By day, Cindy Sitler, RN, works as a triage nurse for the women's health services line at St. Luke's. After hours, she's the Fogelsville mom of active teenage daughters Madison and Sophia, and wife to husband Michael.
But even with that exhaustive schedule, she found time to chase a different, lifelong dream. This October, at age 37, she became a world champion cyclist.
Cindy, who retired as a cyclist at age 18 despite winning 10 junior national championships, saddled up again last year. After a nearly two-decade hiatus from cycling, she won gold medals in the scratch race, team pursuit, silver in the individual sprint, and a bronze medal at the USA Cycling Masters Nationals.
Six weeks before the UCI Masters World Championships, Cindy's coach, Missy Erickson, was asked if Cindy would be interested in riding for Team USA in the team sprint at Lee Valley Velodrome in London, the one used for the 2012 Olympic Games. It was an easy decision.
"I always wanted to win a rainbow jersey," Cindy said of the special world championship jersey that goes along with the gold medal for world champions. "It was an unbelievable feeling to actually win one."
What began as a simple return to a sport she had loved since childhood quickly became something far more extraordinary for the graduate of St. Luke's School of Nursing.
Cindy first discovered cycling at age 9 at the local velodrome in Trexlertown, known affectionately throughout the world as T-town. She became one of the nation’s top young riders, winning 10 junior national championships. A broken collarbone, college and life ended her career until just last year when she joined a former cycling friend on a "coffee shop" ride. That led to showing up for Women's Wednesdays at T-town, a program that offered free use of the facility's track bikes, which are fixed gear with no brakes. She quickly rediscovered a passion that never truly left.
Just nine months after her return, Cindy captured her first national title in nearly two decades at the 2026 USA Cycling Masters Track National Championships, a milestone that seemed almost unimaginable when she first climbed back onto the bike.
Then came the moment she had dreamed about since she was a little girl.
On October 8, Cindy became a world champion at the UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships in London, England at the iconic Lee Valley Velodrome, site of the 2012 Olympic Games. She and teammates Andrea Villaroman and Felice Beitzel won the women’s team sprint title while breaking the U.S. national record not once, but twice, first during qualifying and again in the championship final. That made the gold medal even more meaningful.
"Since I first started riding and did my first nationals, being a world champion was the coolest thing you could do," she said. "Standing on the podium, wearing the gold medal and rainbow jersey, and then hearing the national anthem is an almost surreal moment."
Cindy's story is a reminder that dreams don’t come with an expiration date. Whether caring for patients at St. Luke’s, cheering from the sidelines at her daughters’ activities, or racing around a velodrome halfway around the world, Cindy has proven that it is possible to pursue a passion while building a family and career.
