Rigoberto Urán

2011

Uran riding for Sky at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine

Urán joined Team Sky for the 2011 season.^[10] He finished 5th in Liège–Bastogne–Liège,^[11] and 4th overall in the Volta a Catalunya.^[12] At the Tour de France, Urán became leader of Sky after Bradley Wiggins crashed out on Stage 7. He finished 5th on Stage 14, taking the best young rider's jersey and moving up to 11th overall in the process.^[13] Uran lost the Maillot Blanc to Rein Taaramäe on Stage 18^[14] after picking up an illness,^[15] and eventually finished 24th overall.^[16] He managed to recover in time for the Clásica de San Sebastián where he placed 9th and took his first top 10 finish in the race. Urán travelled to Canada in September in order to ride the new canadian World Tour classics that was introduced in 2010. His best result was 3rd at Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, which he later won in 2015.

2012

During the 2012 Volta a Catalunya, Uran claimed his first win for Sky on Stage 4 after winning a sprint from a 6-man breakaway which narrowly held off the chasing pack. Uran finished second on the following stage, and finished the race in fifth place overall.

At the 2012 Giro d'Italia he won the young rider classification and finished seventh overall after being in the lead group for most of the mountain stages. He did not have one result that stood out in the individual stages, but finished in the top ten of stages 10, 14, 17 (4th), 19 and 20, which were all crucial mountainous affairs. He finished 5 minutes and 57 seconds in arrears of the victor, Canadian Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin–Sharp.^[17]

He took silver in the 2012 Summer Olympics road race after breaking away with Alexander Vinokourov with 8 km (5.0 mi) to cover. Approximately 200 meters from the arrival, and with the victory secured for one of the two men, Uran looked back, unwisely over his left shoulder (since Vinokourov was on his right) to see if the chasers were approaching to threaten their lead. Vinokourov then started his sprint, taking Uran by surprise. Uran reacted with a delay since he didn't see the move and could not close the gap as the Kazakh sailed to the finish line and the gold medal.^[18][19] He rode the Vuelta a España in support of his leader Chris Froome, and finished in 29th position.^[20] Later in the fall, competing in the Italian Classic Giro del Piemonte, Uran attacked in the final climb of the day, followed by Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel–Euskadi). The pair agreed verbally to cooperate until the 500 meters mark, and Uran started his sprint with 300 meters to go, winning by six seconds over Luca Paolini of Team Katusha who was trying to come from behind.^[21] A couple of days later, he grabbed the third place in the Monument of cycling Giro di Lombardia in difficult weather conditions (cold and rain). He crossed the line in Lecco as part of a small group of chasers who unsuccessfully tried to reel in Joaquim Rodríguez of the Team Katusha squad.^[22]

Urán winning a stage at the 2013 Giro d'Italia

2013

Uran was selected for the 2013 Giro d'Italia, originally as one of Bradley Wiggins' mountain domestiques. Uran sat fifth overall after Sky won the team time trial on Stage 2, and moved up to third overall on the following stage. He moved up to second overall, behind Luca Paolini, on Stage 4, after Wiggins lost time behind a crash. However, on Stage 7, Uran was forced to wait for Wiggins after he struggled then crashed on wet descents, and dropped out of the top ten as a result. After the individual time trial on Stage 8, Uran sat tenth overall, 2 minutes and 49 seconds behind new leader Vincenzo Nibali. On Stage 10, the first mountain stage of the race, Uran launched an attack on the final climb, Altopiano del Montasio, and won the stage by 20 seconds from compatriot Carlos Betancur. Uran also moved up to third overall, 2 minutes and 4 seconds behind Nibali, and 1 second ahead of Wiggins. Wiggins withdrew due to illness after losing further time on Stage 12, leaving Uran as Sky's leader. Uran placed fifth on Stage 14 to maintain third place by a single second to Mauro Santambrogio, but solidified his position on Stage 16 as Santambrogio lost over two minutes. Uran came sixth in the mountain time trial on Stage 18 to reduce the gap to second placed Cadel Evans to just 12 seconds. On the final summit finish on Stage 20, Uran came third behind Nibali and Fabio Duarte to leapfrog Evans into second place. He safely negotiated the final stage to finish the Giro second overall, 4 minutes and 43 seconds behind Nibali, to take his first Grand Tour podium.

In August 2013, it was announced that Urán would leave Team Sky at the end of the 2013 season,^[23] and join Omega Pharma–Quick-Step for the 2014 season.^[24]

2016

Uran (left) following Chris Froome at the 2017 Tour de France

Starting in 2016, Uran joined team Cannondale.^[2] In his first season with the team he targeted the Giro d'Italia, but his form never reached the levels of two years earlier as he finished 7th overall. He finished of the season with a 3rd place at Il Lombardia. This was his 3rd time placing 3rd at the Italian monument.

2017

Uran had a stronger start to his 2017 season finishing 8th overall at Tirreno-Adriatico and 9th overall at Tour of the Basque Country. His last preparation race before the Tour de France, was the Route du Sud where he finished 8th. Uran won Stage 9 of the 2017 Tour de France in a Photo finish over Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb), despite his bicycle gearing being damaged in a crash involving Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) on the descent of the Mont du Chat.^[26] Approaching the final week, Uran was 4th in the general classification, only 29 seconds behind race leader Chris Froome (Team Sky). As a strong performer in the Time trials, it was clear to see that Uran would challenge Froome for the overall win. He put in a strong performance which almost saw him crashing in the final turn before coming home 25 seconds after Froome. Uran rose to 2nd overall after overcoming Romain Bardet. This was the colombians first ever podium at the Tour de France.

2018

Following his second place at the Tour de France in 2017, Uran was targeting the overall victory in 2018. He started his season in Colombia, riding the Colombian National Road Race Championships where he finished 7th. A week later he won stage 5 of Colombia Oro y Paz, and finished the race in 3rd overall. In June, Uran won stage 3 of Tour of Slovenia, and took the leaders jersey. However on the following stage, another Tour contender Primoz Roglic took the leaders jersey, and also won the final stage with Uran losing over 1 minute to Roglic on the Time trial. Uran finished the race 2nd overall almost 2 minutes behind Roglic. Uran started the 2018 Tour de France as one of the main favorites and was sitting in 6th place after stage 8. On stage 9 however, Uran experienced bad luck and crashed injuring his left arm and leg. He suffered through the first two days in the mountains before abandoning the race after stage 11.^[27] Uran returned to racing one month later at Clásica de San Sebastián where, he finished 6th which was hist best result ever at the race. He was looking to redeem himself at the Vuelta a España, and slowly made his way up in the general classification. On the pen-ultimate stage, Uran finished 5th and advanced to 7th place overall, which was his first ever top 10 overall finish at the Vuelta.

In October, Urán rode the Giro dell'Emilia and finished 2nd in the race. Italian rider Alessandro de Marchi had attacked early in the final, and the other contenders could not manage to pace him down. Urán was the best rider in the favorite group after the Colombian attacked inside the last 500 meters.