Biologically, I have zero sisters. In reality, I have about 68. 

My parents have owned DNA Pro Cycling, an international professional women’s cycling team, for the past 12 years. The team is a Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) women’s continental team and in 2023 was ranked 37th in the world (including world tour teams) and 22nd for continental teams. The team has had members from across the world, including Germany and New Zealand, and boasts national champions from Great Britain, Colombia, Mexico, Canada and the United States. And, for the past decade, these world-class athletes have been my housemates, meal companions and sources of life advice.

The team has shown me not only the importance of women in sports but also my parents’ dedication to equity in professional cycling. They support riders so they can focus on racing, allowing them to reach their goals. 

Many female cyclists are limited because of income inequality. While professional male cyclists make at least a minimum wage of 40,045 euros a year (and, at best, up to millions of dollars), 70% of female riders outside of the Women’s WorldTour earn less than 10,000 euros a year, 25% are unpaid and most work a second job. My parents work to not only support their riders but also to promote every rider and team they encounter, elevating women’s professional cycling as a whole.

A couple of years ago, I went to a local clinic to promote women’s cycling in Salt Lake City with the DNA Pro Cycling team, crowded into a hot pink sprinter van. Despite torrential downpours and wind, I witnessed the camaraderie and joy of the riders, who chatted with the new cyclists and made them laugh. It felt like I was witnessing the start of a new passion for the women who attended the clinic. 

The strength of the women on the team has enriched and motivated my experience as an athlete. Daily, I hear my parents’ mission reflected in my rowing coach telling us repeatedly about our team’s important role in helping to propel women’s collegiate rowing as a whole.

And even though I was, at times, exasperated with the way bike racing played such a prominent role in my non-bike-racer lifestyle, the team has given me countless unique opportunities and connections. 

In 2012, the team’s first year, I took silly photos at one of its first photo shoots. In high school, I got mani-pedis and went shopping with Maggie Coles-Lyster, who was the 2022 Elite Canadian National Road and Criterium Champion and is now a WorldTour rider. This past year, I ate mole that the 2022 Mexican National Time Trial champion, Anet Barrera, made for my family.

I’ve spent hours on street corners watching criterium races and watched cyclists staying at my house leave for their hours-long training rides. I witnessed riders spending the better part of the day riding, lifting and working out. 

I saw the strength of these cyclists not only as elite athletes, but as women in general. 

The women on the team balance school, families and jobs to pursue their passion. One of the first riders on the team, Breanne Nalder-Harward, is a registered dietitian nutritionist with two kids. Mikayla Schaefer, another of the first riders to live with my family, went to college and graduate school, and has since become a director in the Operational Project Management Office at the University of Utah –– all while balancing her friends and family. Every rider on the team has simultaneously pursued school or work while kicking ass at elite races across the world. They motivate me to find balance in my own life.

My parents always tell me that I have a lot of sisters. As we have all grown up side-by-side, we have experienced and talked about each other’s ups and downs: breakups, graduations, weddings and children. In fact, it was Heather “Smash” Fischer, long-time DNA rider and close family friend, who told me when I went to school to “try things you aren’t good at and talk to people you don’t know.” She’s how I learned college can be transformative.

This year, some of the riders are around the same year as me in college. The talent and drive of every member of the team, current and past, inspire me to pursue my passions and push myself.

I have not yet taken after my parents’ love of racing bikes (in the seventh grade, I was lapped by a six-year-old in a Cyclo-cross race). But then again, who knows what the future holds. Cycling is kind of in my DNA.

Chiara Kim is a Medill junior. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.