Vuelta a Colombia 2015

1. The Vuelta a Colombia 2015 will have 13 stages and one rest day. A route of 1700.2 kilometers passing through the departments of Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Tolima, Quindío, Risaralda, Valle del Cauca, Cauca, Caldas, and Antioquia.

2. The Vuelta a Colombia will start in Bogotá with a 24-kilometer team time trial that will go from north to south along Avenida Boyacá from 170th Street to Parque El Tunal.

3. The President Juan Manuel Santos will give the start of the competition. For the first time in 56 years, a head of state is present at the race. The last one had been Alberto Lleras Camargo in 1959. Santos will make a symbolic five-kilometer ride before the team time trial.

4. 18 teams participate, two of them foreign. The first one is the Italian D’amico Botecchia and the other is the Coopenae Extralum from Costa Rica. The first one had already participated in the competition and is a favorite among the fans.

5. The other teams are: EPM Une, Orgullo Antioqueño, Rionegro con más futuro, Raza de Campeones Lotería de Boyacá, GW Shimano, Fuerzas Armadas, Movistar Team América, Formesan Bogotá Humana, EBSA Indeportes Boyacá, Coldeportes Claro, Manzana Postobón, Alcaldía de Villa de Leyva, Redetrans Supergiros, PR Pijaos, Néctar Alcaldía de Cota, and Indersantander.

6. Some teams are led by glories of Colombian cycling like Raúl Mesa, who is in charge of EPM Une, Rafael Acevedo of Raza de Campeones Lotería de Boyacá, José Jaime González of Fuerzas Armadas, Oliverio Cárdenas of Coldeportes, and Hernán Buenahora of Indersantander.

7. A separate mention deserves the coach of EBSA Indeportes Boyacá, Rafael Antonio Niño, who no one has been able to surpass as the cyclist who has won the Vuelta the most times, six in total.

8. After Niño, Ramón Hoyos follows with five titles; Martín Emilio Cochise Rodríguez, Lucho Herrera, and José Castelblanco with four; Libardo Niño with 3, and Fabio Parra, Miguel Samacá, José Jaime González, Alfonso Flórez, Rubén Darío Gómez, Félix Cárdenas, and Óscar Sevilla with two.

9. Óscar Sevilla is the current defending champion; he rides for EPM Une and is a Colombian naturalized Spanish.

10. In addition to Sevilla, the other favorites to win the title are Robinson Chalapud from Orgullo Antioqueño and the current national road champion, Bolivian Óscar Soliz from Movistar Team América, and Hernando Bohórquez from Lotería de Boyacá.

11. The Vuelta will have three time trial stages, one team, one individual, and one individual uphill time trial, seven mountain stages, 26 mountain passes, and 192 kilometers of ascent.

12. 8 jerseys will be awarded each stage and one more at the end of the competition, which will be for the winner. There is the mountain jersey, the combative rider jersey, the intermediate sprint jersey, the best under 23 jersey, the best rookie jersey, the points jersey, the team classification jersey, and the best foreigner jersey.

13. This is how the prizes of the Vuelta will be distributed for those who manage to overcome the difficult route: stage winners will win 600,000 pesos. The top ten in each stage will be rewarded as follows: second place, 400,000 pesos; third place, 300,000 pesos; fourth place, 200,000 pesos; fifth place, 150,000 pesos; sixth place, 120,000 pesos; seventh place, 100,000 pesos; eighth place, 90,000 pesos; ninth place, 80,000 pesos; and tenth place, 70,000 pesos.

14. The jersey winners will also receive a prize. The winner of the mountain jersey will take home 6,500,000 pesos; the winner of the intermediate sprint jersey, 5,500,000 pesos; the winner of the points jersey, 3,500,000 pesos; the best under 23, 4,000,000 pesos; the best team, 5,500,000 pesos; the combative rider champion, 3,000,000 pesos; the best rookie, 3,000,000 pesos; and the best foreigner, 3,000,000 pesos.

15. The champion of the Vuelta receives 30 million pesos. A total of 130 million pesos will be distributed in prizes.

16. La Vuelta will have several stages that will be traveled twice, the sponsor is the reason. Infraestructura en marcha, from the Ministry of Transportation, wants to showcase the new roads in several departments of the country. That is why stages 2 and 3, 4 and 5, and 11 and 12 will be similar, only one going and the other returning.

17. The ascent to La Línea will be in the sixth stage that goes from Ibagué to Salento in a 136-kilometer route. However, it will cross by the less demanding side of the mythical Colombian port.