Columbia High School senior Haylee Johnson competing in Virginia’s Blue Ridge GO Cross this past season (photo provided).
The East Greenbush Central School District is filled with talented students, who not only work hard and achieve in their academics, but excel in extracurricular activities outside of school. One such student is Haylee Johnson ’24 who is a competitive cyclist.
Johnson has her sights set on a national championship this season after finishing 5th in 2021, 3rd in 2022 and 2nd in 2023. Her 2024 road racing season begins February 16 in California.
We sat down with her recently to discuss her career in cycling and her goals for the future.
Q: How did you get into competitive cycling?
A: I actually was a ski racer for quite a bit of time and then my ski coach told me to hop on a bike and get some offseason training in. I started doing group rides out of his shop in Valatie and it kind of took off.
Q: When did you begin racing competitively?
A: I started racing when I was 12 and then I competed in my first national championship in 2021.
When I’m not doing road (racing), I race cycle cross. And I had nationals for cycle cross December 11th and I was 4th there.
The seasons are opposite of each other so I can kind of do both, but I’m going into college next year so I’m going to focus a little more on road.
Haylee Johnson, in foreground, at the starting line (photo provided).
Q: What is the season schedule like?
A: There are competitions throughout the season. With cross, there is much more of a build to nationals. There’s a big series called the USCX Series and every race in that series is getting you points so that you can have a better starting position when you go to nationals.
Whereas with road racing, there’s big races every single weekend and you just select which ones you want to go to. And instead of a 1-day or 2-day event, they are usually three or four days of racing and much longer stages.
Q: How many participants qualify for and compete in the national championships for road and cycle cross?
A: Maybe 20 or 30. More for road this year because they combined junior and pro nationals.
Q: How are the races categorized? Is it done by age?
A: For cross, every race I did was by age. 17-18 girls race together through the whole season and at nationals. For road, every other race except nationals, there’s no age restrictions. You just race against whoever shows up. For nationals it’s done by age.
Haylee Johnson racing cycle cross (photo provided).
Q: Where do you compete in these events?
A: I have traveled quite a bit. I’ve been all over the country but mostly travel along the East Coast. As far as international travel goes I’ve been to Belgium, the Netherlands, and I went to Spain last year with the national team.
Q: How frequently do you ride when you’re in season?
A: I train six days a week, with about 3 hours on the bike and another hour in the gym doing plyometrics or weight lifting each day. I dedicate the day off to recovery activities like stretching.
Q: What are your goals going forward?
A: I really want to see myself win road nationals this year, I want to go to the world championships this year, and get on the national team.
I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out with balancing cycling and college but I would love to see myself go to the Olympics. I really am passionate about it.
Q: Is that a reasonable expectation that you could do that?
A: I think so.
Q: What are your plans for after graduating from Columbia?
A: I applied early decision to Endicott and got accepted there. I’m going to be studying exercise science to pre-professional athletic training. They have an accelerated program there that I got accepted into.
Haylee Johnson on the podium after winning the 2023 Lime Rock Cycling Grand Prix (photo provided).
Q: What is your favorite part of racing?
A: The people, the places I get to see. I meet a lot of cool people.
Q: Do you still ski?
A: I do.
Q: Which one do you like better, skiing or cycling?
A: Cycling, yeah. I mean skiing is fun. It’s a good way to clear the head, get away from the bike if I need it.
Q: Are the Olympics your ultimate goal or is there something else out there?
A: I haven’t put a lot of thought into the Olympics, it’s just kind of there in my mind. I’m still young and I have a lot of time so I’m really focusing on getting myself to the world championships, doing really well at nationals, and just being competitive in these bigger races that I’m going to this year that I haven’t had the opportunity to in the past. And then I’ll have to see about the Olympics after my first year in college. But yeah, it’s a dream.