The cyclist Luis Ángel Maté will take the name of Estepona to national and international races in 2026.

The athlete returns to the origins of his professional career, which began in the city, premiering a jersey designed by his son and based on the image of the municipality. With it he will participate in reference events such as the Titan Desert, the Titan Patagonia and the Sea Otter Festival.

The cyclist from Malaga, Luis Ángel Maté, will promote the name of Estepona in national and international competitions in which he will participate throughout 2026 in the gravel cycling modality. This discipline, along with mountain biking, now focuses its sporting objectives after closing in 2025 a successful stage as a professional cyclist.

The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, attended the official presentation of the jersey that Maté will wear during the season, showing his support for the athlete and highlighting the importance of this collaboration for the external projection of the municipality. The councilor stressed that, thanks to the figure of Luis Angel Maté, “the Estepona brand continues to gain visibility internationally associated with values such as sport, effort and overcoming”.

This season’s jersey maintains the creative line started last year, with an original design made by the cyclist’s son and inspired by the slogan of Estepona as ‘Garden of the Costa del Sol’. On that occasion, the design was based on the representation of leaves as a symbolic element of the municipality, an idea that is consolidated in 2026 with a chromatic evolution. For this season we have opted for more striking and eye-catching colors, which in addition to reinforcing the visual identity, are especially important for cyclists as they improve visibility on the road and contribute to the prevention of accidents.

Luis Ángel Maté’s sporting calendar for 2026 includes some of the most demanding and renowned races on the international scene. Among them, he will take part in the Skoda Titan Desert Morocco, one of the most emblematic mountain bike stage races in the world. He will also take part in the Titan Patagonia, a four-day race that takes place in the Chilean Patagonia and, as one of the great novelties of the season, will attend the prestigious Sea Otter cycling festival in California, one of the most important events in the sector worldwide and where he will participate for the first time.

During the ceremony, the mayor highlighted Maté’s brilliant sporting career over 17 years in the cycling elite, with participation in top-level events such as the Vuelta Ciclista a España and the Tour de France. He also recalled his close ties with Estepona, a city where he took his first steps in this sport by the hand of the Virgen del Carmen Cycling Union, where he obtained his first federal license.

For his part, Luis Ángel Maté said that ‘returning to the origins and carrying the name of Estepona in this new stage is especially exciting’, recalling his beginnings in the school of the Union Ciclista Virgen del Carmen and the fundamental role of Juan Antonio López Baeza in his training. After his retirement from professional cycling, the athlete has opted for a different way of living this sport, ‘away from the pressure and the asphalt’, betting on disciplines such as gravel, which he defines as ‘a more social, close and friendly cycling.

In this new season, Maté will continue to have the backing of the Estepona City Council and the support of brands that continue to rely on his experience and professionalism, such as Orbea, Ekoi and Etxeondo.