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EFE\/ Fernando Ruiz<\/p>\nEach morning in Spain, Guatemalan cyclist Sergio Chumil trains alone behind a team car, chasing a dream that started on a dirt road and may soon carry him to the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a\u2014making him the first from his country to ride its modern edition.<\/p>\n
From a Village Dirt Track to the Spanish Peloton<\/p>\n
Sergio Chumil didn\u2019t grow up chasing finish lines. He chased school buses, market carts, and the setting sun over the maize fields of Chuachal\u00ed, a high-altitude village tucked in Guatemala\u2019s Chimaltenango province.<\/p>\n
He was seventeen when a cousin lent him a dented aluminum bike\u2014no proper gears, no fanfare. Just two wheels and an open road. That\u2019s how it began.<\/p>\n
By 2017, Chumil had joined a small regional team in Guatemala. Five years later, Aluminios Cortizo, a respected Spanish amateur squad, spotted his climbing prowess on social media and brought him to Galicia. The shift wasn\u2019t easy: rain, tight roads, language barriers. But it shaped him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou suffer differently there,\u201d he told EFE, \u201cbut you grow stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
This spring, at 24, he signed his first professional contract with Burgos-Burpellet BH. In March, he stunned seasoned riders by soloing to win the queen stage of O Gran Cami\u00f1o, a rugged race through wind-lashed Galician hills.<\/p>\n
He had arrived.<\/p>\n
A Central American in Pursuit of Cycling\u2019s Holy Trinity<\/p>\n
Chumil\u2019s goals no longer end with contracts. He now dreams of riding the Tour de France, Giro d\u2019Italia, and Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a\u2014cycling\u2019s grand tours.<\/p>\n
The Vuelta may be his first opening. Burgos-Burpellet has a wild card entry this year, but only eight riders will make the final squad. And with 21 teammates vying for those spots, the competition is fierce.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s everyone\u2019s dream,\u201d he says. \u201cOnly eight of us can live it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, his performances speak for themselves. He hung on to brutal mountain stages in Asturias and impressed in back-to-back hilly one-day races. He\u2019s shown that he can not only survive three-week races but punch when it counts.<\/p>\n
The road from Guatemala to the Vuelta is long\u2014more than just miles. No rider from his country has started a modern edition of Spain\u2019s grand tour. To do so now, in a fuchsia jersey bearing his name, would be history.<\/p>\n
EFE\/ Fernando Ruiz<\/p>\n
Chumil doesn\u2019t just race alone; he carries with him the legacy of Latin American climbers who\u2019ve redefined the sport.<\/p>\n
He lists them off like sacred names: Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz, Nairo Quintana. But one rider in particular lit the fuse\u2014Isaac del Toro, the young Mexican who nearly won this year\u2019s Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsaac showed that someone from this continent, with enough will, can battle against the biggest teams,\u201d Chumil says. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want\u2014to earn my place, step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also watched Carapaz\u2019s meteoric rise, from Ecuadorian obscurity to Giro champion. That story convinced him that resources don\u2019t trump resilience. \u201cCarapaz came from a country without tradition,\u201d Chumil says. \u201cNow, he\u2019s a reference point for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though rumors swirl that WorldTour scouts are watching, Chumil is grounded. \u201cFirst, you excel where you are,\u201d he says, echoing a phrase from Carapaz\u2019s autobiography that he\u2019s memorized.<\/p>\n
In a sport where whispers become headlines, he\u2019s chosen to focus on watts, not wishes.<\/p>\n
Guatemala Rides with Him<\/p>\n
Each morning, when Chumil tugs on his team jersey in northern Spain, he feels the pull of home.<\/p>\n
Back in Chuachal\u00ed, relatives post clip after clip of his races on social media. Local TV rarely buys rights to European cycling, so fans track him through livestream tickers and WhatsApp updates.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople write to say they woke up at 3 A.M. just to check how I did,\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n
He also knows what it means to them. Guatemala has never sent a rider to a modern Vuelta, and only a few have ever raced professionally in Europe. For his former elementary school, his story is part of the curriculum, used in civics class as a lesson in grit and geography.<\/p>\n
And if he makes the Vuelta roster?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first person I\u2019ll call is my mom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
She once sold tamales to fund his early race entries and still scolds him about descending too fast. \u201cShe says Spanish roads have more curves,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n
After that call, he\u2019ll head home\u2014briefly\u2014to spin up that same gravel road where it all began. No fanfare. Just him, his bike, and the altitude that made him.<\/p>\n
Now in training camp in Burgos, he tackles three-hour climbs behind the team car, working with nutritionists and climatologists to simulate the brutal heat of Andalusia, where the Vuelta will begin.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s learned to navigate sponsor interviews in two languages, another part of the job he never imagined while hauling vegetables to market on a rusty BMX.<\/p>\n
If the team hands him a number for the Vuelta, it\u2019ll hang in the bus wardrobe with the others. But he already knows which one is his. \u201cThey haven\u2019t told me,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I believe it\u2019s there\u2014with my name stitched inside.\u201d<\/p>\n