Movistar Team on winning streak
05 March 2012

Vuelta a Murcia (st. 2)

Nairo Quintana emulates Andalucía's Valverde success in the Vuelta a Murcia, takes squad's 2012 victory account to five. Castroviejo 55 hundredths short for stage win in ITT

After the success by Alejandro Valverde in the Queen stage and the overall of the Vuelta a Andalucía ten days ago, his team-mate Nairo Quintana pronlogued Movistar Team’s winning streak in 2012 this weekend with the overall triumph in the Vuelta a Murcia and increasing the account of the telephone squad to five this season. After Saturday’s win in the opening stage of the reduced, two-day event in the Sierra Espuña interpretation centre, the 22-year-old Colombian resisted the final punch by Tiernan-Locke (EDR) and Poels (VCD), his two main rivals, who accomplanied him into the overall podium after the conclusive, 12k ITT around the capital city of the Murcian region.

Quintana lost just 10 seconds to the Brit and five to the Dutchman to keep the yellow jersey in a day almost complete for Movistar Team, with Jonathan Castroviejo 55 hundredths of a second behind the day’s winner Serov (RVL), into a big team performance that saw him jump into 5th overall, with a superb Sergio Pardilla in 4th to secure the squad’s overall win.

REACTION / Nairo Quintana: “I’m really, really happy with taking this overall victory. I already said yesterday I could stay into the fight at the time trial and I proved it today. I never did specific TT training, but I got to be the national U23 time trial champion in Colombia and I don’t do really bad at them. I knew how to stay calm in these hours after yesterday’s victory, I had some good rest and although the TT route wasn’t in my favour, I was happy this morning after doing the recon because it had no dangerous points. I was especially afraid of Poels, but we had the references from my team-mates and I knew I could keep the jersey. This win is very important, probably as much as the overall in the Tour de l’Avenir, because that one opened the doors and allowed me to come here. This gives me much moral and confidence for the rest of the season. I want to thank everyone from the team for the full support they gave me these two days, and dedicate this win to my family and God, which helped me much because being so much time far from home is difficult for me.”


Photo (c): Ciclismo a Fondo / Rafa Gómez