Mitch Docker’s life changed on one particular Sunday in Hell. He’d spent 13 years racing on the World Tour, working as a domestique and riding in support of his teammates to help them pursue a result.
But this rainy October Sunday in Northern France, the Covid era Paris—Roubaix would be his last. He’d ridden the cobbles of the Arenberg Forest 11 times before, but at the start of 2021, he’d decided to call time on his pro racing career.
Coming off a broken elbow, Docker was caught up in a crash shortly after the start, and by his own telling, he realised that pro racing wasn’t for him any more.
“I was probably training more than I ever did and I still had a passion for riding. I just hated going to the races,” he says.
On that Sunday in Hell, he soldiered on through the infamous 2.3km Tranchée de Wallers-Arenberg (The Trench of Arenberg) so he could experience it one more time — seeing his name painted on the road by some fans gave him a jolt to push onto the cobbles. But it was short-lived.
Upon spotting a couple of people wearing merch from his podcast Life in the Peloton, he pulled up and asked if they’d give him a ride to the velodrome. Sat in the backseat of a random car, cold beer in hand, one chapter of his life on bikes came to a close, but there was a new page to be turned, and this one was covered in dirt.
While he never got that final lap around the velodrome in Roubaix, instead, he’s set to race the NZ MTB Rally, a multi-day enduro around Nelson—the latest of his explorations beyond curly bars.
We caught up with Docker en route to Bright for an event where he was also planning to break in a new Stumpy with a few laps at Mystic.
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Finding mountain bikes
According to Docker, the hardest trails he’s ever ridden are in Girona, Spain. Before moving back to Melbourne, Docker lived in Girona, as many other pro roadies do. At the time, he’d only just started riding a mountain bike, and a buddy took him out for a ride.
“Everyone in Girona is a freak mountain biker, and they are just people working normal jobs. I used to ride with this guy who was a powder coater, and he just shreds; everyone there is amazing,” he says. “I’m sure I’m a bit better now, but at the time, I was walking down all these trails in full EF gear. All these people would be ripping past me on their Sunday ride and be like, “Hey, I thought you were a pro.”
“I started riding a bike for the same reason I’m riding now — without sounding like a wanker, but it’s because I love it. I love the adventure and the thrill of it,” says Docker.
While he hasn’t been back to Girona to see these trails since, this love and passion ultimately led him to go pro, but the goalposts change when riding becomes your job. At the height of his career, he tells Flow that love of riding came from the competition and pushing to become better, faster, and stronger. But as the years ticked over, he fell out of love with that aspect of riding which had taken over his entire life.
Towards the end of Docker’s career on the road, his team, EF Pro Cycling, introduced Alternative Calendars, where riders were encouraged to do mountain bike and gravel events — something we’re seeing more road teams bring into their programs. Lachlan Moreton, Alex Howes and Docker were the three riders who ultimately flew this flag in the pink tie-dye of EF.
“At that time, mountain biking was one of the best things I could have done. In 2021, I started mountain biking with Lachy Moreton. He said, “Do you want to come to do the Cape Epic with me,” Docker says. “I was like, “I don’t even know how to ride a mountain bike.”
In the typical easygoing Aussie form, Moreton said, “You’ll be right,” and told Docker to borrow his bike and ride around. Docker’s Cape Epic debut would fall through that year as Moreton’s original pairs teammate, Alex Howes, would recover from the illness that threatened his start.
But Docker had caught a bug and had begun his transformation into a card-carrying mountain biker.
Still adjusting to life as a retired pro, Docker says that the pro status he’d previously held stuck to him like a bad smell.
“Anything that I did that was sort of close to the road — even gravel was still a bit close to the road — I had this weird perceived expectation of what I should be doing. Whereas when it came to mountain biking, I had no expectations. I didn’t give a shit if I was the last guy down there, or had to walk down a trail or whatever. I was like who cares, I didn’t have any ego about it. I could just be another guy,” he says.
“It really helped me escape that weird expectation I had on myself and really move away from that world of pro cycling and be who I wanted to be in all facets of cycling. It really allowed me to fall back in love with riding,” says Docker.
Training for the adventure
From his years racing road bikes at the highest level, Docker’s technical skills and mindset were still very much on the tarmac. But he also had a big engine.
“Before I really got into mountain biking I sort of had this idea that it was cruise up a hill and go as fast as you can back down, and I was like, fuck that, I’m not interested in that — I’ve come a long way since then,” he laughs.
But that massive engine he’d tuned over the years allowed him to find his space within mountain biking and slowly open his eyes to the fun of cruising up a hill and riding back down as fast as you can.
“Initially, what I loved was doing long loops, just going and riding 100km or 120km on trail. I could do six or seven hours on a mountain bike, and it feels like nothing mentally. Whereas on the road, I knew every road, and it was, ‘like ugh, where am I going to ride today.’ On the mountain bike, I was still training, but I was exploring at the same time,” he says.
But then the competitive drive every professional athlete has to get better, faster and stronger kicked in. But this time, it wasn’t because he needed to be able to do the numbers to chase down an attack off the front of the peloton or ferry bottles up from the team car. This time, it was for himself.
“I was always so surprised at what I could ride up. And if there was something technical that I couldn’t ride up — if I had to unclip or dab ‚ I’d be like, ‘I really want to be able to ride up that.’ I really loved the physical challenge of it in the beginning. And not so much the downhill,” he laughs.
Of course, like everyone else, Docker came around to love descending once he’d built up a bit more skill and confidence. Flying down twisting roads in the Pyrenees at 80-90 kph is a totally different skill set to finding traction in a loose off-camber corner and still having some momentum on the other side.
“I definitely struggled with trying not to muscle everything out,” he says.
And it wasn’t until he lined up at Cape Epic last year that Docker realised how far he’d come on the mountain bike. Racing in a pairs team with Ian Boswell, another former World Tour pro who has turned to the dirt since leaving Europe — winning the Unbound Gravel 200 in 2021 and taking third in the same race last year.
“Boz used to be a mountain biker before he turned pro, and I thought he’s going to be really good. Plus, he’s a phenomenal climber. I was like, ‘he’s going to drop me on the climbs, he’s probably going to be the same as me on the descents — this is going to be really hard,’” he says.
As it turned out, in the two years that Docker had been ticking away on the mountain bike and racing events like Cape to Cape, Reef to Reef and the Otway Odyssey, he’d picked up a thing or two, and absolutely smoked Boswell on the descents.
“It’s essentially a new sport for me, and you’re constantly having improvements of five or 10% all that time, which is really exciting and fun. But I’m still well away from that point where I was on the road where getting 1% better takes a fucktonne of work,” he says.
Donning a number on the bars, not the back pocket
Docker says flat out that he never expected to be riding mountain bikes when he retired, much less doing any racing like the Cape Epic or an enduro like the NZ MTB Rally.
“I never thought I’d be riding mountain bikes at all. Thinking back to when Ironman contacted me about riding the Reef to Reef and Cape to Cape. I was thinking, man, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this. Ultimately I went with a female partner (Holly Harris) and I was shitting myself — ‘can I keep up with her, apparently she’s really good descending,’” says Docker.
“I think back on it, and that’s an event anyone can do — I could probably ride most of it on my gravel bike,” he laughs. “The evolution has been such a fun process.”
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Without the pressure to perform, because it’s his job, Docker tells us he’s enjoyed a re-entry into racing. Often, mountain bike racing is a solo affair, and he’s found joy in that you-against-the-world arrangement. But the connection of riding in a team and working together has a magnetism he can’t shake.
“I like having that one or two days a year — like Otway — where I can go deep for myself, but I don’t think I’d be as motivated if it was just about me,” he says. “I love the balance of pairs racing like I did with Holly and then with Boz in Epic — I think I get more out of that. There is this bond, and you’re working together. When I’m having a shit one, they help you out, and then when they’re having a shit one, you help them out.”
Even within those experiences that keep him going, he’s also learned some racing adventures simply aren’t for him any more.
“At Cape Epic, both Boz and I got really sick with parasites, and it was a massive challenge in terms of the actual load of the race, but also mentally. Half way through I was like why am I doing this? I’m not enjoying it. I don’t have to be doing it — nobody really cares (if I finish). Ultimately, both he and I had to overcome this psyche of ‘Why are we doing this? It brought me right back to why I retired,’” he says.
From endurance to enduro
Up to this point most of what Docker has dipped his toe into has been XC, however with the NZ MTB Rally quickly approaching he’s going to have to dive head first into gravity riding.
While the event website makes it clear the course isn’t designed to make an EWS rider reconsider their life decisions, there are a lot of steep trails around Nelson, NZ.
Docker is frank about his lack of experience on steep and deep singletrack — it’s something he’s working on. But for him, there is no ego in this; it’s another adventure and rolling into the unknown.
“I’ve got no idea where I’m at — I don’t think I’ve really even ridden any gravity yet. Not knowing is the scariest thing and right now, I just don’t know what the level is, and I don’t know how crazy it’s going to be. And it could be fucking crazy. I just need to see it for myself and see how I go,” he says.
Fortunatly, Docker has enlisted some excellent help, with Paul Van Der Ploeg and Matt Fairbrother agreeing to spend some time with him for a tune-up.
In his post-racing life, between the podcast, his adventures with GCN, commentating, and the events he’s fronting up for, from the outside looking in, this chapter of his career has been ticking off a bunch of bucket-list-worthy experiences.
“When you’re a pro — we treated it as you’re employed; there is no yes or no. When they call you go, and everyone has to be on board with the Mitch Docker show. Whereas now I have a choice,” he says.
“It has been an adjustment to understand that you’re not living that life any more. I am very lucky with the support I get from my wife; I can still do all of these things. But it’s also been a process for me to understand what is important for myself, my family, and the business — and it’s a combination to make those decisions,” he says.
Docker’s post-World Tour life has been defined by identifying new challenges and conquering them. Whether it be adjusting to the post pro racing mindset, finishing a 50km trail running race, figuring out what the heck those dials on his fork do, growing the business behind Life in the Peloton or greasing a rooty off-camber turn.
Photos: Justin Castles, Jered Gruber & Ashley Gruber | Gruber Images / EF Pro Cycling, Flow MTB, Cape Epic, Surf Coast 100