Bajan cyclist signs with professional team

Josh Kelly is now the first Barbadian male cyclist to be signed to a professional domestic team.

Kelly has signed with the newly formed Miami Blazrs team based in California in the United States. Come August, the team will make a further transition to being a Pro Continental team. This will allow them to enter larger international competitions on the world tour.

For the 25-year-old, who won eight titles in the Barbados National Road Race and National Time Trials between 2013 and 2020, the transition to being a professional athlete is a dream come true. He describes his new team as “more like a brotherhood”.

“In any athlete’s career, I think the initial dream is always to go from amateur to pro. However, most of us don’t make it here for whatever reason but it’s a huge deal. Being professional is just a label to most people but for me, it is a mindset. I feel like I’ve been a professional in many areas of my life for several years now – in my training, my lifestyle, my diet, and just how I carry myself. The difference now is that I have a much bigger stage to showcase my professionalism. I have the spotlight that I’ve been working relentlessly for,” he said.

The 10-member team was formed in 2021 by Justin and Cory Williams with the other cyclists hailing from Venezuela, Anguilla, Guyana, Barbados and the USA. Kelly explained, “I met Justin in 2016 when we competed in the same race and I actually crashed quite hard with his brother Cory. We fell out of touch for a bit but then this year we raced again in the Dominican Republic. That renewed our friendship. I beat him and I think that was just what I needed to get my foot in the door. He and the others had this vision of creating a new professional team so he reached out to me with the idea and immediately I was interested. I guess I was just in the right place at the right time this year and sometimes that’s all you need to make it to the next level.”

The young cyclist added, “My long-term dream still is to represent Barbados at the Olympics in road cycling. In the short term, I’m really looking forward to the 2022 Commonwealth games and the 2022 Pan American championships. Also, I’m super excited to be racing the entire US pro circuit and fighting for some of the big titles with my new teammates as the new team on the block.”

Kelly, who credits his parents for his success, says he hopes his opportunity will inspire other Barbadian cyclists.

“I have a really young brother in the sport and kids like him need inspiration, they need heroes and I’d love to be that ray of light for the younger generation. Coming from an island where people only know about Cricket and Athletics on the world stage, I really hope this opportunity inspires and motivates others not to give up. As always, any opportunity I have for myself, I always try to keep the door open for others behind me because that’s how we grow. The more professional cyclists we have from Barbados, the better. If I’m able to contribute to that in any form or fashion, I’ll do it without hesitation,” he said.

Team training for the Miami Blazrs began in the first week of January, 2022. (G&A Communications)