Analysis: The extraordinary career of Mavi García

The emergence of the Women's Tour de France in the last two years seems to have eclipsed the Giro Donne, the great race of world women's cycling until the Gallic bet to give more power to their event. I start talking about the Giro d'Italia Donne because it is the perfect example to describe the greatness of Mavi Garcia, the best Spanish cyclist of the last decade.

Yesterday, after a difficult season in which the pedal stroke has not accompanied her as in previous years, she was proud of her tenth place in the road race of the World Championship. A fall caused a cut that made her unable to follow the best at the key moment, but she still got up and scored a great solo finish to end up reaching a place in the top ten. This is how she commented it, proud:

"Top 10 in the Glasgow World Championship. I could think that with yesterday's legs if I hadn't cut myself in the crash before the course I could have done something nice but after all I leave here very happy to have regained the sensations that I haven't felt for a long time! Yesterday I enjoyed myself so let's finish the year well!"

Immaculate trajectory.

Mavi started her career in professional road cycling late, in 2015(with 31 years old), racing for Bizkaia-Durango. Already in 2016 she showed her enormous class by winning her first Spanish Road Championship, as well as finishing sixteenth in her first Giro.

That same year she would finish sixth in the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche, a race in which she would be fifth the following year in 2017, demonstrating her progression. That year she was second in the time trial and road race at the Nationals.

In 2018 she won her first National time trial, was third in road and came close to her first top 10 in the Giro Donne finishing eleventh. In Arèche she was second overall and in two stages. In 2019 she continued her evolution finishing third overall in the Vuelta a Burgos, second in the GP de Plumelec and sixth in Ardèche taking the mountains.

In 2020 she won the elite, winning the road and time trial of the Spanish Championships, taking 2 stages and second place in Ardèche and finishing in the top 10 of the Giro Done.

2021 was her great season. She finished sixth in Amstel GoldRace, fifth in Flèche Wallonne, second in Setmana Valenciana, double again in the Nationals, fifth place in the Giro, second in Ardèche and great end of the year with victory in the Giro dell'Emilia and second place in Tre Valli Varesine.

In 2022 she won the mountains in Andalucía after finishing fifth in Flecha and sixth in Amstel, took a stage in the Vuelta a Burgos, another double in the Nationals, an extraordinary third place in the Giro Donne and was tenth in the Women's Tour de France. As if that wasn't enough, she took the victory in the Lorient Aglomération Classic.

2023, with the change from UAE to Liv, has not been easy for Mavi, who started well in the classics with eleventh place in the Strade Bianche, tenth in the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and fourth in the Flèche Wallonne. In the Vuelta Femenina she finished ninth and in the Giro seventh after winning the Nationals route and finishing second in the time trial. In the Tour de France she had to abandon, but she has ended up proving that she is a great fighter with the tenth place in the Glasgow World Championship.