Evelyn Stevens
Born on 9 May 1983, Stevens is a retired pro road rider and time triallist. After graduating from university, she worked in financial services but quit her job to take up cycling full time. She won the national time trial championship, several WWT races and broke the hour record in 2016. The Californian rider is one of only three women, along with Trixi Worrack and Ellen van Dijk, to have won four gold medals in the team time trial at the World Championships. She got into cycling through her sister, who encouraged her to try it, and she has not looked back since. After retiring from professional sport, she went back working in finance and for the past four years has been a principal of a private equity firm in San Francisco. Something you might not have known about her is a quirky habit she practices ever night: Stevens sets her alarm clock before bed to a time that has to have the number 5 in it.
Bella van der Spiegel-Hage
The former pro rider turned 73 years on 5 May. The Dutch rider comes from a family of cyclists. Seven of her family members, including sisters Keetie, Heleen and Ciska, were active in the sport. She rode professionally between 1967 and 1979 and held multiple national road championship titles. Together with her sisters she would accompany her father at an early age on long rides to his cycling club, sometimes clocking up 90 km per day. Never quite achieving the success of her younger sisters, she put it down to her lack of competitiveness. Nevertheless, the success of today’s Dutch women’s cycling has its roots way back in 1966 when Bella won the second ever Dutch national title, starting a movement that keeps still growing today. |
