Cadence Launches National Training Programs
It’s not often your local shop gets selected as the training center for a national team cyclists – but Cadence Performance Cycling in Manayunk did. They’ve been selected as the cycling coaches and training center for the USA national U23 triathlon team. For a shop that’s been open less than a year, they’re obviously doing a lot of things right – and worth checking out…
Since opening its doors in late April of 2004, Cadence Performance Cycling Center in Manayunk (Philadelphia), PA has quickly established itself as one of the premier pro cycling shops in North America. This success is due in large part to their novel approach of not being just a turbo-charged bike shop with lots of haute-couture goodies and cycle-junkies’ eye candy, but also being the very first cycling- and multisport training center for athletes of all abilities.
Cadence has been signed as the official training center for the US national U23 triathlon squad.
ELITE LEVEL TESTING FOR ALL!
In addition to stocking some of the sweetest high-end bikes, kit and goodies you can imagine, you can also get tested, treated, poked, and probed like a seasoned veteran of the pavй at their inhouse training center and physiology lab. They’ll do everything from VO2 max and blood lactate tests, to body composition analysis, resting metabolic rate, and maximum sustainable power output tests – all performed on equipment that would have made the East Germans envious.
At the helm of the performance training center is Canadian cycling savant Brian Walton. Walton’s heritage in cycling extends back to Jim Ochowitz’s formidable 7-Eleven Team, the first North American team to go to the Tour de France and on which Brian was teammates with trailblazers like Bob Roll, Chris Carmichael, Norm Alvis, and Alex Stieda. From Team 7-Eleven, Brian went to Motorola, where he worked in conjunction with Lance (yes, Armstrong) among other notables like Frankie Andreu, Andy Hampsten, and Sean Yates.
After leaving Motorola, Walton had a hugely successful career with Team Saturn, with whom he raced throughout the world, winning stages and single day races in events like the Tour of Bavaria, Tour of Langkawi, Pays-de-Basque, the Commonwealth games, and, of course, taking home a little thing called a Silver Medal in the 1996 Olympic Points Race. Now it’s fitting that Walton finds himself in Philadelphia, on Main Street nonetheless, where he raced the US Pro Championships 11 times, finishing 2nd on two occasions, and in the Top Five 4 times.
Bricks, beams and bikes – all in a very funky space – Cadence doesn’t even look like your average bike shop.
When the co-founders of Cadence approached Walton about their idea of starting a world-class “cycling center,” Walton was then director of the acclaimed Team Snow Valley. Until Walton stepped up the program with his own brand of performance know-how, Snow Valley had been just another run of the mill domestic amateur club. That stature quickly changed as Team Snow Valley’s elite riders went on to mix it up on the domestic race scene and, even as an amateur (albeit elite) team, finished 10th in the domestic pro rankings in 2003. Under the tutelage of Walton, who was awarded USA Cycling’s prestigious Developmental Coach of the Year for 2003, Snow Valley produced a number of high-quality pros, including Scott Zwizanskie and Ian Dille. Now with Cadence, Walton is using his approach to coaching not only on athletes, but on his assemblage of Cadence Performance Cycling’s internal coaching staff, a crew which boasts the likes of Ryan Oelkers, who was a two-time Junior World’s Team member, US National Team member under the guidance of Chris Carmichael, US National Track Champion, and with Marty Nothstein, winner of the Six Days of Moscow.
There’s not many places in the USA you can see one of these – in fact Cadence is the only one today.
NOW IT’S PERSONAL
Since its inception, Cadence Performance Cycling has prided itself on doing what no other domestic coaching organization has done- that is provide 100% personalized (“cookie-cutter” is worse than a 4-letter word for these guys) online coaching services in conjunction with the kind of vigilance, pampering and care you would expect to receive at the Four Seasons (think of a complete day spa experience for cycling enthusiasts and you’ve pretty much got the idea). Although through their web-based coaching tool you can plug into your training plan from anywhere in the universe—and Cadence coaches athletes all around the nation and even some who find themselves at races in far-off lands—they still like to get you in for one of their one- or two-day “camps” where the coaches get the physiological and biomechanical data required for the kind of world-class training on which Cadence prides itself.
During one of their camps, you’ll get one of the best bike fits in the business, a VO2 and lactate threshold test, pedal analysis, body composition and resting metabolic information, a personal goals consultation, and a free lunch to boot! And, just in case your lust for high end bikes from Cyfac, Wilier, Kuota, Time, Serotta, or Argon18 gets the better of you, you can get one decked out and meticulously built by one of Cadence’s Barnett’s Certified mechanics.
In addition to other high-end lines, Cadence has recently started offering Kuota. PEZ Readers already know what we think of these bikes…
HOW GOOD ARE THESE GUYS?
Can you trust Cadence Performance Cycling’s coaching and testing services? Well, USA Triathlon (USAT) says you can. The governing body of triathlon in the United States has so much faith in Cadence and its coaching staff that they selected them to be the official cycling coaching arm for the next round of Olympic triathlete hopefuls, the USAT Under-23 (U23) Team.
Cadence prides itself on it’s unique direction, but more than that, for providing customer care that is second to none. When they say “satisfaction guaranteed,” they mean it. In just 9 months of operation, they have a loyal customer base that decade old shops would kill for, and that doesn’t extend to just the Philadelphia region. Co-founder and Managing Partner, Matt Heitmann, says that Cadence’s “proof of concept is in our ability to deliver 100% customer satisfaction. There were so many nay-sayers when started out; so-called industry experts told us we couldn’t survive without a bike that sold for under $1,000 and that we needed more obvious brands. We countered by delivering what we ourselves wanted in a bike shop, namely, the highest quality brands with courteous experts and professionals in their fields. Couple that with our belief that no task is too great nor too small for a client, and you’ve got a recipe for success.”
In addition to Cadence’s full suite of services and products, this year they will be introducing cycling camps in Clermont, Fl. At the first camp, participants will be exposed to a “pro cycling camp,” similar to what pro teams put together each Spring. On the coaching staff will be Brian Walton and Jonas Carney. Additional multi-sport specific camps will be offered in March.
For more information, drop them a line at [email protected] , or visit their website at www.cadencecycling.com.
Their home page alone is worth the click!
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