I guess I should start off from the beginning…I grew up in Alabama (I am old enough and mature enough to handle the ridicule now so I don’t mind admitting the truth), finished up high school in Illinois, moved an hour north to Madison, Wisconsin for college, ventured out west to California for more school, jumped across the pond to live in Denmark for 2 years, and then Ben and I decided we couldn’t go back to Bush politics in the US so we landed in New Zealand where we’ve been for the last couple of years. 

During those years of moving around, I went from playing soccer at UW-Madison to becoming a cycling junkie.  The move to Denmark turned out to be a great situation for me when I joined Team SATS and spent 3 years racing full-time in Europe.  Racing all the big women’s tours plus World Cups like Fleche Wallonne, Milan San Remo, and Flanders was an unforgettable experience.  I returned to the US racing scene in ‘06 when I joined the hugely successful TEAm Lipton, and I am excited about returning to the TEAm for another go in ‘07.

Besides cycling, I love to travel, cook, drink wine, read, kayak, hike and surf the net.  I do have a BS and MA in Exercise Science so I try to keep up with the recent literature when I can (actually, Ben keeps me informed most of the time since he is the professor) because so much of it does apply to my daily life.  And, I also like to use my experience as a former Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist to work out in the gym in the off season and to help others with their programs as well.

So, that’s my life in a nutshell…