First-year Head Coach James Povolny (front left), who competed for the Flames from 2023-25, trains alongside his team during practices to lead by example.
Povolny raising training bar for cycling team, targeting experienced recruits
11/3/2026 12:13:00 PM | Cycling
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The 2025 graduate who competed in both mountain and road cycling for the Flames for three seasons returns with a vision for a faster future.
Former Liberty University men's cyclist James Povolny shifted gears this past summer, taking the men's and women's cycling head coaching reins from Timo Budarz, a mathematics and physics professor who now serves as his assistant coach.
Povolny was mentored by Budarz throughout his three-year career with the Flames while completing his B.S. in Exercise Science.
"Timo taught me a lot, and I definitely plan to use a lot of what he taught me to coach up the team," Povolny said. "I am glad to still have him around and have his wisdom to pour into the team."
After graduating from Liberty in May 2025, he worked as a CrossFit coach in his hometown of Apple Valley, Minn., and started Horsepower Development to serve as an online fitness training coach. Given the opportunity, he re-enrolled at Liberty this fall to pursue his M.S. in Human Performance: Strength Training & Conditioning while working to revitalize the cycling program into a formidable force in the Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference. Povolny, who is looking to turn professional in mountain bike racing, accelerated his coaching career through his B.S. in Exercise Science at Liberty, where he is currently pursuing an M.S. in Human Performance: Strength Training & Conditioning.
"I'm back to bring that expertise to make Liberty the strongest cycling team in the East," Povolny said on the Liberty cycling team's Instagram account at the announcement of his hiring. "I'm so excited to glorify God through racing bicycles."
"I've been really enjoying it," Povolny added in September. "It feels like I never left. To be back, it's like being back home. Our whole team has had really great chemistry so far."
He has grown closer to the riders by training with the team while offering his expertise as he pursues a career in professional mountain bike racing.
"I am super confident in my ability to coach the team with the experience I've gotten in the real world over the last year and by furthering my education," Povolny said.
The Flames and Lady Flames are currently transitioning from the fall mountain biking schedule during which three men's team members and the lone woman competed in a series of races culminating with the Sept. 26-27 ACCC Championships. That event, hosted by Brevard College at Ride Rock Creek Bike Park in Zirconia, N.C., site of the USA Cycling Collegiate National Championships in 2024, featured a 60-minute cross country loop course on Sept. 26 during which riders raced approximately 16 miles and a 30-minute short track race on Sept. 27.
"We had our guys race in the Category 3-4 race, and they did really well," Povolny said, noting seniors Trevor Lee (second), who is from Brevard, N.C., and Leif Henriksen (fourth) both landed on the podium and sophomore Jack Armstrong competed well despite being slowed by sickness. "(Armstrong) was right up there with them."
Anna Buzby and Samantha Allison
The Lady Flames' lone fall competitor, junior Anna Buzby — who joined the team for the spring road racing season after competing for three semesters on Liberty's NCAA Track & Field team — was sidetracked by mechanical issues in both of her Category 1-3 races.
"She shocked us all (at her first mountain bike race in September), placing just outside of the top 10 out of 50 girls in Category 1-3," Povolny said, noting that before her mechanical problems at the conference race Buzby wasn't far behind the Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design (SCAD) rider that went on to win the national championship in Colorado.
Buzby previously won two New Jersey high school state championships in mountain biking and made a smooth transition to road racing.
"Anna's experience on the track team has helped her with her road and mountain bike racing," Povolny said. "She is showing a lot of potential, especially last spring for the road season, when she won every race she competed in at Category 4-5. She is looking to have a good spring season and is already up to a Category 3 — which is pretty unheard of after one season — and has a chance to upgrade to Category 2."
A second female cyclist, sophomore Samantha Allison, is a bit less experienced than Buzby, but did enjoy some success on her high school cycling team. She has battled health issues this semester but is hopeful for a return for the spring road racing season.
Having built a base of 10-12 cyclists on this year's team, Polvony is actively recruiting at Junior races, such as last month's High School Regional Championship near Blacksburg, Va., and hopes to add a few more team members over Winter Break.
"We're in a rebuilding phase, but we have a few people lined up to try out for the team leading up to the spring season, when we are looking at having the biggest roster that we've ever had," Povolny said. "Our focus in recruiting is to bring in athletes who are already well versed in cycling. In the past, we have had athletes join the team who do it for a hobby. We are hoping to have athletes enroll at Liberty so they can race on our cycling team."
Tryouts in late August and early September reaped a handful of new riders including senior Caleb Wilson and sophomore Isaac Wilson, brothers who opted to specialize in cycling after beginning their careers at Liberty on the Flames' triathlon team.
"We are excited to see how they'll do," Povolny said. "We have a really strong team this year."
Povolny is accumulating new tools and parts for repairing the team's bikes as well as adding more to the fleet and making upgrades to the team's trailer.
"Our budget will be pretty tight, but it is on our radar and part of our goal for next year to have a larger inventory of team bikes," he said.
Besides Budarz, Todd Glasgow, the team's designated driver to away races, will play a key role in the spring season, as he has in the fall.
"He has helped us out quite a bit," Povolny said. "He definitely has a passion for the team."
On a personal training level, Povolny has developed individualized plans to help bring his cyclists to the next level in their conditioning and riding technique. The team now occupies a new studio in the Liberty Club Sports Complex, equipped with some stationary bikes and spinning machines as well as an area for storing riders' road and mountain bikes.
"We also have access to the whole strength and conditioning space, which is a bonus," Povolny said.
He recently signed his athletes up for workout sessions with Club Sports Director of Sports Performance Jared Lovelace and new Club Sports Assistant Athletic Trainer Emma Maslich, who also works with Liberty's Division I women's hockey team. Team members have also been receiving tips from a dietitian at the Club Sports Athletic Training Center.
"These are resources we haven't used in the past, and we are trying to use them to the best of our ability now to see how strong we can become," Povolny said, noting the team is still maximizing the favorable fall weather conditions to train outdoors as it shifts to off-season development. Caleb Wilson (from left), Jude Borchers, Jack Armstrong, Isaac Wilson, and Nathan Child support teammate Leif Henriksen.
Povolny has structured the team's training to prepare them for the ACCC road racing season that kicks off the first weekend in March. He led team members on early-semester mountain bike training rides on trails at Candlers Mountain as well as Peaks View Park and New London Tech. Road rides have taken the team beyond Candlers Mountain and all around Lynchburg, with Saturdays reserved for three-to-five-hour out-and-back trips to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
"The road season is a lot busier for us, and we are definitely looking forward to it," Povolny said, noting the team will travel to five ACCC races (to be finalized in December) and compete in the April 9-11 Tour of Newport News — one of the biggest road races in Virginia.
ACCC race weekends include road races of 60-70 miles for Category 1-3 riders, 50 miles for Category 4 and 40 miles for Category 5 on Saturdays followed by Criterium races of an hour in length for Category 1-3, 45 minutes for Categories 3-4, and 30- minutes for Category 5.
"Our biggest focus for rest of this year is building a base, putting in long and easy hours," Povolny said. "As we get closer to the season, we'll shift to more of a race-intensity style of training. I am looking at having strength training time blocks set up for us in the Club Sports Complex, leading up to the 2027 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships," open only to Category 1-3 riders from May 6-9 in Grand Junction, Colo.
