The Colombian cyclist Nairo Quintana, who has been without a team for a year, returns to Movistar five years after leavingas reported this Saturday by the Spanish team.
Quintana, 33 years old, wore the colors of Movistar from 2012 to 2019a team where he achieved the great successes of his professional career such as the 2014 Giro d’Italia, the 2016 Vuelta a España and three podiums (second in 2013 and 2015 and third in 2016) in the Tour de France.
“I’m excited to go home. It was a difficult year. Days without sleep, many days of great sacrifice, gets on a bike and tries to walk forward, rain or shine. But it’s worth it. I will not waste the opportunity. I know the values of the team, the values of the sport. “I will give everything to do well and I want to contribute to the team to get the best results,” Quintana said when announcing his return to the Spanish team.
“I thank Movistar, Telefónica and the team for this great opportunity, which I have been waiting for a long time.. In my heart, and in my feet, I will give everything, for them and for the fans. I hope this cycle will be successful for the team,” he added.
After leaving Movistar, Nairo Quintana signed for the French team Arkea, whose passage, from 2020 to 2022, is cautious, competing only in the Tour de France in the grand rounds. His best result, in those three years, was fourth place in the Vuelta a Catalunya in 2022 and fifth in Paris-Nice also that year.
Nairo Quintana spent all of 2023 without a race in a team structure. The Colombian is without a team after in 2022, one day before the start of the Vuelta a España, in Utrecht (Netherlands), they notified Arkea that he tested positive for tramadol in the Tour. He was disqualified from the race, in which he finished sixth, but was not allowed, because from 2024 he will be considered positive for doping.
Arkea, with whom he renewed his contract a few weeks before the 2022 Vuelta, decided not to run La Vuelta, and the Colombian rider himself announced on October 1 of that year that he would not continue with the French team to focus on his defense against TAS.
With its return to Movistar, the Spanish team once again has “a symbol of its recent history and a benchmark for sport in Latin America.”
Source: La Verdad
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