"Let the mountains come and win a stage" - Nairo Quintana dreams of raising his arms this Giro

Nairo Quintana was one of the main protagonists of the eleventh stage of the 2025 Giro d'Italia. The Colombian was present in the ultimate breakaway along with Pello Bilbao, Luke Plapp, Lorenzo Fortunato and Wout Poels. However, the GC favorites held the five men on a short leash and eventually took away their chances to fight for the victory on the last categorized climb. The stage then went to Richard Carapaz, the bravest of GC men.

"It was a very very fast day all day, with men in the breakaway, at the beginning many and then it was selected and then we came rolling but finally behind there were interests and in the end they have not let us arrive," said Nairo after the finish.

He then spoke about the stages up ahead in this Giro d'Italia. "I like them, I like them, we are waiting for the mountains to arrive and we hope to be there present to win a stage," Quintana commented, making it clear that he is going to try again. Even so, he will not be able to neglect his main task in this race, which is to help as much as possible his compatriot and teammate Einer Rubio, currently 18th overall, 4:09 behind the current race leader, Mexican Isaac del Toro.

Finally, he assessed the tactics they have to follow to get a stage victory, giving as an example this 11th stage of 186 kilometers between Viareggio and Castelnovo ne' Monti: "I like all of them, we have to go in a breakaway, try to go in a breakaway, enter, wait for the selection of the strong men. Today it was a selection of strong men. At the end we came close to victory but it was impossible to predict who would anticipate," closed the 35-year-old.