After the long wait, only four weeks are left for Team Colombia-Coldeportes to August 19th, when they will fly to Puerto Banus to take in their first Vuelta a España. The majority of Claudio Corti’s riders are still in Colombia, where they are enjoying the last opportunities to train in altitude and share time with their beloved before returning to the competitions.

Alex Cano will be the first in line: he is already in Toronto, Canada, where he will participate with the Colombian National Team in the Panamerican Games road race on Saturday July 25th. Instead, the black-yellow Team’s jerseys will be back in the peloton on August 3rd, when the first stage of the Tour of Utah (USA, August 3-9) will take place, followed by the Vuelta a Burgos, in Spain (August 4-8).

As the date gets closer, Sports Director Oscar Pellicioli joined his colleague Oliverio Rincon in Colombia for some days of training, tests and meeting with the athletes, currently working out in their respective areas in Colombia.

“It was crucial for us, particularly in the view of the final part of the season, to speak with the guys directly, and evaluate their condition and how their training programme is unfolding,” Pellicioli explained.

“The indications we got are generally pretty good. The majority of the riders were in pretty good shape, some of them in particular have worked particularly well in these weeks. Riders like Castiblanco and Sarmiento, to name two, looked significantly better than earlier in the season, but we expect them to confirm those impressions in these crucial three months.”

“We might be missing some race rhythm at first, but after a month without racing this is quite normal. What’s really key is for everyone to get ready to these final tests ahead of the Vuelta, possibly making our line-up decisions tougher,” concluded Pellicioli, who will be guiding the team at the Vuelta a Burgos along with Marco Corti, while Valerio Tebaldi and Oliverio Rincon will be on the team cars at the Tour of Utah.