Nairo Quintana rejoins Movistar in shock return to WorldTour

Nairo Quintana will return to the professional peloton and be part of former staff Movistar on a one-year deal after a season-long hiatus from the game. The Colombian has been and not using a staff since testing optimistic for Tramadol on the 2022 Tour de France, a substance prohibited by the UCI, however on the time not on the WADA banned record.

The 33-year-old climber spent his final three years within the sport at Arkéa-Samsic, however the French staff dropped him after his disqualification from the Tour the place he had completed sixth, his greatest consequence at a Grand Tour since his time at Movistar. 

Quintana’s glory years have been on the Spanish staff the place he triumphed at each the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España, alongside famously combating Chris Froome on the Tour de France the place he twice completed runner-up. It’s an understandably significant return for the South American icon of the game.

“It is tremendous emotional for me to be again residence. It has been such a tricky yr. The sleepless nights, so many days of sacrifice, occurring my bike and making an attempt to maintain pushing, underneath the rain or the scorching solar. Nevertheless it was all value it. I will not waste this chance,” mentioned Quintana in a press launch.

“I do know the values of the staff, the values of sport. I’ll give my every part do issues proper, and I wish to assist the staff obtain the perfect outcomes. I am so extremely grateful to the Movistar Group, Telefónica, the squad, the entire squad, for this nice alternative, which I have been ready for for therefore lengthy.

“With all my coronary heart and my legs, I will do my greatest to make them, in addition to the followers, completely happy and proud. I hope this period now beginning can be a very profitable one for the staff.”

Movistar introduced Quintana’s shock return in a social media publish with the delighted Colombian speaking over a montage of his greatest moments on the Spanish staff.

He’s the eighth signing of this switch window for Movistar after Javier Romo, Pelayo Sánchez, Carlos Canal, Jon Barrenetxea, Manlio Moro, Rémi Cavagna and Davide Formolo have been already introduced.

Quintana in his limbo interval had said that his return would mark a giant win for Latin America, part of the world he grew to become an emblem of within the biking world. He continued to coach in Europe all through 2023 with the hope of getting a contract for 2024.

His wins within the early 2010s have been half of a bigger motion that noticed Colombia rise to the very peak of biking via the likes of Rigoberto Urán, Esteban Chavez, Fernando Gaviria and naturally the first-ever Latin American winner of the Tour de France – Egan Bernal.

The World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) is set so as to add Tramadol to its banned record and is now able to implement a sport-wide ban on the narcotic painkiller in competitors, which suggests riders may now face a four-year suspension and the disqualification of race outcomes ought to they check optimistic. Quintana was the primary bike owner to be punished for tramadol after a blood spot pattern taken from him through the 2022 Tour de France turned up optimistic for the drug.