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Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado is the current cyclocross world champion. He has already won four races this season. He also raced his first mountain bike world championships this year. He also had a short season on the road. In short, Alvarado is a cycling multi-talent and with a clear plan for the next few years. “I want to balance cyclocross, mountain biking and road up to the Paris Olympics [2024],” she says.
Let’s go back to the beginning. Ceylin (‘SAY-lin’) Alvarado was born in the Dominican Republic in 1998. Her father Rafael moved to the Netherlands and the rest of the family joined when Alvarado was five. He still speaks Spanish at home. She started out in athletics, but in her early teens she switched to cycling with the Rotterdam Cycling Club Ahoy. His father was a cyclist and urged young Ceylin to give it a try.
“There aren’t many top athletes in Rotterdam, let alone cyclists – just Lucinda [Brand] and me, “says Alvarado.” So cycling was not the logical choice for where I come from. As children we were encouraged to play sports.
“The great thing about cycling and especially cyclocross is that it’s a family business. You never have to pretend in front of your family, they will accept and support you whatever happens. Maybe from the outside he doesn’t have that professional look but I love having my dad [mechanic], mother [soigneur] and brother [first year U23] around. I can always count on them. “
Alvarado’s development was fast. Ten months ago he hadn’t even considered competing in the elite world championships: he wanted one last shot at a world championship jersey in the U23 category, a title he lost to Bogense, Denmark in 2019. But victories in the U23 category. elite the category continued to arrive in the 2019/2020 season and there was not an established rider who hadn’t beaten at least once.
After his Dutch elite title in early January 2020, he decided to win an elite world title at the super fast and flat course of the Swiss airport of Dübendorf on February 1st. After an exciting fight he beat Annemarie Worst and took home her first world championship jersey.
“My development went fast, yes,” he says. “Many of the older runners like Helen Wyman, Nikki Harris or Marianne Vos are gone. I can win on many different courses and I will always do my race. I love racing. I love the physical nature of this sport. I lack some strength, but this is age and experience. “
Results kept coming consistently and quickly. In November, the reigning Dutchman and world champion added a European title to his impressive collection of championship jerseys.
You won’t see Alvarado running with the regular team kit anytime soon. She is currently the Dutch, European and world champion.
Given all his recent success, Alvarado has every reason to smile. Indeed, her infectious smile seems perpetual. However, his career hasn’t always been a steady upward path. He struggled with many injuries as a young man.
“Most of the time I’m happy, but like everyone else it’s not always easy to navigate,” he says from his home in Belgium, where he lives with his partner and teammate Alpecin-Fenix Roy Jans. “From the outside it might seem easy to me. It’s not that visible on social media but I also have my bad days. It’s normal. As a young man I had my fair share of bad luck with knee problems, glandular fever and pneumonia. It was bad enough. “
Alvarado is one of the very few black riders in the international group, but he has never felt held back by that. As you would expect, she wants equality for women and equal opportunities for all athletes, regardless of their ethnic or financial background.
“It’s not even a question for me that we have to fight for equality, but I don’t think I should always talk,” says Alvarado. “I don’t mind talking about diversity in sport because I’ve never experienced negativity. There is a lot of discussion now why cycling is such a white sport, but I don’t feel the need to always represent and end up in all kinds of discussions. “
Alvarado hopes to be a role model, an example for young children. For her, Marianne Vos has always been that example. She still thinks about it when she is in the same group as Vos, even though she is now a world champion in her own right.
“Marianne is so simple and always kind,” says Alvarado. “She is special but also one of us. His palmares are fantastic. I think that if you have a good personality the guys who watch sport will look at you and see you as an example. “
Maybe others will follow in his tire tracks?
“I think more children should have the opportunity to start pedaling,” he says. “Money is a problem for many parents. I’m not from a wealthy neighborhood but my club had bikes that we could try. But then my parents had to make the decision to buy a bike in the end and they are more expensive than soccer shoes. This will create a barrier for the children [of all backgrounds] to start pedaling.
“I think federations and clubs should start from the bottom with the new generation. Cycling is expensive and will only get more expensive. “
Alvarado would like to be involved in the development of the sport at the grassroots level, but not now. There is still so much to do in his career.
Cyclocross is a small sport with a strong base in the Netherlands and Flanders. The pool of winners is also very small. As a result there is always a lot of discussion about racing predictability – often it’s a small group of drivers vying for the prizes, or even a dominant force like Mathieu van der Poel in previous years. Alvarado is one of the few cyclists who now dominate the elite women’s CX races. She is not as concerned with this as some people.
“Is it our job to make racing exciting?” He says. “Does Mathieu have to risk not winning by adding more excitement? No. The crowd wants emotions and I understand that, but we do our competitions. They are usually exciting to watch, I think. “
Although Alvarado loves cyclocross, he doesn’t want to limit himself to just one discipline. He also showed some impressive signs in road racing. At the Tour de l’Ardèche this year she finished 12th after seven difficult stages in the south of France. He was part of the decisive move at the Dutch National Championships on the VAM-berg, an artificial hill on a landfill, but had to let go in the last 25 kilometers.
As mentioned, he also raced his first mountain bike world championships on 10 October in Leogang, Austria. He took home a bronze medal in the cross country event in the U23 category. He is only 22 years old.
Alvarado wants to combine cyclocross, road and MTB for the next four years and has Paris in mind when it comes to the Olympic mountain bike race. Technically he has the ability to drive in Tokyo in 2021, but the Netherlands only has two seats and Anne Terpstra and Anne Tauber are more experienced.
Finding the balance between disciplines will be difficult for Alvarado, but on Alpecin-Fenix, the Belgian team he signed with until February 2024, he finds a perfect place to do all this. Teammate Mathieu van der Poel does the exact same thing.
“Mountain biking is a lot more complicated than cyclocross when it comes to the technical side of things,” he explains. “There is a lot of variety in the soil with tree roots, rocks and a lot more elevation. The climbs are also longer. Cyclocross is easier to learn, I think, with some curves, sand, some racing and pace differences. Also, I have now done the world championships in the U23 category in mountain biking, but that was my last year. The elite category is really something else.
“We will see how I evolve in this sport and then we will see what happens. I don’t even know if I can do it. I want to give myself some time and not rush. Mountain biking is Olympic and cyclocross is not. This makes the Olympics the definitive event for me. It makes you champion for four years. “
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