BUILD Cycling Academy

Mission

Build young athletes to achieve success in cycling and life.

Second Semester – 2020/2021

  • September 8th, 2020
  • January 7th, 2021

Description

The BUILD Cycling Academy is designed to provide a positive, engaging cycling experience that accelerates the growth of all athletes in the program. It is a performance-focused program for aspiring young athletes seeking success in the MTB discipline. Athletes will participate in 2-3x training sessions per week and receive team support at team races. The program is designed for the high-school-aged athlete that is interested in racing competitively. Prior racing experience is not required, but a high level of commitment and a strong desire to improve and compete are expected.

 

2nd Semester Program Description

 

While many programs have had to change and adapt during this global pandemic, the planned seasons of cyclists all over the world have been heavily re-arranged or cancelled completely. The BUILD Cycling Academy recognizes this opportunity to continue development for our junior athletes, but without the typical large focus on races in 2020. While it looks positive for some CX races to occur this fall, we cannot bank on it. In addition to racing prospects, we are taking this opportunity to show riders what a professional development pathway can look like while maintaining readiness for competition.

 

What does this mean? It means we will take an approach that aims to develop the complete athlete this fall. While there will likely be some races, this is a perfect opportunity to provide a high level of development and well-rounded coaching to prepare for 2021. We will focus on development beyond the physical and social aspects. Riders will have opportunities for leadership, teamwork, mental skills, nutrition refinement, movement optimization, and of course bike skills and fitness.

 

We will move through specific blocks of the program and highlight certain areas each week. September 8th will be the first week of the program, and it will run through January 7th, with some planned weeks off during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and finals. Team members will have a project during this time that will culminate in a short presentation to the team on a topic of their choice within the realm of cycling, development, training, etc.

 

Benefits to the Riders

 

  • Nutrition guided discovery
  • Mental skills to arrive at a race at an optimal level of readiness
  • Objective measures of fitness
  • Training camp opportunity
  • Movement assessment
  • Strength and power development off the bike
  • Visualization techniques
  • Developing your individual routines and structure for peak performance
  • Building confidence
  • Understanding training structure

Selection

In order to provide an effective development environment for all participants the program may include a tryout and/or selection process. The goal of the selection process is to ensure that riders will have teammates of similar capabilities to race and train with, not simply to select the most talented or experienced athletes.

Coaching

Ryan Kohler is the head coach of the program. Additional mentors and assistant coaches will be available as needed from BUILD’s pool of elite athletes (U23 and local/Pro athletes). The goal is to keep a low athlete-to-coach ratio and maximize one-on-one contact during practices and races, but additionally to adhere to current pandemic guidelines.

Training Management

  • TrainingPeaks.com account and weekly on-the-bike training plan
  • Practices – TBD – However Tuesdays/Thursdays (4:00-6:00pm) would be a typical practice schedule
  • Add-on Performance Camp (Sept./Oct.) – athlete performance testing and training camp

Team Races (pending final schedule)

TBD

Other Team Activities

  • TBD – Depending on future pandemic precautions

Cost

  • $910 for September 8th through January 7th
  • $250 add-on for Sept/Oct. Performance Mini-Camp