Quintana gets back to overall podium
06 May 2012

Vuelta a Madrid (st. 2)

Colombian jumps into overall top-three in the Vuelta a Madrid as he finishes in 2nd place at Morcuera's mountain-top finish, with Blues confirmating their teams' win anticipated by Saturday's success

Movistar Team closed a leading role in the 26th Vuelta a Madrid with a strong performance by Nairo Quintana, back to racing in good form -the Colombian, winner of the Vuelta a Murcia in March, had spent more than a month without racing following his appearance in the Volta a Catalunya- as he came in 2nd place across the finish in the Puerto de la Morcuera, the decisive point of a 182-kilometer route of stage 2 starting in Colmenar Viejo, with six other climbs including a first passage through the finishing ascent with 64k to go. At that point of the race, the riders from the telephone squad did their best to close down the gap on the dangerous breakaway of the day, composed of up to 25 riders including Blue allrounder Rubén Plaza, and earning an almost three minute’s advantage in the run to the penultimate climb in the program, the Alto de Canencia (Cat. 2).

There would surge the strong force by Russian Sergey Firsanov (RVL), who escaped from the selected group of favourites and overtook the leaders in the beginning of the Morcuera climb to impose himself with almost two minutes on Quintana and take the overall. The young Colombian attacked with 4k from the end of the climb and left behind the group including former leader Jonathan Castroviejo -sitting in 5th at the final classification- to grant himself the second place in the GC, culminating a great overall rendement from Yvon Ledanois’s group -with four riders, including Plaza and Moreno, into the top 15- that allowed them making it onto the final podium as collective winners.