Thanks to the emergence and ever-upward rise of WorldTour rookie phenom Isaac del Toro, Mexico is back on the cycling map.

But the young UAE Team Emirates rider isn’t the only pioneering cyclist from the nation who has been creating history in recent months.

Alessandra Giuseppina Grassi, the first female professional cyclist from Mexico who raced in her home country and Europe from 1995 to 2013, recently became the first Mexican – male or female – to undertake and pass the UCI’s sports director’s course.

Grassi, 47, has been working with men’s and women’s teams for the past decade, and also played a crucial role in Del Toro’s first forays in Europe.

But until she passed the UCI’s course last November, she was unable to work as a DS for any men’s and women’s professional teams.

Now she can.

This article was published on Velo in June 2024. You can read the full article here.