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Eddie B.
"Edward Borysewicz"
was born in North east old Polish
territory now known as White Russia (Belarus). As a young boy he was
very athletic and had a real talent for running. Even with
this talent his real love was cycling. He managed to get his
first racing bike with the help from his running coach and became a
full time cyclist. His coach disapproved of his complete
change to cycling from running but Eddie kept on and after a few
months with the help of other individuals he became a double Junior
National Champion.
Unfortunately in the following two years he had
to put his bike racing dreams on hold when he was obligated to serve
a mandatory two years in the military service. He had hoped
to serve this time in the military in the sport battalions. However
because his father had an anti-Communist status, he was restricted
by the Communist government from entering the Sport Battalions.
Instead he was ordered by the government to serve two years of hard military duty.
After his stint in the military was over he went back to
racing and became a member of the Polish National Road Team
and was the most promising rider in Poland.
His progress suffered a setback when a Physician at a routine exam misdiagnosed him
with tuberculosis and sent him to the hospital for an eight week stay. During his stay he was submitted to an aggressive
treatment program that left his liver damaged. Not until it was
realized he did not have Tuberculosis was he released from the
hospital.
Although he had
lost valuable time in his racing and his body was weakened from the
medical treatments, he still came back to the team
and won two national Championships. For his cycling
accomplishments he was awarded the highest sport award in Poland,
the "Special Champion in Sport award."
He was with the team for another two years. Even with his
successes during this time Eddie realized that due to the damage to
his body from the medical treatments he had received, he would
never be able to be a world class rider. He was just not the same
rider as he was before the treatments.
He then decided to pursue a career in coaching. In addition,
he decided at this time to further his education and went to the University of Warsaw
in order to complete a
masters degree in physical education, physical therapy, and coaching.
Throughout the next ten years he coached one of the best trade teams
in Poland and the Junior National Team. There, he developed
thirty National and World Champions. He also developed Olympic
Champions. The best of whom won a bronze and silver medals at
the 1976 Olympic Games for his country. That rider is now the minister of
sport in Poland. His name is Miczyslaw Nowicki.
In the later years of his coaching Eddie was
offered the position of coach for the National Seniors team twice
but turned it down. Instead he decided to take some time off
and travel in Canada and the United States. Shortly before his
scheduled flight back to Poland a chance visit to a New Jersey bicycle
shop put him in contact with the vice president of the USCF, Mike
Fraysee. This lead to an offer to head up the USCF as National
coach of the US National Team. Eddie accepted the offer and
immigrated to the United States.
During his twelve years coaching for the USCF his
riders won thirty World Championships, nine Olympic medals and
fifteen Pan-American Medals. The team also won all the events
in the 1983 Pan-American games in Venezuela. In 1988 he
left the USCF and with Tom Weisel created Subaru Montgomery
team. This later became the Montgomery Bell and is currently the US Postal
Service Team.
Throughout his coaching years he has developed
and coached some of the worlds best riders including Greg LeMond and
Lance Armstrong, the only American winners of the Tour de France.
He also coached other cycling greats such as Olympic medallists Steve
Hegg,
Alexi Grewal, Leonard Nitz, and Rebecca Twigg. In
addition to her two Olympic medals Rebecca Twigg also won six World
championships. Eddie holds the very firm belief that Rebecca
is the greatest woman cyclist of all time.
Since 1996 Eddie has been running training camps from his home in Ramona California and coaching privately and on the
Internet. He has also enjoyed working with Masters racers.
His clients have included National and World Masters medallists.
One of his clients included Vic Copeland who won many National and
World Masters championships.
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With his teammates (Eddie is at the far right)
Racing in Polland (Eddie is in the center)
With Steve Hegg at the 1984 Olympics
Greg LeMond and Eddie B.
Eric Zabel, Eddie B and Jan Ullrich at Eddies
house, thanksgiving 2001
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