In this episode, host Matti Rowe sits down with Zach Nehr, cycling coach, seasoned road racer, and expert in the fast-evolving world of esports racing. Matti and Zach explore Zach’s background of collegiate racing and coaching to the professional road scene, and how the pandemic unexpectedly propelled him into the universe of indoor racing.
Zach Nehr dives deep into the world of cycling esports, unpacking its rapid evolution and what it takes to train and coach athletes for peak performance—indoors and out.
What sets Zach apart is his insistence on meeting each athlete where they are, adapting plans around individual needs, training environments, and even race start times that can hit at 2 AM thanks to global competition. He highlights the critical importance of communication, balancing intensity, and keeping a sharp eye on mental as well as physical fatigue—especially for those riding the line between indoor and outdoor racing.
Key takeaways: Whether you want to refresh your coaching toolkit, re-energize your winter training, or just geek out on how racing is changing, this episode is your ticket into the fast-paced universe of cycling esports. There’s something here for every coach and athlete ready to embrace structured training in a virtual space—no matter where you start.
If you want to dive further into the world of esports racing and coaching, check out the new TrainingPeaks University course, How to Coach Cycling eSports, by Zach Nehr.
Standout Quotes
The Importance of Clear Communication Between Coach and Athlete: “I think understanding that balance with each athlete individually is really, really important for coaches because you don’t wanna give too many indoor cycling workouts to an athlete that’s gonna ride outside every day because there’s a lot of these, yeah, indoor cycling specific workouts that whether it’s 30/15s or 30/30s or something with kind of a short burst of power, but very structured where depending on where you live, it’s almost impossible to do a workout like that on the road, especially to do it safely. So I think communicating with those athletes and understanding, is this a session that you’re gonna do outdoors or indoors, and then how can we adjust that to to fit their needs?”
“I think it used to be extremely watt per kilo driven, and it was anyone who the riders with the best watt per kilo would win every single time. There was really there weren’t many tactics or other dynamics. It was just at some, they would break away. Anyone else, it didn’t matter what the raw power was. It just couldn’t close the gap. Whereas now, I think that’s changed a lot where on on most courses, almost any rider can win in a in a variety of different ways.”
The evolution of indoor racing
Logistics of Global Indoor Races: “For some riders, they’re even racing at midnight, so you go the entire day kind of trying not to be nervous about your fueling and your intake because your weigh in is if if it’s at nine or 10PM and then you’re racing at midnight, it’s a very, very tricky thing that takes a lot of practice to kinda dial in that routine.”
“There’s so many ways to get benefits from indoor training, whether it’s the structured workouts or some of the other features where you can you can look at course recon for different things, or you can work on different dynamics or pacing or anything like that.”
Benefits of indoor cycling
