Mavi Garcia does the triple-double at Spanish nationals

Mavi Garcia continued her dominance of the Spanish national championships on Saturday, winning the women's road race for a third year in a row.

Having already completed the same feat in the time trial in mid-week, she pulled off the triple-double, winning both of the major titles in all of the past three years. 

If Garcia's time trial victory was emphatic, he road race victory was extravagant, seeing her cross the line more than three minutes ahead of anyone else. It would have been more, had she not soaked up the celebrations in the final kilometre. 

The 38-year-old went on the offensive early on the hilly 130km course in Mallorca. She went clear in a strong move of nine riders and then left them behind as the route intensified in the final 40km. 

The Coll de Sa Creu - 6km at 5% - was the key climb scaled twice, and Garcia put her rivals to the sword. Despite a concerted chase behind, her lead grew and grew. When it went above four minutes, it was clearly game over. 

Garcia sailed home, while Sandra Alonso (Ceratizit-WNT) won the sprint for second place from the chase group. The bronze medal went to Yurani Blanco Calbet (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi). 

"I wanted to win and was willing to go all-in," said Garcia. "It took a lot out me because it might have looked easy but it wasn't."

Garcia, a latecomer to pro cycling, now has eight national titles to her name. She won the road race in her 2016 breakthrough before claiming the time trial in 2018 and has now won both in 2020, 2021, and 2022. 

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