From First Skills to Mastery
A CCNS coaching series · Interviews led by Hunter Pronovost
Building the Foundation for What Comes Next
What does this athlete need next? A note from CCNS founder Aidan Charles.
By Aidan Charles
Building CCNS has meant thinking deeply about how people develop: the athletes we coach, the coaches we mentor, and the community that supports them.
One question has become central to that work: What does this athlete need next, and what needs to be in place for them to succeed?
I developed the CCNS Athlete Hierarchy of Needs to give that question a practical structure. It brings together what I’ve learned from coaching athletes, developing coaches, and building programs like CCAP. It gives our coaches a shared way to think through what an athlete needs today, which goals make sense next, and what needs to be in place to support that progress.
At the foundation are health, safety, and basic skills. From there, community and belonging help someone build relationships and find a place in the sport. Competitiveness and adventure give that participation new direction. Mastery grows through increasingly purposeful training, deeper understanding, and the ability to put experience into practice.
Each layer supports the next. An athlete pursuing a national championship still needs a healthy foundation and a community they feel connected to. A new rider learning to feel comfortable in a group deserves the same thoughtfulness in their coaching as someone preparing for international competition.
This framework also reflects how I think about building organizations. Founding the Connecticut Cycling Advancement Program meant helping create the opportunities and community where young riders could begin. Building CCNS has meant developing a team of coaches with the knowledge, curiosity, and judgment to support athletes as their needs change.
This series brings that philosophy to life. Hunter helps young riders build skills, confidence, and belonging. Ben guides developing athletes toward greater independence and purposeful competition. Nick helps accomplished mountain bikers refine their decisions and maintain perspective. Vivien brings precision to the pursuit of mastery, helping talented riders understand what will move them forward.
These team stories offer a window into each coach’s work. Every coach on our team supports athletes across the full development pathway.
Together, their stories show the depth of thought behind our coaching—and how differently good coaching can look depending on what an athlete needs.
That’s what I’m excited to share: how we help people choose a meaningful next step, build toward it, and become ready for what follows.
— Aidan
Confidence Starts with a Place to Learn
With Hunter Pronovost and the CCAP Rail Trailers · The focus in this story: Build + Belong.
CCNS · Based on interviews led by Hunter Pronovost
A first race asks a young rider to handle a lot at once: unfamiliar terrain, other riders, nerves, effort, and the possibility of making a mistake. Learning to manage that experience begins well before the start line.
For more than a decade, Hunter Pronovost has coached the CCAP Rail Trailers across mountain biking, road, and cyclocross. In the examples he shares here, the first priority is helping young riders feel secure enough to learn.
That includes bike handling and riding safely. It also includes creating a team where a rider can ask a question, struggle with something, and try again without feeling embarrassed. A child who is comfortable doing that has room to discover what they can do.
Hunter uses games to teach skills and learn about the riders themselves. Play makes it easier to notice who hangs back, who charges into everything, who needs encouragement, and who needs help slowing down to think. Those observations shape the coaching.
The next step is individual. One rider may need to experience the discomfort of a hard hill and discover they can recover. Another may need to practice control before taking on a more difficult challenge. Progress means giving each athlete something they are ready to learn.
Over time, the relationships become part of that development. Riders look forward to seeing each other. They begin to take pride in their team. They start thinking ahead about equipment, practices, and races without needing every detail put in front of them.
That growing independence matters. A first race can be valuable because the rider experiences something new and comes away with a reason to return. There will be time to make the goals more specific as understanding and confidence grow.
This is the foundation of Aidan’s Athlete Hierarchy of Needs in practice: health, safety, and skills supported by community and belonging. Hunter’s broader coaching work spans the whole pathway; the Rail Trailers give us a particularly clear view of these needs.
The lesson carries into adult cycling, too. Joining a group, learning a new discipline, or returning after time away can bring the same uncertainty. Good coaching takes that starting point seriously and gives the athlete a useful next step.
Give That Effort a Purpose
With Ben Wolfe, CCAP, and New England Devo · The focus in this story: Belong + Challenge.
CCNS · Based on interviews led by Hunter Pronovost
A rider can be willing to work hard and still be learning where that effort belongs. Racing brings that distinction into focus: when to commit, when to conserve, and how to recognize an opportunity that serves the team.
Ben Wolfe’s work with riders at CCAP and New England Devo gives him a useful view of how that learning develops. With newer athletes, there is often more teaching and demonstration. With more experienced riders, he can ask more questions and work through decisions with them.
The questions become specific. What does the course demand? Where will positioning matter? What are this rider’s strengths, and how can those strengths help the team? Preparing an athlete includes helping them understand why those details matter.
Ben describes the temptation to chase everything as Golden Retriever Mode. Feeling good can make every attack look inviting. Early experimentation has value because athletes need to experience effort and its consequences. As their experience grows, the coaching helps them become more deliberate about how they use it.
That might mean understanding when an effort creates an opportunity and when it simply leaves less energy for the part of the race that matters. The athlete is learning to connect the decision, the action, and the outcome.
Ben also thinks carefully about when to step in. A low-consequence practice situation can give an athlete room to experiment and learn from a mistake. A situation with greater consequences calls for more direct guidance. Coaching judgment includes recognizing that difference.
The longer-term aim is independence. An athlete who understands the principles behind a decision can use them when the coach is not there. That understanding develops through preparation, experience, questions, and reflection.
In the Athlete Hierarchy of Needs, these examples connect belonging with purposeful competition. The rider is learning how their individual effort fits within a group and a goal. Ben’s coaching spans the full framework; these programs let us examine this particular transition.
The same questions apply to an adult racer or ambitious club rider. Getting fitter creates opportunities. Learning to recognize and use those opportunities is another part of the work. Good coaching helps an athlete develop both.
Make the Decision That Helps the Race
With Nick Lando and Bear National · The focus in this story: Challenge + Mastery.
CCNS · Based on interviews led by Hunter Pronovost
A technical line can be a little faster and carry a much larger cost if it goes wrong. Learning to recognize that tradeoff is part of becoming a more capable racer.
In his work with Bear National riders, Nick Lando encounters athletes who have already spent a great deal of time developing fitness and bike control. The examples he shares turn our attention toward what happens when those abilities meet pressure, risk, and the demands of a race.
Take line choice. A rider may become attached to an option that saves a fraction of a second. The useful question is what that choice contributes to the whole race, including the consequences of a mistake. Being able to ride a line and deciding when it is worth using require different kinds of understanding.
Nick helps athletes think through those choices and direct attention toward the things they can control. That might mean committing to the plan, responding to the terrain, or making a sensible adjustment. Attention spent on distractions leaves less room for the decisions the rider can actually make.
There is a broader part of this work, too. An athlete who cares deeply about performance can become absorbed by results, expectations, and the next race. Nick describes the value of keeping connections with local riding, teammates, and the people who helped make cycling enjoyable in the first place.
Perspective gives the athlete a stronger base from which to compete. There is room to be serious about preparation and still enjoy riding a bike. Staying connected to both can be an important part of the coaching conversation.
This is why the CCNS Athlete Hierarchy of Needs keeps the foundations visible. Athletes working toward mastery continue to need community, enjoyment, and sound judgment. Progress includes knowing which details deserve attention and which ones can be let go.
Nick coaches across the whole pathway. Bear National provides the setting for this particular discussion of decision-making and perspective, rather than a boundary around the athletes he works with.
For an adult athlete, the application is familiar: a risky move, a frustrating result, or an obsession with one detail can draw attention away from the larger goal. Good coaching helps the athlete see the tradeoff clearly and make a decision that serves what they are trying to accomplish.
Find the Work That Makes a Difference
With Coach Vivien and VeloSport · The focus in this story: Pursuing Mastery.
CCNS · Based on interviews led by Hunter Pronovost
A talented athlete can keep improving the thing they already do well while another part of their performance needs attention. Figuring out which work will make a difference takes observation, useful information, and a clear understanding of the athlete.
In his work with VeloSport, Vivien brings physiological testing, race files, video, and conversation together to help riders understand their development. The examples he shares show how greater precision can change a coaching decision.
One rider had exceptional short-duration power. Testing helped reveal that developing the aerobic system would better support the rider’s ability to use that strength through a race. The training emphasis changed because the information pointed to a different priority.
The useful lesson is the reasoning behind that adjustment. A training decision should address what is limiting the athlete in the situation they are preparing for. An impressive strength is one part of that picture.
Race review creates another opportunity to learn. A rider remembers how an effort felt and what they were trying to do. The file or video adds another perspective. Put those together and the athlete and coach can examine where energy went, how positioning affected the race, and what could be done differently.
That conversation is most useful when the athlete can carry something specific into the next experience. They begin to recognize a situation while it is happening and understand a better response. Information becomes part of the athlete’s own judgment.
Precision also includes the amount of work. Vivien describes using better information to make training more appropriate to the athlete, with attention to what they can absorb and what deserves emphasis. Adding complexity or volume has to serve a purpose.
In the CCNS hierarchy, this feature explores the pursuit of mastery: becoming more observant, more deliberate, and more capable of applying what has been learned. It is an ongoing process. It does not mean every VeloSport rider is at the same stage or has reached a finished state.
Vivien also coaches athletes at earlier stages of development. The principles here apply just as well to an adult who has limited training time, an athlete learning to interpret their first test, or a rider trying to understand a disappointing race.
Good coaching turns information into a next step the athlete understands and can use. That is the work these examples make visible.
What Should Your Next Step Be?
A closing note from Aidan Charles · Bringing the four stories back to your own goals.
By Aidan Charles
Across these four stories, we’ve looked at very different coaching situations: building confidence with the Rail Trailers, developing purposeful race decisions with CCAP and New England Devo, weighing risk and keeping perspective with Bear National, and using information to guide development with VeloSport.
What connects them is the care that goes into understanding what the athlete needs.
That’s the part of CCNS I wanted this series to make visible. Our coaches bring their experience into programs across junior cycling, and they bring the learning from those environments back into their work with individual athletes. There is a lot of thought behind a useful instruction or a well-timed question.
The Athlete Hierarchy of Needs gives us a way to organize that thinking. Start with the foundation. Understand what makes the athlete feel connected to the sport. Give their effort a meaningful direction. Help them develop the awareness and judgment to keep improving.
Your next step might be a skill that makes group riding more comfortable. It might be a more consistent routine, a clearer race plan, or a better understanding of where you spend your energy. It might also be reconnecting with the kind of riding that made you love the sport.
The answer depends on you: your experience, your goals, your life, and what is happening now. Every coach on our team works across that pathway. These junior programs have simply given us some especially useful examples.
I’m proud of the reach of our work and the people doing it. What matters to the athlete is how that experience helps them take a meaningful next step.
If this series has made you think differently about your own goals, I’d like to hear about it. Tell us what you’re working toward and where you feel stuck. That’s a good place to start a coaching conversation.
— Aidan