# IN Defense of Nairo



## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

I know some people on here and in Spain have strong feelings about him that I am not convinced are justified. I am putting this out there to balance out the narrative that is on here a bit. 

https://roadcyclinguk.com/racing/features-racing/real-nairo-quintana/


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## upstateSC-rider (Aug 21, 2004)

He's a great talent, no doubt, just lacks in the panache (and TT) department and that's ok, several riders were that way in their first few years, Contador especially comes to mind. Just wish he'd take the bull by the horns sometimes and just be a little more aggressive and exploit his strengths, whether he blows up or not. 
Come to think of it, that's good advice for me on Saturday mornings.


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## PBL450 (Apr 12, 2014)

Rashadabd said:


> I know some people on here and in Spain have strong feelings about him that I am not convinced are justified. I am putting this out there to balance out the narrative that is on here a bit.
> 
> https://roadcyclinguk.com/racing/features-racing/real-nairo-quintana/


Excellent article, thanks for posting!


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## J-Flo (Sep 30, 2015)

That article is two years old.


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## KoroninK (Aug 9, 2010)

The article is from 2 years ago. There is some good things in there. Two things about the article: He hasn't improved and does not appear to be the best climber in the peloton anymore either. The 2nd this is he is a leader at Movistar, but he's not the leader. The riders on the team referring to Valverde only as their leader.


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

Ok, but I haven’t seen any mainstream article confirming any of the negative things that you keep referencing since then. In fact, I haven’t seen anything supporting the contention that his teammates have negative things to say about him and/or don’t like riding with him and I searched for it. The only thing I can find so far is them saying good things about him. No evidence of tension between him and Valverde or Landa, nada.

If Quintana is not the best pure climber in the pro peloton, who is? I personally think there’s a solid argument that it’s still him. He’s at least in the mix anyway. I agree with the other post above. TTs can be an Achilles heel for him and he sometimes lacks killer instinct, but he’s top shelf comparatively for grand tour competitors not on Team Sky. Do I like Dumoulin a little more? Sure, but Quintana is no slouch and I would love to see some evidence supporting the claim that he is this spoiled brat that everyone on the team hates. Not saying it’s not true, just that it’s thrown around on here like it’s a well known fact a lot with no evidence to support it.


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

J-Flo said:


> That article is two years old.


The reason I posted a two year old article is because it is basically the only article I could find discussing who Quintana is as a teammate and it appears to completely contradict some of the claims I keep reading about him on RBR. Again, if there’s another side to the story I would love to read it.


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

On a pure performance front, not only did he win the Vuelta, the Volta Catalunya, the Tour of Romandie, and the Route du Sud (including the ITT stage) in 2016, he went on to win the Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta a la Comunitat Valencia, and placed 2nd and won a stage in Giro in 2017, and won a stage in both the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France this year. He sits in 3rd overall at the Vuelta currently. It’s pretty hard to fault that palmares in my opinion. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nairo_Quintana


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

PBL450 said:


> Excellent article, thanks for posting!


No problem man. Happy to share.


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## rufus (Feb 3, 2004)

Rashadabd said:


> If Quintana is not the best pure climber in the pro peloton, who is?



Geraint Thomas. Outclimbed Quintana in the Tour. 


Look at Quintana at the vuelta the other day, tried to attack on the final climb, was easily brought back by who, Majka, leading the group? 

His first couple years, no one could ride with him when he went away. He ain't that climber anymore.


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

rufus said:


> Geraint Thomas. Outclimbed Quintana in the Tour.
> 
> 
> Look at Quintana at the vuelta the other day, tried to attack on the final climb, was easily brought back by who, Majka, leading the group?
> ...


Sky (Froome and Thomas) are clearly riding on a different level than everyone else is right now. The dude (Quintana) is still winning mountain stages. Can’t fault that.


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## KoroninK (Aug 9, 2010)

I'd say right now the best pure climber is Bernal. Last year's Tour Landa was climbing better than Quintana. Besides several Sky riders, Lopez is at least at the same level as Quintana as has Chaves (IF he can actually stay healthy). Unfortunately we have no idea if Quintana was actually climbing better on the Tour stage or not as his getting away didn't matter to the GC guys.

He's still a very good rider/climber, but he's not the climber he was 3 years ago. It doesn't help when he blames the team that his early schedule burns him out before the Tour and he shouldn't be expected to race so much and shouldn't be expected to try to win all the races he goes to because that hurts his Tour prep. So they have him that this year and he had some real problems at the Tour. He also wasn't happy about working for Valverde at Catalonia. 
In the English cycling media Movistar in general doesn't get much press simply because they speak Spanish.


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

KoroninK said:


> I'd say right now the best pure climber is Bernal. Last year's Tour Landa was climbing better than Quintana. Besides several Sky riders, Lopez is at least at the same level as Quintana as has Chaves (IF he can actually stay healthy). Unfortunately we have no idea if Quintana was actually climbing better on the Tour stage or not as his getting away didn't matter to the GC guys.
> 
> He's still a very good rider/climber, but he's not the climber he was 3 years ago. It doesn't help when he blames the team that his early schedule burns him out before the Tour and he shouldn't be expected to race so much and shouldn't be expected to try to win all the races he goes to because that hurts his Tour prep. So they have him that this year and he had some real problems at the Tour. He also wasn't happy about working for Valverde at Catalonia.
> In the English cycling media Movistar in general doesn't get much press simply because they speak Spanish.


Ok, but not one of those guys has won anywhere near as much as Quintana has in the last three years. Not even close. I would love to read something confirming he had a problem working for Valverde.


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## KoroninK (Aug 9, 2010)

You could see in his face and his reactions at Catalonia on the mountain stage that he wasn't happy that he had to work for Valverde and couldn't attack or contribute to the attack after he attacked. You could see him on his radio and his body language said he wasn't happy.

The Sky boys? Bernal is in his what 1st year as a pro on a team with several GC riders well above him? Also not sure if Kuss is really that far off of the top climbers either. Lopez is a worse TTer than Quintana although truthfully I've expected more from Lopez. As I said Chaves can't stay healthy.


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

KoroninK said:


> You could see in his face and his reactions at Catalonia on the mountain stage that he wasn't happy that he had to work for Valverde and couldn't attack or contribute to the attack after he attacked. You could see him on his radio and his body language said he wasn't happy.
> 
> The Sky boys? Bernal is in his what 1st year as a pro on a team with several GC riders well above him? Also not sure if Kuss is really that far off of the top climbers either. Lopez is a worse TTer than Quintana although truthfully I've expected more from Lopez. As I said Chaves can't stay healthy.


When does anyone other than Contador in his prime ever look content or happy on climbs lol?!?!?


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## KoroninK (Aug 9, 2010)

Rashadabd said:


> When does anyone other than Contador in his prime ever look content or happy on climbs lol?!?!?


There are times Valverde looks like he's having fun. Andalucia 2017 he and Contador both looked like they were enjoying themselves. This year at Abu Dhabi Valverde looked like he was having fun and really just toying with the field. Guess it's possible it's just the two of them.


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## PBL450 (Apr 12, 2014)

KoroninK said:


> There are times Valverde looks like he's having fun. Andalucia 2017 he and Contador both looked like they were enjoying themselves. This year at Abu Dhabi Valverde looked like he was having fun and really just toying with the field. Guess it's possible it's just the two of them.


Quintana is pretty expressionless. He never looks anything. That said, I pick on him... Mostly because I’ve had him on my Velogames team and he’s never materialized against his cost. So, I have very serious and legitimate reasons to diss him. I do think there is some fan frustration with his wheel sucking. But hey, he’s sucking Froome's wheel so he must be a pretty damn good climber. 

But I've honestly never heard anything negative about him. On that Front we could talk about Kittel and plenty of others... Hey Wiggo left the road because of Froome.


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## KoroninK (Aug 9, 2010)

PBL450 said:


> Quintana is pretty expressionless. He never looks anything. That said, I pick on him... Mostly because I’ve had him on my Velogames team and he’s never materialized against his cost. So, I have very serious and legitimate reasons to diss him. I do think there is some fan frustration with his wheel sucking. But hey, he’s sucking Froome's wheel so he must be a pretty damn good climber.
> 
> But I've honestly never heard anything negative about him. On that Front we could talk about Kittel and plenty of others... Hey Wiggo left the road because of Froome.


Maybe that goes with his being way over hyped?

The Wiggo/Froome thing is interesting to say the least.


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

PBL450 said:


> Quintana is pretty expressionless. He never looks anything. That said, I pick on him... Mostly because I’ve had him on my Velogames team and he’s never materialized against his cost. So, I have very serious and legitimate reasons to diss him. I do think there is some fan frustration with his wheel sucking. But hey, he’s sucking Froome's wheel so he must be a pretty damn good climber.
> 
> But I've honestly never heard anything negative about him. On that Front we could talk about Kittel and plenty of others... Hey Wiggo left the road because of Froome.


That’s all I am really trying to say. Look, the guy isn’t my favorite rider (Kwiatkowski, Sagan, Uran, and now Alaphilippe are), but I think people are way too critical of him given what he has accomplished and that the poor teammate thing could easily be complete fiction and/or anti Colombian bias in Spain/at Movistar.

He certainly doesn’t look like a guy everyone on the team can’t stand to me:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnUbsKrAAk_/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=e082ougt9fwj


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## KoroninK (Aug 9, 2010)

That's Anacona and Carapaz. Anacona has not been as good as many expected from him when Movistar signed him. I'm one of those who expected more from him. Not winning races or stages or anything, but being better in the mountains where he should be of a bigger help than what he's been over the past two years.


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## coldash (May 7, 2012)

I watched more or less the entire 2017 Giro and my observation on Quintana was that although he seemed to have his kick of old, he couldn’t sustain it. Dumoulin and the others didn’t so much ride him down but more Quintana sat down and waited. Since then I’ve seen similar attacks come to nothing. It looks to me like he has lost his endurance capacity


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

And with that, I have to acknowledge you guys might be right about the performance drop off. It’s crazy given how young he still is. 

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/quintana-we-have-to-back-valverde-now-at-vuelta-a-espana/


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## PBL450 (Apr 12, 2014)

Rashadabd said:


> And with that, I have to acknowledge you guys might be right about the performance drop off. It’s crazy given how young he still is.
> 
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/quintana-we-have-to-back-valverde-now-at-vuelta-a-espana/


Yeah, he cracked today where he should have excelled. You think of him being at his best at 20+% but a decent number of riders dropped him. I have to say, that was a cleverly placed and great route ITT yesterday and I think it made a huge difference in the GC.


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## rufus (Feb 3, 2004)

can't even climb as well as Michael Woods, and two pasty British kids.


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## KoroninK (Aug 9, 2010)

I haven't seen any evidence he's capable of hitting that 2015 peak again. I hadn't been willing to say he was in decline before, but he appears that he may very well be. He definitely hasn't improved since 2015 and he hasn't been able to hit that peak again.


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## Rashadabd (Sep 17, 2011)

This season, Uran also looks like he might be finished being a serious threat to win a GT. So, it looks like I might be in the market for a new favorite GC rider next year. Nibali, Mas, Roglic, Dumoulin, Mohoric, and Lopez, I will be watching you....


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## aclinjury (Sep 12, 2011)

Quintana broke out in the 2012 Tour. Then in 2014 he won the Giro. But since then, his performance seems to have declined ever so slightly compared to the other young guys. Quintana is not an old rider, and from 2014 to 2018 he should still have been improving, but he didn't. Why is that? Makes me wonder if he's not doping hard enough, because he's not at an age where you'd expect to see him decline just yet.

Whatever is the case with Quintana, one thing is for sure, Valverde is just too old right now to be leading any grand tour. Moviestar is in desperate need of a legit grand tour leader. They have an army of very good domestiques, but seriously lack a legit GC guy. A guy like Geraint Thomas would fit into Moviestar like a glove as far as need is concerned.

Having said that, I like Quintana. He seems mostly like a humble guy, still remember his roots and family. I don't recall reading anything negative about him. Honestly the only negative I've ever seen about Quintana is from Koronik and often that negativity is mentioned in the praising of Valverde.


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