Victor Hugo Pena remains the only Colombian to have worn the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. It was in 2003. Twelve years later, he has again made history in his country by winning a bronze medal at the recent National Games - in triathlon.
Pena was leading the Tour de France for three days in 2003 after the victory in the team time trial of his team US Postal where he supported Lance Armstrong for four years. The Colombian had previously won a time trial in the Giro d'Italia in 2000.
During his career in cycling he rode for Telecom-Flavia (1997), Avianca-Telecom (1998), Life Insurance (1999-2000), US Postal Service (2001-04) Phonak (2005-06), Unibet.com (2007), Rock & Racing (2008-09), Colombia es Passion (2010-11), Colombia-Coldeportes (2012), and then returned to the Colombian national calendar before his retirement with Supergiros-Redetrans (2013) and Aguardiente Blanco del Valle (2014).
But his sporting life does did not end there. In fact, at 41 years of age, Peña is again in the spotlight in Colombia as he has now won medals at the National Games in three different disciplines. Before he started his cycling career, he was fourth in the 400m swimming contest. In 1995, he won gold in the individual pursuit on his bike. And last week, in Prado, he took bronse in the team triathlon for his Santander region.
For Peña, sport is "a love of life. It is discipline, economic stability for the family, many friends, experience, it will be so until I am no longer here," he said after having received the new medal. He believes that triathlon is a "very hard discipline. I've been practicing it for two years and I have started to settle into it. Next year I will devote much time to prepare the medium distance - 2km of swimming, 90km of swimming and 21km of running - and I hope it will pay off," he said.
The Colombian has nothing bad to say about Lance Armstrong who was his teammate for four seasons.
"Armstrong was a good person. I remember he taught me English and I taught him Spanish," he told the magazine Donjuan two years ago . And he claims that he never knew anything about doping practices, "In fact, in 2001 I approached him because my season was not going well and told him to help me. And the answer was: 'Victor, I'm sorry, we're all professionals and everyone knows what to do to get ready,'" he told El Espectador.
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