Former tri’ champ Raña racing the road

Former world triathlon champion Ivan Raña will make his road racing debut with Xacobeo Galicia at next month’s Ruta del Sol-Vuelta a Andalucía.

Race officials confirmed that Raña will join Xacobeo Galicia teammates David Herrero, Iban Mayoz and David García in the five-day Ruta del Sol, which begins February 18 in Jaén, Spain.

Raña, fifth at the Olympic Games in Beijing, signed a one-year deal to race with the Spanish Continental team in what he’s calling a fulfillment of a long-held dream.

“It’s been many years — 20 to be exact — that I wanted to test myself as a cyclist,” Raña said at the team presentation last month. “As the saying goes, you find your place in life, and for me it was triathlon, because I like to live like a triathlon, but I’ve always had a thorn in my side about cycling.”

The 29-year-old Raña says his cycling experiment will only be a “parenthesis” before he returns to triathlon full-time ahead of the next Olympic Games.

“This is a provisional option, a parenthesis, in my specialty,” he said. “I’d like to carve open a place for myself in cycling, even though the long-term goal are the Olympic Games in London in 2012.”

While many ex-pro cyclists cross over to triathlon after retiring, it’s rare for a triathlete at the top of his game to transition onto the road scene.

Raña was fifth in his first major international competition at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and won the world title in 2002, then placed second in 2003 and 2004.

Raña, who hails from Spain’s Galicia region, said he believes he can do pretty well in professional cycling.

“I have the physical capability and resistance to be a todo terreno, to try to transform myself into a complete cyclist,” Raña said. “I should be a good climber, like Ezequiel Mosquera.”

FILED UNDER: Road