Steve Owens
Premier Level Coach
Steve, a USA Cycling Certified coach, is among the cycling world’s elite professional coaches. He has been passionately involved in road and mountain cycling for 17 years and coaching for eight. Steve also holds a degree in Exercise and Sport Physiology with a concentration in Sports Medicine from Colorado State University (CSU).
While working with the United States Olympic Committee, Steve helped physiological testing with top-ranked athletes, including Olympian Apolo Ohno, Mike Tillman, Hunter Kemper, and Sarah Hammer. He has also worked as the head physiologist for the Guatemalan Olympic Committee, where he helped their team at the 2002 Central America and Caribbean Games.
Steve served as director for the CPT-Colnago Pro Cycling Team in 2006 and has also coached many up and coming riders including Ted King, John ‘Rolf’ Eisinger, Costa Rican Rolando Gonzalez, Ben Kneller and many others. Steve was also head coach for the Colorado State University Road and Mountain Bike Cycling Teams for three years, during which time the CSU team was considered one of the nation’s best collegiate cycling teams in the United States.
More recently, Steve brought together one of the brightest arrangements in technological performance to date, the CPT Wind Tunnel. In putting this together, Steve has had numerous opportunities to work with athletes and coaches such as Dave Zabriskie, David Millar, Tom Danielson, Chris Baldwin, Nathan O’Neill, Marisa Asplund-Owens, Katie Mactier, John Cobb, Allen Lim and many others. His philosophy is to bring great minds together to achieve the best possible results for athletic performance. "Our coaching staff meets weekly to talk about every little detail of our athletes' performances and things that each of us have learned. It's the best coaching education out there."
Steve has also been a contributor to Bicycling Magazine, Cyclingnews.com, Bike.com, as well as other newspapers and publications. Steve’s performance coaching service company, Colorado Premier Training, is based in Durango, Colorado, where he lives with his wife, professional road cyclist, Marisa.
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Rick Crawford
Premier Level Coach and Director of Coaching
Rick is a retired professional bike racer and professional triathlete. After competing in Olympic Trials in track cycling and posting seven years of successful triathlon results, Rick began focusing on coaching and mentoring other professional athletes in 1986. Rick has been involved with dozens of National Champions, multiple World Champions in various cycling disciplines (road, mountain bike, downhill), and several Tour de France participants. Some of Rick’s athletes past and present include: Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Tom Danielson, Chris Wherry, Nathan O’Neill, Frank Pipp, Anthony Colby, Chann McRae, Todd Wells, Shonny Vanlandingham, Tara Llanes, Henk Vogels, and many more. Through exhaustive experience, and relentless self-study, Rick has developed an extremely comprehensive program that has been instrumental in developing some of the world’s best cyclists and triathletes.
Rick’s basic tenet is “work hard to understand the athlete, learn what makes them respond, and never stop working towards their ultimate potential.” Hard work is the backbone of his coaching. Rick is constantly probing progressive training methodology, and believes the learning curve will be steep for many years to come. Rick believes in always building the base so it can support greater loads. At the hub of Rick’s coaching is the ultimate respect for the role of the Central Nervous System as the governor of success. Molding coaching programs to the athlete to create consistency and longevity is the key to achieving potential.
Rick now lives in Durango, Colorado, with his wife Jackie, and their three boys, Sage, Gabriel, and Joseph. His is a busy home. He coaches the cycling team at Fort Lewis College (FLC), which he sees as a significant and important development platform. FLC’s cycling team has emerged as a cycling powerhouse and the premier collegiate cycling program in the country.
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Robby Ketchell
Aerodynamics Specialist, Senior Level Coach and Biomechanist
Robby is a Senior coach, biomechanist, and aerodynamics performance analyst with CPT, and manages the Biomechanics and Aerodynamics lab at the CPT Wind Tunnel in Fort Collins, CO USA.
A former professional road and track cyclist, Robby has changed roles from an avid competitor to devoting his time to power and aerodynamics research, coaching, and performance analysis. He brings 13 years of racing experience as a cyclist and has won two national championships and several top performances in nationally recognized events.
Years of racing, training, and traveling with some of the world’s most successful cyclists gives Robby the experience and character to lead motivated athletes to athletic achievement. Just some of the athletes Robby has worked with include Dave Zabriskie, David Millar, Tom Danielson, Chris Baldwin, Christian VandeVelde, Magnus Backstedt, Nathan O’Neill, Marisa Asplund-Owens, Dotsie Bausch, Katie Mactier, Tom Peterson and Maartjin Maaskant.
Robby's research interests are in aerodynamics of cycling and the biomechanics of altering a cyclist’s body position, the correlation between heart rate and power as a single training variable, and performance analysis. He has authored an impressive list of scientific reviews on biomechanical efficiency and presentations on such topics as exercise physiology, biomechanics, and endurance training and competition.
Robby’s second passion is in promoting clean sport. He is the President of the United Society for Fair Play, where he leads a team in creating awareness of the physical and social consequences of illegal performance enhancing drug use. He firmly believes that in order to free sport of illegal drug use, athletes need to learn how to become successful without resorting to illegal and potentially life threatening behaviors.
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Rick Wetherald
Senior Level Road Cycling, Mountainbiking, Triathlon & Xterra Coach
Rick Wetherald is a Senior Level coach with CPT. As an independent coach from 2004-2007, he began under the guidance of renowned coach Rick Crawford (also with CPT). Rick’s skill set is coaching athletes in road and mountain biking, as well as general fitness.
Rick is extremely diverse as an athlete and brings aboard a tremendous amount of first-hand experience as a professional mountainbiker, accomplished road racer, triathlete and downhill/4x competitor. He began racing BMX in 1994 and competed as a pro in the 2001 UCI BMX World Championships. After Worlds, Rick made the transition to mountain biking. He started with cross country and quickly moved to ultra-endurance competitions. In 2003, he raced the 24 Hour Solo Mountain Bike World Championships where he placed 2nd in U25. He continues to race in all disciplines, including road and triathlon.
As a CPT Senior Level Coach, Rick brings his athletic experience to his athletes. He is a regular contributor to CPT Coach Meetings, where all coaching staff collaborates on ideas, concepts, research and scenarios in a confidential and educational environment. Rick will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Exercise Science from Fort Lewis College in December 2007 and currently lives in Durango, CO. To complement his human powered activities, Rick enjoys trail running, snowboarding, XC skiing, dirt jumping and drinking a strong cup of coffee.
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Marisa Asplund-Owens
Senior Level Womens Coach
Marisa Asplund-Owens has been racing and riding bicycles since 1993 beginning with the mountain bike and then transferring over the road bike. She is currently one of the top ranked female professional racers in the United States. Marisa¹s strength and role on her team is as a climber and stage racer. She understands and carries out the tactical moves that are a demand in road cycling, and embraces the multi-day events-putting an emphasis and care for the body and recovery.
Marisa trains on her road bike ten out of the twelve months of the year. Her knowledge and application of periodization is extensive. In the off season she maintains her fitness by enjoying trail running, swimming, and skiing. She likes to also focus her training on the mental and emotional aspects of the sport. ³Taking good care of body through proper nutrition and rest off the bike is just as important as the time spent on the bike itself²
Marisa also divides her time between a fast paced racing career and a career as an 8th grade science teacher. The two professions seem to complement each other well-giving her a great degree of balance in her life.
She currently resides, trains, and plays with her husband and dog in the mountains around Durango, Colorado.
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Matt Shriver
Senior Level Road Cycling, Cyclocross and Mountainbiking Coach
Matt Shriver is currently one of the top all-around cyclists in the US and is a Senior Level Coach with Colorado Premier Training. He has been racing bikes at the professional level for eight years. He is currently racing on the domestic road circuit for the Jittery Joe’s Pro Cycling team competing in prestigious events such as the Tour of Georgia, the National Road Circuit, and all the US PRO road events. In the off season, Matt switches bikes and competes on the domestic Cyclocross circuit and is among the top ten in the USGP Cyclocross series standings. Matt also attended Fort Lewis College in Durango where he was a member of the cycling team and led the team to 9 overall Division I National Championships in Road, Mountain Bike and Cyclocross. Matt is also a multi-time individual Collegiate National Champion winning the Cyclocross title in 2004, Short Track Cross Country in 2004, and a two time member of the winning Team Time Trial team in 2005 and 2006.
In pursuit of his Exercise Specialist degree at Fort Lewis College, Matt also worked closely with Rick Crawford as a personal coach for the past 8 years. He has been coaching for the past 4 years on his own as an individual consultant and participated in a two-year internship program under Rick Crawford’s guidance coaching cyclists through FLC Cycling Team. As a CPT senior level coach, Matt specializes in developing cyclist-specific training programs for road racing, mountain biking and cyclocross through years of thorough education and personal experience. Matt knows the importance of understanding an athlete’s life demands outside of training/racing, and therefore seeks to develop a program that balances these demands with a cyclist’s goals while keeping it fun.
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Kristin McGrath
Senior Level Road Cycling, Mountainbike and Triathlon Coach
Kristin is a Senior Level Coach with a wide range of cycling coaching experience. In May of 2005, Kristin graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Exercise Science from the University of Tennessee. After college, she started coaching endurance athletes; from cyclists to triathletes to long distance swimmers. Kristin draws from her experiences as a life long athlete. She competed in two Division I varsity sports in college and is now racing professionally for the Colavita/Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light Women’s Professional Cycling Team.
Born and raised in Durango, Colorado, where she currently resides, Kristin developed her own work ethic and it's that ethic in which she makes her lifestyle. Kristin has learned the importance of discipline in training, nutrition, and mental attitude in order to achieve her goals. She bases her coaching on a balance of these three aspects to help athletes become the best they can be.
During the off season, Kristin enjoys skiing - alpine and nordic, swimming and mountain biking.
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Chris Furer
Structural Assessment Specialist and Massage Therapist
Chris Furer has been practicing bodywork for 12 years and involved with the cycling industry for nearly 20. He has trained extensively in the field of functional massage therapy. Over the years he has worked with Olympians, pro cyclists, and top collegiate athletes. By analyzing the body and it's imbalances through structural analysis, you can restore its' strength and prevent injury.
For the last 3 seasons, Chris has also served as soigneur for the Trek-VW mountain bike team. Clients he works with are empowered through education as to why they are experiencing pain, and learn supportive strategies to help them participate in their own healing and recovery process.
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Chad Wells
Director of Residency Coaching
Chad Wells is Director of Residency Coaches at CPT and is currently a senior at Fort Lewis College studying Exercise Science, graduating in the fall of 2008. While attending school, he has taken part in a coaching internship under the leadership of CPT Premier Coach, Rick Crawford and acted as Treasurer of the very dominant Fort Lewis Collegiate Cycling Team.
Most of Chad’s experience comes from the balancing act of training, racing and working full time. He has first hand knowledge on how big of a role recovery must play in any athlete’s life especially those who must juggle the work week as well. 2008 will take Chad into his seventh season on the mountain bike, which will also see him enter the professional ranks. While he mainly focuses on cross county mountainbike events, he has raced in all aspects of the sport including winning four 24-hour races as four man team, two 12-hour races and an eight hour race as a two man team. Before moving permanently to Durango, CO, he gained the title of Michigan State Champion. 2005 saw him take up cyclo-cross and that same year he won the Cat 3 Colorado State Championships. He will now be going into his third season in the elite ranks this fall.
In his free time, Chad enjoys trail running, snow shoeing, Nordic skiing, snowboarding, and telemark skiing.
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Nate Keck
Resident Cycling Coach
Nate is a graduate of Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado with a B.S. in Exercise Science. While attending Mesa State, Nate was the head exercise physiology lab assistant and technician for two years. During this time he received extensive knowledge of periodization, body function, VO2 max testing, and altitude training while using a hypobaric chamber. Nate has also completed some advanced study on nutrition and energy demands placed on an athlete’s body during training and racing.
Nate’s competitive experience has ranged from participating in several solo 24 and 18 hour mountainbike races, to competing as a category 2 cyclist racing in several large NRC races. Along these competitions, Nate has raced both collegiate mountainbike and road cycling events over the last four years. Nate has managed to take two top 20 collegiate national finishes and one top 15 national finish with hopes perform much better this year.
Nate is also an American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) certified personal trainer, CPR certified, and USA cycling certified coach, and class C official.
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