It is now only five days until 154 of the world’s best cyclists arrive in France for a week of racing in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
At this stage before the Grand Départ in Vannes, riders are likely fine-tuning their nutrition, finishing the last of their long preparation rides before pre-race recovery kicks in. It’s almost exactly what the men would be considering in this window before a big race – except for one, crucial thing.
Periods.
Most riders preparing to race the Tour will be somewhere along their menstrual cycle. Some will be experiencing that post-bleed oestrogen-induced euphoria, others will be in the mid-luteal phase, where bone strength is at its highest due to peaks in both oestrogen and progesterone. Some will be cramping up, unable to move under the burn of back pain – that is, assuming that each woman has a predictable cycle. For some women struggling with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis or hypothalamic amenorrhoea, the chaos of the monthly cycle and associated pain can be harder – or simply impossible – to account for.
“Most athletes have been in that position where they’ve either realised [they were about to have a period] a few days before, or they’ve started on the day of the race,” Coop-Repsol rider Monica Greenwood told me.
“And quite often, when you prepare for a big event, you’ll get a period which is really inconvenient, because [that race is] maybe your one season goal for the year.
“It’s something we’ve all gone through, and so it’s just about supporting each other through those times.”
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One rider encouraging other women to think more acutely about how their periods affect their bodies, minds, and athletic performance is 2023 Tour winner Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) (with the caveat that women on hormonal birth control might experience their menstrual cycle differently).
“[It’s] a normal part of life for female athletes, and something we don’t talk about enough,” she wrote in an Instagram post in May.
“What matters most is that we understand and support our bodies – whatever that looks like. Yes, some days are tougher: energy can be lower, sleep is disrupted, having bad legs, coordination off, or motivation harder to find. But other days – like the ones following menstruation – can feel like a boost: strength returns, mood lifts, recovery improves, less sleep needed. That rhythm, when you know it well, can actually become a performance tool.”
And this experience – long known by many women – is now being backed up by research. The UK Sports Institute (UKSI), for example, found that increased levels of oestrogen in women’s bodies makes them less likely to experience muscle injuries than men. They also found, however, that connective tissue at this time becomes stiffer in women, making them more prone to injuries like anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) damage, which is commonly suffered by female footballers.
Finding ways to better understand how the body works throughout the cycle, and how to harness its changes, is important both on and off the bike. One way of doing this, is through female-specific nutrition strategies.
During the period, the body needs more macronutrients like protein to promote cellular repair after the body loses blood. In the following 13-14 days, eating more carbs can built fat as increased levels of oestrogen and progesterone make exercise feel a little tougher, increasing the dependence on the body’s fuel reserves. The body is able to use more of the fat deposits during the next phase, when oestrogen is at its highest.
Then comes the dreaded luteal phase: energy drops, moods lower and performance can suffer as cravings kick in. In the build-up to menstruation, it becomes important to increase protein intake, as the body prepares to shed the lining of the uterus. And the cycle begins again.
In their recommendations to athletes, UKSI encourages female athletes to monitor their menstrual cycle so they can begin to notice at which times of the month that injuries are more common, when they feel stronger and more energised, therefore adapting their training plans around the chemical and physical changes in their bodies.
GB’s elite women’s track cycling team discovered the impact of this with immense effect recently, when their team was allocated a squad-specific coach, after years of sharing one with the men’s team.
“It was when we separated the squads and we were seen as different athletes, that our squad really started to grow,” track sprint cyclist Sophie Capewell told BBC 5Live in a viral online interview.
“We were having a massive incidence of lower back pain. There are parts of a woman’s cycle where your ligaments are more susceptible to stretching and times of the month where it might not be a good idea to push it in the gym because even if your technique is good, you’re still susceptible to extra injuries.
“We were losing over 400 days of missed training and we managed to get that down to 1.”
As Capewell’s interview clocks upwards of 18,000 views as of today’s writing, there is clearly an interest – and a need – for these kinds of conversations within sport.
However, cyclist and ex-British Cycling coach Greenwood, found that for women training today, the opposite can be true.
“I would say, generally, that [the riders] don’t want to change train around their cycle,” she said, reflecting on her time as coach.
“They found it interesting to understand why they might not feel so strong at different parts of the cycle, and why they might be more vulnerable to injury to certain parts of the cycle, but generally, they haven’t wanted to phase their training around it.
“Most women are used to it being an inconvenience. I think that it’s just something that people have always had to cope with. A lot of athletes are so driven that they don’t want to feel like they’re backing off training because of it.”
The idea that reacting to the body’s natural changes can be equated with slacking, and “backing off training” is symptomatic of wider cultural ideas about women’s bodies as they try to conform to standards set by men. In considering the menstrual cycle during training, Capewell and her track cycling team recouped 400 days lost to injury and fatigue – deciding when to push training and when not to, actually transformed the team’s performance.
“What really struck a chord was I went on the UK Sport workshop, and they had a doctor talk about training around your period,” Greenwood said.
“And it was absolutely fascinating. She totally changed how I thought about it in terms of, by having a natural period, you have a boost [of energy] at day 15, and that’s an absolute benefit. My mindset was, like a lot of people, it’s an inconvenience, it’s something we have to deal with. But that changed my understanding of it. Reframing it and seeing it as a positive rather than negative.”
Cycling isn’t separate from the wider social conditioning that keeps us afraid of talking about our periods for fear of being seen as dirty, or – in a culture still largely informed by the male gaze – undesirable. With limited research into women’s reproductive problems like PCOS, a hormonal disorder that affects 1 in 10 menstruating women in the UK, and a cultural silencing about the many different ways women experience periods, the natural functioning of our bodies is still made to feel optional, illicit, secret – a luxury reflected in VAT slammed on period products.
All these and more contribute to a pervasive shaming of women’s bodies, and the consequential notion that accounting for changes in your body around the menstrual cycle is an inconvenience better avoided – an example of you “backing off training” rather than recognising all the many brilliant things your body juggles across its month-long hormonal cycle.
Women should have the option to train for their bodies, rather than trying to fit into training plans written for male ones. As Vollering said last spring, the menstrual cycle can actually be a tool to work more closely with your body, rather than against it.
Talking about periods and performance within bike racing and beyond is one, necessary step towards better understanding the benefits it can bring to race times and strength training.
“I think it just means that young riders within the sport can feel more comfortable talking about [the menstrual cycle], because you see those people at the top of the sport talking about it straight away,” Greenwood said.
“That means that they’re having conversations with coaches, and they don’t put that barrier up straight away. You know, even if they’re working with a male coach, maybe they have that conversation because they’ve heard people talking about it on Instagram.”
Reflecting the uphill battle still faced by many menstruating people – especially those competing at the height of their sport – Vollering ends her Instagram post with something almost universally felt.
“Sometimes this can still feel like a maze.”
