After spending the first seven years of his career with Bahrain Victorious, Santiago Buitrago is moving on to pastures new in 2027, joining NSN Cycling Team to broaden the team’s horizons.
The NSN team, which was rebranded and restructured from the Israel-Premier Tech team, has little quality or depth in the climbing department, but the signing of Buitrago is designed to address that.
The 26-year-old Colombian is a top 10 finisher at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, along with numerous week-long stage races, where his palmarès includes a win at the 2025 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.
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As well as a solid general classification presence, Buitrago has also marked himself out as a strong stage hunter and Classics rider, winning stages at the Giro d’Italia in 2022 and 2023, placing third at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023, and winning his first one-day race at Trofeo Laigueglia earlier this year.
Buitrago joins on a three-year contract running through 2029, by which point he will have just turned 30.
“The arrival of Santiago Buitrago represents an important addition to NSN Cycling Team’s long-term sporting project,” said NSN’s General Manager Kjell Carlström.
“Despite a career already spanning seven years, at just 26 years old, Santiago has a long career ahead of him and room for continued growth as a rider. In addition to Santiago’s stage and General Classification victories, he has finished inside the top ten at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, and we believe the best is yet to come.
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“Beyond his own leadership opportunities, Buitrago’s climbing ability and experience will give NSN Cycling Team greater tactical flexibility across the WorldTour calendar. His signing forms part of the team’s continued investment in a roster capable of challenging across multiple race formats, building on the team’s focus of sprinting and opportunistic racing in 2026.”
Buitrago added: “After seven years in Bahrain-Victorious, I felt it was the right time for a new challenge. I experienced some very important moments there, growing as a cyclist and as a person, but I also wanted to step outside my comfort zone and find a different environment that would help me continue to evolve.
“I was really impressed by the NSN sporting project and the confidence the team showed in me from the beginning. I feel we share the same ambition and that this is a place where I can continue to develop and fight for important goals.
“I still feel I have a lot of room to grow, so in the next three years, I want to keep taking steps forward and become an increasingly complete and consistent rider. My main goal will be to remain competitive in stage races and continue to develop in the Grand Tours.”
Analysis
Patrick Fletcher
It seems crazy that Buitrago is still only 26. 2020, when he turned pro with Bahrain McLaren as a 20-year-old, feels like a lifetime ago. The breakthrough performances in 2022 and 2023 may not have led to scale of success that we might have expected, but nevertheless the Colombian has established himself as a strong, reliable, and versatile. climber. And he’s still only 26, so NSN are well within their rights to believe that “the best is yet to come”. This is not a huge statement signing but is exactly the sort that this team needs as they carve out their new identity. This year, they have looked rather one-dimensional, focusing on sprinting and not having much of an impact anywhere else. It hasn’t helped that their two most exciting climbers – Stevie Williams and Joseph Blackmore – haven’t raced all year. But Buitrago brings a level of climbing quality and consistency that the team needs in order to have a more rounded squad, and to start to pick up a few more UCI rankings points. Buitrago can win Grand Tour mountain stages, can be up there in the hilly Classics, and he can post some solid GC results, making him a valuable asset for a squad that can’t really do any of those things right now.