AF: S1 Ep 3: Isaac: "Be Consistent: Anything you do becomes easier the more you do it"

From the bustling streets of Accra to some of the toughest cycling tours on the continent, Isaac’s cycling journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. Proudly rooted in his Ga heritage, his childhood love for bikes blossomed into a celebrated career, making him a local legend with countless podium finishes.

On this ride, we explore his deep-rooted passion for cycling, dedication to coaching, and bold vision for the Tour of Ghana - a game-changing event inspired by the Tour de France that could shape the future of cycling across the continent.

Follow his journey on and off the bike on instagram and facebook @sackey9792

Jingle - Mapa Travel

Transcript

Intro

Hi Guys and welcome to my podcast the Cyclist Next Door. If you are enjoying these episodes why not like,  subscribe or share with loved one, fellow cyclist or somebody who might be interested. The time has come for today’s episode so grab your cup of tea, settle into your zone 2 momentum. Rolling!

Welcome , Welcome Coach Isaac aka Shasha, welcome to the Cyclist Next Door. How are you doing today? We are doing good, excellent. We are here in Legon your training ground - and we’re going round the roundabout here. 

What do you use the roundabout for? We use the roundabout for high intensity training. High Intensity, brilliant and I’ve seen you do your training round here which looks pretty crazy. 

so you have been national champion for time trial, road, mountain bike…I don’t know quite a few things right? 

How did it all start?

One way training is boring for most of the professional cyclist so if you are doing road bike you can’t just do road bike for the whole year maybe it’s better you get mountain bike also to try and gravel so you don’t just stay on the road all the time so people just change for me I like changing how I work on all of them 

and before you came to road riding and you put on the lyra and all that stuff you were doing some styles and things like that! Yes.….when we talk about styles we mean freestyle shape and movements on the bike  - Some crazy stuff… we will put it up..but how do you think that’s helped in terms of your road riding being able to move like that? 

we start with mountain bike with the styles. We don’t have competition for styles so it’s a free show for people to watch you because we don’t have styles competition, but we went somewhere around Korlena and when we finished doing the skills one of the managers called me that they have cycling team and if I join it will be good for me so I start riding my mountain bike while they are using road bike, we train together that’s where I was built from

So you built your career from there, you were doing a bit of mountain biking and riding with the team?

Yes I am using a mountain bike and they are using a road bike but if they do a justify competition I always come 2nd or 3rd with my mountain bike so from there my master (coach) built a road bike for me then I start training with them so I just packed the mountain bike for the skills , I parked the bike. I had to focus on the road bike like four years and then I became a champion 

But you haven’t really left the skills have you? We have seen you on your bike and every so often you just do something…..

Yes because I built more techniques on the mountain bike when I’m sitting on the road  bike it’s just like I’m on the mountain bike I have more control on it.

Brilliant  Brilliant

You’ve done a lot of training yourself to get to your position you’ve been on a few tours as well haven’t you? Just name a few that you’ve done? I’ve done Ghana tour - 2 weeks and the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) tour we ride from Nigeria to Côte d'Ivoire, 4 days with the national team. Togo and Côte d'Ivoire, tour 2 weeks - all the closest country and I’ve done a UCI tour in Burkina Faso (we heard how hot that one is it’s was warm…hot!!) that one I ride with a few of the guys riding Tour de France.

What was the experience like riding with international riders?

That’s where you learn a lot , the people you need see is there because they have come so whatever you want to learn you can ask them questions they will tell you then they will tell you what you should do before you cope and you start learning from there. Always when you travel and come you are a different person 

So onto your training now,  when I train usually I start at 9 o’clock in the morning if I’m lucky I think that’s early but for you by 9 o’clock, we’re done right?

You need to wake up early. Why so early here? It is because we have a lot of cars in the morning, you can’t train with them so we leave home very early so that you finish your training before the cars come out 

 I mean getting up at that time because we’re talking about 3 o’clock you say you wake up and then you get ready for training and stuff. Are there some days you’re just like I don’t wanna do this??

as a professional riders as long as you are training consistently it will reach a point when the body doesn’t want to go - at that point you need to relax otherwise if you force yourself to go you crash and then you have to start the training again.

So as a professional if you wake up and you see you can’t do any movement to ride just leave everything and relax 

and you mention the word CONSISTENCY something I heard you say many times why do you think that’s so important?

 Because anything you keep on doing will become easier the more you do it but if I do and go and rest - 2 weeks before I come back I’m not going to achieve anything 

 wow!

and that moves  me onto you are a Coach, you coach upcoming riders we spoke to Ellen one of the people coach who became national female road race champion for the females last week 

These lessons that you teach them about consistency and all that, how do you think your own experience helps you coach?

Well that’s how they train me and bring me up and I see that is the way forward of making it in cycling so you also have to go through that 

You coach people who want to go professional? You also coach kids as well? 

Yes!

and what do you think cycling brings for kids?

Cycling brings good health for kids because it avoids kids getting too big and helps maintain their shape. When kids are not in any exercise it impacts them- in jobs, life and stuff 

It is good to put them in training like cycling swimming or running - put them in something! It also removes their mind from TV games - playing on them the whole day and keeps them active. That’s  why we put the kids in the cycling program so when they grow up the consistency is there

What would you love to see for cycling in Ghana? What would be your absolute dream?

My big dream I want to see Tour of Ghana high end race whilst we can invite international (Tour du France) riders to join.

and on that point obviously you know that is your dream but something  you are actively working towards right? 

Yes

so you’ve got something coming up tell us a little bit about that?

okay, so I have Tour of Ghana coming up next year in April 7 to 21st. The whole Ghana. 

We have done a Tour with teams on this route but I want to take a challenge to compare myself to Tour de France 

all cyclists  dream is that they have to race Tour de France at least once when they start cycling. I couldn’t get that chance so I think I want to use this chance to race myself 21 days to see….this is the opportunity I have here in Ghana whilst I haven’t gone there (Tour de France).

21 days similar to Tour de France riding every day across regions of Ghana…wow!

Are these new regions?  have you been there before? 

3 of them I haven’t been there but through my tour of Ghana I’m going to be there. 

And open it up right? Excellent 

How are you feeling about it? Are you excited? How are you feeling? 

It is something new I have to do. It is best to train yourself to reach it, you can’t just wake up and go. You have to train for what you are going to do and then you can do it easily.

How can people support you in terms of your big adventure if they wanted to support? -  Instagram / Facebook?

Yes instagram and Facebook and support the tour needs 

Wow so that’s April 3 to the 25th, Coach Isaac Sackey cycling round Ghana - 21 days on the saddle absolutely incredible really really incredible. We look forward to following that seeing what happens!!

Okay so while we’re on the bike - I’ve got the champion here so I wanna ask a couple of questions -  some tips 

so when you’re doing a road race, you’re at the start line you’re looking over and someone saying “oh today this is my race! I’m gonna win. I’m gonna win” and they are really confident 

 you’re standing there and you’re thinking….

How can you control yourself before the whistle goes or the flag?

Every competition or race you just have to RELAX - maybe he has his calculation - he thinks if he talks like that it will bring someone’s confidence down or he knows himself and that’s why he is saying that.

So his race talk may not be good for me. 

There is team work as well-so maybe one team member says that to you and you focus on that and then another team member escapes so it could be team tactics! You don’t know!

Before a race is there anything you like to do to keep calm? Is there anything you’d recommend for an athlete to do? 

Yes so just pick a fast music and RELAX and just be listening… #theworkhasalreadybeendone!

Thank you!

Outro

Hi Guys thank you for joining me on 

this episode of Cyclist Next Door.  

I hope you have enjoyed this episode. If so please like subscribe and share let’s grow this community and join me back here again as we meet the next Cyclist Next Door as we unpack of everyday people unpack the journey every day people who have picked up a bike, experienced the joy of cycling and have been on their own personal adventure so until next time….Rolling!