Kristen Faulkner has talked at length about her disqualification from Strade Bianche for wearing a continuous glucose monitor sensor, revealing she intends to push the UCI for greater clarity and use her own experience to raise awareness and start a conversation around glucose and women’s health.
“If I can have a similar mission and purpose in my life as a pro athlete, that’s even more meaningful to me. This has given me a purpose behind my riding that is much greater than a third place at Strade Bianche,” Faulkner told Rouleur (opens in new tab).
The 30-year-old American revealed she began to use a Supersapiens continuous glucose monitor system last year after problems with her fueling.
“In training, I followed conventional guidelines and ate a gel every 15 minutes on intensity days, and every 20 minutes on endurance days, but even that led to spikes and crashes, which perpetuated my problem. Within a few months of using Supersapiens to track my glucose levels, my period came back. For me, that was a really important health moment,” Faulkner said.
“I’m nervous that I’m going to lose my period again and that’s quite concerning from a health standpoint for me, especially when I tried different things for so many years and I finally found something that really helped me.
“It’s pretty demoralising as a woman to have this organisation of mostly men tell me what I can and cannot use. They haven’t cited any sources about women’s health, they have no idea what causes amenorrhea, the relationship between glucose and yet, without that information, they still have the authority to govern it.”
Faulkner finished third at Strade Bianche after a 31km solo attack. However, her result was soon overshadowed after a glucose monitor sensor was seen underneath her jersey on her left arm.
The UCI opened an investigation and then disqualified her from the Strade Bianche results for wearing a continuous glucose monitoring sensor throughout the race. Faulkner claimed the sensor on her arm was never connected to the app, and so no data was ever downloaded or used.
She told Rouleur that she asked a member of her team’s staff if she would be allowed to keep her glucose monitoring patch on and was told that it would be “fine” as long as it didn’t record data.
“After the race, my team doctor came up to me. And he’s like, Kristen, why are you wearing this? It was all over the news. I was like, what are you talking about? I’ve been wearing it all week, and…
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