Bio

I still remember the first time I learned how to ride a bike. My first bicycle was pink with streamers and a banana seat covered in flowers. My mom was running behind me, holding on to the back of the banana seat and I kept watching our shadow because I wanted her to let go. That image of her hand leaving the back of my banana seat is as vivid now as it was when I was 6 years old. When I was 12 I wanted to buy my first 10 speed bike at the local KMart. My mom was a single mother of four kids and I was the oldest with far too many responsibilities for someone that age, but I’m not complaining; I have a hard work ethic and am very independent as a result. She agreed to pay for half the cost of the bike if I earned the other half. I spent all summer mowing lawns for $5.00 each and saved the money I needed. I still remember the day I rode that 10 speed home from that KMart.

All through middle school and high school I dabbled in sports, although I never felt like I was good at any of them, but I knew I wanted to be an athlete. I played tennis, softball, soccer & basketball. During college, I started to really enjoy camping and hiking a lot through the majestic beauty of Southern Utah. I joined the ‘Outdoor/Rec club’ at the university which had quickly dissolved into the Mountain Biking club. I didn’t have a mountain bike, but that didn’t stop me from ‘asking’ to borrow one from a guy friend of mine. That was it. I had found my ‘sport’ and fallen head over heels in love with the bicycle. My poor roommates soon found themselves playing nurse-maid to my bruised and bleeding body after coming home every weekend from playing in that glorious red single-track dirt. Two years later I was the president of the Mountain Biking club and had earned the nickname ‘biker chic’. My summer before my senior year of college I finally decided to cross that ‘line’ and I purchased my first road bike. Unfortunately, I had to ride incognito so my mountain biking buddies wouldn’t grow suspicious of me turning….to the dark side! Mountain biking is a religion in Southern Utah, but after I did my first road race, I realized that I loved the sport of road racing while I enjoyed the fun, thrills and camaraderie of mountain biking. After I graduated college I knew what it was I wanted to do – race my bicycle. Unfortunately, my first year or so of road riding and attempting to race were plagued with lots of illness and chronic fatigue. The closest thing whatever I had resembled was some sort of auto-immune problem where my body decided to attack itself and I had the most bizarre, yet very debilitating health problems one right after the other. Whatever it was, I had to be patient, treat the symptoms and wait….until I could ride a bike again. Finally, I started to feel like I had enough energy to ride a few miles and within a few months I was knee deep into building base during the winter. I was ready to chase my dream again!! I went from a Cat 4 to a Cat 2 in 12 months and decided to come to Northern California where I had learned that this was the place to race, as the area has the longest and richest history of racing and the caliber of racing is the highest in the country. In 2010 I started racing in the Pro/1/2 category.  Additionally, I felt really fortunate to earn a spot on the top women’s team in Northern California, Touchstone Climbing Elite Women’s Cycling Team, and have been working as a domestique for the 2010 and 2011 seasons.  It takes a long time to develop as a cyclist and am looking forward to seeing where my journey leads on the road and feel really fortunate to have met and to be able to race with some of the most amazing women bike racers. As much as I love the bike, I am also a passionate advocate of the sport of bicycle racing. I’m heavily involved in the cycling community in Northern California and in campaigning for the Sacramento Valley Velodrome Association project. I am also a USAC Certified coach and hold ~monthly clinics and one-on-one consultations. I am also an artist and create clothing designs to help pay the rent. In my spare time (whatever that is) I enjoy cooking, reading and making myself and other people laugh.