Nairo Quintana has opened up about the arrival of Mikel Landa at Movistar, welcoming the Spaniard as a quality addition while also underlining his own credentials as the outright leader of the Spanish squad.
“I am the leader of the team and I am the leader for the Tour [de France],” Quintana said in a Q&A interview in Tuesday’s edition of Spanish newspaper El País.
Landa was signed from Team Sky, where had grown frustrated at the lack of opportunity for leadership in the Grand Tours, finishing a solitary second off the podium at this year’s Tour de France as he sacrificed himself for Chris Froome. There were echoes of his time at Astana and the way he’d had to curb his own ambitions in the interests of Fabio Aru at the 2015 Giro d’Italia.
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"This cannot happen to me again," Landa said on the second rest day of the Tour.
Asked if he perceived Landa as a threat, given the 28-year-old’s status as a ‘home’ rider on the Spanish team, Quintana, who’s Colombian, replied: “That has never crossed my mind.
“I’ve had good talks with Eusebio [Unzue, team manager –ed]. We know that each one will have his own responsibilities, his own races – Spanish or not Spanish. I’m aware of the support that [Movistar parent company] Telefonica gives me in Latin America, where they have a large part of their business. I’m a ‘home’ rider and I feel at ease and appreciated by the brand, and vice versa.”
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