Álex García

The Catalan Álex García will be the only rider from the youth structure to join the U23 project of the Contador Foundation for the 2023 season. “I’m really looking forward to it”, he says. “At the beginning of August Guillermo Gutiérrez told me that Rafa Díaz Justo would call me and soon after he called me to tell me that they were counting on me. It made me happy, especially because being able to continue here was what I most wanted and because the months of July and August were not particularly good for me in competition,” says the Viladecans resident. “In general, the reading I get from the 2022 season is good, although it is also true that in the two races where I wanted to be better I either couldn’t compete or I didn’t manage to transfer the sensations and the numbers from the training sessions. In the Ruta do Albariño I felt good every day, but in the end a few days later I ended up testing positive for COVID-19 and I couldn’t race in the Vuelta al Besaya. It was a big blow. Afterwards, when I recovered, I was doing well in training, I did a great job in the area of La Cabrera and Los Ancares, but the sensations in the Tour de l’Ain were average”, he says. García will manage the jump by combining it with his second year of studies in an Electricity Degree where he has classes in the afternoons. “COVID-19 leaves me wondering if I would have had a different level in those specific moments. I don’t know what would have happened and it’s impossible to know. What is certain is that physically before the COVID I was improving, getting better and feeling better. And all of that came to a sudden halt”. The rider from Barcelona with roots in Castilla-León and Galicia is a small rider in terms of height and light in terms of weight. “Now I’m going to find a cycling where there are more mountains and a harder mountain where I think I can develop my profile much more. I’m really looking forward to this adventure. Any specific race? I’ve been following the calendar and the team’s developments closely, but I don’t think I can name a specific race that catches my eye. The first thing is to adapt, work hard and follow the instructions of the directors”. A great friend of Joel Díaz, for two seasons a rider in the junior team of the Contador Foundation, it could be said that Álex’s career in the world of two wheels owes a lot to this friendship. Former neighbours in the neighbourhood, classmates and members of the same friendship group, it was at Christmas 2019 when García broke away from the football he had been playing to focus on the road. It was his first year in the cadet category. “In my life I had never ridden a road bike, my thing was football, where I played as a midfielder. Sometimes at weekends we would go out on the mountain bike and stuff like that, but nothing serious. Other times we’d go to see Joel at a race. Things like that. One day, on one of those long weekends before Christmas when we didn’t have school for several days, I rented a road bike to go out with Joel. And that was a life-changing experience. I really liked it. I just tried it and, somehow, I got hooked”, recalls García, who began his career in the Club Ciclista Sant Boi.