Sergio Higuita accuses BORA of forcing him to race sick: "They thought it was an excuse - that I didn't want to race..."
Cycling
Sergio Higuita will leave Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe at the end of the 2024 season for Astana Qazaqstan Team. The Colombian rider thus ends a three-year stint with the German team, which he recently revealed to have been very tough.
In a very interesting X thread posted by the account @amatiz12, Higuita reveals that, among other things, he was forced by BORA itself to compete sick.
"I started with bronchitis in the first year. After Catalunya I fell ill, and then I had to do the Itzulia, the Flèche Wallonne and then the Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In the Basque Country I had to get off the bike. Until then there was no problem, because they listened to me a lot," Higuita began explaining at CiclismoInternacional.com how at the beginning BORA had no problems with his illnesses.
And as long as the German team was willing to listen, their Colombian rider was paying back with results that include top-5s at Liege and Lombardia, GC win at Catalunya, 2nd place at Suisse and couple more wins.
"Already in the second year they thought it was some kind of excuse, that I didn't want to race. And that wasn't the case. I always want to race. They already knew with the medical studies that it wasn't something I was making up. The Basque Country came and there was a lot of pollen. We Colombians usually have problems with pollen, and that's where I got sicker," adds Sergio Higuita.
Sergio Higuita ended up with no strength
"From there I relapsed again. From the Itzulia to the Ardennes is one week. In that time I couldn't recover, and I asked the team to let me rest for Liège. But they took me to the Amstel Gold Race and the Fleche, and I couldn't finish any of the three. I'm a rider who has always stood out for discipline. I arrived at the Tour de Suisse totally exhausted, and I had to tell the team that I couldn't race," the 27-year-old concluded on the subject.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- He is boring
leedorney08-11-2026 - To Twoje przemyślenia te bla, bla :)
Dariusz08-11-2026 - Uwielbiam patrzeć, jak wyjeżdża na czoło peletonu i zaczyna się rzeź...Dariusz08-11-2026
- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
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Pese a ello, fue obligado a seguir compitiendo. Según Higuita, en BORA creían que eran mentiras suyas para no correr. Enfermó tras Itzulia, pidió no hacer Ardenas para recuperarse y no se lo permitieron. ¿Resultado? Abandonos en casi todas y un entendimiento casi que perdido.
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