With Colombia having become one of the leading cycling nations, it is a massively difficult task to get selected for the Colombian Worlds team. Carlos Julian Quintero is a surprise inclusion and is proud to represent his country in the biggest one-day race of the season.

It is now less than 24 hour to Carlos Julian Quintero’s debut at the Road Cycling World Championships, in Ponferrada (Spain), and tension and excitement can be clearly heard in the the words of the Colombian rider. The World Championship debut is always a breakthrough moment for an athlete, and this mix of emotion is characterizing Quintero’s eve of Sunday’s race, where Team Colombia will also be represented by Colombian National Champion Miguel Angel Rubiano.

A member of Claudio Corti’s team since its inception in 2012, Carlos Quintero, 28, was selected by the Colombian National Team after a strong season, where the Colombian rider has established as one of the most reliable and consistent athletes in the team.

“Honestly, this selection came pretty much unexpected”, Quintero stated. “In recent years, The Colombian cycling movement has grown and become part of the National Team is a reward for the work done during the season”.

The growth of the athlete from Villa Maria has been steady. After the first season, Quintero took part in the Giro d’Italia for two consecutive years (2013-2014), while also displaying capacity to take results on his own, as showed by the overall 10th place in 2014 Tour de Langkawi.

“In the last 3 years, I have improved a lot”, Quintero said. “I owe that to the great work made with Claudio Corti, Valerio (Tebaldi), Oscar (Pellicioli) and all the staff. I learned how to train, to pay attention to the alimentation, that helped me become a professional rider in a proper sense. Now I feel it is the time to start collecting some results too, taking advantage of all the advice of people who have way more experience than I do”.

Quintero’s training was finalized in order to be in good condition for the most important races in the final part of the season, in spite an intestinal infection that hit him during the Trittico Lombardo.

“My condition is good now, thanks to the team doctor I was able to re-establish perfectly, and now I feel ready to do everything I can for the Colombian cause”.

A year ago, in Firenze ’13, the Colombian National Team was unlucky, with Rigoberto Uran’s crash spoiling the medal chances just a few kilometers from the finish line. The goal of the “Seleccion” will be to go for good result, even on an arguably less demanding route than 2013. 

“We started talking about the route with the National Team Coach and all the teammates, and we will set up a good plan for the race”, Quintero explained. “We must pay great attention to the Under-23 race, because it will provide important indication on how things might unfold on Sunday”.

“Our leader is Rigoberto (Uran), but we will not stand idle waiting. Our coach can rely on both Miguel (Rubiano) and myself in any role: I assume we might be going in long-way breakaways, in order to keep our leader sheltered. We want to make the race as hard as possible.”

At the Ponferrada Worlds, Team Colombia is official partner and consultant of the Colombian National Team, supplying its logistic, trucks and support staff. The partnership between the Colombian Cycling Federation and the Claudio Corti’s team has been pretty successful so far this season, as it resulted in a gold medal for Mariana Pajon at the BMX World Championships in Apeldoorn (Netherlands) and in the overall victory for Miguel Angel Lopez at the Tour de l’Avenir (France).

“The partnership between the Colombian Federation and Team Colombia is a key asset for us here at the Worlds”, Quintero said. “Speaking with my teammates, everybody agrees on the importance of having a Colombian structure here in Europe. We have a great staff, setting us everything to let us prepare for a important race like the World Championships in the best possible way. In addition, especially for younger athletes, to work with an organization at this level is a very important experience in view of their future careers.”