Without the argument of age or physical decline, without being pushed by the results, with the shadow of retirement harassing him for not finding a team, Nairo Quintana announces that he wants to continue cycling. His reasons for leaving were weak, he cannot find a team, nobody wants him in the elite after an adverse analysis in the Tour with a commonly used substance not prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but vetoed by the UCI in cycling races, the tramadol. The Colombian appealed his ‘positive’ in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS), which rejected it. With a license to run, without being sanctioned, his signing has been rejected by many teams (Bahrain, AG2R, Movistar, Cofidis, Astana, Israel…) and he has not taken the route of ‘Supermán’ López in Colombian Medellín. «I am prepared to be hired by a top-flight team and that is why I continue training. I keep talking to one of them and I hope that this is my future,” he said at a press conference from Bogotá.
Tramadol threatens his cycling career. As always, doping spoils everything. The cyclist who made a fervent country of this sport dream, Colombia, which one day imagined a version 2.0 beetle as the first Colombian to win the Tour de France, has been one step away from leaving. Where Lucho Herrera or Fabio Parra did not arrive, Nairo Quintana seemed destined.
The prediction was never fulfilled, Egan Bernal did in 2019, nor was the ‘yellow dream’ that popularized the Movistar marketing service to define the illusion of seeing Nairo defeating Chris Froome and the powerful Sky machine that had colonized the cycling to an Anglophile sport since the appearance of Lance Armstrong.
“A true cyclist does not give up in the face of adversity, regardless of whether you are a leader, gregarious or from a humble squad, we are fighters and I have learned to overcome poverty, discrimination or injustice”, explained the Colombian.
Movistar dreamed of yellow as Echávarri had dreamed of with his group of ambassadors in the 1983 Tour, Arroyo and Delgado, or the team grew to the top with Miguel Induráin during five military parades in France. Nairo was chosen by Movistar.
But the Colombian, a type of character and silence, choked on the mission. In 2013 he had other ambitions and finished second. In 2015 and 2016 he ran into the barrier of Sky and Froome. In 2017 he arrived at the Tour tired of the Giro. And in 2018 and 2019 the phone team became embroiled in a battle of egos with three leaders sulking against each other. He won the 2014 Giro and the 2016 Vuelta, as well as other trophies (Tyrrhenian, Basque Country, Romandie, Volta…).
«Today I am in good shape to continue, after the events of the last few months, with a rarefied atmosphere and an inexplicable wall that has been raised, but my desire is to continue competing. I don’t give up and keep going. I have always risen. The fight and the sacrifice is what I know”, commented Quintana.
Prey to stress and obligations, he went to France, to Arkea, a smaller team built around him. For months he was again that promising project of a cyclist, the son of peasants in Cómbita, who climbed a port twice in the Boyacá region to go to school every day. Son of necessity, Nairo’s father lived off the fruits of the field that he sold in the towns or in a small stall. An accident left him in a wheelchair forever and Nairo, like his four brothers, dedicated himself to picking fruit and selling it.
« Until my body resists, I am an honest runner, I always have been, with more than 250 controls I have had no problems, I have respected the rules, honoring fair play. I have a commitment to clean sport. I want to compete again, put on a number, give my best to the finish line. I need it. The competition is in me, “explained Nairo.
Nairo grew up as an old-fashioned cyclist. He went slowly, year after year, without pressure, learning in each race. Philosophy of the Unzué factory. In his last period dressed in blue he was a discouraged cyclist, on the defensive, asking for air with his elbow… In the Arkea he had recovered his breath, sixth in the Tour behind the litter of impossible puppies, Vingegaard, Pogacar, Van Aert… And that’s how he wants to continue.
“I thank the companies that remain by my side, firm, because they know my dignified performance as a person and athlete,” he recalled.
