There are four women -who could have been five- and who only have one dream to fulfill and that is none other than to go up Tourmalet this Saturday for the first time with an official Tour number. mavi garcia it is the oldest, laureate and famous; Ane Santesteban the one who is in better shape; Sheila Gutierrezthe Riojan of the group, the one who wants to earn the title of one hundred percent gregarious, and Sandra Alonsothe one that works every day, far from the ascents, to become a reference in Spanish women’s cycling in the one-day classics.
These four are the Spanish representation of a Tour Femmes, which began on Sunday, still pending the fire of passion that the Tour was causing on the Champs-Élysées, as always delivered to the power of the cyclists, a French women’s round, with the best runners in the world, which will gradually descend towards the Pyrenees to face that ascent to a Tourmalet that for nothing in the world you can resist the pedaling of a woman.
Mavi García is 39 years old and has been the benchmark for Spanish cycling for many seasons. She was first at Movistar and it was even incomprehensible that, being the Telefónica group the local group by reference, they let her escape from it. Blue She is a very good climber, who already in the first stage of the Tour Femmes, knew how to be with the best in the good cut of the first stage. She has been third in the Giro and tenth in the Tour and is in charge of Liv, the group sponsored by the women’s bike division of the manufacturer Giant. She worries about the climb to the Tourmalet Because being such a steep slope, it is disadvantaged by runners of less weight and height. “I hope to compete for the best places and that the race will be decided between the Tourmalet and the final time trial.”
Ane Santesteban She is the Basque of the group and leader of the Jayco group, the same one that leads Simon Yates in the female category. Next year her squad will merge with Mavi García’s team, but in the meantime she wants to show in this Tour, the second that she has run, that at 32 she is in the golden age as a runner.
Sandra Alonso24 years old, from Alicante, surprised last year with his tenth place in Paris-Roubaix in 2022, although this season, in the same test, he fell, broke his clavicle and cut his progress.
Shelia Gutierrez, 29 years old, was going to be a figure, but when she arrived at Movistar she redirected her sports career to become one of the faithful of Annemiek van Vleuten. She became gregarious and is the only Spanish among the six riders whose exclusive mission in the Tour Femmes is to help the Dutch star achieve the second consecutive victory in the event, in a year in which she has already won the first edition of the Vuelta and Giro, in this case with overwhelming dominance, but without the opposition of her great rival and compatriot, which is not to say friends, Demi Vollering, who reserved herself, precisely, for the Tour.
And it will only be missing Mireia Benito, who fell in the first stage, with a tremendous fright because she had to be evacuated by ambulance to the hospital. Everything was left in shock and sadness for leaving a French round in which she had many illusions deposited.
2023-07-24 08:37:19
#Tour #France #dream #Spaniards #Tour
