Colombian ex-pro cyclist Jaime Alberto Restrepo was shot and killed in Antioquia, Colombia on Monday.
The Colombian news organisation El Tiempo reported that the Antioquia Police said two armed suspects travelling on a motorcycle approached Restrepo around 6:30pm. One of the men repeatedly shot him, causing his death within a "matter of minutes."
The motives for the crime are currently unknown. One of the suspects, a 35-year-old male was captured at the scene, and a "38-caliber revolver was seized from the alleged perpetrator."
Jaime Restrepo, 25, a former track cyclist, was the 2014 Pan-American junior time trial champion and also came ninth in the junior individual time trial at the Road World Championships that year, in Ponferrada, Spain. That year the race against the clock was won by Germany's Lennard Kämna, who is now racing for Bora-Hansgrohe, and Filippo Ganna and Michael Storer also featured among the top ten.
After some time away from cycling, in 2019 Restrepo moved to Europe to race on the road with Romanian Team Novak. He took a number of top ten stage finishes that year including at the 2.1 classified Tour de Hongrie, the Tour de Serbia and the Cycling Tour of Szeklerland, where he also finished fifth overall.
After not lining up in UCI classified road races in the pandemic interrupted season of 2020, Restrepo had a short season with Team Novak in 2021, recording less than three months of European UCI classified starts on the road. During that time he completed the 2.2 ranked Tour of Bulgaria and returned to the Cycling Tour of Szeklerland, where his best result was a ninth place on stage 4.
While he was not contracted to a team at the time of his death, the report said he continued his training in his home municipality of Ciudad Bolívar, in the hope that he would be able to continue his professional cycling career.
