This is a story for optimistic people, for those who think that dreams come true.
It is also a story of passion, at first almost unconscious but then, increasingly, disruptive and unstoppable. The protagonist is the 25-year-old Monica Trinca Colonel, (now) a professional rider.
In the background is Grosotto, a small mountain village in Valtellina on the border with Switzerland. But let’s go in order.
The beginning? A classic
The bike entered Trinca Colonel’s life a long time ago. “At two and a half years old I had already learned to ride without training wheels,” she says, and she started competing at six, preferably on a mountain bike.
“We would set off early in the morning,” with her dad, Augusto, driving and mum, Agnese, alongside. “The pretext was to accompany my brother Michele to the races, but then I started too.”
The first road races began, and among the opponents, there was Letizia Paternoster, Elisa Balsamo and Chiara Consonni. One year, two, five, seven but then something broke. “I was a very shy and reserved girl,” Trinca Colonel explains. “I was the only girl in my area who competed, and I didn’t even have a team. I felt alone.”
The straw that broke the camel’s back was her grandparents’ illness. It was too much, and the young Italian said enough and parked her bike in the garage.
You never forget your first love…
There’s an Italian expression that says that “you never forget your first love”. In Trinca Colonel’s case, it was just like that. Her road bike was in the garage, but for her, sport was still fundamental.
She skied, ran in the woods and, sometimes, went for a mountain bike ride. In the meantime, she studied and, after finishing high school, she left for Milan to study optics and optometry.
“The world of glasses has always interested me. I started wearing glasses as a teenager and I liked going to the optician’s appointments,” Trinca Colonel says.
Three years passed and when she returned home, she immediately found a job. Not in Grosotto but in Livigno, an hour’s drive away. “I moved because in the winter, with the snow, it’s not always easy to get to Livigno.” She liked her work: she cut lenses, prepared glasses, convinced customers and so on.
Your first love, it was said, comes back forcefully and, during lunch breaks and on the days when she wasn’t at work, she started pedalling again and going fast. She also found love in Alex, her partner, who is also a passionate cyclist. It is he who suggested Trinca Colonel take a test to see how far her “engine” can go.
Becoming a professional athlete
The answer was clear: Trinca Colonel was an athlete or, at least, she had the potential to be one. “There’s no point in denying it,” she smiles. “I liked my job, but my passion for biking was something else.”
In the meantime, she took part in some amateur races, always getting good results. “I started training more, especially early in the morning before going to work, but I still lacked something to give up everything and try to get back to doing things seriously.”
Trinca Colonel has the character of her mountain homeland: down-to-earth and without too many frills. But she is also an optimistic person. “When Alex and my friends told me to try, I thought the train had already passed. My mother was also sceptical about leaving a good job, but she never stopped me, while my father was more in favour of me at least trying.”
You can pretend for a while, but in the end, passion just asks you to follow it.
“I didn’t want to live with the doubt of what it could have been and so one day I quit my job and gave myself two years to see what I could do,” Trinca Colonel says. “Together with my boyfriend, we wrote to several teams and, in the end, the one that believed in me was BePink, a small and combative Italian team.”
One year and the WorldTour arrives
The beginning was not easy. “I found myself in a world that I did not know and I was often disoriented even to do simple things like putting the radio in the jersey pocket,” she explains.
She also remembers very well the muscular tension of the first race in Spain, but it is water under the bridge and “now I feel like I never stopped riding”. Her good performances attract the attention of technicians and managers of other teams.
Someone, however, woke up earlier and his name was Marco Pinotti, the Sport Engineering Director of GreenEDGE Cycling. “The first contact with Monica was in summer 2023. The test was very good but we did not have any places available and so we made an appointment for the following year.”
In the last months of 2024, the agreement was finalised and put Trinca Colonel on a trajectory towards her debut in the WorldTour.
A dream come true
It’s been just over two months since the Italian climber donned the new purple Liv AlUla Jayco jersey for the first time but she has already made herself noticed with an impressive and strong fourth place overall at the demanding UCI Women’s WorldTour race, the – UAE Tour Women.
“Monica has the potential to become a high-level rider,” Marco Pinotti highlights, “she has great room for growth, considering that she is still young both in age and from a competitive point of view.”
Trinca Colonel does not hide: “I think I am a rider suited to the Grand Tours and my dream would be to do well in the Tour de France even if my favourite race is the Strade Bianche.”
She also knows that she must, and can, still improve especially in race tactics: “It’s clear that I lack a bit of experience and, in certain phases of the race, I should be more ‘smart’. On the other hand, I am learning to work together with the other teammates and I have understood that the team is very important for holding positions, chasing and so on,” she says.
Talking about herself, the 25-year-old is sure that her experience in the world of work has been very useful to her. “I was shy and now I have learned to throw myself into people and situations. I know well what it means to have a ‘spirit of sacrifice’ and I definitely have more patience.”
Trinca Colonel’s love for cycling is the same as when she was a little girl. “When I ride a bike, the shy Monica disappears, and I feel strong and confident. Sometimes, I think I was born to ride a bike, I feel at ease, pedalling is so natural. In other sports, I don’t have this confidence.”
Hero image: Sprint Cycling
