Caruso raises concerns over rider happiness amid growing pressure on young talent

Damiano Caruso believes that cycling’s growing obsession with performance is coming at the expense of riders’ happiness, with the recently retired Italian suggesting that burnout in the modern peloton is becoming more mental than physical.

“The cycling I’m leaving behind is different," Caruso told Bici.pro. "It’s much more performance-oriented, more scientific, and even more obsessive when it comes to the details. And I would count that as a positive." 

“The only drawback, in my view, is that the human dimension is being somewhat neglected. Athletes are increasingly being transformed into machines, and at times, the human side is overlooked. Nutrition and performance are carefully managed, but there is less focus on the athlete’s happiness," he added.

Caruso bowed out from the sport at Gran Piemonte earlier this month, bringing to an end an 18-year career that included stage wins at the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, as well as finishing second at his home Grand Tour in 2021.

Next season, the 39-year-old is set to embark on a new chapter within Bahrain-Victorious as he moves into a Sports Director role. Caruso is currently in Aigle this week, attending a licence course alongside fellow recently retired professional Jacopo Mosca. 

Looking at how the sport has developed over the course of his career, Caruso has highlighted the growing pressure on riders at an increasingly younger age. 

“If you just want to do it for sport, that’s perfectly fine. But if you want to be a racer, you have to immediately commit to a path that was once unthinkable, back when people said that at that age, kids should just be playing,” Caruso said. 

“Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case. If you just ‘play’ at 16, look at what happens: by 20, you’re off to get a regular job!”

Caruso believes that his own career could have been completely different if he were coming through the ranks today. 

“Back then, if you had a bit of talent, there was still time for it to mature. Now, talent alone isn’t enough, it has to be cultivated,” he said. “Even if your name is Seixas or Remco, you have to live in total symbiosis with your bike.”

“Perhaps it was different for Pogačar, because he possesses an unimaginable amount of talent, more than anyone else. For everyone else, the bike has to become an obsession.”

He also acknowledged the personal cost of reaching the highest level and the attention and pressure that come with it, citing Fabio Aru’s early retirement at 31, six years after winning the Vuelta.

At the Vuelta in 2014, Aru finished fifth overall, while Caruso ended ninth. Caruso admitted that he felt there wasn’t much separating the two at the time, but the media attention that faced Aru afterwards was on a different scale, and he believes this could have impacted his compatriot in the following years.

“Why did Aru retire so early? Could he have been one of the first victims of that kind of mental burnout? He was thrust into the highest level of the sport and realised just how high the personal cost was to stay there,” Caruso said. 

"Others come to mind, too, [Thibaut] Pinot, [Tom] Dumoulin, perhaps even [Romain] Bardet.”

Caruso plans to take these lessons from his racing career into his new role, as he aims to help nurture the latest generation of riders making the step up and cementing themselves in the peloton. 

“I’ve promised myself that for the first six to eight months, I’ll take on more of an observational role; you have to learn to think from a different perspective.”