"I haven't had my period since 2014": American cyclist temporarily retires to prioritize her health

Cycling is a very demanding sport, one of the toughest in the world. And in the women's peloton there are no exceptions. In fact, there are many athletes who suffer too much from competing at the highest level season after season, such as Veronica Ewers. The 31-year-old EF Education-Oatly rider has decided to temporarily retire from racing for that reason.

Ewers recently revealed that blood tests confirmed that her hormone levels were "still almost non-existent," despite her efforts to recover. From there, she understood that she couldn't keep trying to train and compete while her body was barely responding.

The cyclist herself put it bluntly: "I haven't had a period since 2014. My bones are weak. My gastrointestinal function sucks." These findings, coupled with the lingering effects of her eating disorder, ended up putting her on the edge.

The American had already spent much of 2024 trying to improve her health, and returned to the peloton in 2025 hoping to move in both directions: racing and recovery. But she quickly found that it was an impossible combination.

Not competing at all in the second half of 2024, and racing far off the best in 2025, that was not how Ewers imagined her professional career would turn out. Especially as she had finished 4th overall at the Giro d'Italia Women just two years ago. Thherefore these were certainly not the kinds of results she would be willing to endure serious health complications for.

"Trying to perform, which I physically couldn’t do until my hormones recover (stabilise), while trying to recover, which I couldn’t do until I stop trying to perform at the top level, was like beating my head against the wall," she wrote.

She finally had to choose, and opted for full recovery. "I will not compete or train in 2026," she announced.

Ewers has given a stark account in Substack of how the eating disorder, which began with childhood anxiety and worsened in college, developed into restrictive and later bulimic behaviors that marked her twenties.

From that period she carries a long list of consequences: ten years without menstruation, bone fragility, constant digestive problems and an episode of near renal failure in 2023 after dehydration during a training session.

Cycling, which initially offered her stability, ended up also being an environment where harmful habits returned. "The competition didn't end in the cycling race," she wrote. "It continued in the kitchen and at the table." That "demon," as she defines it, reappeared especially in moments of injury and loneliness.

With the support of specialists, Ewers is now working to regain her weight and stabilize her hormones. She knows that moving away from sport also means rebuilding her identity. "I don't know who I am when I'm not an athlete," she admits, although she assures that she won't let the disorder dominate her life again.

Her intention, however, is not to say goodbye forever: "My goal is to eventually come back and show the world what I am capable of with a functional body. My body needs a complete reboot before I can be at my best. I'm tired of being mediocre," she concluded.