Eusebio Unzue, the Movistar Team manager, confirmed the race programme of his leader: Nairo Quintana. The Colombian rider, who won the Giro this year, will target the Tour de France. With a climber-friendly parcours, he will be one of the favorites that we have to follow.
"He will start in San Luis in Argentina and then do Ruta del Sol. Then it's likely that he will do Tirreno and Pais Vasco. He will not do Paris-Nice and the second part of his Tour de France build up is not 100 per cent confirmed so we don’t know about something like the Dauphine. He may go back to Colombia, but it's possible that he could do the Dauphine or the Tour de Suisse", Unzúe told Cyclingnews.
The 2015 Tour de France suits Quintana’s characteristics with no more of individual team trial and a lot of mountain stages. "It's a Tour de France for the climbers. So everything depends on how all the climbers arrive at the mountains but all of them must arrive there in a proper condition because the first week is a very difficult one. If they stay safe in the first week then we'll see the climbers fighting it out for the victory. There are a lot of risks but it will be dangerous for everyone. The priority is to just survive but there are too many risks for a big tour."
With Alberto Contador (Team Tinkoff Saxo), Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Pro Team), there will be a high level: "Contador, Froome, Nlibali, and Nairo… the four of them are very similar and they're the four magnificent riders in the peloton. It's a Tour for the four of them and they're all great climbers. They're the leading Grand Tour riders of their generation." But Unzue said that Quintana is the best climber:
"For me, Nairo is the better climber out of that bunch but at the same time he's still young and he still has a lot to discover about the Tour de France and he needs to gain experience there. In terms of experience maybe the others are a little ahead of him but like I said, he has a bit more as a climber," he told Cyclingnews. "He's growing, and we don't know much he'll grow before July but he's certainly the best natural climber that I've ever worked with. We had some great talents on this team over the years but he’s the best climber we've had and the guy with the most ambition. Those two factors are key and higher than in any other cyclist we've ever had."
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