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The French hope of the century or the Colombian Messiah?

Who is the best talent?

  • Nairo Quintana

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Aug 23, 2012
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2012 have seen the birth of two genuine prodigies. Both appeared in two different scenes. But with one thing in common, a huge impact in the mountains. The first in the Tour De France. The second in the Vuelta a España. Both with twenty two years, 90 sort. Both in his first Grand Tour. Precedents? We have to look back to find similar phenomenons. Andy Schleck in the Giro D'Italia of 2007. Jan Ullrich in the 96. Two of the best talents of the history of cycling.
 
Aug 23, 2012
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Thibaut Pinot was born in Melisey (France) the May 29 of 1990. A successful career in juniors. Won the hardest race of amateur category (Giro of Valle D'Aosta) with 19 years. The youngest winner of the history. Arrived at the professionalism with Française Des Jeux in 2010. In his first year as a professional cyclist he won the mountain classification of the Tour of Romandie, also shone in a breakway and finished 20th in a race of the standing of Dauphiné Liberé.
2011 meant the year of his takeoff: third in the final GC of the Tour of Turkey, second in the final GC of the Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour, shown his talent one more time in Dauphiné Liberé. One of the best climbers in the mountain stage of Saint Pierre de Chartreuse. In the breakway at the Toussuire stage, the chasing group where was Thibaut was caught by the favourites group, Van Den Broeck and Vinokourov tried some attacks. Finally Joaquim Rodríguez attacked with one kilometer to go and only Thibaut, who came from the breakway, could respond. Surprise. He finished second that stage. After him riders like Robert Gesink, Jùrgen Van Den Broeck or Cadel Evans. We were before a classy climber.
Won the Tour of Alsace with an exhibition in the queen stage. Two stages win in the Tour of L'Ain, one of them with final in the Grand Colombier. Beat Moncoutié and two of the best young climbers of the peloton, Poels and Rolland. Third in the Tre Valli Varesine. Then he achieved a victory in the Settimana Lombarda stage of Presolana attacking in the final ascent with few kilometres to go and beating guys like Pozzovivo or Rebellin. He also was 1st in the final GC.
In this 2012 with 22 years he has become the youngest rider which finish in the top ten of the TDF since Raymond Impanis in 1947, who was then 21 years old. Also he broke the precociousness record of Sagan with the amazing stage victory of Porrentruy. After the TDF another exhibition in L'Ain attacking from 30kms to the finish. Champion mentality, courage, maturity, talent. Has the french people found the new Laurent Fignon?
 
Aug 23, 2012
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Nairo Alexander Quintana was born in Boyacá (Colombia) the February 4 of 1990. Tour of Porvenir champion in 2010 with only twenty years. In 2011 he turned into a professional rider with the colombian team Café de Colombia. He rode important races of the european calendar, his first achievement was the mountain classification of the Volta a Catalunya. Then he demonstrated his climbing skills in the Vuelta a Castilla y León, specially in the queen stage of Laguna de los Peces. In the climb to Alto del Peñón Nairo stayed in a five members group, there was Alberto Contador, Domenico Pozzovivo, Igor Antón and his partner Darwin Atapuma. The final ascent wasnt hard enough for him and Filippo Savini got the victory. The year ended with a wonderful news. Nairo would sign Movistar for the next season.
2012 began with good results in France. The next stop was Spain, specifically Murcia. Here Nairo achieved his first professional victory beating riders like Tiernan Locke or Samuel Sánchez in the mountain stage of Sierra de Espuña. He also won the general classification. Then he was second in the Vuelta A Madrid only after an unstoppable Sergey Firsanov which broke the logic laws in La Morcuera. Months later Nairo would ride the first big race of the year: The Dauphiné Liberé. When it looks that the "escarabajo" didnt have the superlegs of other races we could see him in action in the Morzine stage. In the final ascent of the day Nairo left the favourites group devastated by Sky and after a good descent he got the victory. It was his presentation for the big public. A Top form Nairo Quintana arrived at the Route Du Sud and was the responsible of one of the bigs bloodbaths of the last years. The third win of the year. And the General Classification too.
Movistar put him in the nine for ride the Vuelta. Would be his first GT. After two bad weeks due to the climatological conditions and a unenxist setup Nairo appeared in scene in the Lagos de Covadonga stage doing a very valuable work for his leader Alejandro Valverde. One more time Quintana was there in the terrific climb of Cuitu Negru, now he was the fourth guy. Without doubts one of the best climbers of the race.
The year have ended with a victory in the Giro Dell' Emilia. In this time Quintana demonstrated a great intelligence and also was the strongest climber, this worth him for beat riders like Pozzovivo or Pellizzotti in the final metres.
2012 has been the dreamed year. In a few period of time Nairo Quintana has demonstrated that he is one of the bests climber talents of the decade and maybe the best colombian talent since Lucho Herrera. Any comparison is possible with Nairo.
 
I'm assuming the Colombian rider you're referring to is Nairo Quintana. Quintana and Pinot are the 2 young riders that I'm most excited about and looking forward to watching them grow and excel in the years to come. Both seem wise beyond their years in their riding, tactical sense and seem to possess a certain calm under fire that would have the average young rider cracking under such immense pressure.
 
May 28, 2012
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Bye Bye Bicycle said:
Warren Barguil and Romain Bardet are way more exciting French talents.

Bardet isn't that good, he was impressive in the Amstel Gold and Lombardia but in terms of pure climbing he's overrated imo. He is however a good hilly classics rider in the making.
 
Oct 16, 2011
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I hope Nairo will have a great year in 2013, the problem for him are his directors, he won´t be allowed to try risk, and it is possible for him to be caring about Valverde.
 
May 28, 2012
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What I find intriguing abot Warren Barguil is that the numbers one and two of this year's L'Avenir(Barguil and Chamorro) also both rode Tour de l 'Ain as a preparation, but that the guy who finished 4th among Navarro, Coppel, Pardilla and Talansky in GC could only manage 8th in l'Avenir. Although apparently judging on results Barguil is a nice talent, he's somewhat overrated.

The issue with this is probably the shortening of the last two mountain stages to 44 and 83 kms. Riders with less endurance benefit from this, which could mean Lutsenko, Barguil and some others who did well on the 44 km stage might disappoint somewhat after turning pro.
 
why not both as saviors of cycling?
back in the golden era, it was "the badger" & "el jardinerito" who carried France & Colombia to their best years in the sport....

mondialisation02_herrera_300.jpg
 
I think Quintana is really in a different league uphill than even Pinot, we'll see it soon enough. Quintana's bad luck is that he's with Movistar/Valverde and still has to play second fiddle a lot.

Pinot's bad luck is that he is with FDJEux, who often overuse talents like that and ruin them
 
Mar 31, 2010
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chaves will improve a lot though. a lot more than quintana will. quintana's base level is so high however that he's already top 3 best climbers in the world, add to that some experience and improvements overall and you have a potential gt winner.
 
Aug 23, 2012
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If we talk about climbing talent for me it's something like this.
***** Pinot, Quintana
**** Dombrowski
*** Chaves

Then the Betancur, Aru, Bardet, Barguil, Anacona, Atapuma, Elissonde, Landa... are today in other level.
 

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