CAN SUSTAINABILITY & PERFORMANCE COEXIST?

By Isabella Bertold

Isabella Bertold is a professional cyclist and sailor who captained Team Canada in the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup in 2024. When not racing, she works in health venture capital with a focus on impact investing and emerging health technologies. Isabella also writes a weekly Substack newsletter, The Coffee Shop Download, where she shares personal reflections from her life as an athlete and sustainability advocate.

Read it at: thecoffeeshopdownload.substack.com

photo credit: Isabella Bertold

Before cycling, I spent 17 years in Olympic sailing, a sport I fell in love with for its deep connection to nature. That same connection fuels my passion for the bike: the way it gives us access to the outdoors, the landscape, and the rhythms of the natural world.

Nature has always been both my training ground and my refuge. It’s where I push limits as an athlete, and also where I slow down to find calm. Over time, curiosity about the outdoors has evolved into deep respect. And with that respect comes responsibility. I try to minimise my footprint, I’ve introduced sustainability initiatives in team settings, and I use my platform to encourage mindful travel and waste reduction.

Despite all this, I still feel the tension between sustainability and performance, between sponsorship models and environmental realities, between entrenched habits and new ideas. Where there is tension, there is opportunity, but it takes people willing to ask new questions, accept the risk that comes with trying something different, and it takes collective action across cycling culture.

One of the first questions we need to ask: can sponsorship and sustainability coexist?

Sponsorship is one of the lifelines of professional cycling. It funds teams, pays riders, and drives innovation that eventually trickles down to every cyclist. Around 87% of men’s WorldTour team budgets still come directly from sponsors, showing how tightly performance and marketing are intertwined.

But sponsorship also carries a hidden cost: the implicit message that progress equals new. New bikes, new wheels, new kit. #NewBikeDay has become cycling’s cultural currency.

The numbers tell a story the cycling media rarely covers. A WorldTour team can burn through more than 200 wheels in a season, often swapping out perfectly good ones for marginal gains. Even before it touches the road, a single carbon bike carries a footprint of around 100kg of CO₂e. Multiply that by thousands of frames, and the impact is impossible to ignore.

When millions of cyclists watch their heroes constantly upgrade equipment, the message is clear: what you have isn’t good enough. Your three-year-old carbon frame is “outdated.” That same model that keeps the sport alive also accelerates waste, shortens product lifecycles, and reinforces consumer habits that are anything but sustainable.

If we want sponsorship and sustainability to coexist, we need to rethink the model from the ground up.

photo credit: Isabella Bertold

From #NewBikeDay to #StillGoingStrong

Cycling’s current sponsorship model is built on novelty. “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” But what if we flipped the script?

Imagine if the viral post wasn’t #NewBikeDay, but #StillGoingStrong, celebrating a groupset that’s survived 30,000km of racing and training. Picture a rider posting about the same wheels that carried them through multiple Grand Tours. That kind of durability isn’t a weakness; it’s a story of resilience.

This isn’t just marketing theatre, it’s good business. When Trek launched its certified resale program, bikes sold within days. In cities across Europe, riders are embracing models like Swapfiets, where the bike is serviced, repaired, and kept in use instead of endlessly replaced.

Performance will always matter in cycling. But it doesn’t have to mean disposability. And riders can play a central role in shifting that mindset.

Athletes as Partners, Not Just Billboards

Professional cyclists are more than rolling advertisements; we’re the ultimate product testers. Who better to validate whether a new material holds up under the demands of a cobbled classic, or whether electronic shifting can last a full season without requiring replacement?

Sponsorship deals could evolve from “showcase what’s new” to “co-create what’s better.” Riders could work alongside brands on durability, repairability, and lifecycle testing, helping prove that longevity is a performance metric too.

I’ve lived the contradictions myself. I’ve been the rider who replaced bar tape because it looked worn in photos, even though it was functionally perfect. I’ve tossed tyres with thousands of safe kilometres left because they didn’t look “fresh” enough for a race finish. I understand the pressures of performance and presentation, and I also know how those pressures fuel unnecessary consumption.

By naming these limitations openly, distinguishing between genuine performance requirements and habits of convenience, we can work with sponsors to close those gaps. Maybe that scuffed helmet is fine for training, but not for the podium. Maybe some wheels really do need replacing for safety. Let’s be honest about which is which.

From Marginal Gains to Sustainable Gains

Cycling has long been obsessed with marginal gains, those tiny improvements that add up to a race-winning edge. But what if some of that focus shifted toward sustainable gains?

Imagine teams tracking kilometres per frame, seasons per wheelset, or races per chain. Picture a broadcast feature comparing which team’s gear lasts longest with the same enthusiasm we give to bike weight competitions.

Durability often goes hand-in-hand with quality. A carbon frame that lasts 100,000km without fatigue is likely stronger and better engineered than one that needs replacing every season. 

Celebrate Progress, Not Perfection

Balancing sustainability and performance at the WorldTour level isn’t simple. Crashed carbon frames can’t be repaired like steel. Race calendars create logistical challenges. Safety standards rightly prioritise rider protection.

But none of that should stop us from celebrating progress. Whether it’s recycled fibres in a jersey, mechanics rebuilding rather than replacing components, or second lives for race-used bikes, every step, and every story matters. Cyclists are technical, we understand the trade-offs. What we want is honesty, not greenwashing.

photo credit: Sami Sauri

Rethinking Cycling’s Business Model

At its core, this is a business model question. If a brand’s survival depends solely on selling more units every year, sustainability will always be at odds with sponsorship. But if revenue also flows from services, upgrades, repair programmes, or certified resale, then product longevity becomes an asset, not a threat.

We could even reimagine the flow of investment itself. Sponsorship has always been one-directional: from brand to team to athlete. But what if riders had the chance to invest back into the sustainability initiatives of their partners? Imagine joint ventures between professional teams and impact funds, where capital is not only supporting the team but also underwriting innovation projects, accelerating sustainable product development that might otherwise be commercially risky.

So, can sponsorship and sustainability coexist in cycling? 

Yes…but only if we’re willing to rewrite the story.

That means:

• Riders normalising repair, celebrating durability, and demanding better from sponsors.

• Brands experimenting with revenue models that profit from longevity, not just novelty.

• Media highlighting sustainability innovations with the same energy as wind tunnel tests.

• Fans rewarding the companies that put durability and circularity at the centre.

  
  

I don’t say this as an outsider pointing fingers. I say it as someone inside the peloton. I know the pressures of performance and presentation. I know why equipment gets discarded for marginal gains. But I also know athletes have the power to change the narrative.

The question isn’t whether sponsorship and sustainability can coexist. It’s whether we, as cyclists, brands, and fans, are willing to evolve beyond #NewBikeDay. Because the stories we tell now will decide not just the future of our sport, but whether the landscapes we ride through will still be there for the next generation.

The best ride might not always require the newest bike. Sometimes it’s about the bike you know, the one that’s carried you through countless kilometres, the one that’s earned its place in your story. And it’s time cycling culture celebrated that story too.

This essay by Isabella Bertold was originally published in Shift Cycling Culture's Climate Action Pulse Check Report 2025. The Pulse Check is our annual global assessment of how the cycling industry is progressing in their climate efforts and how cyclists feel about it.

You can read the full free report including industry case studies and cycling consumer insights on our website here: CLIMATE ACTION PULSE CHECK REPORT 2025