Alena Amialiusik has brought her professional cycling career to a close, confirming that Wednesday’s Veneto Women was the final race of a career that stretched across 15 seasons at the top level.
The 37-year-old finished 29th in Vicenza, 2:10 behind winner Liane Lippert, on a day that carried much more weight than the result itself. For Amialiusik, it was the final line after a career that included three Olympic Games, a European Games road race title, a team time trial world title, repeated Belarusian national championships and more than a decade as one of the most reliable riders in the women’s peloton.
Her final season came with UAE Team L’IMAD, the continuation of the UAE Team ADQ squad she joined in 2023. Before that she spent seven seasons with Canyon SRAM, following earlier spells with BePink and Velocio-SRAM. Few riders from the early 2010s remained at WorldTour level as long as Amialiusik did.
From Belarusian champion to international contender
Amialiusik’s rise came through a combination of time-trial strength and the ability to stay competitive in hard one-day races. She collected repeated Belarusian road and time trial titles early in her career and quickly became a regular at the biggest international events.
Her first Olympic appearance came in London in 2012, where she finished 15th in the road race. She returned for Rio 2016, placing 13th in the road race and 11th in the individual time trial, before representing Belarus again at the delayed Tokyo Games, finishing 17th on the road and 16th against the clock.
The most successful year of her career was 2015. Riding for Velocio-SRAM, Amialiusik won the European Games road race in Baku, claimed the overall title at Gracia-Orlová and won the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic. She also took gold in the team time trial at the Road World Championships in Richmond, while finishing eighth in both the individual time trial and road race.
That 2015 season showed the range that would define much of her career. Amialiusik could ride deep into a hard classic, contribute heavily in a team time trial, produce a strong individual effort against the clock and still finish quickly enough to win from a reduced group.
Seven seasons at Canyon SRAM
Amialiusik joined Canyon SRAM for the team’s first season in 2016 and stayed through the end of 2022, becoming one of the longest-serving riders in the squad’s early history.
Her best Giro d’Italia Women general classification result came in 2016, when she finished ninth overall. The same season also brought another strong spring, including sixth at the Tour of Flanders, a result that underlined how comfortable she had become in the hardest one-day races. ProCyclingUK covered her sixth place in Flanders during that period.
There were fewer outright victories later in the Canyon SRAM years, but she remained an important road captain and support rider while still taking chances of her own. In 2021 she returned from injury to win stage two of the Lotto Belgium Tour, attacking with around 10km remaining and holding off the chase. That victory was covered on ProCyclingUK in Amialiusik’s Lotto Belgium Tour stage win.
She was still capable of producing high-level results into her thirties. At the 2022 Tour de France Femmes, Amialiusik finished third on stage four after spending much of the day in the breakaway, another ride that showed how effective she remained when races became attritional. ProCyclingUK reported on that Tour de France Femmes podium.
Final years with UAE Team ADQ and UAE Team L’IMAD
After seven seasons with Canyon SRAM, Amialiusik moved to UAE Team ADQ for 2023. The role increasingly shifted towards experience, support and race management within a deeper WorldTour roster, but she continued to line up across the biggest stage races and classics.
Her stay with the team was extended beyond the original agreement, with ProCyclingUK covering the contract extension that kept Amialiusik with UAE Team ADQ. She remained with the organisation through its 2026 identity as UAE Team L’IMAD.
Her final seasons contained fewer headline results, but the programme remained substantial. She continued to race the Giro d’Italia Women, the Ardennes and other major WorldTour events while taking on more of the work that rarely appears in the result sheet.
At Veneto Women, UAE Team L’IMAD placed Elisa Longo Borghini third, Eleonora Gasparrini fourth, Mavi García sixth and Karlijn Swinkels eighth. Amialiusik finished 29th, 2:10 behind Lippert, in what she had already confirmed would be her final start.
A career that covered three eras of women’s cycling
Amialiusik’s career began before the Women’s WorldTour existed and ended in a peloton with deeper squads, longer calendars and far greater professional support. She raced through all of that change without losing the qualities that made her valuable in the first place.
She leaves with more than 20 professional victories, five Belarusian road race titles, multiple national time trial championships, European Games gold, a world championship team time trial title and three Olympic appearances. She also accumulated top-10 finishes across the Giro, Tour of Flanders, World Championships and a long list of stage races and one-day events.
The peak came in 2015, but the more unusual part of Amialiusik’s career was how long she remained useful at the highest level. Seven years after winning in Baku and Richmond, she was still capable of making the break and finishing third on a Tour de France Femmes stage.
Veneto Women therefore closes a career of 15 professional seasons, three Olympic Games and repeated appearances in the biggest one-day races and stage races on the calendar.
