Jay Thomson chats about his turnaround

Jay you’ve been back on the team for over a month now. What’s your feeling about the team and your return so far?

It’s been pretty incredible. It’s only February but January’s been great. I’ve never experienced this before where everyone just cares about the riders so much. From your training – on the bike, off the bike – to core training to our health. Everybody just makes sure everything is perfect and as a bike rider, that’s what you want. You spend a lot of time on making yourself perfect and when everyone is willing to take the time to get back to you even if it’s at 9 or 10’o clock at night, they are getting back to you to fix whatever could be bothering you.

South Africa and Africa now has a Pro Continental team. 5 years ago, could you see this happening?

[Team Principal] Douglas Ryder always said that he wanted one and we always believed that there was a chance that one would come around but that it’s come this soon and in my lifetime is incredible. It’s awesome to have this because everyone always wants to ride for a team from home so for us to have MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung is amazing, we only hope that it can keep going and even when I stop riding that it continues with other youngsters coming through. We hope to make this team something that everyone wants to be part of.

What’s your first objective of the season?

The first target of the season for me is Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan – Sanremo but we have SA Champs only a week before that. I’ve been training hard and trusting that the legs will be good there but the start of the season is super important for me and I hope to be consistent. At SA Champs I will be giving it everything I’ve got and see what we get out of that.

You mentioned that you speak to team coach Dr Carol Austin once a week for an hour. What do you get out of that?

When you speaking to someone who is so knowledgeable, it is great. Carol is like a book, if you want to know something, you just ask her. If she doesn’t know the answer she will go find it and get back to you within 24 hours. She’s pretty awesome in that regard. I’ve battled the last couple of years with depression and a lot of my mental state and just in the last 6 weeks what she’s done for me is incredible. You can’t thank a person enough for the few words they say.

Before, I never really use to get so involved with a coach because I always thought I could do it on my own but I’ve realised you need a support structure around you. Family is great but you need someone who is not emotionally involved with you. Family will always support you but you need someone who will tell you what you don’t want to hear sometimes but what you need to hear.