CALIFORNIA STATE GAMES : If It’s a Cycling Race, John Hays Is Probably in It : National Kilometer Champion Faces a Rather Hectic Weekend at Velodrome

When John Hays accepted the winning jersey as the national 1-kilometer cycling champion last year, the bearer was none other than a United Parcel Service delivery man . . . three months after the race.

“The jersey came UPS, no streamers, no ribbons, no announcers, no crowd, nothing else,” Hays said during a break in the opening day of cycling competition in the California State Games at the San Diego Velodrome. “It was delivered in a package.”

Hays is one of five national cycling team members who ride for KHS Suntour and reside in San Diego. Four of the five are entered in the inaugural games.

“It’s here,” he said, “and it’s good training.”

Thursday was Day 1 of what Hays, 23, describes as an unusually grueling race schedule.

“It’s a good program,” he said. “It has all the disciplines, but to be more competitive, it needs to be spread out more days.”

Hays is entered in four of five races offered--the 4,000-meter individual pursuit, 12 laps around the velodrome; the points race, 120 laps, sprinting every fifth lap; the kilometer, three laps; and the 4,000-meter team pursuit. The 200-meter sprint is the only race he bypassed.

In a national meet, a rider would race in one, possibly two events a day, according to Hays. On Thursday, he was entered in six races.

“It’s hard,” Hays said. “Everything’s so condensed. It takes a week at nationals to do what we did today.”

At last year’s nationals, for example, he was at the competition for a week before he even decided to enter the one-kilometer race, which he eventually won.

Indeed, he was discouraged by the fact that he finished third in the state meet held in Los Angeles.

“I wasn’t going to ride (the kilometer) in nationals,” Hays said. “I thought if I came in third in California, then there were one or two better guys than me in every state and I’d finish 50th or 100th or something.”

No such chance. The cyclists congregated in Tullytown, Pa., for the national meet a month later. Hays said he entered the kilometer race out of sheer boredom. His past kilometer times qualified him.

“I figured it was something to do,” he said. “People kept telling me to do it, and I finally said, ‘OK, OK,’ and it kind of paid off.”

Hays finished second.

“I thought, ‘Hey, it’s the silver, but I’ll take it.’ I was pretty happy with that,” he said.

But three months later, the rider who finished first tested positive for steroids, and Hays was declared the winner. Hays cracked his wrist in the points race, and he relished his kilometer finish.

Initially, Hays rode for fun and conditioning.

“My dad raced, and I picked it up in high school,” he said.

Three years ago, he won a race at the velodrome, and a competitive career had begun. He got his racing license and started on the bottom rung of race levels, as a 4, and worked his way up to level 2, one from the top.

He spent the next two years reaching the elite level.

“It’s a little bit harder to get from 2 to 1,” he said.

In his first state meet in 1986, Hays finished first in the points race and third in team pursuit but didn’t place in the national meet.

Although he won’t make the trip to Seoul for this summer’s Olympics, but he has 1992 in mind.

“If I can, I’ll hang on till ‘92,” he said. “I’ll be 28, and while young is nice, experience counts. I always figured it would take a couple years to get competitive. I could still use a couple of years to get in the door. Well, I’m in the door, but it’s a long way down the hall.”

Appropriately, his teammates call him “Barcelona Boy.”