The Colombian Nairo Quintana (Arkéa Samsic) assured this Tuesday that it makes him “very sad not to go to the Giro d’Italia”, but he trusted that he will be able to do it later, while confirming that this year his main objective is the Tour de France and to do the Back to Spain.
Quintana stated in a virtual press conference that the Italian race, of which he was champion in 2014, has a route that favors him but that what “premium are the objectives of the team”.
He explained that Arkéa will look for the points that the team needs to climb and earn the license that gives them direct access to compete in the World Tour tests in other tests that are held in different countries.
“We have years and opportunities still to go”said Quintana, who added that “we decided to fight for those points in races parallel to the Giro d’Italia and to be able to do the Tour de France well and a good Vuelta a España”.
He trusted that according to the preparation plan designed for this year he can continue to maintain the performance he has had so far and that leaves him the titles of the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes and the Tour de la Provence.
The Arkéa runner announced that he will not be in the Ardèche Classicwhich was the next scheduled competition with his team.
“We have made the decision to cancel it because we want to do a good base training cycle or as a training booster to maintain the shape I am in,” he said, adding that his next race will be Paris-Nice.
On the other hand, he hoped for the recovery of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and recalled that despite the fact that the Zipaqui native must be in competition, there are other Colombians who continue to fight.
“What I can hope for is that he recovers, but the rest of us are here. We are all in the elite and at a very good level. Fernando Gaviria won, Miguel Ángel López was also on the podium, we saw Dani Martínez making war, a ( Iván) Sosa in Andalusia. We are all there and we must pray a lot for Egan so that his recovery goes well,” he added.