29/01/2024

"It was more strategy than anything else" - Nairo Quintana disappointed with outcome of Colombian national championships

Nairo Quintana said before the Colombian national championships that he wanted to fight for gold in both the time trial and road race. However, he has fallen far short of those goals.

Against all odds, his best performance took place in the time trial, where he had no chance of victory against a superior Daniel Martinez, but in which he came close to the podium finishing in a more than worthy fourth place.

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However, he did not headline in the road championship, where the Movistar Team rider was one of the favorites. He finished in 26th position almost 6 minutes behind the winner Alejandro Osorio and far behind the wheels that should have followed, those of Sergio Higuita and Egan Bernal. He was even 3 minutes behind his Movistar teammate Einer Rubio or other favorites like Harold Tejada or Brandon Rivera.

Thus, speaking to DSportsCO after the race, Nairo admitted that the problem he had in the race was strategic, assuring that he had the necessary strength, but that he did not choose the right attacks to follow.

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"It was wonderful to be able to ride today in my homeland, we were in expectation, things didn't work out, but I'm happy to continue adding kilometers," he told. "It was complicated, not having a team to control is not easy. It turned out this way. We kept on adding up. We had good legs, in the end it was more strategy than anything else".

The Tour Colombia will start next week and will be a major goal for the Colombian, who is hoping to show better performances than what has been the case this past week.