This article discusses the benefits of hiring a cycling coach and how coaching helps riders at varying experience levels. 

Benefits of Hiring a Cycling Coach

Show up to race day confident 

We meet you where you are on your cycling journey and help guide you through all the twists and turns you’ll encounter to show up confident at your goal event or race. 

Manage training and life stress

Our training plans are a guide that needs regular adjustment based on feedback from you, the athlete. Your life isn’t straightforward, which is why cookie-cutter plans don’t work. We will guide you through those unplanned work trips, family holidays, illnesses, and everything in-between with regular communication. 

Avoid wasted time. Get results faster

Don’t spend three years trying to accomplish something that you can do in three months. We see athletes spinning their wheels for years, trying to self-coach with disappointing results. Coaches are experts at helping others build fitness as quickly as possible, and we see proof of this every day while working with dozens of athletes. 

Avoid decision fatigue 

You are constantly making decisions about life, work, nutrition, cycling, and more throughout your day. It’s often the case that you stop for fast food instead of making a healthy dinner at home or sit on the couch instead of going for a ride because you’ve been working hard making tough decisions all day. A coach can’t ride your bike for you or cook you dinner, but we can reduce your mental load so you can focus on simply doing the work.

Accountability

Cycling involves a lot of group activities, but the bulk of the training is primarily a solo endeavor. A coach will hold you accountable for those workouts you may not want to do but are essential for reaching your goals. Without a coach, it can become too easy to skip a training session or pull out of a race when it gets tough. Knowing you have a coach in your corner provides accountability that you can’t get through cookie-cutter plans.  

Rob Hall wins the Opal Wapoo Gravel Grinder in 2018.

Who Should Consider Hiring a Cycling Coach?

This section explains how a cycling coach can help varying types of cyclists make significant improvements towards their goals. 

The Beginner

During this stage of a cyclist’s journey, many are unsure whether hiring a cycling coach makes sense if it’s even on their radar at all. In our experience, finding a mentor is invaluable during this period as it can help avoid a lot of expensive, time-wasting, and potentially painful mistakes. 

Signs you should consider a coach:

• You have goals in mind and want to make progress as quickly as possible.
• You’ve tried a cookie-cutter plan and enjoyed the training but knew something was missing. 
• You want an experienced coach to help manage your busy schedule. 

Signs you should consider waiting to hire a coach:

• You don’t have any target events.
• You prefer a DIY approach and learning through trial and error. 
• You prefer the freedom of riding purely for fun. 

These signs are not black and white. For example, we coach plenty of beginners with zero athletic experience or target events but have fitness goals and understand the value of having a coach in their corner.

The Intermediate 

At this point, many cyclists have an idea of what they enjoy about cycling and some goals in mind. The intermediate phase is when many riders become frustrated with the lack of progress or other challenges, such as burnout or overtraining. A coach will help identify bottlenecks in an athlete’s lifestyle and training plan and kickstart a new growth period. 

Signs it’s time to hire a cycling coach:

• Your power numbers haven’t improved in months.
• You regularly miss/fail workouts due to fatigue or burnout.
• Your event results are lackluster, despite training hard.

The Veteran

Maybe the most demanding athletes to coach, veterans have years of experience training and racing. These athletes have typically gone through many training regimes, are knowledgeable about the various training tools and metrics, and aren’t afraid of doing lots of hard work. This advanced level of knowledge occasionally gets the veteran athlete into trouble. They forget to see the forest for the trees and lose sight of the basics. 

How a coach guides veteran cyclists:

• Management of complex race calendars and training progressions.
• Application of advanced training techniques while not losing sight of the basics. 
• Reducing decision fatigue so the focus can remain on pushing limits in training and racing. 

Move Up athletes Tom Keller and Aaron Fader take 1st and 2nd at the 2022 Hermann Gravel Challenge.

Get 2-Weeks of Coaching For Free

We hope this article helped explain how coaching can help you improve. Cyclists ranging from beginners to experts can benefit from the guidance of a coach. We don’t want you to just take our word on this but show you. We’re offering 2-weeks free, so you can experience what it’s like to work with a coach. No credit card or commitments are needed.