Erin Hartwell:

Specialties: Elite and Categorized Track and Road Racing, Elite Development, Team Direction and Management

Home: Trexlertown, PA USA

Advisor to Wenzel Coaching on Elite Track and development.

Three time Olympian (1992, 1996, 2000)

Two time Olympic Medalist (1992, 1996)

Four time World Championship Medalist (1994, 1995(2), and 1998).
Former National Team Coach for the Welsh Cycling Union

As an advisor to Wenzel Coaching, Erin Hartwell has brings 19 years of coaching and racing experience at the international-level of competitive cycling. A three-time Olympian and two-time medalist for the United States, Erin was the first American cyclist to medal in consecutive Olympic Games, 1992 and 1996, and the first American male cyclist to medal in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1904.

After his retirement from competition in 2001, Erin has transformed his career from top competitor to top coach using his proven training methods. Now back in the United States after working as the National Coach of the Elite Performance Program for the Welsh Cycling Union in Newport, Wales in 2003, Erin is the director of the Valley Preferred Cycling Center (also known as the Lehigh Valley Velodrome) in Trexlertown, PA.

Erin has 10 years of hands-on coaching experience, gleaned from having to research better methods of improving performance in all cycling disciplines—an effort to maximize his international results while adhering to a drug-free philosophy throughout his career. In addition to his personal search for sporting knowledge, Erin has been fortunate to have trained under, and worked with, some of the best names in coaching: Charlie Walsh—former Australian National Cycling Coach, Dragomir Ciroslan—US National Weight Lifting Coach and Olympic Medalist, Chris Carmichael—former Coaching Director for USA Cycling Inc., Craig Griffin—former National Coach with USA Cycling Inc., and Andrjez Bek—National Sprint Coach for USA Cycling Inc. And while Erin’s main expertise lies on the track, his experience and coaching credentials carry over to road racing as well.

Though Erin takes training for sport seriously and with great intensity, he would prefer to be recognized as a coach and former athlete whom is always approachable and ready to help on a moment’s notice.

“I am accessible,” said Erin when asked about his ability to relate to the full spectrum of athletic ability and desire in the cycling community and not just the elite athlete. “Not everyone wishes to work toward, or has the talent to be, a world champion. Now that I am retired, I can completely relate to the master’s rider, the category cyclists, and bike-riding moms who have competing interests and time constraints that will affect their ability and hankering to train full time. Even though these athletes have established different goals than the professional cyclist, the objective is still important to them and they deserve the same level of treatment that the pro would get.

Erin currently resides in Mertztown, Pennsylvania near the Trexlertown Velodrome and enjoys hanging out with his wife and two boys, hiking in some of the many state parks throughout his adopted state, researching methods of programming and organization of training, hoisting a pint of stout at the local brewpub, flying, and living a Mitty-esque fantasy of that big comeback that just ain’t gonna happen!  

A career of results

Since earning his first national championship in the junior men’s Individual Pursuit in 1987, Erin has racked up an impressive list of world-class performances in major international competitions. An abridged results list includes a silver medal in the 1994 World Cycling Championships in the 1000m Time Trial, two bronze medals in the 1995 World Cycling Championships in the 1000m Time Trial and Team Sprint, another bronze medal in the 1998 World Cycling Championships in the 1000m Time Trial, and a 2000 Olympic Team position in the United States’ Team Pursuit squad.

After knee surgery in early 1999 put to rest his competitiveness in track sprint events, Erin embarked on the demanding challenge of converting himself into a professional road racing cyclist while concurrently attempting to make his third consecutive Olympic Team in an endurance track event. After months of hard work, substantial weight loss, and eating a lot of humble pie, Erin successfully made the transition to competitive road cyclist and earned a position on the 2000 Olympic squad and with the Saturn Professional Cycling Team for 2000 and 2001. During this time period, Erin won multiple USA Cycling-sanctioned national calendar road races and raced competitively in Europe for the United States National Team.

Erin’s personal road cycling highlight was an 8^th place finish in the Tour of Wellington, a mountainous UCI-categorized stage race in New Zealand; a place where he learned many lessons about perseverance and the difficulties of climbing as a big man! A nagging Achilles tendon injury in 2001 prematurely ended his road racing and cycling career, but in hindsight, opened the door to other opportunities in life and sport. 

The path from athlete to coach

Erin is a member of USA Cycling Inc.’s much vaunted class of the ‘90’s that includes such notable athletes as Marty Nothstein, Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Fred Rodriguez, Bobby Julich, the medal-winning USA Team Pursuit squad, and others.

“It was a great time to be a cyclist in America and I must say that I learned a heck of a lot from the professional riders I was surrounded by during that golden era of US cycling,” said Erin. “There was a momentum [to succeed] with that group of athletes and I am fortunate to have been privy to train and compete alongside such notables of American sport.”

Though Erin takes a certain amount of pride that his hard work throughout his career paid off with some respectable personal results, he feels that his greatest moment in cycling came while acting as the coach for his wife, May Britt Vaaland, at the 1995 World Cycling Championships in Bogotá, Colombia. During those world championships, Erin coached his wife to a bronze medal in the women’s 3000m Individual Pursuit and a place in the Norwegian record books; but more importantly, Erin came to appreciate the profound satisfaction gained in helping another athlete meet her personal sporting ambition. 

“The feeling I had trackside while my wife was riding for a medal was unlike anything I had ever felt as an athlete—indescribable,” said Erin. “It was during this time that I truly realized how wonderful it was to assist someone in meeting their personal sporting ambition and I decided at that point to dedicate my career after cycling to coaching and mentoring others with similar objectives and to give something back to the sport that has given me everything.” 

In 2002, while in the University of North Dakota’s aviation program fulfilling a personal ambition of becoming a commercial pilot, Erin realized how much he missed cycling and being immersed in the competitive athletic environment. After much soul searching and too many days reminiscing with other North Dakota cyclists, Erin decided to come back to sport and re-dedicate his efforts to producing world-class athletes. Erin and family traveled to Wales in order to assist the Welsh Cycling in its transition from a road-oriented national program to a national team with a track-cycling focus. After a short, but successful time producing improved performances with all athletes under his direct guidance, Erin decided to return to the United States to make a stable home for his wife and two growing children.

Proven training methods

Erin’s personal methodology for producing improved performance in sport is by the strict adherence to the principle that “pressure is only felt by the unprepared.” By utilizing an objectively-based evaluation strategy for determining the efficacy of the prescribed training and racing program, Erin is able to maximize the feedback returned to him by the client-athlete in the actualized culture environment in order to better utilize the client-athlete’s time available for training and racing.

“I am a firm believer in the principle that the coach and rider must closely analyze as much returned performance data (including atmospheric conditions when applicable) as possible in order to make the minute training adjustments necessary for continued improvement within the scope of a well-designed and established program. Look at 1996; I lost the Olympic Games in my own country to the Frenchman, Florian Rousseau, by a percentage time-difference of approximately three-tenths of one percent! You’re telling me I couldn’t have improved my performance somewhere over the last year of training by that much?” said Erin in a discussion with Wenzel Coaching about the importance of attention to detail when designing training programs for competitive athletes.

In looking at the psychological aspect to training and racing preparation, Erin operates under the principle of task orientation which prescribes that the athlete focus solely on controllable variables in training and racing while attempting to eliminate, as potential stressors, uncontrollable variables. In using task orientation, the coach focuses on specific physical and technical tasks for the athlete to accomplish that will allow the rider to place himself into a physical and mental position to be competitive in the relative racing environment.

Coaching philosophy

Though Erin believes in the power of science in sport and is in the process of working towards degrees in applied mathematics and physical education, he is a greater proponent of the philosophy that coaching is inherently an art form and that the coach must have high-level personal experience in sport and physical education in order to truly produce the best results. Far too many times Erin has seen applied exercise science not match the theoretical expectations anticipated by quasi-coaches with sports science degrees. Sometimes what works in the laboratory doesn’t work at all in the field! Experience is crucial to successfully applying coaching knowledge on the road and track.

“Competitive cycling is tough and it’s not always easy to define what’s doable and what’s not!” stresses Erin. “A coach must know what it feels like to ride for six hours in the rain, race a time trial, lift a 90-percent weight the day after a hard cycling session, compete injured, or repeat 60 second efforts on limited rest. Only experience will tell the coach what is physically realistic and what volume/intensity combinations will produce either a favorable and predictable improvement or lead to injury and create an overtraining state—he [the coach] needs that subjectivity to balance the non-organic objectivity of science.”

Erin believes that a successful coach must have experience, intelligence, creativity, and the desire to see his or her client-athletes realize the goals and expectations set forth in their initial consultations. What makes it worth the effort? He feels that, “as coaches, the greatest reward comes through being able to experience vicariously through the athlete that fleeting and addictive moment of victory and personal accomplishment—it’s as good as racing!”

Major coaching accomplishments:

Erin Hartwell: Self coached throughout career

May Britt Hartwell: 3rd--women's 3000m pursuit, 1995 World Cycling Championships, Bogota, Colombia

Marty Nothstein: 1999 season through Pan American Games

Adam Wilk: 2000 National Master's Champion, 1000m and match sprint.

Denise Hampson: 2003 British silver medalist, 500m and sprint. New Welsh record for 500m and second fastest time ever for British women.

Erin is an advisor to Wenzel Coaching and currently isn't taking on clients.