Santiago Buitrago

Santiago Buitrago
	Buitrago at the 2020 La Flèche Wallonne
Personal information
Full name	Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Born	26 September 1999 (age 25); Bogotá, Colombia
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	59 kg (130 lb)
Team information
Current team	Team Bahrain Victorious
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Amateur team
2018–2019	Team Cinelli
Professional team
2020–	Bahrain–McLaren
Major wins
	Grand Tours Giro d'Italia 2 individual stages (2022, 2023)

Santiago Buitrago Sánchez (born 26 September 1999) is a Colombian road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Bahrain Victorious.^[2] Buitrago has won two stages at the Giro d'Italia.

Career

Santiago Buitrago's first UCI rated result is at the Colombian Junior time trial championships where he finished fourth.^[3]

Bahrain–McLaren (2020–present)

2020–2021

Buitrago joined UCI WorldTeam Bahrain–McLaren on a two-year contract after impressing the team by finishing sixth at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta in 2019.^[4] His first race with the team was at the 2020 Tour Down Under where he finished second in the youth classification 15 seconds behind Pavel Sivakov.^[5] The last race of the 2020 season was the Vuelta a España, his first Grand tour, he would finish in 53rd.^[6]^[7]

In 2021 he finished tenth overall at the Tour de Hongrie after a strong tenth in the Queen-stage.^[8]^[9] He then won the mountains classification at the Settimana Ciclistica Italiana after being in the break and attacking over the climbs of the day.^[10] Buitrago finished eighth in the Vuelta a Burgos after fishing one second behind the winner on stage 1 of the race.^[11] He also led the youth classification until the final stage where he lost the jersey to Einer Rubio who came second in the stage.^[12]

2022–present

2022 started with a win in the national race Circuito Feria de Manizales, followed his first professional win: stage 2 of the Saudi Tour. Buitrago attacked with 1 kilometre to go taking Andrea Bagioli with him. The two came to the line together with Buitrago winning the sprint and taking the race lead. The next rider finished seven seconds behind the pair.^[13] He lost the race lead on stage 4 after Maxim Van Gils attacked and he was unable to follow. Buitrago maintained his second placing overall to the completion of the race.

His first Grand Tour win came at the 2022 Giro d'Italia where he won stage 17. Joining the early break, Buitrago kept up with the other riders before making his move over the top of the Monterovere and powering away solo. He stayed away taking 35 seconds on Gijs Leemreize to win the stage.^[14] His third win of the season came at the 2022 Vuelta a Burgos by winning stage 1.^[15]

The following year, he won his second Grand Tour stage: stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia in a solo victory on what was considered the "Queen Stage".^[16] He ultimately finished the race in 13th overall.

His 2024 season got off to a good start, winning stage 4 of Paris–Nice.^[17] He rode in the 2024 Tour de France, where he finished tenth overall and fourth in the young rider competition.