Vuelta a Andalucía Elite Women (St. 1)
The Cuban champion achieves the 11th triumph of the ‘telephone’ squad in 2022 after another great team performance and their good work on the final climb to Arenas, in which they won the first yellow of the Ruta del Sol.
The sensational 2022 season of Arlenis Sierra in her debut with the Movistar Team reached its highest point this Tuesday in Arenas (Málaga) with the victory obtained by the Cuban champion on the first day of the Vuelta a Andalucía (UCI 2.1), pleasant premiere on the international calendar.
The cyclist from Manzanillo beat Mavi García (UAD) in the intricate series of final slopes after a solid and reliable performance by the team led by Pablo Lastras on the Ruta del Sol. The work from the start of Sarah Gigante and a great approach to the last 10 km of ascent by Sara Martín (7th), Jelena Erić and Katrine Aalerud led to an efficient response from Sierra, which was not baited in García’s first attempt -Well answered initially by Paula Patiño (4th)-, she quickly reached her wheel and beat her in the sprint.
Yellow jersey, therefore, for an Arlenis that now has two stages ahead of it and a tie in times in the general classification -with five of the six Movistar Team riders in just over 1′- to solve in the demanding routes that await between Malaga and Cadiz. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the hard slope of La Mar, on the way to Mijas, and its dangerous descent await the squad of the Andalusian round.
Comments / Arlenis Sierra:
«You always fight to try to get victories, today we have achieved it as a team and that makes me very happy, for myself but especially for the ‘girls’, who worked extremely well. We organize ourselves really well and that gives me confidence that, hopefully, I can keep the pullover until Thursday.
When Mavi left, Paula was behind her and I started the easy climb, always looking at Paula with Mavi, making sure she didn’t stay. Then, when I realized that Paula was separating a little, I said: ‘Well, I’m going to react and ‘jump’, because if not, she’s going to leave Paulita. So it was. I had a bit of work to get to him, because they were quite far away, but I got to him in the middle of the descent and that was also what favoured me towards the finish line.
Tomorrow is one of the toughest stages, from what I’ve been told. I know that Mavi is a tremendous runner, a good climber, I know it’s going to be a little difficult, I’m not saying no, but for lack of fighting it won’t be. I think that the best thing we have is the team, that we understand each other a lot and we are going to do a good job. I don’t know much about the race, I know that I suffer a lot on long climbs because I’m not a pure climber, but I’m going to fight. One never knows… Who knows? It won’t be me anyway and it will be someone else on the team who takes the distance. We will fight until the last day.”