Juan Manuel Zapata was born April 30, 2006, in Santa Rosa de Osos, a town in northern Antioquia. Juan has lived in this town all his life with his parents and little brother. This year he successfully completed his high school. 

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Juan started cycling in the late 2020s. This was mainly because his father encouraged him to take up a sport. Thus, his first step was cycling with his father. From then on Juan began to like cycling and in early 2021 he joined the Santa Rosa de Osos cycling club. Here he stayed for two years representing his city in various races and events. 

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At the beginning of 2023, Juan joined the ITACA COBELEN TEAM. This has given him a lot of confidence in training sessions during the year and, as a result, he has grown as a cyclist. 

 

Over the past three years of training Juan has achieved several results:

• Finished third in the "Clásica Cuna de la Libertad 2023"

• Obtained podium finishes in the Grand Prix in Medellín

• Finished third in the 2023 departmental individual time trial races

• Finished third in the 2021 departmental road races

• Participated in the "Vuelta al Porvenir"

• Finished top-15 in the "Vuelta Antioquia Junior."

 

His goal as a professional cyclist in the future is to ride in a worldtour team, which will allow him to participate and achieve good results in one-day classics, stage races, world championships and the Olympics.