Mavi García has pushed back her plans for retirement, signing a new one-year contract extension with UAE Team L’IMAD that will take her through to the end of 2027, by which point she’ll be 43 years old.
The Spaniard returned to the UAE team, where she spent a successful 2022 campaign, this year and after a strong season that has taken in all three Grand Tours, she has decided she’s not done yet with professional cycling.
García pointed out that while she is now 42, he cycling career is not all that old, having only switched to the sport full-time in 2016 following many years competing in athletics and duathlon.
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“Maybe there are people who don’t understand it at my age, but this year I have really enjoyed racing with the team. I’m at a point where I can finally say that I have learned everything there is to learn in this sport. Because I started so late, everything happened differently,” García said.
“Anyone would pay to have a job that used to be their hobby, and I consider myself very fortunate to be able to continue doing a little more of what I love most, especially considering that my level is still very high. It can also be a motivation for other riders because, after all, this is a job where you always have to keep breaking barriers whenever possible.”
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García started out with the Bizkaia-Durango team before taking a breakthrough Spanish road race title in 2016 that propelled her cycling career and took her to the Movistar women’s team when it was set up in 2018.
In 2020 she signed for the Alé-BTC Ljubljana team that was taken over by the UAE project in 2022, and it was during these years that she enjoyed her most consistent phase of top-level success, with three road race-time trial doubles at the Spanish nationals, along with a podium at the Giro d’Italia Women, a top-10 at the first Tour de France Femmes, and a Giro dell’Emilia win among some strong Classics results.
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She then transferred to spend three years at the Liv-AlUla-Jayco team, during which she claimed the biggest win of her career with a stage at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, but she returned to UAE in 2026, where she finished runner-up at the Tour Down Under before supporting the team’s ever-growing GC ambitions in all three Grand Tours, with Paula Blasi winning the Vuelta before Elisa Longo Borghini placed 4th at the Giro and 3rd at the Tour.
When she returned to UAE last winter, she stated at the time that the 2026 season would be her last, but has changed her mind.
“I left the team when it had only been created one year earlier, and when I came back the change was quite big. It has grown in every sense, both in terms of structure and the level of the riders and organization,” García said.
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“2022 here was the best year of my sporting career and I learned so much from the team. Now the team has given me the opportunity to finish my sporting career here, helping the young riders and the team improve with everything I can contribute. That gives me satisfaction and makes me want to be part of the team’s continuous improvement.”
It has not been explicitly confirmed that the 2027 season will be García’s last, with the UAE Team L’IMAD management, which has undergone significant change in recent months, convinced she still has plenty to offer.
“Her value to this team goes far beyond the results she can achieve in races. Mavi brings experience, leadership, knowledge and an extraordinary work ethic, and she has become an important figure for our young riders,” said team president Melissa Moncada.
“Her return in 2026 allowed us to rediscover someone we already knew, but also to see how much our team has grown since 2022. We are proud that she has decided to continue with us and we are convinced that she still has a great deal to give to this project.”
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