IRREPLACEABLE. Having spent so many years on her bike yet never riding as a full-time professional, Gloria Rodríguez arrived to the Movistar Team in October 2017 almost as a matter of circumstance, joining the Blues’ first-ever women’s get-together with just two days’ notice. After five years, her charm and absolute commitment in and out of racing have seen this Murcia native from Torre Pacheco earning the respect and love of the whole organisation. Following a 2022 season completely overshadowed by health and physical issues, which still hampered her performance heading into the current season, she hopes to find back in 2023 the legs that saw her shining brightly over her first years with the team.

‘GLORIA’ DEPENDS ON HER. They say that, in order to understand the true value of a rider, especially a domestique, you must not look at the results rather than the races he / she is selected to. And Gloria, an example of sacrifice for others which a team needs to make possible the collective success, is a living proof of that. Even if physical problems made things extra difficult over the last two years, she still was part of big events, and Van Vleuten and the Blues’ leaders’ big success, such as San Sebastián and Norway (2021), the Giro Rosa (2020), the cobbled / Ardennes classics or even the Imola road race Worlds (she rode the Euros in 2021). Silver medalist in the Spanish road race champs in 2018 and bronze in the 2019 ITT, she’s already got to one decade of experience in the peloton at age 30.

KEEP ROLLIN’. Between the road and the track, Gloria built a successful career from youth stage and all the way up to the pros, including podiums at track World Championships as a junior. A specially remarkable series of performances came in 2016: she took silver in the Spanish TT champs in Alicante in June, later adding a fantastic rojigualda jersey as national champion in October at the Individual Pursuit event held in the Palma arena – where she even lapped her rival for gold. Rodríguez briefly got back to the banking for a second gold in the Individual Pursuit at Valencia’s Luis Puig Velodrome, just a week after the end of her 2018 road season.