Photo by Dave Wilson
Local bicycle racer Colin Joyce is one of the top competitors in the nation at his sport.

By Shelbie Harris, sharris@journalnet.com

POCATELLO — When family friend and fellow cyclist Sam Krieg started training bicycle racer Colin Joyce, then 14, of Pocatello, he called him a little puppy because of how hard he would push himself before passing out.

“But for some reason he would come back every time and that little puppy got bigger, faster and stronger until holy cow,” Krieg said.

Joyce, now 22 and cycling professionally for the Axeon Hagens Berman Cycling Team, recently finished in 16th of 190 cyclists at the Under 23 UCI World Road Race Championships in Doha, Qatar.

“To be at U23 World, he had to be selected by the same committee that selected the U.S. Olympic team,” Krieg said. “It’s not like mom and dad bought him a plane ticket and he got to go, it’s a pretty exclusive club.”

Joyce, who trains in Pocatello, is one of 16 riders on the Axeon Hagens Berman Cycling Team, which consists of cyclists between the ages of 19 and 22.

When Krieg says exclusive, he means it. It’s the same club that well-known racers like George Hincapie, Lance Armstrong and Greg LeMond would have been invited to race with.

“Off the bike he comes across amazingly shy, but not in a bad way,” Krieg said. “He’s quiet, confident and there’s not a lot of ego there.”

Now in his eighth season cycling for a living, Joyce participated in 50 to 60 race days this year alone.

He traveled to Europe for the first time at 16 and has cycled in over 15 different countries, including the Bahamas, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Ireland.

“I love the whole sport in general and everything that goes with it, from traveling to living an active lifestyle,” Joyce said. “But probably the main reason I love cycling is how much you can push your body.”

Joyce and Krieg started cycling locally, hitting routes up Crystal Summit, Scout Mountain and Pebble Creek.

“Literally there would be some rides that ended in complete fatigue and muscle failure that I would have to drive him home because he couldn’t function. Yet still the next Saturday he would show back up for another ride,” Krieg said. “Or even just around campus at Bartz Field, we used to call that the ‘hour of power’ and we’d go up the hill as hard as we could and recover the entire downhill and just repeat that for exactly 60 minutes.”

Joyce began competing in small events in Utah and Boise. He eventually found himself competing in national tournaments after signing with the Hot Tubes Development Cycling Team based out of the northeast.

“This nobody little kid from Pocatello turned heads after winning the time trial in his first nationals in Bend, Oregon,” Krieg said. “Some people probably thought he cheated because it just didn’t seem possible. I think that was the catalyst that started this domino effect of him getting on some really good developmental teams.”

During a training in California in January, Joyce and his teammates had a guy run onto the road waving his arms and shouting, trying to psyche the riders out.

“We were kind of pissed at the guy at first,” Joyce said. “But I was at the back of the group so I was able to look at the person and I realized it was Justin Bieber so I yelled ahead to have the guys flip around.”

Tweeted photos and an Instagram video followed, which eventually led to headlines from TMZ.

After realizing he wasn’t very good at soccer, basketball or snowboarding, who would have guessed a blind-date with a bicycle would lead to this?

“Cycling has changed my life 100 percent,” Joyce said. “Growing up I thought it would be awesome to be a professional athlete. And now it’s my life.”