Last January the future of cycling was dark. When the multiple injuries he suffered were revealed Egan Bernal in the accident on the road between Bogota and Tunja the alarms went off, because the cundinamarca was going to be out of the competition for many months.
It was a tough start to the year, with a lot of uncertainty, drama and suspense, and it ends with a soap opera whose protagonist is Nairo Quintanadisqualified from the Tour de France, after the substance tramadol was found in two of his tests, going through the police issue of Miguel Angel ‘Superman’ Lopez.
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It is no secret to anyone that Colombia has a lot of high-quality cycling, but Bernal is the only rider who can give the fight to the Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic or Jonas Vingeggardon the subject of the fight for the general classifications of the races.
Bernal crashed into a bus on January 24 and went through the operating room six times, miraculously he was saved from being in a wheelchair and losing his life, in an inexplicable moment.
His accident, injuries and the stoppage of almost seven months made us think of a bitter season, very dark, with few wins, but it has not been like that.
Bernal returned to the bicycle last August in the return to denmarkafter a quick recovery and hopes to return to being the winning cyclist from before, the one who can return to the fight for the titles of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España. That’s what he prepares for.
The mole
Nairo Quintana gave the fight in the Tour de France. He was second in the stage to the Col du Granon and finished sixth overall, but erased what he did with his hands with his elbow.
He was disqualified. Tramadol was found in their analyzes and although it is not a substance that is on the list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)yes it is prohibited by the International Cycling Union (UCI) in competition.
Chaos broke out and the good Tour that the boyacense made ended in a great scandal that did not come out well, because the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) He rejected his appeal and confirmed the sanction.
He got his team, Arkea-Samsic, into trouble, putting them in danger of entering the world-tour in 2023, because he lost 455 valuable points.
It did not go well for the French group, because despite the fact that they had reached an agreement to renew the contract for two more years, this did not become effective and they broke relations.
Today, Quintana does not have a team, it is not known what his future will be. The boyacense, even if he says no, is between a rock and a hard place, because what happened in 2020, when his hotel room was raided by the French Gendarmerie, who were looking for his relationship with prohibited substances, and the case of tramadol , they have him on the ropes, pointed out and more located in the lot.
So don’t talk about doping if it is a bad precedent in your sports career. He broke a rule and was disqualified from the world’s biggest stage race.
what a mess
‘Supermán’ López had a bitter taste this year. He was linked to Operation Ilex, so the Spanish Civil Guard he subjected it to an inspection upon arrival in Madrid, weeks before the Vuelta a España, but nothing was found.
The investigation is being carried out in a court of Caceres, Spain, for trafficking prohibited drugs and in it the professor at the University of Extremadura, Marcos Maynar, who years ago was accused of administering doping substances to athletes, is linked.
The Civil Guard clarified that López does not appear in the investigation, but his name appeared in the court file. The team Astana separated it until further order. Weeks later, the Kazakh team admitted him to the group and he went to the Vuelta a España, in which he finished in fourth place.
It is clear that Colombian cycling did not win any title in any of the three three-week races, but encouraging results were achieved and the cycling country did not go blank, something that was thought once Bernal was out of competition.
Today, the victories statistics say that Colombia occupies the sixth place with 49 victories in competitions of the International Cycling Union (UCI), a ranking that is led by Francewho has 117 and Belgium is third with 109. It surpasses powerful and traditional nations such as Germany, Spain and Denmark to name a few.
Almost from ‘zero’
The Giro d’Italia was reached with the aspiration of fighting for the podium with López, but the boyacense left on the fourth day due to a muscle problem in his left leg and the illusion went to the ground. They were in the race Harold Tejada, Santiago Buitrago, Diego Camargo, Iván Sosa and Fernando Gaviria, but none with the role of leader.
Buitrago was the one who showed his face. He was second on the day ending in Cogne, but won Lavarone. It was Colombia’s 32nd victory in that Italian race, but the key thing is that Buitrago not only fought for his partial victory, but was also key for Mikel Landa to remain in the third place on the podium.
In the Tour it was blank. Daniel Martinez He arrived with much expectation, but he got sick and nothing happened to him. And in the Vuelta a España he fulfilled a good role.
Rigoberto Uran He was in charge of giving the partial victory to Colombian cycling. He did it by winning stage 17 at the Tentudía Monastery, victory 36 for the country.
The EF team rider managed to enter the batch of Colombian cyclists who have won days in the big three, alongside NairoLuis Herrera and Oliverio Rincon.
With López in fourth place and Urán in ninth, Colombia reached the sum of 33 cyclists who have finished in the ‘top’ 10 of the Vuelta in their history.
The summary
The World Tour season ended and Colombia won two titles this year, País Vasco with Martínez and lTour of Catalonia with Sergio Higuita and, in addition, he obtained six stage wins in the highest category of world cycling.
Higuita was the one who finished the best in the individual ranking for Colombia, ending the season in 12th place, Martínez was 15th and López 61st.
And on the subject of nations, the country was seventh with 7,855 points, a list dominated by Belgium, which achieved 17,926 units.
Colombia surpassed nations like Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany and became the first South American country in the ranking.
The previous results were unthinkable last January, after Bernal’s unfortunate accident, but at this time of year the cycling country can be considered well served as far as statistics are concerned, although the negative outcome of the Nairo case has been the lunge final.
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Lisandro Rengifo
Editor of THE TIME
@lisandroabel
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