"The important thing is to give everything" - Nairo Quintana ready to do battle at Colombian Road Nationals

Nairo Quintana will try this Sunday to win the Colombian champion's jersey at the national championships. On Thursday he already proved to be in top form by finishing fourth in a time trial won by Daniel Martinez.

The Movistar Team rider will not have it easy in a Colombian championship that will feature riders such as Martínez, Sergio Higuita, Egan Bernal, Rigoberto Urán, Einer Rubio, Brandon Rivera, Iván Sosa, Harold Tejada and Santiago Umba.

In a previous interview with the colleagues of Caracol Radio, Nairomán talked about his feelings at the beginning of the 2024 season:

"Initially, the competitions were planned, it is clear that everything is giving us the indication of how we are going. The numbers are good and little by little these first competitions give us a great response of the result and then we enter European races and then we plan. The feeling is that it's going to be a good year".

He believes that the atmosphere that will be experienced at the nationals is fantastic: "Even though it is the middle of the week and all the people are working, it is difficult to go out and quite a lot of people are coming. We are going to see an explosion of people visiting Tunja over the weekend. We have experienced it at nationals and that is what moves an event like this".

The key to keep the flame of cycling alive is that the stars continue to come to fight for the Colombian jersey: "It's what all the champions help us to generate; Rigo, Higuita, Egan, Martinez, who are the idols and that people want to see. What people need to cheer up the difficult moments in life, so many natural disasters and that people want to see something beautiful".

On how he is preparing for the 2024 campaign, he says he is doing it calmly: "We are going little by little. The important thing is to give everything, every day of training, enjoy every day of cycling, take advantage of the maximum level and then get to the competitions and see what can be done".

Always positive, Quintana commented to Caracol that, as he has always done during his career, you have to dream of the maximum:

"We have to give strength to Nairo for everything. Let's see at the beginning of the season where our level can be and dream, we always dream big. We have to be realistic and this start of the season will tell us all where Nairo is, how far we can dream and what Nairo can give us".