Lisandro Rengifo has been covering sports for 30 years.
Photo: Private Archive
What was the process of writing your work like?
During the process, the most complicated thing was knocking on doors and seeing them close with the phrase: “Sport doesn’t sell.” However, I started writing without a defined project, waiting for one of those doors to open. It was difficult to talk to all the characters; So we had to be very resourceful and contact some people who were close to the protagonists, such as friends, technicians and teammates.
Why talk about Colombia in the Tour de France and not the Giro d’Italia or the Vuelta a España?
The Tour de France is the most important race in the world, the most emblematic, the one that moves each cyclist up or down the ranks. The mere fact of participating is already a success, a satisfaction, a duty fulfilled, but cycling in the country has been one of its protagonists in recent years: stage winners, podiums, a title, mountain champions… and that is much greater, because it has been achieved in the iconic competition of cycling on the planet.
It took you more than a decade to write the book, did it turn out how you imagined?
One always wants more, but I think it leaves me satisfied because it contains the story of the protagonists and some secrets of the most important feats that each one achieved in the race.
How much did the fact that Egan Bernal won the 2019 Tour have an impact?
It strengthened the idea, because the project was born when Nairo Quintana “was hit hard” by trying to win the competition. What happened with Bernal was the last step to continue in the fight to move the book forward.
Why are you such a fan of cycling?
I always had cycling in mind. Since school, when the era of Luis Herrera and Fabio Parra began, although I remember the triumph of Alfonso Flórez in the Tour de l’Avenir and Martín Ramírez in the same race. Those victories filled you up and unleashed madness in the country. Later, I had the option of doing an internship at Mundo Ciclístico magazine and the passion for this sport was much greater, as I had the opportunity to tell the stories and make known the lives of the riders who participated in the competitions.
With talented riders like Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, what can we expect from Colombia in the next editions of the Tour?
They are from another planet, so the cyclists of this planet will have to fight for theirs. It is clear that one day they will run out of gas and they will not win by a landslide; But, if we refer to Colombian cycling, I have no doubt that the tradition of fighting for stages, mountain titles and sometimes for first place will continue, even if that seems far away. Colombia will continue to appear in the Tour.
What’s next for you?
There are more projects that I am developing. The idea of continuing to tell stories fascinates me and throughout my career this is what I have done, so the idea of continuing along this path that Colombia opened in the Tour is on the way.
