Santiago Botero Echeverry (born October 27, 1972) is a Colombian former professional road bicycle racer. He was a pro from 1996 to 2010, during which time he raced in three editions of the Tour de France and four editions of the Vuelta a España (the Tour of Spain). He was best known for winning the mountains classification in the Tour de France, and the World Championship Time Trial. Biography Beginnings Since childhood, he was very fond of bicycles, especially after his father, Alberto Botero, gave him a mountain bike, with which he practiced and began to compete in mountain bike races in Medellín. Although he was not a good academic student, he became one of the most important cyclists in Colombia. Juan Darío Uribe, the sports doctor who discovered him and was his mentor in road cycling, says that he gave him the same effort test given to his other runners (some of them were Óscar de Jesús Vargas, Carlos Mario Jaramillo and Juan Diego Ramírez) on a stationary bike. The results were incredible. These pro riders hit 600 watts of power and nearly passed out. Santiago looked like a robot at this point in the test and hardly felt tired. “I realized that he had special conditions. None of the thousands of athletes from Indeportes Antioquia that he had studied showed such a level of strength,” said Dr. Uribe. Uribe insisted that Botero should train in Europe and not in Colombia, so Santiago decided to go to that continent to make his professional debut in 1996 with the Spanish team Kelme. Career He was, for the greater part of his career, a member of the team, but in 2003 joined . His performances as part of the Kelme dissipated in Team Telekom, with the team management blaming his lack of discipline in training, but he claimed health problems. In October 2004 he joined , together with Miguel Ángel Martín Perdiguero from , and Víctor Hugo Peña and Floyd Landis from . He lives in both Colombia and Madrid, Spain with his wife. Botero joined the American domestic team, , for the 2008 season. Botero finished his professional career riding for the Colombian team . He was also previously the manager of UCI Continental team . Results Born in Medellín, Colombia, Botero was the World Champion in the individual time trial in 2002. His career highlights include a stage win