US all-around rider Veronica Ewers put the brakes on the rest of her 2024 road season, taking extended time away from racing and training to recover from relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S). A joint decision was made with her EF Education-Cannondale team “in the interest of her mental and physical health”.
“I'm recovering from RED-S [relative energy deficiency in sport], and it was pretty clear at the end of last year, coming into this year, that I was suffering from it,” Ewers said in a team press release.
“I had gotten a stress fracture in my heel, which prompted the team to have me get a DEXA scan and get some blood testing done, which showed that my bone density was quite poor, and my estrogen levels were pretty much non-existent. I was experiencing all of the symptoms of RED-S.”
The National Library of Medicine (in the US), describes RED-S as a syndrome caused by an energy imbalance that can lead to severe health consequences, for women and men, including cardiovascular, reproductive and psychological issues.
When EF Education-Cannondale announced it would launch a new Continental women’s team for 2024, Ewers was the first rider confirmed for the squad, signing a two-year deal. Her aspirations were to move into a leadership role for Grand Tours, where she finished fourth overall at last year’s Giro d’Italia Women and ninth the season before at the Tour de France Femmes.
“I've been training or practicing sports pretty competitively since I was 10 or 11. So this is a very new experience for me, and it's very scary. It sounds kind of ridiculous for this to be scary, but it's jumping into the unknown,” she noted.
At the end of the 2023 season, Ewers spoke on a team podcast about the ups and downs she had experienced with mental health issues. She continued with ‘a dark cloudy headspace’ in January and had support from her teammates at a team camp in Mallorca to help her recharge for 2024 but she had limited race starts and never got the momentum she wanted.
“So going into this year, when I joined the new team, we really focused on me getting healthier. At the beginning of this year, the team said, ‘We're going to try and get you to a healthy place. That might mean that performance takes a hit, but we'll make some adaptations at the beginning of this year, and then hopefully it'll come around mid-season'.
“And so my training changed because my body needed to heal and recover in certain ways. This then impacted my performance, which then had a domino effect on my mental health even more than I've already struggled with in the past. So, at this point, I think there are still some physical blocks happening when it comes to performance, but I also think the mental side is a big part.”
EF Education said they would provide access to team resources for Ewers, who noted her estrogen levels and hormones were “still not where they need to be”.
The 29-year-old completed Setmana Ciclista Valenciana in February and did not race again until three Spring Classics in mid-April. She was able to help teammate Kim Cadzow to 10th overall and Alison Jackson and Kirsten Faulkner to stage wins at Vuelta España Femenina as the team was the best Continental squad, and third-best overall, at the eight-stage race.
A consistent performer at US Road Nationals, the 2021 bronze medalist in the time trial had her lowest placing since that first year, eighth in the ITT and 14th in the road race. She has not raced since US Nationals in West Virginia a month ago.
The time away from racing would also be time completely off the bike for Ewers for a full physical and mental reset. She planned to remain in Europe and travel with family, then travel back to the US for an extended time.
“I'm going to take advantage of this time by travelling a bit with my parents. They're going to be with me to explore, and I get to be a proper tourist for the first time in a very long time. I'm looking forward to it,” she said in the team statement.
“After doing a bit of travelling here, I'll go back to the States and go to my family's lake house in northern Idaho, which I haven't been to in the summertime in maybe eight years. It's honestly one of my favourite places on this planet. So I'm really excited to get there, and I think it will give me a lot of peace just being in that place. But I just can spend some time with my family and friends while I'm there in one of my favourite places and just get that reset.”
