{"id":685851,"date":"2026-01-10T03:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685851\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T03:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:05:11","slug":"im-going-to-work-to-earn-that-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685851\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m going to work to earn that spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe start will be in Spain, then I\u2019ll travel to the United Arab Emirates and later I\u2019ll race in Italy, among other events. We\u2019re training well and preparing in the best way for what\u2019s coming,\u201d he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.ar\/ciclismo\/nota\/_\/id\/16150193\/nairo-quintana-vigente-y-con-la-mira-puesta-en-un-2026-decisivo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESPN Ciclismo<\/a>, confirming his season is already underway.<\/p>\n<p>Although he is not currently the designated leader, Quintana accepts his role within the team without giving up ambition. The Colombian knows where he stands, but insists that as long as he has the motivation to compete and contribute, he will keep training at the highest level.<\/p>\n<p>Last season left an open wound for <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/nairo-quintana\" title=\"Nairo Quintana\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nairo Quintana<\/a>. Despite riding the Giro d\u2019Italia, an injury at the Vuelta a Burgos prevented him from taking the start at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, a race of special significance for him and for the Telef\u00f3nica-backed squad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year it was tough to miss the Vuelta when I was in good shape. That race is very important for the team and you need to arrive with the strongest riders. I\u2019m going to work to earn that spot,\u201d said the Colombian, pointing to the Spanish Grand Tour as one of his main goals.<\/p>\n<p>Quintana, who wasn&#8217;t present at the team&#8217;s training camp in December as he was completing an academic training program in Chicago, has since returned to his preparation for the upcoming season. The veteran has a road captain and experience-transmitting role in the team.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the calendar, Quintana also reflected on the current state of cycling and the context of a <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/movistar-team\" title=\"Movistar Team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Movistar Team<\/a> competing against structures with larger budgets. Even so, the Colombian stressed that discipline, consistency, and hunger to race remain the engine that drives his day to day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe start will be in Spain, then I\u2019ll travel to the United Arab Emirates and later I\u2019ll race&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,42456,173125,189043,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-685851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-giro-ditalia","10":"tag-movistar-team","11":"tag-nairo-quintana","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115868593172173528","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}