'We're in a hole': Why has Colombia stopped producing Grand Tour winners?

The Tour de l'Avenir has twice foretold the future of Colombian cycling. In 1980, Alfonso Flórez's victory signalled the arrival of Latin American riders in Europe, paving the way for pioneers such as Luis Herrera and Fabio Parra to deliver Colombia's first successes in the Grand Tours. After that, though, there followed two decades of relative obscurity. Then, in 2010, Nairo Quintana won the same under-23 race and triggered a second Colombian boom in the World Tour. Alongside Quintana - nicknamed 'The Condor' - riders such as Rigoberto Urán, Esteban Chaves, Jarlinson Pantano, Darwin Atapuma and Sergio Luis Henao formed what became known as Colombia's "golden generation". Between them, they won the Giro d'Italia, the Vuelta a España, Il Lombardia, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour de Romandie, Volta a Catalunya and the Tour de Suisse, collecting dozens of stage wins and podium finishes across the World Tour.

In 2017 Egan Bernal became Colombia's sixth winner of the Tour de l'Avenir, and two years later he made history by becoming the country's first winner of the Tour de France – aged just 22, making him, at that point, the youngest winner since 1909. Bernal went on to win the Giro d'Italia in 2021. Yet those triumphs also marked the beginning of a decline that now feels set in, especially now that Quintana, the defining rider of his generation, has announced he will retire at the end of this year. In 2026, Colombia has just 11 active riders in the World Tour, down from a peak of 22 in 2021 – and at the 2026 Tour de France none of them won a stage, let alone a classification jersey.

From a great height

From his home in Medellín, Luis Fernando Saldarriaga speaks with equal parts pride and melancholy when he reflects on that era. As head coach of Colombia es Pasión, the development project that gathered the nation's brightest prospects in the 2000s, he believes such success will not return any time soon. "Today there is no serious project focused on producing new riders," he says. "Domestic teams race only for Colombia, not for Europe. Coaches are not thinking about what modern cycling demands: tactics, strategy, nutrition, cognitive development. What's missing is a structure and a method capable of building a long-term process."

Back in the 1980s, when Colombian riders claimed their first Grand Tour stages, Saldarriaga would wake before dawn to follow radio broadcasts from Europe. He remembers the flaws that limited those pioneers: weak teamwork, time losses on flat stages, crashes on cobbles, poor positioning in crosswinds. "Herrera and Parra were brilliant climbers," he says, "but they had weaknesses."

Saldarriaga had become one of Colombia's leading coaches by the early 2000s, securing public and private backing for Colombia es Pasión. The programme was designed around sports science and talent identification. "We created a system for detecting, selecting and developing talent," he explains. "We used ergometry, VO2 testing, biomechanics, aerodynamics, psychology and nutrition. Everything was scientific."

British cycling writer Matt Rendell, author of Colombia es Pasión, believes the project achieved something equally important: protecting riders from doping. "The philosophy was to develop riders slowly and systematically," Rendell says. "They wanted to deliver cyclists to the World Tour who already understood positioning, racecraft and how to behave in the biggest races." Doping, however, has remained a persistent shadow over Colombian cycling. Every year, the country features on lists published by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Lina Bonilla, one of the few women covering Colombian cycling, says she was shocked by how normalised the issue appeared when she entered the sport six years ago. "At local level, doping is barely pursued [by the authorities]," she says. "There's a pact of silence. Journalists who investigate it are threatened. There is intimidation and collusion to keep these stories hidden." According to Bonilla, many riders treat doping as routine. "Then they move to Europe and discover that the controls are exhaustive. There, those practices are impossible."

The aim was never immediate success. "The objective was transcendence," Saldarriaga says, hinting at a sense of mission driven by one of the nation's chief sporting passions. He spent endless hours driving behind promising young riders during training, identifying technical flaws and correcting them in real time. Beyond his own expectations, he also carried the hopes of an entire country, where cycling has long served as both a national obsession and a rare source of joy amid decades of violence and instability. The results eventually came. Nearly all the riders developed within the programme reached Europe and built long professional careers. Saldarriaga led Colombia es Pasión from 2006 until 2010, the year Quintana won the Tour de l'Avenir.

Stagnation sets in

As the sport evolved, Colombian results began to fade. The stars of the golden generation simply grew older, while younger rivals in Europe emerged better prepared for modern racing. Bernal was the last Colombian to stand on a Grand Tour podium, five years ago. Since then, no new wave has arrived. "The good news is the talent still exists," Saldarriaga says. "The bad news is there's no structure or school. There are only isolated initiatives. Sometimes riders reach Europe, but they lack maturity and process. They become depressed and come home because they were never properly formed." In his view, the Colombian Cycling Federation lacks a coherent development model covering every stage of progression, from youth participation to elite performance. "There is no strong technical department capable of recognising that the sport has changed and that our model must become more analytical," he says.

Funding has also evaporated. In the 1980s, both the Colombian state and major companies invested heavily in cycling, backing teams such as Café de Colombia, Pilas Varta and Postobón in the European peloton. Economic crises eventually ended that support. Today, Colombian coffee survives merely as a small logo among the sponsors of Netcompany Ineos.

Ernesto Lucena, Colombia's sports minister from 2018 to 2021 and an avid amateur cyclist himself, believes the current crisis stems largely from the absence of long-term public policy. "Sport in this country has always been political," he says. "We've had four sports ministers in four years. That makes sustained projects impossible. There is no unified policy. The ministry doesn't even support cycling teams anymore." The budget cuts are stark. Over the past two years alone, the ministry's funding has dropped from 1.3 trillion pesos (£260 million) to just 312 billion pesos (£62.5 million). There were two main reasons: the economy failed to grow at the pace the government had anticipated, while congress rejected a financing bill promoted by the executive branch. The result was a widening fiscal deficit, prompting the national government to introduce sweeping cuts across sectors such as culture, sport and recreation – not so different from the austerity cuts implemented from 2010-2020 in Britain.

There is also the issue of age and development. Modern cycling now rewards teenagers. Riders such as Paul Seixas are already competing internationally before turning 20, having spent years within Continental development structures. Colombia, by contrast, still struggles to expose its young riders to European racing early enough. Bonilla paints a bleak picture of the grassroots scene. "There is no structure in youth racing," she says. "A 15-year-old rider survives through family support and odd jobs, often without proper nutrition, equipment, technology or even a decent bike. Meanwhile, a teenager in France or Belgium already has a huge advantage."

Elsewhere in Latin America, however, progress is being made. Saldarriaga has worked in both Ecuador and Mexico, where he first met a teenage Isaac del Toro several years ago. "They are doing things properly," he says. "Their riders live in Europe year-round. That's why we see [Ecuadorians] Jhonatan Narváez, Richard Carapaz and others achieving results." His diagnosis for Colombia is bleak. "We were neither active nor creative enough to adapt our model. The process needed renewal, but it never came. Now we are in a hole, and it will last for a long time."

The European advantage

Modern cycling is unforgiving. Rendell notes that World Tour teams no longer function as finishing schools. "Riders are not going there to learn anymore," he says. "They are expected to contribute immediately. Colombia lacks the structures and staff needed to educate riders properly before they reach the top teams. The talent exists, but the formation does not."

Diego Pescador is one of those rare talents. Before even turning 20, he had already earned a contract with Movistar. Now based in Spain for most of the year, the 21-year-old Colombian has experienced first-hand the gulf separating European cycling from the scene back home. "The difference is enormous," says Pescador. "In Europe, speed records are being broken on all kinds of stages. There are new training methods, far more technology, and better nutrition – and that's the foundation of success." The gap extends beyond training alone. Equipment, too, is on another level: the kit, the bikes, the shoes. "Even the socks can make a difference that helps you win," he says. Yet for Pescador, the biggest contrast lies in the professionalism of the system itself. "In Europe, everything is more structured. Every part of the process is looked after, and there's much more investment. Colombian cycling needs more companies willing to support the sport, and more opportunities for riders to race in Europe. The future is here."

During Colombia's glory years, success created a virtuous cycle. Young riders saw Bernal, Quintana and Chaves as proof that cycling could offer social mobility and international opportunity. Now, the opposite may happen. Without visible role models, aspiring riders may turn elsewhere. The old mythology of the "escarabajo" or beetle – a nickname that grew out of Colombia's reputation for producing small but relentless climbers – brings to mind riders floating through Alpine ascents on lungs forged at altitude. But this is no longer proving enough to win modern races. Significantly, the most recent Latin American winner of the Tour de l'Avenir was not Colombian but Mexican: Isaac del Toro in 2023. The last Colombian victor was Bernal in 2017, nearly a decade ago. Since surviving his life-threatening training crash in 2022, Bernal has yet to show signs that he can return to Grand Tour-winning level. Nor does it appear likely that another Colombian will win the Tour de l'Avenir soon. Once again, the race that predicts the future seems to be offering a dispiriting diagnosis of Colombian cycling.

Lucena sees little hope of major institutional support returning soon. "The next government will simply try to survive with whatever budget remains," he says. Still, he retains faith in Colombian talent. Together with Quintana, he is now planning projects aimed at identifying and supporting young riders capable of competing in Europe. Somewhere high in the Andes, perhaps, the next great Colombian climber is already riding – waiting for the structural changes that might finally allow him to fly.

The rise and fall

Between 2014 and 2021, Colombian cyclists lit up the World Tour, claiming four Grand Tour titles and countless stages. Here are the crowning achievements of this high-flying generation:

2014: Nairo Quintana secures Colombia's first-ever overall victory at the Giro d'Italia.

2016: Quintana adds the Vuelta a España to his palmarès, while Esteban Chaves makes history by winning Il Lombardia.

2017: Sprint sensation Fernando Gaviria dominates the Giro d'Italia, taking an four stage wins.

2019: Egan Bernal, at just 22, becomes the first Colombian - and the first Latin American rider-to win the Tour de France overall classification.

2021: Bernal cements his Grand Tour legacy by taking the overall title at the Giro d'Italia.

2022-2026: Bernal's horrific 2022 training crash, coupled with extended absences, controversies and suspensions for veterans like Quintana and Miguel Ángel López, leaves a void at the top. Colombian talent remains in the World Tour, but the glory days have passed.

This feature was originally published in the 4 June 2026 print edition of Cycling Weekly magazine – available to buy on the newsstand every Thursday (UK only). Digital versions are available on Apple News and Readly. Subscriptions through Magazines Direct.