Kiel Reijnen
Kiel at the US Pro Challenge
Knowing the players makes big league sports so much fun…
Kiel Reijnen was a just another kid rolling over to Seward Park for Thursday night races a decade ago. These days you can see him light up the finishes at some of the biggest races, and it makes us here at Classic Cycle quite proud.
We would like to take all of the credit for Kiel Reijnen’s (pronounced like Keal Rye-nen) success, but we had nothing to do with it. Besides good genes, killer instinct and a strong work ethic, Kiel has been on some great teams. After his start on our shop club he went to the Broadmark (Hagens-Bermann) team, then a little club in Colorado sponsored by Waste Management. As a professional, Kiel rode for the Jelly-Belly sponsored team our friend Danny Van Haute runs, and then went to Team Type 1/Sanofis followed by three years with United Health Care.
King of the Mountain, not just a sprinter
Winning in Rwanda for Team Type 1
Kiel and Francis racing for Classic Cycle
Kiel is now in the big league. As a rider on the Trek Factory Racing team (just renamed Trek – Segafredo), Kiel will be racing more than just a few spring classics. 2016 starts with the Tour Down Under in Australia followed by Ruta del Sol in Spain, Paris-Nice, Milan-San Remo, possibly the Tour of Flanders and then the Ardennes Classics. Keep your fingers crossed, because Kiel will likely do a grand tour this year and we’re hoping for France instead of Spain.
What kind of steps does a bike racer take to get on a ProTour team you ask? In Kiel’s case it has been a steady progression over a decade and involves success all over the world.
First of all, we should get his shoes bronzed. Each year at the U.S. Pro cycling championships Kiel makes the race. While Kiel has yet to pull on the stars-and-stripes jersey of national champion, he has been able to grab the third step of the podium four times (and I think he was second one year at collegiate nationals). A little luck and Mr. consistent will take the win.
Over the past decade Kiel has made cycling news with big wins at the US Pro Challenge (the tour of Colorado), the Tour of Utah, the Philadelphia Classic, the Tour of the Gila, the Tour of Rwanda, the Tour of China, Thailand, Korea, Hainan and Qinghai Lake. Most people know Kiel is a decent sprinter, but would you believe that he won the climbers jersey at the 2015 Tour of Langkawi?
Kiel’s first racing bike, a Torelli
Reijnen’s team Madone
Trek’s time trial machine
With Kiel now calling Bainbridge Island his off-season home base, we get to have some neat bikes, jerseys and trophies to display. If you stop by the shop you can see the Trek/Segafredo team equipment (actually you can buy yourself a team replica if you want) or go old-school and sample some sport beans from his old sponsor, Jelly-Belly.