“I want to continue enjoying the sport and contribute with my experience” – Interview with Nairo Quintana
The Colombian legend on his return to competition, his new role at Movistar Team, and how cycling has changed in the 10 years since winning Giro 2014.
Nairo Quintana is a cycling legend. The 34-year-old Colombian rider won the Giro d’Italia in 2014, the Vuelta a España in 2016, and achieved three podiums in consecutive participations in the Tour de France, between 2013 and 2016. After a period of hiatus in his career, following a disqualification due to the use of tramadol, he returns to Movistar Team, the team that gave him so much success in his sporting career, to paraphrase him, with the Giro d’Italia as the main season of his season, 10 years after he wore the Maglia Rosa and lifted the Copa del Giro in the end.
Conceiving the Giro d’Italia 2024 as the best opportunity to mark this milestone, as it also marks his return to the grand tours of his career, Portuguese Cycling Magazine had the pleasure of interviewing Nairo Quintana. More than a conversation about the Giro and the 2024 season, we took the opportunity to revisit the Colombian’s cycling career, trying to understand how he got here and now.
Photo: LaPresse
The greatest of the history of cycling bring up the greatest subjects, so we start by what has changed in cycling since 2014. “I was 10 years younger”, begins Quintana in good humor, considering that “cycling is evolving very quickly and the competition is increasingly stronger, with riders who are emerging younger and younger”, a situation which promotes the separation between “my goals in 2014” and “those of now”.
Going back to his 2014 goals, Nairo Quintana was seen as the biggest favorite to win the Maglia Rosa, at the start with his revelation status acquired in the 2013 Tour. However, the first two weeks didn’t go his way; with crashes, allergies and a punishing time-trial, he entered the high mountain stages 3 minutes behind his compatriot Rigoberto Uran, the leader of the general classification.
The remontada on Stage 16 would be as heroic as it was controversial: when poor communication from the organization led a majority of riders to believe that the descent of the Passo dello Stelvio was neutralized, Quintana attacked with a teammate and also Ryder Hesjedal and Pierre Rolland, building an advantage which proved to be irrecoverable, even until the end of the Giro. But the Colombian didn’t want to leave room for dispute, and on the uphill time-trial to Monte Grappa – an important point on the 2024 route, to be crossed on two occasions – he put more time on the competition, sealing his first victory in a grand tour.
Photo: Joel Saget / AFP
“It’s been 10 years since that wonderful Giro,” Quintana reflects proudly, and from then on he built an entertaining career, but with drama always in the background. Having to compete against an armada called Sky, he was unable to win the Tour at the height of his form, despite coming the closest to sinking the aircraft carrier, with a hail of gunfire on Alpe d’Huez. Cycling fans’ despair at the British team’s rigidity led to criticism of excessive conservatism on the part of the Colombian, until performance began to decline.
Quintana has changed, just as cycling has changed, and despite leaving Movistar Team for Team Arkéa Samsic in 2020, his heart never left the Spanish team. “It is known that I had contacts with Movistar Team last year, and we immediately agreed for me to return to the team that gave me so much success in my sporting career”, recalls the Colombian. The contentment with this new (old) opportunity is evident. “It was a difficult year. Many days without sleep, a huge sacrifice”, as read in the team’s statement, but in the midst of despair “I never stopped training thinking about returning to competition”.
After a season of hiatus, the 2024 season would always be unknown. Maybe that’s why Nairo Quintana wanted to start it on familiar ground. “It was a very emotional Tour of Colombia… an entire country dedicated to us! The support is unconditional and I have no words to thank you for everything you give us”, addresses the fans.
This homeland return to competitionpromoted a gesture of altruism, which immediately sorted the idea of a ‘new Quintana’. When his teammate Iván Sosa suffered a mechanical problem at Alto del Vino, a decisive mountain finish, Quintana gave him his bike. “I lent my bike to Sosa without thinking, because at that moment in the race he was performing better”, recalls Quintana, doing justice to the maxim that “helping the team when things are not going well is fundamental to achieving greater success in the future.”
Photo: Movistar Team / Cxcling Creative Agency
It was with the intention of helping the team, specifically Enric Mas, that he returned to Europe. But the Volta a Catalunya ended up evoking a distant memory, also from Spanish roads: the crash in the time trial of the 2014 Vuelta, when he was wearing the leader’s red jersey. It was in the last moments of Catalonia that Quintana fell to the ground. “At first, we thought it wasn’t that serious. But then we saw that the injury would leave me unable to compete for longer”, a situation that reflects the harshness and unpredictability of cycling, only accommodated by the determination and hope of the riders. “When you’re injured there are always doubts about your recovery, but I never lost hope of being at the start of the Giro.”
Coming from injury, his physical form does not allow him to dream with the Maglia Rosa of 2014, but Quintana states with great conviction that “my objective in 2024 is to help the team and, if it presents itself, also look for my opportunity at some point”. Among the fans, there is talk of the mountain jersey, but this objective is not confirmed by Quintana. Since he and cycling have changed so much, the only objective is “to continue to enjoy the sport that I love so much and contribute with all my experience. At a sporting level, that is what motivates me most.”
In the spirit of someone who has already lived a lot, and is ready to live some more, a good Giro 2024 for Nairo Quintana would be a Giro 2024 “in which my colleagues achieve their goals, in which we don’t have any mishaps and in which I help them in every way possible. If I have an opportunity, it would also be good to take advantage of it.”
We thank Nairo Quintana and the Movistar Team for their availability to give us this interview, and we wish them the best of luck for the Giro d’Italia!
Cover photo: Getty Images
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