Tour 2015: Nairo Quintana | Movistar

FACT FILE

Age: 25
Height: 1.67m
Weight: 59kg
WorldTour ranking: 15
Wins in 2015: 2
Career wins: 21
Days racing in 2015: 36
Best Tour GC finish:
Second (2013)
KM raced in 2015: 5,254
Form rating: +++

The sight of Nairo Quintana riding away from his rivals on Monte Terminillo in driving snow at Tirreno-Adriatico dispelled any doubts over the Colombian’s physical or mental toughness. The stage win sealed the overall impressively, ahead of a shell-shocked Alberto Contador.

A consummate climber, Quintana returns to the Tour this year having been sent to the Giro in 2014 — which he duly won. He may have taken the Tour by storm in 2013, but his Movistar team made the dreadful decision to back Alejandro Valverde at the race in 2014.

Quintana returned to the Classics this year, as he had before finishing second in the Tour in 2013. His experience at Flèche Wallonne in particular should help him on this year’s third stage, which will finish on the Mur de Huy. Alongside a solid fourth at the Tour of the Basque Country, he has taken on the Dwars door Vlaanderen and E3 Harelbeke, leaving no cobble unturned in building up his experience on the pavé in for readiness this July.

The Colombian will join Contador at the four-day Route du Sud, but those are his only scheduled racing days between May 3 and the start of the Tour. Having been back in Colombia training at altitude, he will take the start line at Utrecht with his form largely unknown — but do not write him off.

Key support
Last year’s main man Valverde tops the bill for what is a climbing-heavy parcours, and is coming in on good form after wins at Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But can the Spaniard be relied on to see his more talented Colombian team-mate through the mountains?
 

Spaniard José Herrada was perhaps the key lieutenant in Quintana’s Giro victory last year — before putting in a gutsy effort in support of Valverde at the Vuelta. And Herrada will have gained confidence from taking his first victory for five years at the Klasika Primavera in April, however low-key the event.