Throwback. Tour of the Gila with Alex Hoehn

We caught up with Source Endurance alumni, Alex Hoehn and reminisced about his GC win at the Tour of the Gila way back in 2023. Then we talked about how his intensity in sport has benefitted him in his post-cycling endeavours.

 

In 2023, you won the overall by just two seconds over Óscar Sevilla Looking back at that final stage up the Gila Monster, at what specific moment did you realize the jersey was actually yours to keep?

Definitely was not over until I crossed the finish line either in first or second. I had done the math in my head before the race to figure out what I needed to do to keep the jersey and at the very least it was not get gapped by him at the line and at least finish in second. So really not until about 50m from the line I knew I was not going to get gapped, and he had a better punch at the line than I did. But I knew I won.  

 

It was mentioned that your win was the result of becoming a "24/7 whole athlete." How did that shift in lifestyle and mindset differ from your earlier years in the sport?  

It definitely takes some time to mature as an athlete at that level. You don’t start your career off riding 1,000 hrs a year for multiple years in a row. You need to ease into it. Once you are about 5 or so years into your career you can finally understand what it truly takes to be a top cyclist and that is more or less devote your whole life to the sport. There is balance yes, but not so much if you are chasing perfection. I was never perfect, but that didn’t stop me from trying. 

As an athlete who worked closely with high-performance metrics, how much did "watching the numbers" dictate your tactics versus pure racing instinct?  Or did you just rely on the coach to interpret that data? 

I very much so relied on my coach. With weekly meetings over previous races and training, I had a pretty good idea of where my limits were. But when you are in the heat of racing, and you aren’t going up a 1 hour long climb, you kind of need to have race craft as my prior director Mike Creed would always say. Race craft is basically the skill to be in the right place at the right time in order to win races. It takes a lot of time to hone that skill, but once you get it, it just clicks. That doesn’t mean you win every race, but you start crashing less, and getting caught out of the big moves less. 

In certain races I obviously road to my limit numbers wise. If it was a 45min-1hr climb, I stayed right around 370-375. Anything over that and I would crack very hard very quickly. But in a race, you follow moves and sometimes you have to go over the limit to stay in and sometimes it pays off and sometimes you blow. 

 

Every rider has a love-hate relationship with the Gila Monster. What is one part of that specific climb or another part of the parcours that fans don’t realize is actually really hard? 

Obviously coming in and out of the cliff dwellings is the most intense part of the course. You descend for what feels like an hour only to come up that same climb that feels like an eternity. But I’d say the hardest part of that course is when you are 90 miles in and almost 10,000 feet of climbing in and it kicks up slightly over the last 10 miles. It’s not necessarily steep, but your legs want to give out nearly every pedal stroke. It’s a mind game at that point and the toughest mentally usually win. We all train super hard and all the top guys are talented so it is usually a mind game that makes or breaks it at the finish. 

 

You’ve raced on five continents, from Rwanda to Serbia. How does the Tour of the Gila compare to the UCI races you’ve done internationally?  

The Tour of the Gila is no joke. The parcours are some of the toughest I’ve handled in my career. I’d say the difference between that and European racing is the depth of the riders over in Europe. A bigger percentage of them are able to win each race on any given day. The roads are smaller, much much smaller. We would have races that are the same climbing as Gila, but racing on a goat path to get to the bottom of the climb. And if you are not top 20 wheels at the bottom, your race is all but over. You may be starting the climb more than a minute back on when the first person starts. It doesn’t matter if you have fresh legs, you will not be closing a minute gap on a good climber. Almost ever. 

I guess one other big difference compared to Gila is that there are no World Tour riders. Almost all the races in Europe you are racing against someone who has competed in the Tour de France or has a dad that won the World Championships in the 80’s. 

 

You’ve had a very long-standing coaching relationship with coach Adam Mills. How did having a coach for nearly a decade play a role in navigating the mid-race pivots at Gila or other races (u23 RR Champs)?  

Absolutely paramount to my success. We would always joke that Adam knows my body better than I do. I cannot even comprehend the amount of phone calls I would give Adam during stupid hard training sessions telling him I suck, and he would tell me to just complete the workout as best as I could. Always pushing me to be my best. Having a coach from literally the very first start of my career to when I retired has been incredible and I wouldn’t change it for the world. The amount of growth we have both had together in cycling is what makes our relationship so beautiful. He knew when to push me and when to back off.

We navigated world travel, undergrad and grad school, National Championships together and much more. He was my Swiss army knife. Having Adam as my coach not only enabled me to navigate some of the hardest races ever including Amgen Tour of California, and the Tour of Turkey etc. he also kept me grounded, focusing on the bigger picture and not letting me burn out. So many guys burn out in 5 or so years as amateurs. We had nearly a decade long run together in the UCI. That speaks volumes alone.  

 

Tour of the Gila is often a "make or break" race for young riders looking to go pro as it's a rare USA clim- heavy UCI stage race. What is the one piece of advice you’d give a rider lining up in Silver City for the first time?  

Oh my god Adam is going to kill me for this because he would tell me all the dang time. Eat. Eat, eat eat. I couldn’t tell you how many times I messed up from under eating, not wanting to get a stomach cramp or what not. I will tell you it is the exact opposite. Eat often and eat early. I have raced Gila many times and it wasn’t until the year I won that I took that advice to heart. I never bonked, stayed hydrated and fueled, and that along with my incredible teammates led me to winning the Tour of Gila. 

I have so much more advice but another top piece I would give is enjoy it. It doesn’t last forever and when it is over, you will miss it. Soak in every moment, every shit hotel you stay at, every 5 hour bus ride with your teammates, every crash, every win. I know it sounds cheesy to say and I did a darn good job of soaking it all in, but it ends. And once it does you will wish you could relive that moment one more time. So do not take being a cyclist, whether amateur or professional for granted. Ride hard, kick some ass, and have an absolute blast. 

 

What are you studying now, and how has the discipline of a professional cyclist translated into your academic and professional life outside of racing? 

I am a first year law student at the University of Washburn School of Law. I would say the discipline of being a professional cyclist has paid off in spades in my academic and professional life outside of cycling. Those training habits and eating habits and resting habits, they never go away. Instead of 6 hour bike rides I am doing 6 hour reading days, instead of juggling 5 flights in one day, I am juggling 5 interviews in 3 days. All of the time management skills I learned are copying over to my study habits, life habits pretty much completely. Once you have dug to the grave that many times in cycling, your perspective on what pain feels like changes. I spend hours studying a day and when I start to complain about how hard it is to read about the Statute of Frauds, I tell myself, nothing can be harder than 6.5 hours outside in the cold pouring rain, doing Adams 20x3min efforts…. 

What a fucking great run Adam. You have been the most inspiring, encouraging coach I could have ever hoped for throughout my career. Any kid being coached by you has no idea how lucky he is. He will one day. Ciao Ciao.