Superman!

Sometimes, like when he stood atop the Tour de Suisse podium last week, 22-year-old Colombian cyclist Miguel Ángel López looks more like a schoolboy who thinks he has died and gone to heaven than a force to be reckoned with.

Photo: Tim De Waele

López did more to earn his nickname "Superman," though, than win prestigious stage races or soldier on in spandex, precipitation be damned. 

Five years ago López was ambushed on a training ride by a pair of would-be bike thieves. The brigands got more than they'd bargained for with the 5'6", 143-pound López, however. The cyclist fought the men off, sustaining two stab wounds before disarming his assailants—and retaining his bike, of course.  

"Anyone would have defended themselves, wouldn't they?" López says of the episode.

Maybe so, Superman, but few would have done so so successfully.

Thanks to Tom and Karen Carter for bringing López's story to my attention, and to Rafael Michelena for translation assistance.