In 1992 Neil Shirley took a trip to Mammoth and saw his future. The 14 year old from San Luis Obispo, California had just bought his first mountain bike, and his dad took him to the Sierras to ride. After one day banging around the flinty 10,000-foot high trails, Shirley knew what he was going to do with his life. “I was absolutely hooked,” the affable 30-year-old professional road cyclist recalls. “Right away.”

Fast forward to 2003, when Shirley was assessing his options as a pro mountain biker in a sport that he says “was getting dismal in terms of money.” After three years of mountain bike racing, three California State Championships and a podium finish at the U.S. Mountain Bike Nationals, Shirley switched to the road full time.

Today Shirley lives in San Diego with his wife Cindy and their infant daughter Charlotte, while riding for the Georgia-based Jittery Joe’s Pro team.

In September of 2007, Shirley affirmed his switch to full-time road cycling when he leapt away from a tattered field of the world’s best U.S. pros at the 110-mile U.S. Pro Championships in South Carolina. The 5’10”, 155-pound rider finished third – just on the heels of Euro pro hard men George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer. Making a break with such venerable company  (Leipheimer placed third in last year’s Tour de France and Hincapie has completed 12 Tours) confirms both Shirley’s talent and his exceptional dedication to cycling.

Recalling the Hells Bells US Pro race in South Carolina where he placed 16th the year before, Shirley says simply: “When it’s lined out for five, five and a half hours like that… it makes for a hard day.”

Shirley thrives on races that grind riders off the back with hour after hour of relentless attacking. The more grueling and the hillier the better; races of attrition, as they are called in the pro trades.

In this year’s Tour de Georgia, Shirley took home the Most Aggressive Rider award for his performance in the infamous Brasstown Bald Mountain stage. Then at the June Philadelphia International, one of the toughest pro races on the U.S. cycling circuit, Shirley’s sweaty hands slipped off his bars after his fourth time up the Manayunk Wall in 96-degree heat – a brutish hill that kneecaps riders with 10 trips over a grade that hits 17 percent. Shirley hit the pavement and his chain ring opened up his shin. So, after getting back on his bike and racing for another 80 miles, Shirley peeled off and got his limb sewn up.

Perhaps because of the risks and monk-like deprivation inherent to a pro cyclist’s life, Shirley has a calm and gentle presence. His approachable nature lends itself to the cycling coaching business he started in 2007. He has 12 clients, 10 who race. Four of his students are Category 3 amateur riders on the same team, and Shirley councils them on both individual training programs and team tactics. He recalls giving the team advice on how to set up their sprinter at the end of races.

“I really enjoy coaching and working with other dedicated athletes,” he enthuses. And after the team executed his strategy at their next race, “It gave me goose bumps when I got the call that they won!”

Shirley feels young cyclists getting into the sport should “surround themselves with good people...” He knows that “there are no short cuts” to cycling excellence, whether as a top-level amateur or a pro. It’s a long slow grind. But if a young cyclist is both disciplined and close to people “who know what they are talking about... the improvements keep coming.” According to the fifth-year pro, the difference between riders who make the leap to the bigs and those who don’t is all about genetics and “the choices you make.”

For example, Shirley continues, “if you go out and buy a new car and then end up working 40 hours a week to pay for the things you buy,” that choice puts working for stuff above working toward becoming a better cyclist. And for Shirley, daily decisions like these distinguish the future pros from the “coulda-woulda-shouldas.”

The fact that Shirley parlayed a teenage trip to Mammoth into a pro career is striking in light of the fact that until he was 14, Shirley did not do competitive sports at all. Shirley’s parents divorced when he was 1, and until he moved into his dad’s house at age 14, his mother’s Jehovah’s Witness household precluded him from participating in organized sports.

Maybe it’s something about that early isolation from competition that now fuels Shirley to submit himself to 32-hour training weeks in preparation for each season. (He rides 15 hours during his easiest recovery weeks, and 18-22 hours a week during race season.) With a baby at home and a wife who is a full-time mom, Shirley is even more motivated to go farther with his cycling career because others depend on his salary. Shirley expresses a strong connection between what he’s paid to do and the wife and child who depend on his trade. “When I’m on the road and away from my family, I really need to take my time seriously. It’s really exciting in a way. I’ve always dreamed of making a living as a pro. Now it’s a dream come true.”

While Shirley does not include the Olympics on his goals for 2008 because the Beijing team will be made up of Pro Tour riders who race in Europe, moving up a step or two on the U.S. Road Championship podium is definitely on his list. He also wants to win a major pro stage race in the USA. In preparation for summer stage races in Utah and Colorado, Shirley is heading back to where it all started in Mammoth for a few weeks of altitude training. According to Shirley, the major benefit he gets out of altitude training is that “you can recover quicker” after hard efforts. And with the Colorado Stage Race going over the 11,542-foot high Hoosier Pass, among others, recovery is going to be essential to Shirley’s summer plans.