Competitive cycling came later
Bikes, skateboards, scooters, rollerblades, and anything that had wheels made me feel free. My first exposure to competition came at our local BMX track in Apple Valley, California. As I continued with BMC, I simultaneously continued to try other sports and interests — until 2013, when everything changed.
My brother and I convinced our parents to let us join our dad on one of his weekend road rides. We dusted off my mom’s old Schwinn with down-tube shifters — three sizes too big — and pulled on yellow and green jerseys* donated by the local club (San Dimas Stage Race kits from SC Velo, my future first team); we had no idea how coveted those jersey actually were until years later. After just a few months, we both had our own road bikes, and our journey in cycling had officially began.
*Four years later, I would go on to win the green jersey at the San Dimas Stage Race in the Pro Women’s field.)
Moving Through the Ranks
I started racing in the Junior Women’s 10–14 field, which was combined with Junior Men 10–12. After a few weekends, I added a second race later in the day — the Junior Women’s 15–18 event, combined with Junior Men 13–14. Not long after, I added a third: the Women’s Category 3/4 races. Some weekends, I was racing nearly two hours of criteriums in a single day!
After my first year, I upgraded to Category 3 and started racing in the Women’s Pro/1/2/3 fields, in addition to the junior events.
In 2017, at age 15, I raced my first professional stage race at the San Dimas Stage Race, winning the Green Jersey and the final stage. A week later, I lined up at the prestigious Redlands Bicycle Classic with a composite team, Amy D Foundation. I won the field sprint behind a solo breakaway on Stage 4 and finished second. That result opened doors to pro team camps and other professional race invitations. It was at Redlands that I realized cycling could take me farther than I ever dreamed of.
Focus shift
I graduated high school at 16 in 2018 and took a semi-gap year, focusing on racing while taking some community college courses online.
After competing at the Junior Track World Championships in Frankfurt, Germany (1st place in the Omnium and Madison), I flew home for two days, packed, and moved to Tennessee to start my freshman year at Milligan University in fall 2019. I barely finished syllabus week before flying off again for Junior Road Worlds in Yorkshire, Great Britain (1st – Road Race). After Worlds, I finally had a little break and time to focus on college.
But then I got an email that changed everything: the USA National Team invited me to move to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado to train for a shot at making the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Team.
NOW
I’m currently in my fifth-year racing with Team Picnic PostNL, based in the Netherlands, competing at the highest level of women’s cycling.
Along the way, I’ve earned a few World Tour podiums, countless lessons, and a deeper love for the sport that opened my eyes and heart to an even more vast horizon of adventures and memories.
The journey is just getting started and I’m so excited to be part of it!
I was drawn to competition and the outdoors from the very beginning
Growing up with an older brother and very active parents, I was exposed early on to countless opportunities to learn new skills and put them into practice across a wide range of sports. Whether it was dirt biking and skiing by the age of two, or competing in swimming, diving, soccer, and more, I was always fueled by athletics and the constant pursuit of becoming my best self (trying to do it better than my brother was also motivation).
Criterium weekends
Living in Apple Valley meant that “local” races were always over an hour away. My parents (aka my taxi drivers), my brother, our 90-pound golden retriever, and I would pile into the car long before sunrise to make it to the junior races that started at 7 or 8 a.m. Now that I’m older, I completely understand why we had to turn around if my dad forgot his coffee on the kitchen counter!
Across to the pond
In 2018, at the age of 16, I went to Europe for the first time and raced with a Belgium team that had invited me over. It was an incredible opportunity, and I left with wins in every race I entered with the exception of one 2nd place in a U17 women’s race and several top ten finishes in the U17 men’s races. It was the coldest and worst weather I had ever rode in. The terrible weather did not tarnish the positive moments, it only left me wanting to come back and race more.
In 2019, at age 17, I was back in Europe racing with the USA National Team. In January, I was on the track at the NextGen Track race in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, and then returned again in March to race on the road at the Junior Nation Cups.
These four races yielded firsts and seconds which also qualified me for both the road and track World Championships later that year (I won the Omnium and Madison at Junior Track Worlds and won the Road Race at Junior Road Worlds). Racing in Europe on narrower roads and with larger women’s fields came naturally to me. New competitors, different countries, unique courses and road obstacles required more thinking, planning and race analysis versus just raw power.
Moving fast
In the first several months of moving to the Olympic Training Center, I also signed my first professional contract with Team DSM (now Team Picnic PostNL).
Training for the Olympics during COVID after it was delayed for a year was full of uncertainties and challenges. Through it though, I signed my first contract with Team DSM (now Team Picnic PostNL)
Then Covid happened. Not only did Covid delay the Olympics from 2020 to 2021, but it put new hurdles and uncertainties in the way of training and competing for both Team USA and DSM. It was a challenging time, but I gained memories and experiences that helped me grow and mature, plus, two of my teammates became the older sisters I never had.
May of 2021, I received the news that I was selected to compete in the Team Pursuit and Madison at the Tokyo Olympics. In the Summer of 2021, I proudly competed in Tokyo, fulfilling a dream years in the making and came away with a bronze medal in the Team Pursuit
