you see somebody who's hungryor thirsting for something like
there's nothing that excites me more than like a younger guy or
girl who's really wanting to getinto business and be an
entrepreneur, but they have no idea what they're doing.
But then they're just like absorbing everything you say
with a sponge. Like that's that's fun because
that's not part of legacy, right?
You get to give something to someone else that they can carry
beyond you. Yeah.
Right, right. I can.

(37:31):
I can agree with you 100% there.And, you know, someone that's,
you know, like Lawrence has doneso much.
He saw that maybe a little bit of himself and me cutting his
teeth and wanted so bad. Yeah.
That he was like, yeah, I'll extend myself.
And then all of a sudden I'm, you know, in the family.
Yeah. And for shorter words.
Yeah, how many years apart are you and Lawrence, you know?

(37:51):
10 years exactly. 10 years exactly. 10 years exactly, yeah.
You still keep pretty close touch with him.
I do, I do. Yeah.
His, his boys right now are playing playing baseball pretty
hard right now. They're actually not taking the
cycling route. They're travelling, playing all
around Europe as I think Bodie is just turned 12, Yens is 1314.

(38:16):
So they're growing up. Like, I think the last time I
was able to put both of them in my arms was 2 summers ago.
I said, all right, we got our traditional picture.
It's probably the last year I'llbe able to put both of you in my
arms. But yeah, you know, a member of
Lodi in a high chair over on theeast side by the harbour, you
know, growing up eating mashed potatoes and pieces of chicken
at barbecues. And now he's going to be about

(38:39):
13 years old next year. So yeah, I've had a beautiful,
you know, relationship across the board with his children and,
you know, knowing his wife and being accepted into their family
is, you know, not Dutch. But I like to count myself a
little Dutch, but maybe a littlebit more, a little bit more
Belgian, actually. Yeah, I say you learned what is

(39:00):
the, what is the language. You learned another language
over there, did you not? Yeah.
It's, well, it's, it's, it's a Flemish.
Flemish, I was going to say thatI had or like it was another F
word. I was going to say Flemish.
Yeah, Flemish. And that's more of a derivative
of Belgium, obviously. Flanders.
Yeah, And every region in West and E Flanders has their own

(39:24):
dialect. Fun.
And so it's, it's very intricate.
And that's also kind of a a little bit like, you know, being
in the Belgian mafia, knowing where you're racing, knowing
who's there, knowing what languages to use and what terms
to use. And, you know, it's, that's why,
you know, on the national team, we we used Cremesis to

(39:47):
supplement races in between bigger races that were more UCI
or more, you know, calendar basefor the national team.
But yeah, you'd find yourself inthese Cremesis with 80 to 200
guys back in the day sometimes. I think my biggest cremas I ever
started, I had 308 guys in it. Holy smokes, and these are short
fasts like races, right? They're between 100 and 150K.

(40:13):
OK, so they're. Not too short, you know, hour
and 30 minutes to three hours and change, Yeah, depending on
how fast you pedal. Sometimes pretty fast for the
whole thing, but yeah. But yeah, it's it was, it was
really important to me. Diving back to the community
thing of like, if I'm going to be in this culture, I'm going to
learn about it, I'm going to be accepted in it, and I'm going to

(40:36):
be good at it because I'm not going to waste my time here.
I live in a beautiful place. I have a great network at home,
but I'm going to be here. I'm choosing to be here.
I want to be here. I want to be the best.
And that's what really drove me to be just so.
I mean, I don't know any other Americans that want as many bike

(41:00):
races in that field as me. Yeah.
I mean, I don't want to sound ignorant or rude or brass, but I
feel like I really did a good job of, you know, doing what I
did over there when I was doing it.
Why did you decide to come back?Oh man, a lot of reasons.
I was thinking inevitably the lifestyle is hard, you know, I

(41:26):
wasn't making world tour money. I, you know, I was a killer and
still possessed the, the, the attributes and the ability to be
a killer. But man, it takes a lot to be a
killer. This will be season 16 that I'll
be racing now. I'm going to step back from

(41:47):
international racing this year in 262026.
But I just, it takes a lot, you know, I training in the rain and
get into the getting to be as good as you have to be and you
know, early season races into the national season races than
to be fit enough to go over to Europe and be successful and be

(42:08):
in fight. What's that?
In be in fighting shape. Be in fire off yeah, I I don't
want to go across the world for two months and not win like
that's a waste of time for me. And not saying that, you know,
winning in America is is not prestigious.
I mean, trust me, I don't win every bike race I go to.

(42:28):
They're they're hard bike races and the.
Level is definitely different inEurope for sure.
Yeah. It's it's, it's different, but
the Europe was the only thing that was relevant to me.
You know, it's, it was the only thing that made me excited as I
started to get older. And so where some guys wanted to
win Redlands, I just went to Redlands to basically get fit
enough to get to my next goal, summer stage racing to get fit

(42:52):
enough to get to Europe. And I just, you know, just
didn't want to play. You don't want to play the game
anymore to do that. You know, I'm, I have a
fantastic partner. Like I said earlier, we just
moved in together, you know, talking about, you know, I'm 33
now. I can't do it forever.
I want to be, you know, I want to be there for her.

(43:13):
I want to be, you know, at home.I, I missed a lot of my
formative years just chasing this dream.
So relentless and nothing got inthe way.
You know, I family, friends, everything didn't matter to me.
Like thankfully I had such a supportive friends and family
group that wanted me to be there.
So I felt good enough being there.

(43:36):
But now I am getting a little older and I've achieved what I
wanted to achieve. I feel complete, I feel good,
feel happy. You know, Cherish got to come
over this last summer in 2025 and see me kind of finish out my
last international block, and that was really precious and
special for me. And yeah, you know, instead of

(43:58):
us hearing stories and pictures,she got to really live it.
Maybe. I think I raced.
I raced 6 times in seven days. Wow, wow.
So. Yeah, like we raced every day
that last week and then we went down to Zurich and had like 3
days off and then we raced again.
Like raced, raced 7 times in nine days.

(44:19):
So yeah, I mean, inevitably I'm just, I'm ready to be home.
I'm ready to have a different shift in my life.
Feels changing. Seasons are changing and that's,
that's a good thing. I'm excited about it.
Yeah. You know, I, I'm, I'm happy that
I got to go out the way I wantedto go out and not with an injury
or not with a contract renewal or not with an opportunity and

(44:40):
being, you know, jaded and upsetand mad.
And no, like I've gotten so muchhelp and I've, I've, I feel
incredibly blessed to, you know,not be, you know, I wasn't world
tour, but you know, I, like I said, I was living the dream,
man. I was living, riding my bike
every day, making it, making it happen.
What percentage of the cycling community or even go you could

(45:02):
probably even open up to like the endurance sport community
can can say that that their change in the season with kind
of walking away with like, oh, Iended how I wanted to.
It seems pretty rare. Yeah, I don't know that many
people mean. I think that's a personal
question for everybody involved because what but me walking away

(45:22):
first, Steve from down the street might be different where
I feel good about it. If he was in my shoes, he might
be like AB feeling a little loose ended.
That wasn't exactly how I wantedit.
But I would say probably as an endurance athlete walking away
feeling complete because you're never really complete, man.

(45:44):
Like you chase some demons on the on the bike, during runs,
swimming, whatever you're doing at an elite level, you're
chasing demons. I don't care if you're if you
say you don't, you're lying. You're.
Chasing them or are they chasingyou?
Both, both goes. It's a it's a two way St. when
it comes to a man. Some days you're not chasing
anything and you're not being chased, but other days you're

(46:06):
being chased and other days you're doing the chasing.
Depends on what's going on in your life, what's go, you know,
what you're needing to achieve, how tired you are, how fresh you
are, how many results you have that year.
They're all different. It's all different.
But exiting the sport as an endurance athlete in an an elite

(46:27):
level endurance athlete, I wouldsay this feeling complete is a
is a win across the board for anyone to stay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel feeling.
Complete. Yeah, that's a blessing, man.
I'm, I haven't talked to a ton of people who have ended their
career, but one thing I have heard is kind of a through line,

(46:47):
especially in the triathlon world, is just a lot of these
people, or will he even go as broad to say like Olympians or
whatever, just like, yo, you reach this mountain and then
it's over. And, and there are a lot of
people who have these identity crises because they were so
wrapped up into one thing, they're not even sure how to
transfer their own self perceived value into another

(47:07):
sphere of work or just like of being a purpose.
It's like, oh, it was always this thing.
So like, that's, that's really cool to hear.
And I, I wish everybody could walk away with that.
Yeah, I mean, trust me, it didn't happen overnight.
Still a little bit of an ongoing, not ongoing struggle,
but it's now more or less on theback end of my mind.

(47:28):
But you know, as an endurance athlete, you're always defined
by your last best result. You know, that gives that person
that gave me a lot of like value.
Like if I didn't perform well ina training ride that day, I had
a lot of problems. Iman wasn't good enough.
I had to be as good as my day asmy on the bike.

(47:52):
Or if I had a bad race, Iman wasn't good enough because I
didn't perform how I thought I should have.
Not just like, dude, I was fit enough to even do this race.
Like that's great. I just did 385 watts normalize
for three hours. Like you should be stoked on
that. No, I was mad because I got 7th
and I was in the front group andI got boxed out and I didn't

(48:13):
didn't win. Like just to be to come to terms
and to be put in certain circumstances in life that made
me understand or, you know, to Iwas able just to be to learn how
to be OK being Iman. And that's why I wish I could
like go back to younger me and be like, dude, you're enough

(48:35):
like you, you're OK just existing.
And I still have my moments. But now that I'm transitioning
out, I have a really healthy relationship.
I have friends that know me wellenough.
That's helped me. All of it's helped me just to be
like, I can just go sit on this couch here after this interview
and just be like, yeah, like I only worked two hours today.

(48:57):
It got rate job got rained out. I got to hang out with my lovely
girlfriend and like, that's enough.
Like it's good. Didn't do anything.
But man, it's it's not being. Kind to yourself it's being.
Kind to myself, showing up for myself in that way.
And that's, you know, spending the time with myself that we
talked about earlier in the podcast.
And it's like taking my moments when I'm alone to just like have
that therapeutic thought and that moment and those thoughts

(49:19):
of aloneness. And it's working, working to be
a better Iman for the next day in those moments of aloneness,
yeah. How do you, how do you give
advice or how would you give advice to somebody who wants to,
to learn how to sit with themself or just to not be
having to do something because I'm similar to you in that
there's some ADD or ADHD or something.

(49:40):
Nothing's ever been diagnosed, but I hated school and it took a
while to like first I had to like myself before I could sit
with myself. But how would you give advice to
somebody who is like interested in figuring out how to find that
level of peace with? You're going to have to be
uncomfortable for a while, firstand foremost.
Like I think if you can, if you can accept the path that you're

(50:05):
about to go down and understand that to become the to become
more peaceful and to become OK, you're going to have to confront
traumas. You're going to have to
confront, you know, things aboutyourself you might not like
things about yourself you might have done in whatever way you is
interpreted to others in relationships, you know,

(50:28):
anything. So just a lot of self
evaluation. I found myself, you know, kind
of I could give give advice or to be like, hey, like you're
about to start this journey. There's no end date guaranteed.
You know, I can't tell you it's going to be in a week.
I can't tell you it's going to be in three years.
But you know, if you are, if youput an effort, if you're

(50:52):
willing, if you, if you're willing to sit through the
uncomfortable moments to become better after those, and then you
did do it under repetition, you will, you will start to like
yourself better. And, you know, like I, I went
through a couple men's groups and some therapy groups and some

(51:13):
therapy sessions and, you know, really tried to learn about
myself. And I remember leaving those,
those, those sessions in, in tears more times than not.
And, and really just being like,wow, like that really kind of
rocked me. And I, I didn't like what I felt

(51:34):
or I liked what I felt, but I'm still working through the
thoughts. And, you know, as time time
heals and time gets better, whatever it might be, but you
know, looking back from when I started to now, like, man, I'm,
I'm really grateful that I was able to, to do that and to stay

(51:55):
in it and to be encouraged to stay in it and made the I showed
up for myself, to show for myself, if that makes sense.
Yeah, that's my, that's my, that's my advice.
Yeah, I don't think it's good advice.
Are you religious? I am.
I'm a Christian, yes. Yeah, who is God to you?

(52:16):
The Lord. Who is the Lord?
Who is God? Yeah.
This, you know, this. That's a big question.
That's a loaded question. It's even more.
Who is Iman? Yeah.
He's the the creator of the universe, you know, to me, he's,
you know, the father of of, of Jesus.

(52:38):
He's creating, he's the king of the Jews.
He's, you know, he's someone that he's a, he's a being, an
entity, a spirit that provides eternal, you know, salvation.

(52:58):
So you ask for, for to have, youknow, faith in the Lord.
And I think this, that, this, that that's beautiful to me.
Like I'm not here to be a Bible thumper.
I'm a Christian, I'm not here topreach at anybody ever, but I
think if you had an opportunity and you knew of something that
if you were to believe in and give yourself to that, you could
have eternal peace, care and go to this beautiful place called

(53:21):
heaven. Like that sounds a little bit to
me like a no brainer. Like man, like there's this
person, there's this thing out there that if I have faith in
and I talked to and develop thisrelationship with, it could
really be a beautiful thing after I'm what I'm after I'm
alive, but also through my life.It could be, you know, there's

(53:42):
scripture and there's Bible verses and there's churches that
they speak of so much good. And of course, religion has its
taboos, all religions. I'm not going to try to negate
that or turn a blind eye to it. But yeah, I'm, I've, I've spent
countless hours through my life just on my knees praying the

(54:04):
playing, praying to the Lord andasking to be blessed and asking
for, you know, salvation and asking to be a better Iman or
asking for help or but also tables turn.
I've spent countless hours just being so like, thank you Lord,
for blessing me. I thank you for the sick life
I'm living, travel in the world.I have contracts, I have health,
I have opportunity doors for opening, you know, people in my

(54:28):
life. I just, I think that's just a
really beautiful thing that I really love about Christianity
and the relationship that I havewith the Lord And, you know,
growing up in a, in a Christian home, mom, dad, grandparents,
friends, not all of them, but, you know, some of them.

(54:48):
But yeah, that's, I'm, I'm a bigbeliever and I, I, I'm very
stoked on where I'm at in my faith right now as well.
Yeah. It's interesting you said that I
could find myself in a similar place.
My wife is going to be having our first child in in February.
So I feel like that has been like a a new level of a lot of

(55:10):
those things you talked about. Yeah.
Thank you. Amen.
To that, Congrats. Yeah, thanks.
Yeah, I'm stoked. Yeah, it's going to be a little
girl too. And I'm like.
Really. Yeah, brother.
Yeah. Awesome.
I'm so happy for you guys. Thanks man.
Yeah, it's, yeah. And the topic of what you're
saying, like I just to share a little bit, you know, I've, I've

(55:32):
been thinking a lot about what it means like to have, you know,
because in the very beginning itsays God created the heavens and
the earth, right? And then he created man.
But then he breathed that breathinto Adam and to, you know,
subsequently Eve, that same breath that was able to speak
things into existence, right. And now my wife's about to have
this little life. And I realized that that same

(55:54):
breath that God gave to Adam gottransferred all the way down to
me now. And soon as my little girl comes
into this world, I'm going to have opportunities to use my
breath to vibrate my vocal cordsthat could bring about in her
life, life or death. And so like, that's something
I've been thinking about a lot lately.
It's like. Yeah.
Just like that, all the way downthe line, you know, she's born.

(56:16):
And there it is, yeah. Crazy.
Wow. Yeah, well, I'm sure you're, I'm
sure you've been praying hard lately.
Yeah, Yep. Praying for her, praying for for
understanding, for patience. You.
Know tonight I'm going to give you a little prayer just for,
for peace. Be as peace peaceful as
possible. And you could just be as calm as

(56:37):
possible on this big venture. Yeah.
I need it, you know, It's so funny.
Like I consider myself like pretty pretty risk taking.
Like I've always been somewhat of a risk taker.
And I thought like, Oh yeah, I'll be totally fine.
I'm gonna have a kid. Like, yeah, go eat dirt, rubs
dirt in it, whatever. And kind of how I grew up.
But the closer we get to that, I'm like, oh, my goodness.
Like I'm noticing to myself if alittle kids walking a little too

(56:59):
close to the edge of the sidewalk, like I'm like, oh, I
gotta do something. I'm like please don't do.
That, yeah. Need to chill out.
Somebody help me chill, Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure,
100%. Yeah.
That's my that's my take on religion.
Yeah, thanks, man. Yeah, of course.
I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, you know, it's a, it's a
good thing. I, I hope more people I ask that

(57:20):
question, like, are you religious to a lot of different
people? And it's always interesting to
hear their story because obviously it's it's it's kind of
determined in in part by their past experiences and how they
were brought up. And it's even less common
nowadays, I'd say for like hours, our age demographic to
continue on in that belief if like our parents were Christian

(57:43):
or went to church, whatever it is, like there's more of like a
breaking off from that. So it's interesting and good to
hear like that you're you're still like going down that path
because it is a beautiful thing.I think it adds so much to life,
so much perspective. Even if I was completely wrong.
Like, let's just pretend for a second like, like you would have
lived hopefully a better life for yourself, but also for

(58:05):
others like those tenants you can't get away from.
You had those beliefs and you had that.
You know the idea and you you knew, you knew what was right
and what was wrong and what could you know could transpire
based off of said decisions. Yeah, yeah.
Are. You a father?
I'm not. I would love to be a father one

(58:26):
day. Yeah.
Think I will be a father one dayand not I, I, I look forward to,
to being a great father if that is in the cards.
And, you know, you know, in thattransition of where I'm at right
now, you know, being more home based and, you know, starting
this career and talking with my partner about, you know, what's

(58:49):
like we moved into this place and we're like, we're not moving
till we buy a house or we're kicked out.
Like that move was terrible. And like, yeah.
But you know, it's like creatingthis nest and these, these steps
together and being like, look, like this is what it's going to
look like to become a father or become parents.
Like we're going to, you know, be financially stable and to

(59:09):
develop our relationship where we're, you know, like, yeah, I,
I think, you know, I would be a great father.
I would love to be a father, Butyou know, I, I look at my
partner, her name is Cherish andI think she would be a fantastic
mother. You know, she's she's that's,
that's what I wanted to partner.It's, you know, that's something
I would, I would look for. And she, she checks.

(59:32):
I, I don't want to say it because you know, it's, it's,
it's a heavy statement, but if something were to happen to me
and we were, we did have a child, I would feel 100%.
Confident. Confident that Cherish would be
able to hold it down, and I think that's really hard in
today's day and age is to find someone that you know, God

(59:52):
forbid. Something happened to death.
Something. Happened to me that I know
things would be taken care of and I was blessed to have a
partner like that that I have 100% confidence in, yeah.
So, yeah, not a father yet. Working on it, working on
starting to save some money. And you know, we are, we are, we

(01:00:13):
live in a duplex and we have some neighbors and we're like,
man, we're driving the day they're going to walk before
this podcast. And they're like, man, hopefully
they don't got a kid because that'd be kind of annoying.
But curiously, but if it was ourkid, it could cry all at once.
So, you know, like, you know, we're we're we're definitely
there's thoughts and feelers going out in that direction, but
we're still very, you know, yeah, we're not there yet.

(01:00:36):
But yeah, we definitely would would not mind it one day, you
know, if it did turn into that. Yeah, that's cool.
Your her name being cherish yourname meaning Faith, I think you
said. I think you guys are in a good
spot. Yeah.
I know I I think we're in a goodspot and we're we're stoked.
Yeah. I'm I'm is she?
Over there, nearby, she. Is yeah, she's at the at the

(01:00:57):
kitchen table is I think we're on the phone and hanging out and
going. We're like I said, we're staying
in the yeah, the dresser. So she I think she was in there
tending to the the drawers earlier Nice.
And now she's out of garage and she's hanging out in the house.
But yeah, that's. Awesome.
Yeah. Is there anything that I haven't
asked about in your life that you would want to share about?

(01:01:19):
You know, not entirely. I mean, we could, we could sit
and have a whole, you know, chapter by chapter of Iman
through his, you know, early 20sto mid 20s to late 20s to early
30s. And you could really break it
down for you. Yeah.
And he could have like, you know, a pretty good discussion.
But, you know, All in all, like you asked me in the very

(01:01:40):
beginning who is Iman and kind of covered that covered some
stuff about bike racing. I'm actually really glad this
wasn't like a whole bike racing podcast.
Yeah, anybody can go look up. Yeah, yeah.
Anyone can go look it up like goGoogle me like it's OK.
Like I don't need. I'm glad we got to talk about
real life. I'm glad we got to talk about

(01:02:00):
present and you know what's going on in life in general.
We got to talk about a little bit about bike Rayson, which is
always good. Something that will never be out
of my life. Completely true.
Yeah. But no, I think we, we've, we've
covered a great, great deal of things in our hour and 22
seconds. And I'm I'm stoked on how this

(01:02:21):
kind of turned out and just transpired.
Yeah, you're a very good conversationalist, Ivan.
Well, I appreciate it and I, I, like I said, I like to be
engaged and I like to, to give the energy as an, an introvert
or an extrovert. And I've like, I'm just, I'm
here to have a conversation. So I'm stoked to, to be given

(01:02:41):
the opportunity to have a conversation.
Seth, thank you. Yeah, man.
Awesome. Well, thank you for taking the
time. In the future, I will say I put
this little, not disclaimer, butrequest if you do want to come
on again in the future, I would love to have you on to dive into
some other deep topics and see what's what's going on in your
life. But yeah, I greatly appreciate
you taking the time and allowingme to poke around your life a

(01:03:03):
bit to get to understand where you've been, where you're at,
where you're going. Yeah.
It's been. Yeah, I know it's if there are
some, you know, if you sit within the next week and you're
like, well, like what about thatpart of his life?
Or you know that you re listen to this as you edit it or you
listen to it before you post it and you're like, that was that
could have been a little tangentor whatever it might be.

(01:03:24):
Feel free. We could we could chat it up on
the DMS or a text and for sure maybe go a little episode 2 or
whatever you want to call it. Oh.
Yeah, round two. I've got quite a few.
I'd love to be back on. Cool.
Awesome dude. Well, thank you.
Yeah, you as well. Thank you for the time and
Congrats on your, your, your pregnancy with your wife and

(01:03:46):
your baby coming in this world. And I'm stoked.
I'm stoked for you. Cool.
Great conversation with Iman. Thank you so much dude for
coming on and thank you listenerlisteners for coming and jumping
in with me this evening. I guess it's not evening for
you, but it's dark outside and Ilike the evening time because,

(01:04:06):
yeah, makes me feel a little more relaxed in a lot of ways.
So hopefully you feel the same thing.
Thank you so much, Iman, for coming on.
Thanks for checking out the shownotes.
Thank you guys for being here asalways.
And yeah, I'll actually leave you with this one final thing.
When talking about his own personal journey, he talked
quite a bit about Iman, talked quite a bit about how to be
comfortable with kind of being alone in your own presence.

(01:04:28):
If you have never experienced that yet or you don't know how
to experience it or maybe haven't experienced it in a
while, I would encourage you unplug for a little bit, turn
your phone off, go for a walk, and just try to be alone in your
thoughts for a little while. Try to keep yourself calm.
See if you can do that. Going out in nature often helps
me. Or bike ride.
Sometimes I run. No music, no nothing.

(01:04:50):
Just see if you can sit with yourself for a few minutes and
then grow that too, maybe more than just a few minutes and see
what you're able to figure out. A lot of cool things happen and
there's still a silence of the mind.
All right, thank you guys for listening.
Have a good day and we'll talk to you soon.
Peace.