Nairo Quintana has retired from professional cycling after making the Giro dell’Emilia his final race, ending a 14-year career that included overall victories at the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.
Escape Collective reported that the 36-year-old Colombian chose the Italian one-day race for his farewell, 14 years after winning the same event during his first season with Movistar. He spent 11 years in total with the Spanish WorldTeam, according to the report.
Quintana leaves the sport with 53 victories, Escape Collective said, and with a record built principally in the Grand Tours and major European stage races. His 2014 Giro d’Italia success made him the first Latin American rider to win the race, according to Giro d’Italia’s publication.
A Grand Tour record built in the mountains
Quintana won the Giro in 2014 and added the Vuelta a España title in 2016. Escape Collective said he also won stages across all three Grand Tours, while his career included 20 Grand Tour appearances over 13 years, one mountains classification and three young-rider classifications.
He reached the overall podium six times in Grand Tours, the report added. Giro d’Italia’s account also credited him with three Tour de France podiums, placing his major-race record among the defining achievements of his generation of climbers.
At the Giro, Quintana’s 2014 campaign included a decisive day at Val Martello, where he took his first Giro victory before securing the maglia rosa days later. The Giro’s publication said that success remained one of the enduring images of his career.
His Italian results extended beyond the Giro. The same source said Quintana became the first Colombian winner of Tirreno-Adriatico and won that stage race twice, in 2015 and 2017. It also highlighted Monte Grappa, Blockhaus and Terminillo among the Italian climbs associated with his career, noting that he won twice at Terminillo.
His choice of Giro dell’Emilia linked his final race to an event he won in his first Movistar season. Escape Collective said that he had won the race in his first campaign with Movistar.
Retirement ends a prominent Colombian career
Quintana became a leading figure in the rise of Colombian cycling on the WorldTour during the 2010s. Giro d’Italia’s publication described him as a symbol of a generation that brought Colombian riders to the highest level of the sport.
Escape Collective similarly assessed him as a major South American sporting figure and said that, within a few years of arriving in Europe, he had established himself as Colombia’s most successful cyclist. That standing rested not only on his two Grand Tour titles but also on overall or stage victories in all seven of the major European stage races, according to the publication.
His career was not without difficult later chapters. Escape Collective reported that Quintana returned Tramadol positives during the 2022 Tour de France while riding for Arkéa Samsic. The report said he then spent a year in the ‘hinterland’ before making a return to Movistar.
Escape Collective reported that Quintana was asked whether he regretted continuing beyond the end of the 2010s, rather than stopping nearer his peak, but the supplied report excerpt did not detail his response.
His retirement removes a rider whose Grand Tour contests helped define an era that also featured Chris Froome, another rider now retired, according to Escape Collective. That is a description of the period rather than a measure of Quintana’s standing against any one rival: his own results remain substantial, with victories in two Grand Tours and a sustained record at the sport’s largest stage races.
Quintana closed his career at the event he had won in his first season with Movistar. The final result does not alter the scale of a record founded on climbing performances and major stage-race success.