Kindness, Grit, and the Vande Veldes – A Story About Good Humans
A teaser video Christian did for our Wheels4Water Ride 11 years ago.
Some people impress you with their accomplishments.
Others impress you with how they treat you.
Christian and Leah Vande Velde do both without trying.
I first met Christian through my good friend Todd. Todd, Brian, and I grabbed lunch with him, and I remember feeling a little starstruck. He was one of my favorite American cyclists. I followed him, Lance Armstrong, and George Hincapie for years. These were the riders I looked up to.
And then, before we even left the restaurant, Christian said, “Hey fellas, I just retired this weekend. Want to come by my house and help me finish these kegs?”
I didn’t know him at all.
He didn’t know me.
But he opened his home like we had known each other forever.
I was training for Wheels4Water, trying to get ready to ride 100 miles a day for 10 days. I wasn’t confident. I didn’t feel ready. But Christian was encouraging from the start. Supportive. Present. No ego.
A few weeks later he invited Brian and me into his “pain cave.”
We thought we were going to ride stationary bikes next to him.
We showed up dressed and ready.
Instead, he came downstairs in a jacket, holding a coffee and a stopwatch, because the pain cave was freezing in the middle of winter, and he coached us. Hard. Pushed us to the edge. Tried to get us to puke.
And honestly, we almost did.
But I’ll never forget it, a world-class cyclist, retired or not, taking a winter afternoon to help two guys he barely knew get ready for a mission that mattered to us.
That’s Christian.
Fast forward to some of our Wheels4Water rides.
He would FaceTime us during long days just to check in.
Encourage us.
Tell us we had more left than we thought.
It was simple, steady kindness, the kind that sticks.
And there was the time Christian took us out on the road to train us more and said, “Every time you can tag me in the next mile, I’ll donate more to Wheels4Water.” It sounded possible for about five seconds… until he took off. The competitor in him showed up fast. We never got within a hundred feet. He was a dot on the horizon, smiling the whole way. But the offer, the laughter, and the generosity behind it said everything about who he is.
And then there’s Leah, and “supportive spouse” doesn’t even come close to describing her. She’s a badass. A chef. A triathlete. An athlete who can hold her own anywhere. She moved to Spain, learned the rhythms of a new place, and built her own life while Christian was racing across Europe. She has worked in Michelin-level kitchens, created a personal chef business from scratch, and later launched Honest Fork and Honest Scoop - both driven by skill, creativity, and heart.
She’s strong, direct, kind, and steady. She adapts. She leads. She brings her own fire and talent into every part of their life. And when Brian and I trained at their home, she made us feel welcome without hesitation, because that’s who she is.
She doesn’t just keep up with Christian.
She matches him.
She challenges him.
And she brings her own force into the world.
Together, they’re not just a couple.
They’re a team.
A real one.
They speak to each other with respect. They carry the weight of hard seasons with honesty. They have lived in different countries, raised kids across time zones, navigated injuries, crashes, relocations, and careers that did not sit still. And they did it without losing the small things: humor, compassion, presence, and the ability to make people around them feel at ease.
When you listen to their episode on Running Ahrens, you hear all of it, the grit, the joy, the messiness, the laughter. You hear the kind of love that is built, not assumed. You hear two strong individuals who know how to lift each other up.
In a world obsessed with speed and spotlight, the Vande Veldes remind me that the real measure of a life is how you treat the people right in front of you.
And I’m grateful our paths crossed.
And grateful Christian never actually made us puke.
Thanks for reading and keep running,
Justin
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