Team Nater gives back to the track cycling community in Carson, CA at the VELO Sports Center and starts off the Skills Session season with full on instruction session geared towards Start Gate Training!

Team Nater gives back to the track cycling community in Carson, CA at the VELO Sports Center and starts off the Skills Session season with full on instruction session geared towards Start Gate Training!

Q&A w/ Nate Koch “Team Nater”

Nate Koch, 2016 Olympic hopeful for the Team Sprint, Match Sprints, and Keirin will teach you the art of exploding out of the gates while gaining proper technique needed in order to succeed at all race distances. Come out on Friday Night and learn from one of the most polarizing athletes in track cycling!

(Note: We are going to cap this session at 15 to make sure every rider gets the full experience, please sign up here early to avoid disappointment.)

THE VELO Sports Center welcomes Nate Koch [Team Nater] to a power Q&A about his brand, his life, his cycling career, and more.

Ask more questions and get full throttle training for this Fridays Start Gate Skills Session taught by the man himself - Team Nater…

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Rich Kemp: You are a pretty polarizing figure and athlete on social media, where did you get your “Team Nater” brand from?


Nate Koch: Well, two years ago at nationals, Ayla, my wife showed up with a big group of people. Everyone was wearing “GO NATER” t-shirts, and I didn't know she was going to make those [t-shirts]. So it was kind of from that point on – “Nater” became, and then I needed a way to successfully bring all of my sponsorship and everything together, as well as followers and people supporting me. This is where I started Team Nater everything, teamnater.com , so I could have my bio, and a way to sell sponsor products, and have all of my sponsors on there.

RK: In the skills session on Friday you are going to teach cyclists how to explode out of the gates. Why is it so important to get off to a great start in a team sprint, or time trial event in respect to the start gates? 


NK: Yeah, obviously the shorter the event, the more critical it is because you have less time to mess around, and that gets the race going. So for the shorter events that are faster, like a team sprint, where you have to get on somebody’s wheel, knowing how to do the start not only will start you up for success, but set your team up for success. For the longer races, it is more about being efficient, you don’t want to be hung up in the gate, you don’t want to be wasting energy, every little bit counts - the more fluid you can be off the start the better that will translate into the later part of the race.

RK: You did track and field collegiately at Long Beach State. Why did you make the change to track cycling?

NK: Well, after a bunch of different injuries, when I was at LB State lifting - Adam Duvendeck, Travis Smith, and Giddeon Massie and a few others lifted there also. So I became friends with them, and I knew I liked riding bikes. I told them once I am done running I’ll try doing this bike thing. As soon as I was done with my obligation to the track team at Long Beach, I hopped on a bike and started going full throttle.

RK: You’re a pretty intense guy, who is your cycling rival? Who gets under your skin, or the other way around? Who is the Joe Frazier to your Muhammad Ali? 


NK: [Laughs] Really, anyone trying to beat me, there is no one person. There is a small core of track cyclists in the U.S where we are all butting heads, going head to head, but at the end of the day we are all pretty much buddies, and we can hang out, I wouldn’t say any particular individual – but you can say Travis Smith (Momentum Coaching Group) fires me up more than anybody [laughs].

RK: When you are done with your cycling career what do you want your cycling piers to say about you?


NK: I know I have shaken things up a lot in the sport, I don’t think a lot of people have their bike painted black with a bunch of sponsorship logos on it like a NASCAR. So I hope people looked at me as someone who contributed differently to the sport in a positive way and a new light, and opened up some possibilities for the younger generation as well.

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