BIO
Residence
Coach Andy has spent the majority of his life on and around bikes. After taking his first laps around a velodrome at the tender age of 7, it was obvious he was hooked. With a love for speed and the track cycling Mecca, The Valley Preferred Cycling Center (a.k.a. T-town), in his back yard, it was a match made in heaven that can only be described as fate. After excelling in a wide range of community level programs offered by the velodrome and coached by high-profile elite level racers, Junior Track Nationals came to T-town and Andy walked away with his first of an eventual 28 national titles.
It was around this time that he was noticed by and taken under the wing of track cycling veteran and Olympic Gold Medalist coach, Gil Hatton. While training under the blue collar, “Rocky-Up” style of Gil, Andy learned what the words “hard work,” “determination,” and “heart” really mean and how to apply them to every aspect of preparing himself for “battle.” This lesson was solidified when at age 15 he watched his then mentor and hometown hero, Marty Nothstien, win the match sprint at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. After a very successful junior career, winning 18 national championships, at both the junior and elite levels, setting 4 national records, and then topping it off with a silver medal at the UCI Junior World Track Cycling Championships, it was time to graduate full-time to the elite ranks.
When Andy reached the international level of competition himself, he was exposed to how exercise science played an indispensable part in perfecting an athlete. Through the beginning of his career as an elite level rider he had the privilege to work with a wide variety of national team coaches and sport scientists. During this time he earned 6 more national titles, became the 2004 Olympic Team Alternate, was named to the 2008 Olympic Long Team, and had many highly successful seasons.In 2007, under the instruction of Olympic silver medalist Erin Hartwell, Andy brought home a bronze medal in the match sprint at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Then, after a short hiatus from the sport, Andy returned to cycling and began coaching himself all the way back to peak form, winning an additional national record and 4 more national titles, for a grand total of 28.
After narrowly missing a spot on the team for the London 2012 Olympics, Andy had the once in a lifetime opportunity to be on the infield at the 2012 Olympics without competing. He walked away with a priceless wealth of knowledge. Witnessing the British dominance in London opened Andy’s eyes and lead him to seek further knowledge of the physical science behind such ground breaking performances. As part of this knowledge seeking process, Andy relocated to Southern California to begin working with his self-created “team” of coaches to prefect himself as an athlete. While this relocation ultimately saw the end of Andy’s personal ambitions after an accident in 2014, it yielded a cutting edge learning experience that helped shape many of the approaches and techniques Andy and BIG Picture Cycling use today.
This also lead to the creation of BIG Picture Cycling when Andy began sharing his passion, love, and knowledge of the sport of cycling through coaching. Having first discovered the drive and natural aptitude to be a coach at 19 coaching the same community programs he grew up riding in, Andy discovered a way to give back to future generations and make sure that future champions had the same opportunities he did. Having a superb ability to perceive and interpret what a rider of any ability is experiencing on the bike allows Andy to communicate with his athletes at a level of detail that is second to none. As a coach, Andy’s trademark is to always take the time to thoroughly review and explain every factor in the athlete’s performance, whether through email, telephone, or trackside. From the blue collar no frills “dungeon” winters of T-town all the way up to the F1 inspired science driven cutting edge methods used today, Andy has truly seen and been a part of it all. A background he sees as an invaluable asset that he blends together to fit both the athlete’s personality and their goals to help them reach their maximal potential. Always welcoming a new challenge, Andy constantly dreams big and helps his athletes to do the same.