Fabio Duarte (Colombia) battled with the biggest GC riders in the queen stage to the top of the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo in the Giro d'Italia and finished a magnificent 2nd behind a superior Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). On a day where 4 Colombians finished in the top 10, Duarte was proud to almost deliver the stage win that his South American team had sought all race.

Colombia was a surprise invitation to this year's Giro d'Italia but RCS chose to include the team in the line-up, hoping to see them animating the mountain stages. After a rather slow start, the team finally found its right terrain in the high mountains in the last part of the race and their performance culminated with a formidable 2nd place by Fabio Duarte in the race's queen stage to the top of the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo.

The former U23 world champion had a hard time in his first year with the South American team last year but bounced back strongly with a win in the Coppa Sabatini in October. This year he also started off slowly but during the Giro he has built up some solid form and he started to show off his potential on the Galibier where he finished 5th.

Today he managed to claw his way back up to his compatriots Carlos Betancur (Ag2r) and Rigoberto Uran (Sky) who were in pursuit of lone leader Vincenzo Nibali. At the finish he outsprinted his fellow Colombians to take a fantastic 2nd place for one of the smallest teams in the race.

Colombia has been reborn as a cycling nation this year with a number of strong performances at the highest level by Nairo Quintana, Uran, Sergio Henao and Betancur. Today no less than 4 riders form the South American country finished in the top 10 and it was a fitting way to show their reemergence at the biggest scene.

Andres Botero, the president of sports in Colombia and director of Coldeportes who has put plenty of money into the Colombia team was even present to witness today's dominant performance.

“We were just close to make a great gift to our team staff, sponsors and supporters in Colombia and all around the world, but I still think we gave them some reason to be happy today," Duarte said. ”The fact that such performance came in front of Coldeportes’ president Botero makes it even more important: we are always willing to show that this project is worth the great effort they put in, and hopefully it will keep growing in the years to come.”

The team had shown its confidence in its leaders Duarte and Darwin Atapuma early on by asking Wilson Marentes and Leonardo Duque to join the early chase effort dominated by the Euskaltel team. When the road started to point upwards, Atapuma attacked twice while Duarte kept his powder dry and the former even managed to finish 9th.

“Those guys out there were flying today," sports director Valerio Tebaldi said. "You know, we had planned to make our best today and give it all to finally clinch a stage, but I don’t think we could have asked anything more to them today. The team has been outstanding, taking control of the race at the foot of the climbs and with Fabio and Darwin taking responsibility to go for a result. They were feeling great, and we got just a little bit short of a win on the most beautiful stage of the Giro. I think many have seen the real value of our team today."

Botero was happy to see the project progress and hopes that the performances will inspire other organizers to invite the Colombian team.

“We strongly believed in this project from the very beginning, and had to go through some tough opposition, but the team’s display and results at the Giro show that the value of Colombian cycling really deserved a team to give it the opportunity to show," he said. "Now we want this progression to continue, and hopefully we will see Team Colombia racing a Grand Tour again soon.”

The race finishes with a largely ceremonial stage to Brescia tomorrow and while Colombia is mostly known for its climbers, sprinters Edwin Avila and Duque hope to mix it up in the expected bunch kick. Starting at 14.15 you can follow the grand finale on CyclingQuotes.com/live.