Necati “Brofessor” 🇺🇸 — The Anchor of SISU Racing, Riding for Joy, Grit, and Community

Necati “Brofessor” doesn’t shout about watts, plans, or podiums. He doesn’t obsess over perfect intervals or colour-coded calendars. And yet, quietly, deliberately, he’s become one of the most important threads in the fabric of SISU Racing.

Based in Chicago, Illinois, Brofessor’s pain cave is classic SISU energy: tucked away in the basement behind the family sofa, clear line of sight to the TV, a purpose-built PC purely for Zwifting, hard wired internet (because Wi-Fi simply won’t do for high stakes ZRL), and twin fans on full blast. It’s a space designed not for aesthetics, but for commitment. Function over flash. SISU over everything.

When he’s riding solo, you’ll often find him deep in the grim darkness of Warhammer 40K audiobooks. But come race time, the soundtrack changes. No music. No podcasts. Just SISU teammates breathing through their eyeballs. Shared suffering as motivation. Collective pain as fuel. Coffee? Before or after? “Yes.” Racing hours? Night owl territory, straight after work, where most SISU battles are fought.

Riding for Joy, Not the Spreadsheet

Ask Brofessor what kind of rider he is and you won’t hear talk of FTP curves or marginal gains. His philosophy is refreshingly pure.

No rigid structure. No endless Zone 2 purgatory. No guilt.

“I get on the bike, ride fast, and have fun with good friends,” he says. For him, cycling is about flow — that rare, quiet moment where body and mind sync perfectly and the outside world disappears. That’s the win he chases every ride.

His cycling story stretches back to childhood — learning to ride at six, BMX freedom in elementary school, then a 26-inch hardtail before life took its turns. The spark reignited in 2017 after moving to Illinois, when he fell hard for vintage Columbus steel. A three-hour drive to Wisconsin sealed the deal: a 1989 Schwinn Circuit, pearl white, Shimano Sante groupset. The kind of bike they simply don’t make anymore. That machine didn’t just get him riding again — it made him feel like a kid.

From group rides to bike commuting, the hunger grew. An indoor trainer followed. Then Zwift, around 2019. And once racing entered the picture, things escalated quickly. Daily racing. Relentless curiosity. A new kind of addiction.

Today, winter is 100% Zwift. When the weather behaves, he sneaks in an outdoor ride once a week — the rest still happens indoors, where the racing never sleeps.

The Brofessor Mindset

The nickname? Pure accident. In a previous life, Necati was a college professor. One student slipped and called him “Brofessor.” It stuck — and somehow fits perfectly.

His approach to motivation is just as unconventional. Structured training only appears when there’s a specific event on the horizon. Otherwise, consistency beats perfection every time. Miss a workout? Plans get binned. Life happens. Flow with it.

“If motivation dips, I don’t ride,” he says. “I make myself miss cycling again.”

And maybe that’s the secret. Sometimes consistency isn’t riding every day — it’s thinking about riding every day. Staying connected, even when you’re off the bike.

The biggest mindset shift he’s learned? Simple, powerful, and very SISU:
A short, slow ride is infinitely better than no ride at all. Forget perfect timing, perfect pace, perfect gear. If you want to ride — ride.

Community First, Always

Ask Brofessor about his proudest achievement and he won’t mention results, rankings, or trophies.

It’s helping build SISU.

He was one of the first ten members to join back in 2021, at a time when finding a ZRL team felt harder than winning a presidential election. Recruitment was clunky. Facebook posts went unanswered. Forums were quiet. When he posted his interest on the Zwift forums, only one team leader reached out — Matt. Not with conditions or expectations, but genuine enthusiasm and inclusion.

That moment told him everything he needed to know about the kind of community SISU was becoming. Add the deeper meaning of SISU — resilience, grit, inner strength — and the decision was instant.

Since then, he’s raced every ZRL season, driven by one thing above all else: teamwork. Being part of something bigger. Doing hard things together.

Kit preference? Blue kit, no hesitation — though the orange gets a run occasionally.

Sprinting, Squats, and No Self-Limits

Training wisdom from the Brofessor is delightfully blunt. Want a better sprint?
Bulgarian split squats. Burn, baby, burn.

And if there’s one mistake he’d help others avoid, it’s boxing yourself into a rider “type.” Don’t label yourself. Don’t build mental walls.

Not a lightweight? You can still climb.
Not a sprinter? You can still sprint.

Those limits are often the hardest to overcome when you’re on the rivet.

Eyes on the Championships

Will he be lining up for the upcoming SISU Club Championships? Absolutely. He’ll try to do it all — but make no mistake, the CRIT Championship is the main target. He lost it by a hair last time. The field is deeper. The competition fiercer.

“It’s going to be glorious.”

Life Beyond the Bike

Looking ahead to 2026, Brofessor’s goals are beautifully human: more time with family, more fruits and vegetables, more reading. Balance, not burnout.

And in true SISU quirky fashion, his favourite story involves a roadside misunderstanding. A driver once stopped him mid ride, asking if he was Finnish after spotting the SISU jersey. Necati thought he’d been asked if he was finished with his ride.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Me too!” said the driver.

Cue mutual confusion, a long pause, and a donkey-stare moment neither will forget.

Final Word

Finish the sentence: SISU Racing is…

“My anchor to cycling.”

And for SISU Racing, riders like Necati aka “Brofessor” are exactly that too — quiet anchors, holding the culture steady, reminding us why we ride, and proving that sometimes the strongest force isn’t structure or stats, but joy, community, and shared suffering behind a family sofa in a Chicago basement.