Miguel Ángel López is the great champion of the 73rd edition of the Tour of Colombia. In the last stage, the time trial at La Ceja, he maintained his level and superiority and won with a time of 52 minutes and 19 seconds. He beat Rodrigo Contreras by 39 seconds and Aldemar Reyes by 2:51.
In the 42-kilometer course, López overtook Wilson Estiben Peña who did not look comfortable on the bike, and Alexander Gil. The Team Medellín cyclist started with great rhythm and in the last kilometers, seeing himself as the winner, he managed his own advantage and crossed the finish line calmly.
At the end, he spoke about what it meant to run the Vuelta, “I never thought I would be able to run it because I left for Europe very young, for me it is a dream come true and I thank Team Medellín for giving me the confidence to run with them ”.
In the general classification, Contreras was in second place at 6:17 and Wilson Estiben Peña completed the podium at 7:12. Aldemar Reyes was fourth at 10:25, Óscar Fernández was fifth at 11:14, Óscar Sevilla was sixth at 12:28, Alexander Gil was seventh at 12:49, Cristian Muñoz was eighth at 13:36, Marco Tulio Suesca was ninth at 14:47 and Robinson López closes the top 10 at 15:33.
López’s numbers in his debut in the Tour of Colombia
In his first time in the competition, Miguel Ángel López devastated. He had no mercy on his rivals and, with the help of his team, he beat all the numbers in a single edition. He is the third rider with the most stages won in the competition behind Ramón Hoyos who won 12 of 20 in 55 and Martín Emilio Cochise Rodríguez who won 9 of 19 in 67.
Furthermore, he is the fourth cyclist to have won the Vuelta from start to finish. The first was Efraín ‘Zipa’ Forero, the second was Ramón Hoyos and the third was Álvaro Pachón.
Superman won the prologue in Yopal, the first stage in the capital of Casanare, the third that ended in Ibagué, the fourth that was the queen stage in Alto de Línea, the fifth in Belalcázar, the sixth in Apía, the seventh in Manizales, the eighth in Cañasgordas and the ninth in La Ceja. In addition, he was champion of the points classification and the mountain classification.
With his participation in the Vuelta, he is the winningest cyclist in the world with 22 wins. He began the season in San Juan where he was champion and won a stage, was national time trial champion, won the Vuelta al Tolima, Cajamarca and now the Vuelta a Colombia.
In addition, for the first time he leads the ranking of the most UCI victories and for the first time a Colombian cyclist who does not compete in the World Tour is the best in the individual UCI ranking.
Source: Tatiana Rodríguez, https://colombia.as.com/