REALLY HUMBLE BEGINNINGS. Einer Rubio’s story as a professional rider starts when his whole family is forced to move away from hometown Chíquiza, in the Boyacá department, due to the drought affecting their potato fields and keeping their stable from being properly fed. They headed towards the Colombian capital, Bogotá, where Einer, once he finished secondary school, started working in the construction industry, and saved some money to buy a bike made of iron, with which he got back to training on the road. Still a junior rider (2015 / 2016), Rubio started to make a name as one of the most promising talents in the country, which made an Italian headhunter put his eyes on him so he could earn a place in the European peloton.
BREAKTHROUGH. Einer soon achieves good results despite the adaption to the Italian language and culture taking its time -the team he rode for, Aran – Vejus, has ended up being his ‘Italian family’, and his partner, Michela, hailing from there-. In 2018, he won a stage of the U23 Giro d’Italia, the GP Capodarco and a stage at the Giro del Friuli -the latter, in front of no less than Tadej Pogacar-, and in 2019, Rubio got himself into the podium of the amateur Giro (2nd place). And at his early Movistar Team stage, the pupil from the Esteban Chaves Foundation took significant, solid steps: Grand Tour debut at the 2020 Giro; best young rider at the 2021 Vuelta a Burgos; and close to a podium overall, 5th, in the 2022 Le Tour de Langkawi, won by team-mate and countryman Iván Sosa, preceded by some very decent Italian fall semi-classics.
THE SPACE HE FOUGHT SO HARD FOR. 2023 was the confirmation that the Movistar Team’s long-term gamble for him was more than deserved. He wins two WorldTour races: the highest stage of the UAE Tour, atop Jebel Jais, and stage thirteen of the Giro d’Italia in Crans Montana. 11th overall in the Corsa Rosa in his first experience as GC contender; 16th in La Vuelta, supporting Mas; 5th in Burgos, 4th in Occitanie and San Juan, 2nd in Asturias — as evident as Rubio’s steps forward are, it is even more clear that his summits are way above. World class.
