Kim Stoveld gives the Philly Cycling Classic women’s race a local team to root for
Stoveld, a nurse, began racing in 2021 when the Classic was in its 10-year hiatus. It didn't take long for her to make a name for herself in the sport.
If home course advantage is a thing, Kim Stoveld has it ahead of Sunday’s Philadelphia Cycling Classic.
The only Philadelphia cyclist competing in the women’s race, which starts at 8:30 a.m., Stoveld used to watch the race on Lemon Hill with her friends from 2013, when she moved to Philly, until 2016, the race’s last year prior to its return this year.
Stoveld, now 37 years old, started competing in road races in 2021, winning four of her six events that year.
A former Division I swimmer at the University of Buffalo, Stoveld took two years off from athletic competitions after graduating before she struggled not having sports in her life. Trying to find her fit, she picked up marathon running and did some triathlons before switching to cycling around the pandemic due to her husband’s involvement with the sport.
“I was tired of just watching him race,” Stoveld said. “He gave me his bike when he upgraded, and I got on that bike and started racing, and I had a really good time. That was in the end of 2021, and then by 2022, got pretty serious with bike racing and raced 40 to 50 times a year, and here we are, a couple years later.”
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By 2022, Stoveld earned a spot on the Automatic Racing team, racing alongside former Olympians and professionals.
Stoveld, however, does not have the distinction of a “professional,” per the Union Cycliste Internationale. Still, she will be racing against professionals and UCI World and UCI Continental teams, and likes her chances.
“We’re just really excited as a team to be there,” Stoveld said. “On paper, probably, we are a smaller, maybe less competitive team, but I’ve talked to all the girls on the team, and all six of us are all trying to win.”
Two of the six women who make up Automatic Racing with Stoveld are Arielle Verhaaren and Ivanie Blondin. Verhaaren was the first American woman to win an elite UCI BMX World Cup, and the first UCI WC series champion. She was selected as a member of the 2012 USA BMX Olympic team before a crash prevented her from competing. Blondin, a two-time Gold- and silver-medal speed skater for Team Canada who competed in the 2026 Milan Olympics, is in her second year with Automatic Racing.
Tom Gibbons, one of the co-founders of Automatic Racing, said Stoveld is “a big part” of why they’re competing with the team.
“We punch above our weight when it comes to recruitment,” Gibbons said. “Kim is really well liked in the bunch and in the community, and people see her and the attitude that she brings to racing and how deep she can dig and they want to be a part of that.”
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With a smaller team, Gibbon said there are a few difficulties that come with the operation, including financing. Since the team’s inception in 2019, Gibbons said he and Lauren Dodge, the other co-founder, have built a network, including sponsorships, but some of the financial burden does fall back on the riders.
Stoveld works full-time as a nurse at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, which helps support her passion for the sport. But it also offers challenges like finding a way to balance her commitments.
An early riser, Stoveld will ride her bike into work before an eight-hour workday. After a ride home, she will spend anywhere from an hour and a half to four hours training before eating dinner and going to sleep.
On weekends, Stoveld said she gets to sleep in and ride all day, sometimes with four to five hour rides.
“It’s difficult to balance. The nursing is hard because yeah, you’re on your feet and you’re dealing with different kinds of unpredictable days. Kind of similar, maybe to racing and training, where things are pretty unpredictable and challenging,” Stoveld said. “When you’re working, that’s all you can do, and when you’re cycling, that’s all you can do, right? So it’s nice to have closure from the end of the day with nursing, and then be able to focus on something else.”
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Stoveld credits her background in swimming with giving her early training habits, discipline, and motivation. Some of those skills also translate to cycling.
In the 1990s and early 2000s when Stoveld was competing, her coaches were focused on fatigue resistance. Her longest event in college was the mile, which is on average a 17½-minute race. Bike races, she said, can take anywhere from one to three hours, which she said was the biggest transition she had to learn to make. But interval training, top-end sprinting, and threshold training came naturally to Stoveld.
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On Sunday, she hopes those skills translate to the course, including what she said will be “the biggest challenge,” the Manayunk Wall. Fortunately for Stoveld, as a Philly-based rider, she’s been able to ride the 17%-grade climb regularly leading up to the race.
“Philly sports are no joke,” Stoveld said. “The fans here are crazy, and I am one of the crazy Philly fans, and I am happy to be able to race as a Philly athlete here in Philadelphia. It’s really special.”