Nairo Quintana could have ridden alongside Chris Froome at Team Sky, but decided to decline the offer to stay with Movistar Team. Today we tell you the story;
In 2014, the cycling world was amazed by Nairo Quintana's performance in the Giro d'Italia. There, he conquered the "maglia rosa" as champion, demonstrating his ability in the mountains and his capacity to fight against the best riders in the world. Two years later, in 2016, Nairo took victory in the Vuelta a España, cementing his status as one of the best climbers and Grand Tour riders in professional cycling.
In addition to these victories, Quintana reached the podium three times in the Tour de France, the most prestigious race in world cycling. His most memorable duel in this competition was against a formidable rival, Chris Froome.
The epic battles with Chris Froome.
Chris Froome, then at the helm of Team Sky (now INEOS), was the big star of world cycling, and the Tour de France was his playground. For several years, Nairo Quintana, defending the colours of the Movistar team, and Froome engaged in epic battles for the coveted yellow jersey.
Despite his tenacity and skills in the mountains, Nairo never managed to beat the Briton in the Tour de France. Froome became a formidable rival and his Sky team, with a perfectly oiled machine, was always the winner in those editions.
What few know is that Nairo Quintana may have changed the course of cycling history by joining the ranks of British team Sky (now INEOS) in its heyday. This revelation came in an interview with Directv Sports, where the Colombian cyclist was subjected to a series of rapid-fire questions.
When asked about his toughest rival, Nairo initially replied "el INEOS..." but then rectified himself and mentioned the correct name, "el Sky," its predecessor. He acknowledged that he was made an offer that he decided to turn down.
Quintana continued his career with Movistar Team until 2019, before joining Arkea Samsic, where he remained until 2022. However, his time with that team was overshadowed by testing positive for tramadol during that year's Tour de France, resulting in his disqualification from the race. He has since failed to find a team to race with.
Juan LarraCycling Journalist
Juan Larra is a writer for Cyclinguptodate and editor-in-chief of Ciclismoaldia, where he has played a central role since its inception. Under his leadership, the website has become a trusted source for professional cycling coverage, offering in-depth analysis, news, and feature stories.
A sports journalist with over 20 years of experience, Juan earned his degree in Journalism from the University of Seville in 2007. He began his career covering a wide range of sports—including football, basketball, Formula 1, MotoGP, tennis, and cycling—for platforms such as the official La Liga app, Vodafone and Movistar websites, NBA Blogdebasket, and Cadena Cope, honing his skills in writing and editorial management.
In addition to his work at Ciclismoaldia, Juan contributes to Cyclinguptodate and serves as editor-in-chief for the tennis-focused site Tenisaldia. Throughout his career, he has conducted exclusive interviews with cyclists and sports figures, provided detailed analysis of competitions ranging from local Spanish races to major international events, and acted as a special correspondent at prestigious races including Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a España.
Juan’s combination of experience, expertise, and direct access to athletes has established him—and the platforms he leads—as authoritative voices in professional cycling.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment