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Professional cycling can sometimes be very predictable: a gifted rider making progress year on year, building momentum with progressively bigger and better results.
Many careers follow this pattern. Yet some others buck the trend.
Monica Trinca Colonel could well go on to be a household name but, if so, her path the top has been anything but typical.
Two years ago the Italian wasn’t even a pro cyclist, but instead had a full time job. On Saturday she will line out as a dark horse for the San Remo Women classic, her confidence boosted by a string of strong performances.
It’s a staggering rate of progress, and one which suggests a big, big career may be in store.
Trinca Colonel hails from the mountain village of Grosotto, close to the Swiss border. She began competing at six years of age and lined out against the likes of Letizia Paternoster, Elisa Balsamo and Chiara Consonni in races.
However shyness, loneliness and her grandparents’ illness all complicated things.
While Paternoster, Balsamo and Consonni continuously progressed and secured early pro contracts, Trinca Colonel was far away from the racing scene.
However the bug was still there, albeit dormant, and resurfaced over time.
“I stopped racing bikes when I was 15 years old,” Trinca Colonel told Velo recently. “I stopped completely. I started again years later.
“The first ride was a very easy one. And then two or three years ago, I started to ride more.”
Path to a pro career: fondo races and a lab test
Encouraged by her partner Alex, who is a cycling enthusiast, she explored her potential. Her training time was limited by her work as an optometrist but she still performed well in amateur events, including winning the medio fondo at the Sportful Dolomiti Race in June 2023.
But it was physiological assessment at the Mapei Center which would prove vital to her future.
“It was a VO2 Max test,” she explained. “They told me it was very high. The best thing was that I had a lot of room to improve as I was training at that time, but not so much.”
Those results were sent to many teams, with Trinca Colonel hoping to spark their interest. Just one jumped at the opportunity to sign her, with the Bepink – Bongioanni squad giving her a contract for 2024.
That was an opportunity, but also a validation.
“For me, it was a gift because it was difficult to start again,” she told Velo. “I was unknown in the cycling world, so for me it was super that Bepink was interested.”
And so she lined out in the Italian team’s colors in 2024. How did it go?
Surprisingly well.
She had far less experience than her rivals and far fewer racing kilometers in her legs, but hit the ground running. Early results included fourth overall in the Trofeo Ponente in Rosa, while she was 12th on the concluding mountain stage in the Vuelta España Femenina and 26th overall.
She was also 11th on the mountainous sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia Women. Towards the end of her first season as a pro, she raced to fifth in Kreiz Breizhh Elites and a fine third overall in the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche.
Her raw talent was clear, and it had been noticed.
‘The physique of a complete rider’
Marco Pinotti is the Sport Engineering Director of GreenEdge Cycling. The team is better known by its racing name of Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla, the men’s and women’s WorldTour squads.
“The first contact with Monica was in summer 2023,” he said.
“The test was very good but we did not have any places available and so we made an appointment for the following year.”
An agreement was duly signed towards the end of 2024 and Trinca Colonel made her WorldTour team debut in early February.
It’s still early days yet, but Pinotti is excited by her potential.
“She has the physique of a complete rider,” he told Velo recently. “Her VO2 max values are in line for a climber or a GC rider.”
“She seem to recover well from effort after effort, even if we don’t have a lot of data and a lot of experience from her. In the end we will try to move her into a GC rider. That would be the idea, even if I think she can do well also in hard one day races.”
Pinotti, a two-time Giro d’Italia stage winner, is clear that she lacks racing experience. He is working closely with her to try to accelerate her progress, and is encouraged thus far.
“She has got pretty good skill, at least individually,” he said. “I noticed that in the peloton, technically she doesn’t have big holes to cover. It is more about maybe how she can improve in her strategy through the races. That’s something the sports director can help her with.
“Basically, I mostly train her how to respond to the demands of the races. She struggles a bit with acceleration and some other weak points, so we work on those aspects that might affect her.”
And the outcome thus far? It’s very encouraging.
Gathering momentum in season two
Trinca Colonel made her Liv AlUla debut in the UAE Tour Women in early February. She went shoulder to shoulder with some of the world’s best riders on the Jebel Hafeet summit finish, taking a superb fourth.
She was 38 seconds off the stage winner Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and a mere three seconds off those in second and third.
That performance sealed a high GC finish, with Trinca Colonel ending the WorldTour race in fourth overall.
Since then her strong results have continued. She was 11th in Strade Bianche Donne–considerably better than her 38th last year—and eighth in the Trofeo Alfred Binda.
“I’m very happy about the season so far,” she told Velo this week. “I was expecting good results but not so good.”
She will now be part of the team for Saturday’s San Remo Women and is excited by the thoughts of the race.
“The team idea is to bring Letizia Paternoster to the sprint,” she said. “If Letizia won’t be there, I will see what I can achieve.”
Pinotti will be encouraged by her level this season. Speaking prior to the first races, he said she has made a lot of progress since joining the pro peloton.
“I think she had a very high rate of improvement in the past 12 months. That’s understandable, because she was not training full time before. I think she has room for improvement.
“Right now she is good. Probably she can be a top ten contender for stages races in GC. It is difficult to say ow good she can become. I am a bit wary to say she can be one day a very strong rider.
“But I am very confident, I keep it within myself.”
Her performances thus far this year will only fuel that faith.
Setting goals
Trinca Colonel’s story is an unusual one in pro cycling. Returning to the sport after so many years out is unusual enough, but securing a contract and then performing strongly on the world stage is hugely encouraging.
Results such as fourth overall in the UAE Tour give a glimpse as to what she can achieve. Those performances should only get better and better over time, too.
In ways it must feel like a ‘pinch me’ moment for her. After all, just over a year ago she was working full time and cramming in training sessions where she could.
Now she’s part of one of the biggest teams in the sport, and is turning heads.
“I am very happy here, because there is a very good environment,” she told Velo.
“I feel like they are helping me and I have everything here. It’s a higher level again than Bepink.
“Everyone is looking after me. And I’m very happy too doing these big races so soon.”
It’s important to remember that Trinca Colonel is still playing catchup. She will take time to achieve her full potential. Races such as San Remo Women will boost her experience and, if she gets a chance to perform there, that will further raise her morale.
She’ll keep working hard, guided by people such as Pinotti, and try to make big progress in year one of a two year deal with Liv AlUla.
“I hope to do something special in a grand tour,” she told Velo, looking at the broader season ahead.
“I hope perhaps I can get a top ten. I don’t know in which grand tour, but I hope for that. And I also want to help my teammates.’
Thing is, if she keeps improving at the same rate, they could end up in the helper role more often she does.
