Santiago Buitrago has been billed as one of the new faces of Colombian cycling and judging by his reaction to finishing 2nd on Giro stage 15 yesterday, there is nothing lacking about his ambition to succeed.
Riding in his second Grand Tour, the 22-year-old Bahrain Victorious rider from Bogota burst into tears as he finished the stage. He remained very emotional as he was comforted by team staff, clearly bitterly disappointed to have come so close to winning.
He trailed stage winner Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) by 1:31 after both had emerged the strongmen from the large breakaway that dominated the 177km stage from Rivarolo Canavese to Cogne.
"I thought I could fight for the stage. I wanted victory, but Ciccone never slowed down, I tried... I gave it all up. Thank you," he told a scrum of media waiting for him in the finish area.
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Later in a team statement he said while he was disappointed not to win, he looked forward to more chances on this Giro.
“It was another day in the breakaway, and it was really hard to get away. Finally, Ciccone was too strong, and I ended up in second place," he said. "Obviously, I’m disappointed not to have won the stage, but it is also an important second place for me. Let’s see if there are other opportunities in the last week.”
The stage winner, Ciccone, made his key move from a long way out, with 18km still to ride on the final climb to Cogne. He left Buitrago and Hugh Carthy (EF Education First-EasyPost) behind on the steepest part of the climb and rode a fantastic final ascent to victory.
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He too was emotional at the finish having waited two years since his last win. The 27-year-old, previously tipped as Italy's next big Grand Tour hope, saw his Grand Tour efforts derailed by Covid-19 and crashes over the past two seasons.
Covid wiped out his 2020 Giro and last year he crashed on stage 17 on the race, as he looked set to finish 6th overall, and was unable to continue in the race. His Vuelta last year also ended in a crash in the final week as he was working his way up the GC and sat 12th overall.
Yesterday the GC men finished in a group 7:48 down, sprinting for 11th place, and with the main favourites all in that group there was no change at the top of the overall.
Race leader Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) overcame a crash early in the stage to retain the maglia rosa by seven seconds from Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe) with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) 3rd at 30 seconds ahead of today's rest day.
