Colombian Cycling - A Story in Three Parts

Grame Barty

Luis Guillermo Plata

Australian sports fans over the years have developed a greater understanding of and appreciation for professional cycling and all that it entails especially and regularly tune in to our  own Tour Down Under,  the Monument races and European Spring Classics, the Tour of California and of course the Grand Tours - Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta de España.

We marvel at the years of elite preparation required, the  endurance, speed and strength of these athletes competing in the most demanding mental and physical sports environment possible.

Add in the challenges of daily changing weather conditions, snow peaked mountain climbs,  scorching heat of the Spanish and South Australian coasts, beautiful helicopter shots of vineyards and historical sites over several weeks and you have a cocktail of wonderment, adulation, empathy and pure excitement for both the lay spectator as well as the cycling fan.

Moreover cyclists and the teams are playing for keeps. The look of relief and exaltation on every stage rider or General Classification winners face ( and their team directors in the team car) as they cross the finishing line is testimony to that.

As more competitive professional Australian cyclists have emerged over the last two decades from the amateur Olympic track cycling ranks into the UCI professional ranks so too have of another super cycling force - the Colombians.

And in this we have an Australian connection - the Orica Scott team and Colombian general classification rider Esteban Chaves.

If you have seen the recently released documentary All for One which chronicles the first five years of the Australian GreenEDGE racing team journey into the pro ranks then you would have witnessed a story of multiple dimensions - dreaming big, establishing a team on a small budget ‘moneyball’ style , leadership, risk, mistakes, personalities, camaraderie( what they call ‘Aussie mateship’) pride and failure.

We also watch highly committed athletes overcome great adversity and none bigger than Esteban Chaves overcoming life limiting injuries and realising his potential of becoming one of the world's top general classification riders and Matthew Hayman winning Paris-Roubaix on his fifteenth attempt and after breaking his arm six weeks prior to the race and having to train on his ergo at his home! Who does that? How is that even possible?

But in the film we also see the initial interest, commitment and investment made by GreenEDGE’s Neil Stephens into Chaves and the return on investment that Chaves makes to the team with the ( very endearing) love and support of his parents. For Australians to watch this is to peer into the lives of Colombians, their hopes and aspirations. For Colombians - and Chaves in particular - it is a story of Australians being welcoming ‘partners’ to him and his family - not just in sport but in the challenges of what life puts before us to respond to.

But the GreenEDGE and Chaves story is really just one part of this story.

Like all great athletes who achieve the ultimate success there is a back story.

A back story that involves local families, administrators and promoters identifying talent and providing those critical early experiences to develop the skill and dedication required to succeed at the highest level. Those individuals that take a chance on the ‘kids’ and allow them to hope that more is possible way before any ‘GreenEDGE opportunity’ comes along.

The unusual aspect about all this if it was just a story about Esteban Chaves it would be uplifting and very gratifying in itself.

But it is much more than just Esteban.

For the last few years we have watched the emergence of a powerhouse of Colombian cyclists appearing in all of the top teams determined to win all of the most challenging races. Nairo Quintana, Rigoberto Uran, Darwin Atapuma, Jarlinson Pantano, Sergio Henao and Carlos Betancur are all top tier professionals. And in the 2017 Vuelta de Espana ‘superman’ emerges from nowhere in the form of Miguel Lopez.

To have one or two of these riders emerge on the scene over the last five years would be amazing? To have seven participate in the 2017 Tour de France and dominate the Vuelta and have the expectations that at least one will appear on the podium cannot be a coincidence. And it's not.

There is a back story….a story I saw first hand and with the help of my friend Luis Plata and we want to share with you.

A Brand Story for a Country

Colombians for many years had been known as outstanding mountain climbers - genetically gifted and prepared for this specific activity with the Andes as a training base and launch platform for their remarkable climbing and descending skills.

Luis Plata then President of Colombia's Trade and Investment attraction authority and later Trade, Investment and Tourism Minister throiugh his department launched a campaign called ‘Colombia is Passion’ to help improve the disparities between Colombia's international image and its new realities.

Vuelta De Colombia 2009 – its all up or its all down hill in Medellin!

“When looking at Colombia we were on the verge of becoming failed nation in early 2000. We had one of the countries with the highest murder and kidnapping rates in the world, our economy was stagnant, tourism was non existent and almost four million Colombians had fled the country.”

“As our realities began to change thanks to President Uribe's ‘Democratic Security Policy’ by 2006 Colombia was a very different country with the economy growing and tourism beginning to recover and unemployment had dropped. Most importantly we had recovered security and reclaimed law and order in most of the country.”

“But in spite of our great improvements our international image lagged. We thought of cycling as the sport where Colombia had always excelled and we could use to change our image - much like Brazil and Argentina( and more recently Chile) had done with their footballers. So we started a sponsorship between my department Pro Export and Coldeportes( Colombian National Institute for the Promotion of Sports) and later sponsorships from the Cafe de Colombia and the Colombian Postal Service. “ said Plata.

But if you are undertaking a brand activity for your country - which all countries do - Colombia had an extra challenge of firstly overcoming the perception of Colombia as a very dangerous place and then chose sport as a vehicle that itself was mired in ( at the time) Lance Armstrong led drug related, high performance issues. Tricky!

But as Plata says “..the antidote for a snake bite is the venom from the snake.”

Authors Luis Plata ( left) and Grame Barty ( right) with the Colombia Es Pasion team at the Vuelta de Colombia in 2009

A High Performance ‘Rebuilding’ Sports Story

We know Colombia had a proud cycling tradition for decades.

“Probably because we were so poor that people in the countryside had to mobilise themselves on bikes instead of cars and ride over those treacherous hills to go to work and school’ said Plata.

Martin Emilio “Cochise” Rodriguez, was the first Colombian to compete in Europe in the 1970´s racing for Bianchi Campagnolo as a domestique for Felice Gimondi. “Cochise” even set the Amateur Hour World record at the velodrome in Mexico City

Then in the 1980´s Alfonso Florez won Tour D’ Avenir and that opened the door for a first wave  of Colombian riders in Europe and the “First Golden Age of Colombian Cycling”. Soon there after Luis “Lucho “ Herrera was the first Latin American rider to win a stages at the Tour de France and  finally the winning the Vuelta a España in 1987. Pacho Rodriguez was the first Colombian Cyclist to make the podium in one of the Grand Tours being the Vuelta in 1985.

 Other figures in those days were Fabio Parra placing third in the Tour in 1988 an second in the Vuelta in 1989.

In 2006 Plata enlisted the help of Ignacio Velez  (nicknamed  “The Coach”) - a successful businessman from Medellin and cycling fanatic - who had a cycling dream of reestablishing Colombia's place at the top of the table by proving that through science, technique, good training and equipping and management you could build a world class, ‘clean’, team.

So Velez and his colleagues chose to take the high ground and develop a team that was professional in every sense – that is; sponsored, well administered, with riders paid and insured, well coached, and of course drug free. The plan to was to identify and recruit the best young talent, to properly prepare and care for them, to provide them the international opportunity the need to excel and then to let the results do the talking.

Ignacio Velez ( rear seat) in the team car

The first task was to introduce the concept of power meter training which was just emerging as a key performance aid. ‘They hated this at first but soon got used to it and became second nature to them’.

‘Sounds trivial but we also gave them decent salaries and full insurance coverage. Most kids in Colombia don't get paid and certainly don't have any back up if they have an accident’ said Velez.

Velez also introduced a Biological Passport but as he says most importantly provided them with love, pride and self esteem.

“In the beginning there was a lot of skepticism but as they started winning things started to change.”

“We started off with local races, then took them to Tour de Beauce in Canada. Most of them had never been out of the country. In time we started traveling to small races in Europe. Our first big win was Tour D’ Avenir in 2010, where Nairo won the GC, Pantano got the Climber’s Jersey and we also won the team classification.”  

 Colombian Dream Team Tour D’ Avenir 2010, GC, Mountains Jeresey, Best Team. In yellow Nairo Quintana and Darwin Atapuma, Esteban Chaves, Jarlison Pantano and Directeur Sportif Luis F. Saldarriaga.

Today, popularity of cycling is at an all time high – witness the huge number of Colombians cheering on the riders at the big events. Even the super excitement of Colombian commentators is noticed by other race commentators. Baden Cooke ex Green Jersey winner at the Tour de France and with the Australian SBS Vuelta de Espana TV commentary team” They just go nuts..’ said Cooke.

Results !

Three key results from a three part story:

●      Country brand: Esteban Chaves is a one man public relations machine for Australian - Colombia relations and with a continuing positive interaction between our countries and the positive images presented by this young man is one of the indirect developments between our two countries which includes the announcement of an Australian Embassy opening in Bogota in 2017.

●      Tourism: Finally Colombia tourism numbers are up and one of the new big new attractors is cycling tourists . “Who would have ever imagined that” says Plata.

●      High Performance: Colombia is the top ranked emerging nation currently ranked number 2 after Belgium and ahead of France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands!

●      Nairo Quintana is ranked number 3 in the world and Colombia has won two Vueltas a España's, one Giro d'Italia and has been on the podium in the Tour de France four years in a row.

●      Today Colombia has a fully sponsored Manzana Postobon Continental Pro team which won a wild card entry into the 2017 Vuelta Espana.. Miguel Angel Lopez, nicknmed “Superman” in Colombia won two stages at this years vuelta, and finished second in another while also being the best young rider. Lopez was champ at the Tour d’ Avenir in 2014 and now races for Astana.

●      In August 2017 Egan Bernal became the sixth Colombian to win the Tour d’ Avenir which is U-23 Tour de France. Since 2010 Colombia has won the Tour D’ Avenir 4 times and placed second once. This says a lot about the way things have developed over the past few years and where they continue to be headed! The future is bright. Is this a scary thought for every other cycling nation?

So what a story. GreenEDGE with Estaban is a feel good story for sure and the documentary displayed that very well.

But there was a back story that saw many other fine, humble young men be given a shot at the big time and not only did they take it, they excelled. 

Revered for their stamina and mountain climbing and descending ability these young riders have become ‘must haves’ in the professional ranks. A team without a Colombian rider is at risk of not being competitive in the General Classification category of any major race.

How good is that!

A story that combines dreams and investment from the riders but also officials, promoters, coaches and of course Colombians paving the way for talent to rise to the top!

And now the rest of the world gets to enjoy the best of Colombian cycling and smile with Esteban, Nairo and Rigoberto as they achieve their ambition of being among the world's best.

Hats off the Gerry Ryan and his dreams for GreenEDGE. Hats off the Luis Plata and Ignacio Velez for having the same dream at the same time!

Mission accomplished: Luis Plata and his family at the 2017 TDF with Nairo

This is indeed an amazing story of three parts – a country brand, opportunities for elite atheletes and team performance, and a new level of Colombian and Australian relations.

On behalf of all the worlds cycling fans - because we are also winners as we get to watch these great athletes in action on the worlds biggest stages – thankyou.

End