Until 2019 Gorka Sorarrain (1996, Tolosa) was a good basketball player in the EBA league. But the pandemic arrived and, like everyone else, he secluded himself in his house, but not before getting a roller to continue playing sports. But at that time something woke up in him, and after his confinement he decided to change the ball for the bicycle, the one he had bought at the age of 23, when he received his first salary as an electronic engineer. Thus, at the age of 25, being one of the oldest amateurs in Spain, he began a completely incredible adventure that has led him to compete face to face with the best in the Spanish Championship. Now, at 27, the age limit for amateur cyclists in the Basque Country, he has made the leap to professionals by being signed by Caja Rural.
Sorarrain’s is a story that, if it happened in the United States, would be enough to write a script for an epic film. Once the pandemic ended and he was able to ride outdoors, he began to sign up for cycling tours and his results convinced him that he could have a chance in elite cycling. He was without a team and without any expectations, but he decided to federate as an independent in the demanding Basque calendar. His first race was in the Euskaldun tournament, but from the first races he was already capable of reaching the front group. Not a month and a half had passed when the Cafés Baqué team contacted him. There the first leap forward took place and he got his first victory at Berriatua in June. Shortly after he prevailed in Gernika. But the demand was maximum.
Engineer in the morning and cyclist in the evening. He got up at 4 in the morning to start daylight hours and be able to train as much as possible. He had to ask for a vacation to be able to compete. And despite everything, the results were increasingly impressive. “It has been a hard year, with hardly any time. My day was organized into working, going out, training, preparing food for the next day and sleeping. On weekends I tried to take advantage to train more volume but it has been a year of a lot of organization and without time for anything ”, he explained after signing for Caja Rural.
His good performance in 2022 allowed him to sign for the Angolan team with a Portuguese structure Baí-Sicasal. But his routine did not change one millimeter. In March he was 6th in the 1st stage of the Volta al Alentejo and decided to sign up for the Spanish championship en route. and what happened there
It completely changed his life. After 186 kilometers of steep terrain, Sorarrain reached the last kilometers in the group chasing Oier Lazkano, the eventual champion of Spain. With 500 to go he was able to attack and a few meters from the finish he was overtaken by Carlos Ayuso, the previous champion, Alex Aranburu and Jesús Herrada, all of them World Tour cyclists. After them, in an incredible fifth place that upset the plans even of Carlos de Andrés, a commentator for Televisión Española, came this rare bird of sport who wanted to gain a foothold in the elite.
This result had such an impact that it didn’t take long for offers to rain down on him until Caja Rural decided not to look at his ID but rather at his virtues on the bike and finally turn him into a professional. “A year ago he was just starting to compete. So I wouldn’t have believed it. The main objective was not to reach a team of this category, but to see what level it could give. Now I want to continue improving, I know that I can still take another good leap, since I had not yet fully professionalized because I continued working and training in the afternoons. I continue with the same focus of seeing how far I can go, although it is true that the day of the Spanish championship was a before and after ”, he explains.
“As a professional, now I can sleep my hours, wake up calm… I haven’t been there for a long time and I feel like I’m on vacation. I can get up later, train in the morning and lead the life of a professional, ”she says after seeing his dream come true.
