El Verjón (Colombia) (AFP)
The "beetle" Sergio Higuita won Sunday the 3rd Tour of Colombia, one of the main cycling races in Latin America dominated by his team EF Pro Cycling which took the three places of the final podium, in front of the winner of the last Tour de France Egan Bernal, 4th.
The 22-year-old Colombian road cycling champion retained the orange leader's jersey after the sixth and final stage, won by his teammate and compatriot Daniel Martinez.
Higuita came second, followed by Egan Bernal (Ineos).
He told ESPN that he was "really very happy" with his final victory, a few months after winning a stage in the Tour of Spain.
Martinez, national time trial champion, finished second in the general classification and Ecuadorian Jonathan Caicedo third.
Bernal, for his part, is fourth overall, 55 seconds from the winner.
The end of the Tour of Colombia gave several climbers the opportunity to express themselves.
The last stage of 182.6 km was played between the town of Zipaquira, where Bernal grew up, and El Verjon, a second category pass at 3,290 meters above sea level, near Bogota.
Higuita stood up to the winner of the Great Loop as well as to the winner of the Giro, the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, whom he finally overtook alongside Martinez, who won the stage in 4:24:09.
Higuita succeeds the test winners to Miguel Angel Lopez (2019) and Egan Bernal (2018).
© 2020 AFP