Carlos Betancur

Carlos Alberto Betancur Gómez (born 13 October 1989) is a Colombian road racing cyclist, who most recently rode for Colombian amateur team .

Career In 2010 he won the Girobio stage race; the amateur version of the Giro d'Italia; and in 2011 he won his first professional race at the Giro dell'Emilia.

Betancur had been scheduled to join the team in 2012, but remained with . Betancur left at the end of the 2012 season, and joined on a two-year contract from the 2013 season onwards. He went on to light up the Ardennes Classics, coming 3rd at La Flèche Wallonne after an early attack with just over to go and scoring a 4th place in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, where it was his attack which created the final select group of six who contested the finish.

After a 12th-place finish at the Tour de Romandie, Betancur went in to the Giro d'Italia as an outsider for a top 10 GC position. Initially things went poorly, as he lost time on the descent of stage 3 and on the long time trial of stage 8, by the end of which he was down in 28th position, 6:08 down on the leader and eventual winner Nibali. However, following second places on stages 9, 10, and 15, and some brilliant performances in the other mountain stages, he worked himself up to 7th place and just two seconds off the white jersey for the best young rider (which he had actually gained on stage 15, but lost in the stage 18 time trial) by the penultimate stage. On the final mountain stage, although he punctured at the bottom of the final climb, he managed to catch up and overtake most of his GC rivals, finishing 4th on the day. He ended the Giro as best young rider and 5th in the general Classification.

In December 2013, Betancur confirmed he would be focusing on the Tour de France for 2014. However, he failed to fly from his training base in Colombia to France on 3 June, blaming a viral infection, and changed his target to the Vuelta a España.

In August 2015 announced that they had come to an agreement with Betancur to release him from his contract with the team, which was due to run until the end of 2016.

Movistar Team (2016–20) In October 2015, the announced that they had agreed an initial two-year deal with Betancur from 2016. Betancur won his first race for the team – the first stage of the 2016 Vuelta a Castilla y León – ending a 760-day wait for a victory. The last race he had won was the 2014 Paris–Nice.

In June 2017, he was named in the startlist for the 2017 Tour de France.

Colombia Tierra de Atletas–GW Bicicletas For the 2021 season, Betancur joined the team. In April, he announced that he was taking a break from cycling.

Major results

2009

1st Stage 4

2010

1st Stages 4 & 5 1st Stage 1 (TTT) Vuelta a Colombia 2011 1st Giro dell'Emilia 5th Gran Premio Industria e Commercio Artigianato Carnaghese 9th Giro di Lombardia 2012 1st Trofeo Melinda 1st Stage 5 Tour of Belgium

2nd Giro di Toscana 4th Overall Giro del Trentino

4th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk 5th Milano–Torino 5th Gran Piemonte 7th Circuito de Getxo 8th Overall Monviso-Venezia

1st Stage 5 8th Trofeo Matteotti 9th GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano 2013 3rd La Flèche Wallonne 4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège 5th Overall Giro d'Italia

7th Overall Tour of the Basque Country 2014

1st Stages 5 & 6

1st Stage 1 2016 1st Stage 2 Vuelta a Asturias 9th Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León 1st Stage 1 2018 4th Klasika Primavera 5th GP Miguel Induráin 2019 1st Klasika Primavera 8th Overall Tour de Suisse

General classification results timeline