Last Sunday, in La Cibeles, surrounded by his family, the Muleño Luis León Sánchez Gil put an end to a brilliant sporting career. During the Vuelta a España, after the stage that crossed the Region of Murcia and that ended in Caravaca de la Cruz, he made a decision that had been on his mind since he suffered a fall in the Tour de France that caused a broken leg. clavicle. At almost 40 years old and after twenty as a professional, a cyclist who has marked an era, with almost fifty victories, has decided to embark on a new stage of his life. The Autonomous Community has paid him a well-deserved tribute in a meeting with the president, Fernando López Miras, who has recognized his career and thanked him for ““You have paved the way for many athletes” and also that “you have always carried the name of the Region and of Mula, leaving the bar very high.””.
Luis León Sánchez and Alejandro Valverde have marked an era: “We have lived through a golden era, with high-level cyclists. Now we must give way to young people, those who must be cared for and who fight for a dream. I started playing cycling when I was five years old and it has become my profession.“said Luis León, who still has consequences from the fall he suffered five days after finishing the Vuelta a España, with one foot, the right one, still visibly swollen due to a problem in the scaphoid.
Twenty years and almost 50 victories
After twenty years as a professional, Luis León feels proud of everything he has achieved, but above all he remains “with the first part of my life. Living with my friends from Colchón Comodón, where I lived a very happy time”, to also recognize the sacrifice made by his parents, present at the event, “for everything they did for me. They bet heavily on their children and have done things very well“, said the man from Muleño.
You will run several mountain bike races
Now he doesn’t know what he will do in the future. He only knows, for now, that professional cycling is over for him, since having exceeded the 85 days of competition this season, he can no longer ride any of the classics that remain to close the international calendar. “I’m putting my professional career on hold, but I enjoyed it until the last day, although getting to Madrid was difficult.“, recognizes Luis León who will participate on September 30 in Madrid in L’Etape Madrid by Tour de France, and who will also be in the Titan Desert from Almería and Saudi Arabia, these last two mountain bike events.
Gravel racing is not considered
Afterwards, for the moment, it is not in his plans to continue competing and sign up for Gravel like his friend Alejandro Valverde has done: “It is a modality that is on the rise, but it is not the cycling I like it. During my career I have also done track with the Murcia national team and in the winters I did cyclocross, but I am going to take it easy. Now the priority is another, to enjoy the family and see what lies ahead for me in the future,” he explained.
A place in Astana
He also has the possibility of continuing on the technical staff of Astana, the team with which he concluded his sporting career, and has revealed that “Vinokourov, with whom I have a great friendship outside of the professional, whom I had as a partner and suffered as a rival, he told me that after a few weeks we will talk because he has a place for me next to him. Before making my retirement public, I told him and he understood, because there are decisions that you have to make before others make them for you,” he commented.
Becoming a sports director “is something that I don’t dislike,” he says, but he sees a drawback in it: “You have to spend 150 days away from home. If I were single and had no family, I would consider it, but it is something that I am not considering at the moment.”.
Although the idea of retiring had been on his mind for a long time, the decision was made in the middle of the Vuelta a España. “I decided it on the day of the stage in Murciaon the way to Caravaca, on roads that I know very well. That day I only thought about not falling, not about getting into a leak. And when you lose the sense of competition and you don’t feel like getting into the break for fear of falling, it is better to make a decision,” he ends by saying.
2023-09-22 07:41:43
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