A quick look at the results of stage 4 of the Tour Colombia 2.1 shows the flags of Colombia and Ecuador lined up next to the riders' names.

Gavin Mannion of Rally Pro Cycling is responsible for that American flag. The 27-year-old is in eighth place overall before Italy's Fabio Aru, who won the Vuelta España, podiumed at the Giro d'Italia, and won a stage at the Tour de France, is in 11th place.

Mannion finished the summit finish of stage 4, Santa Rosa de Viverto, in 14th place, 21 seconds behind stage winner Sergio Iguita (EF Pro Cycling) in the pack.

The stage climbed to dizzying heights with the 2,732-meter Category 3 Alto de Martelías just 2.9 km from the finish. Mannion crossed the finish line in second place in a group of nine. This confirms his ninth place overall at the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina last month.

"It was definitely a hard finish," Mannion said. Fabio Aru passed me at the end, but it was nice to ride with some of the best riders in the world."

Mannion competed against athletes who live above 2,500 meters altitude and those who are in Colombia for team training camps.

Larry arrived a week early and trained at lower elevations around Bogota after the race in San Juan. However, Mannion is excited about the opportunity.

"The high altitude was tough," he said. 'When I was in Argentina beforehand, I was mostly at sea level. Luckily, it's really hot there, and it's kind of like altitude acclimatization, so it's better than nothing, but it's definitely different than life here."

"I went in with pretty realistic expectations that it would be hard to do anything GC-wise without being Colombian and having been at 8,000 feet for a while. But we had a good run at TTT, and we had a good run at San Juan GC-wise." So we'll see what happens at the end of the week."

Mannion's team director, Jonas Kearney, was impressed with the performance of his young men, noting that Mannion was up against some very tough competition.

"Not only the World Tour players, but also the Colombian players are great. Not only the World Tour athletes, but also the Colombian Continental team is full of great climbers."

Mannion and the other GC riders will have a bit of a break from the rivalry on Saturday for the 180.5km stage from Pipa to Zipaquira, home of Tour de France champion Egan Bernal. Sunday's queen stage, however, will be one for the history books.

The final stage starts in Zipaquila and finishes with the climb of the category 2 Alto del Berhon, which culminates at 3,290 meters. The final GC will be decided there.

"Sunday is going to be a big battle," said the Italian. It's the last day, so people are going to throw bombs, but I'm kind of looking forward to it. It's going to be a tough race. There are a lot of Colombians and World Tour riders there, and if we can get a top-20 finish here, I think we'll have a pretty good run considering how well we've prepared for this race. Let's see what happens on Sunday."

After Colombia, Mannion will return to Colorado to rest for a while before ramping up his training again in March for three months of racing in Europe, starting with the Giro di Sicilia on April 1. Larry won this race last year with Brandon McNulty, who has since moved to the World Tour from UAE Team Emirates.

"I had a really good time last year and winning this race with Brandon was a really good experience. It's a good level race for us. There are some World Tour teams, but it's not a full-fledged World Tour, so it's a chance for us to get a big result."