"Walking up the West Drive in Central Park on Tuesday morning with tea in her hands and a scarf around her neck, Evelyn Stevens stopped to chat with two women, former teammates, as they rested on a bench after their workout. “We obviously had the best kits,” Ms. Stevens, 26, said of the women’s black-and-white racing uniforms. It was only last summer that three had raced together, but in that year, Ms. Stevens has gone from a novice rider to one of the nation’s best female racers. “It’s hard to understand,” said one of the women, Kimille Taylor, who has been racing in New York for more than six years. “It’s not easy to win bike races.”" - Christopher Chung from Bookmarklet

"Her meteoric rise began in the spring of 2008 in Central Park, a fact that often surprises her competitors, she said: “Everyone I meet is like, ‘You started racing in New York City?’”... One of five children, Ms. Stevens grew up outside of Boston, moving to New York after college to work at Lehman Brothers. She spent four years working on Wall Street — leaving Lehman for a small investment fund in 2007 — and left her job for good in May. “I can go work in finance again,” she said, but racing is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”" - Christopher Chung

Elliott, you can quit Jefferies in a year after you turn pro. - Christopher Chung

She is truly naturally gifted. In men's racing, that wouldn't matter, because she'd be competing with 20 other genetic freaks like herself. But women's racing has such a shallow bench that Jeanie Longo in her 50s still regularly places on the podium, so natural talent there goes a long way. Of course, a lot of that shallow bench is also explained by the much lower compensation women receive in sports. - Piaw Na