2024-03-28 18:14:33
In the recent edition of the Volta a Catalunya 2024 and prior to the arrival of the Giro d’Italia 2024, the name of Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) has been a topic of conversation, not exactly for good reasons. Forks that colleagues and rivals have charged against him due to the case of the use of tramadol during the 2022 Tour de France, a situation that led him to be away from official competitions throughout 2023.
The punishment or official sanction never came against the man from Boyacá, who at that time was running for Arkéa Samsic, since The aforementioned substance was not punishable by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and only until January 1, 2024. It began to be part of the banned list. However, for the UCI (International Cycling Union) the magnifying glass was already placed on the riders who used it and that is why unofficial punishments were taken.
It was also understood with a statement from the MPCC (Movement for Credible Cycling) published in February 2023explaining the situation of not hiring the Colombian in the ranks of the World Tour teams:
Nairo Quintana (for the use of tramadol, a substance that caused him to be disqualified from the Tour de France by the UCI, but without suspension), his team complied with the rules of our movement, since the rider was immediately excluded from the competition for the Arkéa-Samsic 2
However, more than a year after Quintana’s disqualification from the 2022 Tour, in which he had placed sixth overall, the rider returned to the Movistar Team. Yes indeed, The role for the year 2024 is to accompany the telephone squad in search of the places that knew how to fight with Nairo as head of the team.
Fight between Nairo Quintana and Wout Poels in the Volta a Catalunya 2024 and the harsh comment
After what Nairo Quintana officially returned to race for the Movistar Team in the 2024 Tour Colombia 2.1, in which he put up a fight and ended up contracting COVID-19its first competition in Europe was the Volta a Catalunya 2024 and the atmosphere has been hostile, both on the road and at the microphones.
At first because the Colombian had a couple of falls that prevented him from finishing the race in the last stage, leaving him in debt and this is how he spoke about the subject: “A runner fell in front of me and I couldn’t free him. I fell again. Fortunately, there were only scratches, I’m complete, I’m fine… We continue preparing for the next races”.
But the hardest thing came the declarations of Wouter Poels (Bahrain-Victorius)revealing a crossover they had in the competition: “We were going up a climb and I wanted to improve my position, but no one would let me pass, so I decided to go on the wheel of (Enric) Mas. That left me next to Quintana, but it didn’t mean that I was going to push him or get him out of there. In “One moment he elbowed me.”. Later, the same Dutch rider confessed the words with which he remembered his case of tramadol and it was with a harsh term:
I asked him why he had done that and why he was so aggressive. Then I jokingly asked him if he was using tramadol again and I think he understood me. Then I thought maybe I shouldn’t have told him that, but he himself was stupid enough to wear it in the Tour de France
These words of Poels were spread in the specialized podcast called ‘In Koers’being widely disseminated due to the topic and the situation of the end of the Catalan competition.
Geraint Thomas calls Nairo Quintana a “damn rat” for the tramadol case
And almost as if it were a continuation of the criticism of the one from Boyacá, The next to target Nairo Quintana was Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) that about these first months of competition and aiming for the first big goal in the 2024 Giro d’Italia to start next May, he said with annoyance and ending with laughter:
Nairo Quintana should not be running. Damn rat! (laughs)
This is what the British man said, in the podcast called ‘The Geraint Thomas Cycling Club’, goes around the world and has had many repercussions in the world. Especially in Colombia, where he feels like an attack and a low blow, when the rider already had to stay away from the roads for more than a year and, Legally, tramadol only began to be banned in 2024 and in 2022 it did not have the sanction that many talk about today.
Thomas Dekker had already pointed out Nairo Quintana
In November 2023, during a broadcast of the podcast called ‘Live Slow Ride Fast’, specialized in cyclingoday in which former cislitas such as Laurens ten Dam and Stefan Bolt participated, they invited Thomas Dekker. And the latter, with a past in cycling and who had problems with prohibited substances, referred to the Nairo’s return to the Movistar Team with questions and harsh criticism because he thought “very strange” everything that happened:
Why did you take Tramadol? It is a substance that is not found anywhere else, so he ingested it, consciously, orally. It’s special that that’s possible. Cycling is the only sport in which you can test positive for tramadol. It is allowed, but if Quintana does not explain, you as the Movistar Team should do so. We are in 2023 and there is still a certain luxury that, as one of the largest telecommunications providers in Spain, they give you that possibility (to hire it) without any explanation
On that occasion, Dekker also pointed out the Spanish team and Eusebio Unzué, as manager of the team that received the Colombian rider after the scandal experienced between 2022 and 2023: “To what extent do you care about other things? What kind of barrier does (Eusebio) Unzué have? Why would he do it? What else could he have taken?”.
For now there are no answers or statements from Nairo Quintana, but it is expected that, in some way, he will have some way of reacting to this series of situations that put him in the world’s spotlight.
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