12:48 PM
The Antioquian Alejandro “El Pony” Osorio (GW Erco Shimano) This Tuesday he added a new victory to his great cycling season.
In a spectacular head-to-head with the experienced Paisa runner Sergio Luis Henao (NU Colombia), Osorio won the sprint, and by half a wheel, in the third stage of the Return to Colombia, of 168.6 kilometers between Cota, Cundinamarca, and Mariquita, Tolima.
Alejandro, who had won in Cota the day before, played from afar with Henao, whom he defeated after a time of 3 hours, 46 minutes and 22 seconds. Third arrived another Antioquian, Juan Tito Rendón (Paisa Pride), 3 seconds away.
This was Osorio’s seventh win of the year. Before him he won in the Manizales Fair Circuit; Then he achieved a stage in the Vuelta al Táchira in Venezuela; He established himself in the National Route in Tunja; later he got fraction in the Colombia Tour and was awarded the Rionegro Classic.
“It was a beautiful, difficult victory. Thank God it was given to me, I am strong in arrivals like these, this is also for all my teammates, because without them this would not be possible. This is a united team and it shows. I started from afar, I didn’t expect Sergio to keep up with me (the pace), but he is too strong a runner. I went to the death to the finish line,” said Osorio.
The general classification of the Vuelta continues to be dominated by the Cundinamarca native Rodrigo Contreras (NU Colombia)who leads by 44 seconds to Diego Camargo (Petrolike) and Adrián Camilo Bustamante (GW Erco Shimano) for 48.
This Tuesday the national turn could take a 180 degree turn with the dispute of its queen stage, of 143.4 kilometers between Mariquita and Alto de Letras. Six mountain prizes will be challenged, two of them that exceed 4,000 meters in height (Alto de Ventanas and Alto El Sifón).
“I had good legs today, the victory was not achieved, but the result gives confidence for this Tuesday’s day, which will be very complicated, totally different, hard,” said Sergio Henao, 36 years old.
“We already did the reconnaissance of that route. It will be a climb that, even if you take it step by step, one by one, the cyclists will fall, so you will have to be calm to climb to more than 4,000 meters, where air is really scarce. But the team is fine, we are going with respect, but trying to do our best for our leader Rodrigo Contreras,” he added.
