"I can do well in this race" - Nairo Quintana sets eyes on overall win at La Route d'Occitanie

Ahead of the Tour de France, Nairo Quintana will be testing his legs at La Route d'Occitanie. After a training camp in the Pyrenees, the Arkéa Samsic leader will be looking for the win in the overall classification.

“I feel good physically, I have recovered perfectly from my crash during the Tour of Turkey. The Route d’Occitanie is a race that I know well and that I like a lot. I have already won it twice, so I am confident that I can do well in this race," Quintana said in a press release anticipating the race. With wins at the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var and Tour de la Provence earlier in the year, aswell as fifth at Paris-Nice, the Colombian has reasons to aim high in another French stage-race he's set to tackle.

He was the outright favourite to the win at the Tour of Turkey but a sequence of crashes saw him pull out of the race, aswell as the Vuelta a Asturias as he looked to recover and prepare for the heavy second half of the season. He returns to competition this week at La Route d'Occitanie where he will be one of the main favourites.

There will be a great Arkéa-Samsic team on the roads of Occitanie, which is motivated. These few days spent in the South-West and in the Pyrenean passes will allow us to work well and to prepare the 2022 Tour de France," he said. He has won the race twice in the past and will be looking for a third win in the race's mountainous stages.

"I am motivated by the fact that I will take part in this competition again, the general profile appeals to me with in particular a mountain stage proposed by the organizers, which will be able to serve me as an adaptation to the big climbs in view of the Tour de France, and also as a test, hoping of course to have good sensations on that day to be able to do well," Quintana concluded.

Team Arkéa Samsic for La Route d'Occitanie: Nairo Quintana, Dayer Quintana, Michel Ries, Alessandro Verre, Winner Anacona, Nicolas Edet and Laurent Pichon.