BLACK OAK RACING
SETTING STRONG ROOTS IN THE CYCLING COMMUNITY
Head Coach Ken Norton Mentor Coach Brad Huff
Coach Kens Thoughts
Posted November of 2008
The organization of Black Oak Racing has come a long way in a very short time. There is still a lot to be done but we are off to a great start. Our main emphasis will be the development of racers from age 9-23. That isn't to say that we won't have Senior Riders on the team. I suspect that we will eventually have a fair number of those. The idea is to offer all racers the opportunity to develop their bike handling skills, techniques, and strategies in a practice environment. We will have trained coaches available to help with this and to formulate training schedules. We are fortunate to have Jelly Belly's Brad Huff commit himself to a mentor coaching position. We all know Brad is a professional racer, multiple national champion, and a great guy. Brad will be available periodically throughout the year to help us. All of our racers will benefit from his instruction in advanced bike handling skills, cornering, sprinting, and race strategies. We are looking forward to benefiting from Brad's wealth of knowledge.
I've run this program for three years now. All of us associated with the team know this is going to be a big year. One of the great things about this group is that we have people who are willing to commit their time and resources to the effort. I have to be impressed with the creativity of Todd Estes and Tanya Williams. People like this are invaluable.
We are all looking forward to the coming racing season. It promises to be fun, exciting, and challenging. Perhaps you can join us in our efforts.
Coach
Posted August of 2008
When we started the junior program three years ago I had no idea where it would go. I did know that there were young athletes out there who wanted to be bike racers. You just can't have Lance around for all those years without inspiring someone to bike race. I knew this with 100% certainty. I just love it when I know something with 100% certainty. Right now we have eight young racers in the program. All of them can become very good racers and some of them can become excellent racers. This really depends on each of them more than it does me. I'm also 100% certain of that. All of our juniors are still in the learning phase. They're still learning techniques, bike handling, tactics, procedures, attitudes, how to handle things and what to do. I've been involved in endurance sports in one way or another for over 40 years. It still amazes me that I can still learn something new. In that way we are all still juniors and I'm 100% sure of that.
Coach
