Iván Ramiro Sosa Cuervo is a Colombian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam.
Career
Early life and amateur career
Sosa was born into a farming family in Pasca, Cundinamarca, a town located at high altitude in the Colombian Andes, near the capital Bogotá. His father, who is a cycling fan, chose the name Iván for his son after Iván Parra, a Colombian cyclist whom he admired. He is the cousin of professional cyclist Jhojan García, and a close friend of fellow Colombian cyclist Egan Bernal. He left Colombia for Europe in early 2016 to race for the amateur team Maltinti Lampadari-Banca di Cambiano, and settled in Empoli, Italy. His first win for the team came in June, in the 79th edition of the Schio-Ossario del Pasubio race.
In January, he took his first victory as a professional by winning the 4th stage of the Vuelta al Táchira. His real breakthrough came the following month though, when he finished an impressing 6th overall in the inaugural edition of the Colombian stage raceColombia Oro y Paz. In April, he was part of the team's line-up for the Tour of the Alps and wore the overall leader's jersey after finishing 3rd on the first two mountain stages, ahead of riders such as Chris Froome, Thibaut Pinot and Fabio Aru, but lost his leader's jersey after a crash during a descent on the third stage involving a race motorcycle. Sosa was not a part of the team's planned line-up for the Giro d'Italia, and team manager Gianni Savio stated that Sosa's impressing performance at the Tour of the Alps had not made him reconsidering his decision, despite Sosa "perhaps wanting to take part in the Giro". He explained his decision by saying his philosophy is to discover talents and let them develop little by little, continuing "It's one thing to ride a race such as the Tour of the Alps with great champions like Froome and Aru, but it has just five racing days and the stages are only short. It's another thing to throw a young 20-year-old rider with no international experience into a three week race such as the Giro d'Italia with stages of over 200 km". Instead he was part of the team's squad at the Tour of Bihor, a Romanian stage race, in early June, where he won the overall classification as well as one stage. Later the same month, he won the overall classification at the inaugural Adriatica Ionica Race, an Italian stage race, as well as one stage.
Sosa initially signed a two-year contract with, beginning in 2019, with Trek paying Sosa's release clause of €120,000. However after an initial press release from the team, as well as a video published from Sosa, a dispute between Alberati Fondriest Cycling Academy and well-connected rider agent Giuseppe Acquadro occurred. Acquadro took over representation of Sosa, informing Trek that he would not be riding for the team. Androni reimbursed Trek for the release clause and in late November 2018, Cyclingnews.com announced that Sosa would sign for on a three-year deal.
