Luis Alberto "Lucho" Herrera Herrera, known as "El jardinerito" ("the little gardener") (born May 4, 1961 in

Fusagasugá Fusagasugá (; ) or Fusa is a town and municipality in the department of Cundinamarca, in central Colombia. It is located in the warm valley between the rivers Cuja and Panches, a central region of the Andes Mountains in South America. The mu ...

, Colombia), is a retired Colombian

road racing cyclist Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

. Herrera was a professional from 1985 to 1992 but had a successful amateur career before that in Colombia. He entered his first Vuelta a Colombia in 1981 where he finished 16th overall and 3rd in the New Rider competition. Although he abandoned his second Vuelta a Colombia in 1982, he won Colombia's second major stage-race the Clásico RCN. In 1983 Herrera won Clásico RCN again as well as two stages and finishing second overall to Alfonso Florez Ortiz in the 1983 Vuelta a Colombia. In 1984 he would win the Vuelta a Colombia, the Clásico RCN as well as winning stage 17 to

Alpe d'Huez L'Alpe d'Huez () is a ski resort in southeastern France at . It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Western Alps, in the commune of Huez, which is part of the department of Isère in the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is part of ...

in the

1984 Tour de France The 1984 Tour de France was the 71st edition of the Tour de France, run over in 23 stages and a prologue, from 29 June to 22 July. The race was dominated by the Renault team, who won the team classification and ten stages: Renault's French rider ...

, becoming the first Colombian to win a stage of the race, and the first amateur cyclist to win a stage in the history of the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

. He would win the Vuelta a Colombia and the Clásico RCN four times each but his greatest achievement was in 1987, when he won the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...

, the first South American to win a Grand Tour. Herrera also won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré in 1988 and 1991 and five "

King of the Mountains The King of the Mountains (KoM) is an award given to the best climbing specialist in a men's cycling road race; in women's cycle racing, Queen of the Mountains (QoM) is used. While the title may be given to the rider who achieves the highest p ...

" jerseys from the three Grand Tours. Luis Herrera is the second rider to win the

jersey in all three

Grand Tours In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the ''Grand Tours'', and all three races are similar in ...

. The first was Federico Bahamontes of Spain.

Career achievements

Major results

;1981 : 1st Stage 5 Clásico RCN ;1982 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Clásico RCN ::1st Stages 2, 7 & 10 : 4th Overall

Tour de l'Avenir Tour de l'Avenir ( en, Tour of the Future) is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independents ...

::1st Stage 10 ;1983 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Clásico RCN ::1st Stage 8 :

Coors Classic The Coors International Bicycle Classic (1980–1988) was a stage race sponsored by the Coors Brewing Company. Coors was the race's second sponsor; the first, Celestial Seasonings, named the race after its premium tea Red Zinger, which began in 1 ...

::1st Stages 1 & 3 : 1st Stage 6b Grand Prix Guillaume Tell : 2nd Overall Vuelta a Colombia ::1st Stages 9 & 14 ;1984 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Clásico RCN ::1st Stage 8 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Vuelta a Colombia ::1st Stages 6, 9 & 10 : 1st Stage 17

;1985 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Vuelta a Colombia ::1st Stages 5 & 8 : 2nd Overall Clásico RCN : 7th Overall

::1st

Mountains classification ::1st Stages 11 & 14 ;1986 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Clásico RCN ::1st Prologue, Stages 2 & 4 ( ITT) : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Vuelta a Colombia ::1st Stage 6 ;1987 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st

Mountains classification ::1st Stage 11 : 2nd Overall Vuelta a Colombia ::1st Prologue : 5th Overall

::1st

Mountains classification ;1988 : 1st Jersey yellow-bluebar

Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ::1st Stage 6b : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall Vuelta a Colombia ::1st Stages 2 & 11 : 6th Overall

;1989 : Giro d'Italia ::1st Jersey green

Mountains classification ::1st Stages 13 & 18 ( ITT) ;1990 : 4th Overall Clásico RCN ::1st Prologue ;1991 : 1st Jersey yellow-bluebar

Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré ::1st Stage 5 :

::1st

Mountains classification ::1st Stage 16 : 1st Stage 6

Volta a Catalunya The Volta a Catalunya (; en, Tour of Catalonia, es, Vuelta a Cataluña, link=no) is a road bicycle race held annually in Catalonia, Spain. It is one of three World Tour stage races in Spain, together with the Vuelta a España and the Tour of th ...

: 6th Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme : 9th Overall

Vuelta a Murcia The Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia ( en, Tour of Murcia) is a road bicycle race held in and around Murcia, Spain. The first four editions were reserved to amateurs. Originally the race was held in early March and consisted of five stages. However, due ...

;1992 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

Vuelta a Aragón Vuelta a Aragón is a professional bicycle road race held in Spain in May of each year. The event was first run in 1939, and was not held between 2006 and 2017. The future of the race is uncertain; there had been plans to organise it again, but an ...

::1st Stage 5 : 1st Prologue Vuelta a Colombia : 8th Overall Giro d'Italia ::1st Stage 9

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera, Luis 1961 births Colombian Tour de France stage winners Colombian male cyclists Colombian Giro d'Italia stage winners Vuelta a España winners Colombian Vuelta a España stage winners Vuelta a Colombia stage winners Living people People from Cundinamarca Department