"He didn’t answer my calls or messages... it is all very complicated" - Future of departing Jayco AlUla rider uncertain after alleged mismanagement by agent
Cycling
The 2024 road season hasn't long finished, but for some out of contract riders, the countdown to the start of the 2025 campaign is already ticking dangerously close. One of those uncertain about his future prospects in professional cycling is 24-year-old Colombian, Jesus David Pena.
After three seasons at Team Jayco AlUla, Pena's contract runs out on December 31st, 2024. Despite coming to Europe with big ambitions, he admits things haven't quite gone to plan. “From the first year they wanted to get me out, they wanted to end the contract," Pena admits in a eye-opening interview with ADN Cycling. "It was also difficult for them to end it… but well, in the end the director told me some time later that he had understood that it had been a big step for me to travel to Europe to start a new life alone, and he decided to give me the opportunity for the second year."
Sadly though, despite being given a second chance, injuries, bad luck and some poor performances never allowed Pena to truly make an impact at Team Jayco AlUla. “I missed the best races because I was injured," he explains. “When the team saw that I wasn’t at that level and performance again, they decided to leave me out of the Vuelta and then I was out of the team as such. I think I needed a little more luck to be more consistent during the season.”
It's not the past that is most concerning Pena right now though. The biggest concern of the former Tour of Slovenia stage winner is of his future prospects, thanks partly due to some allegedly horrible mismanagement by his agent, Giusppe Acquadro, how has taken to ghosting Pena, leaving the 24-year-old to unexpectedly fend for himself in hopes of a last gasp deal that could save his career.
"I thought it was very bad of my manager. He didn't ask before. There were teams that told me that if I had asked before, they would have been interested, but that wasn't the case. He did the same to me, he did the same to Camargo and several others. He didn't answer my calls or messages, he tried to clean his hands saying he was talking, but then I found out that he wasn't really talking to the teams," Pena says of the sticky situation he's been left in. “I am doing my own thing, but it is all very complicated, everyone has already signed a contract. It has been very difficult to find a team due to a lack of results, teams are losing interest and seeing that the manager is not answering my calls and is not responding to me, I tried to do it on my own with friends and acquaintances, but they all told me it was too late. Everything is quite cloudy. I would like to continue in Europe but at this stage of the season it is very complicated.”
