Sandra Alonso, after announcing her pregnancy: 'Why should I have to wait?'

I met Sandra Alonso in Torrevieja, her hometown on Spain’s eastern coast. In summer, it becomes one of the busiest spots along the Levantine coastline – a mix of locals and tourists, sea and city, home and away. Though she now lives in Madrid, Sandra often returns to spend time with her family. 

Under the sweltering heat of a southern Spanish summer, she welcomed me into the home of her grandmother, Pepa – 87, full of life, and clearly proud beyond words of her granddaughter. Pepa shows me her paintings and explains her morning exercise routine, which includes a seaside walk, and beams as we talk about Sandra. 

Sandra Alonso (26, Ceratizit–Pro Cycling Team) recently shared that she is expecting her first child with former pro rider Fran Ventoso, announcing the news through this touching video.

“I’m feeling great – though coming back will be tough,” Sandra laughs. She’s far from the first rider to fall pregnant while still competing, but it’s rare to see it happen at 26, while ranked in the UCI top 100, and just after her best-ever season as a pro – which included three wins, among them the WorldTour-level Tour of Guangxi.

Naturally, the question arises: why now? 

“I talk with the girls from the national team, from my own squad… and almost everyone says the same thing: ‘Once I stop racing, I’ll think about it.’ But loads of male pros have kids – so why shouldn’t we?” 

Women’s sport has come a long way in the past decade. Structural changes, global feminist movements, and growing visibility have sparked major shifts across nearly every discipline. 

Cycling is no exception. The number of pro riders, teams, races and sponsors has grown dramatically – but it still takes a truly supportive system to help female athletes move beyond the old dilemma: early retirement or late motherhood.

“I’m an elite athlete, and I want to keep racing for as long as my body allows – and there’s still a long road ahead. But I also want a family. Why should I have to wait until I’m 35 or 36 and ready to retire?” 

There’s no such thing as perfect timing – but Sandra is searching for balance: between her sporting peak and building a family. Lizzie Deignan, one of the peloton’s most high-profile voices on motherhood, said that returning to racing after giving birth was one of her toughest challenges.

“I think I’m at the perfect age to come back with real motivation,” says Sandra. “Maybe if I did this at 32 instead of 26, I’d be right on the edge. This is the right moment to keep going and enjoy both my family and cycling”.

“I don’t usually talk about this… but I get a bit scared at the start of each season. Every year, I’ve improved, achieved better results, and when a new year starts, I wonder if I’ll be able to do it again. Last year went so well… I began this season feeling motivated, but scared too. It’s been a combination of things that led me to make the decision now”.

Sandra tells me about the support she’s had from her family, her partner… and her team. From the very house we’re chatting in, she had the conversation with her sports director to break the news. “I was nervous about how he’d react, because I know it’s not ideal to lose a rider in April, and I was supposed to race the Ardennes. I was expecting a ‘Oh, Sandra…’, but he was so happy I nearly cried. I even thought he hadn’t understood what I was telling him (she laughs), but he congratulated me, said it was beautiful news, and told me the most important thing now was the baby and me”. 

Support is essential, but financial stability is non-negotiable. Thanks to the UCI reforms in 2020, professional riders are entitled to three months’ full salary and a further five months at 50%. That will be honoured by her team, Ceratizit, which will no longer sponsor the structure from next year. As a result, most riders are currently out of contract for 2025. “The team called a meeting to confirm their intention to find a new sponsor and continue. In fact, I have a clause that says if the team carries on, so do I. I’ve been here three and a half years and I’m really happy”.

More and more riders are going through this experience, but such cases remain rare in a peloton that’s now far bigger and more professional than it was just a few years ago. And above all, very few involve riders who are not only at their peak, but still growing – with their sporting ceiling yet to be defined.

“I don’t know if I’ll be a role model, but this is our decision. Not long ago, it was unthinkable – there were fewer protections from the UCI or the teams. I’ve followed the few examples we have closely: Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, Lotta Henttala, Aude Biannic, Ellen van Dijk…”

Ellen van Dijk is a standout example when it comes to performance. The Dutch rider will retire at the end of the season after becoming a mother in 2023 at the age of 36 – and returning to racing in 2024 with a win in Extremadura just six months later.

Her teammate Lizzie Deignan followed a similar timeline in both of her pregnancies. Her situation is perhaps the most comparable to Alonso’s, having her first child at 30 – an age of cycling maturity – and returning to top-level competition to win Paris-Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, among other races, after giving birth. Kristin Armstrong also stands out: she won Olympic time trial gold after taking time out for motherhood.

As Chantal van den Broek-Blaak once said, finding the balance between being a top-level athlete and having a family life isn’t always easy. “Yes, I remember a post from Chantal where she said she was heading to a race… and would finally get some rest!” (she laughs). “Let’s hope ours keeps us on our toes! But it’s true – when you’re at a race, you focus on the competition, rest and eating well.” 

Despite the success stories that show a return to normality after pregnancy – especially following a first birth – the sample size is still extremely small… and we’re in an era of cycling that’s hard to compare with the past. Sandra Alonso doesn’t see herself as a role model, but her case will inevitably stand out – because of her circumstances, her age, and the moment she’s living in her career.

“I’ve been reading a lot about the subject, but there are very few cases of professional cyclists. There are more among athletes in general – skiers, runners…” For now, Alonso continues to train, though without high-intensity efforts. She rides her bike away from traffic, always with company, and she’s lifting heavier weights in the gym than ever before. It’s all part of a plan drawn up by her coach. “I talk to him a lot about training, about how we can make the most of this phase, how the ‘crazy hormones’ work, how the body changes during pregnancy, and how we can use that to our advantage in the future”.

Her training plan should include some endurance rides and interval sessions, though those are proving impossible in the hot Spanish summer. “The first trimester is the most delicate due to the risks, and the second – which is when I could benefit the most – has landed right in the middle of summer. The doctors allow me to keep training, even doing impact sports like running. I’ve always done it and I’m still going at 5 min/km pace without feeling tired,” explains Sandra, now in her fifth month of pregnancy. “I’m lucky to be dealing with it so well”. 

“Strength is a key part. I’m doing gym work and low-cadence efforts on the bike, and that’s something I’ll build on later. It’s a way of speeding up my recovery and my return to racing”. 

There’s no firm timeline for that return yet, but one date is already marked on her calendar: “I’d love to race the Spanish National Championships in 2026 – though it looks like it’s going to be very mountainous,” she says, referring to plans by the Spanish Federation to hold the event in Sabiñánigo, in the Aragonese Pyrenees.

And when will training resume? 

“The birth is expected for late November or early December. After that, it’ll depend on the baby!”

Sandra points out that some male cyclists, by contrast, “sleep in a separate room because they need to rest or train the next day” when they become fathers – a big contrast with the responsibilities that come with motherhood… and with the lack of male parental leave across most of the sport.

When it comes to the future of the women’s cycling industry, Alonso is clear about where the focus needs to be. “Television makes a big difference. Since races have started being broadcast, everything has grown. There are more races, more fans… But we also need to make brands feel involved, and for companies to see real value in sponsoring us”.

“In Spain, teams like Bizkaia Durango – the oldest we had – have disappeared. That was where riders like Mavi García and I came from. But it’s also true that the push towards professionalism is a big motivation for the young riders”. Many Continental-level amateur teams struggled to meet the new minimum salary requirements.

And when it comes to visibility, reach and audience, nothing quite compares to the Tour de France. “I rode the first edition and it was incredible. Crowds everywhere – from the start to the finish. It was amazing. Every village, every climb… That kind of audience helps everything else grow”. 

But it was another iconic race, one still closely linked to the men’s calendar, that really put her name on the international map. “I did Paris-Roubaix in my first year with the team and, even though I was scared, I really enjoyed it. That fear kept me alert. When we hit the first cobbled sector, it looked like a minefield – girls on the ground, bikes everywhere”. Sandra achieved a historic top 10 for Spanish cycling in her Roubaix debut in 2022… only to crash out with a broken collarbone before even reaching the first sector in 2023. Two sides of the same coin.

As for the future of women’s cycling, she’s confident that one day we’ll see the Arenberg Forest included in Roubaix, 200km stages and even full three-week Grand Tours. “All that will change, just like the minimum wage has. Women’s cycling is evolving, and the average level is going up fast.” 

Motherhood in professional riders is still a relatively unexplored field from a scientific point of view – but performance, data and competition always follow behind social and cultural change. And in that context, role models tend to outlast the stars.