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This is the exciting story of the 22-year-old runner who will make the leap to the World Tour next season and who could be crowned the new champion of La Vuelta a Colombia. It all started in a test that beat some cyclists at his school.
when Ricardo Mesa, the coach of the cycling club of Tuta (Boyacá), went to the home of Diego Camargo In the village of El Alizal, 15 kilometers from the municipality, he was always waiting for him outside. And after his pupil became champion of the Vuelta a Boyacá in 2019, he teamed up with a journalist who wanted to interview him. When he saw the material, tears came to his eyes for the humble brick house where Diego lives with his two parents, Segundo and Blanca.. Nothing but the necessary: a lesson on the value of small things.
“It was that feeling of seeing how simple it was. A very very humble home for a high performance athlete like him. It was to see that he will finally be able to fulfill his dream of giving his parents a better home. “, the words of Ricardo, who has become the second father of the recent champion of the Vuelta a la Juventud and current leader of the Vuelta a Colombia.
Their paths crossed in 2015, when on the day of the school’s birthday in the El Cruce countryside they invited Ricardo and his boys to the club, who were preparing for a Vuelta a Tuta, at a mountain bike circuit.
And Diego, just another student in the group with a steel bicycle in poor condition, beat them all. “From the first lap Diego was alone in front, he fought against the riders of the impressive club, who were trained guys, with road bikes. He won by more than a minute. And I was also struck by the fact that having nowhere to put a carazana on his bike, he stopped twice at the finish line asking for water. And so it went“, Remember.
“I beat them easily (laughs). There Ricardo looked for me and told me that I had a future in cycling “, recalls Diego, who invited him to an eight-kilometer uphill time trial in Palermo with the partners of the club where he once again demonstrated his conditions. “I put them back down, but I told Ricardo I had no way to get a bike.”
The mayor of Tuta bought him his first “decent” bicycle with money from his own pocket. And they stopped being the three kilometers a day of descent, the three of ascent and return, to go to study. He saw cycling as his calling. “I never thought about it, nobody in my family drove: Ricardo showed me it was like that and it seems I was not wrong.
Read also: The incredible story of how La Vuelta a Colombia was born
But the first two years he was hit by the worst side of cycling: falls. He almost couldn’t compete. The second was almost a checkmate. In the classic Perla del Fonce, misplaced downhill, he tripped and remained unconscious. The peasant spectators thought the worst. The diagnosis: fracture of the femoral head. Another season out. He and his parents have chosen to stop cycling.
“Those were very difficult times: the family didn’t want me to continue. We talked and I told Diego that I would support him whatever the decision he made. If he wanted to study, I would have helped him. But I noticed that his talent was riding a bicycle. He thought about it and in December he called me: I was about to continue “, Ricardo highlights.
Coming from a peasant family: “I help my parents with their animals”. From a corridor complete with a large biotype of 1.76 meters of humanity. A pure mountaineer, but who does very well in time trials. And last year he left behind his greatest weakness: the descents.
“Diego is a complete rider, he just lacked the experience that the Colombia Tierra de Atletas team gave him this year. The descent was his Achilles heel, but he was polishing it, slowly. Fogging in front of the World Tour riders helped him a lot. In this Giro di Colombia I saw him go down with great confidence: third in the group, without fear, with confidence. This is maturity ”.
How the stopwatch works? His best precedent was set this year in the 15.5km time trial of the Vuelta a San Juan: he finished 15, 2:06 minutes behind Remco Evenepoel and 1:34 after Filippo Ganna. The Vuelta a Boyacá title certified him with a time trial.
“I do them excellently. Last year I was also fourth in a Vuelta a Colombia, I have to polish it, but I defend myself very well. I dream of going to the big three to be the protagonist and get on the podium“Says Diego.
After the falls of the early years, Colombia’s head Tierra de Atletas believes there is nothing he cannot overcome. “I learned that in cycling there are more bad moments than good ones. I’ve had enough falls, the results don’t always come, but you have to keep going, ”he adds.
Next season will make the leap to the World Tour. You’ve received calls from multiple teams, but conversations with Education First by Rigoberto Urán are almost ready.
“Diego is too simple and humble a person. He likes people to believe in him because he sacrifices and strives. There are no complaints. You just have to believe in him: his performance is spectacular ”, concludes Ricardo Mesa, who could become the third driver in history to win the Vuelta a la Juventud and the Vuelta a Colombia next Saturday after Rafael Antonio Niño (1970) and Oliverio Rincón ( 1989). But above all of those who manage to realize the dream of giving their parents a better home.
Thomas Blanco- @thomblalin
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