23 year old Alejandro Osorio could be the next big Colombian cycling star as he shows incredible early season form.
Article by: Zack Morris
My first interaction with Pony was one that I’ll never forget. I was in the middle of an interval session with Jhonatan Restrepo of Andronni, when we passed by Alejo going the opposite direction. Restrepo waved to Pony to turn and come and have a chat. It was almost a bit of a joke, because we were already heading into the base of the climb where Restrepo and I would be doing 3 by 400 watt x 5 minute efforts with 2 minutes rest in between on the climb of Union. It would take a pretty massive effort from any rider to catch up to us at that pace.
12 minutes into the climb, I had obviously forgotten about the rider in the green Caja Rural jersey that had passed by us at the base as I was completely cross eyed trying to do these intervals. It was at this moment, when Pony passed by us with a pedal stroke that I’ll never forget that I realized this kid was something special. With a perfect spin, and almost featherlike touch on the pedals Alejo rolled up beside us, just to say “Hello.”
After a few brief words, Pony turned it in and headed home, and Pacora and I continued to murder ourselves on the climb. when I got to the top, I asked myself… how TF did that kid catch us like that, and who TF is he? Restrepo shared his name with me, and I started to pay attention to him from that day forward. As the season rolled out, I was but I wasn’t surprised to see him attacking the likes of Nairo Quintana and Daniel Martinez in the tour of the apes. Placing top 5 on mountain top finishes against some of the biggest riders in the world was impressive, but seemed appropriate. I was certainly not surprised to see Alejo sign a world tour contract with Bahrain for the 2022 season.
This off season I’ve had the opportunity to not only train with Alejo, but also jump in some early season races with him. Racing with this kid is incredible, and I can honestly say that I’ve never seen somebody like him. He’s relentless, fearless, dynamic, and just outright strong. Pony is by far the most athletic pure climber I’ve ever seen. Most of the time you see these climbers, skin and bone with absolutely no muscle, but not Alejo. Alejo is lean, super lean, but has a bit more muscle, and that shows in his ability to deliver explosive efforts.
I’ve seen this kid absolutely roll through some of the top riders in Colombia with absolute dominance. Just last week I watched him ride the breakaway all day, then put 2 minutes into Tito Hernandez on the final 5.7km climb. Tito’s no joke, he won the freaking Vuelta Colombia in 2021, and everyone knows how ridiculous that race is. These performances as of late, tell me one thing. Alejandro Osorio is next big star out of Colombia. Surely he’ll have to head to Europe after Colombian national championships and earn his spot as a leader of the team on Bahrain, but there’s nobody on that squad that can do what this kid can do.
If you want to talk numbers, Pony is currently posting 412 watts average at 2600 meters altitude at 66kg on on the finishing climbs of these races here. At Sea level, that converts to over 7.1 watts a kilo. It’s absolutely astonishing what this 23 year old is capable of doing. As Pony heads over to Europe, we’re expecting big things this year.