Speedy Venezuelan scooter rider joins Nairo Quintana on training ride
Colombian chats with enthusiastic scooter rider with nice form
Nairo Quintana’s 2018 campaign will get underway at the six-stage Colombia Oro y Paz in his home country at the beginning of February. He’s been home in Colombia training and on Monday posted on social media an encounter with a gentleman on a scooter from Venezuela.
“By bicycle, it is also made a homeland. This friend of the route, is a sample more than we are in Latin America,
Accompanying the video Quintana explains how the bike has improved Colombia and that it’s friends like this man on the road that are an example for a better Latin America. “My admiration and respect to those who fight every day for a better country. Long live Colombia, long live Venezuela,” he writes. The video was taken by his cousin and fellow teammate Dayer Quintana.
The enthusiastic scooter rider does an impressive job keeping up with the pair of pro cyclists. Venezuela is currently undergoing a period of political unrest. The rider tells Quintana it’s his dream to ride his bike alongside of him and that he looks up to him a lot. He also thanks Quintana for what he has done for Colombia and Latin America.
Quintana is a very popular rider and has 899,000 followers on Instagram and the post got 34,572 likes as well as hundreds of comments. Quintana is from the town of Cómbita in the department of Boyaca north of the capital city of Bogota.
Quintana got massive cheers from bystanders on a ride in early January as he rode through a little town. “Thank you very much to everyone for your support and affection. We keep preparing, to make our hearts more happy,” he wrote accompanied by the video that shows the support he receives in his home country.
The Colombian had a disappointing 2017 after finishing second at the Giro d’Italia and managing only 12th at the Tour de France. Quintana did win the overall at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Tirreno-Adriatico but those were far from his primary targets. In 2018, he plans to refocus all his efforts on the Tour de France which features 31 km of time trialling on the penultimate stage. It’s not clear if defending champion Chris Froome who is facing a doping trial after an adverse analytical finding for salbutamol will line-up when the race gets underway in France.
