Nairo Quintana took the blue jersey of Movistar onto the Tour de France podium for the first time ever, crowning a colossal race from the Blues, who can lay claim to being the best squad in the world in stage races with 16 stage wins in eight consecutive Grand Tours.

The Spanish team walks away from the Tour with Quintana’s runner-up spot in the general classification, his wins in the KOM and best young rider competition, plus stage wins for Quintana, Rui Costa (twice).

Naturally Sports Director Eusebio Unzué was more than pleased when he reflected on the performance of the team even though the misfortunes of Valverde, which may well have cost him a place on the podium, did diminish to joy to some degree.

"We're extremely satisfied with this Tour's results,” Unzué said. “The last week of the race was truly magnificent, even more after such a bad day as stage 13, when we lost all chances with Alejandro, our natural leader. However, destiny wanted Nairo to reveal himself as such a big rider, taking full responsibility despite being so young. Achieving such a huge success -the second place of the podium, plus the KOM and young riders' jerseys with Nairo, as well as the two stage wins from Rui Costa- make our overview enormously positive.

"They wouldn't mean anything in any other person, but the gestures Nairo shows as a 23-year-old boy are a bit surprising. How seriously he takes things, his open-mindedness, how he manages to differentiate those crucial moments in the race from trivial moves, and the ability to gain respect into the pro scene so quickly - they all have caught our attention.

"We were a bit concerned because of his youth, with such a hard last week coming up, and wondered if he could preserve massive amounts of energy as it would be hard to recover well every day. However, he told us he was feeling well yesterday [Saturday], and we raced with the intention of winning the stage. We knew the KOM jersey would come with it, and looking at Nairo's short margin behind Contador in the overall, he would be able to surpass him in the GC if he opened a gap. The team worked perfectly, we achieved all goals and that day and the Tour itself are something we will remember for many years.

"I have to talk about the bad luck suffered by Alejandro almost in every Tour he has taken part in. This time he was left out of a podium he proved to be ready for, more than ever. He still reacted well after the mechanical and recovered well from an emotional point of view to keep leading the team while becoming the best domestique and guide for Nairo at crucial moments. He's responsible for most of what we achieved these days and I thank him so much for that."