You’ve probably seen the logos. Red Bull. Bora-Hansgrohe. UAE Team Emirates. These are the titans of professional cycling, the teams that dominate the Tour de France and turn riders into household names. But behind the yellow jerseys and the carbon-fiber podiums, there’s usually a guy with a laptop and a bunch of data that most of us wouldn’t even understand. John Wakefield is that guy.
He isn't a former Tour de France winner himself. Honestly, his path into the WorldTour was kind of an accident. It didn’t start with a road bike in France; it started with a motocross bike in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Motocross Crash That Changed Everything
Most pro cycling coaches grew up in the "belgian school" of hard knocks, racing in the rain until they retired to the team car. Not Wakefield. He was a motocross kid. He lived for the dirt, the speed, and the mechanical side of things.
Then came 2001.
A massive crash on his MX bike basically ended his racing dreams. It was a "hit the reset button" moment. During his rehab, he hopped on a bicycle to get his fitness back. He ended up meeting Jeroen Swart, a name you might know if you follow sports science. They started chatting. They realized they had a similar vibe regarding performance.
That was the seed for Science to Sport, a performance lab that would eventually become legendary. Wakefield didn't just want to tell people to "ride harder." He wanted to know why they were riding. He became obsessed with the biomechanics of the bike—the "bike fit"—and how a few millimeters of seat adjustment could be the difference between a podium and a DNF.
Building the UAE Empire (And Tadej Pogačar)
If you follow the sport, you know UAE Team Emirates is currently the most dominant force in the peloton. But it wasn't always like that. Back in 2018, the team was sitting around 15th in the world rankings. They were struggling.
Wakefield was part of the crew brought in to fix the "skeleton" of the team. He served as the Performance Coordinator and a coach there for four seasons. He has been very open about those early days—brutal interviews, high-pressure testing sessions in the heat of Abu Dhabi, and the sheer volume of work it took to modernize a team that was stuck in the past.
"We won the tour in 2020 with Tad [Tadej Pogačar]... a little bit of fluke in fairness, but we still won it," Wakefield once mentioned in a raw interview.
It wasn't a fluke, though. It was the result of a massive shift toward "modern methodologies." He helped bridge the gap between old-school racing and new-school data. He coached some of the best in the world during that stretch, contributing to back-to-back Tour de France victories.
The Move to Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe
At the end of 2022, Wakefield made a move that surprised a few people. He left the UAE powerhouse to join Bora-Hansgrohe. Why? Because he’s a builder.
Now, as the Director of Development and a performance coach for the newly minted Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe, he’s in charge of the "Rookie Project." Basically, his job is to find the next Pogačar before anyone else does. He lives in Andorra now, a high-altitude playground for pro cyclists, and spends about 160 days a year in hotels.
It sounds glamorous, but it’s a grind. He’s managing U23 riders (the under-23 crowd) while still coaching WorldTour pros. He’s the guy making sure the integration between the "kids" and the "elites" is seamless.
What John Wakefield Actually Believes About Training
If you sit down and talk to him—or listen to his deep-dive podcasts—you’ll realize he doesn't like overcomplicating things. He’s big on a few specific pillars:
- Torque Training: He’s a massive advocate for high-torque, low-cadence work. It builds that "grind" strength that pros need to stay durable over a three-week race.
- Consistency Over Everything: He often says that if he coached today like he did six years ago, he’d be out of a job. The science moves fast. But the core—doing the work every single day—never changes.
- The "Pro" Definition: He has a pretty hilarious, albeit blunt, take on what a "pro" is. To him, if your parents or spouse are funding your racing and you can't support yourself, it’s an "expensive hobby," not a profession. Real pros have the recovery, the nutrition, and the pressure of a paycheck on the line.
- Bike Fitting is Biomechanics: Most people think a bike fit is just about comfort. Wakefield sees it as a mathematical equation to maximize power while minimizing injury.
Why This Matters to You
So, why should you care about a coach from South Africa living in Andorra? Because the stuff he’s testing on the world's best riders eventually trickles down to your local group ride.
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The focus on altitude training, the specific heat protocols he uses to raise hemoglobin mass, and the way he looks at durability (the ability to produce power after you’ve already burned 3,000 calories) is changing how everyone trains.
He’s one of the few guys at the top who is willing to share the "secret sauce." Through Science to Sport, he still puts out training plans and articles for amateurs. He doesn't gatekeep the knowledge.
Actionable Takeaways from the Wakefield Method
If you want to train like the riders John Wakefield manages, you don't need a $15,000 bike. You just need to change your approach:
- Prioritize Recovery: Wakefield’s biggest observation is that pros recover faster than you. If you try to copy a pro's 20-hour week, you’ll just burn out. Scale the intensity, but keep the structure.
- Invest in a Real Bike Fit: Before you buy deeper carbon wheels, get your position checked by someone who understands biomechanics, not just someone who uses a laser level.
- Don't Fear the Grind: Incorporate "torque" sessions—intervals at 50-60 RPM at a high power output. It builds the resilience needed for long climbs.
- Stay Simple: Don't get lost in "marginal gains" if you haven't mastered the "maximal gains" like sleep, hydration, and a consistent training schedule.
John Wakefield is a reminder that the best minds in sports often come from unconventional backgrounds. He didn't follow the script, and that's exactly why he’s currently leading one of the most exciting projects in professional cycling history.