A year after he missed out on the Tour de France, next July, Fernando Gaviria is poised to return to cycling's biggest bike race – and it's all thanks to one of the most unlikely of scenarios.
A former winner of seven Grand Tour stages, Gaviria's career looked to be near to be ending late last year after Movistar failed to renew his contract, on top of which he was found guilty of driving five times over the limit by a court in Monaco, receiving a five-month suspended sentence as well as a fine.
Then, almost at the last minute, the 31-year-old was thrown a lifeline by Spanish ProTeam Caja Rural-Seguros RGA in the shape of a one-year contract. And matters looked up even more when his team received an unexpected wildcard invitation to the Tour de France.
Although it has yet to be confirmed that Gaviria will take part, it's almost inconceivable that the longstanding Navarran squad would not take their star rider, with his win-laden palmares including two Tour stages and a spell in yellow during the first week of the race back in 2018.
"For me, doing a really good Tour would be the cherry on the cake," Gaviria told MARCA during the recent Tour of Oman.
"It's fundamental for the team, and to get that win there would be spectacular. It would be the first of Caja Rural as a team in the Tour" – although in the 1980s the team was present for three years in the Tour, Caja Rural stopped their sponsorship just before their one stage win in the 1989 race – "and would be hugely prestigious as well."
As for how his one-year deal to race with Caja Rural came about, Gaviria admitted he had been close to retirement, "the uncertainty makes you think in everything, even quitting," but three phone calls came from the team management, all of them adamant he still had something to give to the sport. Then the small-scale, family atmosphere of Caja Rural was an attraction, too.
"It's a relatively small team, but the difference with the WorldTour isn't as big as you'd imagine," Gaviria, a former racer with UAE, Movistar and Soudal-QuickStep, said.
"The pressure I feel is what I put on myself, because I'm the one who wants to win and I'll try it every day."
Gaviria had a tough final year in Movistar, both on and off the bike, but he denied the decision to leave him out of the Tour was, in itself, when it all fell apart with his old team. Rather, he claimed, it was the way he discovered he was not selected that most upset him about that particular development.
"I had prepared [for the Tour] and not knowing for certain [if you're going or not] creates a lot of tension," he argued to MARCA. "Finding out [I wasn't going] through the media was what most upset me."
"Even so, I understand the team, and I respect the decision they took."
Gaviria recognised that, despite the last upset at Movistar, his leaving came at the end of an era all the same. "It had to happen," he said, "I'm delighted to have formed part of such a great team."
Having now moved onto Caja Rural, the Tour is beckoning again, but Gaviria said he would not exchange wearing yellow back in 2018 for a third Tour stage victory – and first for the team – in July.
"I wouldn't swap that for anything," he said. "Wearing yellow is a dream of almost all the racers out there, and a privilege for only the smallest handful."
