Adam Hansen: the riders’ representative
In a long career, Adam Hansen rode for small teams as well as World Tour level outfits such as HTC-Columbia and Lotto-Soudal, so he knows what it means to be a professional cyclist at both ends of the spectrum.
Hansen was a domestique, a leadout man and a road captain. He was Australian time trial champion in 2008 and won a stage of the 2013 Giro d'Italia and 2014 Vuelta a España. But he was possibly best known for his remarkable run of 20 consecutive grand tours, which he completed between the 2011 Vuelta and the 2018 Giro without abandoning a single race. It was a streak that said much about his durability, consistency, experience and luck perhaps.
Over the years, he has been a regular voice on The Cycling Podcast. We made an episode of Kilometre 0 about his grand tour streak, but we've also heard about his love of European Christmas markets in an episode recorded at a Lotto-Soudal training camp, his handmade cycling shoes, his software engineering and his veganism. In short, there's rarely a subject Hansen is unable to offer a thoughtful perspective on.
And so it is perhaps not a surprise that having retired from racing (more or less) at the end of 2020, he'd find himself throwing his hat in the ring to succeed Gianni Bugno as president of the CPA. In French that's the Cyclistes Professionels Associés which is the union that represents all professional riders.
Since being elected in March, Hansen has been busy visiting races, speaking to riders, conducting an online poll of the members to see which issues are concerning them most. The riders, as the chief protagonists in the sport, are often pushed or pulled into a position of weakness by the race organisers, the UCI, the teams and find themselves without a unified voice to stand up for their rights.
Lionel Birnie caught up with Adam to find out how he's settling in to the new role, what the CPA actual does and how it works and, crucially, what his top priorities are.
Series: Friends of the Podcast 2023
Run time: 58mins
Producer: Adam Bowie