I have been working with Best Bike Split since 2014, and it has changed how I approach race preparation with my athletes in ways I did not fully anticipate when I started using it. I expected a pacing tool. What I got was something closer to a conversation starter, a way to have honest, data-backed discussions with athletes about what is actually possible on a given course under real conditions.
Here is how I use it and why it has become a meaningful part of how I coach.
Setting Realistic Race Goals With Physics-Based Pacing
The most valuable thing Best Bike Split does for my coaching relationships is remove the guesswork from goal-setting conversations. When an athlete tells me they want to go sub-9 at Leadville or race the sun at Unbound, I can load their current FTP, their bike setup, and the actual course file and get a physics-based prediction of what that effort looks like in practice.
Sometimes that conversation is encouraging. Sometimes it is humbling. Either way it is grounded in something real rather than aspiration.
Best Bike Split's physics engine models the forces acting on a rider, including aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance, gravity, and wind, for every segment of a course. It combines FTP, bike, real course data, and forecasted weather conditions to calculate the most efficient variable power output for a target finish time. What that means practically is that the goal time an athlete walks in with gets tested against the actual demands of their specific course, not a generic power-to-speed formula.
I can show an athlete exactly what power they need to sustain on every major climb and descent to hit their goal, and more importantly, whether that power is realistic given where their fitness actually sits. That conversation is worth more than any training plan I could write without it.
Does Bike Weight Actually Matter? What the Model Shows
This is the one that surprises athletes most. The assumption in cycling is that weight savings equal speed gains. Lighter bike, lighter wheels, lighter kit, faster rider. Best Bike Split tests that assumption, and the answer is more nuanced than most people expect.
Weight matters most on steep climbs. On flat or rolling terrain, aerodynamics and rolling resistance dominate. A rider who spends $2,000 on a lighter wheelset for a gravel race with limited climbing may see almost no return on that investment in their finishing time. The same rider who addresses their CdA with a better position or a more aerodynamic helmet might gain back significantly more time for far less money.
I have run this comparison for athletes preparing for Leadville specifically. The course has enough climbing that weight does matter there, more than it would at a flat race like Unbound 200. But even at Leadville, the difference between a 16-pound bike and an 18-pound bike is smaller than most athletes expect when you model it against their actual power profile over the full 105 miles. The time savings sound dramatic on paper and modest in practice.
Best Bike Split lets me show athletes this directly rather than just telling them. When an athlete can see the modeled time difference between their current setup and their dream setup, the conversation about where to invest their preparation budget gets a lot more productive.
Tire and Equipment Selection Using Course-Specific Modeling
Tire selection is where Best Bike Split has become genuinely useful beyond what I expected from a pacing tool. The platform models rolling resistance as a variable in the physics calculation, which means I can input different tire options and see the predicted time impact across a specific course.
For gravel racing, this matters enormously. The difference between a fast-rolling tire on smooth terrain and a slower but more durable tire on chunky or loose terrain shows up clearly in the model. And critically, the model accounts for surface type, so a tire that looks faster on a rolling resistance chart may not be faster on a course with significant rough terrain sections.
The conversation I have with athletes about tire selection is now much less about rolling resistance numbers in isolation and much more about what the course actually demands. A tire that saves two watts on smooth pavement but increases flat risk on sharp Kansas flint is not a fast tire for Unbound. Best Bike Split helps me make that argument with numbers rather than just experience.
Building a Race Strategy Around Terrain, Weather, and Aid Stations
The course-specific planning is where Best Bike Split earns its keep for long events. Rather than giving athletes a flat percentage of FTP to hold for the entire race, I can build a variable power plan that accounts for what the course is actually doing at each point in the race.
For terrain, this means athletes know in advance that they should be running higher power on gradual climbs and lower power on descents, and specifically how much higher and lower based on the course profile. The plan is not a guess. It is derived from the actual forces the rider will experience at each segment.
Weather integration adds another layer. Best Bike Split's model takes power data, course information, and race day conditions to predict race performance and create a precise power plan. Wind direction and speed affect the optimal power target segment by segment. An athlete who knows they will have a significant headwind for the first 40 miles and a tailwind on the return can plan their effort accordingly rather than discovering it mid-race and having to improvise.
Aid station placement is the strategic piece that often gets overlooked in race planning. For events like Leadville or Unbound, I use Best Bike Split to model what the athlete's predicted arrival time will be at each aid station checkpoint, and whether they are at risk of missing a cutoff.
How Best Bike Split Fits Into a Real Coaching Workflow
I use Best Bike Split at several points in the race preparation process, not just in the final weeks before an event.
Early in the season, it helps me calibrate goal-setting conversations. If an athlete's current FTP suggests their target time is realistic with normal progression, we proceed accordingly. If the model suggests the goal requires a significant fitness leap, that changes how we prioritize training blocks.
In the months leading up to a goal race, I run equipment comparisons when athletes are making purchasing decisions. Tire choice, wheel selection, and position changes all get modeled against the specific course rather than evaluated in the abstract.
In the final weeks before the race, I build the actual pacing plan, including the variable power targets for key segments, the aid station strategy, and the weather-adjusted approach if the forecast has come in. The athlete goes to the start line with a specific plan built for their fitness and their course, not a generic template.
Best Bike Split offers dedicated coaching subscriptions that allow coaches to create and manage athlete profiles, build race plans on their athletes' behalf, and share pacing strategies, all from one account. That workflow is straightforward and the ability to share plans directly with athletes has removed a lot of the friction that used to exist in translating race strategy into something actionable on race day.
The deeper value, though, is not the software. It is that the software gives me a common language to have better conversations with athletes about what preparation actually requires. The goal time is no longer just a number someone picked. It is a prediction derived from their actual fitness, their actual equipment, and the actual conditions of their race. That changes how athletes relate to their preparation and how seriously they take the details that matter.
That is the part I did not fully expect when I started using it, and the part I would not want to coach without now.
Dave Schell / Kaizen Endurance
Dave Schell is the Founder and Head Coach of Kaizen Endurance coaching based out of Boulder, Colorado, where he works with off-road cyclists of all abilities. Dave is the former director of coach education at TrainingPeaks where he traveled the world teaching coaches how to better use training software with their athletes.
Read more about Dave Schell at Kaizen Endurance.
