Sheyla Gutiérrez has revealed that she does not have a professional contract for 2027 and fears her career could be coming to an end, despite making clear that she still wants to continue racing.
The 32-year-old Movistar rider published an emotional message on Instagram reflecting on a difficult two-year period in which racing has repeatedly been pushed into the background by illness, injury and serious problems in her personal life. Gutiérrez’s existing Movistar contract expires at the end of 2026 after she signed a three-year extension in 2023.
“This is over. Even though I don’t want it to be,” she wrote.
“I don’t blame anything or anyone for the fact that next year I don’t have a professional contract. I suppose it’s part of the game, and you should never stop playing.”
It is not a formal retirement announcement. Gutiérrez repeatedly stresses that she wants another opportunity and believes she had been finding a route back towards her previous level before breaking her arm during the summer. What she does not currently have is a team willing to give her that opportunity in 2027.
“I want to keep trying,” she wrote. “I’m still passionate about cycling. And it’s unfair to finish with so much sadness and without glory. But maybe the universe is talking to me.”
Broken arm stopped Gutiérrez’s latest comeback
The uncertainty comes after another interrupted season for a rider who had already shown signs earlier in 2026 that she could still influence races.
Gutiérrez produced one of her most visible performances of the spring at the Vuelta a Extremadura, spending much of Stage 2 alone at the front before being caught late in the race.
She later endured another extended spell away from competition before attempting to rebuild through the summer. According to Gutiérrez, she believed the form was beginning to return before a broken arm stopped that progress.
“I know I have the level and I was going to bring it out in the summer races,” she wrote. “But I broke my arm and I can’t hold the handlebars safely. But I was on the way back again.”
That setback has arrived at the worst possible point in the contract cycle. With teams already completing large parts of their 2027 recruitment, Gutiérrez has been left unable to produce the run of results that might have strengthened her position in the market.
There is recent evidence of what she can still do when healthy. In July 2024, Gutiérrez won La Picto-Charentaise, beating teammate Emma Norsgaard and Eline Jansen after a strong Movistar performance. It was her first victory in two years.
Gutiérrez details difficult two-year period
Her Instagram post also gives a much fuller explanation of what has happened away from racing.
Gutiérrez described suffering particularly severe endometriosis symptoms following Covid, alongside the end of a relationship, moving home, family problems and depression. Her mother has also undergone cancer treatment and spent months in hospital, while Gutiérrez referred to another serious crash involving her head.
“After two years with a Covid that brought out the worst pain from my endometriosis, my life falling apart, a relationship ending, moving home, family problems, grieving because I missed what I thought was my home, my mother’s cancer and months in hospital, disabling pain that wouldn’t let me get out of bed, depression, relocation, a terrible crash involving my head…” she wrote.
The accumulation of those problems left her close to giving up before she had been able to decide for herself whether the time was right.
“Despite so many blows, I haven’t given up either, although I was close,” Gutiérrez said. “Through exhaustion, because they had stopped believing in me.”
Her situation also gives different context to her place within Movistar’s 2026 Women’s WorldTour squad. Gutiérrez has increasingly been used as an experienced road captain and support rider, particularly in transitional and one-day races, rather than having every opportunity measured by her own finishing position.
She has spent the majority of her WorldTour career within the Movistar structure and was described as an important part of the team when her current contract was agreed. At that point, Gutiérrez spoke about the support Movistar had given her through previous health problems and said she still believed she had more to offer.
Three years later, the question is whether another team will give her the chance to prove it.
Landa’s persistence provides a reference point
Gutiérrez framed much of her message around Mikel Landa and the idea of “Landismo”, the attachment Spanish cycling supporters have developed towards a rider whose career has often combined major performances with crashes, setbacks and repeated attempts to rebuild.
“With Landismo more alive than ever, and with my team succeeding after so many attempts, I’m very emotional,” she wrote.
“I don’t have Landa’s talent or palmarès, but I identify with his courage and with the resilient work you have to do to get back to your level.”
The comparison is particularly timely. Landa is approaching the end of his own long career at the highest level and will return to Euskaltel-Euskadi for 2027 after signing a two-year contract with the Basque team.
For Gutiérrez, the connection is less about results than persistence. Her post repeatedly returns to the amount of work required simply to get back to the point where racing normally is possible again.
“I’ve spent my life fighting,” she wrote. “Born asthmatic and taking on the sport where you need the most VO2 max. Always fighting. And maybe the moment has come to make peace.”
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Photo Credit: Getty
Gutiérrez still wants to race in 2027
For all the sense of finality in the opening line of her message, Gutiérrez has deliberately left the door open.
She has not announced her retirement and does not appear ready to do so while there remains a possibility of finding another team. Her argument is instead that circumstances may take that decision out of her hands.
“I understand that this is still a business, that we’re numbers and all that,” she wrote. “Although my values have always gone further: respect, effort, commitment, demanding standards, team, sacrifice for your people.”
Gutiérrez also reflected on the message she has tried to pass on to younger riders and children around her: “Don’t give up on your dreams.”
That is now the position she finds herself trying to follow. There is no 2027 contract, her latest comeback has been interrupted by another injury and time is running short to secure a place in the professional peloton.
But Gutiérrez has not yet chosen retirement.
“I’ll find my way, even though right now I’m lost,” she wrote. “Because Sheyla is more than the cyclist. But right now cycling is my life, and I’ve put my body and soul into it.”
