Nairo Quintana will line up at the 100th edition of the Giro d’Italia this year before tackling the Tour de France in July, his Movistar team have confirmed today.
The Colombian has raced the Giro d’Italia just once in his career, when he took a convincing victory in 2014. Quintana finished nearly three minutes ahead of his nearest challenger, compatriot Rigoberto Urán.
Other riders who have announced that their intention to line up at the Giro include Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida), Fabio Aru (Astana), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) and Mikel Landa (Team Sky). The Italian Grand Tour starts in Alghero, Sardinia on May 5th.
Following on from the Giro, Quintana will line up at the Tour where he will aim to finish on the top step of the podium for the first time in his career, having previously finished in 2nd place in 2013 and 2015 and 3rd place last year. After that podium finish in Paris, Quintana went on to win the Vuelta a Espana, beating Chris Froome and Esteban Chaves into second and third places respectively.
Quintana will participate in at least one of the Mallorca Challenge trophies next week. Also confirmed are his appearances at both the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and the Abu Dhabi Tour, his first UCI WorldTour event of the season, during the month of February. Tirreno-Adriatico, in March, will be his final race before returning home to train at altitude in Colombia. His final preparation race for the Italian Grand Tour will be the Vuelta a Asturias in late April.
Movistar’s other big leader Alejandro Valverde, now recovered from the training crash sustained last week, will take part in a number of races during the Mallorca Challenge to start his season. Later on, he will take part in the Vuelta a Murcia, Clásica de Almería, Vuelta a Andalucía, Paris-Nice and one of either the Volta a Catalunya or Vuelta al País Vasco before taking on his first main goal of the season in the Ardennes Classics (Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège), which have seen him claiming seven victories and 14 podium finishes. The Tour de France and the Vuelta a España will be his Grand Tours this season.
Music to Froomes ears..