By Mara Abbott Olympian and CTS Contributing Editor It may have been the opening for my entire cycling career – a super-cool upperclassman invited me to go mountain biking with her in my first weeks as an impressionable freshman still identifying as a swimmer. She said I should join Whitman College’s cycling team. Jane Rynbrandt …
By Syd Schulz CTS Athlete and MTB Pro Training for enduro is a unique puzzle because you need high-end power for short stages that last as little as five minutes, while also having the endurance for long days on the bike (sometimes as long as seven hours!). The road version of endure is called timed …
Even though I am not fast enough to set KOMs in Colorado Springs, I still upload all my rides and off-bike activities to Strava. I like it. I rarely pin on a race number or even go on aggressive group rides, but I still have a competitive streak. Strava allows me to compete against …
By Mara Abbott, Olympian, CTS Contributing Editor Less than ten kilometers into this year’s Ride the Rockies, I bailed into the refuge of a hapless course marshal’s SUV. It was then, as I cranked the heat and downloaded a newspaper onto my phone, that I got my first inkling of just how awesome the week …
It’s been a great week riding the Ride the Rockies cycling event in Colorado. The weather was great for riding and the people were incredible. Cyclists of all ages, shapes, sizes and skill levels rode together, helped each other out, and made new friends. As a coach I tend to pay attention to how …
By Mara Abbott, US Olympian – Cycling CTS Contributing Editor We’ve got a lot of muscle and plenty of power, but cyclists still don’t sit too high on the road-user food chain. If we want more respect – and the extra safety that can come along with it – we need to recognize we, as …
By Syd Schulz CTS Athlete and Pro Athlete “Listen to your body.” This is a common refrain in the world of athletics, but WHAT DOES IT MEAN AND HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY DO IT? I mean, seriously, this phrase really needs an addendum (or two or three). When people say “listen to your body” what …
By Mara Abbott, Olympian, CTS Contributing Editor It has been almost two years since I left professional cycling. My chosen cycling sub-genre has always been road riding. Mountain biking is terrifying, track is worse, and the drop-in alone for a BMX race is clearly incomprehensible. Yet in my retirement, I have adopted a new cyclist …
The cycling community is always evolving, with veteran riders hanging up their wheels and beginner cyclists just starting with training for cycling. We see the complete range at our cycling camps and events, and as coaches we believe teaching the fundamentals is just as important as important as helping athletes take advantage of the latest …
Tips for Staying on the Pathway to Audacious Dreams By Josh Whitmore, 2018 Masters MTB Marathon National Champion CTS Coach It’s hard to tell people about your dreams, especially the far-flung wild ones. Are you crazy for even considering them? Are they too audacious? What if you don’t achieve them? I can’t say I truly …