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As the most important girls’s stage races of the 12 months are quick approaching with the Giro d’Italia Donne (June 30-July 9) and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (July 23-30), Cyclingnews sits down with one of many sport’s main contenders, Mavi Garcia.
The Liv Racing Teqfind all-rounder has steadily grown to turn into one of many riders to observe within the girls’s peloton over the past 5 years.
There are specific riders whose names appear to be on everybody’s lips – the “field workplace” gamers who want no introduction – Marianne Vos, Annemiek van Vleuten, and Lizzie Deignan, to call a number of.
Then there are different heroines of biking who recurrently characteristic within the combine, however they execute their jobs quietly and certainly. With podium locations in Strade Bianche, the Giro d’Italia Donne, and five-time national road race champion, Señora Garcia resides on this group.
In an unique interview, Garcia speaks with Cyclingnews about highway racing glory, age and expertise plus her prospects for the upcoming Giro d’Italia Donne and the Tour de France Femmes.
El Camino to highway racing glory
The Spaniard is happiest when she is again house in Mallorca, the place she was born and bred, stress-free with family and friends, plus her accomplice, who now doubles as her coach.
“We have now a spectacular panorama with mountains, and you may see the ocean close by,” says Garcia. “It’s beautiful countryside to take pleasure in when on the bike. From my house in Establiments close to Palma, I can in a short time be within the mountains. I like going up from Andratx to Puigpunyent and Puig Mayor, that are nice climbs. Then there’s Sa Calobra, which is a really particular climb for me.”
In truth, Garcia holds the Strava QOM for lots of the native climbs – although additionally provides that among the crowns she misplaced have been to people who scaled the roads on a motorcycle.
Biking (on a push-bike) is now Garcia’s old flame, although it hasn’t at all times been the case. Born Margarita Victoria Garcia Cañellas in 1984 at Marratxi, the Mallorcan began out her sporting life on the ice as a determine skater, which she did into her teenagers. There then adopted a number of years the place she didn’t do a lot sport in any respect and centered on her job in hospitality.
After re-starting sport as a aggressive runner, aged 25, she developed a style for combining that with biking – which her older brother was into – and she or he had a profitable profession as a duathlete, taking medals within the European and World Championships. Garcia was additionally juggling her duathlon profession with biking and had a contract with Bizkaia-Durango however since getting a contract with Movistar in 2018 and focusing 100% on biking, she hasn’t appeared again.
Nevertheless, these early days of being knowledgeable bike owner in 2015 have been neither easy nor enjoyable for the then-31-year-old.
“It was robust for me at first. After I began cycle racing, there have been plenty of issues that I couldn’t management. It appeared fairly an advanced sport with a peloton, in contrast to in duathlon the place you race by yourself or with 5 or 6 girls round you,” Garcia remembers.
“I didn’t perceive how or why issues have been performed in a sure method, I couldn’t perceive the techniques or something. In addition to this, I used to be inexperienced, I had plenty of crashes – one 12 months, I broke my collar bone and one other time, I broke it on the opposite facet. I used to be at all times crashing, and I used to be typically fearful due to the crashes. I bear in mind one 12 months when doing the Giro Donne, out of 10 levels, I crashed in 5 of them! So sure, I have to say issues went badly.”
So what saved her within the sport? Garcia admits that she actually loved coaching on the bike, and that saved her within the recreation however, regardless of discovering it extraordinarily robust to exit and race, she believed that ultimately she would do a race the place issues would go properly.
“Folks round me suggested me to proceed too, saying you’ll by no means know what can be. And in the long run, issues turned out properly. Plenty of folks helped me and proceed to assist me alongside the way in which, together with my accomplice, who coaches me. There have additionally been folks on my groups,” she says.
“I discovered rather a lot once I joined Bizkaia-Durango, the crew with which I did my first few races, and I had a extremely good relationship with the sports activities director and others on the crew. I’ve good reminiscences of these instances with them. To be sincere, if it wasn’t for the assorted individuals who helped me, issues would have been rather more troublesome when stepping into racing. These days, I’ve received the hold of issues in biking, and I actually take pleasure in it.”
After her contract with Movistar Staff, Alé BTC Ljubljana (which grew to become UAE Staff ADQ), Garcia now finds herself in Liv Racing Teqfind as one of many lead riders. She has come a great distance since these days of panicking when using in a peloton.
Maglia rosa
The Giro d’Italia Donne and the Tour de France Femmes are goal occasions for Garcia. Nevertheless, given her sturdy monitor file on the roads of Italy and with levels having profiles extra suited to her, she fancies her probabilities on the Corsa Rosa.
“I feel that the route of the Giro fits me higher, as there is only one prologue after which hilly levels. They are going to be robust, although extra like consistently undulating terrain, which is best for me than a stage with a extremely lengthy climb, such because the Tourmalet within the Tour de France,” Garcia says.
“Additionally, there’s a 22km-time trial on the final day of the Tour. That shall be arduous for me as a result of there are important variations in velocity between me and among the different women. So I feel I’ll do higher within the Giro. Each races shall be robust, however I hope to do properly within the Giro.”
After a fifth place in 2021 and a third in 2023 within the basic classification, might this be her 12 months to go two higher and stand on the rostrum as the general winner of the Giro d’Italia Donne?
Up to now this 12 months, Garcia has had some encouraging outcomes, which bode properly for the remainder of the season. The reigning Spanish nationwide champion displays on her successes.
“Flèche-Wallone has been my finest consequence this 12 months up to now, although I simply fell in need of getting onto the rostrum,” she says. “Issues have been going properly, however it was in these final 50 metres going over the Mur de Huy the place it received actually robust, and I misplaced contact. However I’m actually glad that I received that far.”
However falling quick on the Mur de Huy, the gutsy Spaniard is eager to indicate her strengths over the forthcoming racing calendar. She has already received one Grand Tour beneath her belt this 12 months, the place she positioned within the high 10 at La Vuelta Feminina by Carrefour.es, which this 12 months was a seven-day stage race – an enormous departure from the same old couple of days on the finish of the boys’s Vuelta a España.
“La Vuelta has modified completely in comparison with final 12 months. There have been so many spectators. I hadn’t seen so many individuals on the roads. At some levels the place there was a seven-kilometre neutralised zone, and on this space, it was filled with folks. It was unimaginable,” Garcia remembers.
“After I was racing, I might hear the followers shouting my title on the sides of the highway. Though it was on house soil, I didn’t actually really feel any stress.”
Garcia lined up on the Spanish Street Championships because the defending time trial and highway racing champion, and though she finished second in the time trial to Mireia Benito, she went on to win a historic fifth road race title.
“I’m very pleased with this achievement. Within the time trial, I might push the numbers that I usually can. In order that made me just a little unsure concerning the highway race, however fortunately this race went a lot better,” she says.
“I attempted to make the race as arduous as I might. That labored out properly within the finale, and I end solo to take my fifth title. It’s nice to have this particular nationwide champion jersey for an additional 12 months. It makes me very comfortable.”
She stated she felt stress to carry out within the championships occasions this 12 months, given her streak of success.
“I’ve received the nationals for the previous few years, and other people will count on me to win. So, if I don’t win, then that received’t look good. Final 12 months, I felt beneath stress, too, because the championships passed off in my native Mallorca. Fortunately, I had the legs to drag it off!” she says.
Defending her crown this 12 months was not nearly bragging rights, however it helped by way of incomes her place to race within the Paris Olympics, and it’ll give her a psychological enhance forward of the Giro d’Italia Donne.
Age and expertise matter
Though Garcia is a comparative beginner to top-level racing, she is likely one of the extra senior girls within the peloton. The 39-year-old solely had her first season of highway racing in 2015, albeit after a few years of elite competitors in different sports activities.
By her personal admission, she needed to find out about biking in file time in contrast with many different riders who could also be 10 years youthful than her however who will nonetheless have greater than twice as a few years of expertise.
Nevertheless, on the plus facet, it has meant that she tends to cope with high-pressure and opposed conditions in a peaceful, measured and mature method. Such was the case when she was hit by the car of her then-team during a stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2022.
How did she preserve her sang-froid at such a pivotal time within the race?
“It was very troublesome. I needed to neglect concerning the significance of it and maintain my cool, significantly as in the long run I didn’t have any severe harm,” Garcia philosophies.
“It prices you the race when that occurs at a time if you find yourself already on the restrict throughout the race. However then once more, issues might have been rather a lot worse. I simply thought to benefit from what I might do for the remainder of the race and try to take pleasure in it as a lot as potential,” she added.
“I used to be not at 100% health, however I used to be actually comfortable to have been a part of the primary Tour de France, which I loved. It was a privilege to have been in a position to take part, be in competition and get a top-10 end.”
In her new crew for this 12 months, Liv Racing Teqfind, Garcia feels actually comfortable to have two-time world champion Giorgia Bronzini because the sports activities director.
“Giorgia has been a profitable racer, and she or he was racing till lately, so she is conscious of the atmosphere in girls’s biking and the challenges, so she understands what we’re going by way of. She is aware of the races and is ready to clarify to us clearly how the programs are, in addition to the tactical features.” Garcia says.
“I actually like what Giorgia does throughout and outdoors of the races. She’s a extremely enjoyable individual and might be jokey, however she additionally is aware of when to be severe within the race. Along with her expertise of getting been a sports activities director at Trek-Segafredo as properly, she is an actual asset to our crew.”
She can also be complimentary of her teammates. “They provide 200% for me, and I’m infinitely grateful for what they do.”
The Rafa issue
Who conjures up the champion from Mallorca? The reply is 2 champions, as Garcia explains how Anna van der Breggen and Rafael Nadal have influenced her profession.
“After I began, the racer I admired was Anna van der Breggen. I assumed she was a cultured rider, who appeared to keep up her calm when racing, and she or he had a extremely good capability to be within the second and have focus throughout the races.”
The opposite individual can also be from Mallorca, Nadal, who Garcia watched play tennis matches and discovered learn how to deal with the ups and downs of sport and sportsmanship.
“I at all times used to observe him at tournaments with my buddy, and I actually favored the way in which that he handled the problem in his matches, the spectacle of the occasion. He’s a rare athlete who I see as a reference to observe.”
Having accomplished an altitude coaching camp at Sierra Nevada and labored towards the following block of races, Garcia is fired up. If she really emulates the King of Clay, she could also be properly positioned to turn into Queen of the Street.
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