{"id":554927,"date":"2026-03-23T08:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554927\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:26:08","slug":"froome-duels-remain-etched-in-the-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554927\/","title":{"rendered":"Froome duels remain etched in the memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nairo Quintana<\/a> will retire from professional cycling. The 36-year-old Colombian will hang up his bike after 15 years in the pro peloton. He announced the decision during the press conference ahead of the Tour of Catalonia. The diminutive climber from C\u00f3mbita leaves the sport after overall victories in races including the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a and the Giro d\u2019Italia.Speaking in Barcelona, Quintana addressed his decision with emotion. \u201cThis is an important moment for me, for my family, for my country, for my people, for everyone who has stood by my side,\u201d the Colombian said, in comments gathered by AS<\/a>. \u201cToday I am here to tell you that this will be my final season as a professional cyclist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quintana has not yet revealed exactly which race will be the last of his career. \u201cThis is not my last race, so every race I ride will be a celebration. I am doing it this way because I want to enjoy these beautiful moments with the fans.\u201d Those fans have always embraced Quintana, who was one of the defining names of Colombia\u2019s golden cycling generation.<\/p>\n

Quintana turned professional in 2011 with Caf\u00e9 de Colombia-Colombia es Pasi\u00f3n, but made his WorldTour debut with Movistar a year later. He made an immediate impact there, and in 2013 he won a stage of the Tour de France, claimed the young rider classification and finished second overall in Paris behind Chris Froome. He would go on to become one of the Briton\u2019s most memorable Grand Tour rivals.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

Tramadol case at Ark\u00e9a-SamsicTwo years later, the balance of power was similar, although Quintana came much closer. He never managed to beat Froome in the Tour, but he did defeat him at the 2016 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. It was his second Grand Tour triumph, having already won the 2014 Giro d\u2019Italia by beating fellow Colombian Rigoberto Ur\u00e1n. <\/p>\n

After a spell with Ark\u00e9a-Samsic, where he also became involved in the tramadol case that overshadowed the end of his 2022 Tour de France campaign, Quintana eventually returned to familiar surroundings at Movistar, the team with which he will now also bring his career to a close.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to life after racing, Quintana said: \u201cThis will be a new beginning, one I want to keep building on. Setting up companies, supporting competitive and creative sports. Giving something back to the people. I want more children to dream the way I dreamed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nairo Quintana will retire from professional cycling. The 36-year-old Colombian will hang up his bike after 15 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,32792,140703,82],"class_list":["post-554927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-movistar-team","tag-nairo-quintana","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}