‘No No No’ – culture shock and bike crash for American star Sam Long in Italy

American star Sam Long has revealed how a perfect storm of bike issues and facing up to the culture shock of living and training in Europe left him seriously considering the prospect of ditching his Italian training camp and returning home to complete his preparations for this year’s IRONMAN World Championship.

Having moved out to the Julian Alps, with pregnant wife Lara and their two-year-old son Leo earlier this month, the plan was for him to escape the scorching Arizona heat so that he could steadily acclimatise and prepare for September’s showdown in Nice, France.

However, despite being based with family in the glorious mountain surrounds of the Slovenian border, the 29-year-old triathlete’s hopes for a smooth transition have instead been ruined thanks to a series of unfortunate events which culminated in him suffering a crash that wrecked his brand new bike.

Domino effect leads to fall

In the latest YouTube VLOG charting his training build-up to the World Championships, which is embedded below, Long admits to having a ‘complete mental breakdown’ as he first had to wait for his delayed bike to arrive from America and then had to battle with his patience as he got to grips with the far slower pace of life in the Italian countryside.

When his bike did finally arrive, and after realising that he had left a crucial wrench at home which saw him race around town to find the tool he needed, Long was in such a rush to get it up and running, that he made a crucial error which would leave him face down on the tarmac, nursing a few scrapes and bruises and feeling somewhat frustrated and embarrassed.

His thoughts of returning home were, however, only fleeting as he soon realised that such teething troubles were the reason why he moved out to Europe so early, and that by dealing with them now, he is giving himself the best chance of success.

Explaining the whole saga in detail, he reveals how the bike was first delayed by floods in Dallas, only for him to then sit and watch its progress via an AirTag as it spent a couple of days stuck at Venice Airport, was driven around the city a few times and even went across into Croatia before finally arriving days later.

“Finally, at last, the bike is delivered, and I am overjoyed, ecstatic, and I thought this was the end of my saga. It was not. The saga got worse from here,” he laments. “Through all this, the lesson isn’t just a lesson for bikes; this is a lesson for life. Bad things can cause more bad things to happen, and as bad things stack up on themselves, it can be the devil of performance.

“It’s the domino theory that the US used when dealing with the Communists – that as one country fell to communism, it would get progressively easier for each other country to fall to communism.

“I had that at play with me and my bicycle this week. One little bad thing led to the next bad thing, which led to another bad thing, until there were enough bad things that the entire system broke.

“Because of me rushing, I forgot to put extra sealant in the tyres and then with all this time passing, there was a slow leak, and the tire was at 40, 30, even less PSI. I went out for my ride, and as I was descending down a tight switchback, I lost traction, and I fell and I crashed. I was so mad, so embarrassed.”

‘This is the whole reason I came out here’

Admitting his ego was possibly more dented than his body, it was in fact the impact on his bike which left him more annoyed, as the fall resulted in him cracking his handlebars, meaning he has since been forced to hire a basic model from a local store.

“Thankfully, I’m all okay. I had little bumps and scrapes down my right side, but the biggest issue was that the handlebar cracked, and so, I still don’t have a bike,” he said. “I’ve now been here 10 days, and I had to get a rental bike, train on a bike with no power meter, and I have just had to try and be adaptable and flexible.

“We have dealt with a real culture shock this week. We’ve had hardship this week, because here’s the thing. I’m not here on vacation. I’m here to train for the IRONMAN World Championships. I’m here for work. And so basically not having my bike meant I’m not able to do what I want to do.

“I’m motivated, and I’m excited, but I’m unable to work and perform as I would like. So it was extremely stressful, and combined with the jet lag, and just really struggling to adjust to that, I had a brief moment where I said, ‘I think I should go home, maybe this is a mistake’.”

Deciding to stick with his Italian adventure, the athlete, who has two IRONMAN 70.3 wins to his name this season, is hoping for better luck in the coming weeks, even if he will have to get used to being without such home comforts as air conditioning.

“As you spend more time at home, it gets harder to leave, because you get used to all the comforts,” he said. “I’ve got my treadmill, I’ve got my whole training room with my Garmin trainers and air conditioning. I’ve got everything there, I’ve got multiple bikes, so if something happens, well, boom, I’m back on. I’ve also got my pool right there.

“I am so used to all of that, and it gets harder and harder for me to leave, but hey, I have to leave. I have to be more adaptable, and then I remember, this is the whole reason I came out here in the first place, because Americans often struggle to race while over here in Europe.

“And so I’m offering you my experience here to all Americans. I got adjusted to the roads, I got adjusted to the culture, I got adjusted to the food, and I got adjusted to the time change. I got adjusted to not having my own comforts, and I will get used to it, right? I know next week is gonna look up, and hopefully I will even get my bike fixed.”