Nairo Quintana ‘new’ team. His return to Movistar has been the most important news in world cycling in recent hours, but his return has several aspects.
Quintana left the coffers of the team Eusebio Unzué in 2019, when he signed for the Arkea-Samsic, a second division cast in which he spent three seasons and left in the worst way.
(Video: the dedication of Diogo Jota and Liverpool to Luis Díaz for kidnapping his father)
(Luis Díaz: Liverpool’s first drastic decision for kidnapping his father)
Today, he returns and next year he will dress again in the colors of a group that knows him, but to which he arrives under very different circumstances than before.
These are the five keys to that return, which the entire cycling world will be paying attention to from January 1, 2024.
1. Nairo, the beneficiary
If there is anyone who has ‘won the lottery’ with Nairo’s return to the team that took him to Europe in 2012, it is himself. Quintana had exhausted all possibilities of finding a squad that would ‘give him his hand’ after the disqualification of the Tour de Francebecause two of their analyzes showed the substance tramadolprohibited by the International Cycling Union (UCI) in competition, but not by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
He wins because he insisted that he was ready for the competition, that he trained every day to look for a second chance, and he found it, fortunately.
Quintana had knocked on the doors in the Pro Team, the second category groups, but nothing. And even the Continentals, like the Team Medellinthey ‘offered him a job’, but he always refused.
Nairo is happy today, because he achieved the goal of not only continuing cycling, of not hanging up his bike, but he is doing it at his ‘home’, in a squad that he knows very well.
The man from Boyacá wins because despite his case with tramadol and the history after the 2020 Tour de France, when the French gendarmerie raided his room in search of prohibited substances, his name was marked. Unzué and his group give him a boost.
That he returns to Movistar is synonymous with confidence and that in riders whose background is rarely seen, since credibility, fair play and the work of many people are at stake, because cycling teams are not teams, they are companies. Oh, and he’s 33 years old.
2. Does Movistar win?
That remains to be seen and it will only be confirmed with their results and behavior if Movistar was wrong. It is a squad that needs a runner like Nairo, but not because of the name, but because of results.
If he is in good shape he can fight. He is not going to win the Tour, the Vuelta or the Giro. It is not up to the task of fighting pedal to pedal with Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic and much less with Jonas Vingegaardbut it is clear that he is a rider who can win stages, fight for a ‘top’ five or 10, which will give points to Movistar, and fight for better positions in short races, lasting one week.
If that happens, Quintana will fit Unzué like a glove, who sees Nairo as a support to fight for victories alongside Enric Más, that has not responded as expected, and to help young people like Einer Rubio. Also, as marketing, perfect. It is a good reinforcement, without a doubt, if it works.
3. Its conditions
When he returns to competition, Nairo will complete a year and a half without running a stage event, the last one was the Tour de France in 2022, and that is a big question, because training is not the same as competing, nor is it a guarantee of going to the races. races and win.
However, Quintana is a bicycle professional, an ‘outstanding’ and he has not stood still, he has trained as if he were in competition. It remains to be seen how his body reacts, since he has already given a year and a half of advantages over a group that does not wait and in cycling every meter you stop pedaling takes its toll.
He arrives, as he told Unzué, as a member of Mas, something that Nairo has never liked, because he has always been a leader, but due to the circumstances of his return he must adapt to that and he will be the only one responsible for that order being quite the opposite.
4. The danger
The eyes of cycling will be on Nairo… And Movistar. It is clear that the Colombian’s record with the issue of prohibited substances is not good. He has not engaged in doping, it is clear, but yes, as listed in a previous point, he already has two reviews.
He will be a controlled, monitored, tested runner and, incidentally, his team will enter that game, his teammates will suffer ‘a persecution’.
Benjamin Cohenpresident of the International Testing Agency (ITA)told EL TIEMPO that Quintana had no problem, that he didn’t know why he hadn’t gotten a contract if he hadn’t doped, and it’s true.
But Cohen also noted in that interview that the sponsors’ fear was that he would reoffend. And if the director of an entity that pursues doping says it, then it is serious.
“If it is due to pressure from sponsors, there is a risk that he will reoffend again… but it is clear that you are serving a sanction and you should be able to compete again,” Cohen said. That is why Quintana’s great responsibility is not only on the bicycle.
5. Colombian cycling
That Nairo returns to the ‘big leagues’ of cycling is excellent for Colombian cycling, which did not have the best results in 2023.
With Egan Bernal looking for his best form after the accident, with Nairo without a team and with Miguel Angel Lopez Provisionally suspended in 2024 did not seem to improve 2023.
With Nairo back things may be different. He is a runner who gives a show, he is a leader of the lot, despite his 33 years he still has a couple more years to appear, to be a protagonist.
A lot is expected from Quintana, but you have to keep your feet on the ground. He is not the rider who won the Giro, the Vuelta and was on the Tour podium, but he is a fighting cyclist who generates expectations.
It will be good for cycling in the country if he maintains good form, if these months without competing do not take their toll on him and he can be ahead. Whether Colombian cycling wins depends on its form, its results, nothing else.
(Jurgen Klopp speaks for the first time about the kidnapping of Luis Díaz’s father)
2022’de tramadol cezası aldı, 2023’ü takımsız geçirdi ve kader un 2019 sonunda ayrıldığı yere, Movistar’a getirdi. Nairo Quintana, eski takımı Movistar ile 2024 sezonu için 1 yıllık sözleşme imzaladı. pic.twitter.com/OXDkCZXQ6U
— Pro Peloton (@propelotontr) October 28, 2023
Lisandro Rengifo
Editor of EL TIEMPO
@lisandroabel
#keys #Nairo #Quintanas #return #Movistar #analysis