The Story Behind Racepace: AI Cycling Coaching for Everyday Athletes
Racepace is an AI-enhanced coaching platform for cyclists. We're building smarter, personalized training plans that adapt to your fitness, schedule, and goals. Everyday athletes deserve access to great coaching, and we’ve lived that frustration ourselves.
Why Racepace Is Different
- Adaptive AI training plans grounded in real coaching principles
- Real-time adjustments when life gets in the way
- Built by former national-team rowers turned cyclists who understand how to maximize performance
This is the story behind why we built Racepace.
The Founders’ Background
Kevin and I (Sean) met in school, where we both eventually captained the Boston College rowing team. We originally bonded over a niche technique video that only true rowing nerds would ever admit to watching.
We both competed at the national-team level (Kevin even raced at the U23 World Championships) and when we hung up the oars in favor of professional careers, we picked up cycling and running in our spare time. Many late-night trainer sessions later, we remained training partners, close friends, and now the team behind Racepace.
The Frustration That Led to Racepace
A decade ago, when we transitioned from elite rowing to full-time work and amateur cycling, we suddenly felt what every everyday athlete feels:
- What’s the best training plan for my goals and available time?
- What do I do when I get sick or work late and miss a workout?
- How do I stay accountable when training gets lonely?
- What’s the latest training and nutrition science, and how do I actually apply it?
We loved diving deep into lactate testing, training at altitude, and geeking out on exercise science. But managing it all became a second full-time job.
And like so many athletes, we were vulnerable to Zone 2 sabotage. The classic Strava moment where you intend to keep an easy ride easy… but a tailwind and a favorite segment tempt you into threshold or VO2 Max efforts you absolutely don’t need. You ruin the workout but get cheap dopamine hits in the form of Kudos.
We realized even highly motivated athletes struggle without structured guidance.
The Problem We Saw in Amateur Training
Training is complicated. There are endless methods, zones, protocols, and opinions. And athletes must balance four pillars:
- Training plan
- Nutrition
- Recovery / sleep
- Maintenance work (strength, mobility, core)
It gets overwhelming fast.
Browse r/Velo or any endurance subreddit and you’ll see the same questions asked daily. Meanwhile, the options aren’t great:
- Go alone with guesswork
- Pay hundreds a month for a coach
- Follow a simple black-box plan that never adapts
Coming from elite backgrounds, we knew what good coaching looks like but most athletes never get access to it.
We believed there had to be a better way.
The Racepace Solution: AI Cycling Coach for Everyday Athletes
Nearly a decade after identifying the problem, the moment finally arrived:
- LLM-based AI agents became capable of real reasoning
- Wearables now provide rich, continuous fitness and recovery data
- Athletes became more comfortable using AI tools for health, performance, and accountability
Racepace exists at that intersection.
We’re athletes, coaches, and technologists. With modern AI, we can offer coach-level guidance for the price of Netflix delivering:
- Personalized training plans
- Real-time modifications when life gets in the way
- Built-in accountability and feedback
- A better race-day outcome without the stress of managing your own plan
That’s the vision: combining the best of tech and coaching.
What’s Behind a Racepace AI-Enhanced Training Plan?
Are we a coach or an AI?
We’re the best of both.
Our plans are built on real coaching principles but enhanced by AI that adapts to you. Racepace uses:
- Your fitness history
- Your goal races
- Your time availability
- Your life schedule and constraints
- Wearable and training-load data
…and then updates your plan in real time based on stress, illness, missed sessions, and progress. You get meaningful feedback, smarter workouts, and better consistency without the guesswork.
Your plan fits your life, not the other way around.
Our Promise
Every athlete deserves coaching that helps them achieve their goals.
That’s our mission and we’re excited to help you train smarter, stay accountable, and race your best.