23-year-old Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar) will start his first Tour de France tomorrow, having a string of very promising results to his name already.

Earlier this year, he won the Vuelta al País Vasco, also winning the queen stage ending on the climb to Arrate. Before that, he was the strongest rider on the Volta a Catalunya mountain stage to the Vallter 2000 ski station. At the 2012 Vuelta a España, Quintana was often the last rider to stay with Alberto Contador, Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde, who would all end up on the overall podium. And in 2010, at only 20 years of age, he won the Tour de l’Avenir in convincing fashion, to be received by the Colombian president on his return home.

And with this palmarès in mind, there are some who predict that Quintana could outshine his team captain Alejandro Valverde even in his first try at the Grande Boucle. Having just come back from a training spell in his homeland, the rider himself will have none of it: “I have spent almost two months in Colombia without any racing. I trained hard there and I feel good before the race. I’ll try to get into racing condition during the first stages and help Alejandro as much as I can.”

Quintana says he will put any personal ambitions behind: “I don’t think about the white jersey or the mountain jersey: We are all focused on helping Valverde. We’ll see how the race goes, with the mountains and the team strategy – we might try to break Sky's control of the race.”

“I really like France - it brings me good memories,” the climber was happy to say. “Ever since I started following cycling as a child, I watched and heard of the adventures of Indurain, Botero or Alejandro [Valverde] himself in the Tour, and dreamt of racing it. The Tour de l’Avenir was the race that brought me to the spotlight for the first time. The crowds are usually big and the roads suit me well.”