Nairo Quintana

Quintana finished 36th overall.

In October, Quintana won the Giro dell'Emilia.

Nairo Alexánder Quintana Rojas, ODB, (born 4 February 1990) is a Colombian racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam.

Nicknamed "Nairoman" and "El Cóndor de los Andes", Quintana is a specialist climber, known for his ability to launch sustained and repeated attacks on ascents of steep gradient, high power output and great stamina to react and endure others' attacks.

He is also a competent time triallist, making him a consistent contender for general classification at stage races.

His second place in the general classification was the best result for a Colombian or Latin-American rider in the Tour de France, and the first Tour debutant to finish on the podium since Jan Ullrich in 1996.

After the Tour, Quintana went on to win the Vuelta a Burgos, where he won stage 5 of the race after dropping Vincenzo Nibali on the final climb.

Due to the high mountains included in the Giro d'Italia, Quintana decided to aim for the Giro and skip the Tour de France.

In 2010, Quintana won the Tour de l'Avenir whilst part of the team (racing for the Colombia national team in that race), proving to be one of the great prospects for the future of Colombian cycling.

In 2012, Quintana moved to Europe to join the Spanish.

He won the overall classification in the Vuelta a Murcia.

Later, he took a prestigious victory at the Critérium du Dauphiné, when he sparked a counter-attack after a select group of riders including leader Bradley Wiggins reached the last escapee of the day.

He held on to his solo lead in the descent leading to Morzine.

After winning that stage, he later ended up winning the Route du Sud that year.

Quintana made his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a España, where he was one of Alejandro Valverde's key climbing domestiques as Valverde finished second overall.

In 2013, Quintana won stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya, and the following month, he won the queen stage of the Tour of the Basque Country by sprinting to victory after the final climb in Eibar–Arrate, two seconds before a group of six fellow overall contenders.

Quintana took the overall win in the final time trial by finishing second behind Tony Martin, gaining enough time over 's Sergio Henao to take the leader's jersey from him.

At the Tour de France, Quintana attacked on the Col de Pailheres during Stage 8 and became the first man to cross the highest pass that year.

He was later overtaken, on the stage's penultimate climb, by race favourite Chris Froome.

Quintana nonetheless took the lead of the young rider classification and received the award for that stage's most aggressive rider.

On stage 15 to Mont Ventoux, Quintana again attacked early on and only the race leader Froome was able to match him, eventually dropping him in the final 2 km of the climb after they had raced up much of it together.

As a result, Quintana was able to advance to sixth place in the overall standings.

Stage 18 for the first time including doing the famous and iconic Alpe d'Huez climb twice.

His best career results are winning the 2014 Giro d'Italia and 2016 Vuelta a España, as well as 2nd place overall in the Tour de France of 2013 and 2015.

In addition to his two Grand Tour victories he has also placed in the top 10 on twelve occasions, six of which were on the podium.

His multiple wins in other major stage races, leading to high UCI WorldTour ranking placements at the end of each season, are other reasons why he is seen as one of the most successful stage-racing riders of the recent era, and the best road cyclist in Colombian history.

His brother Dayer Quintana is also a professional cyclist and rode for the with Nairo between 2014 and 2018, and again at between 2020 and 2022.

Born in Cómbita, a town near the capital of Boyacá, Tunja, in Colombia, to a farming family, Quintana comes from a humble background, but his family still saved up to buy Quintana a second-hand mountain bike to make the 16 km journey through the Eastern Ranges of the Andes to school and to travel from village to village to sell fruit and vegetables.

At the age of 16 he also started working as a taxi driver using his father's car.

Quintana resides in Cómbita, splitting his time between his native country and Pamplona in Navarre, Spain.

His parents' names are Luis Quintana and Eloisa Rojas, and he has four siblings: sisters Nelly and Lady, and brothers Willington and Dayer.

At the age of 15 he was hit by a taxi whilst riding, leaving him in a coma for five days.

Despite this, his father, a cycling fan, recognised Nairo's potential and spent 300,000 Colombian pesos (around £71.91) on a racing bike to see if Nairo could make a career in the sport.

He started his career on the team "Boyacá es para Vivirla".

His 2014 season started off with an early overall victory at the Tour de San Luis after winning the mountaintop finish of Stage 4.

Quintana placed second overall behind Alberto Contador at Tirreno–Adriatico in March, and finished fifth in the Volta a Catalunya after getting sick between the races.

Quintana's 4th-place finish on stage 18 – including two ascents of the climb to Alpe d'Huez – moved him into 3rd place in the overall standings.

In stage 20, he attacked Froome, riding away from him in the last kilometre during the climb to Annecy-Semnoz.

Quintana won the stage over Joaquim Rodríguez and Froome, moving securely into second place overall where he finished the Tour.

He also won the young rider classification and the mountains classification.