Nairo salvages Tour
Colombian climber Quintana wins gruelling Stage 17
The Tour de France title will continue to elude Nairo Quintana this year but the Colombian climber at least salvaged some pride by ending a long victory drought in spectacular fashion.
Five years after claiming his maiden Tour stage win in the Alps, the diminutive rider from Movistar triumphed at the summit of Col du Portet in the Pyrenees, a mountain top 2,215m above sea level.
After a catastrophic start to the race and a disappointing showing in the Alps last week, the victory brought a smile back to Quintana’s face.
“It was a stage for pure climbers,” he said about Stage 17, the shortest road leg in more than 30 years.
“It was a hard day but we had prepared well for it. It went exactly as we’d planned.”
Twice a Tour runner- up, Quintana arrived at the start in Noirmoutier hoping he would finally be able to prevail with the help of a strong squad featuring Alejandro Valverde and Chris Froome’s former teammate at Sky, Mikel Landa.
But everything went wrong as Quintana lost more than one minute during the opening stage in western France after he suffered two broken wheels before the 3km safe zone.
He was never a factor in the Alps, losing more time on his favourite battleground.
“I went through some difficult moments in the first part of this Tour and lost some time,” said Quintana, who moved up to fifth in the general classification on Wednesday, 3:30 behind race leader Geraint Thomas.
“But I still felt strong and had the energy to finish the race on a high.
“I usually improve in the third week of the Tour and it’s going that way.”
There is one more mountain stage before the race reaches Paris on Sunday and Quintana has little chance of overturning his deficit, aware his limited ability in the race against the clock will go against him in tomorrow’s time trial in the Basque country.
Still, Quintana was proud after claiming Colombia’s third stage win this year, making the South American nation the most success-
ful so far.
Sprinter Fernando Gaviria also claimed two stage victories earlier in the race in his first Tour.
“I wanted to win for my people in Colombia, after months of hard work,” said Quintana, who has won the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta.
“My team also deserves that win, they work very hard.
“We came here with a great team although things did not play out the
way we expected.”
Once again, Quintana was hampered early by mechanical issues and had to stop twice.
But his strategy in the explosive stage was a total success.
He attacked from the yellow jersey group, with Irish rider Dan Martin, at the bottom of the final 16-km climb and made the junction with other breakaway riders before going solo in rarefied air. — AP