Sinead Miller is used to going to great lengths to find competition. This usually means making weekly trips to Philadelphia or Washington D.C., where there are a greater number of cycling events, and even competing where she is the lone female in a field of 40-50 men.

Earlier this month, for once, competition from all the country came to her. Seven Springs, just a little over an hour from her South Park township home, played host to the Junior Road Nationals competition, where Miller, 17, took home one of each medal and qualified for the world competition.

The traveling will start back up soon as Miller heads to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado. She will train at 6,000 feet of altitude to try to replicate the conditions at the world competition in Aguascalientes, Mexico, with its elevation of 6,700 feet. Only three cyclists from the United States qualify for the world competition. This was the first year Miller was old enough to qualify.

Miller had to sweat it out at nationals after second- and third-place finishes in the road race and time trial, her first two events. She finally punched her ticket to Mexico on the last day at Seven Springs with a sprint finish to win the national title in the women's 17-18 criterium.

"The criterium was my favorite event because it's all flat and shorter than a road race and a lot faster. It usually has four 90-degree turns and you have to be a good sprinter to win the race," Miller said.

In Mexico she will compete in the time trial on August 9 and in the road race August 12. The United States are one of the only countries not to pay for its athletes to compete in international events. Miller gets financial help from two corporate sponsors.

A former cross country runner and competitive swimmer, Miller originally started racing BMX bikes when she was five. She only got into road cycling to help her cross train for BMX but started enjoying cycling more.

"I had to quit both of my school sports last year because cross country started to injure my knees and swimming took most of my time with the three-hour practices after school, I had no time to ride my bike," Miller said. "I knew it was always going to be cycling for me."

Miller described the course at Seven Springs as the toughest she has competed on and she can expect the courses in Mexico to be just as brutal in mountainous region of Aguascalientes. Courses tend to get tougher the more important the event is and this is the biggest of the year.

Miller, who will be a senior at South Park High School, has been going to nationals since she was 10. She turned in her best performance of all at Seven Springs this year.

"You get smarter and you learn how to train better and hard every year. I am definitely getting stronger," Miller said.

A typical training week for her is putting in 20 hours on her bike going around town. During the winter is usually the only time she uses a stationary bike indoors.

Finding races around Western Pennsylvanian has been difficult, and she has taken to racing against men.

"They used to just protest me being in the race and they didn't really want me to compete against them.

"They are starting to get used to me," Miller said.