Riding and racing on two wheels has been a huge part of Sarah Sturm’s life for decades, and on Saturday, Sturm plans to ride the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic with another life on her bike.
Sturm, the well-known and accomplished off-road cyclist, Fort Lewis College graduate and longtime Durango resident, is 30 weeks pregnant. It’s a life-changing event that could’ve easily kept Sturm away from the off-road cycling scene and spotlight she’s such a big part of. However, she’s kept pedaling and taking part in gravel racing’s biggest events as her baby bump has grown and her due date nears.
Whether it was riding at Mid South Gravel in Oklahoma, The Traka 100 in Girona, Spain, or interviewing riders and providing race coverage at the Sea Otter Classic, in California, Sturm has been showing what an active pregnancy can look like.
She’s also been a huge force of change for the Life Time Grand Prix, the premier off-road cycling series in America. After Sturm announced her pregnancy, the Life Time Grand Prix announced its pregnancy policy that protects a rider’s roster status for the next season after they get pregnant.
Now, Sturm will be back at the IHBC road race for the first time in a few years, riding the race she cherishes and has won, showing what’s possible for a soon-to-be mom.
“I'm stoked,” Sturm said. “Everyone's pregnancy is really different. I've talked to my coach, my doctor, my teammates, a bunch of other women who are pro racers who've been pregnant and had babies, just to see like what they did at 30 weeks pregnant. It's hard to get information and you don't ever want to do anything to compromise the health of the baby.”
After Sturm found out she was pregnant, she didn’t have an organized plan to ride. For the first trimester, she wanted to make sure the baby was ok. Once that happened in the winter and she and her husband, Dylan, got some positive results from her doctor, they started mapping out a rough plan of events she could attend.
But it all depended on how she was feeling on the day. Sturm was pretty sick in her first trimester and didn’t ride a lot. She was very up front with her sponsors on the events she was hoping to do, but let them know that she might not attend these events depending on the day. It was a definite shift for Sturm from the goal of her year going from her racing, as it was in years past, to the health of her child.
Another reason Sturm didn’t want to step away from the gravel scene this year is she’s not ready to finish her gravel career yet. She has plenty of role models in the European road racing scene and some Americans, too. Sturm is even part of a gravel moms group chat of Life Time Grand Prix athletes who have become moms.
“The community of other women has been like a total lifeline for me,” Sturm said. “I haven't experienced it a ton yet myself, and I hope to not, but there's a lot of judgment that you can get from others. It's weird, when you're pregnant, it just makes other people feel like they can tell you what you'd be doing … I'm just following what is motivating, inspiring and exciting for me.”
One of the main reasons Sturm has relied on other female athletes who have gotten pregnant is there isn’t a lot of data out there on pregnant athletes. It’s been confusing and frustrating at times for Sturm, but she’s worked with a nutritionist, Kyla Channell, to study the differences in her body as her pregnancy has gone along.
Sturm has noticed that she’s sweating more as she rides pregnant, so she has to hydrate more. Her plasma volume has expanded by 40% during her pregnancy, driven by sodium retention to support her baby. Her blood sugar can dip really quickly, so Sturm has to bring a lot of food and gels on rides she used to only bring two bottles on.
As an elite athlete, Sturm has had the same body weight for the past decade. With the pregnancy, that’s obviously changed, and so has her riding. Her heart rate and breathing started to shift due to hormonal changes. Her diet and caloric intake hasn’t changed much because instead of fueling a 30-hour a week riding schedule, she’s fueling her baby.
“We have these conversations and look at my training and training peaks and figure out based on rate of perceived exertion, how I'm feeling, and what is possible for the next training ride,” Sturm said. “My nutritionist will suggest how to fuel for those rides ... and I kind of have it down at this point, how much I need to be eating, what it feels like if I'm under-fueled, and what it feels like if I'm not moving enough too.”
Sturm’s pregnancy has affected her bike setup a good amount. She’s adjusted the stack height to give her belly some more room. Her crank arms are shorter so on the upstroke of the pedal, her leg isn’t touching her belly as much. Sturm has also adjusted to smaller gearing because she can’t push a bigger gear. It’s not that Sturm has stopped strength training; it’s really hard to maintain muscle in a pregnancy due to a hormone called relaxin, which relaxes the ligaments and muscles.
What hasn’t changed in Sturm’s pregnancy is her love for the Iron Horse. Growing up in Albuquerque, her dad would always come up and ride the Iron Horse. Once Sturm made the decision to go to FLC, she and her dad came up to ride it. At 17, she lined up with all the pros and tried as hard as she could to stick with them as they rolled through the valley.
Once everyone reached Shalona Hill, Sturm exploded, started crying and started walking before eventually finishing. Since then, she’s won it and been on the podium plenty of times. Now, Sturm is preparing for a new chapter of Iron Horse memories, even if she doesn’t make it to the finish line in Silverton on Saturday.
“I really am motivated to do this race, especially because I've unfortunately had some feedback from people that were really appalled that I was even considering racing the Iron Horse … I’ve raced it and now participating while pregnant is going to be a nice addition to the story,” Sturm said. “Hopefully, one day I’ll get to ride it with this kid, and they can be on a bike.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
