Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) has gotten his 2017 season off to a successful start, taking the overall victory today in the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, marking his thirteenth professional stage race victory.
The Colombian, who had taken over the yellow jersey on yesterday’s stage finish on Mas de la Costa, maintained the same lead over the BMC Racing Team pair of Ben Hermans and Manuel Senni that he held going into the stage and the task was made more straightforward after the stage was shortened.
The race organisers had decided to reduce the stage distance by almost 80 kilometres due to high winds. The stage was reduced to just 51 kilometres, which took in five laps of Valencia city centre circuit around City Hall.
Movistar kept Quintana safe on the circuit, ensuring he took victory and the team also managed to take the team classification. The stage was won in a sprint finish by Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis, Solutions Crédits) and Coen Vermeltfoort (Roompot – Nederlandse Loterij).
Nairo Quintana: “I’m very happy about this victory. We knew it wouldn’t be easy today, and indeed it turned out to be very nervous due to the strong winds we had to face. Fortunately, both the team and I kept attention at all times and in the end it was no problem for us to conserve this jersey. I don’t consider it was an easier victory than previous ones. After so many months without racing, the TTT was really hard for us. Considering the gaps created by the team trial, we were thinking it’d be sort of an impossible feat to reach the leader’s jersey. The other days weren’t easy, either, as we suffered with strong winds, lots of stress… Saturday might have been a bit less difficult, because the team’s work helped me to get to the foot of the ascent much fresh, and I could finish it off well. It’s all about my team-mates’ work: they covered me perfectly all week.
“My fitness level at this point of the season is similar to what I found last year. We’ve got two big goals ahead, the Giro and the Tour, and we know that finding the correct approach will be key to our success. For the time being, we’re on the right path to get there at 100%, but should any other opportunities come along the way, we’ll chase them. I’m one of those who likes winning in January or February, and I also try to be in good condition up until the end of the season. Now it’s time to have some rest and prepare for the Abu Dhabi Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico, my next two races.”
Niall Kennedy
Yay