PREVIEW | Tour Colombia 2024 - Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz and Nairo Quintana headline South America's most exciting race of the year

Preview. A new edition of the Tour Colombia will take place between February 6 and 11, 2024, with the participation of WorldTour teams such as Movistar, Astana plus EF Education and some international stars who will face a tough course that will also give sprinters a chance.

The race begins with a stage that ends in Duitama, the city that hosted the mythical World Championships in 1995. However this time around we start off with a sprint stage, one that takes place at 2500 meters of altitude which can be an interesting detail.

A tough day on stage 2, one which features quite a lot of ascents throughout the day. It is a stage that features a hilltop finish, one suited to puncheurs, with some sprinters and climbers also as contenders. There is a 2.6-kilometer at 5.2% climb that ends with 3.5 kilometers to go, which antecedes a false flat rise to the line in Santa Rosa Viterbo.

Tunja hosted the national championships and it will also see the start and finish of stage 3 of the nation's main event. It is a day that consists of 11 laps of a hilly circuit. Two small ascents of 600 meters at 7.6% and 500 meters at 7.4%. The repetition of these efforts throughout the 142 kilometers can see the race explode and create interesting scenarios which can include a general classification fight.

Zipaquira hosts the finale of stage 4 in Colombia, this is the city where Egan Bernal is based. A flat finale to a day that should end in a sprint, however the first two thirds of the day feature quite a few ascents - none of them too hard - which will create fatigue among the fast men, and could also split the bunch into several groups.

A very easy day map-wise. The riders start in Cota and head to the Alto del Vino. Then, we've got a large descent and a few rolling roads, before turning back and going back up the same mountain. This is the queen stage of the race with no doubt and a brutal one. A summit finish at over 2800 meters of altitude, the climb is over 30 kilometers long at 5.7% and features some tougher sections. A brutal climbing test that should see great performances.

The final day of racing sees the riders make the trip over to Bogotá where it will end. 139 kilometers which features small ascents all throughout the day. The finale will feature some ascents, the last of which is 2.9 kilometers at 7.2% which ends with 12 kilometers to go. A fast descent follows, but the finale in the capital will be flat.

*** Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz
** Nairo Quintana, Esteban Chaves, Alexey Lutsenko
* Iván Sosa, Rodrigo Contreras, Jefferson Alexander Cepera, Rigoberto Urán, Harold Tejada, Óscar Sevilla,

Pick: Richard Carapaz