Q: How did your love of cycling start?

A: “I started racing when I was 10 years old and I immediately fell in love with it. So I’ve been racing for about 6 years now. Cycling is a really unique sport because it involves not only individual goals but also team goals. So a lot of the time while you’re racing as a team, you’re also setting out for your individual goals. It’s definitely a dynamic sport; it’s like chess in that you’re thinking 10 steps ahead of where you are at the current moment. It’s a great sport to be in. I’m really really thankful that I got involved in it early.”

Q: Is it hard finding the balance between cycling, school, and your social life?

A: “Certainly there is a level of dedication to it. I’ve missed my sister’s birthday for the past 3 years. I haven’t even been home for my own birthday in the past 5 years. In terms of that there are a lot of sacrifices but in the end I think it really pays off. In terms of school, it’s definitely just finding that line between the balance of school, work being done, training being done, and finding that time for yourself to kind of just sit and relax.”

Q: How does the aspect of cycling with a team effect your experience in the sport?

A: “Cycling isn’t really a fully team or fully individual sport, there’s definitely a combination of both. But what I really think makes cycling unique is you’re out there suffering with 100 other girls on the course, and 7 of those girls are your teammates. They know you, they know your strengths and they know what your weaknesses are. They know where you’re going to succeed and where you might fail. So it really turns into a sisterhood in a way. You begin to rely on one another and you create this second family for youself. It’s definitely something where you truly depend on them for everything, whether it’s on or off the bike because your spending months and months of the year together.”