Surely you have all heard of the cycling legend Roberto Velásquez. The man who seemed to have no limits and dominated cycling for nearly a decade. How famous he was in cycling, but how little actually was known about this extraordinary man. The story starts in 2012, when Roberto Velásquez was scouted by Team Colombia Coldeportes...
Story Information
Spoiler
I was looking for a way to do a story in a flexible way, and I think this is it. Reports will not be on a regular basis, sometimes I won't report for days, this all depends on school and how much time I have. This story definitely won't report on every race and will focus on the rise and the glory times of Roberto Velásquez, a fantasy rider from Colombia.
As mentioned, he will grow up to be a legend, a true winner and a record breaker. So if you don't like dominating riders, this will not be your cup of tea. Velásquez will conquer the cycling world with his extraordinaire climbing skills, and he'll shine in (Grand) Tours and Classics, anything going uphill. He will try to take everything he can, maybe top the 5 wins in L-B-L by Merckx, or break the record at GP de Sebastian, try and win the Vuelta 4 times...
This tale will take you from his early days to his retirement, and I will only do full reports about the highlights, mostly mountainous stages and classics. I hope you enjoy it.
Other World Tour Results 2012
Volta a Catalunya: 1st + Points + Young + 2 Stage Wins
2013
Paris-Nice: 1st + Young + 2 Stage Wins
Volta a Catalunya: 1st + Points + Young + 4 Stage Wins
GP al Pais Vasco: 14th + KoM + Young + Stage Win
2014
Tour Down Under: 1st + + Young + 2 Stage Wins
Tour de Romandie: 1st + Points + Young + 2 Stage Wins
Other Notable Results 2012
Ruta de San Luis: 1st + KoM + Young + 2 Stage Wins
Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca: 1st + Young + Stage Win
Vuelta Ciclista a Andalucia: 10th + KoM
Circuito del Trentino: 5th + KoM + Stage Win
Tour of Slovenia: 7th + KoM + Stage Win
2013
Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca: 4th + Young
Vuelta Ciclista a Andalucia: 9th
Tour of Slovenia: 3th
Championships 2012
National Championship: GOLD
World Championship Road Race: 10th
2013
National Championship: GOLD
World Championship Road Race: GOLD
2014
National Championship: 5th
World Championship Road Race: GOLD
Roberto Velasquez, what a beast he is. Doesn't matter if you don't update for some days, take your time, it's great to see you active here with these kind of stories! Will follow again!
Whoever made the rule that story writers had to put up reports daily?
Write whenever you feel like it, last time I checked,
us writers aren't getting paid for our work.
Spoiler
If you are then let me know how you are doing it...
I could use the extra cash.
The professional career of Roberto began in 2012, when he passed all tests Team Colombia Coldeportes had to offer. Little did they know the career he had ahead of him. Nevertheless, they are to be credited with the discovery of this (then) young gun, he was only 21 years old when he joined the team. On his evaluation sheet (which we found years ago in the archived) it was written:
Roberto Velásquez: lot of potential, great climber, possible future leader.
Mr. Velásquez is driven and seems like a potentially great cyclist. The hills and mountains don't have any secrets for him and he descends faster than anyone I've ever seen, maybe even faster than Italian superstar Nibali. He has an aura of endless experience even though he is only 21 years old. He's calm and shy, but breaks loose and becomes a beast on his bike.
[...]
He's got an incredible amount of power in his legs and could be a useful attacker and/or sprinter (uphill). However, like all Colombians, he doesn't ride well against time, mainly because of his weight. Therefore we doubt if he'll ever win a (grand) tour [...]
Roberto Velásquez: Date of Birth: 09/04/1990 Height: 1.72m Weight: 59kg Suggested contract offer: 2-year contract Suggested wage: €2000 a month
Now we now that he did win that Grand Tour, and not only one! But this scout had a good eye for talent, and he was almost spot on in the case of Roberto.
We also know Roberto was an intelligent person, and not one you could fool easily. He signed a 2-year contract, but successfully negotiated a €7500 a month wage.
In the next chapter we will talk about Roberto's first professional races and his first professional victory.
Right
I think it'll go for a long time. Especially since you all know what to expect from the beginning, which takes some weight of my shoulders: you know the reports won't be daily and you know he will even own Danny Pate
Not everyone realizes this now, after such an impressive career, but Roberto Velásquez started his palmares in a smaller race, that doesn't exist anymore today [2030]: Ruta de San Luis.
The first uphill finish will always be remembered as Roberto's first taste of glory. He left all other riders without a chance. We were very lucky to find some pictures of it in a collector's archive.
So his first (stage) race was an enormous success, and his team was now sure he had a great career ahead of him. But Roberto didn't stay at that in Argentinia. He impressed the entire cycling community two days later when he attacked in the yellow jersey and pulled back a dangerous breakaway group all by himself.
After the chase he even had enough energy left to finish it off in a way only Philippe Gilbert (a former Belgium champion) could in those days.
Roberto blew away the competition and took his first professional victories in his first professional race. He showed the world what was coming...
We found the results on an old internet database, results from before the internet was wiped clean and re-programmed into Internet 2.0
He started his career with a bang, this is a part out of an interview with him (we could only found a small piece of it in an old newspaper)
NP: Roberto Velásquez, you are the youngest winner of the Ruta de San Luis ever, how does it feel? R. Velásquez: I didn't come here with any expectations, but it's so great to be able to give this to the team. They've put their trust in my and this is my way of paying them back. NP: What were you thinking when you went looking for the breakaway group all by yourself? R. Velásquez: When I'm racing, I don't care what jersey I'm wearing, some dangerous men were ahead and I couldn't leave it at that. NP: How did your team manager react when he saw you attacked out of the peloton? R. Velásquez: I don't know, I didn't talk to him during the race, he congratulated me on the victory after the race, maybe he'll say something about it later, I don't know. NP: You seem awfully calm after just winning your first stage race at 21 years, just a debut rider. R. Velásquez: Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy, but I'm also very tired. It's b...
From this part of the interview it seems as though Roberto was a confident rider already. The next race on his schedule was Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca.
the_hoyle: I'm glad you like it, it's never easy trying something different
sutty68: What can I say, I can't stay away from story-writing I think this'll go a long way, especially since I set myself some easier conditions, I don't feel obligated to report as much as the previous stories (where I felt compelled to keep the ball rolling constantly). Thanks!
Roberto had enjoyed a brief wave of attention by winning the Tour of San Luis, but he was still very young and the great spirit everyone was in decreased. It wasn't enough, his win had not satisfied him. In fact, it made him more hungry.
If there ever was a rider who lived for his profession, it was Roberto Velásquez. All we know is that between the Tour of San Luis and Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca, he trained hard! His explanation:
Well, of course I train hard. This early in the season, when everyone's still off-shape, is the best time to strike. This way I can beat all the big guns. When they get in shape, it'll be a lot harder to do so! I'm grabbing every opportunities I get.
It was a funny thing to do, but he was successful. In the third stage in Mallorca, he saw his chance. He attacked 40km from the finish, in a technical downhill.
It was enough for overall victory in Mallorca, and his wins so far were 5 and counting. Not bad for a debut rider with only 11 races in his legs.
He was getting noticed by bigger teams, but he was never planning to break contract with Colombia. The way he saw it, he owed them 2 years of his best riding.
It's safe to say his career couldn't have started better. However, he was still restricted to less important races, and since the team was unable to get wilcards for Paris-Nice, it looked like he was looking up against .1 races for quite some time.
Things changed, however, when the team received a wildcard for the Volta a Catalunya, and a couple of days later another one for the Amstel Gold Race. He saw his chance at greater success and talked the team manager into letting him participate:
He was just so convincing. He'd get me into all these things I never planned to get into. He definitely had a way with words. But, then again, how could I left him at home? He was the leader in the Continental Ranking at that time. I gave him a shot at the World Tour races, and haven't regretted it since.
Catalunya was still a long way away, and there were still many races to be done until his first World Tour experience. Next time we'll talk about Vuelta a Andalucia.
Roberto Velásquez
Doesn't matter if you don't update for some days, take your time, it's great to see you active here with these kind of stories! 
Will follow again! 
