About
Jurgen Beneke
Cycling is more than just a sport for me.
It has been my life since the age of 12. I was a member of the German National Team on the road, track and cyclocross before specializing on Mountain Biking and ultimately winning World Cup races, X-Games and National Championships in Germany and the USA.
Why get coached by Jurgen?
Unlike many other coaches, I always feel the need to make the sport of cycling as fun and enjoyable as possible. Training can be hard, but that doesn't mean it has to be boring. Every coach that I had, from local club to national team helped me become who I am today, and now is the time for me to give back the best of what they taught me.
New training methods and tools are always on my mind and as a certified Fitness Instructor and Level 3 USA Cycling coach my education will always continue.
The mission is to achieve your cycling goals and give you the tools to keep you riding for the rest of your life.
From the road to the dirt.
As a young kid it is important to try different sports and develop general athletic abilities. After soccer (not a surprise in Germany) and Ice Hockey,
I started racing road bikes. Two years later Cyclocross and track racing were added to my "need to try" cycling disciplines.
After medaling at the german track and cyclocross championships I was invited to represent Germany at a couple of road stage races.
Mountain Bike racing and BMX were of course
also something I had to try.
Now in my fifties, I have fallen in love with Gravel racing.
Exploring all that cycling has to offer.
No other sport has that many disciplines. ROAD, TRACK, GRAVEL, MTB, BMX.
You can be a sprinter, climber, downhiller, stage racer, time trialer or bikepacker.
I have done them all, some of them well, others not so much.
I understand the different demands each of them have and will apply modern interval training technics to get the most out of your training schedule
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Mountain Biking
TII
After trying all cycling disciplines, I focused on what I excelled in.
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In 1992, I discovered the magic of mountain biking and without hesitation won all the DH stages of Tour de Suisse. The following year, I decided to take my chances in the first edition of the UCI World Downhill Cup while racing for Marin Bikes. I stole the title, which has remained my greatest international success so far.
In the following years I became three-times German champion and won a multiple World Cup races. In the overall standings of the World Downhill Cup I reached one first and two second places. Additionally, I also have a gold medal from the X-Games under my belt.
In 1994, I won the Kamikaze Reebok Eliminator in Mammoth Mountain, California. With the speeds over 100 km/h it was considered the fastest downhill race in the world.
In 2000, at the age of 28, I temporarily ended my racing career, but continued to ride recreationally. I started racing again for fun with very little training and competed in a World Cup race in Canada in 2007, where I finished seventeenth.
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During my career I taught many MTB clinics starting all the way back to the late 90's. Since 2014 I had mostly focused my efforts on running my bike storage company DaHANGER. Now in my 50's I am an active and accomplished Masters Road, Cyclocross, MTB, Track and Gravel racer. My focus now is something I always wanted to do, but never had the time for. Giving back to the cycling community at large, sharing my hard earned knowledge (mostly thru my own mistakes) and coaching riders of all ages, levels and
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You need to build a Solid Foundation to achieve your cycling goals.
Jurgen coaching in 1994
In the beginning of Mountain Biking, you had to learn new skills very fast and accurately. The bikes were mediocre at best and sloppy technic was instantly punished by broken equipment or physical pain.
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This is why I might call you out on poor technic, even so modern bikes will absolutely compensate for rider errors that would have been catastrophic in the early days.
