{"id":182326,"date":"2021-03-22T14:22:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T14:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=182326"},"modified":"2021-03-22T14:22:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T14:22:52","slug":"mexican-cycling-tries-to-leave-its-dark-ages-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2021\/03\/22\/mexican-cycling-tries-to-leave-its-dark-ages-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Cycling Tries to Leave Its Dark Ages Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>When you think of a country with a competitive cycling culture, Mexico is probably one of the last names to come to mind. There are many reasons for this: politics, corruption and endemic violence, to name just a few.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/news\/astana-womens-team-to-continue-under-mexican-ownership\/\">A.R. Monex Women\u2019s Pro Cycling Team<\/a>, the new acting title for what had been the Astana women\u2019s team, is part of an ambitious new project trying to change Mexico\u2019s cycling culture.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-controller-wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Arlenis Sierra won&#39;t race the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TrofeoBinda?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TrofeoBinda<\/a> but the team will have some good cards to play like Ragusa, Merino and Novolodskaya <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UCIWWT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UCIWWT<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ArMonex?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ArMonex<\/a><br \/>Line-up (21\/03, 141.8 km)<br \/>\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Katia Ragusa<br \/>\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MVsperotto22?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MVsperotto22<\/a><br \/>\ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa Mariia Miliaeva<br \/>\ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa Maria Novolodskaya<br \/>\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddf8 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eidermerino?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@eidermerino<\/a><br \/>\ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\uddfd <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yareliisalazar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@yareliisalazar<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0qMlEnJuKe\">pic.twitter.com\/0qMlEnJuKe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Acca Due O Women&#39;s Team (@accadueoteam) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/accadueoteam\/status\/1373019825971286025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async data-src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>It was originally founded in 2014 as the A.R Efideporte mountain bike team by the brothers Luis and Alejandro Rodriguez who took over the Astana women\u2019s team last year after its Kazakhstani funding had ended. The brothers have launched three new teams for 2021: a men\u2019s U23 road team, a men\u2019s mountain bike team, and a junior development team.<\/p>\n<p>But it hasn\u2019t been smooth sailing. Last fall, the junior road team was sent to Colombia to race the Vuelta Antioquia and Clasic\u00e1 RCN among other races. However, documentation from the Mexican Cycling Federation was missing and, according to Luis Rodriguez, the Federation would not provide it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe main plan for our juniors was to launch a registered team in 2022, but our sponsors wanted to launch in 2021 instead,\u201d Rodriguez told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/features\/political-conflicts-continue-to-hamper-mexican-cycling\/\">Cyclingnews<\/a>. \u201cSo we gathered a few riders to send to Colombia to race. Because we didn\u2019t have the team registered, the Mexican Federation found out about it, called the Colombian Federation and wouldn\u2019t let us race.\u00a0The Colombians were really nice but didn\u2019t want any political problems with our federation, so we were forced to return home. We lost a lot of money, so thanks to that we decided we want nothing to do anymore in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_182330\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-182330\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2021\/03\/Tour-of-Colombia-profimedia-0570427429.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-182330 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2021\/03\/Tour-of-Colombia-profimedia-0570427429-1024x764.jpg\" alt=\"Tour of Colombia\" width=\"1024\" height=\"764\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-182330\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The team was supposed to participate in the Vuelta Antioquia race in Colombia. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Mexican Cycling Federation disputed the charges, saying that no request for the team\u2019s Colombian participation had ever been filed and stated that, \u201cThe Rodriguez Family, directors of this company, have hurt cycling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the truth, the brothers decided to close the team\u2019s training base in the town of Vallee de Bravo near Mexico City and set up a new base in the tiny Republic of San Marino. That is how the brothers connected with Mauricio Fabretto of Astana who was looking for a new title sponsor for his women\u2019s team in Italy. The project grew and the brothers announced recently they had secured the UCI Continental license, registering the women\u2019s team in Italy with Fabretto, and the U23 men\u2019s road team and mountain bike team in San Marino.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019 and 2020, A.R. Monex Pro Cycling were awarded one million dollars of government funding through the Mexican tax administration, EFIDEPORTE, and the team secured other Mexican sponsors including the Monex financial group. Within a year, the team had earned Mexico\u2019s first mountain bike World Cup win in Nov\u00e9 M\u011bsto na Morav\u011b, the Czech Republic, through the rider Gerardo Ulloa.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CF41s_Vlglq\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link<\/p>\n<p>A.R. Monex must apply for the funds every year and the money must go to Mexican athletes only. \u201cEven though we are registered in San Marino, it\u2019s a Mexican team,\u201d said Luis Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<p>According to UCI rules for Continental teams, 51 per cent of the riders must be from the country where it is registered. A.R. Monex wanted to register in Italy but that would have meant having many more Italians on the team, which would have been prohibitively expensive. But if the registered country doesn\u2019t have enough riders, the team is allowed to bring riders in from other countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we signed a contract with the Cycling Federation of San Marino and registered there,\u201d Rodriguez explained. As a result, Mexican cycling now has its first-ever European-based program. The mountain bike team consists of seven Mexican riders. Three Mexican riders are currently signed to the women\u2019s team with the possibility of two more added later in the season. The U23 team includes eight Mexican riders with one rider, Federico Olei, from San Marino.<\/p>\n<p>The team has not yet released its race calendar but its aim is to earn an invitation to the Baby Giro in June. <em>\u00a1Buena suerte!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you think of a country with a competitive cycling culture, Mexico is probably one of the last names to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":182334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[5051,5057,5050,5053,5052,5055,5056,5054],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-182326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-alejandro-rodriguez","tag-cycling-federation-of-san-marino","tag-cycling-in-mexico","tag-gerardo-ulloa","tag-luis-rodriguez","tag-mauricio-fabretto","tag-mexican-cycling-federation","tag-vuelta-antioquia","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mexican Cycling Tries to Leave Its Dark Ages Behind - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When you think of a country with a competitive cycling culture, Mexico is probably one of the last names to come to mind. 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