With a very worn Christopher Froome, a golden opportunity is presented to the Colombian cyclist, who will again go for the yellow shirt

A new edition of the Tour de France is about to begin. Once again, Nairo Quintana will be present, as he has been looking for the title of this race since 2015. From that third place he got in 2013, against all the forecasts and before the eyes of Chris Froome, the leader of the Movistar Team has come searching insistently for a place among the winners of the gala round.

Leer en español: Nairo Quintana: ¿Es esta su gran oportunidad de ganar el Tour de Francia?

Nairo arrives at the competition backed by a team that has been consolidating throughout this year, with Mikel Landa at the head. According to the website Es Ciclismo, the Colombian will be accompanied on the Tour by the aforementioned Landa, Alejandro Valverde, Andrey Amador, Daniele Bennati, Nelson Oliveira, Jasha Sutterlin and Imanol Erviti.

This will be the first big test of the pair that Movistar created with Landa and Nairo for this year. The Spanish arrived at the 'telephone' awnings after two years in Team Sky. However, Landa did not leave a good image in the Giro d'Italia, where he arrived as the 'capo'. In addition, in the 'Corsa Rosa' he could barely enter the Top 20 and was more than 50 minutes away from the champion Chris Froome, according to Mundo Ciclístico.

However, ignoring that irregular presentation of Landa in the Giro, the Spanish is still a great complement to Nairo, along with Alejandro Valverde. Similarly, the work that can be done by Andrey Amador, who is also a specialist in the mountain, will be important.

Another point in Nairo's favor is the exhaustion that Chris Froome has had throughout this season. The British will arrive at the Tour with the wear and tear caused by the Giro d'Italia, which took a lot of energy, especially for the number of mountain stages that the 'Corsa Rosa' had.

In addition, it remains to define the immediate future of Froome who was immersed in a case of alleged doping in the Vuelta a España 2016. According to the EFE news agency, the determination on the 'Froome Case' will draw a route line for Movistar and the other teams that will be in the Tour.

Eusebio Unzué, general manager of the Movistar Team, told to the same agency that "if Froome is on the starting line it will be the big favorite", despite having recently run the Giro.

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Compared to last year there is a renewed Nairo. In 2017, at this point in the calendar, he had already run the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana, the Tirreno-Adriatico, the Vuelta a Asturias and the Giro, which unknowingly cut him off from the Tour, explains Cycle 21. On this occasion, Quintana has played fewer World Tour races and has spent more time planning the Tour, having as the epicenter his land: Boyacá.

The calendar of Nairo in 2018 has been more relaxed, because to this date he has participated only in the National Road Championships, in the Colombia Oro y Paz race that was held in February, then in the Tour of Catalonia and in events if lesser importance such as the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour of Switzerland. The big difference is that in 2018 he decided not to take part in two very demanding competitions such as the Tirreno-Adriatico and of course the Giro d'Italia, in which he did intervene in 2017.

Latin American Post | Yeinson Fajardo Bohórquez

Translated from "Nairo Quintana: ¿Es esta su gran oportunidad de ganar el Tour de Francia?"