MADRID, 23 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish women’s team, led by Mavi García and Ane Santesteban, faces this Saturday the road test of the World Cycling Championships in Wollongong (Australia), the stage where the coveted rainbow jersey will be distributed, in which both runners will try to break their spell in this appointment to dream for the coveted medals that the national team resists.
Along with the two visible heads of the team, who will take the lead in the race that will be held from 4:25 a.m. in Spain (12:15 p.m. in Australia), will be Sandra Alonso, bronze at the 2022 Mediterranean Games , Sara Martín, Lourdes Oyarbide and the promising Idoia Eraso, double national champion in the U-23 category, to complete an exciting squad that aims to end a 20-year drought. Joane Somarriba and her bronze in 2002 is the only thing that illuminates the record of national female cycling in this World Cup.
The route they will have to tackle will consist of 164 kilometers made up of an initial section of 62, which includes the ascent to the Mount Keira pass, which will precede the entrance to the Wollongong urban circuit, on which they will have to make six turns before finding the finish line. An opportunity to dream and gain a leading role that they have not had in recent years.
To do this, Mavi García, the current double champion of Spain for the third consecutive year, wants to get on a podium that she already achieved in the Giro d’Italia this summer, although in the World Cup she has not passed 18th position in the event after her five shares.
“We are not ruling anything out, and that means being able to get on the podium. These are big words and in previous World Cups it seems that the results we had in our legs have not come out. Now is a different time and we have to opt for everything. It’s not crazy” , explained the Balearic woman at 38 years old.
For her part, Ane Santesteban wants to redeem herself from the “bad luck” she has dragged on this season. And she will do so with renewed energy thanks to La Vuelta, where she managed to regain lost confidence to face the world event with optimism. However, in the same way as her teammate, her best position in her 9 interventions, including two withdrawals, has been 23rd.
In addition, the aspirations of the runners will depend largely on the physical condition of one of the great favorites, the Dutch Annemiek van Vleuten. The Movistar Team rider will finally compete despite suffering a small fracture in her elbow after the hard fall in the mixed team time trial. The Dutch team also has other pieces such as Marianne Vos, Demi Vollering and Ellen van Dijk to recover the throne that the Italian Elisa Balsamo snatched from them last year.