If winning the silver medal at the Olympic Games in London (although, in fact, losing the golden one) one year ago could be seen as luck or coincidence, Rigoberto Uran has now proven that he has much a more prominent role to play in the world peloton than a supporting one.

The 2013 season was doubtlessly the year of coming of age for Uran. While growing stronger and stronger, the Colombian was still perceived as a very solid, yet unspectacular climber, in the Sky Procycling where he was constantly appointed in the role of domestique to his more esteemed colleagues. Perhaps at first glance, Uran indeed does not stand up against his fellow Colombian team-mates: he is not as resistant as Quintana, as explosive as Betancur, or as fast as Henao. Still he is faster and more explosive than he has previously been known as.

But to understand how Rigoberto Uran surpasses his compatriots, requires more careful observation: it is due to an outstanding mental strength and natural ability to incarnate in a leadership role, to withstand big pressure. Enormous drive to succeed. Finally, with a little luck and a huge dose of determination, he was able to prove his potential as a mature team leader after the withdrawal of Bradley Wiggins in the Giro, where he eventually took 2nd place in the GC behind then unreachable Vincenzo Nibali, and claimed his first ever Grand Tour stage win on Altopiano del Montasio in the process.

The rest of the season was marked by anonymous participation in the Tour de Pologne, unconvincing performance alongside Sergio Henao during the Vuelta - although the reasons for this situation tend to be more complex - and an extremely disappointing end of season that finished with crashes both in UCI World Championships road race and Il Lombardia, in which he gave the impression of being one of the strongest riders.

“I think it was a good year, it was a peak of important happenings and decisions connected with my career: the best season with a great team like Sky and the beginning a new experience now with Omega Pharma. At the end a little irregular with the crashes, a little unlucky, things didn’t turn out as expected.  But now the most important thing is to rest and continue working,” Uran evaluated his season in an interview for Revista Mundo Ciclístico.

“Of course it was a very good year for me, second in the Giro d'Italia, stage win in the same race and other remarkable results. But the important thing is that I not only got results but Colombian cycling was the one that shone in full.”

Signing a contract with Omega Pharma - Quick Step opens a new, long-awaited chapter in the career of the Colombian, who after two seasons working on behalf of broad interests at Sky, will have a chance to shine as a leader from the first to the last day of the race.

Although in recent days, numerous rumors related to the composition of the Belgian team for the most important races of the season were circulating, the words of the Team Sky rider seem to indicate that the case is not yet decided. The cyclist points out, however, that in the context of the Colombian’s large ambitions at world championships, a repeat of this year's schedule with the Giro-Vuelta double would make more sense. This would confirm the words of Thomas de Gendt about his willingness to support Uran during the Giro, and Michał Gołaś, suggesting that certain arrangements had already been made at Omega.

„For me it's like, I just have to wait and see what plans the team has for me, honestly I can tell you I’d like to ride the Tour in a first place, but I like the Giro too. Eventually I really do not care.”

“The Tour is a very nice race, I've had the opportunity to do it twice, while this year’s Giro turned out to be very successful for me. The truth is I cannot tell you right now, these are very different races but both should be suitable for me.”

“The Giro contains very tough stages in its final week, and the Tour is always very hard to ride. The Tour is the Tour and we always have to approach it with certain respect, but thinking back of the path to World Championships road race which will next year take place in Spain, I would choose the Giro-Vuelta double as I did this year.”

A good performance at the World Championships seems to be one of Uran’s main objectives for the next season. Crashing out of this year's road race on the final descent after making it into the leading group clearly irritated the Colombian's ambitions.

“Yes, hopefully to take revenge for what has happened this year,” Uran answered, asked about his chances of becoming a leader of the Colombian team once again.

The final decision on this matter should be taken during the Belgian team's meeting in Spain, which will take place in December.

„I have plans to travel to California later this month to do some tests on the time trial bike in the wind tunnel, in December I have a training camp in Spain and that will define the schedule for the 2014 season, I still do not know in which races I will participate.”

Regardless of the final shape of the calendar, the plan seems to be simple:

„The idea is to keep developing as a person and continue to bring glory to the country outside its borders.”

Certainly, they all will.