“This will be my tenth Tour de France. Having experience on the Tour helps a lot. I can share with the team some of my experience, some happiness”. These were some words by Rigoberto Urán published by EF Education EasyPost after learning that He is part of the US team roster for the Tour de France.
“For me, the Tour de France means everything. It’s the biggest race. The dream of every child is to do the Tour once”, added the man from Antioquia, who will be accompanied by Richard Carapaz, Esteban Chaves, Neilson Powless, Alberto Bettiol, Magnus Cort Nielsen, James Shaw, and Andrey Amador.
The 110th edition of the Grande Boucle got underway this Saturday, July 1, with a medium-mountain stage in Bilbao and the Colombian is one of the bets of his squad to look for a stage victory, since the capo thinking of the general will be Carapaz.
The Colombian with the most participations in the Tour
Rigo debuted in the Tour de France in 2009, when he finished 52nd in the general classification. Since then, he has accumulated nine participations in this competition, in which his best result was second place in 2017, less than a minute from Chris Froome, edition in which he obtained his only stage victory to date.
Just one dropout in 2018 a few days after suffering two falls that affected his elbow and left knee for the Colombian who, in addition to the mentioned podium, he was top 10 in 2019 (7th), 2020 (8th) and 2021 (10th).
This Saturday, when he started in Bilbao, He became the Colombian with the most participations in the history of the Tour de France alone, since Until now, he shared that label with Nairo Quintana, absent in this appointment for not having a team since his departure from Arkéa-Samsic the previous year.
Results of Rigoberto Urán in the Tour de France
- 2009: 52nd
- 2011: 24th
- 2015: 42nd
- 2017: 2nd (One stage win)
- 2018: Apr.
- 2019: 7th
- 2020: 8th
- 2021: 10th
- 2022: 25th
On the 2023 Tour: Second with the most appearances in grand tours
Of the 176 cyclists who are part of this Tour de France, Urán is the second with the most experience in three-week races. It is the tenth presence of him in this competition that adds to the 7 in the Giro d’Italia and 7 in the Tour of Spain for a total of 24 participations in grand tours.
In this ranking he is only surpassed by Luis León Sánchez. The Spaniard from Astana is in his thirtieth Grand Tour and his best result was ninth in the 2010 Vuelta a España. The podium is completed by a sprinter: Mark Cavendish, who is in his 23rd participation in three-week races. The Briton will retire at the end of this season.
| Position | Cyclist | grand tours | Italy spin | Tour de France | Back to Spain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Luis Leon Sanchez | 29 | 5 | eleven | 13 |
| 2. | Rigoberto Urán | 23 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
| 3. | Mark Cavendish | 22 | 7 | 13 | 2 |
| 4. | Wout Poels | twenty | 3 | 9 | 8 |
| 5. | Rafal Majka | twenty | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| 24. | Esteban Chavez | 14 | 4 | 3 | 7 |