Kiel Reijnen
Kiel at the US Pro Challenge
Knowing the players makes big league sports so much fun…
At one time, Kiel Reijnen was a just another kid rolling over to Seward Park for Thursday night races. Over the years the races that he entered got to be bigger and bigger, and it made us here at Classic Cycle quite proud.
We would like to take all of the credit for Kiel Reijnen’s (pronounced like Peal 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.
Kiel then went on to the big league. As a rider on the Trek Factory Racing team (which became Trek – Segafredo and then Lidl – Trek), Kiel raced more than just a few spring classics. Many years he started with the Tour Down Under in Australia followed by Ruta del Sol in Spain, Paris-Nice, Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and then the Ardennes Classics. There were some week-long stage races like the Dauphine and the Tour de Suisse, and for many racing seasons the year ended with the Tour of Spain and the World Championships.
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.
King of the Mountain, not just a sprinter
Winning in Rwanda for Team Type 1
A Bronze medal for Kiel at the Pro National Championship
Kiel wins at Seward Park, 2002
First of all, we should get his shoes bronzed. Each year at the U.S. Pro cycling championships Kiel made the race. While Kiel never managed to pull on the stars-and-stripes jersey of national champion, he was able to grab the third step of the podium four times (and I think he was second one year at collegiate nationals). With a little bit of luck Mr. consistent would have taken the win.
During the early years of his career 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 knew Kiel was a decent sprinter, but would you believe that he won the climbers jersey at the 2015 Tour of Langkawi?
Kiel’s first publicity photo
Kiel and Francis racing for Classic Cycle
Kiel Reijnen’s Trek Time Trial Bike
Kiel Reijnen’s Jelly Belly team jersey
Kiel Reijnen’s Team Type 1 Colnago
Kiel Reijnen’s Trek Madone
Kiel has finally called time on his cycling career. He’s now a fire fighter for the BIFD. That said, still 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 or go really old-school and sample some sport beans from his old sponsor, Jelly-Belly.