Cuban cyclist Arlenis Sierra wins Clásico de Navarra

May 17, 2021

The Cuban Arlenis Sierra put on a spectacular sprint against world-class rivals to win the Clásico de Navarra, from the elite women's category of the International Cycling Union, held this Friday in Pamplona, capital of that Spanish community.

Arlenis, from the A.R. Monex Women's Pro Cycling Team, surged toward the finish line with powerful pedal strokes to avoid being caught by the United States national champion, Ruth Winder (Trek-Segafredo) and Dutch world runner-up Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar), the latter two with the same time as the winner (3:16.59 hours) over the 125.8 kilometers covered.

In fact, this victory represents the most outstanding performance by the 28-year-old from Manzanillo since she joined the 2021 UCI World Road Circuit season on March 6.

"I want to thank God who gave me so much strength, I asked a lot to do well today. I also want to thank my teammates and all the people who always supported me and believed in me even though I didn't have good results before. I will continue fighting to achieve what they expect of me and to have good preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games," she said exclusively to JIT.

The cyclist herself recounted how the most important moments of this second day of competition unfolded, after on Thursday she was unable to finish due to a puncture on her bicycle, when she had pedaled a stretch filled with climbs of more than 100 of the 128 kilometers scheduled.

"I'm very happy with today's result, I felt very strong from the start of the race. When I passed the first climbs I felt very strong, and at the end I realized I had more and it didn't affect me mentally when there was a mishap with the bicycle when the electronic shifting stopped working and they had to give me another bike," she explained.

Ten kilometers before the finish line there was a respectable climb, the Caribbean rider recounts, and Van Vleuten and Italian Longo Borghini attacked with two others and they separated quite a bit.

"When the climb ended I worked hard with two riders from other teams and we faced another hill until we met up with my teammate Eider Merino, who was ahead and also pushed hard, and that's when we caught up with the leaders," she added. Just two kilometers away was the finish line and the leaders began to watch each other.

"About 500 meters later Van Vleuten attacked on a small hill and separated, they tried to chase her down, but she really did it powerfully and when there was one kilometer left then Winder attacked and right there I decided to go because I was "on her wheel," it was my turn and I did it," she detailed.

"I saw that we separated, that we were catching up with the Dutch rider when only half a kilometer of the race remained until we finally caught her. Only 200 meters left, we passed the curve and the sprint was approaching. I looked well, there's the finish line, and I attacked my rivals because only 100 meters remained. It was time to decide the race," she noted.

The rest is history. La Sierra of Cuba secured an important victory that earned her 125 points for the UCI world road ranking and most of all to prove that she was in condition to fight for new victories.

"I want to dedicate this victory to my family and my partner's family, but also to all the friends who never stop making me feel their support," said the representative of Cuban cycling at the Tokyo Olympic event.

This Saturday the teams will move to the neighboring Basque Country to race the grand prix Ciudad de Eibar on Sunday. On May 18 they will be at the elite women's prize Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria, same as the World Circuit calendar.