Uno-X in lead to change the perception of pregnancy in professional cycling: "In past, many have stopped, because they didn't really have the options"

It is an inconvenient fact for female athletes that the years of peak physical performance just so happen to coincide with the years of peak fertility. Whilst the development of women's sport appears to be slow, it's not as slow as evolution. For decades, the choice for female cyclists keen to become parents seemed clear: choose your career, or a family.

Things are changing. And with three riders at varying stages of the pregnancy and postpartum journey among its roster - two of them involved in collecting data throughout - WorldTour team Uno-X is playing a major role in progression. 

"I know that ten years ago it wouldn't really have occurred to many people that they’d be able to carry on after becoming pregnant. I think that has probably happened for some riders - they’ve stopped not because they wanted to but because they didn't really have the options," muses Olympic and World champion - and, mother to one-year-old Nico - Elinor Barker.

"I have the idea that going into motherhood, at the same time as going into retirement - trying to find out who I am not being a cyclist, at the same time as figuring out who I am as a mother - would be an unhealthy combination for me," adds 31-year-old Julie Norman Leth.

Joss Lowden's appetite for retirement is similarly minimal, "I'm literally in my prime," the former Hour Record holder says.