The cycling season is going like a bullet, and the successes of the Colombians have not been long in coming.
Nairo Quintana’s victory in the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes is exciting, after the accident Egan Bernal, the great absence, the only one for the country who could choose to win one of the three great ones: Giro d’Italia, Tour de France or Vuelta a España.
It may interest you: (Nairo Quintana: watch the strong attack and the last kilometer on video)
The Bernal thing is a hard blow for the interests of Colombia, since he was the only cyclist who could stand up to Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic and other strong runners.
Therefore you have to put your feet on the ground; without Egan winning the big ones, it is very complicated. Is a reality. Of the 22 members of the WT batch, plus Nairo, who is part of a ProTeam team, several have in their plan to target great challenges, and without Bernal, the figures of Miguel Ángel López and Quintana from Boyacá emerge as those who will bear the responsibility .
Nairo adjusted 51 wins in Europe –of them, he already has 22 titles– and has started with the right pedal, with two stage wins and two race wins, Provence and Alps. Has nairomania returned?
Paris-Nice will be his next big event, and there he will face the great leaders, a good thermometer for him thinking about his great goal: the Tour de France. He has regained his confidence and it is a good opportunity to find out if he has a bike to fight Pogacar, Roglic and others.
‘Supermán’ López is the Colombian in whom all the hopes of fighting a big one are based. There is no other. He has options, but it is clear that he is lacking against the tough guys in the squad.
It is known that he will go to the Giro and the Tour, but it is in Italy where he has the best options, Well, the test will have seven high finishes and only 26 kilometers to the clock, an ideal layout for him, who returned to Astana.
López was already third in the Giro, he made the podium in 2018, when Chris Froome won and Tom Dumoulin was second, but this year he has a good chance to fight.
Yes, he will have strong men at the helm like the Dutchman, Simon Yates, Mikel Landa, Richard Carapaz, to mention a few, but Pogacar and Roglic, who seem unbeatable, are not on the list.
Daniel Martínez, Rigoberto Urán, Iván Sosa, Sergio Higuita and Esteban Chaves form a powerful lot and they can search for something. Not winning the big ones, but fishing in a rough river, taking advantage of other people’s fights.
Daniel, your turn
Martínez, without Egan, and with Carapaz in the Giro, as everything indicates, will be with Geraint Thomas the strong man of Ineos in the Tour de France, proof that he will have five high finishes and 58 kilometers to the clock.
He is the current national time trial champion and has improved in the high mountains. Third place in the Tour of the Algarve says it all. Urán has not defined his course, but it is easy to think that he will do the Tour, he is the figure of the Education EasyPost. It is regular, that holds the step and manages to accommodate itself well. Her experience and capacity for suffering, two faithful companions.
Sosa will be Movistar’s letter in the Giro, a race for climbers. It’s about time I responded in a three-week trial.
Higuita must stand out. The change of team may serve him well, since he arrives at an ambitious Bora. He won the National Route and yesterday, the final stage in Algarve; its maximum objective is the traditional and mountainous Vuelta a España. The key: he has defined that his objective is in the second semester and he can prepare himself better.
Chaves was third in the National Route and breathes. He comes from very difficult years and what he has ahead of him will not be a test to drive. He should be Urán’s right hand man in the Tour, but he will have his chance to go through stages and general classifications. It is unknown, but the change of air can help you.
Fernando Gaviria has won two stages this year, both in the Tour of Oman, and in Colombia they are still waiting for him to return to the path of victory in elite, large-scale races.
Today he seems far from the level of Caleb Ewan, Fabio Jakobsen, Sam Bennet and Jasper Philipsen himself. Expect. Only he has the answer to the questions.
Lisandro Rengifo
sports writing
@lisandroabel
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