SERGIO HIGUITA

Colombia Born: August 1 1997 Age: 22 Team: EF Education First Best result: Stage win, Vuelta a España 2019

Sergio Higuita was just 18 years old when he recorded his first top-10 result in a professional race. In July 2016, riding for Manzana Postobón, he took part in the Prueba Villafranca event and finished in a group of 16 riders that sprinted for seventh place, 46 seconds behind winner Simon Yates. The Colombian spent three seasons with the ProContinental squad Manzana from his home country, before transferring for three months to Fundación-Euskadi at the start of 2019, then joining EF Education First on May 1.

His first race with the American team was the Tour of California, and he came within a whisker of winning, finishing runner-up 16 seconds behind the even younger Tadej Pogacar. Higuita was just pipped for the Mount Baldy stage win, which clinched the race for the Slovenian, but Higuita had more cause to regret the 21 seconds he’d conceded on the complicated uphill finish in South Lake Tahoe on stage 2. Confirming his promise, Higuita also finished fourth behind Pavel Sivakov in the Tour de Pologne and 14th overall in the Vuelta a España, a result which included a solo stage win from a breakaway at Becerril de la Sierra deep into the race’s third week. He rounded out the year with third in the Giro dell’Emilia and fifth in Tre Valli Varesine, which will make him a factor in EF’s strong hilly oneday race squad.