For most pros over 35, the question of retirement and 'Why continue?' is one which almost always comes up in post-season interviews. Should they opt to go racing, they'll likely cite an outstanding career goal - Mark Cavendish and the famous 'Project 35' Tour de France stages would be a case in point - or simply cite the fact they still enjoy racing and feeling motivated to compete.
But in the case of Mavi García, 41 next January, her main reason to keep on racing is slightly different. Despite her veteran status - she is set to be professional cycling's oldest racer in the women's peloton in 2025 - the Liv-AIUIa-Jayco rider feels there's still room for her to improve. And in that sense, if she's not reached her upper limit as a racer, then rather than ask herself the question 'Why continue?', the much more appropriate issue is - 'Why stop?'
"In this line of work at least, getting better is a never-ending process," García explains to Cyclingnews during a series of interviews prior to the Queens of the Alhambra race in Granada, currently Spain's sole women-only criterium.
"You're constantly realising things, improving things, finding out about the things you're doing badly, the things you're doing well. So maybe as a result of starting my career late, I never feel like I've got it all figured out. In fact, sometimes I think the day I decide to retire will be the one when I start thinking I haven't got anything left to learn.
"It's not just about simply riding your bike, either. Areas like racecraft and race strategy - you never stop learning and improving. There are always 1,000 things that you can look at and try and improve."
García also says part of the learning process is not always about moving into new terrain. Her own restless quest for the impossible state of perfection can be about delving into older projects or strategies, and working out how to do them better.
"So this year, for example, I've gone back to a previous idea that a huge amount of volume in training, dropping off the intensity a bit and upping the hours and elevation gain, can be really good for me," she says. "In training, I've come to realise, it's all about getting exactly the right balance."
Given that García is still finding her upper ceiling as a racer, she says, "That pushes me on, keeps me motivated, particularly as my endurance level is still as strong as ever at least, and sometimes it's improving. So all it takes is a bit of fine-tuning in the other areas, and I know I can do better."
Still Spain's top racer
Going into 2024, García found herself facing a possible challenge with the fusion of her former team, LIV, with Jayco AIUIa. But in fact, the way the two teams joined forces has worked out "extremely well," she says.
"The year has been very different in terms of the material, we use, but it's all been an improvement, so the adaptation has not been a problem," she says with a smile. "Things are really well organised, too, so that helps you to stay calm.
"In fact, I'd say 2024 has been my best in terms of performance for a very long time, but it's not always been possible to turn that into results."
If the Grand Tours did not work out as well as she wanted, on the plus side for García in 2024, she points to a great start in the UAE Tour, taking third overall, and her sixth-place finish in the Olympic Games road race. A stage victory and an overall win in the Vuelta a Andalucia did no harm to her palmares either. All this in a year when García has taken part in more races than ever before, and with the Olympics as the undoubted highlight of the season.
"The Olympics wasn't a circuit that was the best for me, but it wasn't so bad, either. I'm always getting categorized as a rider who only does well on long climbs, in fact as we saw in Glasgow in the Worlds last year where I did better than a lot of people expected, I can perform well on these punchy, hilly circuits, too," explains García.
"It's true that the Olympic circuit wasn't as hard as it could have been, but the way the race was ridden made it much harder, anyway. Mentally I was very prepared for it, too and it came out well.
"I'm not at all unhappy with the season, it wasn't as good as I'd have liked, but I can't really rate it negatively."
In fact, when it comes to consistently being in the mix at races, García, nine times a National Champion, (five in the road race, four in the time trial) remains the country's top women's pro. Sandra Alonso (Ceratizit-WNT), winner of the Guangxi WorldTour race this October is one new name to follow and Junior Road Race World's silver medallist Paula Ortiz is another, but they are only very recently getting on top of their game. Meanwhile, García is still her sport's reference point, after all she will be 41 next year.
Plans for 2025
Her 2025 race program and objectives have yet to be settled on completely, with the National Championships, her talisman race, one which she is consistently good at, but which she reveals, in fact, is a lot more hit and miss than her excellent run of results might suggest.
"I don't ever get to the Nationals' at 100% because it's part of the build-up for the Grand Tours that come afterwards, like the Giro d'Italia," García says.
"I always go there straight off altitude training and you never know how that first race after altitude is going to go. It's still the Nationals, though, and obviously, I go there to win. But it's not an obsession.
"The 2025 Worlds, though, are going to be very special and interesting for me with so much climbing and being at altitude. I just hope it's not cold, even if it rains.
"In any case, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, because the World's this year [2024] were very disappointing. I was in great shape, but the weather was so bad and so cold that I had to quit. So we'll see about 2025."
Whatever her race plans for 2025, García already knows that her off-season training will be harder than other years, in a bid to do even better than her excellent 2024 start and improve on some of those early podium places she obtained last spring.
"I'm going into the off-season in very good shape, I've prepared these last few races really well. The only reason I've not had the results I'd have liked to get is because of having to ride them in cold, wet weather. I can handle the cold OK but when it rains a lot as well, my body blocks up and I'm no good," continues García.
"So being in such good condition, I'm really motivated to hit the ground running next spring. I'll maybe even have less of a rest this winter than usual, just to try to be sure."
While García says that she is still changing as a racer and changing her strategies in her quest for improvement, the sport itself is not the one she discovered when she turned pro back in 2015, either. That's partly due, she says, to the women's peloton being much bigger and with more young riders in the action, too, "racing is a lot more hectic."
"I was talking about this with Elisa" - Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek), also taking part in the Reinas de la Alhambra event - "and we agreed, there is no 'down time' like there used to be in racing. It's flat out from start to finish now. It's different, for sure, but I don't mind - I'm adapting to that."
Amongst those up-and-coming news riders, of course, there are the new Spanish names like Ortiz, and García says that knowing that other Spanish riders will pick up whenever she finally leaves racing is a pleasant feeling to have. "Now I feel like I'll be able to sit down on the sofa and watch them putting in some great rides on TV," she says.
But for all retirement is just around the corner, and she is clearly not thinking too long and hard about it.
"The end of my career is coming, but I don't want to put a date on it, it's not at all certain, particularly as I'm doing so well," is how García puts it.
"I still enjoy riding a bike, I don't do it just to see my name in the race program, or for the money. Training every day doesn't put me off.
"It's true that some people have an issue with that, but it's something I like, something I did even when I was not a full-time pro and working in other jobs. So I've always thought it was something good to do.
"Of course, I'm thinking about what I can do in my life beyond professional cycling. But as sport is always going to be part of it, right now things like the question of my age and continuing to race just don't matter."
Rather, a restless, relentless quest for finding the ideal way to be the best professional she can possibly be is what's keeping García on track - and in her case, racing into her forties is simply something that goes with that particular territory.
