Trek-Segafredo’s Tayler Wiles simply adored playing soccer but her academic brilliance steered her towards cycling
California-based Tayler Wiles felt a sense of melancholy when she rode through the charred remains of bushfire ravaged Fox Creek Road, Cudlee Creek.
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Trek-Segafredo’s Tayler Wiles grew up idolising US women’s soccer stars that revolutionised female sport but her football dream came to a halt because of the California-based cyclist’s beautiful mind.
The former US soccer college midfielder was forced to make a choice which would inevitably introduce her to cycling 12 years ago when she excelled academically.
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She adores what the US national soccer team is doing for equality leading the way for female sport globally as the UCI has now ensured women’s cyclists finally has security and sensible career option with the introduction of minimum salaries for WorldTour teams this year.
The reigning FIFA women’s World Cup winner continues its gender discrimination battle with the US soccer federation after players sued the governing body in March.
“I grew up in the era of (US soccer stars) Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain and all the 1999ers (World Cup winning team),’’ Wiles, 30, said.
“I love them, so I had Hamm posters all over my walls, the US soccer team is amazing and Megan Rapinoe and what they’re doing for equality is amazing.
“My dream was to play like soccer and go to medical school.
“I got an academic scholarship to the medical school and I ended up taking that and saying no to the soccer one (scholarship) so I stopped playing soccer which I kind of regret.
“When I was in college I had a friend who rode bikes and he just got me into riding bikes and of course after about two weeks after I first start riding, I got to race bikes.
“I got totally creamed but I thought it was so much fun.”
Wiles arrived in Adelaide more than a week ago to prepare for this week’s women’s Santos Tour Down Under before most of her Trek-Segafredo teammates arrived on Sunday.
There was a sense a deja vu when Wiles saw first hand the destruction the bushfires had caused during a training ride in the Adelaide Hills.
Cudlee Creek’s charred Fox Creek Road, one of the worst hit areas left an impression reminding her of the catastrophic California bushfires.
“A couple of days ago I rode Fox Creek Road which is really bad, but it’s amazing the first couple of days when I was riding up the hills seemed untouched, you go in those areas now and it’s just black,’’ Wiles said.
“It’s incredible, the firefighters, the houses they saved, you see everything else is black and then you see a house standing saved.
“I now live in a town called Fairfax about 20 minutes from San Francisco.
“We had a really bad bushfire (in 2018), the Paradise fire lost a lot of homes and a lot of people and the year before that the Santa Rosa fire where there is a lot of people, a populated area.
“They had to turn the power off weeks at a time to make sure the fires didn’t spark so we would be without power for five to seven days.
“It felt like the apocalypse, all the ice was gone in the stores, food that was perishable but San Francisco had power so everybody in the county where I lived drove in and spent their time there.
“It was a very expensive week, everybody was eating out, living in coffee shops.”
Originally published as Trek-Segafredo’s Tayler Wiles simply adored playing soccer but her academic brilliance steered her towards cycling