Carlos Betancur

Nationality: Colombian
Date of birth: October 13, 1989
Team: Movistar
Twitter: @cabg1989

Thus far, Carlos Betancur has not quite lived up to the fleeting glimpses of promise that he showed in the early stages of his career.

Having spent three years at the French squad of Ag2r La Mondiale, the Colombian looked on the verge of making the most of his prodigious climbing talent by taking a sensational overall victory in the 2014 Paris-Nice to add to his best young rider jersey at the Giro d’Italia the year before.

But things seemed to slip away from him after that. He failed to return from Colombia to take aim at the Tour de France, blaming a virus, and looked overweight and out of sorts when he returned at the Vuelta a España, where he finished 158th.

Bad blood seemed to develop between Betancur and Ag2r after that, but he managed to put in a show of some resurgence after battling to 20th at the 2015 Giro.

The French team released him from his contract at the end of the season, with Betancur joining Spanish team Movistar to try and finally fulfil his potential.

Stage wins in the 2016 Vuelta a Asturias and Vuelta a Castilla y León followed, with selection for the 2017 Tour de France seeing him finish 18th overall – but still no major wins.