The Cuban Arlene Sierraone of the best road cyclists in the world, shone this Sunday in the Gent-Wevelgem, a classic one-day race in Belgium, where, despite a colleague working for the optimal result, she managed to finish among the first.
Sierra, ranked sixth in the formation of the Movistar Teamled the team in order to protect the leader of the Spanish club in this competition, the powerful Danish Emma Norsgaard, and make possible an excellent result for the Nordic.
The winner was the Italian world champion Elisa Balsamo, with three hours, 19 minutes and 15 seconds, followed by the Dutch road, track and cyclocross world champion and Olympian Marianne Vos, and another regular in European competitions, the Italian Maria Giulia Confalonieri, in a massive entry, according to the results table on the official website of the tournament.
Movistar outlined in its organizational profile on Twitter that the “Danish rocket” and Sierra positioned themselves in the sprint, boxed in the last kilometer.
“Overcome the last climb to the Kemmelberg with Sierra very well placed next to Norsgaard. Both, fast women, are in a group of 25, less than 30 kilometers from the arrival, between constant attacks”, described the blue team board.
“Very good presence of Sierra and Norsgaard in the selection of favorites after the last pass through the Baneberg”, said Movistar, who faced the fall of the Spanish Lourdes Oyarbide, who suffered scrapes in the gluteal area and hit a cheekbone, however he resumed the march, although he did not finish the race.
Norsgaard finished fifth and Sierra in 16th place, with the same time as the triumphant Balsamo.
After captaining the Astana Women’s Team (later AR Monex) since 2017, Sierra, a 29-year-old from Manzanillo, accepted the proposal to sign Movistar, an icon of world cycling for its history and great figures.
In the most recent season, despite a reduced schedule due to COVID-19, the Cuban reached an impressive fifth place in the World Championship in Belgium, alone against the most portentous national teams last September.
In addition, Sierra chained podiums in elite races in Italy and France between the end of the summer and the beginning of the autumn of 2021.
