That would be my take on it, but as I said I'm outdated and new ways may have somehow let racers get around the need for a coach. I do dip my toe in the scene and I notice today's "arms race" in money being shelled out for bikes and bike stuff. I see whitecollar folk involved. I would think that the first thing I'd do if I had an interest and some cash would be to make sure that my team had a good coach.

Teaching skill is different from race experience, of course, so what makes a good coach is a whole other subject.

I recall recently reading some industry dude old pro who said something like it's still only one in ten teams have a coach.

I used to race on 2 teams with coaches. (All hail Mike Walden.) They didn't cost much, but were priceless (I don't even recall dues being anything more than negligible). And we certainly mopped up thanks to them. The teams without a coach definitely floundered significantly in various ways despite otherwise being similar or superior to us. We also rode in very bland terrain but that never held us back (we did enjoy low traffic...altho the main group in Detroit had a whole lotta bad to contend with).

But today might be another day...