Rigoberto Urán Urán never tires of pedaling his bicycle. He has already spent 17 seasons in Europe, where he arrived quietly, without a name, in search of a better future and after all this time he can afford to say that he fulfilled beyond what was thought.
In 2006 he got on a plane and landed within the Tenax-Salmilano (Italy) team, alongside his compatriot Marlon Pérez. Urán is 36 years old today and is still on his bike, “enjoying”, as he says, cycling. He does not have a good Tour, as rare for him, but those were the orders, which, perhaps, he did not share, but respected, to be a domestique of the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, team leader, who retired due to a fall.
“I am an employee and I must respect orders. They told me we were going to look for stages. We’ll see how I adjust to being a stage hunter and forget about the general. At 36, things changed for me.”counted in the early stages of the Tour, in which he occupies box 85, 1 h 42 min 19 s behind the leader, Jonas Vingegaard.
Of course, that does not make him happy. He is not happy being behind, with the sunbeam burning his back, suffering, pedaling in search of a break or a stage victory, but he does it.
“It is the worst balance in history. If we are talking about that, it is very bad, “he said, but the reality is that he was not as a leader and that, to him, does not add up.
His marks are enviable. He is not a runner who earns a lot. In his resume there are only 15 victories, but he has had the luxury of being one of the Colombians who has won stages in the big three. Well, and he was silver en route to the 2012 Olympics.
(You can read: Tour de France: this is how it went for the Colombians in stage 11).
registered trademark
Urán is the cyclist in the country who has run the most three-week tests: 24. He is competing in his tenth Tour, he has been seven times in the Giro and the same in the Vuelta. He surpasses Hernán Buenahora (20) and Nairo Quintana (17).
In 2023 he escorted Vincenzo Nibali in the general final of the Giro, a year later he did the same, but with Quintana as champion, in a disputed race, as the boyacense attacked him going down the Stelvio, when the red flag ordered not to do so. And in 2017 he was second on the Tour, behind Chris Froome, podiums in the big ones.
He is not only successful in cycling, but also in business. With his brand, gorigogo, he has established himself in the cycling clothing market, he has restaurants, a coffee brand, something very similar to what his parents, entrepreneurs from Antioquia, did. In addition, every year he does the Giro de Rigo.
He is a freehand runner, who came from far below, who has overcome very difficult moments, who loves Aracelly, his mother, and Martha, his sister.
Michelle, his wife, was the one who pushed him into the business world and with her he has a daughter, Carlota, without leaving behind Matías, his first son. Aracely and Rigoberto de Jesús (RIP), the parents of the national cyclist were cousins.
She lived in the village of Pabón and went down to town to buy earthen soap and sandwiches to supply her business that she had and bought them at Rigoberto’s store, which also had canteens and held raffles. At the time they got married. Aracely was the housewife and helped her husband. They had a restaurant, she was the one who cooked, and later a grocery store. Then the first child arrived.
“I want him to be called after his father,” Rigoberto told Aracely, and on January 26, 1987, in Urrao, Rigo came to life.
She studied elementary school at the Helena Benítez school, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood, but many times Aracely had to go to solve disciplinary problems for her son.
He was a good student, his problem was disciplinary. When Rigoberto started high school at the Simón Bolívar High School, something calmed down. Circumstances of life matured him. He carried the addresses for the restaurant and the orders for the grocery store.
(Keep reading: This was the fatal accident in which the Colombian cyclist ‘Mono’ Jaramillo died).
sad moment
It was not difficult for Rigoberto to become fond of cyclingbecause his dad went riding almost every weekend and he stuck to the lot.
Rigoberto and Aracely separated and little Urán made the decision to go live with his father. His mother followed him closely and she knew that he was not doing well at school, so she made him catch up on Saturdays. Already, at that time, Rigo was part of the town’s cycling club and went out to train almost always with his father. One of those Saturdays, he had to go to school, to class and Rigoberto de Jesús went with the rest of his teammates to training.
When the group reached kilometer 17 in the village of El Arenal He was intercepted by the paramilitaries, who forced them to enter a farm, but the armed men made the decision to kill Rigoberto.
The young Urán learned the sad news because his clubmates came to the classroom and told him. He couldn’t believe that the violence that was lived up close had knocked on the door of his house, Rigo, many times, he saw people hanging, dead, he witnessed the mistreatment of the armed groups that roamed Urrao.
The blow that Aracely and Martha received was hard, but the one who felt it the most was Rigo, who had to take charge of the house so that nothing was missing. The first thing he did was replace his father in the lottery and chance sale in Urrao.
“We reached an agreement to get ahead, without forgetting the father. She was 14 years old and his life was the father. He hardly ever left him.”Aracely remembered.
(Also: Juan Pablo Montoya ‘stopped’ Lewis Hamilton: forceful reaction of the Colombian pilot).
Urán had to get up early to go study. He arrived at his house around one in the afternoon and went to train. He returned around five, bathed and visited the customers his father left him at the chance sale, a task that ended around 9 or 10 at night.
Gabriel Jaime Vélez, coach today of the Sistecrédito team, saw his conditions and took him to the Sports Development Center (Cedep), based in Jardín (Antioquia).
“That was in 2005. We took 22 boys, including Urán, Julián Arredondo, Jánier Acevedo, Carlos Betancur. They were given technical advice, they were given food, housing and study”, Vélez specified.
From there he went to Medellin. The first salary was $500,000 and almost everything was sent to Urrao. Her mother stayed with the chance business, while Martha studied. The money she earned from that job was not enough, she made up for it with the tips they gave her. With her first salary, she gave her mother a stove.
The title of the Vuelta del Porvenir in 2005, of the few races he did in the country, opened the doors to him abroad. Pérez contacted him to go to Tenax, in Italy, under the command of Fabio Bordonalli.
“I was 18 years old and I was impressed by his maturity. I knew his story and I understood it. At first he was sad and it was difficult for him to adapt to the food and the weather, but she was good-willed and got ahead ”pointed out Bordonalli, who located it in Brescia (Italy).
Urán was lucky, because he lived in the house of the Chiodi family. Giusepe and his wife, Melania, ‘adopted’ him. Rigo is so grateful to them that he considers them his second family. He was only there in 2006. He visits them often and they accompany him several times in competitions.
A year later, he joined the Unibet.com team, a group from the World Tour category, at that time the Pro Tour, the top of cycling. But he lived a difficult moment. It was August 2007. The mountainous day of the Tour of Germany was 16 kilometers from the end. Urán was off the hook from the group and was trying to get there. He was about to turn left, but the curve won him over and he went into the bush.
He could not stop immediately and with his right arm he grabbed his left, because the pain was unbearable. An ambulance took him to the hospital. He fractured both elbows, the wrist, and the left clavicle, and the disability lasted six months. He left the hospital and the Chiodi took care of him, since his mother did not have a visa to travel and neither did the resources.
In the lot they respect him, not only for what he has done as a cyclist, but for his seniority. He is a positive leader. He is in charge of speaking in the technical talks, he is responsible for guiding the young people who come to the group, thanks to the trust that Jonathan Vaugthers, the manager of Education Easy-Post, and the technician, the Spanish Juan Manuel, have placed in him. Gárate, a group with which he has a contract until 2024.
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