Polartec-Kometa U23 tests Colombian John Stiven Ramírez Muñoz
Since the International Cycling Union openly proclaimed its commitment to a greater universalization of cycling, Colombia is one of the nations that has gained more weight within the sport of cycling. A country that has always had a great sporting tradition linked to this sport, although without so much correspondence in notoriety, success and focus beyond its borders. In recent years, a generation of brokers has consolidated Colombia with reference in multiple disciplines. And within the road cycling, breaking with that gregarious and climbing role, world titles, triumphs and podiums have arrived in three weeks of laps, first successes in Monuments, stages, one-week generals and sprint victories. Colombian cycling is by no means a passing fad.
Another young talent from the South American country is going to try out over the next few months in the sports structures sponsored by the Fundación Alberto Contador, whose continental team includes Wilson Peña. This is John Stiven Ramírez (22 May 1999), who will compete at Polartec-Kometa U23 and who has experience in the Spanish junior calendar, where he has already had several very positive experiences, and has had some success, competing at Codelse. In 2017, he finished eighteenth at Itzulia. And a year earlier, it had been imposed on Asturian lands at the 24th Memorial Martín Valtuille in Figaredo.
Sportively John Stiven Ramírez has forged himself in the world of mountain biking, with good results, to make the jump to the asphalt already inside the junior category and to impose himself in his departmental championships both in the race against time and on the road. The results that Jairo Monroy noticed in his aptitudes for his Everet Foundation. “This one with the Fundación Alberto Contador means something very big and motivating for me”, he says from Tarancón, where he will be based during his stay in Spain; “this opportunity is something beyond what I could imagine, I am willing to contribute to the team everything I can give of myself”.
“They have come to run in Spain during the summer, doing quite a few tests in the north, from one-day races to laps. He is a runner who climbs very well, with good records and who has shown himself. In the northern tests there is a very good level and usually there is hardness. In the last Itzulia he already signed a third place one day. He is a complete runner, with a climbing profile but who is good at time trials. The year Tomeu Gelabert won the Vuelta a Valladolid he finished second in the individual time trial. I think he can adapt very well to the team, because having raced for two years in the youth category here in Spain he knows the races and the way of racing here”, says Félix García Casas, sports manager of the Foundation’s teams.
Jhon Gutiérrez, one of the sponsors of the Foundation through Benros Iluminación, a company with presence and interests in Colombia, supports his arrival. “A lot of kids deserve that chance. They are very good, but they need a push, a support. I have been in Spain for almost thirty years, but I still maintain links with the land and support young talent. Some time ago we supported the foundation of Esteban Chaves and now we also support the Alberto Contador Foundation. This possibility arose at the end of the year, when I proposed it to Fran Contador. He does have a bit of a personal stake, because I see his capabilities”.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
