Caicedo invites an Ecuadorian duel with Carapaz in the mountains of Colombia

The Ecuadorian Jonathan Caicedo is the first leader of the Tour Colombia after the victory of Education First in the time trial by teams of the first stage.

In the 16.7 kilometers of the time trial by Tunja teams, the pink locomotive has moved away its two great competitors, Deceuninck-Quick Step and Team Ineos, in 45 and 46 seconds, respectively, an unimaginable margin when the wheels began to spin among the bouncing people of the Boyacense population. A party is promulgated in schools to accompany this milestone.

The Education First I let the Ecuadorian champion go first Jonathan Caicedo, granting him the first leadership of the race. The Colombian Sergio Higuita cedi when it seemed that he would be the one chosen to put on his leader's jersey.

It was not clear that Caicedo was chosen by the direction of the team, Juanma Garate, to lead the Tour Colombia. Caicedo expressed his satisfaction and is glad to have complied with what he was ordered to “give it all”. He said that the team's strategy was to facilitate the leadership of Rigo Urn, but of the six riders of the US team, he was the only one who dropped. The locomotive was unstoppable with Tejay Van Garderen, Lawson Craddock, Daniel Martnez, Higuita and Caicedo.

“I see very likely that we can play the victory of Tour Colombia with Richard in the last stage. I work for the team and to defend myself in the stages. And in the last and final, I will have to planter it on the defensive, knowing that I will fight the best in the world, winner of the Tour, winner of the Tour. But I want to give everything to wear this shirt until the last day“Of course you can't be.

Richard Carapaz, which is intuited as the true leader of the Ineos here, It's not discarded for the final battle in the The Verjn. “We are happy as a team, it is not so much time, there is a long way to go. We are encouraged to wait for the decisive day“said the countryman of Caicedo, which invites us to imagine an Ecuadorian duel in the mountains of Colombia unless the local pride or Sergio Higuita's pride avoids it.

Carapaz and Caicedo were born in 1993 with a month of difference between the two. They have been raised in the same altitude of the canton of Tulcan, in the Ecuadorian province of Carchi, and are the outpost of a country that wants to be the competition of this Colombia crazy about cycling and especially for its cyclists.

Without saying it expressly, Egan Bernal, captain of the Ineos, sees his victory in this race far away. “They have taken a long time, the EF has done very well.” But the first Colombian winner of the Tour de France added “super happy how I felt, of the work of the team and of my state of form at this point of the month of February “.

THINKING OF MORNING

Julian Alaphilippe heads the Deceuninck train, but the second place and the 45 seconds are too many for the Frenchman, who can consider the Friday stage with end in steep, as a goal to continue adding partial victories in his career for the Tour Colombia.

The first three classified were the teams that counted in this war from the beginning. The first day and the last. The rest, 24 teams, roll to improve themselves and plan their battalions in the next stages, Plains with the sword of Damocles of altitude, always above 2,500 meters. They will have to speak the Movistar Team, Emirates, Israel and the rest of the concurrence in the coming days. On this inaugural day they saved their honor as they could.

The second stage gives opportunities to the planers and sprinters, with their 152 kilometers between Paipa and Duitama, without the famous Cogollo steep, of the 95 World Cup. In principle, the best equipped for the triumph are the runners Juan Sebastin Molano, of the UAE Emirates, and lvaro Hodeg, of the Deceuninck.