Rob Kelly is an amateur bike racer and podcaster in Washington, D.C. He started bike racing in 2001 after a long “career” as a “professional” swimmer, earning $100.00 per week at his peak. In the past 20 years he’s raced, ridden, and trained all over the United States, often chasing an elusive dream that seems to only be fulfilled by participating in sport.

Rob started this podcast in March 2019 as a means of helping to promote racing on the East Coast, and to tell the story of those athletes at the top of the American bike racing community. Combining his training as a litigator, passion for athletics, along with healthy appreciation for the uniqueness of the individual story, Criterium Nation was born.

You can reach Rob at criteriumnation@gmail.com or on Instagram @criteriumnation

What Is this Podcast All About

Somewhere in between the World Tour Pro and the person buying their first bike, lies the vast majority of us. The people who love bike racing, who probably spend way too much time talking about it, and wish they could spend more time doing it. This podcast was created for this community.

So much of our sport is about personality and community. Rides, races, and events serve as great excuses for us to get together and share experiences and suffering; thus, fostering this culture we all love and need. With this podcast I hope to create a new venue for telling that story.

Criterium Nation is about what happens when you jump into the deep end of the sport, completely immerse yourself in the community, and do so fully aware that you may not come out on the other side quite the same way. Here we explore the issues and realities facing the American bike racing scene. This includes the thorny issues of not enough revenue in racing, equality in opportunity, and creating inclusion for all communities. The goal is to go beyond race results to get to the “why” and the “how,” and to ultimately celebrate the us.