“El Teso”, a high-level globetrotter.
If you go to Terret's offices and ask for Andrés Felipe Vásquez Mejía, you will surely be met with puzzled looks. Who is that?, some will say. But if you ask for “El teso” they will call the character.
You will meet a petite figure, with shy gestures and kind responses. Surely she is carefully organizing some sportswear that someone will soon wear and that will accompany her on her sporting adventures.
But if you go over some hill you probably won't have to ask too many questions. You will find this same figure, dressed as a runner, advancing at full speed, climbing the slope and surprising those who see him effortlessly go up the hills that tire even the engines of cars.
The paths of “El Teso” come and go through Copacabana, Antioquia. Every day he goes to work on his bicycle from that town that is located more than 20 kilometers away. From there he sets the pulse of a body accustomed to long distances, asphalt and cobblestone roads. Because that is how those who came into the world with extra battery are. Since he was a child, Álvaro’s nephew, an elite athlete who inherited some good genes from him, was known for being tireless, for being in all sports and for being, as we say in the neighborhood: “a plague.”
He grew up doing duathlons, winning amateur athletics races and climbing the slopes. Andrés likes to look up. For example, the half Everesting he did jogging in 2021. Six ascents to Alto de Las Palmas. If those who did it by bike were crazy, the “teso” was born with all the screws loose from the factory.
He participated in the latest version of the Chicamocha Canyon Race. 111 kilometers of mountain that make Everesting look like a mere warm-up and that are the best letter of introduction for this 35-year-old athlete who for a few hours of the day makes clothes for athletes and for others he shows them off to take them beyond the limits, much further and faster than most.