News – Dean Downing Joins Trainsharp

2012_TrainsharpBanner600

Retired professional cyclist in 2014, Dean Downing joins successful coaching business, Trainsharp

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

News – Dean Downing Joins Trainsharp

NOTE: Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

After a season having been coached by Trainsharp, who were NFTO Pro Cycling’s coaches in 2014, Dean Downing is now going to go from client to coach at the company founded by Jon Sharples along with Sean Yates.

2013_DeanDowning_RampTest022

Dean Downing being tested by Trainsharp’s founder John Sharples in a pre season ramp test.

The client list at Trainsharp, from elites to novices, is growing all the time and the success stories are many and varied. Mark McNally, recent King of the Mountains in the Tour of Britain has been helped by the coaching business this year and other riders such as NFTO’s James Lowsley-Williams, Sam Williams, James Lewis, Hugh Wilson, Josh Hunt and even the experienced Adam Blythe have benefited from their help.

The company have also been helping Catford CC and Haribo Beacon and are set to work with more teams in 2015. It isn’t just men they work with as Bronwen Ewing and Rebecca Rimmington are two successful ladies they help coach and the clients also come from outside of road racing such as triathlon and sportives.

Speaking to Dean Downing, who has been coaching himself for many years using the knowledge gained by working with former GB coaches Simon Jones and Ken Matheson among others, he says “I learnt a lot this year working with Jon Sharples and relating everything to ‘power’ which I had never used until this winter”.

“A few years ago, I did my coaching qualification, level 2, at BC and I have used that to help some of my friends around here and the more Jon spoke to me about it, the more I became interested in doing it professionally.”

“I then got to speaking to Sean Yates at the Tour of Britain and thought it was an ideal opportunity for me to take the coaching further forward and to learn more about it. It’s quite exciting!”

Deano went on to explain how with a young family, there was less time to train but with a structured programme he was still able to do the work necessary on the bike in 2014 to compete at the highest level in Britain which as we know these days, is higher than ever.

2013_DeanDowning_RampTest03

Jon explains the test to Dean at the NFTO headquarters

Asked, if as a professional for a lot of years, he looks at how riders race these days and see if they need help with race craft, Dean replies “every week. Nearly every race I see riders and think if that rider knew how to race properly, they’d be dangerous. There are a lot of riders out there who are powerful on the rig but they just lay it down in the race too often or at the wrong times and then they get some old wily character like me beating them in the sprint or something.”

“So if some one can have that big engine and know how to use it effectively, then they will ride away at the right time or save some pennies for a big sprint or a big attack on the climb when there’s a downhill finish. That’s the stuff I think about all the time, breaking a race down more and that is what I hope I can bring to the coaching team at Trainsharp.”

Jon Sharples, founder of Trainsharp says of Dean joining the team there “we’re really excited to have Dean on board. We know how much he is well liked around the country and how he’s a great ambassador for cycling”.

“I know Dean will make a great coach as he’s great with people and has time for everybody. He’s not a sports scientist but he is a great coach and that is what we want at Trainsharp, sports scientists and great coaches.”

Jon explained how with coaching, there is much more to it than working with numbers (power) and how being race ‘savy’ is just as important. “Sometimes, it can be difficult to coach a rider in being race savy and that is where a coach like Dean really comes in with his years and years of experience”

2013_SheffieldGP_DeanDowning

This is what riders will be looking for — how can they follow in Deano’s wheelmarks and win races.

Jon added that with five coaches already, the more coaches they are able to employ, the more feedback there is available to the rest of the team to better coach their clients and develop their training methods. “Anyone coming to Trainsharp will have more than one coach’s advice to help them strengthen their weaknesses and give them advice on making the best use of their strengths in races”.

Jon added how having a coach like Dean in Yorkshire helps establish another hub for the business in a new part of the country so that clients from that part of the country have less distance to travel for meetings with their coach.

And finally, Dean does admit to missing the racing but added that he’s never intended to hang up the wheels completely and doesn’t rule out racing in a low key manner in the future. Not for a while though LoL and for now, he just enjoys riding his bike. Good luck to Deano in 2015. Looks like being a busy one for the Yorkshireman!

Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: , ,