Arlenis Sierra Cañadilla

Road and track cycling athlete, native of Manzanillo, Granma. Gold and silver medalist at the National School Games. Champion in Individual Road Race at the 2011 Guadalajara Pan American Games, cataloged as a Glory of Cuban sports.

She was born on December 7, 1992 in the municipality of Manzanillo in the eastern province of Granma. Daughter of Jorge Sierra Rodríguez and Esperanza Cañadilla Paret who encouraged her to practice cycling, which she began at the Sports Cycling Area of the municipality of Manzanillo in 2001. Her first coach was Antonio Castillo Parra.

She participated in provincial competitions with good results and in September 2003 she entered the EIDE Pedro Batista Fonseca (Granma).

Sports Career
Multi-medalist at the National School Games from 2003 to 2005 and at the National Youth Championship in 2006 in Havana; her first major international result came at a young age at the World Championship in Rome Italy in 2010 when she finished third on the track and fourth in the scratch. That same year at the V Cuban Sports Olympiad she won silver in the scratch and in the points race, won a bronze in the pursuit and finished fourth in the omnium.

The following year at the Pan American championship held in Medellín, Colombia she won silver in the points race. Her major result of the season was the Pan American gold in the individual road race during the XVI Pan American Games held in Guadalajara, Mexico.

In 2012 she participated in the Grand Prix Saint Bernard in El Salvador where she finished with the silver medal behind local Evelyn García.

During the Pan American Road Cycling Championship in Zacatecas, Mexico, she obtained the gold medal on May 3, 2013, with a time of 2 hours 35 minutes and 13 seconds. In the Copa Cuba that same year she won gold on the track and in the 4,000 meter pursuit alongside Yudelmis Domínguez, Yumari González and Marlies Mejías García[1].

In the second day of the 2014 Copa Cuba Track Cycling she prevailed in the team pursuit and lowered the record for the Reinaldo Paseiro velodrome track by almost four seconds: from 04:58.22 to 04:54.57 minutes[2].

She participated in the XXXI Pan American Track Cycling Championship, held in Aguascalientes, Mexico where she won the gold medal in the scratch and finished second in the points race securing a ticket to the 2015 Toronto Pan American Games.

At the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games Veracruz 2014 she set a Games record in the team pursuit alongside her teammates Marlies Mejías, Yudelmis Domínguez, Yumari González and Yoanka González and won a bronze in the scratch in an event won by Venezuelan Angie González[3]. On the road she finished in fourth place, posting the same time of 02:11:11 as the first three places (Marlies Mejías, Yumari González and Yudelmis Domínguez)[4].

Arlenis in the second stage of the Women's Tour of San Luis held in the city of Villa Mercedes, over a distance of 98.6 km. Sprint finishes is first with 6 points, wins first finish 6.4 km, last finish of 54 km and mountain finishes second with 3 points. Also wins the 6th stage, finishing in third place in the individual overall, thus leading the Cuban cycling team[5], declaring:

"I thank God for giving me the strength needed to win the last stage, I took advantage of the Mexican's sprint and I told my teammate today it's all or nothing" Arlenis declared to the accredited press[6]

On March 6, 2016 she obtains a bronze medal in the points race at the World Track Cycling Championship held in London, Great Britain. Previously she had finished seventh in the scratch[7].

The Manzanillo native member of the Cannondale team became the leader of the individual general classification, champion of consistency and champion of the mountain prizes with 18 units in the 16-2016 Edition of the Women's Tour of Costa Rica, a four-day competition that she dominated with a time of 08:08:26 hours, she also received the consistency jersey, with 88 points[8].

Arlenis Sierra, bronze at the world track championship this year in the points race and student of the UCI World Center in Switzerland, won the 27th edition of the Cycling Tour of Brittany, in France, to dominate her first tour in Europe[9].

She participated in the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016, where on August 7 she had a outstanding performance in road cycling, reaching 28th place after 137 kilometers of racing, improving the Caribbean performance in this discipline that dated from Sydney 2000 when Dania Pérez was in 43rd place[10].

In 2017 she finished second in the Individual General Classification of the Valencian Cycling Week, in Spain[11].

That same year she achieved second place in the third test of the World Cycling Tour, held in Cittiglio, province of Varese, in Italy[12].

Cuban Arlenis Sierra with the Astana Women Teams club achieved her best result in the Tour of California by finishing second in stage number three, only surpassed by host Coryn Rivera (Sunweb). She has remained among the top six in the three stages disputed to date and is now fourth in the individual general classification, 31 seconds behind the leader, American Kattie Hall (UHC)[13].

On July 30, 2017 she was crowned champion of the individual general classification in the 17th Women's Cycling Tour of Costa Rica 2017[14].

She obtained first place in the Pan American Road Championship held in San Juan, Argentina, in May 2018, where Cuba had a perfect performance on the final day achieving the top five places[15].

She achieved the first gold medal for Cuba at the XXXIII Central American and Caribbean Games, Barranquilla 2018, Colombia in the individual time trial of road cycling, which was held on the streets of Cali, with a time of 28:08.

Currently she is a member of the Astana Women Team.

Source: EcuRed