Love, Grit, and Gears: The Vande Velde Story Artwork

Running Ahrens

One Couple. Two People. Four Kids. And decades of figuring it out—together.

Running Ahrens is a podcast about the long game of marriage, parenting, business, and personal growth. Hosted by Justin and Sarah Ahrens, a couple married for over 30 years with four kids and decades of entrepreneurial experience, this show is about the lessons learned through successes, failures, and everything in between.

With a focus on mindset, honesty, accountability, and kindness, Justin and Sarah dive into real conversations about building a family, running businesses, navigating faith, friendships, and growing through the hard stuff. Still learning, still laughing, still running together, they share what they’ve figured out (and what they haven’t) with humor, humility, and heart.

Along the way, they’re joined by friends, guests, and even their kids for open, often funny, and always heartfelt conversations about what really matters: relationships, resilience, and the lessons that come with time. You’ll also hear about the books, tools, and resources that have helped them along the way, so you can take what resonates and apply it to your own life.

If you’re looking for honest stories, practical wisdom, and a reminder that no one’s running this race perfectly, you’re in the right place.

All Episodes

Running Ahrens

Love, Grit, and Gears: The Vande Velde Story

November 17, 2025 • Season 1 • Episode 19

What happens when the person you grew up with becomes one of the fastest cyclists in the world? And what happens when your life together becomes a mix of airports, race radios, tiny apartments overseas, and two babies born into a world that never slows down?

In this episode of Running Ahrens, we sit down with Christian and Leah Vande Velde, childhood friends, high school sweethearts, and partners who have spent three decades learning how to stay connected through a life that has never been simple.

From third grade band class in Lemont to the Tour de France to building a new chapter in Greenville, their story is full of love, detours, restarts, and the kind of grit you only learn by living it.

This isn’t a sports story.
It’s a relationship story.
It’s about what it looks like to keep choosing each other when the pace is fast, the pressure is real, and the path is rarely straight.

What We Cover

Meeting in third grade and finally dating senior year
Breaking up so they could grow, and finding their way back
Choosing cycling over college and stepping into the Olympic Training Center
Leaving everything familiar to start a life in Girona, Spain
Having their first daughter there, and sending Christian to the Tour two days later
What it really means to be married to a pro athlete without losing yourself
Watching their daughters grow up around cyclists, commentators, and “uncles” from all over the world

Takeaways and Talking Points

Love in Real Life
How you stay connected when one partner is gone most of the year and the other is carrying the everyday load.

Identity Beyond the Jersey
Why both people need dreams, not just the one in the spotlight.

Risk, Regret, and Saying Yes
Choosing a sport, choosing a move, choosing each other, and learning which risks are worth it.

Parenting on Two Continents
Raising kids across time zones and race seasons, and what the girls actually remember.

Life After Racing
Retiring from pro sport, trying on new careers, and finding a new rhythm with NBC, Peloton, and a vintage ice cream truck.

Things We’re Learning (and Unlearning)

A big life doesn’t require a big ego.
Supporting someone else’s dream shouldn’t erase your own.
Home is built through habits, not geography.
The small things hold everything together.
The real endurance work is choosing each other again and again.

A Few Numbers

Most pro cycling careers last under 10 years. Christian raced for 17.
The Vande Veldes have lived in multiple states and countries, yet talk about Boulder and Girona like old friends.

This episode is not a highlight reel.
It’s a look underneath the race coverage and into a marriage built on honesty, resilience, humor, and a lot of showing up.

Thanks for listening,
Justin & Sarah

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