Five times Women´s World Champion and three times Women´s European Champion Laia Sanz, started to ride bikes at the age of four. Three years later she already begun to take part in races and at the age of twelve she took her first victory. Always on a trial bike and competing against male riders because there were no women´s series yet, Laia stood out from the beginning. Her father, big trial fan, instilled this love for the sport into his children, and Laia and her brother were always looking forward to the weekend to have the chance to go out to the country and practice. She started with the Spanish Championship to make the leap to the World Championship at the young age of fifteen. Her progression has always been stunning and her performances at women´s series were more similar to a cyclone.
Reaching the level she has managed to reach was not easy, but she isn´t sorry for it, on the contrary. She doesn´t like remembering bad moments, not because she might feel bad about it, but maybe, because her youth, joy and positivism don´t allow her to keep them in her mind. She has experienced male chauvinism on her way, but she thinks that being a woman hasn´t given her any advantage or disadvantage her male fellow riders wouldn´t have as well.
Absolute dominator in women´s series, Laia also takes part in absolute contests, where her results cannot but surprise everybody. This season she is taking part in the Spanish Championship senior B class and in the Junior World Cup, in addition to the Women´s Spanish and European Championships. She enjoyed the feeling of a podium finish in the second round of the Junior World Cup staged in Tarragona, were she stood up against much more experienced riders. A joy she hopes to repeat more than once during this season.
– You recently finished third in the Tarragona round of the Junior World Cup. ¿How does everything look from the third step of the podium?
“Everything looked really good. I almost did it last year, but it´s Tarragona where I finally managed to get on the podium. A double joy, because it was the first podium finish and I made it in Tarragona, at home, in front of my family and friends.”
– Any change of mentality?
“No, what I have to do is to keep on working as I´ve been doing. The only thing that has changed is that now I know that I can make it. I knew that I could, but you don´t really believe it until you´re up there.”
– How was your way to that step of the podium? Will this be a unique case or is it the first of many others to come?
“Well, I´ve really worked my way up. Last year I almost managed to get on the podium at some rounds, but finally didn´t. We´ve kept on working and the results came. I hope that Tarragona isn´t the only one and to be able to make it some more times during the season.”
– 2005 will be your second season in the official Repsol Montesa HRC team. Does competing together with world champions such as Lampkin and Fujinami bring something to you?
“Sharing team with them is more than luck, it´s luxury! They´re both great riders, but also great persons. Would have anybody ever told me that I would be sharing team with my idol Doug Lampkin, I wouldn´t believe it. When we are practising they´re always giving me advise, make fun and are very nice to me. The general atmosphere in the team is fantastic and we have a really good time together.”
– Last year you already took part in two rounds of the Spanish Championship with the 4-stroke bike. In which phase of evolution do you think it is?
“It´s a very new bike and the riders have just started, if I may say so, to compete with it. Considering that it´s the first year on the four-stroke, I think that the results achieved are very good. They might not have been extraordinary in the indoor, but they´ve already been on the podium and I think that they will be fighting for the outdoor title. It´s difficult to get used to it at the beginning, because it´s very different to the two-stroke, but now I just can´t think about going back to the two-stroke. I´d give it an A right now, although it´s always possible to improve.”
– This year you´re contesting several championships. Which are your aims in each of them? Spanish Championship Senior B class, Spanish Women´s Championship, Junior World Cup, Six Days of Scotland…
“I hope to take my first podium finish in the Spanish Championship Senior B class, although I haven´t started there yet, and to be back on the podium in the Junior World Cup. In the Women´s European and Spanish Championship my only aim is to confirm my titles. The Six Days of Scotland were my first time and the aim was to learn and to finish. The final position wasn´t important but I´m satisfied with my performance. Now I know what it´s all about and if I ever go back I know that I can do much better.”
– Laia Sanz has taken several titles in the women´s trial world championships. Is it possible to achieve the title in the premier class some day?
“No, that´s not my aim and I don´t see any chance to do it. I know that it´s complicated for the best riders of the world, just think about it… My aim is to be able to take part in the series and finish among the top fifteen.”
– Which is your worst memory?
“As for any other sportsman, some of the bad results, but also having met representatives of the male gender that haven´t treated me well just because I´m a woman.”
– And the best?
“The five women´s world championship titles.”
– ¿What kind of a disadvantage do you think you have compared to your fellow riders? Some advantage?
“I don´t think that I have any disadvantage due to the fact of being a woman. We´re physically different and sometimes I may get more tired or have less strength, but for the moment I don´t consider it as a problem. I don´t think that I have advantages either. I don´t think that I´ve received better treatment because I´m a girl, although because I´ve been the first one to compete against men I might have attracted more attention. Whatever I have achieved, I achieved it through hard work and on my own.”
– What kind of difficulties have you found on your way, due to the fact of being a woman, when it was about opening a way in a world dominated by men?
“Not many. Since I started competing, I´ve felt as one more and that´s the way they´ve been treating me. There have been some occasions, in some of the team´s I´ve been, where I´ve found people that seemed to be annoyed by the fact of a girl competing, and they didn´t treat me very well.”
– What does Laia Sanz do in her free time?
“As any other girl in my age, I like to spend the little free time I have with my friends; going out, to the movies… I also love music and sports in general. Especially motor sports, but also skiing and fronton.”
Laia Sanz has started her second season within the Repsol-Montesa HRC team in Mancha Real (Jaén), venue of the first round of the Spanish Trial Championship. Together with Marc Freixa and the champions Doug Lampkin and Takahisa Fujinami, she will be taking part in the Junior World Cup, the Spanish Championship Senior B class, as well as in the Women´s Spanish and European Trail Championships, and, for the first time in the emblematic Six Days of Scotland. Just as her teammates, the young rider from Corbera de Llobregat (Barcelona), will be using the new Montesa-HRC Cota 4RT, with 4-stroke engine, a machine with which she already took the first victories of its history in two rounds of the Spanish Women´s Championship at the end of last season. This year she wants to keep on progressing and learning, but she also hopes to be able to repeat the podium finish in the absolute contests, in addition to confirming her women´s titles. She has already proven to be capable of doing it and with no doubt she´ll be fighting until the end to make it.
