Nairo Quintana won the 2010 Tour de l’Avenir, a race the Colombian team almost couldn’t compete in.
The leaders of the squad did not respond in the Nations Cup. The races they did in Europe were useless, because they did not get the necessary points to go to France.
The cold, snow and rain prevented the young cyclists from achieving their goal. Because of the weather they rarely went out to train, they dedicated themselves to eating and eating and gained weight.
The group was returned without a point, conditional on the fact that in Canada they would have to fight to achieve the quota for that test that Colombia had already won twice with Alfonso Flores and Martín Ramírez. It was like the dogs at mass.
On the first day of the race in Canada, Camilo Suárez got into the breakaway. He was not the leader, the ones who had to answer were Nairo, Darwin Atapuma and Jarlinson Pantano, but none of them could.
Suárez, a boy who had stood out in youth races, was the one who showed his face.
The others worked on him and at the end of the test he was second overall, the title escaped him for only 11 seconds, that was the difference that Luka Mezgec, the champion, got from him, but he gave the country the points to go to the Tour de l’Avenir. If it hadn’t been for Camilo, the story would have been different.
He thought about ‘pulling out the nail’ in the Tour de l’Avenir, but it was not like that. He finished in 48th place overall, 58 minutes 22 seconds behind Nairo, but on the last day no one remembered that they could celebrate for him.
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to oncology
Four years passed and Suárez was once again the protagonist. In the Colombia es Pasión team, everything changed. The great references of the group such as Nairo, Esteban Chaves and Pantano had already taken a plane to Europe to become world cycling figures and here at the venue the process had to continue.
Luis Fernando Saldarriaga, the DT, gave Camilo Suárez the responsibility of captaining the squad. The great hopes of triumph were placed on him, but he did not respond.
Camilo got the bad. He listened to the training technician, he followed the work to the letter, but the pedals weighed on him.
He slept at least eight hours, ate little, but nothing that raised, an issue that worried him, because he did not understand what problem he had.
At that time he did not understand anything, but later he thought and found the cause. He decompensated, he began to get sick repeatedly. His body levels dropped and he was sent for medical tests.
Suspicions pointed to his having cancer, which is why he was treated by an oncologist. The results were good, in that it was confirmed that he did not have this disease, but they discovered that the issue was food.
Camilo confessed that to preserve his figure, to be thin, he stopped eating, because, for him, being skinny is the key in high-performance sports, but he took it very seriously. That gave him the opportunity to start getting into the story of good nutrition for the cyclist.
He took a cooking course at Mariano Moreno and the main teacher told him that he had the material to continue, to study a professional career, something that he was not interested in, because his idea was to continue cycling, but everything was given to him .
‘hang the bike’
At the end of the year, the team had problems. He went from being 472 to becoming Manzana Postobón, but Camilo was no longer the same. At that time of transition it was thought that the structure was no more. His physical condition was not the best, he did not train as he was, he fell in Portugal and Canada and everything came together.
He hung up the bike and dedicated himself to studying seriously. He shared classrooms with students younger than him, who returned to books at the age of 26. “He was the old man in the class,” he said.
His idea was always to get into the kitchen for cyclists, but in Marino they didn’t teach any healthy food, everything was treated with sugar, fried foods, oils and Camilo thought that, once again, he was in the wrong place.
Sad approached one of the teachers and told him his story. The teacher told her that it didn’t matter, that she should study, pursue her career, graduate and then dedicate herself to research, and she did. She obtained her degree two years later and at the same time she did a diploma at El Gato Dumas.
Suárez’s final project was that, his dream, healthy food and that is where his new facet began, his life change. As they knew him, well, several cyclists thought of him to prepare their food.
Esteban Chaves’ Orica team focused on Colombia at the start of 2017 and saw the need to hire a chef. Chaves called Camilo and they liked the job. Some time later it was Ineos who became interested in him.
“As in cycling in Europe everything is known, because Ineos, before Sky, called me, they knew about my work and I cooked for them when they concentrated near Bogotá, that was in 2018. They liked my work and they confirmed that I would be the cook in Colombia and what would they see if they took me to the races in Europe”, said Suárez, born on September 18, 1988.
In 2019, Peter Sagan came to prepare his season in Colombia and Camilo was his chef. Fernando Gaviria contacted him and the manager of the Slovakian broker hired him. They even offered him to go to Europe and he said yes. However, the pandemic truncated all plans, the door was closed and the hiring was miles ahead.
Disillusioned, Camilo Suárez began planning his future, devising a way to become his own boss. Since last year he gave free rein to the desire to found a feeding center for cyclists. He got a place on the top of Guasca, paid six months of rent in advance, began to adapt it, to put money little by little and the dream began to become a reality.
(You can read: Sebastián Montoya: ‘I have shown that I am not my father’s little son’).
Camilo Suárez, the chef of the Giro d’Italia.
The dilemma
At the end of February of this year, Camilo was working and his cell phone rang. He answered and it was the people of the DSM, the World Tour cycling team, whose captain is the Frenchman Romain Bardet.
He was offered to be part of the chefs’ staff in the last Tirreno-Adriatico, it was a litmus test for him. I doubt it. It wasn’t easy, since he had already invested $30 million, but he ‘fought it’. He accepted and traveled to Europe. He left the business for a few days with the conviction to continue when he returned, but it was not to be.
The thing is that his work was magnificent and they suggested he continue, go to the Giro d’Italia, he didn’t think about it, he accepted and called the partner to continue with the theme of the place near Guasca. “We made the decision to continue. The idea is to be in both places. We want to have three fronts: think about the amateur cyclist, the professional and ordinary people”, Camilo said.
And he added: “You have to work, as I do, on the subject of sourdough bread, it is the best ally of the cyclist and even for the diabetic population and from there, well, make special dishes for the food of the cyclists, bakery type, sandwiches, made from bread, food for the road, natural hydration, rice bars. You can call me for orders at this phone number 3003013115 (laughs)”, he pointed out.
We want to have three fronts: thinking about the amateur cyclist, the professional and the common people
Camilo Suarez
His work
Camilo Suarez, with Egan Bernal.
Camilo Suárez is surprised by the organization of the DSM, as far as the subject of the kitchen is concerned. He will work this year with them for races, while he overcomes the problems to legalize the contract in Europe.
He warns that they have very demanding protocols and in terms of food it is the same, but everything is guided by the five nutritionists they have.
He has done well in the Giro, he doesn’t pedal, but he ends up just as or more tired than the cyclists.
“What I do is prepare the market list and send it to the hotel where the team arrives. I have a credit card to adjust whatever is needed”accurate.
He gets up very early, he dedicates himself to preparing breakfast and lunch, which he sends in the cars for the destination hotel when the stage ends. He takes the car and travels to the hotel the next day, where he prepares the three meals for each of the riders.
He doesn’t watch the races. He doesn’t have time for that. He hardly asks who won the stage, how is the general, because his work requires concentration for almost 24 hours.
“When I was a cyclist I weighed 67 kilos, today I am 63, partly because the job demands it, partly because here you eat healthy. In the DSM they make a great investment so that the cyclists maintain their weight, they spare nothing, all in the hands of the nutrition department. There are vegetarian cyclists and that is respected, each one has their menu”counted.
Camilo Suárez never had the opportunity to run a big one. He always wanted to be in the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, but it couldn’t be.
“Being in Europe as a cyclist was my goal. Racing in the World Tour was my dream, but look, one way or another I am in those races. I retired from cycling frustrated because I never achieved my goals. Almost everyone on the team from that Tour de l’Ávenir came to Europe, they ran, I couldn’t and I beat most of them. What happened to me? I never found the answer“, said.
For Camilo, life never ended when he decided to get off the bike. He came to the Italian race after almost 10 years of being excited about cycling, but he does not ride it on a bicycle, as he once dreamed, he does it in a van, preparing food, turned into the Colombian who pedals in the kitchens of the Italy spin.
LISANDRO ABEL RENGIFO
SPORTS WEATHER
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