Camilo Suárez Albarracín

From the peloton to the kitchen

His story on the bike began at nine years old in Bogotá's Mandalay neighborhood, when his uncle Hernando took him out to ride a bicycle gifted along with an encyclopedia. That first ride to the city's northern edge sparked a passion that, in 2006, would lead him to sign his first pro contract with Colombia es Pasión, alongside a generation that included Nairo Quintana, Esteban Chaves, Darwin Atapuma and Jarlinson Pantano.

Camilo wasn't the strongest rider physically, but he was the team's race-reader. He treasures the runner-up finish at Canada's 2010 Nations Cup — the result that qualified Colombia for the Tour de l'Avenir that Nairo went on to win — as the most beautiful day of his career. After two hard crashes in 2014, a weight crisis and the team's financial troubles, he decided to hang up the bike for good.

His obsession with shedding the extra kilos took him to a healthy-cooking course at the Mariano Moreno school, where a chef told him he was cut out for the stoves. He studied Gastronomy and specialized in nutrition and holistic cooking; his thesis was titled, almost like fate, The Cycling Chef. A call from Esteban Chaves gave him his first pedal strokes in the kitchen, cooking for Orica GreenEDGE at a training camp in Colombia.

Then came Egan Bernal and Team Sky at Sindamanoy (2019), then Peter Sagan, and in 2022 the definitive leap: Dutch team DSM called him in as their chef for the Giro d'Italia. He fulfilled his maglia rosa dream, this time with a knife in hand. That year he did close to 120 race days in Europe across the Giro, Tour de France, Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Romandie. Since late 2023 he has been part of Belgian team Alpecin-Deceuninck, where he is the only Latin American chef in the UCI World Tour's top category.