Urán at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Rigoberto Urán Urán | ||
| Born | January 26, 1987 Urrao, Colombia |
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| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[1] | ||
| Weight | 63 kg (140 lb; 9.9 st)[1] | ||
| Team information | |||
| Current team | Team Sky | ||
| Discipline | Road | ||
| Role | Rider | ||
| Rider type | Climbing and time trial specialist | ||
| Professional team(s) | |||
| 2006 2007 2008–2010 2011– |
Tenax Unibet.com Caisse d'Epargne Team Sky |
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| Major wins | |||
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| Infobox last updated on July 17, 2011 |
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Rigoberto Urán Urán (born 26 January 1987) is a Colombian professional road racing cyclist, currently riding for UCI ProTeam Team Sky.
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Urán's first cycling race was at the age of 14, three months before his father was accidentally killed in a gunfight related to the drug war in Colombia. Rigoberto had to take his place as a lottery seller to help his family and at the age of 16 he turned professional and moved to Medellín to ride for Orgullo Paisa, a Colombian cycling team.[2][3]
At the age of 19 he moved to Italy to ride for Team Tenax with his compatriot Marlon Pérez Arango. The following year he signed for Unibet.com and won a time trial at the Euskal Bizikleta that was stopped with some riders still left to go due to heavy rainfall and strong winds. He also won the eighth stage of the Tour de Suisse and finished ninth overall. At the Deutschland Tour he was in a breakaway with eventual stage winner Damiano Cunego when he flew down over a mountain stream and smashed into a retaining wall. He fractured both elbows and the right wrist.[4]
In 2008 he signed a contract with Caisse d'Epargne and went on to finish second at the Volta a Catalunya and third at the Giro di Lombardia, a prestigious one-day classic. At the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Urán competed in the road race but he did not finish. In 2009 he finished fifth overall at the Tour de Romandie and rode his first the Tour de France and finished 52nd. In 2010 he rode the Giro d'Italia and finished 7th overall in the 2010 Tour de Suisse. He also rode the Vuelta a España but suffered a fall that ended his options of a high overall placing while being eighth overall.[5]
Urán joined Team Sky for the 2011 season.[6] He finished 5th in Liège–Bastogne–Liège,[7] and 5th overall in the Volta a Catalunya.[1]
At the Tour de France, Urán became leader of Sky after Bradley Wiggins crashed out on Stage 7. He finished 5th on Stage 14, taking the best young rider's jersey and moving up to 11th overall in the process.[8] Uran lost the Maillot Blanc to Rein Taaramäe on Stage 18[9] after picking up an illness,[10] and eventually finished 24th overall.[11]