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Q-C native makes rapid move up cycling's ranks
Andrea Myers is the girl you love to hate. Smart, beautiful and athletically gifted, she is one of the top female bicyclists in the nation. Less than two years after entering her first race, the 23-year-old Moline native today will make her professional debut as a member of the elite TargeTraining team in Westport, Conn. "In my wildest dreams, yeah, I thought it might happen, but I didn't think it would happen two years from when I started," Myers said last week. "This is just a dream come true for me to be in this position this quickly." Her rapid accent, though, as is the case in most cycling races, was only one stage of her journey. Myers attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, earned an undergraduate degree in molecular biology from the University of Illinois and, after college, landed an internship at a major pharmaceutical company. But then she came to a realization -- the life of a lab rat was not one she wanted to lead. She wanted something "a little more social." So, she came back to the Quad-Cities and enrolled in St. Ambrose University's physical therapy program. She had been an accomplished marathoner before suffering a knee injury and liked the idea of helping people get back on their feet. Trying to get back on her own feet, Myers had surgery in the summer of 2004. She put in all the work in rehab, did everything the doctors told her to do. Six months later, she couldn't make it 6 minutes on pavement. Her marathon career and life as a runner was over. Frustrated to find a physical outlet, she started going to Friday night spinning classes at the downtown Scott County Family YMCA in downtown Davenport She did the basics, kept it simple for the sake of strengthening her knee. Soon, though, it wasn't enough. The marathoner inside her took over. Myers aggressively took on whatever program spin instructor Donnie Miller was using to ready himself for upcoming races. Week after week, she punished herself on the bike. By the next spring, she wanted more. So she joined the DICE cycling team, a lower-tier group that races out of Healthy Habits Bike Shop in Bettendorf. "From Day 1, she was riding with the guys," said Miller, DICE's vice president and the owner and operator of Donnie's Indoor Cycling Experience in Moline. "We were cruising at like 25 or 28 mph, and she was taking to it like she'd been doing it forever. It was incredible. The only thing she lacked was the handling skills. But engine? Man, unreal." Myers' first race was the 2005 Quad-City Criterium. In it, she came up against professional rider Megan Elliott. Myers finished 21st in the category five (lowest) women's division that day. Elliott was third in the open (professional). The two are now teammates. Myers rode with DICE through the 2005 season before being picked up by the elite developmental squad Team Kenda Tire. A series of successes in 2006 led to the contract with TargeTraining. "Andrea's a freak of nature," up-and-coming DICE rider Jeremiah Gantzer said. "She kind of just got on a bike and rode away." She's still pedaling. She'll race in a short regional event today before flying to El Salvador on March 12 for the Vuelta Ciclista El Salvador, a five-day treck that is the start of what Myers estimates will be a 50-race season. Myers, of course, completed her physical therapy degree in December and, after moving to Westport in January, passed the Connecticut licensing exam last month. She practices part-time -- cycling now is a fulltime gig -- at a clinic just down the road from the TargeTraining facility.
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