Nairo Quintana has been in the news a little of late but it isn’t for the kind of headlines he usually attracts. Still, the 32-year-old is named in an abbreviated selection for the Colombian team for the world championships in Wollongong.

 

– By Rob Arnold 

 

Colombia is in the top 10 of the UCI’s national ranking system but it will not send a full contingent of eight riders for the elite men’s road race at the 2022 world championships in Wollongong. The Federación Colombiana de Ciclismo has confirmed its rider selection for the races in Australia at the end of September, with 18 riders making the trip to contest five of the 11 medal events.

Although Colombia’s only Tour de France champion Egan Bernal has recently returned to racing after his horrific career-threatening injuries from a crash earlier in the year, the 25-year-old (who was a DNF during stage four of the recent Deutschland Tour) will not be competing in Wollongong.

There are six riders listed for the elite men’s road race, including Nairo Quintana. The Colombian veteran is named as a leader of the final event on the program in Wollongong, when he is expected to return to racing after the tramadol incident from this year’s Tour de France. He finished sixth on GC in Le Tour 2022, but that result was recently struck from official records after a positive test for the painkilling medication.

Another rider to make the elite men’s selection is national road race champion Sergio Higuita, who is racing the Vuelta a España with his Bora-Hansgrohe trade team (currently ranked 26th on GC with a week to go in the Spanish Grand Tour).

Juan Sebastián Molano and Harold Tejada, two others who are competing in the Vuelta (which concludes next Sunday), have also made the selection for their national team.

Sergio Higuita is one of the Colombian riders expect in Wollongong after La Vuelta. (Photo: Sprint Cycling, via Bora-Hansgrohe)

Below is a summary of the Colombian riders selected for the 2022 UCI Road World Champiohships.

Elite Women

  • Diana Carolina Peñuela Martínez (DNA Pro Cycling)
  • Lina Marcela Hernández Gómez* (Colombia Tierra de Atletas GW)
  • Paula Andrea Patiño Bedoya (Movistar Team)
  • Natalia Franco Villegas (WCC Team)

Elite Men

  • Rodrigo Contreras* (EPM-Scott)
  • Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe)
  • Wilson Peña (Colombia Tierra de Atletas-GW Bicicletas-Shimano)
  • Nairo Quintana (Arkéa Samsic)
  • Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates)
  • Harold Tejada (Astana-Qazaqstan)

Under-23 Men

  • Juan Manuel Barboza Nader
  • Nicolás David Gómez Jaramillo
  • Germán Darío Gómez Becerra
  • Juan Tito Rendón Franco

Junior Women

  • Paula Valentina Barrios Riveros
  • Angie Mariana Londoño Posada

Junior Men

  • Diego Fernando Pescador Castro
  • Robert Andrés Plazas Fonseca

 

You can already find plenty of news items and course previews. Search #Wollongong2022 and/or #VisitWollongong for more.