Interview with cycling influencer Alina Jäger

Alina Jäger has 237,000 followers with her profile "Clippedinandfree". Born in Koblenz, she is one of the most important cycling players on Instagram and works full-time as a content creator. She gives TOUR a glimpse behind the scenes of the Insta world, which is no longer shining quite so brightly due to the crisis in the cycling market.

TOUR: How did you manage to build up a profile with 237,000 followers?

Alina Jäger: I started Instagram back then through cycling. I first had a lifestyle profile and that didn't work for me anymore because I thought, oh gosh, it's all so superficial. I wanted to talk more about what I do than how I look and started talking about the bike, about cycling. Also because I just felt very alone in my hobby. Koblenz has Canyon, but when I started cycling, there were hardly any women and there were very few in my age group. I spent so much time in the saddle and that's why I started talking about it on Instagram in 2017 and looking for other people who love it as much as I do.

TOUR: You were one of the first ...

HunterExactly. I have a lot of subscribers who have been following me for a long time. Sometimes it feels like a friendship, especially when you've written messages to each other.

Influencer - a difficult term

TOUR: How would you describe yourself? Are you an influencer, are you a content creator?

HunterThe term influencer always has a very negative connotation. Because many people think it's not a job that needs to be recognised - which is not true. So when I look at my screen time, I have a normal full-time job and cycling comes on top of that. I tend to call myself less of an influencer because I don't want the preconceptions to be associated with me. I say I'm a content creator and my professional background is actually as a photographer. That's how my love for beautiful pictures started.

TOUR: Where do your Insta followers come from?

HunterIt's very, very international, in the entire cycling scene. For me, 13 per cent come from Germany, then 12 per cent from the USA and 9 per cent from England, and then there are all the European cycling nations, i.e. Spain, Italy and France. You can see from the figures that it's very spread out.

TOUR: You are a photographer, but you are in the photos yourself - so who takes the photos?

HunterI always take my camera with me and I often have my friends with me or a photographer friend. Then I instruct them on how to take the pictures. I make the camera settings and then we also have to stop briefly during an adventure if the landscape is incredibly beautiful. The pictures don't look like this when they come out of the camera. I then do most of the editing. I learnt that from my photography background and then I edit the images myself. Of course, if I have sponsors, it's easier for me to book a photographer to come along.

TOUR: But that brings us to the topic of effort. How much work is behind your job as a cycling influencer?

HunterMy profile is actually mostly adventure, or that I'm somewhere else. But it won't change much whether I'm riding in Girona, Norway or Africa. I have to stay fit for my work, which means I have to train. I have about 15 hours of pure training a week. And then time to work on a picture. It now takes me about 20 minutes to take a photo and if there are several photos in a carousel, that's more. That means it takes me about an hour and a half for a post, plus the time I put in to take the photo and of course the text I write. That means I work between six and eight hours a day like everyone else, but from Monday to Sunday, not just Monday to Friday.

TOUR: That sounds quite a lot - do you include the time on the bike?

Hunter: Partly in any case, because I can't create images when I'm not on the bike. And then there's the time I spend communicating with the community. I would say that's maybe another 45 minutes a day and then there's YouTube. I send all the files to my video editor because I don't have the time to edit the videos myself. That means I already have a financial investment. And all the socialising is another big part. I would say about two hours a day I sit at my laptop and check emails, look at my Linkedin messages, try to find new sponsors, plan new adventures.

TOUR: What are the partnerships that bring you money as a cycling influencer? Advertising doesn't really stand out for you ...

Hunter: I'm not a cliché influencer: I just upload a quick selfie and that's it. I don't have a lot of advertising for the size of my account, but I want to keep it authentic. That means I mainly have long-term collaborations. That means I have annual contracts or two-year contracts where I get a budget. This is mainly invested in my adventures. I also have to start thinking seriously about it now so that I don't end up with nothing at the end of the day. It's much more important to me to be happy than rich, but it would be nice if I could pay something into my pension at the end of the day, etc. Many brands don't understand that I need a budget so that I can continue my job.

TOUR: Is it a problem that Instagram is flooded with people who are grateful when they are given a product as a cycling influencer?

Hunter: On the one hand, definitely. On the other hand, it's also the case that people deliver a different quality. It's not financially possible to do what I do if you only get products. I think that everyone should be paid for their work. It shouldn't be considered that you should be paid less just because it's a nice job. When I started out, I didn't get paid for my work right from the start either. But now, even as a creative and freelancer, you have to think about it: okay, what is my work? For example, if I have a bicycle - that can quickly cost 8,000 euros. You can calculate it against your hourly wage to see whether it's worth it or not. But I think the passion is being exploited a bit in cycling. After seven years of doing this on Instagram, I'm getting tired of having to justify the fact that I want to be paid for my job.

TOUR: Is the crisis in the bike industry also reflected in your work?

Hunter: Yes, definitely. We are facing the problem that all budgets are being cut. And since my profession is not really recognised in the cycling industry anyway, the little progress we've made in recent years is irrelevant. That means: I've lost a lot of sponsors from the bike industry this year or budgets have been cut. That's why it's actually a sad phase for me right now: I won't be able to work as a full-time influencer next year. At least in the cycling sector.

Difficult market for cycling influencer

TOUR: You're not the only cycling influencer - do you also hear from others that there's no more money in cycling?

HunterYes, definitely. It's not just influencers, but really everyone in the cycling sector who says I've just had budget cuts. But of course it's also my job to move with the times: if the times have changed, then you have to adapt to them. I'm not a fan of complaining about anything. I think it's great when you continue to develop and somehow see everything as a new opportunity to do other things.

TOUR: There was a lot of criticism online because Specialized cancelled its influencers' contracts virtually overnight ...

HunterThat shows how important content creators are in the bike industry, that you just give them up like that. We are also dependent on our sponsorship contracts, just like someone who works full-time in marketing at Specialised. It was similar for me when Cannondale was bought by Pon - they cancelled the contracts straight away.

What do you earn as a cycling influencer?

TOUR: Can you give us a specific example of what you earn from a cycling trip as a cycling influencer?

HunterThe cycle tour from Girona to Berlin is a good example. I had an investment of just under 3800 euros. Costs for the hotels, return flight tickets and equipment. I always try to be cheap, which means eating in supermarkets or booking the cheapest hotel. But it can also happen that you simply can't find a cheap hotel. It was quite a lot of work and in the end I earned maybe 300 euros. But I rode my bike from Girona to Berlin and have incredibly great memories.

TOUR: You also do YouTube - does that pay off?

HunterI pay to be active on YouTube - I'm quite open about it. YouTube pays me about 200 euros a month for the adverts they place. I film it myself, I upload it myself, but of course I pay my video editor more than that. It's not worth it yet, but I see it as an investment and I'm happy to do it. I love filming my adventures. The feedback on YouTube is great. You have a much stronger bond with your community because they're really watching you, it's like they're travelling with you while I'm going to Berlin.

TOUR: Do you already have plans for 2024?

Hunter: I already have a lot of ideas: I would like to go to Asia for a fortnight, I have created a route in Western Europe, from Rijeka along the coast to Istanbul. I'd like to go to Norway again and go bikepacking there. But I'm still looking for cycling sponsors for next year. At the moment it still looks very difficult. I don't need to be on the go - I just want to cycle a bit, drink my coffee and have good friends and good conversations.