"There’s no chance of that. Who is putting out this information and connecting us?" - Bahrain - Victorious firmly deny any links to Nairo Quintana

Nairo Quintana's search for a contract that could see him return to European cycling and competing in the biggest races remains fruitless and Bahrain - Victorious have become the latest team to publicly distance themselves from the Colombian.

“We are full and there’s no chance of that. Who is putting out this information and connecting us?" Bahrain - Victorious's team boss Milan Eržen has told GCN. "I have nothing against Nairo, and I still think that he’s a good rider who can do results but ambience might not be good for him. Really we’ve never talked.”

The departure of Mikel Landa to Soudal - Quick-Step had led some to believe that the team would search for a like-for-like, experienced general classification leader to work alongside the youth of the team. As Eržen explains however, this plan has never been in the works. If anything it's the opposite of what the team is actually intending to do.

“Now our focus is on young guys for the future and we try to win with these guys. I don’t think investing in older guys is the right way," he explains. "We have 28 riders for next year and we don’t run a third programme. We’ll do the WorldTour and some preparation races, and that’s it. Jumbo and UAE, these teams are running full third programmes to see who is the best in the world at the end of the year but we focus on the WorldTour."