Miss-N-Out winner fuels Bella Veloce with passion for cycling

Last year, junior Abby Cooper met senior Katy Ligler for a cup of coffee. But the two weren't chatting or studying for an upcoming quiz.\nCooper was interviewing her future best friend, teammate, roommate and training partner for a spot on her new Little 500 team, Bella Veloce.\n"I feel so bad because last year I was, like, super-focused and I think I was a little crazy," said Cooper, who subjected teammate sophomore Mia Williams to the same cup of coffee. "I wanted to be competitive, and luckily I've found amazing teammates."\nNow, Bella Veloce is in its second year and Cooper, lovingly called "Coach Coop," finds herself acting as coach, bike mechanic and training coordinator -- she is what Ligler called "the all-powerful teammate." Cooper does this armed with a pair of plaid bicycle shorts, a nose ring in her left nostril and most importantly, an intense passion for cycling.\n"I just fell in love with the sport completely," Cooper said. "I've never had something in my life that I've worked so hard toward and actually found results from."\nCooper, despite mountain-biking in high school, didn't really discover her love for cycling until her freshman year at IU, when she joined team Hatrix.\nHatrix would disband after her first year, leaving her a hungry rider without a team. She decided she wanted to find a group of women like herself, so instead of simply joining a different team, the Carmel, Ind. native looked to form a team of her own.\n"I had heard that there were several women looking for teammates, and Abby was one of them," Ligler said. "She was looking for a team of intense people -- we just happened to match her personality. That's why we work so well together, because we're all just so intense about what we're doing."\nBella Veloce would ride to a 12th- place finish without a coach, a mechanic, a training coordinator and hardly any funding. The team just had Cooper, but she couldn't have been any happier with the results, saying that it is just rewarding to start something from scratch.\nThis year, Williamson was added for a full roster, but she is out because of a collarbone injury. This leaves Bella Veloce in the same position as last year, with only three riders.\nBut Cooper, who won Miss-N-Out, has a different outlook this year.\n"(Last year) I guess I relied on things that I thought I should have relied on. Like the fact that all the dorm teams have money, and every team out here has a coach," she said. "I've found those things that kind of hurt me last year, at least that's what I thought, that's what's makes our team this year so strong -- it's that we've had to everything together."\nThe "together" is something that Cooper stresses.\nShe has been cycling for quite sometime and has been working at a bike shop since her sophomore year of high school -- but forget all this.\nThis isn't at all why she is able to be everything to her team because she says she would be nothing without her teammates.\n"(Abby is) such a motivational person," Williams said. "She makes me want to be a better person, rider, not only a cyclist, (but) just in life in general."\nCooper's best friend agrees.\n"(Abby) works harder than anybody I know," Ligler said. "She goes out everyday and she gives it 125 percent, everyday -- and that's just Abby Cooper, you know? Making sure that we're all on time and all the forms are in -- she just gives it 125 percent everywhere."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Andy \nRomey at aromey@indiana.edu.