Sturgess turned professional after the 1988 Olympics. Among his professional teams was ADR, where he was a team-mate of
Greg LeMond. He became celebrated for his showmanship on the bike; rather than maintaining an even pace as was the conventional tactic, he would hold back until the final lap and kick hard. In his World Championship win in 1989, where he trailed
Dean Woods by over a second going into the last lap, he employed this tactic and crossed the finish line 1.66 seconds ahead of his rival. Disillusioned with the sport, in part due to drug-taking in the peloton, he had interrupted his career around 1993, when he graduated in English literature from
Loughborough University and moved with his partner to Sydney, Australia. In Australia, he resumed competing, while working as a sports journal editor, and later returned to England. He finally retired in 2000, after winning a silver medal at the
1998 Commonwealth Games as part of the England team pursuit squad alongside a young
Bradley Wiggins, and worked as a wine maker and wine educator near Sydney, winning national awards for his work. According to Sturgess, the immediate reason for his retirement was a dispute with British Cycling's management regarding money, however he later identified the falling out as a symptom of a then-undiagnosed case of
bipolar disorder, which contributed to the break-up of his two marriages, problems with alcoholism, and a suicide attempt. == Post-cycling career ==