LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK TO HIS DEBUT. Diverse physical issues hampered Puerto Rican Abner González’s performance during the 2022 season, his second in the WorldTour with the Movistar Team. Following a splendid debut within the pros -best under-23 rider and 6th overall in the 2021 Volta a Portugal; great level in the Spanish summer classics-, the man from Moca could barely ride for about 40 racing days last season, though he was able to retain his national road race title in june. Aged just 22, he’s got all future still ahead.

PROGRESSING IN SPAIN. Except for a short lapse of time as part of the American SoCal Cycling team, Abner’s full junior and under-23 stage has taken place in Spain. At Cantabria, in the ranks of the Bathco team, he showed his quality as a junior, winning a stage and stepping onto the podium of the Vuelta al Besaya -the most important race in the country- in 2017, as a first-year competitor. At the Inteja team, a Dominican outfit with strong Spanish ties, he rode several UCI America Tour events in 2019. And at the Telco,m – On Clima – Osés team from Navarra, managed by another former Movistar Team member (Luis Vicente Otín), he made his real breakthrough in 2020: he won the Spanish Road Series round in Torredonjimeno with a long break; notched up victory at the mountain TT in the Vuelta a Alicante; and finished in 3rd, after a great display of energy, in the biggest race of the amateur scene, the Memorial Valenciaga, with its new finish atop Arrate.

THE DREAM OF HIS PARENTS. Son of Teresa Rivera and Alejandro González, he’s brought them happiness and pride by paying them back from big personal and economical efforts to become the first ‘boricua’ in the WorldTour. He’s also steadily turning into a sporting reference for a land which now dreams of making it into the Grand Tours with Abner carrying the flag in his jersey. The celebrations for his 2021 and 2022 Nationals victories will sure remain in Abner’s memory for a long time.