FINDING BACK HEALTH AND CONSISTENCY. The 2022 season was a seemingly endless series of difficulties for Martín. A road accident in mid December on her home roads, being hit by a car; covid also struck her in late January, ruining her preparations; crashes at The Women’s Tour (June) and Scandinavia (August); and a herpes zoster + a bad flu in the late season after the Australia Worlds all prevented from seeing the Spaniard’s best level for most of the season. She still shone brightly, though: Sara completed a strong month of May -working well, and going on the attack, in Liège, Andalucía and Navarra-, was 4th at both Spanish Championships and most notably featured at the GP Plouay -130km breakaway, the last 40km solo-, her most remarkable WorldTour performance to date. If she’s able to find health back over the upcoming years, she’s got everything to succeed.

IMPROVEMENTS ALL AROUND. Having completed her Chemistry studies at the Valladolid University in the autumn of 2021, we’re looking at only the second full season in cycling for Martín in 2023. Her Movistar Team career has seen her already through big 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 strong climber; she does well on the flat; conducts herself intelligently on and off the bike; and likes to attack. Her first few WorldTour season have already shown strong signs of quality that she hopes to confirm with the Blues, who have invested in her abilities with a long-term contract (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.