Movistar perplexed as Nairo Quintana struggles again

Nairo Quintana loses another 28 seconds to Chris Froome and both he and his Movistar team can't work out why he's struggling

Nairo Quintana at the Tour de France (Sunada)

(Image credit: Yuzuru SUNADA)

Nairo Quintana's day, and entire Tour de France, did not go as well as he and team Movistar had hoped; losing 28 seconds to Chris Froome on stage 17, the Colombian says that he is confused by his lack of firepower.

The race favourites group whittled down to 20 or so in the final four kilometres of the 10.4-kilometre climb to the Emosson Dam at 1960 metres. In the race's third summit finish, followers expected Quintana to finally threaten Froome's lead. An attack never really came, instead Richie Porte (BMC) blasted ahead with Froome and Quintana drifted behind.

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Gregor Brown

Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.