# Carlos Betancur

Carlos Alberto Betancur Gómez (born 13 October 1989) is a Colombian road racing cyclist, who most recently rode for Colombian amateur team Colombia Tierra de Atletas–GW Bicicletas.

## Career

In 2010 he won the Girobio stage race; the amateur version of the Giro d'Italia; and in 2011 he won his first professional race at the Giro dell'Emilia.
Betancur had been scheduled to join the Liquigas–Cannondale team in 2012, but remained with Acqua & Sapone. Betancur left Acqua & Sapone at the end of the 2012 season, and joined Ag2r–La Mondiale on a two-year contract from the 2013 season onwards.

### Ag2r–La Mondiale (2013–15)

He started his 2013 season with a seventh-place finish at the Tour of the Basque Country, including a second place on stage 3. He went on to light up the Ardennes Classics, coming 3rd at La Flèche Wallonne after an early attack with just over 500 metres (1,600 feet) to go and scoring a 4th place in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, where it was his attack which created the final select group of six who contested the finish.
After a 12th-place finish at the Tour de Romandie, Betancur went in to the Giro d'Italia as an outsider for a top 10 GC position. Initially things went poorly, as he lost time on the descent of stage 3 and on the long time trial of stage 8, by the end of which he was down in 28th position, 6:08 down on the leader and eventual winner Nibali. However, following second places on stages 9, 10, and 15, and some brilliant performances in the other mountain stages, he worked himself up to 7th place and just two seconds off the white jersey for the best young rider (which he had actually gained on stage 15, but lost in the stage 18 time trial) by the penultimate stage. On the final mountain stage, although he punctured at the bottom of the final climb, he managed to catch up and overtake most of his GC rivals, finishing 4th on the day. He ended the Giro as best young rider and 5th in the general Classification.
In December 2013, Betancur confirmed he would be focusing on the Tour de France for 2014. However, he failed to fly from his training base in Colombia to France on 3 June, blaming a viral infection, and changed his target to the Vuelta a España.
In August 2015 AG2R La Mondiale announced that they had come to an agreement with Betancur to release him from his contract with the team, which was due to run until the end of 2016.

### Movistar Team (2016–20)

In October 2015, the Movistar Team announced that they had agreed an initial two-year deal with Betancur from 2016. Betancur won his first race for the team – the first stage of the 2016 Vuelta a Castilla y León – ending a 760-day wait for a victory. The last race he had won was the 2014 Paris–Nice.
In June 2017, he was named in the startlist for the 2017 Tour de France.

### Colombia Tierra de Atletas–GW Bicicletas

For the 2021 season, Betancur joined the Colombia Tierra de Atletas–GW Bicicletas team. In April, he announced that he was taking a break from cycling.

## Major results
### 2009

    1st Overall Vuelta de la Juventud de Colombia
       1st Stage 4
    2nd Road race, UCI Road World Under-23 Championships

### 2010

    1st Overall Girobio
       1st Stages 4 & 5
    1st Stage 1 (TTT) Vuelta a Colombia

### 2011

    1st Giro dell'Emilia
    5th Gran Premio Industria e Commercio Artigianato Carnaghese
    9th Giro di Lombardia

### 2012

    1st Trofeo Melinda
    1st Stage 5 Tour of Belgium
    1st Mountains classification, Circuit de Lorraine
    2nd Giro di Toscana
    4th Overall Giro del Trentino
       1st Young rider classification
    4th Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
    5th Milano–Torino
    5th Gran Piemonte
    7th Circuito de Getxo
    8th Overall Monviso-Venezia
       1st Young rider classification
       1st Stage 5
    8th Trofeo Matteotti
    9th GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano

### 2013

    3rd La Flèche Wallonne
    4th Liège–Bastogne–Liège
    5th Overall Giro d'Italia
       1st Young rider classification
    7th Overall Tour of the Basque Country

### 2014

    1st Overall Paris–Nice
       1st Young rider classification
       1st Stages 5 & 6
    1st Overall Tour du Haut Var
       1st Points classification
       1st Stage 1

### 2016

    1st Stage 2 Vuelta a Asturias
    9th Overall Vuelta a Castilla y León
       1st Stage 1

### 2018

    4th Klasika Primavera
    5th GP Miguel Induráin

### 2019

    1st Klasika Primavera
    8th Overall Tour de Suisse

### General classification results timeline

Grand Tour general classification results :
| Grand Tour | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Giro d'Italia | 58 | — | 5 | — | 20 | DNF | — | 15 | — |
| Tour de France | — | — | — | — | — | — | 18 | — | — |
| Vuelta a España | — | — | 126 | 158 | — | — | DNF | — | — |
| Major stage race general classification results |||||||||||
| Race | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Paris–Nice | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tirreno–Adriatico | — | 44 | — | — | 116 | — | — | — | — |
| Volta a Catalunya | — | — | 46 | DNS | DNF | — | — | — | — |
| Tour of the Basque Country | — | — | 7 | DNF | 98 | — | — | 27 | DNF |
| Tour de Romandie | — | — | 13 | — | DNF | — | 43 | DNF | 11 |
| Critérium du Dauphiné | Has not contested during his career | Has not contested during his career | Has not contested during his career | Has not contested during his career | Has not contested during his career | Has not contested during his career | Has not contested during his career | Has not contested during his career | Has not contested during his career |
| Tour de Suisse | — | — | — | — | — | — | 17 | — | 8 |