Álvaro Hodeg, the Colombian cyclist who seeks to get out of the bad streak

If there is a Colombian cyclist in the peloton of the World Tour (WT) who wants to forget the bad times, to look for a victory to escape the falls and not achieving victories, that is Alvaro Hodeg, the UAE Emirates runner.

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Hodeg, 27 years old, wants to recover in this new season his top speed that has led him to obtain 15 wins in his professional career, four of them in the highest category of cycling.

In 2018 he stood out with stage wins in the Return to Catalonia, in Poland and in Türkiye in 2018. When he signed with the UAE, almost at the end of 2021, in Medellin He had a bad fall that forced him to pass.

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The end of the year and the start of 2022 were not the best. hodeg He went down on December 18 and underwent surgery several times, suffering fractures in his ankle, wrist and right shoulder.

Bad moment

The runner, born on September 16, 1996 in Montería, Córdoba, He did not compete in a single race in 2022, he went from clinic to clinic to clinic, from operating room to operating room, entering surgeries, and then he took a good period of hard physical therapy sessions.

“The most difficult thing was the first moment when the doctors told me that I could not walk again and I thought about my career, about not riding a bicycle,” he then told EL TIEMPO.

And he added: “Of course, I was sad because I had a responsibility with my new team, I had not been able to debut with them and they put all my trust in my abilities. That day my plants were damaged.”

He did not debut the UAE Emirates uniform until April 11, 2023, when the Giro de Sicilia, in Italy, a year and four months after the accident that almost cost him his sporting career, but from which he escaped after overcoming tough problems.

Since that day he has been determined to achieve a victory, but he has not been able to. His last victory was a stage in the Tour of Slovenia, on September 16, 2021.

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And in the 'big leagues', on the WT circuit, hodeg achieved victory in a day of BinckBank Tour, August 16, 2019; Otherwise, he has not found the opportunity to win by defeating his rivals in the last 200 meters.

The team has confidence in him and hopes that this season, his last with the group, as his contract expires, will be the best to extend the bond.
“We are convinced that cycling has not yet seen the full potential of what this guy can do. “We want to see him bring out the best in himself and I hope we see him advance here with us in the United Arab Emirates,” he warned. Josean Matxin, the sports director the group.

hodeg pedal on Australia. He began his year away from home, without his family, but with the intention of 'shaking off the salt' and returning to the podium as a winner. He was 54th in the Down Under Classic and has been key in the group to help its leader in the Tour Down Under, the Mexican Isaac del Toro. He will go to Spain to compete in the trophies in Mallorca.

His future is not known, neither he nor the UAE coaching staff have communicated what their goals will be in 2024, but what he hopes is to feel like a winner again to forget those hard moments he experienced in 2022, when a doctor told him that It was better to 'hang up' the bike.

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