Nairo Quintana is honest before the route: "My condition is not the best"

The Colombian Nairo Quintana assured this Saturday that he would like to be among the favorites to win the road competition this Sunday in the National Championship that is disputed in the city of Bucaramanga, although he confessed that his condition is not the best.

“Being champion is important, it is also an achievement that I have never had (in that competition) and that I have prepared on different occasions,” Quintana said at a press conference in the Colombian city.

However, he hopes “to be there close to the favourites” when he will compete against routers of the stature of Miguel Ángel ‘Supermán’ López (Team Medellín), Sergio Higuita (Bora), Daniel Felipe Martínez (Ineos); Diego Camargo and Esteban Chaves, from EF Education-Easypost; Harold Tejada, from Astana; Iván Ramiro Sosa and Einer Rubio, from Movistar, and Jesús Peña, from Greenedge Cycling.

It will be a circuit that “seems like nothing but it will be difficult”, where there will be a “natural competition without many attacks”, with a fast ride.

Nairo be honest

Photo:

Cesar Melgarejo / EL TIEMPO

And he admitted to the press: “My condition is not the best, what I’m going through at the moment. Only God knows when it’s time and we’re going to go calmly.”

Quintana, who confirmed last week that he is not retiring from cycling, is waiting for a team to continue competing in the three most important races in the world, the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia or the Tour of Spain.

“Due to the events of recent months, in which the rarefied environment in which I have developed is undeniable and the inexplicable wall that has been raised between the possibilities of competing and my desire to continue doing so, I do not give up and continue towards Go ahead,” said the Colombian climber, who turns 33 today.

He assured that his future “may not be possible to run here in Colombia”, but that he has not yet decided anything, after his disqualification last year from the Tour de France after he tested positive for the use of tramadol, a painkiller prohibited by the Union International Cyclist (UCI) to protect the health and safety of cyclists but who is not listed as a doping agent.

EFE