{"id":25007,"date":"2026-04-25T14:08:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/?p=25007"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:13:29","slug":"cafe-de-colombia-is-back-its-a-great-thing-just-dont-order-the-cappuci-cocaino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2026\/04\/25\/cafe-de-colombia-is-back-its-a-great-thing-just-dont-order-the-cappuci-cocaino\/","title":{"rendered":"Caf\u00e9 de Colombia Is Back & It’s A Great Thing – Just Don’t Order The ‘Cappuci-Cocaino’!"},"content":{"rendered":"

INEOS Grenadiers have just announced that Caf\u00e9 de Colombia<\/strong> is returning to professional cycling as an official coffee partner \u2014 and if you know your cycling history, this should give you a little thrill. If it doesn’t, let me explain why it should…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Despite them pairing up with the Death Star Team of cycling).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Golden Era – (for my Generation)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cast your mind back to the 1980s (I’m old enough to be able to – it’s a privilege, trust me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professional cycling was a European sport, played mostly by Europeans and a few Amercians, on European roads, largely for European audiences. The Italians had their tifosi. The Belgians had their cobblestones and their Eddy Merckx mythology. The French had the\u00a0Tour de France<\/em>, and some good bread, and their heyday was coming to an end, not that they knew it, with the likes of Hinault and Fignon rampaging all over the shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then \u2014 seemingly out of nowhere \u2014 a group of wiry, high-altitude-turbo-charged Colombian climbers showed up and exploded onto the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\u00a0Caf\u00e9 de Colombia team<\/strong>\u00a0wasn’t just a cycling squad \u2014 it was a cultural statement. These riders came from a country with no road cycling tradition (not that we knew of anyway), no historic development system, no domestique pipeline. What they did have though were lungs trained at 2,500 metres above sea level and an absolutely fearless approach to racing. They didn’t sit in and calculate – they launched<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Herrera doesn’t just climb \u2014 he flies. The Europeans had never seen anything like it.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 French press blurb, Tour de France, 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lucho Herrera and the Mountain Kings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Luis “Lucho” Herrera<\/strong> was the fulcrum of it all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small, slight, almost birdlike \u2014 and utterly devastating on any steep climb. He won stages at the Tour de France, the first Colombian to do so, took the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a overall in 1987m becoming the first non-European to win a Grand Tour. He also dominated the mountains classification, winning the King of the Mountains at all three Grand Tours: the Tour de France, Giro d\u2019Italia, and Vuelta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He was quite simply one of the most influential climbers in history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That he may have ordered the murders of four young farmers <\/a>a few years ago in his native land is another thing matter and I will be looking into that later<\/em>… back to the cycling.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wasn\u2019t the type to sit in and wait. Herrera preferred sharp, repeated accelerations, often attacking multiple times on the same climb until rivals cracked. On very steep sections, especially above 10%, he thrived, dancing lightly out of the saddle with a high cadence and minimal upper-body movement. His small, lightweight build let him glide uphill while heavier riders struggled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike more calculated climbers, Herrera rode on instinct. He\u2019d go early, sometimes far from the summit, trusting his ability to sustain the effort. This made him unpredictable and exciting to watch. Sometimes it worked, something it didn’t, but you knew always knew he was in the race and whatever the outcome, he’d make you suffer at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In essence, he was a pure climber\u2014less about pacing and portioning out his watts by the teaspoonful – he was rather all about aggression and dominance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Herrera attacked on Alpe d’Huez, even Laurent Fignon and Bernard Hinault couldn’t follow. That’s not a small thing -that’s the 1980s version of dropping Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alongside Fignon.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside him rode Fabio Parra<\/strong>, who came third overall at the 1988 Tour de France \u2014 still the highest Grand Tour finish by a Colombian until Egan Bernal arrived decades later. These weren’t anomalies. The Caf\u00e9 de Colombia squad was producing elite climbers the way Belgium produces sprinters: systematically, proudly, and with a very particular national flavour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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