One of the few cyclists who still uses nose plasters during stages to open his nostrils is Nairo Quintana. The detail denotes a certain age, since the band-aid became fashionable at the beginning of the century. The Colombian, who has just turned 34, is competing in his tenth Volta a Catalunya, which he won in 2016. It is his first race on the World Tour and in Europe in almost 20 months. After being banned, Nairo rears his head. In the signature controls, at the beginning of each stage – the one that ended in Lleida was won by Marijn van der Berg (Education First) in the sprint -, the climber is seen more relaxed. He has gone from being a slightly distrustful person to being more solicitous, which is not the same as radiant, as Quintana has always been introverted.
“He seems relaxed because he comes to do something else, not to dispute, but to help. He is looking for his place again in the peloton,” explains Georgina Ruiz Sandoval, journalist for Caracol Televisión, who has known him since the cyclist was 18 years old.
After everything that has happened to him in the last two years, he does not miss that image of a Zen master, calm and enjoying an extra ball in his career.
In 2024 Quintana has returned to the competition after a year without being able to find a team. There was always talk that he had been included on a blacklist for having used tramadol in the 2022 Tour, a product for which he was disqualified – his sixth place in the classification was annulled – but he could not be sanctioned. A boycott that was denied when Movistar announced that it would give him a second chance in 2024.
Nairo left Arkéa, a French team for which he raced from 2020 to 2022, after that episode. He no longer competed in the Vuelta that year and from then on he did not participate in any race until Movistar took him back by surprise. “It is a joy and an emotion to be able to be on the team again. I want to support Enric Mas. It is clear that he is the leader and we are going to support him throughout the season,” he says about his new role.
He is no longer the great reference as when he was proclaimed champion of the Giro (2014) and the Vuelta a España (2016), in addition to climbing to the final podium of the Tour de France three times. He was one of Froome’s great rivals. He has now found himself with Vingegaard and Pogacar dominating cycling. With the Slovenian, leader of the Volta, he will meet again in the Giro d’Italia, which he won a decade ago. “The team has not burdened him (with responsibility). In the Giro it will be different,” explains Ruiz Sandoval.
At the moment, the number 107 of the Volta was eighteenth in Vallter and twenty-third in Port Ainé, which is usually its home field, positions that allow Movistar to lead the team classification. “I’m doing good pedaling to improve my fitness. We had the Volta marked to do a good Giro, but the virus went through,” Quintana highlights. His preparation suffered a slowdown after the Tour of Colombia. “I thought he had a cold, but it was coronavirus. It affected me a lot. The virus was strong,” he reveals.
His last victory was in the Tour of the Maritime Alps in February 2022. But if in Spain the 33rd has gone viral for the Grand Prix that Fernando Alonso is pursuing, in Colombia they are very attentive to whether Nairo achieves his 52nd victory. He asks calm and there are even those who swear that they have seen him smile. He has become zen.
