TOWARDS ANOTHER KEY SEASON. 2023 brought Sara Martín’s first professional victory with an exceptional performance on stage four of the Vuelta a Andalucía, where she spent the day on the offensive, decimating the forces of the race leader and crowning, with a great sprint in Mijas, a late breakaway together with Lizzie Stannard. It was the prize to so many setbacks, following a horrendous one-and-a-half previous years -a road incident in December 2021; herpes zoster and multiple illnesses in 2022; several problems through mid 2023- to bounce back in style: vice Spanish road race champion, then an excellent Giro Donne supporting and learning from the best, Annemiek van Vleuten, who considers her one to follow in the future. Should she find in 2024 the required stability and health, nice progress can be expected.

IMPROVEMENTS ALL AROUND. Having completed her Chemistry studies at the Valladolid University in the autumn of 2021, her Movistar Team career has seen her through complete transformation, in the way she gets ready for races, how she works to reach her best and her evident physical and tactical evolution, with still huge room for improvement. She’s a decent climber, who also does well on the flat, has improved her racecraft over the last few years and has a strong will to go on the attack. As she approaches 25 years of age, her initial WorldTour career has already shown signs of quality that she hopes to confirm with the Blues, who invested in her abilities with a long-term contract that runs through the end of 2025.

FROM SNEAKERS TO CLEATS. She took up cycle racing at 14 years of age as an extra tool to improve in one of the sports she practised as a young woman: triathlon, a discipline she got to after trying track and field and duathlon. Her excellent raw abilities soon led her to becoming a huge factor in the junior peloton -Spanish national champion- and even winning her first race as an under-23 competitor, an event of the Torneo Euskaldun in Eibar, in 2018. The steps she took from there were always firm, with plenty of international experience -five consecutive Euro Champs appearances since 2016 with the Spanish national team; several UCI competitions with both her trade team and national squad- and many good results, including half a dozen victories -and an impressive 2020 Spanish Champs, 2nd in the ITT and 5th in the road race- with the organisation she was always part of as a cyclist before the Movistar Team: the SD Ugeraga / Sopela Women’s Team.