Egan Bernal and Santiago Buitrago: those designated to lead the Colombian batch, analysis

The start of 2024 for the Colombian cycling It is very promising, hopeful, in search of forgetting a 2023 in which the results were not as expected and with the aim of straightening the path and not losing the wheel of the lot of the winning countries of the season.

Colombia occupies the eighth place by country in the ranking of the most winning nations and has Daniel Martínez (Bora) as the runner who has achieved the most wins: 3.

Precisely, Martínez is part of the group that seeks to 'come out on top', be a protagonist and win to recover the lost path.

select lot

In that same group are Egan Bernal (Ineos), Sergio Higuita (Bora), Einer Rubio and Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Rigoberto Urán (EF) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain), among the most important runners and on whom the greatest expectations can rest.

TIME He consulted world cycling personalities to analyze which riders in the country have high hopes that the season will be a success, without false expectations.

The leaders

Bernal and Buitrago are the two most important names and in which Fabio Parra, ex-cyclist; Alvaro Pino, Spanish technician, and Carlos Sastre, champion of Tour de France of 2008, they see themselves as those 'responsible' for meeting that great objective.

“After that tremendous accident, Egan has recovered his feelings, he has seen himself forward and that is good because morale is up. I think that from what I have seen he is the reference man to fight in the big ones”said Parra, third in the 1988 Tour de France and second in the 1989 Vuelta a España.

And he added: “Buitrago is the one who comes behind, the one who commands the new generation. We have to see what his team has him for, that is key, but he has shown the conditions to excel.”

Bernal has been third in O Great Roadwon by Jonas Vingegaard, seventh in Paris Nice and third in the Return to Catalonia, He returned to fighting races after two almost zero years due to recovering from his accident.

“I'm excited to see him ahead. He is on the right track. He had serious injuries and we have to see how far he will go. Seeing yourself on the podium has to give him a lot of morale, and he has done it in important races. Yes, Vingegaard and Pogacar are in another league, but Bernal is back among the 'mortals',” Pino specified.

The former Spanish cyclist and coach warns that we should not leave Higuita, Rubio and Martínez behind, but sees that Buitrago is the one who has been pedaling the new generation.

“He has won a Tour and that cannot be forgotten. He has many merits. He has the option of going to the podium in his legs.”

“He has exceptional class. He is one of the runners who most point to the near future. In the Basque Country he has moved, he won a stage in Paris Nice. He looks eager and in good condition. The rest is a bit stagnant,” he assured.

The Ineos team has not decided which big race Bernal will be in this year, but his start to the year is very interesting and exciting.

“He has won a Tour and that cannot be forgotten. It has many merits. He has the option of going to the podium in his legs. What we have seen is a stimulus for him, being with the best says that he can shine again,” said Sastre. The former Spanish rider assures that Colombian cycling has always had human material to appear, to be ahead, but he agrees that Buitrago is the new blood.

“We are missing a runner with stability for three-week races like Bernal. Buitrago can be, I have seen him in the Giro d'Italia, he is with the best and it depends on the team's objective,” declared Sastre.

This year, Santiago Buitrago has been second in the Return to the Valencian Community and seventh in the Return to Andalusia. He won a stage in Paris Nice, a test from which he retired due to two falls.

And Nairo?

The three consulted have different concepts about the present of Nairo Quintana.

“What happened to him is not easy, it is not easy to overcome it and it will not be easy to pick up the pace after his lack of competition. “He has met clear objectives in his career,” Parra said. The man from Boyacá was fourth in the national road time trial, finished 26th in the long-distance competition and was 21st in the Tour Colombia.

Then it was learned that he was infected with covid-19 and then, due to a fall, he withdrew from the Vuelta a Catalunya.

The team Movistar He confirmed that he had a practically complete tear of the anterior sternoclavicular ligament in his right arm, and we are less than a month away from the Giro d'Italia, where he will compete.

Pino defends him and says that the cyclist from Boyacá has the means to defend himself and obtain important results, since being 34 years old is not an advanced age.

“I don't think his goal is the grand tours, fighting for a podium, but he can give stability to a leader in the mountains. “We must not leave him aside, he can cause harm, he fights, he wins and he will try,” Sastre sentenced.