With a 7.4 kilometer prologue in the Boyacá municipality of Macanal, this Friday the 74th edition of the Tour of Colombia.
A total of 170 runners, 124 in the elite category and 46 in the sub-23 category, representing 25 teams, confirmed the Colombian Cycling Federation, were officially registered to compete in the contest that they won last year Miguel Ángel “Supermán” López.
The competition, which will also have the presence of 30 foreign runners, will have a route of 1,295 kilometers between the departments of Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Tolima, Caldas, Risaralda, Valle and Antioquia.
The mountains, as is the tradition, will be decisive in knowing the new winner of the race, which has been held consecutively since 1951.
There will be ten days that the participants will have to challenge, the fourth being, starting in Mariquita and arriving at Alto de Letras, and six mountain prizes, the queen fraction of the test.
From that date it will begin to be known who will be the candidates for the final victory. That day you will pass through the Altos El Congreso, La Virgen, Murillo (out of category), Ventanas, El Sifón and the aforementioned Letras.
But the hardness does not stop there, as there will then be four high finishes: in the sixth stage, in Apia, Risaralda; in the eighth, in Minas, in the municipality of Caldas; and Alto de Las Palmas, where the event will end after a 17.3 km time trial starting from Medellín.
“It will be a tough return. In Europe, the longest climb I have climbed is the Stelvio (Italy), which is light years away from Letras or others I have seen here in Colombia, so I also have to adapt to this cycling, to these long climbs. After Lucho Herrera and Fabio Parra The cycling progression is spectacular. I hope to collaborate in whatever way I can for the evolution of your cycling,” said Spaniard Jorge Gual Martínez, the curator director of the Vuelta.
The aces of the lot
Among the contenders for the title are Rodrigo Contreras (NU Colombia), runner-up in 2023 and recent winner of the Tour Colombia; Your partner Sergio Henaowinner of the Vuelta a Antioquia; Álex Gil (Paisa Pride), Adrián Bustamante (GW Erco Shimano), Fabio Duarte (Team Medellín), Jonathan Caicedo (Petrolike) and Wilson Peña (Sistecrédito).
“They are candidates for the title based on experience, results and a good present. It will be a nice race and we hope to live up to it,” commented from Macanal, prior to the team presentation, Danny Osorio (Orgullo Paisa), another of the men to take into account in the fight for the places of honor in the event.
“Actually expectations are high, whether with Álex Gil or me; we will fight. We work hard, we prepare very well and with the help of the rest of our teammates we will seek to bring joy to our team,” added Osorio, third in the Vuelta-2021, which José Tito Hernández won.
Since that edition, Team Medellín has been making a difference in the race. This time, with Duarte and Javier, Jamaica will seek another conquest, although they know that the toughness of the course and the quality of rivals will make the path more difficult.
It will be broadcast on the RCN channel
The Vuelta a Colombia-2024 will begin this Friday at 1:00 in the afternoon, when the first runner starts in the 7.4 kilometer prologue in Macanal. The debutant in this edition will be Diego Leguizamón, sub-23 of the FyF-Calzado Power team.
The last runner to start the race will be Javier Jamaica (Team Medellín), at 1:49 pm. Each runner will start with an interval of one minute. The Vuelta a Colombia, which will be broadcast on the RCN Channel, will have a prize of 160 million pesos, 42 of them for the general champion. In addition, mountain classifications, points, special sprint, sub-23 and team classifications will be at stake. From abroad, the teams Panamá es Cultura y Valores, Petrolike and Canel’s (Mexico), Best PC and Saitel (Ecuador) and Pio Rico Cycling Team (Bolivia) will compete.
