Vegan Cycling Team Natural Athletes

Emily Thurston is a category one cyclist. She is also a vegan.

Thurston, a Berkeley resident, rides with Team Vegan, a Bay Area cycling team working to change a perception that athletes need animal products to perform at their peak. The team, part of the nonprofit organization OrganicAthlete, is the first elite cycling team in the United States whose members exclusively follow a vegan lifestyle.

OrganicAthlete is the creation of Sebastopol resident Bradley Saul, who is also a member of the cycling team. Saul said he created OrganicAthlete to inform other athletes about veganism and to create a community and support group for athletes who are vegan.

“We’re trying to dispel the myth that you can’t be health-based and fit,” Saul said.

Although there are other vegan cycling teams, Team Vegan, founded this year, is unique because it has so many category one and two riders, Saul said. The team participates in the highest-level amateur races.

The team competed in its second race together at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey this weekend, but the women’s race, Thurston’s event, was cancelled due to rain.

Saul said the team is important because it provides examples of athletes who are top performers as well as vegans, who can serve as role models.

Thurston has only been vegan for two months, but has been cycling competitively since 1997, and placed in the top five at the USA Cycling Elite Road National Championships in 1999 and 2001. She took a five-year break from cycling and just returned last season.

“It’s like starting all over again,” Thurston said. “It’s hard, but it’s really satisfying.”

Thurston said cycling for a vegan team has had a great effect on her motivation and her sense of team spirit.

“I feel more strongly about representing the team. Having a common philosophy is a huge motivation,” she said, adding that it feels good to be a role model for other athletes. “The other racers often ask if we’re really vegan.”

Thurston said she feels better and healthier about her new lifestyle.

“I’ve been fine. I feel more clear, more healthy and energetic. I’ve been doing better than last year,” she said.

Besides the diet restricting all forms of animal products, vegans do not take non-natural nutritional supplements, which are sometimes common among other athletes.

“There are a lot of really weird supplements out there. It’s possible to give this stuff up,” she said. “I’ve never liked my supplements. It never felt healthy, and its not consistent with my environmental philosophy, but for years, I thought you had to do it to be fast.”

OrganicAthlete also organizes the Tour d’Organics, a series of cycling races that use organic farms as rest stops.

Saul said his primary goal for the team is to get bigger and better.

“I would like to see the team go to a pro level,” he said.

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