On Sept. 10, Cao will cycle 100 miles in the High Sierra and Mono Lake area in a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training.

"She's going to finish the century if she has to crawl across it, and I don't think she'll need to crawl," Charlotte Rogers says.

Rogers is the support and gear captain for Cao's team. Her job is to supply water, food, encouragement and an occasional push.

On a training ride on Old La Honda Road--a hilly training favorite for cyclists and known for its difficulty--Cao was having a bit of trouble getting up the hill. Rogers, who follows behind the team, says Cao stopped, turned to her and asked for a "push" to get going again.

Standing nearby and watching were three cyclists unaffiliated with Team In Training.

Rogers says the trio noticed Cao's impairment and asked if Cao was cycling with one leg, which Rogers confirmed.

"They said, 'Oh my god we will never complain about riding this hill again,' " Rogers says.

Cao's physical limitations were caused by polio. Her right leg can only carry the pedal around while her stronger left leg does the pumping. But this has not prevented her from realizing her dream of becoming an athlete.

True to the way she tackles most goals in her life, Cao took to biking quickly. She learned how to ride a bike in February and joined Team In Training in June. She says she never thought she would be able to ride a bike but has always wanted to learn and credits her teammates and coaches with providing a lot of good advice even though she still falls down a lot.

Some of the best tricks have come from Rogers.

"I'm also a polio survivor, so I can really understand and empathize exactly with what she is going through. She has the courage and sheer will to succeed--she cycles in a lot of pain, I know she does," Rogers says.

Cao doesn't consider herself disabled--a word Rogers says she hates, calling it the "d-word." She says getting polio as an infant was "the best thing that happened to me."

It just might be what fuels her drive to accomplish so many things, she says. A healthy person knows they can do certain things such as ride a bike, so they put off chasing dreams such as cycling in a century ride.

Cao's approach to challenges doesn't stop at the physical ones.

In China to get her bachelor's degree, she did it in three years. Next she was awarded double scholarships at Ohio University. Speaking little better than conversational English at the time, she came to the United States and simultaneously earned a master's degree in computer science and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry in 3¹/2 years.

She lives and works in Sunnyvale, working nine to 10 hours a day as a chemometrics software scientist for Metara Inc. Compared to her schoolwork schedule, she says that's easy.

"I even have time to bike," she says.

Biking isn't easy for her and the new pains she has developed from cycling caused her to once think about quitting.

" 'Can't' and 'quit' are not in her vocabulary," Rogers says.

It was "really hard to finish" the first 15-mile training ride, Cao says, but she is excited about accomplishing the long ride this week.

Cao says she sets regular goals for herself because it keeps her going, and if she didn't she would "feel guilty doing nothing."

Her next goal is to write a book for a Chinese publisher about her life as a polio-stricken girl from a poor village in China who overcomes many obstacles. When she was first approached by the publisher, she didn't understand why anyone would want to read a book about her life.

"I feel I'm nobody. Why should I write a book?" she asked the publisher.

But she says she realized her journeys and accomplishments may provide hope and inspiration.

Rogers says, "She's an inspiration to the team. They look at her and say, 'If Jane can do this we can do this,' " Rogers says.

Cao looks at it the other way, seeing her teammates and coaches as encouraging forces and family members.

"Charlotte calls me 'Little Daughter.' I call her 'Mom,' " Cao says.

"My team? I love them. They rock," she says.

For more information about Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training, visit the web site at www.teamintraining.org.