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Nairo Quintana notches up third career TDF stage win

  • Ron 

After a race where things didn’t go as he planned, Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) managed to claim a big stage victory in the Alps after 207km, nearly 5,000 meters of vertical gain and three big climbs from Embrun to Valloire.

Quintana was part of an early, 23-man breakaway where he was always supported by Carlos Verona and Andrey Amador, the latter taking big turns for his team-mates to chase the gaps in the early slopes of the Lautaret, the slight ascent towards the start of the Col du Galibier (HC). Seven kilometers before the top, 26 from the end, the Boyacá native attacked from the break, finding no real opposition as the likes of Romain Bardet (ALM) and Alexey Lutsenko (AST) quickly lost more and more terrain as they tried to keep close to Quintana. It’s Nairo third career stage win in the Tour -after mountain-top victories in Semnoz (2013) and the Col du Portet (2018)- and an extra chance to go for a good overall result, now 7th -just over two minutes behind the podium- with two mountain stages remaining before Paris.

Friday’s stage 19, the second Alpine journey of this year’s ‘Grande Boucle’, will cover just 126km, yet with five rated climbs that include the Col de l’Iseran (HC) and the final ascent to Tignes (Cat-1), just two kilometers before the end.

REACTION / Nairo Quintana:

“This victory is a proof of the big efforts we’ve made for so many months leading up to this race. We worked so hard, we did things we thought were right, yet the race didn’t go as we had wanted. We kept our head down, kept digging and here’s the result. I knew it could be a good day for me, and we talked with the team about any possible strategy to go for a good result. In the end, we got this stage victory – we also gave it a try with Mikel, picking up the pace behind so he could attack and gain some places back. On an individual side, things went good for me, but above all, this is a victory which proves how good the team has done over the race. They worked really hard during the entire Tour, helped me a lot. It was sad when I lost time in the Tourmalet, but here we are. This goes to my team-mates, my family and my country, which has always been supporting me, at good times and not so good. It’s always a big emotion to be able to win such a great stage, on a route for the climbers. Here I was, doing well in my terrain, over beautiful climbs, those that I like.”

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