Fernando Gaviria

Fernando Gaviria Rendon

Fernando Gaviria in 2013
Personal information
Born	(1994-08-19) August 19, 1994 La Ceja (Antioquia)
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	70 kg (150 lb)
Team information
Current team	Coldeportes-Claro
Discipline	Road, track
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Amateur team(s)
2013–2015	Coldeportes-Claro
Medal record Track cycling Competitor for  Colombia World Championships Gold 2015 Yvelines Omnium World Junior Championships Gold 2012 Invercargill Omnium Gold 2012 Invercargill Madison
Infobox last updated on 22 February 2015

Fernando Gaviria Rendon (born 19 August 1994) is a Colombian professional road and track racing cyclist. He is well known as a sprinter. Riding for the Colombian national cycling team, Gaviria came to international attention at the 2015 Tour de San Luis, where he beat former world champion Mark Cavendish in two sprint finishes. He is the brother of track cyclist Juliana Gaviria.^[1]

Before his road career, Gaviria won the omnium and madison events at the 2012 UCI Juniors Track World Championships.^[2][3] In 2014, he won the under 23 Pan-American road race.^[4][5] He also competed in the 2014 Tour de l'Avenir. Although he did not win a stage, he won the bunch sprint behind the breakaway on the first stage^[6] and ended the race second in the points competition.^[7][8] Later that year he won the omnium in the London round of the 2014–15 UCI Track Cycling World Cup.^[9]

Gaviria's first major road cycling success came with two victories in the 2015 Tour de San Luis, one of the major early-season cycling races. He won a surprise victory in the first stage of the race, opening his sprint early and beating 2011 world champion Mark Cavendish of the Etixx-Quick Step team into second place. Cavendish said after the race that he had not heard of Gaviria before the race.^[10] Gaviria then won the third stage of the race, again beating Cavendish into second place.^[11] Cavendish finally won a stage in the final stage of the event, with Gaviria finishing a close second.^[12]

Following these high-profile victories, there were reports that several UCI World Tour teams were seeking to sign Gaviria, including Ag2r-La Mondiale, though he committed his 2015 season to riding with the Colombian national team.^[13] Later reports suggested that his most likely 2016 team was Cavendish's own Etixx-Quick Step team.^[8] It was also revealed that Gaviria had been recommended in 2014 to Patrick Lefevere, the manager of Etixx-Quick Step, but the team declined to sign him. Following Gaviria's success at the Tour de San Luis, Lefevere called this a "mistake".^[14] In February 2015, Lefevere announced that Gaviria would be undergoing tests with Etixx-Quick Step after the 2015 UCI Track World Championships, a further move towards a contract for 2016. Lefevere also said that such a contract would not prevent Gaviria competing in the 2016 Olympic Games.^[15] Following these tests, Gaviria signed a contract for 2016 with Etixx-Quick Step, along with fellow Colombian Rodrigo Contreras. Gaviria's plans to ride in the 2016 Olympic Games were affirmed by Lefevere; he also suggested that Gaviria might ride as a stagiaire for the team during 2015.^[16]

In February 2015, Gaviria competed for Colombia in the track World Championships in the omnium competition. Although he won none of the six events, he was consistent throughout. In the concluding points race, he was able to gain an early lap on the field, giving him a large advantage; he was then able to mark his closest rival, Elia Viviani, and secured a comfortable overall victory to win the rainbow jersey.^[17][18]

Palmares

References