With the teams presentation on Friday August 21st, the first Vuelta a Espana of Team Colombia-Coldeportes can be officially considered underway. The team riders look extremely focused, and are obviously raring to go after waiting for the adventure to start for about five months, after the Wild Card invitations were announced in late March.

Today, Saturday August 22nd at 18.53, Colombia-Coldeportes will be the second team down the ramp in the opening team time trial, 7,4 km from Puerto Banus to Marbella. The opening test was preceded by controversy on the route, as many raised doubts on it being dangerous for riders. As a consequence, the race jury opted to neutralize the team time trials times for the individual general classification: the team time trial will only count for the teams classification, and in order to award the first leader’s jersey. 

Colombia-Coldeportes’ General Manager Claudio Corti was not on the same page about the route though, after personally riding it in the afternoon along with Sports Director Valerio Tebaldi, eventually getting a quite different impression. “To me, it is not a dangerous route,” Corti said, “Unipublic did a huge job in the last few hours, now the route looks cleared and I don’t think some raw concrete can provide any actual risks for the riders’ safety. All in all, it is a different time trial than usual, to be raced differently in technical and strategical terms. The clocks might be neutralized, but we will still be looking to give our best and honor the Vuelta from the very beginning.”

Today’s race will also be Alex Cano’s debut in a grand tour, coming in the thick of his maturity as a rider: “Facing my first GT at this point in my career adds a great motivation, but it comes with the awareness and responsibility ahead of the challenge we are about to face. The team is well prepared, and all of us can’t wait to get down the ramp and start living this Vuelta for good.”