Alicia González, the 29-year-old cyclist from Siero, will return to cyclocross this winter, joining the NESTA – MMR team. However, her move to cyclocross comes on the back of an unexpected and disruptive season on the road, following the sudden collapse of her former team, Lifeplus-Wahoo.
“It has been a strange season,” González said, reflecting on the turbulent year. She had started her road campaign with early-season races in Australia, with everything progressing smoothly until the sudden announcement in early summer that Lifeplus-Wahoo would be closing down. “We were told at the beginning of summer that the team was closing down, so my last road race was in mid-July,” she explained. With the team folding, González found herself without a stable structure to finish her season.
Lifeplus-Wahoo’s closure came as a shock to its riders, leaving many like González scrambling for options. Without the possibility of further road goals, she turned to cyclocross as a way to stay competitive. “As I ran out of road goals, I looked for the alternative of cyclocross to be able to continue competing,” she said. The demise of Lifeplus-Wahoo forced a pivot in her season, but it also opened the door for her to focus on one of her favourite disciplines.
Despite the setback, González’s enthusiasm and motivation remain high, and she is eager to make the most of her opportunity with NESTA – MMR. “The circumstances were right for both the NESTA – MMR cycling team and for me to be able to do this together,” she said. The new team will provide her with much-needed stability as she shifts gears for the winter season.
Alicia González has a strong history in cyclocross, having won multiple national titles, including the Spanish national championship in 2017. She will kick off her cyclocross season on 6th October in Gijón and plans to also tackle some gravel events as a way of transitioning between her disrupted road season and the cyclocross calendar. “My intention is to take advantage of the good form I had already in the middle of summer and extend it until the start of the cyclocross season.”
Her focus will be on the early part of the cyclocross season, likely up until the European Championships in Pontevedra, after which she plans to take a short break before structuring the rest of her winter campaign. “Cyclocross has always been one of my favourite disciplines,” González said, highlighting the positives amid the recent challenges. “I have good memories and very good results in it, and although there have been years when I have not been able to do it, the last two I had already taken it up again.”
