So Jack Ultra Cyclist just posted on his Instagram about his weight journey. From being 110kgs, and then losing 32kg (!) since he has been riding, big kudos.
Now, having been around multiple juiced guys when I living abroad before, I immediately saw the similarities of people who were not 100% clean. And once they stop taking juice, and then immediately start just shedding muscle weight, something that doesn’t in such manner otherwise.
Losing 32kgs is no joke when you look at his muscle build at 110kgs… It’s not like he was 110kgs of overweight mass, that was pure muscle.
Can anyone else chime in on this? I feel like its quite important to shed a light on stuff like this since I personally feel that if someone has been juiced before, and then becomes this centre figure for ultra cycling, it sends the wrong message.
I sent him a PM asking straight out if he was clean back then, but he immediately blocked me, which for me further raises some questions.
Thoughts?
(I hope it’s fine to raise such discussions here since he is a big name in cycling, and riding for a great cause. If its not fine to discuss these things, feel free to delete the thread)
EDIT: Seems like he has deleted his whole story now…
I don’t know who he is how he looks now. If he was on juice back, then I personally don’t care. It’s fair to ask the question although everybody has their personal journey in life. If he decides to divulge, dispute, or otherwise comment on this then that’s cool or not…but since you’ve brought him to my attention I’ll check out some of his vid’s and what not and see if I’m interested in learning more about him.
Some interesting projects. I guess that’s how he makes his living. I would not say he is a centre figure in ultra, from his projects listed. He appears to be very much on the edge. I note he doesn’t list any ultra races, does he ride any? I’d say The centre is more people like Christoph Strasser and others, if you believe the centre to be the fastest rather than those whose bread and butter event is the ultra race or non competitive brevet.
He’s been around for several years, and has an impressive list of accomplishments, albeit largely self imposed challenges. The Everest a week thing he did last year was just nuts to follow along with on his way to 1M meters of elevation gain… He is one of maybe 10 people doing “ultra distance” stuff and making a living off of it. He’s been getting a ton of use by the Specialized marketing team, probably in an attempt to attract the less race oriented audience(Roubaix SL8).
He has recently lined up at some Ultra distance type stuff, including Traka 360 in Spain, where he managed a 9th overall against a solid field composed of mostly one day racers and gravel pros, but also a pretty stout list of podium finishers and winners of some big races (tour divide, TCR, Badlands, etc). He also raced the Unbound XL, but scratched 150 miles in.
I can’t offer any insight into his pre-cycling life aside from that he did have substance abuse issues, as well as ongoing mental health issues, which he is pretty open about, and vocal in raising awareness of. I don’t blame him for blocking you, as just cold-calling him about “juicing”, even in a past life is just a troll move…
The 9th place Jack Thompson in the Tarka 360 this year is listed as Irish, where as the one you refer to is Australian. Think you’ve got your Jacks mixed up. Even so, 9th place in a minor ultra doesn’t make you the centre of ultra cycling.
I personally never stated he was anywhere near the center of Ultra cycling, but lets be real, Ultra cycling doesn’t have a very big radius, thus anyone in it is pretty near the center…
So no idea who this guy is, but I would caution people from coming to conclusions about someone being on drugs or not based upon one photograph with terrible lighting.
I think the bigger thing is that seems like an unhealthy amount of muscle to lose off of your body, and all of the other possible health detriments that go along with it.
Eddie Merckx was banned for doping on multiple occasions and is revered as the greatest cyclist of all time. Miguel Indurain almost certainly doped (same argument as Lance before they finally caught him - he was a big guy dominating GC at a time when we know EPO was rampant in the peloton and many of the people he was beating were on it) and gets wheeled out every TdF. Alexander Vinokourov was a doper and is now running a Worldtour team. I honestly don’t think an ex-bodybuilder turned ultra cyclist is going to tarnish our sport!
We’re going way off topic, but I’ll play.
If by that you mean that Ultra cycling has more participants than World Tour cycling, obviously… But as far as awareness even by cyclists as a whole(meaning someone who regularly rides a bike), no, Ultra is about as niche as it gets, way behind Triathlon, Downhill Mountain Biking, etc… And as far as World Tour, I actually kind of would consider even a domestique on a World Tour team to be at the center of Professional Road Cycling. There are ~500 of them in the entire world, which is a pretty small portion of even just the estimated 14 million regular riders in the US alone. (twice per week or more)
As a whole… Yes, Jack Thompson is in fact a well known Ultra cyclist. I’d guess probably in the top 10. I’m not saying he’s the fastest, but he’s got more eyeballs on him than all but a handful of Ultra cyclists. With that said, we’re talking a fraction of the audience or name recognition than even some second tier World Tour sprinter… I’m not anti Ultra, and I consider myself an Ultra cyclist, so I’m not bashing on it, but there is no doubting how obscure the scene is, and nothing wrong with acknowledging that you might be aware of some portions of it, but not others.
