It’s now nearly 30 years since the legendary Colombian squad Manzana-Postobon last raced in the Vuelta a Espana, back in the days where it was part of a wave of South American success spearheaded by riders like Fabio Parra, Lucho Herrera, Oliverio Rincón and Alvaro Mejia.
In 2017, Manzana-Postobon clinched one of the four Professional Continental invitations for the Vuelta, a remarkable achievement given the Colombian squad has only just ascended into this category from the ranks of the Continental teams. But in this first week they’ve been in the thick of the breakaway action, most notably with Jetse Bol, a Dutch racer who shot up from 32nd to seventh place overall after a long move on stage seven to Cuenca.
“Our objectives are clear, the first being get as many of our riders through to the finish in Madrid as we can, because we’ve got a very young line-up, the youngest average age of any Pro Continental squad in fact and of course here in the Vuelta, too” team director Oscar De J Vargas, tells Cyclingnews.
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“We’ve got such a young squad we have to take it on the day by day, getting experience, remembering that we’re fighting against some of the biggest names in the sport, winners of Giros, Tours and Vueltas.”
“This team is like a sponge, it comes to absorb and learn, to get through the race and to win what we can. We’ve got a good sprinter like Juan Molano” - winner of a stage of the Vuelta al Alentejo in Portugal - “and a lot of good climbers. So the potential is there. But the riders have to accept where we are and what we’re able to do.”
Vargas is part of Postobon’s and Colombia’s own Vuelta history, having raced with Manzana Postobon from 1987 to 1991, in a former incarnation of the squad. Now he has made his first return to the Spanish Grand Tour since winning a stage in one of Spain’s top whisky distilleries, Dystilerias DYC, in 1992. A winner of the prestigious Tour of Antioquia in Colombia, the stocky 53-year-old captured most of his top European results in Spain, including a third place overall in the 1989 Vuelta a España, as well as the Kings of the Mountains title, and a fifth place on GC in the Vuelta again in 1987.
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