When Nairo Quintana (Movistar) floundered in the crosswinds in Zeeland last Sunday, conceding a minute and a half, one wondered whether his voyage to the foot of the mountains would prove an ill-starred one given the prevailing currents in the opening week of this Tour de France.
In the five stages since, however, Quintana has steered a steady course. Left flat-footed, like almost everyone else, by Chris Froome (Sky) on the Mur de Huy, he proceeded to break even with the other overall contenders on the cobbles the following day. A late crash on stage 6 to Le Havre aside, Quintana has suffered no unduly rough seas since, and he reaches the second weekend of the race in 16th place overall, 1:56 down on Froome.
"We’re satisfied especially because up to now he’s been good, his health is good and he’s recovered from his crash yesterday," Movistar manager Eusebio Unzue told Cyclingnews in Fougères on Friday evening. "He went through some difficult days but he got through them very well, though it’s true that we’ve lost some important time on Froome that won’t be easy to recover because he’s shown he’s very much on form."
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The prognosis seemed rather bleaker on the artificial island of Neeltje Jans on the North Sea coast after stage 2, when a glum-faced Quintana answered just two questions from reporters before climbing into a Movistar team car and being promptly driven off. With another week of such torrid days stretching before him before the apparent safe-haven of the Pyrenees, it was the most trying moment of Quintana’s race to date.
"Yes, that was the toughest day, with bad weather and few riders on the team who fell. It was a day where the team was a bit disorganised because of the crashes and that might we didn’t get it together to limit the gap as we would have liked," Unzue said.
"But I’m very happy with how things have gone since, because Nairo has come through very dangerous stages with the wind and the pavé, all things that aren’t ideal for him. Doing some classics in the spring proved to be very reassuring to him before the pavé stage."
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