Riding Home with Movistar

I’d had enough of the Team Car Terrors for my trip and spent yesterday riding my bicycle on the racecourse, hooking up with a group of locals making their way to the final climb. It is amazingly friendly here in Colombia, the bike riders happy to have you join them – NYC snooty groups on 9W please take note – and motorized traffic absolutely respects your space on the roads, even giving the occasional beep of encouragement. We made it to the final climb, not steep and with a strong tailwind, but at 2700 meters just the same, and awaited the race. It was so much fun, I must say.

Almost everyone rode their bicycles up the mountain. Bikes of all sorts, from WorldTour level to things you’d leave unlocked in New York and no one would steal. So, so many young kids on bikes with their families, some of them racing uphill at pretty extraordinary speeds to the raucous cheers of the crowds. Transistor radios were the coveted information source as internet – refreshingly – was nonexistent or painfully slow, so we all huddled around listening to the magnificent Colombian commentators bring us the action, exactly the opposite social effect of smart phone isolation.

The crowd favorite was Julian Alaphilippe – they were certain he would win and just sadly shook their heads when I attempted to tout EF Education’s Daniel Martinez as a potential winner. As Ravi says, “there’s a tremendous cycling IQ in Colombia.” A tremor of excitement went up when the break was caught – Team Illuminate was in it yet again, not one break has gone this entire tour without one of their riders – and the final showdown began to take form.

Bits of info, “Deceuninck on the front” and “big crash!” made its way through the crowd as the excitement built. The first motos came up, then some lead cars, and finally, when the helicopter suddenly appeared, we all knew the big moment had arrived. It was all so very exciting and when the sight of the Tour de France winner, Egan Bernal charging with everything he had, with Alaphilippe and Giro winner Richard Carapaz and the rest of the survivors of what had been a Team Ineos bulldozing before and into the climb, all fighting to stay on his wheel, well – that moment made this entire trip to Colombia very much worth it.

We cheered the rest of the racers racing to the finish, learned that Sergio HIguata has won – the crowd was slightly disappointed as an Alaphilippe win would have brought prestige to the race and they all clearly love him - and when it was all over, jumped back on our bikes to ride back down the mountain to Paipa. The Movistar team caught us at the bottom making their way through the traffic jams with astonishing skill before the roads opened up and we – and we means an assortment of all sorts of riders, from young kids to old geezers on creaking mountain bikes – jumped on their train and followed them home. The Movistar’s were completely gracious, just letting us stay there, talking to a few of the riders, and making sure that the young kids went home with team water bottles stuffed in their back pockets.

There’s a human aspect to this Tour of Colombia, the race and riders accessible, the Colombians warm and accommodating, and the racing completely vicious. Everyone feels it: Colombia is the new cycling paradise, not only for their racers (19 out of the top 40 places in the race were U-23 riders, most of them Colombian so settle in for a long period of domination) for its deep cycling culture. I met a young man at our hotel, he runs a firm called Santander Cycling & Experiences that follows the race, and there will be many others popping up soon as well. I heartily recommend a trip to Colombia as part of ones lifetime cycling goals. I’m certainly coming back.