The biggest race on the calendar of the women’s World Tour is currently ongoing at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes. The sport of women’s cycling has been rocked though, by the revelations of an anonymous, whistleblowing team doctor about the struggles of the women’s World Tour and their eating disorders.
“Some riders lie. They send photos of meals they didn’t actually eat, or of a scale showing someone else’s weight,” reveals the World Tour doctor in bombshell comments to Belgian magazine Knack, criticising the attitude of some of the riders. “They don’t think about the health risks — only performance matters. ‘I don’t want children anyway,’ or ‘Osteoporosis? That’s for later,’ is what you hear.”
A big problem to this, is the question of how to best tackle this issue going forward. “We work with dietitians, physiotherapists, gynaecologists, and psychologists who all stress that being extremely thin offers no competitive advantage,” explains the anonymous whistleblower. “When we see troubling signs, we do try to step in. But we can’t monitor every meal. At training camps, we can keep a close eye, but once the riders are at home, it becomes much harder.”
This news has not surprised former Belgian cycling star and team director Heidi Van De Vijver either. “I avoided every gram of fat, weighed all my food, and calculated my calorie intake based on my training,” she recalls. “After winning the Tour (the former Tour Féminin, ed.), I wanted to improve even further — but I went too far. My body fat dropped to just eight percent. That’s when I realised I needed to put two or three kilos back on.”
“When I confronted a rider who was too thin, I was often met with a very defensive reaction. I’d then turn to the team doctor or nutritionist — they had a better chance of getting through to her,” concludes Van De Vijver.