Arlenis Sierra: Tilting at Windmills on Cranks in Tokyo

November 27, 2019

Arlenis Sierra (number 16 in the World ranking-977 units), concluded a dream season as a benchmark for the Astana Women´s Team, as well as defending the colors of Cuba.

Rio de Janeiro 2016, the cyclist from Manzanillo Arlenis Sierra, was 23 years old and in her first Olympic venture on the Rio de Janeiro route concluded in 28th place in a race dominated by Dutch cyclist Anna van der Breggen (3:51:27 hours).

Then she tilted at windmills and faced the remaining 66 cyclists of the peloton alone, which demanded double effort from her, since it is well known that these circuits are team work, and several cyclists classified from the same nation ride in function of the leader or most prestigious member of their team.

Tokyo will be no different for the Caribbean cyclist, as she will again start alone, unable to confirm the participation of Heidy Pradera (259 in the route ranking-65 pts).

Arlenis (16 of the aforementioned ranking-977 units) concluded a dream season both as a benchmark for the Astana Women´s Team, as well as defending the colors of Cuba, to such a point that in what could be seen as a prior modeling of the Olympic route, the World Championship of Yorkshire, United Kingdom, anchored in a meritorious 12th position, which earned her a slice of 35 points for her placement on the list commanded by the extraordinary 20-year-old Dutch cyclist Lorena Wiebes (2 259.33 points).

And I refer to modeling because in the event held on British roads 152 women from 49 nations participated, much more numerous and consequently more demanding, than those that will be held in the Land of the Rising Sun. By the way, in that scenario four runners each from Australia, Germany, Italy, Holland and the United States will compete.

For Arlenis, it would be highly honorable to make it into the Olympic top-ten, but as she herself stated, the initial idea is to improve the 28th place achieved in the Marvelous City, in a competition that will demand from her every last ounce of effort.

It is not even remotely comparable, her credit for emerging as double champion of this specialty in Pan American Games (2011 and 2019). It happens that as everyone knows, the mecca of cycling is concentrated in Europe fundamentally, with powers among which stand out those mentioned earlier and others such as Belgium, Russia, France...

But we were talking about Arlenis' competitive maturity, her stable and ascending results in the elite of women's road racing, with well-detailed planning by her Astana club regarding the races in which to participate, and all that background in the role of contributor to a long four-year preparation to face the Olympic dream again.

Thus, among her most relevant performances we have the fourth place and a slice of 100 units in the Tour of Guangxi, China, an official event within the UCI World Tour.

Furthermore, she took possession of the Giro of Tuscany in Italy (a haul of 40 points), equally obtained the crown in the Pan American Games of Lima (contribution of 150), and finished fourth (70 pts) in the Pan American Road Championship. To that we add her presence in Australia with the first race of the season and where she won the prestigious Cadel Evans, the second place in the general classification of Winston Salem (a score of 85 points), plus several World Cup road races that also gave her points for her final placement in the ranking and qualification for Tokyo 2020.

This greater competitive experience has undoubtedly influenced the competitive development of Arlenis, who qualifies herself as a quite consistent road cyclist, capable of sprinting if the situation warrants, or putting in maximum effort on a climb or mountain section with positive results.

Regarding her experience with Astana she stated:
"From the beginning when I arrived at the Club, the other cyclists have helped me a lot. We do even work, on several occasions I have also had to race for another girl. That is part of team dynamics and we do it gladly, a sign of the harmony and professionalism that reigns among us.
The experiences in the races have been different. By this point you know what to do at each moment, attack, add speed to a sprint, manage your strength on the mountain or on climbs within a tour or circuit…These are elements that you accumulate and constitute your experience for each future route throughout my sports career".

Regarding her stay at the Astana club, and if other teams have approached her with interest in signing her, the cyclist from Manzanillo told journalist Joel García of the weekly Trabajadores:
"Next year I must continue with the Astana team because of the facilities they give me, since we are quite attached to our homeland and this world of cycling is very difficult, since you have to live almost ten entire months in Europe and it gets quite cold, besides being far from home, missing my partner, my two little dogs, and the people you love.

I have had several offers from other well-known clubs like Movistar and WMT, but in none of them would I understand myself as in this one, which I already feel like a family".

Arlenis is very likely to be included again, for the third consecutive time, among Cuba's best athletes of the year. She has earned enough merit on her bicycle. Now, on her horizon, she only pedals toward Olympism.