On a fast track from cyclist to world champ coach

Newsroom

22-06-2025

Nicole Murray remembers the panic when she realised she'd forgotten her prosthetic before the 3000m individual pursuit qualifying ride at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
It was a mistake that could have mentally unravelled the Para cyclist before one of the biggest races in her career. But instead, the level-headed approach of her coach, Elyse Fraser, put Murray straight back on track.
'Elyse just laid it out: 'Here's our Plan A, here's Plan B; we'll just deal with it and move on'. And that was exactly what I needed. And it's exactly what I did,' says Murray, who went out and rode a personal best time on her way to winning the bronze medal (this time with her prosthetic hand retrieved from the athletes' village).
'With her life experience outside sport, Fraser has a great perspective on what is a terrible situation. Yes, it means a lot to us, but it's still sport at the end of the day. She's still so supportive, and she will do everything to help us win.'
A former police officer, Fraser took that day at the Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in her stride. Much like she has with her rapid rise in the world of high performance coaching.
Since joining Cycling New Zealand in 2023, through a Women in High Performance Sport residency experience as an endurance development coach, Fraser has been given unexpected opportunities as lead coach on two of sport's largest stages.
Soon after the Paralympics, she coached Bryony Botha and Ally Wollaston, who won four medals between them at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Denmark (including Wollaston's two world champion titles). Fraser had the full support of Cycling NZ's lead women's endurance coach, Paul Manning, who 'stepped back to thrust her forward to lead'.
'I've done so much personal development, courses and classroom learning, but then to get hands-on experience like this was incredible,' Fraser says.
A 'people person' in a highly technical sport, Fraser has brought her distinctive skillset of empathy, honesty and equanimity to cycling, and a broader understanding of the issues female athletes face.
Elyse Fraser took up cycling at 25 after a successful rowing career. Photo: Thomas Hamill Photography
Her story follows an extraordinary three-year path from a place in High Performance Sport NZ's Te Hāpaitanga coaching development programme, to a residency at Cycling NZ, then onto a fulltime role developing the next generation of high performance cyclists.
But it hasn't been without its personal challenges.
Fraser was a 'hyperactive kid' who played multiple sports, but her true passion was rowing. But after rowing for the NZ university team while studying psychology and PE at Otago, Fraser couldn't see herself taking the sport further, so at 25, she tried cycling – and made an immediate impression on the sport.
Making the national women's endurance track squad, she took a year's leave from her job with the Police to be part of the high performance programme in Cambridge. But it was a difficult time.
'I had big demands placed on me and I didn't feel I was well looked after,' says Fraser. After racing in Europe, she returned to Christchurch.
Then a promising young road rider approached Fraser to coach her. 'I was blindsided, because I'd never considered myself as a coach,' she says. 'But her story really aligned with mine.'
Encouraged by Fraser's partner, Andrew Williams – also a cycling coach – she took the challenge on. Other young female riders then approached Fraser, who built to a team of 12 athletes.
Cycling NZ invited her to a national training camp as a 'very junior assistant coach' – her first insight into the high performance coaching landscape.
Fraser was then invited to work with Richard Smith, who was running a pilot supporting sports organisations with early-stage coach development. There she met Amy Taylor, the interim high performance director at Cycling NZ.
'Amy gave me a lot of time, and I was able to safely share my story and goals with her,' Fraser says. 'She was very encouraging, pushing me in the right direction and putting opportunities in front of me. She was helping navigate Cycling NZ through a tumultuous time, and she was a pioneer for women in cycling, for coaching and leadership.
'I remember sitting with Amy at the top of the velodrome, looking down on the Cycling NZ pit and she asked, 'Do you actually see yourself there?' and I said 'No'.
'At the time, there were athletes and all-male coaching staff; there may have been a female physio. And I said: 'I really don't understand how a female can fit into this landscape and be accepted and supported along that journey'. That visibility piece was really missing.'
Amy put Fraser forward for Te Hāpaitanga Cohort 2, which started a 'fast-track series of events'.
Coaches Tessa Jenkins (left) and Elyse Fraser (centre) working at the Velodrome in Cambridge. Photo: Thomas Hamill Photography
At the first residential workshop, Fraser struggled to answer the question: What's your philosophy and your values?
Eighteen months later, she'd found the answers. 'I know who I am so much better now. My values guide what I do. Especially when things get tough, and I want to go into my passive mode,' she says.
'My first value is honesty. Another is being empathetic; being tough on issues but gentle on people. And then equanimity – being really balanced and trying not to let my emotions override things.'
Fraser also discovered the power of gaining a network of women coaches from multiple sports. 'The connection and the community you gain is indescribable,' she says.
'We had a full spectrum of experience in our cohort. There were a few women at my end, who were new to an HP or pre-HP landscape, and really finding our feet and our confidence. So having that support and those tough conversations was life changing.
'You really have to lean in. You don't know what you don't know, so you have to jump in with both feet.'
Fraser's mentor was Richard Smith. 'It was great as I already had a connection with him,' she says. 'We made gains quickly. We still meet for coffee, and I know I can always approach him.'
Two other cycling coaches have since joined the Te Hāpaitanga sisterhood – Rushlee Buchanan and Tessa Jenkins. 'We're building our own network directly for our cycling environment,' Fraser says.
When Fraser finished her Te Hāpaitanga programme mid-2022, she saw the residency experience advertised. 'I wanted learning in action experience on the ground,' she says.
With Cycling NZ's commitment to women coaching and wanting to give them the opportunity to work in an HP environment, it was a priority to support Fraser to keep her in the sport.
Fraser successfully secured a one-year residency at Cycling NZ's headquarters in Cambridge, but there were snags. 'My life and my job were still in Christchurch,' Fraser says. 'The Police gave me 18 months of unpaid leave, and my supportive partner said, 'Go! You can't lose this opportunity'.'
She'd worked through the apprehension of returning to Cycling NZ after her testing years there as an athlete.
'But I felt I could make an impact from the inside, rather than looking in and being frustrated. I was proud of what I'd achieved with the athletes I was coaching, and I thought I had something to offer more people,' she says. 'Cycling NZ was going through changes. And I felt ready, I'd done the work.'
In June 2023, Fraser became the Cycling NZ development endurance coach, for both male and female riders – a revolution for the sport.
'At that point we didn't have a pathway. There were high performance athletes at the top, then people doing their bit in the regions. I worked with Fionn Cullinane, the sprint development coach, and we took the HPSNZ framework and made it work for bike riders – developing athletes in the pre-HP space ready to shift into HP,' she says.
'As a cyclist, I'd stepped straight into high performance from rowing. If I'd had that middle ground where I could feel out the system and the system could get to understand me as well, I think it would have gone better for me. But it just didn't exist at the time.'
Then other opportunities arose.
Nicole Murray enjoyed working with a female cycling coach. Photo: Thomas Hamill Photography
Five months out from the 2024 Paralympics, Brendon Cameron – the lead Para cycling coach – asked Fraser if she would work with Murray, who was looking for additional support in coaching.
'Nicole wanted someone who understood the more human side – someone rich in empathy, who could deliver clear and concise information trackside,' Fraser says.
She worked in a coaching team with Murray's long-time coach, Damian Wiseman, who continued to write her training programme.
'I was leading the coach interaction space outside of that, and as a unit we sat down and fleshed out what it would look like and how it would play out. We got the communication to a really good place, and everyone was happy,' Fraser says. 'Nicole was amazing at the Games. She narrowed in on performance and was so professional.'
And Fraser was everything Murray needed from a coach at the Games. 'She was level-headed in the moments where I was panicking. She picked up on it, without us having to speak about it,' the Paris bronze medallist says.
'She has such great energy all the time. She bounces stuff off us and keeps us all in good spaces. She recognises what role to play for each person – she can easily be a friend, but she's not afraid to lay down the law.
'I've worked with a lot of coaches through my career and I enjoyed having a female coach. It's also about having a balanced workplace – everyone bringing different strengths. But it helps when you're working with a female coach – there's less that needs to be said.'
Four weeks later, Fraser was coaching New Zealand's two female riders at the world track championships.
Earlier that year, she'd spoken to Cycling NZ about the next step in her development, and they backed her bid to attend the pinnacle event. That's when lead women's endurance coach Paul Manning presented Fraser with a game-changing opportunity.
'I don't know if many other coaches would have done this, but he said, 'You're the coach, you're leading. I'll be in the background managing if you need me',' Fraser says.
Manning saw it as the ideal next step in her high performance journey. 'I took a step back and thrust her forward to lead. It was a fulfilment of her journey to that point and a good test at that level,' he says.
'It was a huge opportunity, but nothing to be afraid of. We talked about how she just needed to impose herself a little and own the trackside. She's done very well, and she's certainly crammed a lot in, in a short space of time'.
At the end of Fraser's year-long residency, Cycling NZ made her role permanent. And she's continued working with Helene Wilson, the Women in High Performance Sport lead.
'We know women are relational,' Wilson says. 'And if we don't keep those connections up, then we won't be successful at what we're doing. The learning that happens personally is just as powerful as the learning you get from being around other high performance coaches.'
The NZ endurance track coaching team. Photo: Thomas Hamill Photography
Fraser's new role entails developing athletes, coaching other coaches, 'supporting up' by helping the high performance coaches, and special projects, like the Paralympics opportunity.
'To do everything really well is a lot. And I set myself high standards,' she says. Surrounded by an all-male coaching team brings its own set of challenges, but there are positives, too.
'Female coaches have a different skillset, a different approach and a broader understanding of some of the issues affecting female athletes. The wider life stuff that's going on doesn't always come out with a male coach – opening up to a female coach can make a difference,' Fraser says.
In her personal development, Fraser has honed her leadership style, embracing 'courageous authenticity'.
'It's about stepping into your voice, your truth, having conversations that are meaningful to you. Not sitting back and saying nothing when things don't sit right with you. I'm now able to speak to people about what needs to happen,' she says.
'I'm more comfortable working in smaller groups, or one-on-one. I still have to learn to deliver to a whole team.
'But I've learned to be vulnerable and honest about how I'm finding things and the gaps I see. Cycling NZ as a whole is shifting. Sending me to worlds showed they're willing to invest in their people and make positive change for the future.'
One area Cycling NZ could continue exploring, Fraser says, is coach development. She's now pushing up-and-coming female coaches forward for opportunities like she's had.
She's now a mentor to Tessa Jenkins, who travelled with Fraser to development camps for young Kiwi riders in Malaysia and Melbourne.
'Elyse is awesome. She's super approachable, no matter how busy she is. But I think that's what makes her such a good coach – her ability to manage people and assess priorities,' says Jenkins, a school cycling coach encouraged to do Te Hāpaitanga by Fraser.
'Her experience and knowledge is really critical in helping the development of the young coaches. Attending world champs and planning the development of our riders is pretty inspiring – especially for females, because she's really the first female coach we've seen come through.
'She inspires me to keep seeing what's out there.'
This story originally appeared on the High Performance Sport New Zealand website and is published with permission