Frequently asked questions

Q1. Do you only coach people who race?

No. We coach all sorts of people. You may be interested in losing weight, trying to complete a 100 mile ride, being fitter, completing a sportive, taking part in a triathlon, or bike-racing. All that we ask is you ride a bike, and want to improve in some way.

Q2. Do you only work with younger athletes?

We work with people who are 17 to, well there's no upper limit. Currently, the oldest person we've worked with was early 80s!

Q3. Do you only work with able-bodied athletes?

Both Coach Ric, and Coach Alex have worked with non-able bodied athletes. These athletes have won medals at the Paralympic World Championships and World Cup events. Ric coached Alex on his comeback after lower leg amputation.

Q4. How does online coaching work?

Surprisingly well! CycleCoach were one of the first adopters of such coaching and we've been refining the process since 1998. Once you complete our online Training Questionnaire, we'll go through it and based on the coaching package you've selected and the information provided we'll match you with our most appropriate coach. Most of our athletes will then transfer their training data to their coach via the Training Peaks platform and from here we'll sync your data into WKO5 analysis software. You'll then be added to our coaching platform, and you can then communicate with your coach. Your coach will then use the information from the questionnaire and your training data to start working out a coaching programme that will help you reach your goals. From here it's communication with your coach and plenty of suffering in your training!

Q5. Do I need a power-meter?

No, you don't. We can develop a coaching programme to improve your performance, with whatever equipment you have. However, we do recommend the use of a power meter as it can really help us to identify your strengths and weakness, and to really dial in your training. With our expert analysis of your data we can take you to the next level.

Q6. Which sports do you coach?

We coach most bike related sports: road racing, time trialling, track, mountain biking, sportives, duathlon, triathlon, and ultra-cycling. We also work with people who want to increase their fitness and lose weight who don't take part in these events, but want to use cycling as a medium to help achieve their goals.

Q7. Do I need lots of time to train?

We've been coaching athletes on-line since 1998. We know that some athletes are very time crunched. Right from the beginning we knew that if we wanted to successfully help athletes improve we had to work within their constraints. So long as you have a minimum of 3 hours per week to train we'll be able to help you.

Q8. Can on-line coaching really replace a local coach?

Yes, for many people an on-line coach can be better than a local coach for a variety of reasons. Often a local coach may not be a professional coach, and won't have access to the depth of experience that an CycleCoach coach has. We've been honing the on-line experience for 19 years, and also worked one-to-one in person. Our athletes feel like we have a really good understanding of how they work, and often comment that it's like we're training with them. Using our experience, knowledge, and modern data tools (such as GPS, Strava, power meters, etc), plus Zoom/Skype, and regular chats, allows your coach to be almost there. While working with a local coach should allow them to see your form in person, this can also be done with video calls and other tools.