When the 2016 Tour de France route was presented last October and Morzine was revealed as the site of the mountainous denouement on the penultimate day, it had the feel of a portent for Nairo Quintana. It’s certainly not enshrined in the nation’s cycling lore like Alpe d’Huez is for the Dutch, but Morzine has been an auspicious sort of a place for Colombian riders over the years all the same.
Quintana’s first ever WorldTour victory came in the Alpine town during the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, when he became the first and last rider to escape the clutches of Team Sky on a mountain finale of consequence that summer by dancing his way clear of the Col de Joux Plane and then extending his advantage on the descent to the finish.
Then a callow 22-year-old, Quintana’s answers in the press conference afterwards were brief and softly-spoken. “I actually didn’t know the last climb but I saw it in the road book and I knew it would be good for me,” he offered quietly before taking his leave. A glance at the history books might have told him the same thing.
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Luis Herrera beat Bernard Hinault to the summit of nearby Morzine-Avoriaz at the 1985 Tour, after all, and then Fabio Parra soloed over the Col du Corbier to win in Morzine itself three years later. In 2000, meanwhile, Santiago Botero bludgeoned his way clear on the Col de Joux Plane to become the third Colombian to win in Morzine at the Tour.
In the four years since that afternoon at the Dauphiné, Quintana has gone on to emulate and then surpass the accomplishments of his forebears from the 1980s. Twice second overall at the Tour, and winner of 2014 Giro d’Italia, the Movistar man has already achieved more than any other Colombian rider at world level, though in truth, he is not so much in competition with his country’s cycling past as he is complementing it. In winning at Morzine that day – or, indeed, in claiming the polka dot jersey at the Tour the following year – Quintana was simultaneously continuing a tradition and placing his own, modern stamp upon it.
Even now, five years into his professional career and four years into his tenure at the very upper reaches of the sport, Quintana continues to brook comparison with the Colombia's golden generation of the 1980s, and in particular, the two men who were the nation's best performers at the Tour in that era, Herrera and Parra.
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