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A cyclist is made by pedalling.<br />
With attacks, sprints, victories.<br />
Champions are decided by<br />
newspaper headlines, by the<br />
prizes they win, by a quick glance<br />
at a palmarès. It’s how we create<br />
our stars.<br />
But our heroes, they’re different.<br />
They ride, yes, they compete, and<br />
they win more than the others.<br />
But they are transcendent for<br />
other reasons. It’s not just the<br />
victories, nor even their panache.<br />
It’s something else, something<br />
more ethereal, not easy to explain<br />
or understand. Something<br />
tangible, something that makes<br />
you shiver inside with boyish<br />
excitement. Yes, these are the<br />
heroes: the riders that make you<br />
feel like a kid again.<br />
This is the story of two heroes.<br />
Two cyclists and good ones too.<br />
Their country’s best of their<br />
respective eras, certainly. Two<br />
riders who were born within a<br />
few kilometres of each other.<br />
Outstanding figures, the fathers<br />
of cycling in Colombia. The<br />
mirror in which you can see the<br />
reflections of Egan Bernal, Nairo<br />
Quintana or Miguel Ángel López.<br />
Two myths. As simple as that.<br />
Two myths.<br />
A Man in Marinilla<br />
Everyone called Ramón ‘Don<br />
Ramón’. Don Ramón de Marinilla,<br />
to be precise. Ramón is Ramón<br />
Hoyos Vallejo. One of the<br />
pioneers of Colombian cycling.<br />
No less than the first ‘beetle’.<br />
The ‘beetle’ business is a curious<br />
story because it came about by<br />
mistake. It so happened that one<br />
day Jorge Enrique Buitrago, a<br />
sportswriter who used the pen<br />
name ‘Mirón’, said that Hoyos’<br />
style reminded him of an insect.<br />
He would climb crouched up<br />
against his handlebars, legs<br />
akimbo, ungainly, too eager. Seen<br />
from a distance, he resembles a<br />
grasshopper, thinks Mirón. But<br />
he is wrong and mixes his words<br />
up. An eternal error. There goes<br />
Ramón Hoyos Vallejo, he says, the<br />
mountain beetle. And that’s how<br />
all Colombian climbers would be<br />
known for the rest of time. But he,<br />
Ramón, Don Ramón de Marinilla,<br />
will always be the first.<br />
Ramón Hoyos was also a great<br />
champion. Probably the greatest<br />
champion of the early years of<br />
Colombian cycling. The Vuelta<br />
a Colombia was born in 1951 and<br />
by 1958 Hoyos had already won<br />
it five times, taking 38 stage wins.<br />
His record would only ever be<br />
beaten by Cochise Rodríguez.<br />
But we are talking about the<br />
very first Vueltas a Colombia.<br />
In a word: madness. Monstrous<br />
routes which motor vehicles<br />
couldn’t cope with but which<br />
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