After two years representing the UCI World Cycling Centre as a rider, the Argentinian returns home not only a more experienced athlete, but also armed with the Level 3 UCI Coaching Diploma and Sport Director Certification.
Since the beginning of 2022, Luciana Roland has been living, training and racing with fellow members of the UCI World Cycling Centre’s (WCC) women’s team based in Aigle, Switzerland. As part of this UCI Women’s Continental Team, she has been competing in Europe and living the life of a pro rider.
Eight weeks after representing her country at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships held in Glasgow and across Scotland, Luciana raced in the distinctive WCC Team jersey for the last time, at the Tre Valli Varesine Women's Race in Italy, at the beginning of October. Now she begins another chapter in her career dedicated to cycling.
At 28 years of age, she is by no means hanging up her bicycle – she still dreams of competing at the Olympic Games – but the natural leader is already thinking ahead and has been able to benefit from the UCI WCC’s training and development programme.
UCI World Cycling Centre Director Jacques Landry explains: “The athletes who are selected to train with us in Aigle, Switzerland, are chosen for their talent. Our aim is to help them realise their full potential as cyclists but also to develop as people, prepare for their post-competitive careers and maybe contribute in their turn to the development of cycling in their own countries.
“In the last two years, the WCC Team coaches have observed Luciana’s leadership skills and recommended that she make the most of that talent with official qualifications.”
Training as a coach and Sport Director
It was an opportunity that the young Argentinian jumped at. She was one of 19 coaches from countries on all continents to undertake the UCI Level 3 Coaching Diploma from 3 to 25 October, which she followed up with last week’s course for Sport Directors, attended by 80 men and women, also from all around the world.
The idea of a post-competitive career in coaching appeals to her more than using her qualification as a physio.
“I could already see myself working with development athletes or amateur riders alongside my own cycling career,” she says. Always proud to wear her national jersey, she would like to find a way to help her teammates develop at international level.
“That could mean a mix of working with Argentinian riders but also European or American riders, to help get them into that environment and level,” she explains. “There is a lot of talent in Argentina and a lot of people who want to come to Europe, but the economy makes that difficult. If you bring the salary of an Argentinian rider to Europe, it is nothing.”
She also points to the lack of contact between members of her national team. “We don’t have training camps, so we don’t know each other. If we want to qualify for the Olympics, for example at the Pan Americans, we need to work as a team. That is difficult if you haven’t trained together and don’t know each other.”
Her desire to see women develop in her region is reflected in her membership of the Riders Council of The Cyclists’ Alliance, founded by former and current women pro cyclists to provide holistic support to female cyclists during and after their careers.
“That is also a way of helping develop cycling, not only in Argentina but all of Latin America,” says the former Continental Champion for mountain bike cross-country Olympic, who is considering re-introducing some mountain bike to her schedule.
She hopes to join a team with which she can compete in more races and continue to chase UCI points while drawing on the knowledge and experience gained on the UCI Coaching Course and Sport Director Course.
“I have learnt a lot in the last few weeks, including a lot of things that will help me as a rider.
“For now I want to live in Europe, but after that, you never know. Things change, and it’s super interesting, the possibility to share all I have learned with my nation and help them keep growing.
“It’s exciting. I don’t know what’s coming up…. But I’m sure something will happen.”