The 111th edition of the Tour de France will have 11 riders from the Americas, distributed in four Colombians, three Americans and an equal number of Canadians, as well as an Ecuadorian. They will receive a lot of attention from their rivals and the press, as some of them may climb the coveted podium at the end of the race.
In the Gallic round will take part 22 teams and 176 cyclists among which there are four Colombian riders: Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain – Victorious), Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), while the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz will be with the EF Eduaction-EasyPost club.
American Matteo Jorgenson will ride with Team Visma, while his fellow Americans Neilson Powless and Sean Quinn will defend the colors of EF Eduaction-EasyPost. Finally, Canadians Guillaume Boivin, Derek Gee and Hufo Osle will join the same team: Israel – Premier Tech (PRT).
Mundo Ciclístico Magazine shared some statements from the five competing South Americans.
Richard Carapaz: “I’m really excited. Coming back here to the Tour is always exciting. It’s the best race in the world and it’s really exciting. I’ve tried to prepare myself in the best possible way, I’m here and I’m looking forward to the start. I have new objectives, we want to do well and we hope to have a good Tour. The beginning will be very nervous, the first two stages will count a lot, it will be difficult, we must be ready and prepared for all this to come”.
Santiago Buitrago: “This is a very big emotion, a dream come true fills me a lot of emotion with many expectations, I want to enjoy it, it is my first Tour and well first of all thank the team for this opportunity. I drew it since I was very small and to see it become a reality, I was very excited, but you have to manage to control the anxiety. It’s an emotion, a dream, with a lot of expectations and desire to do very well. I want to enjoy my first Tour”.
Harold Tejada: “Happy to be here in my third Tour de France. I’m in good health even though I had Covid in the Dauphine and I had to retire. Now I feel good and we come to look for stages. We don’t have riders for the overall, we’re here to win stages, to look for opportunities in the breakaways and day by day on the wheel of the others. It’s going to be a hard, fast and beautiful three weeks. We’ll enjoy every day and we’re looking forward to doing well in this Tour. The team comes with the intention of winning a stage with Cavendish”.
Egan Bernal: “This Tour is going to be exciting. One is aware that a whole country and Latin America are thinking that we do well, but when it comes to being in competition you have to have a lot of mental clarity, make decisions with a cool head. Things for me have happened very naturally, very progressively. I arrive at the Tour in my best form of the year. This year I hope to suffer in a different way, it is the hardest race in the world. I hope this year to be much further ahead, to try to do the overall as well as possible”.
Fernando Gaviria: “I’m fine, after the Giro we prepared very well, we were doing altitude and then explosive work, I arrive in good condition. On Monday we begin to have our terrain, the truth is that I only see one opportunity, that of July 1”.
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico