'When someone grabs your stomach every morning to show you’re fat, it gets into your head': the world champion's battle to regain a healthy mindset with food

World champion Magdeleine Vallieres has described the demeaning treatment that characterised the earlier part of her racing career, with a coach grabbing her stomach on a daily basis and "blackmailing us with food".

The 24-year-old Canadian became underweight, frequently ill, and obsessed with food, she said in an interview with L'Équipe. Her period also stopped for a time.

Things improved after she moved to current team EF Education-Oatly, but it still took her a long time to get back to a healthy mindset around nutrition, she said.

Referring to an unnamed coach at her previous set-up, the WCC Team, Vallieres said: "He told us we were fat, that we would be better off if we were lighter. He blackmailed us with food, saying that if we ate certain things, we’d have to run behind the team car.

"When someone grabs your stomach every morning to show you that you’re fat, it eventually gets into your head."

Vallieres said she was still learning the basics, and that she did not understand the importance of adequately fuelling training sessions.

“I restricted myself… he said we weren’t allowed to eat sugar, even though we actually needed it. I ate more salad than anything else; it didn’t do me any good, it only made me feel worse,” she said.

After two seasons at WCC, she joined EF Education-Tibco-SVB for 2022, where things began to improve.

But, she said: "It took a year before I had a healthy mindset around nutrition again. Anna, the team’s nutritionist, told me that getting my period back was becoming a priority – and that was also what I wanted, because I knew it wasn’t normal."

Proper fuelling and nutrition saw Vallieres achieve a healthy racing weight just before the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and the way she celebrated was proof she had shaken her food anxieties.

"I celebrated by buying myself a small cake, and my team-mates came to congratulate me," she said. "Anna kept telling me how much stronger I was going to become."

Vallieres is far from the only recent story surrounding women's health in cycling. Only two weeks ago, Vallieres' EF Education team-mate Veronica Ewers announced a pause from racing after revealing she had not had her period in years and that she had become physically broken down.

"I’ve put myself into a hole by abusing my body for too long… My body needs a full reset before it can be at its best. I’m tired of being mediocre," Ewers said.

Previously, this year's Tour de France Femmes winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's weight loss made the headlines with the French rider criticised for shedding a reported 4kg in preparation for the race. She was accused in social media of setting a poor example to young girls, and competitor Marlen Reusser said that Ferrand-Prévot's strategy "puts pressure on all of us".

As for Vallieres, she has her own opinions: "Being thin to win is not a good example for the next generation. It’s not right. My experience has taught me that being healthy is the best way to perform."