Stage winner in all three Grand Tours, former Colombian professional Oliverio Rincon will share his experience of a top-notch racing career with the riders on the new Colombia-Coldeportes team next year. The 1993 Tour de France stage winner is one of two directeurs sportifs named today, with double Tour de France stage winner Valerio Tebaldi also set to play the same role.
The squad was awarded a UCI Pro Continental licence earlier this week and is determined to try to gain invitation to cycling’s top events next year.
Rincon is one of a group of Colombian riders with a strong history of success in the Grand Tours. Now 43 years of age, he turned pro with the Postóbon-Manzana team in 1990 and the following year won the Escalada a Montjuic and a stage of the Vuelta a Burgos with the Kelme squad. His first Grand Tour stage win came in 1993 when the-then Amaya Razesa rider won at the Tour de France and then did so again at the Vuelta a España, where he finished fourth overall.
He took a stage in the 1995 Giro and the following year was first yet again on a stage of the Vuelta.
Tebaldi’s Tour successes came in 1988 and 1989. The 46 year old has worked for ten years as a directeur sportif, filling that role at the Alessio, Vini Caldirola, Team Barloworld and Lampre-ISD teams.
“I decided to move from a World Tour team giving me the opportunity to improve my know-how and experience,” he said. “I am excited by this new challenge, hence I accepted immediately. I still have in my mind the outstanding emotion thrilling me at 2007 Tour de France, the day we won Galibier’s queen stage with another Colombian rider, Mauricio Soler, who also got KOM polka-dot jersey afterwards.”
That success came as part of his stint with Barloworld, where Colombia Coldeportes manager Claudio Corti also worked.
Meanwhile there was a blow for the squad this week with the news that one of the riders set to join the team, Edwin Arnulfo Parra Bustamante, had tested positive for an unnamed substance in the Vuelta a Boyacá in September.
It announced that it was ending the contract he would have taken up in 2012, and that the Colombian Cycling Federation was starting a disciplinary investigation.
“In keeping with its philosophy of ethical, moral and transparent processes in sport, Coldeportes will not tolerate these attitudes and is inflexible in its decisions,” it stated.
The team will feature a number of well-known Colombian riders, including 2003 Tour de France Maillot Jaune wearer Víctor Hugo Peña, 2008 world under 23 champion Fabio Duarte and this year’s Tour de l’Avenir winner, Esteban Chávez.