Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) starts his tenth season in European cycling this Thursday, which he reached in 2012, when he was part of Movistar. He is the Colombian cyclist, next to Fernando Gaviriawith the highest number of wins in the statistics (47).
The boyacense will lead his squad in the Tour de la Provence, the French competition in which he won in 2020, in his first year in the ProTeam category, after leaving Eusebio Unzué’s rope, with which he won almost everything .
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It has been 10 years of falls, injuries, failures, but there have been more moments of joy that he has given to the country, to a Colombia that continues to consider him an idol. And it is difficult for someone to match that statistic that accompanies it; time will pass and those numbers will remain intact.
Nairo arrived in 2012 preceded by the Tour de l’Avenir title, achieved a year earlier, and responded to the conditions and demands of cycling in Europe. His first victory was the Dauphiné Libéré stage on June 9 of that year.
And, from then on, the recently turned 32-year-old rider achieved 20 more victories in fractions of the World Tour (WT) races, the highest category of cycling in the world. Of these, three in the Giro and two in the Tour and the Vuelta.
His first title in the WT was the Vuelta del País Vasco in 2013. Later he climbed to the top of the podium six more times, two of them in the big three: the Giro d’Italia in 2014 and the Vuelta a España in 2016. .
He won the general classification of Tirreno Adriatico (2015 and 2017), Vuelta a Catalunya and Vuelta a Romandía (2016), being the country’s rider with the most titles in the category.
He has been in 16 majors: eight times in the Tour, twice in the Giro and has run six laps of Spain. He only had to retire once, in 2014, due to a fall in the 2014 Vuelta.
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He has obtained six podiums in those races: to the titles in the Giro (2014) and in the Vuelta (2016) are added the two second places in the Tour, 2013 and 2015, the third in 2016; a subtitle in Italy in 2017, the time he was beaten by Tom Dumoulin.
Quintana has not been able to return to being a member of the podium in a major since that 2017 Giro, and his conditions are not those of previous years.
The performance curve, as usual, has dropped, and it no longer has a good tank to keep up with the greats of the moment, such as Tadej Pogacar or Primoz Roglic.
That does not take away the option of continuing to be a figure, a protagonist; For this reason, this year the goal has been set to win stages in the Tour de France and fight the mountains, and for that the countdown begins tomorrow with the Tour de Provence.
“I won here in 2020. I am motivated by the idea of returning to this competition and being able to play an important role. My physical condition is good and I hope to have good conditions for this event”, said Quintana.
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