The Tour de France organization confirmed that Thursday the invitation for the 2021 edition to the French team Arkea-Samsic, in which the Colombians Nairo Quintana, his brother, Dáyer, Miguel Flórez and Wínner Anacona are active.
The test, which will start on June 26 and end on July 18, will be Nairo’s eighth participation, who has been a podium on three occasions. What will it be this time?
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1. Rematch. The Colombian cyclist He completed four editions of the Tour without knowing the podium. In two of them, 2018 and 2019, he got into the top ten overall. The last time he was podium was in eIn 2016, when he finished third, behind Chris Froome and Romain Bardet.
Your status gives you the option to return and hHe has a great career, to take revenge for what has happened in recent years. Quintana has not been with the best in the final days and in 2020 the falls led him to meet the goal of finishing and not retiring.
2. Bad tour. For Nairo, as for the other climbers, the route of this Tour year is not the most favorable. With only three arrivals high, because that makes the Boyacense lose the options of being the protagonist.
In addition, it will have two time trial stages, the first in Laval and the second in Saint-Emilion, to add a total of 58 kilometers between the two, in an edition that will start from Brest, in Brittany, on June 26, on a clear route that is not convenient for him.
3. Strong team? Areka-Samsic is not the strong cast, but for the Tour you need to arrive well. It is key to have good companions, But we already know that Tadej Pogacar won the competition in 2020 head-to-head with Primoz Roglic and the other rivals on the mountain without the help of his teammates.
His brother, Dáyer, Anacona and now Flórez, whom they take to help him in the mountain, they will be his main collaborators, but the first two have not found the pedal stroke to do so in previous races.
4. It depends on the Turn. Nairo Quintana’s performance on the Tour will depend on whether he is invited to the Giro d’Italia. In Europe, this option is used, which increases, after the endorsement of the International Cycling Union (UCI) to allow one more team.
Nairo and Arkea want to go to the Giro, they know it is a mountainous competition, in the that the Colombian already appeared in the first drawer of the podium in 2014 and in the second, behind Tom Dumoulin, in 2017.
According to that the objectives could change, if you go to the Giro, the route is convenient and the rivals are not so strong, as we would see a Nairo more inclined to be the protagonist in Italy.
5. Its shape. The statistics are clear and Nairo Quintana has not been the runner of the first years, but that does not mean that he is prevented from winning a race again. Are you well on the knees?
This 2021 is a good opportunity for him to show what he is made of, to regain his good level and obtain victories. It does not seem so possible that he will do that in the Tour de Franca, because his rivals have been much stronger than him.
The Tour is the race to show himself, and he knows it. Winning a stage for the Arekea would be fantastic and not to mention a podium, although that seems far away due to the conditions that Nairo has shown in recent years.
Lisandro RengifoEditor of EL TIEMPO
@lisandroabel
