Second rest day in Italy
Italian grandtour's GC leader reflects on own performance and Movistar Team's work so far, talks expectations on demanding 39km time trial to Foligno on Tuesday
As the second rest day of the 2017 Giro d'Italia takes place in Foligno, we bring you quotes from Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team), the race's current Maglia Rosa after his won atop the Blockhaus on Sunday. The Colombian spoke to the media presenat the press conference held this afternoon, at the team's hotel in Foligno.
Tuesday’s ITT: “By a matter of physical nature, it’s obvious that I should lose some time tomorrow. We’re facing a strong Tom Dumoulin, a talented specialist; also Thibaut Pinot, who rides well against the clock. They will surely do better on tomorrow’s course than me, though I hope not to lose really much time. I’d of course like to keep the Maglia Rosa, yet we know it’ll be difficult. I wouldn’t dare to say which margin would be enough for me, how much time lost would make me happy. We’ll wait for tomorrow to see how we feel about our performance.”
Foligno’s likely aftermath: “Let’s see how we do on Tuesday and we’ll start building our race strategy immediately after that, and seek for favourable points for us in the upcoming stages to try and beat our rivals. I won’t comment anything about that strategy, otherwise it’d get to our competitors’ ears (smiles). However, what’s clear for us is that we will continue to make our moves on the terrain that favours us, and work as hard as we’ve done so far.”
The three main rivals: “We can never let Nibali loose. He’s a fighter who can attack at almost eveyr point of the race, and we must keep an eye on him at all times. Also, he didn’t really lose that much time at yesterday’s climb. Then there’s Pinot, a strong climber and also a good time trialist, as I said before, and Dumoulin – to be honest, he was excellent today. It wasn’t really a surprise, because he’s performed strong into the mountains many times in the past, but he really did better than I expected. He just kept his own pace and did really well, which was amazing.”
The team: “I’m so lucky to have such a strong squad by my side, everyone’s at 100%. We’ve actually seen how this season has been even more brilliant than the previous ones, which were already great – it might be our best year in the team’s history. It all has been great for us in this Giro, and that makes you proud and boosts your morale for all of the big challenges still to come.”