Coached Skills Clinics

Beginning in January, team skills clinics/workouts will be held on Tuesday nights (2 Tuesdays each month) at 6pm or on specified weekends. Skills clinics will last approximately 2 hours and will run through the end of May/beginning of June. Also, weekend skills clinics will be held 1-2x/month in the early season. Material covered in the skills clinics will range from basic cornering and group riding skills to practice race finishes and lead-outs (and everything in between). Our goal is for our riders to not experience anything in a race that they haven’t already experienced in practice. These clinics are extremely important for skill development and team safety no matter how long you have been riding or racing! It is expected that if you are physically able to attend that you be at these practices. This is where we get good! Practice venues will include: Gold River, The “Canal” and often Sun Center Business Park in Rancho Cordova. Riders who join the team will receive a schedule of the practices with directions to each of these venues.

Coached Team Training Races

To acquaint riders with race situations and to fine tune teamwork and race tactics we will be holding Intra-Team Road Races (INTERRS) two times per month in the early season. These races are a fun, low-key way to gel as a team and to learn from our mistakes on a smaller stage than the “real” races. These INTERRS will be structured and riders who attend will be broken into teams so that certain race scenarios can be played out. A question and answer period will often follow the races so we all walk away with a better understanding of how to race “smart”. In addition to a great learning experience, INTERRS are a fun way to make great strides toward race fitness. INTERR courses will be held in Rancho Cordova, Lincoln, Roseville, Davis, Zamora, Winters and possibly other venues as they are discovered.

Open Coached Workouts

In addition to the skills clinics, riders have the (highly recommended) option to attend open workouts held on Thursday mornings (early). These workouts are purely to improve riding technique and fitness. The workouts will be directed by one of your coaches and will often include intervals or hill repeats. These workouts will have less instruction than the Skills Clinics and more riding. For those riders following the training programs from your Cycling-Training.com coaches, these workouts will be integrated into your training program and will be appropriate for the stage of training you are in. Workouts will be held in the Fair Oaks and Carmichael areas, often on the bike trail. They usually leave ARPT at 6:15am.

Training Program Design

Riders on the team will have the option to have training programs designed by their Cycling-training.com coach specifically for them and their season goals. Programs will usually be done in 4 week blocks with 4+ days of riding per week. Recovery weeks will be built in and the programs will be geared toward 1-2 peak periods during the year. To achieve any goal, you need a good plan. Your cycling goals are no exception. Why not work with an experienced, licensed USA Cycling Coach, who understands how to harvest peak performance in cycling athletes. Your plan will take the guesswork out of your training and allow you to focus on riding. Letting a qualified coach help you can get you on the road to superior cycling!

Performance Testing

Team members can take advantage of various tests to assess fitness and training program efficacy. In order to gauge improvement with any training program, you need a baseline of where you started from and performance benchmarks throughout the season. As you train, your fitness should improve. Regular testing lets you know if you are improving and provides some objective measures of how much you are improving. At Cycling-Training.com your coach will gather important data in the performance lab regarding anaerobic threshold, max and average power output, power to weight ratio, pedaling efficiency and much more. Riders can also have periodic body composition and girth assessments to see how the body is changing due to the structured training.

Race Plan Formulation and Debriefing

Together, the coaches and riders will formulate race plans prior to races. Plans will often be rehearsed at the practices and are designed to maximize the best possible race result for the team. These plans can only work if all the riders buy into the plan and give 100% to execute it. Because of the multiple variables that influence the outcome of races, we want to develop riders who can think on their feet, so that when race plans need to be adjusted on the fly, they can be. At the practice following the race, team discussions will often take place to highlight positive aspects of the race and areas that need improvement. This is where we learn and build on the positives and adjust areas that need improvement so we can avoid making the same mistakes twice.

Proficiency in Team Racing

There is a large gap between being a good bike rider and a good bike racer, and an even larger gap between being a good bike racer and a good team bike racer. It is our goal that by the end of the year every rider on this team will be a great team bike racer. Every practice, workout, ride, practice race and race will be a lesson in teamwork. When the teamwork is good the results will be fantastic. If the teamwork is average, the results will be average at best. It really is that simple! Enrollment in this team is a huge commitment to yourself and your team.

Sponsorship Discounts

As you can probably tell, membership on this team is about learning, developing and improving as an individual rider and as a team. It’s not about free stuff! However, all team riders will receive discounts from our sponsors and the team will welcome new sponsors that are good representatives of the sport.