In 1968 a tiny country town was founded in Carchi province, northern Ecuador and baptised Santa Marta de Cuba in honour of the Cuban revolution, then at its height. Jonathan Caicedo, inevitably nicknamed el cubano, became its most famous son today by winning stage 3 on Mount Etna. He joined Richard Carapaz as Ecuador’s second Giro stage winner. Carapaz, who grew up 40 km from Santa Martha, won one stage in 2018 and two last year, on his way to overall victory. The two men were team-mates as juniors in Ecuador and under-23s in Colombia.