One of Colorado’s best cyclists left the pro scene — and got better
Former LifeTime Grand Prix cyclist John Keller has devoted himself to chasing Strava segments on all of Boulder's iconic climbs
John Keller is one of cycling-crazed Boulder’s best bikers. Want proof?
Well, for starters, the 27-year-old’s name sits atop some 502 different Strava segments as of this writing. While some of those are short, in-route connections between random roads, he also holds the ‘King of the Mountain’ title for almost every prominent climb in Boulder, where many of the country’s top cyclists and triathletes live, train and fight for online fitness bragging rights.
After starting his road-racing career in 2018 at the CU Cycling Team, Keller rose to prominence with a third-place finish at Big Sugar in 2021. That led to his selection to the LifeTime Grand Prix — the most competitive and lucrative gravel cycling circuit in the U.S. He won two Rad Dirt Fest events, soloing the last 90 miles in the 2022 rendition en route to a 22-minute win. Ultimately, however, leaving his job to travel the country and race against the likes of Keegan Swenson and Howard Grotts wasn’t the life Keller envisioned.
“I got burned out,” he said.
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It’s a peculiar statement in this day and age. In a wave similar to Jim Fixx’s jogging craze of the ’70s, the pandemic-fueled gravel boom swept off-road bikes off the shelves faster than Nikola Jokić jerseys at the Nuggets pro shop. And yet, right at its peak, Keller walked away from the professional scene.
Even with sponsor-provided gear, financially breaking even proved to be a challenging baseline goal. Plus, being under the watchful eye of a coach, following a finely-tuned training program, wasn’t appetizing. He craved all-day adventures, riding whenever he wanted, wherever he wanted — especially from his door.
“Being in Boulder — the riding is so good,” he said. “It’s hard to burn a weekend to go to some other random place and do one ride.”
Finally, Keller found the thrill of head-to-head competition unnecessary. He turned to Strava, the social media mecca where fitness geeks scroll through their feeds, judging and comparing workouts like jealous teenage girls on Instagram.
“My whole race was just against myself,” he said.
For Keller, it was a life-giving mentality shift. Since he left the professional pressures behind, the computer software developer has rekindled his love for riding — and re-established new norms.
“As soon as I stopped racing, all my numbers skyrocketed,” said Keller, who has dropped his weekly training load from 20-plus hours to around 12.
“(I) definitely have another whole life outside of cycling,” he continued. “Having the normal structure of life is really beneficial for me, athletically.”
His girlfriend, Fiona Winder, agrees.
“I think it’s kind of funny because we only started going out after he finished racing LifeTime. So, he was more willing to do things outside of cycling,” she said. “Like, ‘hey let’s go hangout around town’ or whatever. And if we want to go on a bike ride together, it’s like no big deal and we cruise around town.”
The pair met two years ago, working together on different teams within the same company. Winder was a competitive cyclist back in the day, too, so it’s not as if she doesn’t understand the world they both left behind.
“It’s a good fit because I feel like we had both just changed our goals away from the competitive side of it,” she said.
It’s not as if Keller doesn’t show up to race every once in awhile, either. Earlier this month, he placed third overall in the elite road time trial at the GoPro Mountain Games, despite missing two months of training to recover from an injury. He rode the Vail Pass climb on a standard road bike instead of an aerodynamic time-trial machine
“He can just hop on the bike and get back into it,” Winder said.
When asked why he decided to come to Vail, Keller shyly responded, “I don’t know. I guess something to do.”
He also set the Pikes Peak Highway course-record last year, winning the 12.4-mile Cycle to the Summit, which climbs just under 5,000 feet to the top of the iconic 14er in 1 hour, 8 minutes, 5 seconds.
Keller is not the first person to apply a world-class aerobic engine and rare strength-to-weight ratio to KOM-chasing on Strava. Former World Tour rider Phil Gaimon has made a career out of it. The Los Angeles-based cyclist is a two-time world hillclimb champion whose Youtube page — which has 128,000 subscribers — chronicles “the worst retirement ever,” a perpetual chase for absurd ascents from Mauna Kea to Pikes Peak.
But Keller isn’t in it for money. He already knows how cutthroat the financial side of biking can be.
“There’s even still this image where if you get into these races, do OK, sponsor money just starts flowing in,” he said. “Even when I was racing during the COVID boom, I wasn’t really getting much besides just equipment.”
Still, Keller might be better at Gaimon’s game than Gaimon. The Boulder cyclist beat Gaimon’s Pikes Peak ascent time, which he set last year, and is also in front of Gaimon the ‘Las Flores’ climb, the steepest in Los Angeles.
These days, he rides by himself or with former pro Matt Cooke. When asked what his favorite local routes are, Keller’s eyes light up. After a 17-minute interview consisting mostly of short, calculated and soft-spoken answers, the shy hill-climb specialist’s voice finally flows.
“Boulder is great because there’s all these hidden dirt climbs,” he said before listing off Logan Mill Road, a route from Sunshine Canyon to Gold Hill and a third selection which, even just being described audibly could convince a normal biker to take a nap. But Keller isn’t normal.
“To just get back on and still be almost where he was last year – it’s amazing,” Winder said of her boyfriend’s genetic gifts.
In terms of where he’s headed, Keller doesn’t have a singular bucket-list goal. Presently, he’s eyeing a huge climb from sea-level to 11,000 feet in Taiwan. Given his talent (and unique stewardship of it) it’s hard imagining a point in Keller’s life when he won’t be chasing something.
“I don’t think it’s reality,” he stated while admitting his competitive streak is still alive and well.
“I struggled with it this year of like, OK, I have one or two more KOMs (to get) in Boulder,” Keller continued before a long pause. “And then what?”