Nairo Quintana insists he will throw in the towel on his professional career despite failing to find a team in the first three months of 2023 following his positive tests for tramadol during the Tour de France last year.
The Colombian faces an ongoing uphill battle to find a squad, with the Movement for Credible Cycling’s (MPCC) ban on its team members signing riders who test positive for tramadol arguably lengthening the odds on his doing so.
Since March 2019, tramadol has been banned for in-competition use by the UCI, although testing positive for tramadol does not constitute a WADA anti-doping rule violation.
Having taken part in the Colombian Nationals as a privateer, Quintana has been in Europe for several weeks now, training in Andorra and dealing with family business affairs, and was recently interviewed by ESPN. (opens in new tab)
The Colombian insists that he has not broken any rules, saying, “the day I put a race number on my back again in big events, it will be a great victory for myself, Colombia and all of Latin America.”
“I have not done anything wrong, I’m holding my head high,” Quintana said. “I was in the Nationals and I wanted to win, that’s the truth.”
“I’m at a good level, we’re still moving forwards, with the hope of having a race number again for the top events in the sport. The day I achieve that, it’ll be a big victory, not just for myself, but for Colombia and Latin America as well.”
Having parted ways with Arkéa-Samsic last year following his tramadol test, and after rumours that he was going to retire proved to be unfounded, Quintana told ESPN that “things remain unchanged since last year, when it all went a bit awry.”
“But I’m still convinced that I can do something and the numbers I have from training back me up.”
Quintana, who has denied taking tramadol, insists that there is nothing to stop teams from signing him.
“I’ve been talking to various different people, and right now any team can contract me without any problem,” he said. “We have to bear in mind that some already have full rosters and that makes things much more complicated.”
Tramadol is an opiate pain medication which made headlines in the mid-2010s, with the MPCC having requested a ban on the drug as far back as 2013 following reports of widespread usage in the peloton.
Arkéa-Samsic is a member of the MPCC and was
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