First, it’s best to determine what you’re looking for in a coach.
by Alison Powers, ALP Cycles Coaching
Finding a cycling coach is pretty easy. If you Google ‘Cycling Coaches’ many options come up. Here is the Denver/Boulder area, there are at least 40 coaches you can choose from. However, finding 1 – a good coach and 2 – a coach who you like, trust, and can openly talk to, is a lot tougher.
A good cycling coach will give you a lot more than a training plan and basic data analysis. In my mind, a coach is a teacher of the sport. The sport of cycling is much more than watts, fitness, and riding your bike fast in a straight line. In order to have success you must learn how to be an athlete, learn how to train, learn how to race and how to recover. Success involves skill, confidence, fitness, and luck and your coach should be by your side teaching and showing you how to learn and how to get all these attributes that champions have. A good coach will help you find your path to success.
First, before you begin the search for a coach, it’s best to determine what you’re looking for in a coach. Do you want a coach you can ride your bike with? Do you care weather your coach is local or lives out of town? Male or female? Do education and coaching experience matter? With your coach criteria determined, you can now begin to look for a coach who matches exactly what you are looking for.
As a cycling coach who owns a coaching business (ALP Cycles Coaching), our best advertising and best source of new athletes comes from word of mouth from our current ALP athletes. This means, ask around – ask friends, ask teammates, ask competitors; who is your coach and why do you like having this person as your coach? What does this coach do really well? What do you wish the coach would do better? The more information you get, the better.
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ABOUT ALISON POWERS
Alison Powers only recently retired from cycling, finishing her final season on the UnitedHealthcare Women’s Team. Her career has spanned a wide array of wins, including the 2013 USA Cycling Professional Criterium National Championship where she won in memorable fashion by soloing after an early breakaway that obliterated the pro women’s peloton. Other standout results during the 33-year-old’s 2013 season include the win at Redlands Bicycle Classic, second at the Tour of Elk Grove, third at the US National Road Championship and the US National Time Trial Championship, and stage wins at Cascade Classic, Tulsa Tough, Tour of the Gila and Redlands Bicycle Classic. Hailing from Fraser, Colorado, Powers has been racing bikes professionally for eight years and is a true athlete with her career beginning as a teenager in mountain bike racing. In her mid 20s, she added in alpine ski racing before switching over to the road. In addition to being the current Criterium National Champion, Powers has two other national championships (Time Trial, Team Pursuit) and 2 NRC titles (2009, 2013).
