Lawrence.com

It's amazing where life takes us. I wonder if Nathalie Visser ever imagined life would lead her to the Hy-Vee parking lot in Lawrence.

On the surface, it doesn't seem odd for Visser to be standing in that lot. On this day she's wearing her cycling gear, fully adorned with logos of local businesses like Pohl and Dobbins and Cycle Works. A bright red pair of Oakley's on top of her head holds her hair back. She's there informing local kids about the importance of wearing a bicycle helmet. If you brought your youngster to talk to her, you'd think she was just another young KU student. But looks can be deceiving.

Visser has traveled quite a way in her lifetime before she reached Lawrence. A native of Gothenburg, Sweden, she's ventured to Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, and now she roves through the states as a competitive cyclist. Hers is the story of a kid who got burned out early, but it might have been the best thing that ever happened to her.

The nanny

Visser first took on competitive cycling at age 13, and for the next seven years of her life, cycling was what she did. Sure, she went to school, but while she was there, she was thinking about cycling. She might have slept in on Saturdays, but she spent that extra hour dreaming of winning another race. The dedication paid off.

From age 15 to 18, she was a member of the Swedish Junior National Team, adopting a role as one of the top prospects for her country. But then her mindset began to change. The 12 to 18 hours a week she was on her bike grew tiresome. Suddenly, she realized that maybe she was missing what life was all about. Sure, things look good from behind the handlebars of a bike, but Visser had seen that view all too much over the last seven years. Something had to change.

Visser is an all-or-nothing type woman, so she didn't just hide her bike in the garage for a while. She got rid of it. She decided she wanted to move to Australia, where she had fallen in love with the country after having raced in Perth. While flipping through the newspaper one day, she spotted a want ad for a Swedish nanny to move to Australia for a job.

"Swedish nannies seem to be popular. I really don't know why. Maybe it's the standards we have or our values � or that we speak good English," Visser says without any hint of an accent. Regardless of how Swedes earned that nanny rep, Visser packed up and headed to Australia.

While I'm sure Visser treats kids just fine, being a nanny wasn't exactly her calling. So, while in Australia, she took up scuba diving. Once again, her all-or-nothing mentality kicked in. The former world class cyclist became a former nanny � then a scuba diving instructor.

"I was having a blast," Visser says. "I forgot all about my bike. I needed the break.

Speaking for myself, when I need a break from something, I sit down and watch "Seinfeld" or read a comic book. Visser moves to another country and changes her career path. In Australia, she was having the time of her life, and her traveling days were just beginning.

Her scuba diving gig Down Under got her a job offer to become a scuba instructor in Bali, Indonesia. Within two months, she was living in Indonesia, speaking Indonesian, and every one of her friends was named either "Made," "Kadek," "Gede" or "Putu." Turns out, that is everyone's name in Indonesia. The first born is named "Made," the second-born "Kadek," and so on. If a family has five kids, they start back up at the beginning with "Made."

Eventually she decided to get back to school to study marine biology. She returned to Switzerland and had a couple months off before the semester started. Having never been to America, she decided to visit some friends in San Francisco whom she had met while scuba diving. The beaches of California suckered her right in. She enrolled at the University of Santa Cruz and got hooked on beach volleyball. Meanwhile, her old teammates in Switzerland were the No. 2 and No. 3 cyclists on the Swedish Olympic team.

In a passing conversation, someone asked her if she could still get back to her old form and be a world-class cyclist again. She hesitated, then said "Yes." It had been five years since she had even ridden a bike. The thought stuck with her: five years without a bike. She finally missed riding.

Lured to Lawrence

She took a friend's old beat-up mountain bike and went for a ride. Three hours later, she knew she was back. She hasn't stopped since.

"I made myself get out and ride every day, to make sure it wasn't just some 'thing,'" she says. "I wanted to make sure I was ready to start cycling again."

The view from behind the handlebars was a sweet site that she'd almost forgotten she missed at all. It was like moving away from a dear friend and then reuniting with that friend years later.

Visser started looking for a suitable coach with whom she could identify. She found Jim Whittaker, head of Velo Tek Cycling. Whittaker is a cyclist himself and a strong advocate of women's cycling. She knew that Whittaker could help her reclaim that dormant racing form, so in December, she moved to Lawrence to join his team.

Already Visser has made a name for herself in the cycling world. Just two weeks ago, she was in Wichita winning the River Festival Grand Prix. And considering she was ill and unable to keep her food down just hours before the race, that's not too shabby.

Her goal is to one day race for the Swedish Olympic team. After all, her old friends she used to race with every day are now the core of the team. She just reunited with one friend. Soon she may be reuniting with others.