General manager of Movistar Eusebio Unzue has told BiciCiclismo at the start of the Trofeo Santanyi that Nairo Quintana will ride the Colombian Championships on Sunday February 8.

From San Luis, where he finished third, Quintana traveled to his home country and has decided that he will line up for his national championships that will be held over 188.8km in Rionegro, Antioquia. One day earlier, the time trial will take place. Quintana won't be on his own as he will be joined by his brother Dayer and Winner Anacona, the other two Colombians at the Movistar Team. The latter will make his debut with the team.

Having moved the championships to its new February slot, the Colombian Federation wanted to attract more WorldTour stars and they succeeded as Rigoberto Uran and Julian Arredondo are also set to ride.

Quintana will return to Europe a few days before the start of the Vuelta a Andalucía (February 18-22) where he will be up againstwith Alberto Contador and Chris Froome. Then he will do Tirreno-Adriatico (March 11-17) where he was 2nd in 2014 behind Contador, and the Tour of the Basque Country (April 6-11) which he won in 2013. Unzué confirmed that Quintana will also ride the two cobbled classics Dwars door Vlaanderen (March 25) and E3 Prijs Harelbeke (March 27) like Alejandro Valverde did last year. He will also do a recon of some of the Tour de France stages, including the fourth stage between Seraing and Cambrai that includes several kilometres of cobbles.

In the recent Tour de San Luis, Quintana did his first race nearly five months after his crash at the Vuelta a Espana and still finished third behind Dani Diaz and Rodolfo Torres.