A Doping Scandal Hits La Vuelta

The Vuelta a Colombia's peloton in 2016.

La Vuelta a Colombia deserves to be one of the world's great stage races: It's got dramatic climbs, spectacular vistas and Colombia's great cycling legacy.

However, the Vuelta has lost stature during recent decades due to Colombia's violence, loss of big sponsors, and Colombian cycling stars' preference for focusing on European racers. Fewer foreign teams have participated, even tho La Vuelta offers climbs higher than those of the Tour de France.

And now, a doping scandal, has dealt it another blow - just when Colombian cycle racing seems to be entering a new golden era.

During this year's Vuelta eight riders tested positive for banned substances, mostly CERA, a blood booster, and seven of the eight were Colombians. (A second blood or urine sample will now be tested to confirm or negate the first results.) One of the positives belongs to under-23 champion Róbinson López. That's a huge number relative to the number of race participants and the small number of ricers tested: Only the stage winner, race leader and two riders chosen at random were tested at each stage. If that limited testing produced eight positives, it suggests that many more doped but were not caught. More positive results may, in fact, still be announced.

Colombia's drug testing capacity is limited. Its only internationally certified laboratory was closed down temporarily this year after it produced incorrect results for samples secretly mailed to it by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The Vuelta samples were tested in a U.S. lab.

Among other problems, such as lack of resources, Colombian doping controls suffer from a fundamental conflict of interests because Coldeportes is both a cycle-racing sponsor and responsible for anti-doping control, reports Bicycling magazine.

The Cololmbian Cycling Federation's responses have been less than reassuring. When, during the Vuelta, Swiss cyclist Alexandre Ballet told a journalist that he'd seen pills being handed out, the Colombian federation sent a protest letter to the Swiss Cycling Federation asking Ballet to "make clear that he did not mean that Colombian cycling was dirty."

"We are very surprised by these declarations, which cast a shadow over our organization," and anti-doping efforts.

Sadly,  Ballet's criticisms were evidently right on.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

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

Cycle Racing and the Armed Conflict

Cyclist Rigoberto Urán, whose
father was murdered by paramilitaries.

Colombian cyclist Rigoberto Urán's second-place finish on Sunday in the Giro d'Italia would have made headlines - if not for the fact that another Colombian, Nairo Quintana, finished first.

But Urán had to climb over more than hills to achieve cycling greatness. He also had to overcome illness, poverty and the tragedy of Colombia's armed conflict.

Born in 1987 in the municipality of Urrao, Antioquia province, Urán grew up poor, helping his father to collect milk from farms and sell lottery tickets. The young Urán suffered from asthma, and to cure this his father took him cycling thru the region's hills when the boy was 13. The exercise soon helped cure the asthma.

However, like much of Colombia, the Urrao region was roamed by violent bands of leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries. One day, the elder Urán - also named Rigoberto - went out on a training ride and encountered an illegal paramilitary checkpoint. Altho what happened next is apparently uncertain, the younger Urán says that the paramilitaries forced his father and other kidnappees to steal cattle for them - and then killed the men.

Fatherless, the 14-year-old Urán was forced to support his family by selling lottery tickets. Nevertheless, he continued training, and soon after was signed by the Orgullo Paisa racing team. Now, he supported his family with his cycling income.

Luis 'Lucho' Herrera 

By age 18 Urán was in Colombia's national team, and a year later Team Tenax had signed him and moved him to Spain. However, after Urán suffered a severe bicycling accident, the team sent him to live with a family in northern Italy to recover and train.

Other Colombian cyclists' scrapes with the conflict have fortunately not been so tragic. Luis 'Lucho' Herrera was a legendary climber who achieved immortality in 1987 by winning the Vuelta a España. He retired in 1992 to dedicate himself to his family.

However, in 2000 Herrera was kidnapped by guerrillas. The kidnapping lasted only one day however. According to one report I read, only after the kidnapping did the guerrillas discover who they were holding. They then asked their captive to recount his racing glories, and freed him after only 24 hours, apparently embarrassed about having kidnapped a national hero.

Also in 2000, fellow cyclist Oliverio Rincón was kidnapped twice, once together with his family, by the ELN and later by the FARC guerrillas. The first time, he was held for a week, and the second for only one day. After his second kidnapping, Rincón said that the guerrillas apologized to him.

The kidnappers "told me that I wasn't the person they were looking for, that it was a mistake and that they were very sorry about it," Rincon said.

Blog by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Secrets of the Sudden Success of Colombian Cyclists

All smiles:Nairo Quintana celebrates victory in the Giro d'Italia.

the Giro d'Italia, which ended yesterday. was all Colombia. Boyacense Nairo Quintana finished first, Antioqueño Rigoberto Urán second and fellow Antioqueño Julián Arredondo took the King of the Mountain jersey. Perhaps we should have seen it all coming since last year, when Quintana finished second and won the best climber's jersey in the Tour de France and Urán took second in the Giro d'Italia.

Rigoberrto Urán pops open a frizzy one after winning
stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia.

These guys are only the best known of a crop of young riders. How has Colombia produced such a great crop of young riders? What's changed? Here are some ideas:

Colombia's economy has grown, enabling local businesses to sponsor young riders and help them onto the first rung of the ladder toward professional racing.

Colombia is safer - This has made Colombia's own tour, the Vuelta a Colombia, more attractive to foreign riders, giving Colombian cyclists both more high-lever racing experience and opportunity to be discovered by Eruopean racing teams.

World cycling authorities have cracked down on doping. According to this theory, Colombia's many

Julian Arredondo, the Giro d'Italia's best climber.

mountains and opportunities for high-altitude training give its riders a natural advantage - but that advantage was for many years nullified by the common use of drugs like EPO,and blood transfusions, which artificially boost red blood cell levels. In the post-Lance Armstrong era, doping seems to have dropped - or at least changed - perhaps restoring high-altitude trainers' natural advantages.

Whatever happens, Colombia's cycling boom has potential to last, and even grow. That's pretty good for a relatively small, relatively poor developing nation.

Even so, as others have observed, cycling still receives only a fraction of the attention of futbol. Hundreds of Colombian journalists are following the national football squad during its World Cup training, but only a few covered the Giro d'Italia - even tho Colombia's not likely to win the football World Cup. El Tiempo, the country's main newspaper, covered its front page Monday with a picture of Quintana kissing the Giro's trophy, and even dyed the paper pink (representing the winning rider's pink jersey). But by this afternoon, the paper's website had returned to World Cup coverage.

Results of the 2010 Giro d'Italia. The sole Colombian flag marks Rigoberto Urán, the seventh-ranked young rider.

What a difference five years make! The 2014 Giro d'Italia's winners lists have eight Colombian flags - altho three of them belong to Nairo Quintana.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours