After extending his trip to the Old Continent for two years seeking that his growth would also be that of several young Mexicans, the mountain biker, Gerardo Ulloa, will join the Spanish team Massi UCI Team for a year, his first elite UCI team, which provides you with structure with a full disciplinary team and financial stability in your preparation for Paris 2024.
The 25-year-old cyclist, champion in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Colombia 2018 and the Pan American Games in Lima 2019, will sail in 2022 with the Massi UCI Team, which in April of this year came to position itself as the best team MTB in the UCI world rankings and currently has Thomas Griot and Joshua Dubau in the top 30 in cross-country. The European team is made up of elite French cyclists and the world champion in 2021, Loana Lecomte (number 2 in the ranking).
After five years in the AR Efideporte Program Cycling Teams, a team with which he established himself as the best national exponent in mountain biking and achieved first place in the short track test at the 2020 World Cup in Nové Mesto, in the Republic. Czech, Ulloa decided to enroll in Aquiles MD, in which he wanted his name and career to serve to lower support for the Mexican youth team.
“This year (2021) was a little different, I left the team where I was (AR Efideporte Program Cycling Teams) and joined this new project (Aquiles MD) to want to give the opportunity that with my results and with my name they could be Download a little bit of resources and everyone can travel as a team and that more colleagues could be in Europe. But it is a bit complicated, this part still has to be worked on here in Mexico ”, Ulloa explained to El Economista.
After a year of sorting out its powers with its own resources (the support it receives from the government and from some private companies), signing for a Spanish team takes pressure off the Guadalajara, as he shared with this newspaper that the Massi will be in charge of providing all of them the resources to travel to Europe.
“Another very important part is the structure they have, in the competitions they will already have everything set up, a mechanic, a physio, the whole tent, being with a safe accommodation, all these things take away pressure psychologically and you focus on what yours which is to train, give the results and do some good competitions ”.
According to a survey published in May this year by the specialized site Pinkbike, which offered the opportunity to participate to any cyclist who has finished in the top 40 of their discipline (cross country, downhill, enduro and freeride) in the two seasons Previously, 26.9% of mountain bikers earned between $ 0 and $ 5,000 a year (21% had no monetary compensation), while the average cyclist was paid between $ 10,000 and 20,000 and almost a quarter of riders he was earning more than 50,000. Median cross-country wages were between $ 30,000 and $ 40,000 and the mode between $ 50,000 and $ 100,000.
Ulloa’s contract with Massi is for one year and he still requires to experience how it will unfold, but it will be a matter of showing results (although there are no commitments agreed by contract) so that he can sit down with the team director to talk about a renewal. The competitions that award points for the Olympic Games will start from 2023.
“There is no (written) commitment of results, fortunately the team trusts in what I have been doing, in what I am preparing to give my best in each competition. All you have to do is go to the established competitions on the calendar. It also gives me a bit of freedom that we can talk about the calendar, I think they are a very open team in that regard ”.
Ulloa will begin his competition calendar in February with some tests in Spain, then he will return to Mexico to begin his preparation for the World Cup in Brazil. Their objectives are to position themselves among the 10 or 15 best cyclists in competitions.
At the end of 2021, Ulloa is in the 39th position of the UCI cross-country ranking with 584 points, it is largely responsible for Mexico being located as a nation at step 26 in this discipline. Zabdiel Gutiérrez and Rafael Escárcega combine with another 272 points for the Mexican cause. In the female branch, the greatest exponent of mountain biking is Daniela Campuzano, in step 21 of the ranking; Erika Rodríguez and Ruth Clark follow her from afar.
This year Ulloa finished his participation in Tokyo 2020 in 23rd place with a time of 1:30:57 in the cross-country mountain biking event; Before him, the last Mexican to mountain bike at an Olympic Games was Ziranda Madrigal in Sydney 2000.
The results this year were not what Gerardo expected, however, they left him learnings, such as taking care of the small details and the hunger to continue achieving success.
“I stopped doing a little bit of mountain, I was dedicating myself to doing routes, maybe change the methodology with which the plan was carried out, focus a little more on other types of more explosive training, these are small details that possibly made the difference this anus. Mental also plays a very important role (…) reaching a World Cup and being named among the favorites is an extra pressure and I think I have to handle those parts better and this year it helped me a lot in all aspects and various things that I lived to face these new things ”.
Massi also has a road cycling division in the women’s category, where, according to portals such as Mundo Deportivo and CMD Sport, Mexican Andrea Ramírez will be competing in the 2022 season.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx