Santiago Botero

Santiago Botero Echeverry (born October 27, 1972) is a Colombian former professional road bicycle racer. He was a pro from 1996 to 2010, during which he raced in three editions of the Tour de France and four editions of the Vuelta a España (the Tour of Spain). He is best known for winning the mountains' classification in the Tour de France, and the Time Trial World Championship 2002.

Biography

Since childhood, he was very fond of bicycles, especially after his father, Alberto Botero, gave him a mountain bike, with which he practiced and began to compete in mountain bike races in Medellín. Although he was not a good academic student, he became one of the most important cyclists in Colombia.

Juan Darío Uribe, the sports doctor who discovered him and was his mentor in road cycling, says that he gave him the same effort test given to his other runners (some of them were Óscar de Jesús Vargas, Carlos Mario Jaramillo and Juan Diego Ramírez) on a stationary bike. The results were incredible. These pro riders hit 600 watts of power and nearly passed out. Santiago looked like a robot at this point in the test and hardly felt tired. “I realized that he had special conditions. None of the thousands of athletes from Indeportes Antioquia that he had studied showed such a level of strength,” said Dr. Uribe.

Uribe insisted that Botero should train in Europe and not in Colombia, so Santiago decided to go to that continent to make his professional debut in 1996 with the Spanish team Kelme.

Career

He was, for the greater part of his career, a member of the Kelme–Costa Blanca team, but in 2003 joined Team Telekom. His performances as part of the Kelme dissipated in Team Telekom, with the team management blaming his lack of discipline in training, but he claimed health problems. In October 2004 he joined Phonak, together with Miguel Ángel Martín Perdiguero from Saunier Duval–Prodir, and Víctor Hugo Peña and Floyd Landis from U.S. Postal Service.

He lives in both Colombia and Madrid, Spain with his wife. Botero joined the American domestic team, Rock Racing, for the 2008 season. Botero finished his professional career riding for the Colombian team Indeportes Antioquia. He was also previously the manager of UCI Continental team Gobernación de Antioquia–Indeportes Antioquia.

Born in Medellín, Colombia, Botero was the World Champion in the individual time trial in 2002. His career highlights include a stage win in the Vuelta a Andalucía in 1999, a stage wins in the Paris–Nice in 1999, a stage wins in the 2000 Tour de France, the mountains classification in the 2000 Tour de France, two stage wins in the Vuelta 2001, the third place in the World Championships in the individual time trial in 2001 and two stage wins and fourth place overall in the 2002 Tour de France. Other victories include a stage win in the Clasica Bogota in 1997, a prologue wins in the Vuelta a Chile in 1997 and a stage win in GP Mitsubishi in 1998. After joining T-Mobile his accomplishments in the Tour diminished sharply.

On May 1, 2005, he won the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland, 33 seconds ahead of rising Italian star and favorite for the Giro d'Italia Damiano Cunego. Romandie is often used as a preparation race for the Giro d'Italia. Botero carried that form into the 2005 edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré when he won the individual time trial ahead of Americans Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong as well as winning the mountainous sixth stage which brought him into second overall in the general classification.

On February 28, 2007, Botero was presented with his new team UNE Orbitel in Bogota, Colombia. He outlined that his ambitions for the year would be to win the Vuelta a Colombia, to be the Colombian national champion and a podium place in the UCI World championships individual time trial event. In August, Botero won the Vuelta a Colombia for the first time in his career. He dominated the event by winning the prologue and two stages along the way as well as wearing the leaders jersey for most of the race.

In 2006, Team Phonak dropped him on June 2 after he was named in media reports in the massive Operación Puerto doping probe in Spain, this just weeks before the start of the 2006 Tour de France. On October 2, 2006, Botero was cleared by the disciplinary committee of the Federación Colombiana de Ciclismo (Colombian Cycling Federation).

Retirement

Botero retired from his professional career in 2010 and that same year was awarded by Coldeportes as one of the most outstanding sportspersons in Colombia.

The Colombian cyclist was 38 at the time of his retirement, working as a professional for 15 years, which has made him one of the best athletes in his country.

Botero is a business administrator graduated from Eafit University, in his country. He also studied service management at the University of Medellín.

Career achievements

Major results

1998

4th Overall Tour de Romandie

8th Overall Vuelta a La Rioja

1999

2nd Overall Vuelta a Andalucía

3rd Overall Paris–Nice

1st Stage 4

4th Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme

5th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

2000

7th Overall Tour de France

1st Mountains classification

1st Stage 14

2001

1st Clásica a los Puertos de Guadarrama

Vuelta a España

1st Stages 7 (ITT) & 21 (ITT)

3rd Time trial, UCI Road World Championships

8th Overall Tour de France

9th Classique des Alpes

2002

1st Time trial, UCI Road World Championships

1st Classique des Alpes

1st Stage 16 Vuelta a España

1st Stage 3 (ITT) Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

4th Overall Tour de France

1st Stages 9 (ITT) & 15

2003

3rd Overall Clásica Internacional de Alcobendas

4th Overall Vuelta a Asturias

2004

7th Time trial, Olympic Games

2005

1st Overall Tour de Romandie

1st Stage 5 (ITT)

2nd Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

1st Stages 3 (ITT) & 6

2006

2nd Overall Volta a Catalunya

2007

1st

Time trial, National Road Championships

1st Overall Vuelta a Colombia

1st Prologue, Stages 6 & 14 (ITT)

2008

1st Prologue Vuelta a Colombia

6th Road race, Olympic Games

2009

1st

Time trial, National Road Championships

1st Stage 7 (ITT) Vuelta a Colombia

2010

5th Overall Tour de San Luis

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Giro d'Italia	—	54	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Tour de France	—	—	—	7	8	4	DNF	75	51
Vuelta a España	98	—	—	72	18	66	—	DNF	DNF

—	Did not compete
DNF	Did not finish