Vuelta a Columbia stage 5 preview
The 2010 Vuelta a Colombia, August’s biggest cycling race, began on 1 August and will take the riders through 20 consecutive stages, over 1500km, before the first and only rest day on the 11th, followed by four more stages closing with a 34km time-trial on August 15. The 60th edition of the 14-stage South American tour has so far broken from tradition by offering some rare opportunities for the sprinters to contend, but with stage five on Friday, the race will return to familiar, mountainous ground.
The fourth stage gave a little taste of the mountains, after the race was taken over by sprinter Jairo Perez in stage three, who fell behind on the climbs in stage four and has dropped out of the top five. Oscar Sevilla and his team Indeportes Antioquias took over the race from the beginning, and Sevilla regained the lead in stage four, but stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the runner-up, Deliver Opine.
The true contenders for the general classification will now begin. Sevilla and Opine are in the running, as is the defending champion Jose Rujano. The 118km stage spans from the finish of stage four in Bucaramanga to winding roads of Socorro. The three categorized climbs of the stage includes the first category-one climb, the Alto Chiflas. Bucaramanga sits at an altitude of 1010m and the route rises as high as 1930m before finishing at the 1270m town of Socorro. The Alto Chiflas sits 63km into the stage and the descent leads almost immediately into the second climb, the category-three Alto Aratoca, sure to divide the peloton and leave only the overall contenders at the head of the race.
The first edition of the Vuelta a Colombia, held in 1951 with 10 stages spanning 1233km, set the tone for what would eventually come to be regarded as one of the most difficult cycling events in the world. The mountains of Colombia are hundreds of metres higher than those in the European Grand Tours, which has also earned the event it’s reputation of being one of the most dangerous road races, most recently seeing the death of Alberto Martinez Prader, a Colombian journalist, in 2005 when his jeep fell into a ravine while following the peloton on a descent.
Only three non-Columbian riders have ever won the Vuelta a Colombia, the third of them being the current defending champion Jose Rujano, of Venezuela. He was joined on the 2009 podium by Freddy Montaña and César Salazar, both Colombian. The local pride is fierce and the Colombian contenders can be expect to reign in Rujano this year at every opportunity. A climbing specialist, Rujano was the king-of-the-mountain in the 2005 Giro d’Italia and has been riding aggressively this year since his team was not invited to return to the Giro.
Oscar Sevilla won a stage of the race in 2008 and podiums finishes in the Vuelta a España and the Dauphiné Libéré. He won the white jersey in the 2001 Tour de France and supported Jan Ullrich in his 2005 bid. His European experience makes for an impressive resume.
Giovanny Báez won three stages in 2008 and wore the overall leader’s jersey, and is backed up by a strong team this year. However, Mauricio Ortega, one of his teammates may threaten his leadership in his own bid for a win.
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