"Kings of the Mountains" tells the amazing and little-known story of how anmpoverished, politically turbulent Latin American country produced a breedf cyclist capable of taking on the world's best - in the 2002 Tour de Francehe top Colombian rider Santiago Botero beat even the great Lance Armstrongo win the time trial.;Matt Rendell tells of how Colombia's fist cycle racesuring the 50s were held on dusty, unpaved roads - with consequentiallyhastly accidents; of how the first top Europeans to race in Colombia foundhemselves utterly vanquished by its endless mountain climbs; of how theiography of Colombia's first cycling superstar was written by Gabriel Garciaarquez. Then, in the 70s and 80s, its cyclists began to make their markbroad, even in the Tour de France - especially as victors in its drainingountain stages, to become King of the Mountains - before Colombia'sathological political instability led to the rise of the cocaine cartels,nd cycling became inextricably linked with the world of drug smuggling.