Kendra Wenzel, Head Coach:

Specialties: Elite and Elite Development in Road Racing, CX and MTB, Working riders balancing jobs, family and riding; Riders recovering from and coming back from chronic fatigue-type illnesses, Team Direction and Management, Coach Education

Home: Portland, OR

Client levels accepted:  Custom, and Consultation only. Head Coach pricing. Consultation available.

- Available for seminars, camps, clinics, and team direction on a contractual basis.

Kendra has been coaching elite and beginning riders since 1994 when she helped found Wenzel Coaching. She trains racers as well as coaches and also focuses on writing articles for all levels of riders and racers. Kendra co-authored the book “Bike Racing 101,” an introduction to road bike racing. Her articles and interviews have been featured in publications such as Velonews, Bicycling Magazine, The New York Times, and the Men’s Journal.

Kendra’s enjoys coaching all levels of riders but specializes with up-and-coming road, mountain bike and cyclocross racers who want to race successfully on the national and international level and have goals of becoming pros. She also works with master racers who want to make the most of their limited training time. Her clients have achieved everything from national road, mountain bike and cyclocross championships to wins in stage races and series and placements on World Championship Teams. Kendra's athletes enjoy her easy working style as well as an understanding of the art and science of performing at all levels of cycling while juggling all the areas of their busy lives.

Kendra was a professional cyclist for 11 years and was a member of the US National Team for much of that time. She won a gold medal in the pursuit at the Pan American Games in Cuba and also earned 14 National Track Championship medals. She earned 30 professional race wins on the road in the years 1997-1999 alone, with over 100 total career wins on the road and track. While earning her degree in mass communications at UC Berkeley she won the 1994 US Collegiate Road Championship. Kendra's experience goes beyond the road and track, racing mountain bikes professionally for team DiamondBack in 1995.

Kendra began riding her bike as a teenager, riding the Seattle-to-Portland double century event before beginning racing while attending UC Davis in Davis, California. She joined the Davis Bike Club and began racing all over California. She raced her first Women’s Challenge Race (then known as the Ore-Ida) in Idaho in 1988. She then tried her legs on the track and spent 1989 through 1994 racing the road and focusing on the pursuit event, taking 6th in the pursuit at the 1990 World Championships and 4th in the Goodwill Games the same year.

In 1995, wanting to take a break from the track and following many road riders who had crossed over successfully to the mountain bike side of racing, Kendra joined Team Diamond back under the guidance of Olympic Bronze Medalist Sue Demattei. After a rough year of illness, Kendra went back to her love of field sprinting on the road in 1996, heading a women's development team that placed herself and another rider in the top 10 of the National Racing Calendar (NRC) series. From then she formed an enthusiasm for developing up and coming racers and devoted time outside of her own training to advising young riders. In 1997 she returned to top form, riding for the top-ranked Saeco/Timex Team as its captain, placing second in the NRC series and competing for the US National Team at the World Championships.

1998 brought Kendra close to a US National Championship with a second place finish in the road race. That year also included racing in Europe once again as her team completed the Tour of Italy (Giro Feminin), racing its top GC rider to a second place overall. Her 1998 season continued successfully with the overall win at the Tour de ‘Toona, a third place finish in the NRC series and another berth on the World Championship Team. Kendra wound down her final year of professional racing in 1999 with the Timex team, placing third in the National Road Race Championship and fifth overall in the Saturn Pro Series.

Since her retirement from active racing at the end of 1999, Kendra has devoted her full time to coaching, writing, and being a mom to her 10 year-old daughter. She pins on a number now and then and trains enough to eat what she likes, but mostly enjoys watching her clients race.

To inquire about working with Kendra Wenzel, please click here! >>>

"Working with Kendra has been one of my best coaching experiences - it's so exciting to call in every week and be able to share successes or what I learned from a race, to feel my development /new strengths from training and applying them in races or getting a new PR. Thank you for pushing me to be the best!"
               ~Alissa Maglaty

 "Thanks again for designing such a solid program for me all season. One of the key reasons that I'm riding with such confidence is because I have complete confidence in my coach and training program :-) You're awesome... thanks!!!"
               ~ Tim Butler

“Thanks to your program for the first time ever I was leaving everybody on the climbs and many riders trying to get on my wheel for me to pull them up … hats off to you again because yesterday there was a world of difference in how I felt riding versus a charity ride in Libby this past spring -- both were 100+ miles (Thank you Kendra and Wenzel training)! 100+ miles and nobody could stay on my wheel.” ~Nichole Rogers

There I was at the national championships lined up in the second row of the pro women's race. I never would have even imagined that I would be there ever ... Thanks for your support."
               ~Sue Butler

"Thank you for my first win. I couldn't have done it without you."
                ~Gene Harding