Second's Not Bad!

Nairo Quintana, 2nd place, winner Tom Dumoulin, of Denmark and third place finisher Italian Vincenzo Nibali

In the end, Dutchman Tom Dumoulin showed why he's known as a great time trialer by beating Colombian Nairo Quintana by well over a minute in today's final stage and vaulting into first place in the Giro d'Italia.

Sure, Quintana might have ridden more aggressively in the mountain stages and possibly built up the more than a minute's lead going into today's time trial which he needed to hold off Dumoulin. But such risky, aggressive riding might also have lost it all for Quintana, keeping him off of the podium altogether. Yesterday, after all, the guys at the Telegraph newspaper's Cycling podcast speculated that other contenders could keep Quintana off of the podium altogether.

As it is, Quintana now adds a second place finish to his 2014 victory in the Giro, his victory in the

Añadir leyenda

Vuelta a España and second and third-place finishes in the Tour de France, as well as victories in many lesser races. That makes Quintana one of the great riders of his generation and one of the greatest-ever Colombian bike racers. He is only the second-ever Colombian after the legendary Luis Herrera to win one of the three Grand Tours (Spain, Italy and France).

And Quintana was not the only Colombian to excel in this year's Giro. Sprinter Alejandro Gaviria won four stages and was the overall points leader.

Quintana is the leader of a generation of young Colombian cyclists who are making their homeland one of the world's great cycling nations.

The Giro d'Italia's Final Classification.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Hang On There Nairo!

Today's El Espectador newspaper celebrates Nairo's lead.

Colombian Nairo Quintana is wearing pink, but has a fight ahead of him to keep it on. Quintana fouoght and won the pink in Italy's mountains, his specialty, and has a 38 second lead over Dutchman Tom Dumoulin.

Nairo exults in wearing pink.

Now, the Giro de Italia has one stage left, but it is a time trial - Dumoulin's specialty. Dumoulin has to gain just over a second per kilometer tomorrow to beat Quintana, and presumably the rest of the contenders. Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, at 53 seconds back, and Russian Ilnur Zakarin, 1 minute 21 seconds back, are also threats to Quintana's chances for a podium spot, according to the Telegraph newspaper's bike racing podcast.

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Star is Born

Fernando Gaviria winning a stage in the 2015 Tour de San Luis.
(Photo: Cycling News)

This was supposed to be Nairo Quintana's Giro de Italia - and it still may be. Winner of the 2014 Giro, Quintana and last year's winner Vicenzo Nibali were this year's favorites. And Quintana may yet win, but he needs to make up close to three minutes against race leader Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, an expert at time trials. With four mountain stages remaining, Quintana might do it. On Sunday, he shaved nine seconds off of Dumoulin's lead. (On Tuesday, he made up most of that time against an ill Dumoulin. However, the last stage is a time trial.)

But the Colombian who has already earned himself a memorable place in this year's Giro is sprinter Fernando Gaviria, a 22-year-old from Antioquia riding with Quick-Step who has already raced to victory in four stages of this year's Giro, a record for a Colombian.

Along the way, he also became a web sensation by riding a wheelie during the Giro's stage 15.

Gaviria first won prominence in the 2015 Tour de San Luis, and went on for more wins in the Tour of Britain, Tour la Provence and the Track Cycling World Championships, among other competitions.

But for Gaviria, like Quintana, the best is likely yet to come.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

ARTBO By Bike

Come Ride With Us. (Why do they put these things in English?)
Outside the Espacio Odeon gallery on Jimenez Ave.

ARTBO, Bogotá's annual art festival, has added bicycle transport this year - and they're actually doing it right, albeit on a small scale. (See a few of ARTBO's works here.)

Pedaling up Jimenez Ave.

The festival, using city-owned bikes and employees of the Spinning Center gyms, has set up six lending sites, each initially with eight bikes. The idea is for art fans to pedal from one exhibition to the next, altho once you pedal out of sight they have no way to know whether you're off to more art or to your lunch date. The service is free, but you must show I.D. and have signed up on ARTBO's website.

The blue bicycles were
borrowed from the city.

By allowing riders to pick up bikes at one spot and drop them off at another, this private initiative already puts itself ahead of the city's very limited, but still missed, bicicorredor lending program. The city required you to drop the bike off near where you'd picked it up, which wasn't very practical for transportation, and the program was ended last year.

The city's much-promised full-scale bike lending program has not gotten off of the drawing board.

Preparing a bike for lending. 

On the Jimenez Ave. lending site outside the Espacio Odeon gallery this afternoon, the employees said they'd lent about six bikes. Not so many, but that's still six more rides than without the program. (On Saturday they appeared to be much busier.)

However, absurdly, you also need to have signed up on the website in order to park a bike. One of the employees agreed this was counterproductive. "A lot of people have asked to park their bikes, and would have visited the gallery," he said.

So much for making rules for the sake of making rules.

Free bicycle parking, too.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Tough Times for the Cycling Federation

Nairo Quintana, champion and cycling federation critic.

Lack of support for cyclists, poor preparation for competitions, measly prize money and opaque finances.

The 89-year-old Colombian Federation of Cycling is passing through troubled times, if you believe its critics.

The most prominent of those critics is Nairo Quintana, winner of the tours of Spain and Italy.

The league “doesn't send all the athletes (that it could to races), doesn't provide financial support, doesn't publicize its accounts and doesn't provide support," to riders, Quintana said.

Recently, in fact, the Vuelta a Tolima was canceled because the federation had not

BMX champion Mariana Pajón defends the federation.

obtained the necessary permits. And, in another race, riders had to pedal through mud and evade potholes. 

In additional, critics call the federation's anti-doping efforts weak. Two months ago, Coldeportes' anti-doping laboratory was shut down because it did not meet international standards.

Many also called the planned prize money for women in the canceled Tolima tour inadequate: Only 70,000 pesos, or about US $25, for stage winners and 600,000 pesos, or $210, for the tour winner.

Paradoxically, the federation charges cyclists 680,000 pesos for racing licenses, reportedly one of the highest rates in the world, and wealthy corporate sponsors.

Quintana had also opposed the election in January of Jorge Ovidio González, a veteran cycling official, as federation president. Some alleged that González bought votes with favors and are attempting to annul the election.

But Colombian BMX champion Mariana Pajón, winner of two Olympic gold medals, criticized Quintana in an audio message which she sent to her father but was leaked to the media.

"It makes me sad, because a person such as Nairo should be careful of what he says," she said, and suggested that Quintana was bitter because his candidate for federation president was defeated. Pajón's father is a federation official.

Pajón acknowledged that there were problems, but said that the federation could not support all racers.

Federation president González also said that Quintana was misinformed about subjects such as racers' health insurance.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours