Tour de France. Quintana loses 1'25 in Vendée but remains leader of his team

Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar) fell 3.5 kilometers from the finish, this Saturday at the first stage of the Tour de France arriving at Fontenay-le-Comte. He has already lost 1'25 overall. But his manager says that the strategy of his team does not change.

Decidedly, the Vendée does not succeed at Unzebio Unzue. The manager of Movistar, already unhappy in 1999 on the Pbadage du Gois, when Alex Zülle had fallen and had lost all his chances of winning the Tour with Banesto, was again unlucky on Saturday. That did not stop him from keeping his smile. It must be said that he still saw others, the former mentor Miguel Indurain …

Quintana trapped on the ground

3.5 kilometers from the finish in Fontenay-le-Comte , one of his leaders, Nairo Quintana, has ended up on the ground after falling seriously. No bobo, a priori, but sacred seconds lost, so from the first day (1'25 in general). "In fact, Nairo fell on a directional island, he made a salto confided Eusebio Unzue, the manager of Movistar. He broke his frame, his wheel was hit too, and he could not leave. As just before, several of his teammates had found themselves in the break, and that in front of Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde had to stay there, he could not be helped to return to the peloton.

Does this incident de facto change Movistar's strategy, which relies on three leaders (Quintana, Landa and Valverde)? "No, not at all, we saw this Saturday that a day could unfortunately produce a lot of twists, so for now it does not change anything. And other serious candidates have also lost time (Froome, Porte and Yates in particular). This Tour starts badly, in any case, for Quintana. The one who is often criticized for not attacking enough may at least already have to force his nature.