Allie Oop: YO!

Well.... My name is Allie and you probably know that if you're following this blog post. I really don't know what to say so I guess I'll tell you the story of my life.

I've lived in Michigan all of my life. I grew up playing a lot of sports, mostly hockey and racing BMX, but I've always do my best in sports that deal with bicycles. I guess there is just something about a bike that gets to me where its your own work and power that makes the bike go as fast as you make it and that makes me work as hard as I do today.

I've raced BMX for almost 13 years now. I ride for Standard Byke Company, Fly racing, Answer, Pokerstars.net, and Alienation. Spending a lot of my mothers and sponsors money traveling and racing around the United States has been worth every second of its own. I've won several national events and a National Championship but nothing compares to the friendships and memories made on and off the track.

This is me out front in Akron, Ohio.

Another note about BMX, a great friend of mine, Kyle Weisenberger who was a professional BMXer and everybody knew him and I knew since I was a young girl passed away December 1, 2009 due to a car accident... it was very hard for me to accept that he had passed away but Kyle had save a few peoples lives by donating his organs! So, DONATE YOUR ORGANS PEOPLE!!!! I love you and miss you Kyle, and the BMX world thinks of you often!

I attended high school at East Grand Rapids High School and played on the golf team. When I graduated in 2008 I decided that I wanted to be a Special Education teacher. My first year of college I went to Aquinas College. I played on the golf team and BMXed through college missing a lot of class, HAHA. Aquinas just wasn't for me, I needed a new place to go. So when I finished my first year of college in (09) I got a call to be on a mountain bike team at Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky. I said, "heck yeah!" Riding a bike for college? Never thought of such a thing... I thought it was great idea! So summer went on, I went through my first Pro summer for BMX and made the National Championship main event and was very happy about that!

School started and I raced dual slalom/4x and downhill for my mountain biking discipline. I learned a lot every time I got on my mountain bike even though I thought it was pretty scary riding down sharp rocks. Our team was excellent, we killed our conference and went to nationals out in Lake Tahoe, BEAUTIFUL!!! I made it to the main event of the 4x race but ended up crashing and getting knocked out for a few seconds and started bleeding from my my head, my friends were laughing at me, I guess it was funny, haha. I was on the podium for my team and for myself at nationals for my first year ever touching a mountain bike and I was happy about that, but I was unable to race the downhill race the next day due to the crash in my 4x race.

This is me racing 4x at nationals in Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe...

I got up from crashing, I don't remember a thing...

Good Stuff. That ended the great experience for me.

Also, I tried racing track/velodrome. It was AWESOME! I'm hooked on it. In the fall I did a clinic and a race so I could race in the nationals race PA with my team from LWC it was a crazy experience since we didn't have enough bikes, shoes, or pedals. Everything was thrown together and we used Don Walker bikes.

Obviously I was unsure and did not want to mess anything up for the team and I definitely gave it my all even though I look a bit mental in this picture. sweet.

Here is that one kids bike... yeah that kid... My team told me I wouldn't ask to ride his bike, they were wrong!

Here is the main part of this blog. When I arrived to LWC, I saw a bunch of dudes in spandex and I remember laughing and saying, "you'll never see my in spandex." Well, it only took a few months until I was in them and riding the road and track. People told me I needed to race road but I was unsure if I was able to do so and I did not have a bike. Through the winter I trained and got help from a few people but mostly from my two great friends, Alder Martz and Danny Estevez, who I owe a lot to for teaching me almost everything I know about riding and racing, they really took me under their wing. I'm very lucky to have them as friends and people who I can rely on if I have any questions about biking. I love you guys! But I don't ever want to leave out those who have also helped me and you all know who you are and I am SO thankful for you guys as well.

this is Alder!

And this is Danny!

SO, this was my first year ever on a road bike as well. I was borrowing my coaches wifes bike all season. I started out as a B rider but only stayed there for about 3 races but I wanted more challenges on the bikes so I moved up to an A for Collegiate racing... There were some pretty good girls in the A races and I definitely got the challenges I was looking for even though they were A LOT better than me. I believe if you ride with better people, you get better. no doubt. I placed top 10 in most of the races, especially in the Crit races. I love racing crits, they are fast and fun.

The team went to nationals with Filip Capala, Josh Nagode, Christopher Cruise Bogedin, Kip Spaude, Clayton Omer, Alder Martz and Danny Estevez for the mens squad and for the ladies it was Brooke Crum, Ashley James, Sarah Lukas and myself. Our team finished 10th out of 50th, I think coach said and 3rd overall in points.