Cuban cyclist Arlenis Sierra ratifies leadership in the Americas

Havana, September 16 (ACN)-- Cuban cyclist Arlenis Sierra, multiple Pan American and World Tour champion, remains the first American in the world ranking, after this week's update.

Sierra moved up one place to 23rd, with 1,264 units, according to the ranking on the official website of the International Cycling Union.

Ahead of the 29-year-old Manzanillo-born rider are only the greatest luminaries of road cycling in recent years, including Olympic and world champions on roads and tracks.

Behind the Cuban are stars such as the 2021 Olympic runner-up in the Tokyo time trial, Swiss Marlen Reusser (26th place in the ranking), and Dutch Lucinda Brand, multiple world titleholder in road (time trial) and cyclo-cross (36th place).

Sierra's first race to score points in the current ranking is the 2021 World Championships, in the region of Flanders (Belgium), where on September 25 she grabbed headlines with a historic fifth place in the road race and added 275 points to the list.

The most recent results are 20 units for fifth place in the third stage of the Ceratizit Challenge, a World Tour race in Spain, and 24 points for 16th place in the final general classification of that competition contested until last Sunday by 22 multinational teams with the best women road racers in the world.

Since 2017, Sierra has managed to remain among the top 10 in a universal list whose place of honor is still occupied by the usual leader, the Dutch Olympic and world champion Annemiek van Vleuten, Sierra's teammate in the famous Movistar Team.

Precisely the Cuban has been key in 2022 in the collective work in function of Van Vleuten, to win the most important competitions, the Tour de France Femmes and the Giro d'Italia Donne, among other iconic races.

Van Vleuten, also an admirer of Sierra, according to statements released by Movistar Team, will meet the Cuban next September 24 in the main event of the World Championship in Australia, where the Dutchwoman will be in the most portentous of the national teams and the Cuban will once again beat as a lone star.