Nairo Quintana, the winner of the Giro di Italia, came back about the modern cycling. The Movistar Team leader said that riders are too afraid to lose races. He explained that the best climbers are not willing to make long attacks in mountains, unlike the great champions such as Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault or Marco Pantani. 

“These days no one has the ability to attack from afar”, he said according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais. "Before, strategies were made and sometimes they worked, sometimes not. But now everyone is playing not to lose and I don’t like it. I am among those who [can] attack from far and sometimes I do well, but usually not.”

The Colombian rider regrets this situation: “We [climbers] need to seek solitude and the attack is the moment that defines us. But now everyone is very measured…I cannot get carried away by emotion.”

The 2015 Tour de France route is known and Nairo Quintana is cited as one of the favorites: “I am not the only contender, there is also [Alberto] Contador, Froome and [Vincenzo] Nibali. I like some things about the route and not others. I think the pavé [sections in stage sour] can do a lot of harm again like this year. Froome fell when he was the favourite for the race, then there were no fights or anything.”

“Often the difficult roads endanger athletes, and it is an inhumane thing in a three-week race. If it is in a classic, like the Paris-Roubaix, nothing happens [afterwards], but it’s the Tour.”