Adam Kelsall The Coach With The Most

It was back in 2014 that Adam Kelsall first noticed the skills of a then 13-year-old Zoe Cuthbert in a cross-country race at the You Yangs in Victoria.

It wouldn’t be until the end of 2019 that he would get the chance to coach this talented young rider and then in 2022 they would achieve their first major international success.

“There were tears there was yelling at the TV, fist pumps it was an unbelievable moment,” Kelsall said.

The moment was a silver medal at Cuthbert’s very first Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

“I would’ve loved to have been there given her a high-five and hug.”

However, it was a shared moment post-race on social media where the coach and athlete enjoyed the spoils.

“That’s been the reality for most of our coaching journey. I live in Torquay and Zoe lives in Canberra so two years of Facetime - that’s been a lot of our coach-athlete journey.”

It also meant a lot of meticulous planning that went into preparing Cuthbert for her Games debut.

“It's a consultative thing. It’s never me talking and Zoe listening, we are always chatting about what it will take to win the race.”

“We worked out that Zoe had to sit on those other riders' wheels and just let them do their thing for a while.

“It’s easy to forget she’s raced in Australia with small fields but had two years of Covid where she couldn't get overseas, and she hadn’t had a lot of exposure with tactical races.

“We saw she rode tactically brilliant; she has that instinct that once she’s on her bike she rides it well.”

The bike riding is the last thing for Kelsall to worry about in his workings with the free-spirited 21-year-old as they approach a race.

“We don’t chat on race day we have our last chat the day before and I leave it up to Zoe to do her thing cause she’s very good at doing her thing.

“It’s ‘let’s keep her distracted so she’s not actually thinking about riding her bike until she’s riding her bike’.”

“Our last chat we talked about all the strategy but also talked about how weird Comms Games is, we talked about some castles she’s seen out on rides, that whole human approach is important.”

Much was made about comments of the Australian rider sleeping in the car while she contests the UCI World Cup across Europe.

Kelsall says that experience was part of a discussion about dealing with not only high-performance bike racing but also as an Aussie backpacking through Europe.

“I just hope at the end of all the noise there are two outcomes that we can remember. Zoe won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in her first Commonwealth Games and was 40 seconds off the world champion.”

“The other is let’s have a positive conversation about supporting all athletes, all disciplines in this country let’s talk about how we can do it better.”

For the past eight years Victorian Kelsall has been part of coaching programs with junior XCO mountain bikers as well as leading the Foundation Instructor Courses, formerly held by Mountain Bike Australia and now AusCycling.

“I consider myself so lucky to have those roles and travel to a lot of places. It’s not just coaching it’s connecting with the locals. It gives me a good insight into what is happening with mountain biking in Australia.

“Meeting juniors from around the country and listening to them and finding out what’s going on in their patch is exciting, but also seeing their skill level.

“We had one session with the New South Wales junior academy a couple of weeks ago in the ACT at the AIS. We went out to Stromlo and my job was to do the pump section on the rollers at Stromlo.

“I would say 90% of the juniors were gapping the whole pump section. To see those skills is what we need to see at that age. They shouldn’t be super serious on racing yet, more skills focus.”

He’s supportive of the opportunities that are being presented as a pathway for riders through the junior academies in each state and territory.

“Once athletes are categorized, they have access to their local institute at no charge, all these services at their disposal and that makes a huge difference to their progress.”

And what about his coaching progress?

“What I'm really excited about is we have people who like Sam Fox, Zoe, Matt Dinham; a whole host who are racing at an elite level, but also amazing humans.

“And I am going to try to do everything in my minimal power to make sure they are the future coaches of Australian mountain bikers."

“I’ve been looking, particularly in the downhill space, for coaches who have World Cup experience and want to help our juniors and give back, I’d love to see that."