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“You were on ProCyclingStats looking up your own results!” I exclaimed during my interview with James Piccoli. I got such a kick out of that image of a retired rider on his own web page.
“It was a tab open on my computer for quite a long time as I was getting to the chapters where I was starting to talk about results, making sure that it wasn’t lying,” he said.
James Piccoli has a new book
The occasion for my chat with James Piccoli is the release of his new book Tell Me I Can’t. (Website members can read an excerpt from it in the latest issue of the magazine.) In it, the Montrealer recounts how, at the “old” age of 21, he decided to pursue a career in pro road cycling. It was difficult. It seemed Piccoli couldn’t get a break. But the self-described stubborn guy stuck to it, almost defiantly so.
Memory can be a tricky thing. Some riders can remember every detail of every race. Others, not so much. Before Piccoli revealed his research and fact-checking methods, I asked him what kind of rider he was. Not one with a detailed memory of his own stats. Although, his Tour de Beauce win is pretty unforgettable.
The big question for James Piccoli
The question I was most interested in asking Piccoli was if he thought the days of a 21 year old deciding to go pro were over. (Also note, Michael Woods, who is five years older than Piccoli, also started pursuing road cycling at about the same time. Woods, however, had already proven himself to be a world-class athlete as a middle-distance runner.) Today, WorldTeams have their development squads, but in 2012, those structures weren’t as prevalent. In 2024, Toronto’s Ashlin Barry inked a deal with Visma-Lease A Bike at the age of 17. Michael Leonard signed with Ineos-Grenadiers at 18. The path to the WorldTour is simply one you have to start younger today, and you have to be working your way through teams, projects and races.
“When I started, at 21 or whatever, that was still old,” Piccoli said. “That was still impossible. That still couldn’t be done because cycling was already along this path of getting riders on board young. There was a certain window that they’d have to perform in. And I do think that’s gotten even worse now, like ‘worse’ in the sense that riders are now signing to WorldTour teams even younger. They’re in the program younger. It’s…
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