22 June 2017
Quintana rested up after his Giro runner-up finish, squeezing last days to train before his biggest goal of the season.
24 days after snatching his second podium finish in the Giro d’Italia, Nairo Quintana is trying to make the most of the nine sleeps remaining before the start of the Tour de France (he’ll have enjoyed 33 while getting ready for his second Grand Tour of the season). The Colombian climber from the Movistar Team preferred to avoid long journeys and remained at his European home in Monaco, where he rested up after the ‘Corsa Rosa’ and prepared his mind and body for a fourth ‘Grande Boucle’ appearance. In his previous three Tour de France, the ‘Cóndor’ made it to the Paris podium (2nd in 2013 and 2015; 3rd last year), having also obtained KOM and Young rider honours in his debut in the race four years ago, following his only stage win to date atop Semnoz / Annecy. Here are the reflections from the Cómbita-born rider before travelling to Germany next week:
Giro analysis
“Now that it’s a bit longer behind us, I still feel that what I did in the Giro was good. We were so close to accomplish our goal, and we claimed a very decent podium finish, with excellent teamwork from all of the squad’s members. It was obviously a bit sad not seeing things go as we expected in the end, but that makes me even more hungry and determined to chase the goals left in this season. I just hope I’m healthy and fortunate enough to take that final step forward in the Tour.”
Approaching the Tour
“After the end of the Giro, I stayed off the bike at home for like a week, and following a couple more days of active rest I started to train more seriously, and took advantage of the race-free month to check some of the key stages in the Tour. The past week and this one are being the most intense ones when it comes to training. The fact that we went last week on a recce of the Alps stages made it quite more demanding, but it was good, since our plan for this week was taking on some harder training to finetune our form for the Tour. The approach to the Tour is pretty much complete – now it’s all about staying healthy and keeping the legs fresh before the start of the race.
“To put the focus on either resting up or training more – well, it’s difficult to find balance between them. In my case and in hindsight, I think that it was more important to get some rest and recover well before starting taking on serious training. Those three, four weeks were enough time to put on some good mileage between the two races.”
