When Paola Bedin started cycling competitively at age seven in her home country of Italy, she could never have imagined decades later she'd be running her own cycling apparel company right here in Tampa Bay.

"I started with my dad and my uncle and I had this little bike and I was like, 'de, de, de, de,' and I never gave up," said Bedin. One of the few female cyclists in Vicenza, Italy, Bedin often competed against men.