Travis Smith [Momentum Coaching Group] calls his coaching home at the VELO Sports Center in Carson, CA. During Travis’ coaching career he has a long list of successful cyclists that he has trained and tailored including: Adam Duvendeck and Giddeon Massie in the team sprint for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Travis prides himself on respect from his athletes and piers, but triggers that fine line with demand and expectation out of his product. At the end of the day and his coaching tenure he wants his athletes to work hard, but enjoy the sport of cycling. This Friday June 5^th at 7pm, you will get Olympic caliber treatment and learn the proper skills to succeed in exiting the start gates.

Q&A w/ Travis Smith

Rich Kemp: Tell me about Momentum Coaching Group - how did it come about?

Travis Smith: Well, Momentum Coaching Group started from Adam [Adam Duvendeck Director of the velodrome] and I. It originally was a professional track cycling team – Momentum Cycling. Then we decided that we were going to start coaching some athletes to help fund our careers, so we branched out from Momentum Cycling, to Momentum Coaching Group. During that time Adam and I were already coaching so it wasn’t a big step, just picking up a few athletes here and there to help them get better, but to also help us get to where we needed to be while racing.

RK: When did you decide to hang up the cycling shoes and transition into coaching? Why?

TS: For me it was not like I wanted to decide to hang up stuff. It kind of just abruptly ended with some injuries, but you know that’s part of sport and everything, so – and then I’m getting older, it was time to move on and try to get new goals in life.

RK: You always wanted to stay around the sport of track cycling, without actually competing?

TS: Yea, I mean most days [laughs], but I was always coaching. I was actually coaching Adam [in 2007], among others. I coached Adam to his first Elite National Championship Title, and then to the 2008 Olympics [Beijing], him and Giddeon Massie [for the Team Sprint].

RK: How did you get into track cycling initially? Aren’t you from Canada – I mean it’s pretty cold there to ride outside.

TS: Yea, if we had one of these indoor velodromes in Canada it would have been perfect. I started as a swimmer, I made national team [while I was a swimmer], and during time while I was swimming I was doing triathlon, qualified for the World Championships. In 1996, triathlon decided to make draft legal races, which hurt me because I was a strong cyclist and a really good swimmer, not a great runner [laughs]. So I decided just to quit and pick the one that I haven’t been doing my whole life, and that was riding a bike, so it just transferred from racing road as a junior, took a few years off for school , came back – was a little bit bigger, decided I wanted to sprint – been sprinting ever since 2002.

RK: At the end of your coaching career, what would you want your athletes to say about you after it was all said and done?

TS: That’s a tough one. Well you know, the biggest thing is - I want my athletes to respect me, I demand a lot of out them [my athletes] and I try to do it while respecting them the best I can. I have had a few of my athletes tell me they are scared to make me angry because I don’t really ever show that side of emotion. So I know I expect a lot from them and I want them to respect that when I’m done, or if I’m done coaching, I hope they learned a lot from the sport and enjoyed it, worked hard while I was there.

RK: What are some of your accolades when you were competing, also as a coach?

TS: As a rider I was over 30 time national champion in Canada. I had won Commonwealth Silver medal in the Keirin. Commonwealth bronze medal in the sprints. One point way back when, in the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) points I was ranked fourth in the world, ended up getting a pretty bad injury that dropped me down and took me a few years to get back. As coach I have worked with 4-5 riders that have attended the Olympics. Adam Duvendeck, Giddeon Massie, Jimmy Watkins, and helped with Jennie Reed a little bit. I have coached two masters to world records. As of yet no Master’s World Titles, but they are coming - it’s fun. I am just building all of that. I really just want to see the sport grow in this country, especially sprint side of it, it’s a very small sport - it needs to get bigger.

RK: What is the hardest aspect of mastering the start gate? Is that the most technical part of track cycling?

TS: Yes and no. I mean it’s a technical part of cycling, but if you really break down cycling it’s very technical all the way around. The hardest part of a start gate I would think is – people always want to rush the countdown clock. They forget that it [start gate] actually opens on zero. When they see one, they start to panic, and want to go early and get caught. You’re better off to go late, and come out ‘not caught’ because you are set-up properly versus going over and getting caught, and then having to reset and go. So that’s why we are doing these workouts [start gate trainings] so people can figure that out.

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