Team Coach - Luke Vrouwenvelder

Having raced through the Jr. and U23 ranks, Luke has now been competing as a professional since 2018. He has accumulated 6x National Championship titles, 16x National Championship Medals, and has been named to the U.S. National team for World Cups and World Championships for 7 consecutive years.
Outside of his own racing, Luke is a cycling coach for his business, lukeVcoaching.com. Excited to see others progress in the sport, he has tapped his racing knowledge and resources to bring training plans and guidance to others. Luke looks forward to helping with First Flight Devo and to bring racing opportunities to the athletes on the team!

Team Director - Stephen Cole

Stephen has been riding mountain bikes since the early 90’s, racing since the early 2000’s and involved with NICA/NCICL since it started in NC in 2016. He is the head coach for Smith Middle School team, an assistant coach for East Chapel Hill High School and a Level 3 NICA Coach.

Team Advisors

Gary Decker - Gary has been riding MTB’s since the 80’s. In the 80’s he had a MTB to train for BMX racing, and then started racing MTBs in the early 90’s. He has raced XC, Dual Slalom, DH, and Team Endurance events, mostly at the Sport/Cat.2 level. Gary has been an assistant coach with the Carolina Crushers NICA/NCICL since 2016. He has also coached soccer and wrestling at the middle and high school levels for many years. Coaching is very fulfilling to Gary and MTBing is his passion.
Don Rose - Don is an experienced youth coach and leader. He founded Team HammerCross, a cyclocross team, which has grown to be the largest youth cyclocross team in the Southeast. He also founded the East Chapel Hill MTB Team and serves as head coach. When he’s not riding, he spends summers teaching swimming and sailing at a boys camp in Tennessee.