[ad_1]
Nairo Quintana has described his imminent return to the WorldTour within the colors of Movistar as a “victory” after he spent a 12 months on the sidelines following his constructive assessments for tramadol on the 2022 Tour de France.
“This was one other victory,” Quintana instructed a Movistar press convention in Bogotá on Monday. “I loved it like most of the races we received. I by no means gave up the struggle. We don’t know what the UCI was considering, however now the aim is to begin this new cycle in the very best means.”
Quintana was stripped of his sixth-place end on the Tour after evaluation of two dried blood samples revealed the presence of the painkiller tramadol and its two important metabolites.
The Colombian didn’t serve a suspension as his offence was lined by UCI Medical Guidelines relatively than classed as an anti-doping violation. WADA will ban tramadol from 2024 onwards, with athletes dealing with potential suspensions of as much as 4 years for its use in competitors.
Quintana was unable to discover a staff for 2023 after Arkéa-Samsic dispensed with his services, whereas his disqualification from final 12 months’s Tour was upheld by the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport. His lone aggressive outing in 2023 got here on the Colombian Nationwide Championships in February the place he positioned third behind Esteban Chaves.
Regardless of hypothesis that his retirement was imminent, the 33-year-old insisted that he meant to return to the peloton, and on Saturday it was introduced that he would return to Movistar, the place he spent the primary eight years of his profession. On Monday, Quintana made his first public look for the reason that announcement.
“I’m dreaming once more,” Quintana stated, in response to Marca. “I believed, however I imagine much more now that I can do stunning issues and contribute to the staff. I need to preserve representing the model with the most effective values – the values of the model and of Nairo Quintana.”
Throughout his first spell at Movistar, Quintana grew to become Colombia’s most profitable rider on the world stage, profitable the 2014 Giro d’Italia and 2016 Vuelta a España, and inserting on the rostrum of the Tour de France in 2013, 2015, and 2016.
Quintana left the staff on the finish of 2019 after enduring an uneasy management triumvirate with Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa. Nevertheless, he insisted that he had remained on good phrases with supervisor Eusebio Unzúe.
“We all the time missed each other,” Quintana stated. “We had been united, however no person took step one. I went to fulfill Eusebio, to ask him how he was doing, and after an extended dialog we stated, ‘Why not?’ And now right here we’re.
“It is like in life. There are unhappy days and others when you’re completely satisfied. That does not imply that there was way more than a one-off drawback. I come again as a result of since I left the staff, I missed them loads. The sensation has all the time been there. I spent eleven years with the model, the jersey is in my coronary heart. At this time I’m returning as a result of it’s my house and I really feel the model in my coronary heart. Once I left, I did not change my telephone firm.”
Quintana re-joins a Movistar staff the place Enric Mas is put in because the chief within the Grand Excursions, although he endured a tough 2023 season, crashing out of the Tour on the opening day earlier than inserting sixth general on the Vuelta.
“We’ve a younger and highly effective squad during which we may be sturdy and provides nice assist to the staff chief, Enric Mas,” stated Quintana, who added that his race programme would solely be determined after he had linked up with the staff for its winter coaching camp. “On December 20, you may know what races we’ll do and the place we’ll begin.”
[ad_2]