Shelley Olds, a professional Bay Area cyclist who’s birthday
began when she learned her $3,000 racing bike was stolen from her
car, ended on a much happier note late Tuesday night when she
learned her bike was located.
Shelley Olds, a professional Bay Area cyclist who’s birthday began when she learned her $3,000 racing bike was stolen from her car, ended on a much happier note late Tuesday night when she learned her bike was located.
Olds, who turned 28 Tuesday, was visiting her parents on Lodgepole Court in south Gilroy. They celebrated her birthday with dinner Monday night, but when she went to her car the next morning, she notice the specially-built, high-performance racing bicycle was gone.
But her nightmare of a day ended when her parents called with the news that her bike was found just one street from where it was stolen. It was found leaning against a car in the driveway of a resident who called police when they realized it wasn’t one of their children’s bicycles.
“I will be at Nationals and I will be on my beautiful new BMC Track Master once again,” Olds wrote in an e-mail Wednesday morning before heading to Los Angeles to compete in the U.S. track national championships. “It was a long hard day yesterday and one that was extremely challenging for me both mentally and physically. But, I am up and running again today and heading down to L.A. in a few hours. I’ve got some built up anger to let out still, so I won’t be holding back down there.”
Olds, who played soccer at Roanoke College in Virginia and has raced competitively for three years with her team based out of Marin, is scheduled to race Thursday at a velodrome in Los Angeles and hopes to eventually compete in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
