For John Kelly, reaching the Olympics is more than a dream - it’s a goal and a plan. He intends to be champion of the United States National Individual Pursuit cycling event, to represent the U.S. in international track cycling races (including World Cups and Continental and World Championships), and to become a salaried rider on a professional team. In 2004, he aims to ride in Athens and bring home the gold.
At this time, he stands himself 1.5 years into a 4-year development period between now and the next Olympic selections. He proposes to ride at 4:32 by early summer 2004, currently riding at 4:44. To speed up his time, he will add event-specific workouts to his training and improve his overall physical and mental strength.
One concern is that selection to the Olympic Cycling Team hinges on a particular coach’s preference as much as on actual results, ranking or time standard. Kelly is also troubled by what he feels is a lack of U.S. Cycling Federation support of developing cyclists, and by the necessity of cyclists to commit so much time to road racing in order to earn money to sustain themselves and their Olympic dreams. U.S. Athletic Trust could relieve a lot of his burdens in that regard, paying for equipment, travel and entry fees, as well as basics such as food and rent.

“The juggling will lead me to focus on road racing in 2002, while progressively increasing my attention between now and 2004 to track-specific training to keep on my personal best schedule, and to comply with National Team Coaches’ competition wishes,” Kelly explained.
His versatility has gotten him through a few rough patches in the past, including the National Time Trials in Jackson, Miss., in May 2000. After having to repair his bike - twice - on the day before the race, he brought himself mentally up to speed to prepare for a race against the best of the best. For Kelly, measuring himself against other cyclists is always the toughest, and his goal at this particular race was to be in the top 10. Feeling all the time he was failing, he was astonished to learn he came in at first place. While that standing didn’t last the day, he did come out at fifth-place among all of the top-ranked pro cyclists.
“I was absolutely thrilled, but I was already thinking about how to be one of the Top 3 time trialists the next year,” Kelly admitted.
Some of Kelly’s other triumphs include a silver medal at the USA Cycling National Individual Pursuit in 2001 and in the USA Cycling National Team Pursuit. While a student at Princeton, he was nominated for teaching assistant of the year in physics, and hopes to someday be “the best possible high school and/or junior college physics teacher.”

May 24, 2000; Jackson, Mississippi; National Championship Time Trial.

I will be racing with my teammates in the amateur road race championship on the 27th, but I make the solo trip out to Jackson a few days early because I love the time trial. Jackson’s course is an out-and-back, relatively flat 40 km course. It’s open to the pros (all of whom are in town for the Olympic Trials road race), so a top ten finish will more than make me happy. I fly in Tuesday night; the race is on Thursday morning. In the first half-day I rescue my eyeglasses from a trip to Ft. Lauderdale (long story–I fell asleep on the plane with them in the seat next to me; the other guy in the row thought they were his; I searched the plane, then the airport, with my 20-200 vision, wondering how I’d get to a motel, much less race nationals, without them); find the cheapest motel in town (the room next to mine has boarded-up windows, but mine’s okay), sleep, eat, register, discover location of public library, find course, assemble bike. Things are back on track now, with plenty of time to do my day-before ride on the course, until I’m torquing down the final bolt on my bike’s aerobar extensions and I feel it give way. Stripped threads–irreparable. I think of any possible solutions before resigning myself to a sub-par performance. I rush to find a bike shop, can’t get a heli-coil or other jerry-rig solution, so I shell out for a new set of aerobars. Back to the course, set up the bike, but these bars are about 4 centimeters higher than my normal tt position. Back to the bike shop; exchange for another pair. Back to the course; on the bike; off on the recon, day-before ride. After dinner I find an even cheaper motel on the way back to Jackson, so I pull in there, shower, stretch, go mental over the imminent race, and sack out.

I wake up to the clement race-day weather and head straight to Cracker Barrel for a light, pre-race meal. I learned later that Cracker Barrel isn’t renowned for serving light, pre-race meals, but there weren’t many options in Jackson, MS. I eat my oatmeal and drive to the course. Get out the bike and gear. After the planned relaxing idle-time, my watch tells me it’s T-80 minutes: time to start spinning. I follow my warm-up regimen of easy riding, stretching, tempo riding, progressively more intense intervals, easy riding, stretching. My mental warm-up seems to follow automatically. I think that as I become a seasoned competitor at national-caliber races I’ll be able to race my best without the psychotic mental-emotional maelstrom that is building for this race. My warm-up complete and my start time just a few minutes away, I step into line behind the starting ramp.

At T-50 seconds I mount my bike on the starting ramp and mount myself on the bike. My countdown hits zero and I floor it out the opening stretch. I click-click-click through the gears and get up to 10-mile time-trial speed almost immediately. I don’t reflect on the fact that 10-mile speed on a 25-mile course will likely leave me at commuter speed halfway through the race. I feel fast and I love it; might as well set myself new standards. I ride the 55×12 and 55×11 all the way out the flat course–gears several steps larger than the ones that normally exist. I relax for a moment as I brake into the turnaround; I hear “One” from the timekeepers but figure that’s anything other than my halfway split compared to the rest of the riders that have gone. I sprint back up to speed and go after my two- and three-minute men. Before long I realize that I won’t be able to push the 55×11 on the way home–there’s no incline, but there is a slight wind now. It’s starting to hurt so I know that the important part is beginning. I checked my time at the turnaround and, I’m ashamed to admit, I think about whether I’ll beat the American women’s record holder, Mari Holden, this time. I remember hearing “52 minutes [something]” for her time as I was warming up. I figure out that I’m going to have to ride 6:30 per 5 km on the way back. As it turned out, 52-something was her record time, set on a course about 3 minutes faster than this one. I didn’t know that 52 minutes was a very respectable time for men on a course like Jackson. Anyway, 6:30 5k’s are incredibly difficult at this point, but I reckon I’ll kill myself to get to 15km-to-go and worry about the rest later. I hit the 15k-to-go mark spot on and relieved. Thirty seconds later I realize that I can’t relax–I can’t dig myself into a hole for the 10k-to-go. I hammer, hammer, hammer, with no 10k-to-go mark on the horizon and my watch advancing so relentlessly and uncooperatively. I alternately focus on the horizon and my time display; finally see the 10k mark and push hard to make it on schedule. Relieved. Repeat realization. But this is the penultimate 5k now. The pain is beyond-the-beyond, but I’ll make this one in 6:30 too or be damned. I have to keep myself on schedule until the 5k-to-go marker. You can do strange things when it comes down to the finish, so I’ll bury myself now and worry about that then. I don’t really care that much about beating Mari Holden, but this 5k-at-a-time trick is helping and I came all the way out to Mississippi, I’m riding fast, and I want to make the most of it. I hit the 5k-to-go 3 seconds behind schedule and start to lay it all out. Now we get markers every kilometer: 4k-to-go, 3k, only 2 bloody k! I don’t remember much of that. No more looking at the watch. 1k-to-go, 500m-to-go, 200m-to-go, 100m-to-go, a finishing chute like I’ve never seen before. Done. Time, 51:37. Current position: 1.

My ride stands at 1st for another half hour, then at 2nd for another hour as the rest of the amateurs and most of the pros have finished. Of the top-ranked pros, three more beat me, relegating me to fifth. I’m absolutely thrilled, but already I’m starting to think about how to be one of the top three time-trialists next year. I wait around for the awards presentation to get a snapshot for motivation. Once the stars-and-stripes jersey is pulled out and the stage prepared for the men’s awards the announcer begins his spiel and then announces “In fifth place, from the Kissena Cycling Team: John Kelly!” I’m a little dumbstruck-I didn’t know they award medals five-deep. I mount the podium, meet the other medallists, raise arms for the crowd/photographers, and head out with my unexpected hardware.