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Hawk Relay Cycling Team diary
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The Los Angeles-based Hawk Relay team is working to put its riders among the top of the world's best track cyclists. Through their Cyclingnews diaries, riders Sarah Hammer, Adam Duvendeck, and Travis Smith and the Hawk Relay coach Andy Sparks will allow a unique insight into the world of track cycling and the training required to compete at the top of the sport.
The team is the only professional cycling team run by a deaf owner, Robin Horwitz, and is supported by the maker of a video relay system designed to provide deaf and hard of hearing people with the necessary tools to achieve full and equal telecommunications access. Horwitz combined his love for the sport with his sponsor's (Hawk Relay) passion for generating opportunities for the hearing-impaired to create this unique squad.
For further reading about the program, see the team summary or visit the www.hawkrelaycycling.com.
The Hawk Relay Cycling Team 2008-2009
Adam Duvendeck
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The former kilometer time trial specialist recently refocused his efforts on other sprint events such as the keirin, sprint and team sprint after the international governing body removed the four-lap race from the Olympic program for 2008.
As a multi-sport athlete growing up, Adam competed in baseball, soccer, tennis and volleyball, but began his cycling career as a mountain biker at the age of 13. After just one year of off-road racing, Adam purchased his first road bike and eventually made the switch to track cycling under the guidance of 1984 Olympian Rory O'Reilly. At the age of 17, Adam made a splash on the national level with a surprise victory in the kilometer time trial at the 1999 USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships. Since then, Adam has established himself as a versatile, all-around sprinter, winning elite national titles in the keirin (2006), team sprint (2003), kilometer time trial (2000) and sprint (2000).
Following the 2004 Olympic Games, Adam semi-retired from the sport to pursue an education from Santa Barbara City College. Upon his return to competitive cycling in 2006, Adam re-emerged as one of the nation's fastest sprinters, winning a national title in the keirin that October.
Travis Smith
The Canadian sprinter burst into scene by winning the bronze medal at 2006 Commonwealth games and was a force to be reckoned with in 2007. A devastating crash in 2006 World Championships forced him to be on the sidelines for a while.
A self-coached athlete, Travis has rebounded from the injury to post several fast times and propelled Adam Duvendeck into one of the fastest American sprinters ever.
Travis set goals high enough for 2008-2009 season now that his hip has healed and he plans to place in the top 5 for match sprints, keirin, team sprints and the kilo.
Sarah Hammer
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Twenty-five year old Southern California native Sarah Hammer has shown herself to be a true star of the international cycling scene. With two World Championship wins, seven World Cup wins, a U.S. National Pursuit Record and over twenty national titles, Sarah is steadfastly establishing her legend within US cycling.
Sarah has been competing internationally since the age of sixteen with a unique maturity that shows both on and off the bicycle. At a young twenty-five years of age, Hammer has already been an Olympian, a professional both on the road and track, a member of the US National Team, a resident athlete at the US Olympic Training Center and a top collegiate student. Perhaps most impressive of her long list of accomplishments is the ten-year World Championship drought she ended by winning the World Pursuit track title in 2006. Building on her 2006 on-the-bike success, Hammer launched the American Women's Track Cycling Fund (AWTCF.org), an organization developed to support and mentor America's future crop of female Olympic track cycling champions.
Sarah's ultimate goal is to win Olympic gold in London in 2012.
Robin Horwitz, Director & Owner
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Born deaf, Robin grew up in Rochester, NY, and attended Rochester School for the Deaf then Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.
It wasn't until he was 23 years old when he decided to take up auto racing because of his love for speed that he realized the communication barrier was incredible. Although he showed terrific promise, Robin faced obstacles in getting sponsorship to race professionally. He would place telephone calls through a device known as the TTY, which made the communication cumbersome and often resulted in rejections or conversations cut short with hang-ups.
Over the years, Robin remained determined and knew he could achieve anything he set his mind to doing. He began paying for sign language interpreters out of his own pocket so that he could gain experience, knowledge and unfettered access to people. Then video-based telephone interpreting services came into reality and he currently uses the service via Hawk Relay's video relay service platform, and now conducts his business communications with ease.
Robin has since then worked for Momentum Cycling Team, and helped facilitate the change of ownership to Hawk Relay Cycling Team. He has also run the American Velodrome Challenge, two years of Threshold Power training camps, the 2006 World Deaf Cycling Championships. He recognizes that the emergence of today's technology as the key component in allowing him to communicate with all people.
Robin is a co-owner of ASL Bridge Interpreting Services, based in the San Francisco Bay Area with plans for nationwide expansion. He also runs Threshold Power cycling camps and clinics.
Andy Sparks - Director of Coaching Program / Head Coach
2008 U.S. Olympic Track Cycling coach Andy Sparks is a graduate of the University of Colorado and currently resides in Temecula, California. With an approach that weighs on the qualitative side, Andy fuses research and practical sports knowledge with his own personal vision to craft a coaching style that focuses on athlete psychology, race specificity, and power acquisition. His coaching excellence aided in achieving 12 World Cup medals and 3 World Championship medals in the 2007-2008 track season, and has made him a two-time winner of the USA Cycling Coach of the Year award for his outstanding leadership and distinction in the field of coaching.
As an athlete, Andy was a member of the United States National Track Team and earned a three-year residency at the United States Olympic Training Center. Since retiring as a competitor four years ago, he has devoted his passion to coaching and has achieved a remarkable record of success. Athletes coached by Andy have recorded three World Championship titles, fifteen World Cup medals and numerous National records.
In addition to coaching, Andy also helped to found the American Women's Track Cycling Fund, an organization launched to assist and mentor young female cyclists.
Hunter Allen, Power Coach
Hunter is a former professional cyclist for the Navigators team and has raced for over 17 years in Europe, South America, the U.S. and Canada. He is also the owner of Peaks Coaching Group, Inc., and the co-developer of CyclingPeaks Software, as well as an elite-level USA Cycling coach. He is a sought after speaker on training with power meters and is a featured presenter in many of the USA Cycling seminars.
Widely known as one of the top experts in the world in coaching athletes who use power meters, he has analyzed over 3000 power meter files and has gotten the analysis down to an artful science. As the co-developer of CyclingPeaks software, he set out to try to create an application from the viewpoint of bringing an athlete and coach closer, and to bring a simple program to beginning Power meter users. His goal has always been to teach the athletes he coaches how to analyze their own power meter data using the latest tools. This goes hand-in-hand with his power meter training philosophy: That a power meter is a tool for an athlete to help discover their weaknesses, quantitatively assess training improvements, and refine the focus of their training.
Hunter will assist the HRCT by analyzing the cyclists' power data from Quarq powermeters and providing consulting on coaching sessions with other coaching staff members.
Dr. Marcus Elliott, Strength Coach
Marcus is a Harvard-trained physician specializing in performance enhancement and the care of elite athletes. He is dedicated to applying cutting edge science for optimal athletic development and has trained some of the world's best athletes, including those at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, the Australian Institute of Sport, and the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. Although he has trained athletes from a wide variety of sports, since 1998, his primary focus has been on peak performance and injury prevention in U.S. professional sports, including football, baseball, and soccer.
Starting in 1999 and continuing through their drive to two Super Bowls, Marcus was the physiologist and injury prevention specialist for the NFL's New England Patriots and is currently completing NFL-sponsored research leading to recommendations on optimal conditioning and injury prevention strategies.
Racing Schedule
- World Cup III - Cali, Colombia; December 11-13, 2008
- World Cup IV - Beijing, China; January 16-18, 2009
- World Cup V - Copenhagen, Denmark; February 13-15, 2009
- World Championships - Pruskow, Poland; March 25-29, 2009
- International Keirin Cup – Lehigh Valley Velodrome; Trexlertown, PA
- US Open Omnium – Lehigh Valley Velodrome; Trexlertown, PA
- Festival of Speed – Lehigh Valley Velodrome; Trexlertown, PA
- American Velodrome Challenge – Hellyer Park - San Jose, CA
