With the circuit “Santos Rafael Bermúdez” of the avenues 19 de Abril and España, in the sick city of San Cristóbal, the Tour of Táchira, Venezuela All in its 59th edition came to its end, which left as champion the Ecuadorian rider Jonathan Caicedo of the Mexican club Petrolike, the South American accumulated a time of 25 hours, 49 minutes and 59 seconds.
Juan Ruíz of Trujillo did not achieve the objective of dethroning Caicedo and was confirmed with the second place at 28 seconds and his teammate Nelson Camargo, champion of the Mountain of the Tour of Táchira 2024, was the third at one minute and nine seconds of difference; Luis Pinto without major complications remained fourth in the individual Generali at one minute 21 seconds and fifth the native of Barinitas Yonathan Monsalve already very far away at more than 2 minutes.
“The truth is that I am very happy with this victory, it has been a nice triumph, but I think they are not very happy with this feat here in Venezuela. I leave hurt, I did not hear very good comments from the people and that hurts a lot because one is a professional in that”, Caicedo began to say at the end of the final stage in San Cristobal.
The South American rider of Team Petrolike arrived as one of the top favorites to the competition and revalidated that situation throughout the last stages where he managed to keep the yellow jersey as leader of the Tour of Táchira.
“We worked very hard for this and I want to congratulate my teammates who have given their all. This title is very special and I want to dedicate it to them and to all this great work group because we have started the season on the right foot. We are going to continue working hard for what is coming and we have a month of many competitions in February and we are going to give our all for the good of the Team”, concluded Caicedo, the first Ecuadorian to win the Tour of Táchira by bicycle, the “Grande de América”.
In this way, the Ecuadorian born in the middle of the world becomes the fifth non-Colombian foreigner to be champion of the Vuelta al Táchira, as the Soviet Ramazan Galialetdinov in 1982, Eduardo Alonso from Cuba in 1986, Viacheslav Ekimov in 1988 and the Costa Rican Joseph Chavarría in 2016.
Fernando Briceño was the champion of the fastest with a total of 29 points, Nelson Camargo was the best Tachirense and the monarch of the mountain with 29 units, beating the “chacaro” Luis Mora; the points classification was of the Colombian Alejandro Osorio, his countryman Brandon Rojas dominated the classification of the youngest and the team category was dominated by the Governorate of Trujillo.
The Santos Rafael Bermudez for Colombia
The Colombian Alejandro Osorio won the closing stage of the Andean Tour with a time of 2 hours 50 minutes, 54 seconds, followed by Yonathan Monsalve and in third position Jimmi Briceño.
Ingrid Porras two-time champion
The second edition of the women’s classic of the Tour of Táchira en Bicicleta was categorically dominated by the experienced Venezuelan rider Ingrid Porras of the Ultrabike Spacelike club, Andisabel Briceño crossed in second place and Lissette Carrero was third in the elite.
Source: Carlos Alexis Rivera, Prensa Vuelta al Táchira