'Motherhood and elite-level sports are entirely compatible' – Sandra Alonso targets Paris-Roubaix, returning after childbirth and storming the Spanish club scene

After leaving the professional peloton in 2025 to have her first child, Sandra Alonso will return in 2027 having signed a single-season deal with the Spanish ProTeam, Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi.

Alonso rode for a variety of teams between 2018 and the spring of 2025, spending the final four of those years with the WorldTour Ceratizit team and riding her last race with the German squad last April. Now, after a successful return with the Eneicat-Be Call club team, she has been snapped up by her home squad.

A strong all-rounder with a good time trial, Alonso has four wins to her name, including the victory at the WorldTour level Tour of Guangxi in 2024, and a stage at the Thüringen Rundfahrt that same year.

Her last race before pregnancy was in April 2025, at the Grand Prix Surf City in El Salvador, and she gave birth last December, just as the Ceratizit team went out of business after 10 seasons in the peloton.

While other riders have successfully returned to competition after giving birth, remarkably Alonso was back in January, riding a national level race in the UAE, before racing the 2.1 level Vuelta a Extremadura with the Spanish national squad in March. Having been snapped up by Eneicat, she then took third place in her first outing, the GP Ciudad de Eibar.

Though her only victories this year have come at the National level, she’s bagged a string of top 10s at .1 and .Pro races, took third in the Spanish time trial championships and fifth in the road race, and last week took second place at the Mediterranean Games time trial.

With her future now secure, she is currently competing in the 2.2 Giro Della Toscana, where she finished sixth in Thursday’s prologue.

"Signing with Laboral Kutxa-Euskadi is a source of pride and the best reward for all the effort I’ve put in this year," Alonso said in a team press release. "I feel I still have a lot to offer in cycling, and I’m approaching this opportunity with the excitement of someone starting their first year as a professional. I’ve come back stronger, with renewed enthusiasm, and having demonstrated a high level of competitiveness.

"After several years in the WorldTour, I hope to bring that experience to a squad full of young talent - especially Basque rider - to guide them, grow together, and achieve great results.

"Among my major goals is racing Paris-Roubaix again - a unique, historic event I’ve held dear since finishing tenth in 2022 - as well as returning to the Tour de France, an impressive race I completed in its first three editions.

"I want to express my deep gratitude to my family for their support throughout this challenging process; to my coach for believing in me and guiding me; and, of course, to Laboral Kutxa-Euskadi for putting their faith in me for this project.

"I’m also grateful for the constant support from the fans - messages calling me a fighter, a role model, a warrior - which truly motivate me. I hope my experience helps show that motherhood and elite-level sports are entirely compatible."

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