Analysis | Nairo Quintana shuts mouths and shows his enormous class in the queen stage of the Giro d'Italia

At the beginning of the season, when Movistar Team unveiled the calendar of the main races for the 2024 season, many people were shaking their heads when they saw that Nairo Quintana was going to compete in the Giro d'Italia, in principle as the leader of the telephone team in terms of the general classification.

However, the Colombian rider suffered many setbacks in the months leading up to the Corsa Rosa, including a crash at the Volta a Catalunya. All of this left Quintana without the fitness to compete against an all-conquering Tadej Pogacar for the Giro's maglia rosa. That is why, before the start of the race, both Nairo himself and Movistar decided that his participation would be as a stage chaser, leaving Einer Rubio as the team's main aspiration for the overall.

This also provoked criticism, as many believed that Nairo Quintana did not even have the fitness, no longer to win on specific days, but to finish the three-week race. After the queen stage, it can be said that the veteran Colombian rider has silenced all mouths with a performance that, although it did not end in victory, was outstanding on his part.

Nairo Quintana started the queen stage (the 15th) on Sunday, May 19, looking for his best performance in a very long time. The 34-year-old rider was not looking to hide, far from it, as he was part of the breakaway in the final 220 kilometers of the stage. Nairo's effort was to be homeric throughout the day.

Quintana's best moment was to come when the breakaway, 23 kilometers from the finish, had been reduced to a group of 9 riders. At that point, Georg Steinhauser launched an attack that left him more than a minute ahead of the chasing group. Nairo Quintana didn't want the EF Education-EasyPost rider to go away, and together with Attila Valter and Michael Storer he went after Steinhauser.

However, Nairo was going to be left alone, but he didn't care. The Movistar Team rider, without any fear, went all out for his rival, and while Tadej Pogacar attacked in the peloton in search of sentencing the general classification and start to catch the escapees to win the stage, Quintana took the lead and saw his possible victory getting closer and closer.

But Pogacar is Pogacar. The Slovenian was not going to give anyone a break. As he pulled away from Geraint Thomas and Daniel Martínez to have a final week of the Giro d'Italia with the overall classification settled, the UAE Team Emirates star also wanted to take his fourth stage win.

The decisive moment came with the arrival of the last wall of the stage. The final 4 kilometers emptied Nairo Quintana. He himself said it in his declarations after the stage, that trying to defend himself from Pogacar he emptied himself on the final ramps. However, the Colombian took a second place that he will remember for a long time, and of which, besides having to be tremendously proud of it, he has managed to shut the mouths of many of his main critics.

The good news for Movistar Team doesn't end there.

In addition to Nairo Quintana's achievement, Movistar Team is very happy about the queen stage of the Giro d'Italia after Einer Rubio's performance on the final climb from the peloton. With his seventh position of the day, Quintana's compatriot returns to a Top 10 (9th), which he had dropped after his disastrous individual time trial on Saturday's stage 14.

Article written by Jorge P Borreguero.