Egan, Nairo, Rigo: Tour Columbia Vanity Fair | Cycling | Kinds of sports

Four years later, due to the pandemic and several crises in between, the Tour of Colombia is held again (six stages, from Tuesday the 6th to Sunday the 11th, from Paipa to Bogotá via Boyaca, Cundinamarca and Sabana), and in Sunday there is a presentation before dark. The teams in Tunja’s beautiful Plaza Bolivar become a mini-vanity fair as stars take to the stage in pursuit of passing glory. …

Four years later, due to the pandemic and several crises in between, the Tour of Colombia is held again (six stages, from Tuesday the 6th to Sunday the 11th, from Paipa to Bogota via Boyaca, Cundinamarca and Sabana), and in Sunday there is a presentation before dark. The teams in Tunja’s beautiful Plaza Bolivar become a mini-vanity fair as stars take to the stage in pursuit of passing glory. Competing are Nairo Quintana, the man of the house who returns to compete in the city where he was born, and does so on the exact day he turns 34; Egan Bernal, the miracle boy from Zipaquirá, two years after the accident that nearly cost him his life and forced him to undergo endless rehabilitation, and paisa Rigo Uran, a new character who, like no one else, knew how to invent a better way to establish relationships , build it. Only the respected English sprinter Mark Cavendish, a great foreign figure, can challenge their recognition. Having gathered applause and cheers, internally measuring their weight among the fans, they all walk through the second stand, where they are greeted by the federation and political leaders, and then turn around a little – a cold breeze blows through the square as the Sun sets – they hug, kiss their families and disappear.

A group of troveros improvise some verses, some rhymes, and upon hearing his name, old Patrocinho Jimenez, a pioneer of the Tour of ’83 and the Teca of that time, gets inspired and, no matter how cool he is, even sheds a tear. in the shadow of the statue of the Liberator, who began the fight for Boyaca’s independence.

Not as surprising as it may seem, being in exiled Nairo’s territory, it is not the local who wins the popularity contest, nor does Egan, the only Colombian to wear yellow in Paris for the Tour de France, win the 2019 Tour de France, but Rigaud prevails , and people chant his name, and he speaks, as always, quickly and funny, and everyone laughs. “Colombia is the land of novels,” explains a fellow journalist. “And the most watched on television these months is the one that tells about the life of Rigo.” The adventures of a poor boy from Urrao, in Antioquia, the son of a street lottery vendor who died in an episode of violence that plagued the country in the 90s, who becomes a cyclist and marries the daughter of the richest man in his city. dominate the conversation at home and cause frustration for some sports journalists who would like to write serious things and who are forced by their superiors to write about the issues that bother Rigo’s mother-in-law, for example, the correspondent on the eve of an episode airing. Rigo, the oldest of them all (he just turned 37), is the only one who has made the leap from fame as a cyclist to fame as himself, and he is no longer so concerned about his cycling career, which he has one year left, that his popularity and coils The funny and tender stories he posts on his Instagram immediately go viral.

In second place is the return from exile of the village boy Nairo, disqualified for a year, a hidden sanction in the form of a gentleman’s agreement, in the WorldTour peloton for taking tramadol, an opiate painkiller. And what neither his rivals nor the mountains could make him tremble was the impossibility of racing with the best, to which he has the right, until Movistar saved him, the team that he made great and with which he became great.

Nairo is the father of an exhausted generation. 11 years ago, Nairo Quintana revived the faith in cycling in Colombia that had been dormant since the days of Lucio Herrera and Fabio Parra in the late 80s. Farmer from Tunja, Boyaca, deep, small and tough, the 23-year-old debutant bravely went toe-to-toe with all of Sky and their untouchable Chris Froome. He finished second, the best climber, the best junior. And when he returned to Colombia, he spoke about the peace process and the problems of the peasants of his country, he rode his bike around the areas still affected by fighting between guerrillas, the army, paramilitaries, recently liberated cities, and these days he talks about forest fires, that are burning arid Colombia due to climate change and asks people to be careful.

Nairomania, which intensified a year later in 2014 when Nairo became the first Colombian to win the Giro d’Italia, gripped a whole generation of cyclists: Chavez, Urán, Egan, Higuita, Gaviria, Superman Lopez, Dani Martinez, who are the envy of everyone around the world, and even Dave Brailsford, a Sky engineer, has launched a takeover bid so that, through a team sponsored by the Colombian government, he can control all the talent emerging from a country where cycling is the king of sport. His idea didn’t work. Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos millionaire, gave him what he wanted and then came the dark years of Colombian cycling.

The market located around the square sells and is almost sold out of the Rigo brand (Go Rigo Go!): T-shirts, jerseys, shorts, bicycles and the Nairo Quintana brand, caps, sweaters, t-shirts, nicknames and coffee. bags with a photo of him in pink jersey.

Today it is Colombian cycling, the most popular sport on earth, cyclists who return, and cyclists who say goodbye, and tireless fans hungry for new figures. And a new young man, Diego Pescador, from Quimbaya, Quindio, in the coffee region, turned 19 in December. yearns to continue his trail, to now fill his emptiness with his shadow, and he feels capable. And this will be what Colombia wants: a new Nairo, a new Egan, a new Uranus.

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