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UPDATED: JP Cyclist Looking For Win in Mayor's Cup

Professional cyclist Amy McGuire will compete in the Mayor's Cup cycling race Sunday.

Amy McGuire has had plenty of opportunity to second guess her cycling career over the past five years.

Long, grueling hours on the bike. Little (or no) pay. And then, of course, there's life on the road. The 30-year-old Jamaica Plain resident has had her share of interesting experiences travelling the country to compete on the professional cycling circuit.

She was once pulled over while changing en route from a race in Chicago to another race in Milwaukee. She's spent nights at every kind of host housing you can imagine. Rooms filled with crucifixes. Rooms filled with Barbie Dolls, which she describes as "creepy -- all these little eyes watching you." She's slept in a too-short bunk-bed fitted with superhero sheets. She once stayed with a banjo playing family who practiced every night at nine.

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"For me, I want to be a bike racer and it's not a very lucrative sport," she said. "The money is not why I do it. I just love the sport."

Luckily, McGuire will have no such concerns during today's Mayor's Cup race in Boston. The race was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. at City Hall Plaza.

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"I want to win that race, it's my home race," she said. "[...] I'm definitely motivated to do the best I can. If I can get on the podium in Boston, my hometown race, that would be pretty sweet. It's definitely possible."

The fact that it's possible is kind of amazing. A career as a professional cyclist wasn't anywhere near the radar six years ago. McGuire played field hockey and earned her degree at Stanford. She had always admired cycling from afar, but was intimidated by the men's team at school. She competed in triathalons, and had some success (twice making the World Championships), but enjoyed the cycling aspect more than anything. Then she attended a cycling clinic in California held by Nicole Freedman, who runs the city's bike programs. Freedman, a 13-year pro and former Olympian, told her she had potential.

That was it. She was hooked.

"She had taken her education very seriously up to that point and was very determined to change the world with her education," said her mother, Patricia McGuire. "I was surprised she wanted to go pro in cycling in that respect, but she does everything 100 percent and totally enthuasiastically and seriously so I guess after thinking about it for a long time ... why wouldn't she? It's in her nature to do the highest level and the best she could."

She has yet to win a race, but finishes in the money more often than not and has a 19 top ten finishes to her name over the past five seasons, including a personal-best third place at the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic in 2007.

She's not exactly an imposing physical specimen, just barely 5-foot-4, but what she lacks in brawn she makes up in intelligence and toughness.

During races she's content to hang in the middle of the pack, letting bigger, stronger riders face the wind and tire themselves out. And when push comes to shove, she's as tough as they come. She once played an entire basketball season in high school with a broken elbow before she confessed that, yes, it hurt, and yes, she'd been lying about that the whole time.

That's not to say it's been easy for her. Since cycling isn't a very lucrative sport, McGuire has to support herself with other jobs as well. She worked at the Patagonia Store on Newbury Street last year, and just started some part time administrative office work with MIT.

"It's hard. A lot of times I'm like 'Oh my god my whole life is get up, train, eat, go to work, go to sleep.' When I step back and look at it, I'm like 'I'm working so that I can have money so that I can race.' Everything has a reason.

"When I'm on my bike everything is great. Once you get out and you're in the countryside riding around, life is pretty good. This is half of my job situation, to go ride around? This is pretty good. Not a lot of people get to be out in Sherborn at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday riding around. Again, perspective. I could be sitting in an office locked away or I could be out here."

There's no telling where cycling will take her next, but people are clearly taking notice. McGuire earned a grant from the Women's Sports Foundation last year. She's also started teaching clinics similar to the one that started her down this path. A full circle, as it were.

McGuire's minimum goal, is to be one of the best cyclists in America. But she'd love a crack at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

"I'm not surprised," Patricia McGuire said. "She sets the bar high for everything she takes on. She always has. It's an 'A' or nothing. It's not a surprise at all. She doesn't just wish for it, she works for it too. She's not afraid of working hard."

Hey, anything is possible.

[Editor's note: Amy McGuire finished 12th in the 2011 Mayor's Cup, according to CyclingNews.com.]

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