Cycling | Kirkland's Jennie Reed gets back on track

After a career spent racing a bike in circles, Kirkland's Jennie Reed feels like she's finally getting somewhere.

She is America's best sprinter, a 13-time national champion in track cycling, the unfamiliar cousin in the bike-racing family. People understand road racing (Lance Armstrong), mountain biking and even BMX (bicycle motocross) — which makes its Olympic debut in Beijing with Kirkland's Jill Kintner the lone female U.S. rider to qualify.

But few people know much about track cycling. Riders compete on fixed-gear bikes (one speed) with no brakes in a velodrome — an oval track with banked turns. Races come down to fractions of a second.

Reed, who attended Issaquah High, started her career at age 16 at the Marymoor Velodrome with a stunning debut. Her first race on a track was the 1994 U.S. junior nationals. She won titles in two events.

Soon, she was dominating the national scene. She won medals at international events. Reed, 30, took fifth in the 2004 world championship sprint event, good enough to hope for an Olympic medal in Athens. But she fizzled, placing 10th of 12 riders.

Thanks to a change in coaches and training, Reed sounds certain things will go better in Beijing. A year after nearly retiring because she felt she had maxed out her talent, Reed has discovered another gear.

Racing against riders she'll see at the Olympics, Reed won world championship bronze in the sprint (where cyclists race 1,000 meters in a head-to-head, elimination format), and she earned career-first gold in the keirin, where riders race in a pack. The coveted rainbow jersey, presented to world champions, resides at her dad's home in Bellevue.

"I think my chances are good [for an Olympic medal]," Reed said by phone from her home in Long Beach, Calif. The world championship finishes "definitely put me on the radar."

After Athens, Reed broke with the national cycling federation, discouraged because she wasn't improving. Cuts in the track program didn't help.

"I thought I had already reached my potential in the sport," she said. "I was consistently medaling in the keirin [not an Olympic event for women] at the World Cup level. My sprint level was just average. I didn't really see myself breaking into the top four at the time."

Then two twists of fate. One: Andy Sparks, coach and fiance of U.S. track rider Sarah Hammer, invited her to a camp to train in team pursuit, an endurance event.

"It's completely opposite of what I do," Reed said.

With different training and a team environment, Reed was stunned to find she got better as a sprinter. Her technique and speed improved.

"It kind of rejuvenated me," she said.

Two: Reed joined a new club, Momentum Cycling, funded by a local California doctor and real estate investor. Reed lives in a house with two other riders paid for by the sponsor. Sparks now coaches her in sprint racing.

Reed managed sprint bronze at worlds despite some bad luck. Fifty meters into the 200-meter qualifying round used for seeding purposes, Reed's right foot pulled off the pedal and was held in place by only a strap. Reed pedalled most of the race basically on one leg.

"In my head, I thought, 'Oh, this is over.' I was just dumbfounded," she said.

Yet she was faster than she thought, managing a ninth seed. She bumped off the No. 3 seed en route to her bronze behind defending world champion Victoria Pendleton, a Brit favored for Olympic gold. The training is paying off. She's going faster than she ever has, and finishing strong.

"Up to speed, I'm like a freight train," Reed said. "I'm not dying off."

Reed is more pumped than ever about Beijing. She has been able to prepare how she wanted for the Olympics. That's a change from 2004, when she trained with the national team at altitude in Colorado, which didn't work for Reed.

"I feel really fresh going into the Olympics," Reed said. "It's not like I'm holding on for dear life. Last time around, it was huge for me to qualify. I just never recovered properly after that. I went to the Olympics quite exhausted. I was really flat."

She also is skipping the Olympic Village for quieter living quarters at a local university the USOC has transformed into a temporary training center for the Games. Her racing career is on the right track, and Reed finally feels at home.

"This time it's awesome," Reed said, "because everything's on my terms."