The first Grand Tour of the season — the Giro d’Italia — finished on Sunday with Movistar’s Ecuadorian rider Richard Carapaz holding on to his race lead in a short individual time trial through the streets of Verona. The maglia rosa winner held aloft Il Trofeo Senza Fine — the never-ending trophy — in front of thousands of his compatriots in the gladiatorial amphitheater in Italy’s fair city. Carapaz’s victory adds Ecuador to the list of nations to boast a Grand Tour victory and becomes the second Latin American country to do so after its neighbour Colombia.

The popularity of the sport in the region is renowned. Any stage of a European race featuring any top Ecuadorian or Colombian rider will see the tricolour of their respective nations waived along the race route. Stars of the Giro such as Miguel Angel (Superman) Lopez, Estaban Chaves and Richard Carapaz are household names back home. Richard Carapaz’s victory on Sunday was such a massive deal for Ecuador that the Ecuadorian Government bought the rights for the Giro’s final time trial from pay-TV’s ESPN in order for the race to be shown on the state broadcaster.

However, despite the popularity of cycling the WorldTour — Cycling’s Premiership — is lacking a South American race from its roster. Hence, the title of this piece a race — a proposal for a two-week race through Ecuador and Colombia — a Vuelta á Gran Colombia; it’s name taken from the 19th Century state that consisted of both countries after Independence from Spain. The UCI — Cycling’s governing body — is constantly attempting to find new markets for the sport to enter into; the addition of the UAE Tour and Tour of Guangxi in recent years would be prime examples. So it begs the question, why not try the same in a part of the world where there certainly is an appetite for pro racing?

Tour Colombia 2.1 peloton rides through Antioquia — credit: Ciclismo en Línea

Colombia already hosts the annual Tour Colombia 2.1 — a six-day stage race in February, which is a third-tier event. This years edition boasted a field including then Team Sky’s Chris Froome, Quick-Step’s Julian Allaphilipe as well as a plethora of Colombian superstars. However, the race can only have a maximum of 6 WorldTour Teams at its current rating and is treated by European riders as more of an early season tester — rather than a targeted race. It is, of course, taken more seriously by the homegrown riders — with Superman Lopez winning this years edition.

Colombia and Ecuador have something which Europe doesn’t — peaks of over 3000m. A six-day race doesn’t provide the riders with anything more than a taste of the brutal climbs that Colombia has to offer; in fact, there was only one high mountain stage of the Colombia 2.1 and provided exciting racing and decent-sized time gaps. A two-week race would give the calendar a new brutal race that is for the purist climbers at a time in the year when there is a lack of pro racing, it could also provide an opportunity for sprinters, including Colombian Fernando Gaviria. It would also be the only race of its length on the WorldTour Calendar — since the demise of the Peace Race in the early ‘90s, there have been the three Grand Tours of three weeks each with the next longest race being the 9-day Tour de Suisse.

Another geographical advantage the region provides is the time difference between South America and Europe. An afternoon race in Colombia would be prime-time TV viewing for European audiences and provide larger than usual TV audiences for a weekday race.

Now, this idea is not without its issues. Colombia and Ecuador are not rich countries, it may have large public support for the sport, but it would need a large corporate backer to come in and make an event like this possible. Now, the govt’s would almost definitely need to financially back the race, and garnering political support for projects like this is always tough. Colombia still technically has an insurgency ongoing with the FARC dissidents. However, it is a far safer part of the world than it was 15 or 20 years ago.

The logistics in countries like France and Italy can be challenging at the best of times, but to put a stage finish atop the 80km long Alto de Letras at some 3,677m in altitude would be a unique challenge. Whilst it may be possible for a 2.1 race with limited press and broadcasters, increased coverage would create additional problems for the organizers. The financial cost of bringing all the riders, support staff, equipment over from their bases in Europe would also be very substantial; but could be mitigated to some degree if some teams also race the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina in early February.

The other big issue is the support amongst teams and riders. A scroll through the results for the aforementioned Colombia 2.1 shows us that it really was only taken seriously by the home-grown talent. 14 of the top 15 finishers in the General Classification were from Ecuador or Colombia — only Frenchman Julian Allaphillipe bucked the trend. Would riders want to change their off-season in favour of riding a fourth “Grand Tour”? I can imagine some contempt for an event such as this from some of the older European teams. It isn’t hard for one to imagine Deceuninck Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevre moaning something about the race, via his twitter feed.