After a rather quiet start to its grand tour debut in the Giro d'Italia the Colombia team burst onto the scene in yesterday's 5th stage when the team's climber Robinson Chalapud joined a dangerous move instigated by Danilo Di Luca (Vini Fantini) on the day's final climb. Caught by the peloton with less than 1km to go Chalapud did not take the breakthrough win for his wild card team but his performance made it clear that the South American team is not in Italy only to make up the numbers.

The professional continental Colombia team was a surprise wild card recipient when Giro d'Italia organizers RCS Sport handed out their invitations in January. However, the prospect of a return of a team of Colombian climbers after the Colombia es Pasion team had lit up the mountain stages in the 80s, was enough to convince the Italians to include the black-clad team in the field for the three-week race.

The team has had a quiet start to its grand tour debut. One of the team's two sprinter, young Edwin Avila, was taken out of contention in the first stage due to the huge crash with 2km to go, and the team did a good job to limit their losses in the team time trial - a discipline which does certainly not suit the tiny Colombian climbers.

On the third stage the team started to how its hands as young Jarlinson Pantano was part of the day's early move but it was yesterday's strong attack by Robinson Chalapud that really proved that the Colombians have what it takes to fight for a stage win. Following a furious acceleration from Danilo Di Luca (Vini Fantini) with 9km to go, the climber set off in a dangerous attack as they headed towards the top of the day's final climb.

Chalapud managed to take maximum points at the top of the ascent to get very close to mountains leader Giovanni Visconti in that competition before he managed to clinch onto the wheel of the former Giro winner as they sped towards the finish line. However, the Ag2r team wanted to sprint for the win with Carlos Betancur and the strong work of Ben Gastauer meant that the duo was swallowed up with less than 1km to go.

Despite the near-miss Chalapud was happy to see his legs responding well early in the long race.

“I had been feeling good for most of the day, but I found the ideal ground to try something only on the final climb” – he explained. “I was unsure whether to attack or not, but when I saw Di Luca moving I realized the right time had come, and just accelerated. I kept believing in our chances until the final 1.000 metres, when I saw the pack was coming up too strong. I can’t say I was sure to win the sprint, but I would have had my chance. Anyway, with the way I saw myself and the team, I have no doubt we will have more opportunities to come up big."

The team had been on the offensive earlier in the final climb as Carlos Quintero joined a promising 5-man move on the lower slopes. Sports director Valerio Tebaldi was happy to see his team showing the attitude that everybody expects from the Colombian team.

“I think we rode a great race today and I was very impressed with the moves by Carlos and Chala, that came at the end of a 246 km effort," he said. "Today I saw a really strong team with the right attitude, and hopefully we will continue on the right track.”

General manager Claudio Corti was equally optimistic as the team's preferred terrain - the high mountains - is still to come.

“I think this is a very important performance, because it shows – to the riders themselves, in first place – that we belong in this race and we can compete with top-level WorldTour teams while adopting our own racing style," he said. "And that is great for our confidence.”

After 4 days of racing the team's two GC candidates Darwin Atapuma and Fabio Duarte are 44th and 48th with a time loss of 2.59 and 3.06 respectively, but both bide their times until the peloton hits the mountains in the second week of racing. Until then the team will continue to show its aggressive nature and already today we could see the team's two spinters Leonardo Duque and Avila coming to the fore in the fifth stage.

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