Efraín 'El Zipa' Forero dies, the great pioneer of Colombian cycling

Efraín 'El Zipa' Forero, the first champion of the Tour of Colombia who paved the way for the

that decades later have won the Giro d'Italia, the Tour of Spain and the Tour de France, died this Monday at the age of 92, as confirmed by a message of condolence from the Ministry of Sport without detailing the circumstances.

The legendary cyclist never stood on the podium of one of the great European tours, but he was the great pioneer of the national sport in a country that has become accustomed to savoring the triumphs of its famous climbers.

When he started riding a bicycle in amateur competitions, in 1949, Forero had read about the Tour de France and all the mystique surrounding the Alps and the Pyrenees.

With the Colombian geography, in which the Andes mountain range is divided into three large ramifications, a Tour of Colombia would be something extraordinary, he thought at the time.

In a country torn apart by what for all practical purposes was a civil war between liberals and conservatives, the era historians refer to as La Violencia, Zipa was promised that the newspaper

he would sponsor the competition if he proved that his dream was physically possible.

So he did.

He chose the hardest stage of the proposed route, and by ascending and descending the steep Alto de Letras, at more than 3,600 meters in October 1950, he demonstrated that it was possible to continue.

“In 1951, the Vuelta del indomitable Zipa, 1,154 exhausting kilometers along trails of sand, mud and stone, and subdivided into ten deadly stages, united Colombia in its search for an identity, echoing and condensing the spirit of all these trips to the interior and far and wide of the undiscovered Colombia”, writes the British chronicler Matt Rendell in his celebrated book

.

Crowds gathered in its wake, and the return took headlines from the violence.

Forero, born in Zipaquirá, a city in the center of the country famous for its salt mines, competed for the next decade.

In 1953 he led the country's first team on the Route de France, now known as the Tour de l'Avenir, he participated that same year in the World Championship in Lugano, Switzerland, and was national road champion four times.

"The Zipa Forero, the first winner of the Vuelta a Colombia, was also the first person responsible for the most beautiful and romantic jump in Colombian sport: never before had the country turned to a great event like this," says journalist Mauricio Silva.

“He, with his epic – he won seven of the 11 stages – embodied the creation of that religion that is cycling for this country.

In times when foreign figures shone in Colombian sports [such as Argentine soccer players Alfredo Di Stéfano and Adolfo Perdernera], a mestizo boy from Zipaqui, with curly hair, became the first great sports idol of this nation.

He was the race."

Although he did not win the Tour of Colombia again, his legend endured over time.

Efraín 'El Zipa' Forero, winner of the first return to Colombia in 1951, attends the media in the land of his countryman Egan Bernal, on August 7, 2019. Camilo Rozo

In the 1980s, Colombian climbers accumulated mountain jerseys in Europe until Lucho Herrera won the first Grand Tour for his country, the 1987 Vuelta a España, with a call for peace.

Many years passed before Nairo Quintana won the 2014 Giro d'Italia on his first attempt, and repeated the Iberian round for Colombia in 2016 with another call for peace.

Another illustrious son of Zipaquirá, Egan Bernal, also signed up for the Giro in 2021, but his greatest moment of glory had come a couple of years earlier with the 2019 Tour, the only Colombian who has so far been able to keep the coveted shirt yellow.

On Wednesday, August 7, 2019, when Zipaquirá took to the streets to celebrate that triumph, Efraín Forero, then 89 years old, took to the platform in the plaza with Egan.

Colombian sport had come full circle.

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