Professional cycling is seeing a notable rise in the number of athletes who are becoming mothers, showing it’s possible to balance parenthood with the intense physical and mental challenges of top-level competition.
These women are redefining what it means to be a professional athlete by challenging the assumptions about the limitations of motherhood in high-performance sports.
Athlete’s assumptions about motherhood
Earlier, female athletes believed that becoming a mother would be the end of their career. Spanish cyclist Ane Santesteban said in an interview published by her Laboral Kutxa team, “You had to choose between motherhood and professional sport. It was either one thing or the other.”
Joane Somarriba from Spain retired in 2006, long before the current wave of support and visibility for athlete mothers was available. Her experience reflects a time when combining a professional cycling career with family life was deemed difficult. She said, “I started considering (becoming a mother) at age 30, right in the prime of my career… I raced for two more seasons and then retired to focus on motherhood.”
She added, “I had seen firsthand how other riders had to leave their children with their grandparents, how they could hardly spend any time with them, and I wanted something different.”
Some ‘mother athletes’ in cycling
Lidl-Trek’s British rider Lizzie Deignan made headlines by winning the prestigious Paris-Roubaix race after becoming a mother, showing that winning form is still achievable post-pregnancy.
Her teammate, Ellen van Dijk, also demonstrated remarkable resilience and dedication as she competed in the Paris 2024 Olympics less than a year after giving birth to her son. She continued to prove her form by finishing on the podium at the Amstel Gold Race recently, further emphasising that mothers can be winners at the highest level of professional cycling.
As Head of Performance at Lidl-Trek, Josu Larrazabal, said, “Sports science is still developing its literature on female performance, particularly in relation to motherhood.”
Two riders from the Movistar team, Aude Biannic and Arlenis Sierra, are currently on maternity leave. This shows that it is common for elite cyclists to step away from the sport temporarily in preparation for motherhood, but they will then return.
Also, many female cyclists remain highly active during pregnancy, often training until the very end. Van Dijk was on her bike just two days before giving birth and was back competing just five months postpartum, immediately making her mark with a time trial victory. Lizzie Deignan rode till the day before she went into labour. She took seven months off before returning to deliver a stunning performance to win Paris-Roubaix in 2021.
These are some examples of the incredible physical and mental strength of athletes-turned-mothers. Elite female cyclists no longer have to choose between motherhood and racing — now, it’s just another part of the journey.