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Track coach Colby Pearce resigns to return to competitive racing
// USA Cycling // April 26, 2007
Colorado Springs, Colo. (April 24, 2007)—USA Cycling announced today that 2004 U.S. Olympic Team member Colby Pearce (Boulder, Colo.) has resigned as endurance track coach for the national governing body and will return to competitive cycling.
Pearce, 34, will continue to coach for the Colorado Velodrome Association in conjunction with USA Cycling’s previously announced restructuring of its track program, but his primary emphasis will be on returning to world-class competition in the madison and points race events on the track.
Pearce last competed in 2005 before being named endurance track coach for USA Cycling in November of that year. His competitive results include 13 career UCI Track World Cup medals, a bronze medal in the 2003 Pan American Games and eight USA Cycling national titles. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Pearce placed 14th in the points race. In his last race, Pearce won a silver medal in the points race at the 2005 UCI World Cup event in Moscow.
“Racing is where my heart is at the moment,” Pearce explained of his decision to return to competition. “It’s still in my blood. Each time I was at a World Cup race or the World Championships as a coach, I found my mind drifting back to the same place. I still feel that I can effectively compete at that level and be successful.”
Pearce is confident his return to racing will benefit the U.S. track program regardless of his own competitive success.
“If I don’t make it to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the result is that I pushed other riders to raise the level of their game and perhaps win a medal, then that’s as much as I could have done as a coach in the first place,” Pearce continued. “Either way, I think it’s a win-win situation.”
“From USA Cycling’s perspective, our loss is also our gain,” commented USA Cycling director of athletics Pat McDonough. “On one hand we are losing a tremendous coach, but on the other we’re gaining an athlete capable of winning medals at international-level events. Additionally, his presence on the track will undoubtedly raise the level of competition and bring out the best in all of our other men’s endurance athletes.”
Last month at the UCI Track World Championships, USA Cycling announced a partnership with three of the nation’s velodromes to serve as official USA Cycling Track Training Centers – The 7-Eleven Velodrome in Colorado Springs, the Lehigh Valley Velodrome in Trexlertown, Pa. and the ADT Event Center in Carson, Calif. Pearce will work closely with the Colorado Velodrome Association on coaching and programming initiatives as part of USA Cycling’s overall development efforts, but will no longer be a full-time employee of USA Cycling.
“I really look at this as a lateral coaching move,” explained Pearce of his intentions to remain involved on the instructional side of things. “I learned an incredible amount as a coach and I want to continue coaching. I think there’s been a major benefit to me to see the sport from the other side and I’ve learned so much that I wasn’t capable of as an athlete.”
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