Nairo Quintana to retire from cycling in Montreal: “The World Championships will be my last professional race”

Nairo Quintana will finally have one last great appointment before hanging up his bike. After being left out of the Movistar selection for La Vuelta a España, where he was initially expected to say goodbye to the team, Colombia has included the 36-year-old cyclist in its call-up for the World Championship in Montreal. Quintana has also confirmed that the road race on September 27 will be his last race as a professional.

Nairo Quintana will say goodbye to cycling with Colombia at the World Championship in Montreal

Nairo Quintana's farewell will not be as planned, but the Colombian will finally have the opportunity to close his career on one of the great stages of international cycling.

The Colombian coach William Vargas has included the Movistar rider among the seven chosen for the World Championship in Montreal. Quintana will compete in the road race alongside Egan Bernal, Santiago Buitrago, Sergio Higuita, Harold Tejada, Brandon Rivera, and Walter Vargas. The latter two will also be the Colombian representatives in the time trial on September 20.

For Quintana, this call-up will be especially significant as it will mark his seventh participation in a World Championship and, above all, the last race of his 17 years as a professional.

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"The World Championship will be my last competition at a professional level. I feel very happy because I will be able to represent my country in such an important event and, in the same way, close this great sports cycle at the cycling World Championship," confirmed Nairo himself.

La Vuelta was initially supposed to be his farewell with Movistar

Quintana had already announced in March, before the Volta a Catalunya, that 2026 would be his last season as a professional. At that time, the plan was for La Vuelta to be his last race with Movistar and the chosen stage to say goodbye in front of a large part of the fans who have followed his career.

The Spanish round also had an important symbolic component. Nairo won La Vuelta in 2016, surpassing Chris Froome and Esteban Chaves that year, and had developed a large part of his sports career within the Movistar structure. But plans changed.

Movistar ended up assembling a team for La Vuelta made up of Enric Mas, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Orluis Aular, Pablo Castrillo, Raúl García Pierna, Iván Romeo, Jorge Arcas, and Carlos Canal. There was no place for Quintana.

Eusebio Unzué explained before the start of the race that the decision had been particularly complicated and that it was based solely on sporting criteria. "Making the decision that Nairo would not be part of the team in La Vuelta was not easy at all. Besides being a friend, Nairo is a legend in the history of our team. La Vuelta a España was an ideal stage for his farewell, but we had to prioritize sporting interests above all," Unzué explained.

The Movistar manager also detailed some of the circumstances that had ended up altering the team's planning: "The season forced us to make adjustments: we couldn't take Romeo to the Tour, and Cian, not finishing the Tour, needed to be here. All of that caused mismatches that led us to make this decision."

"The first one to feel the pain is me, but it was time to put sporting interests first. I'm sure there will be a moment to prepare the farewell he deserves," he added.

The farewell that could not take place in the Spanish round will now come in a completely different way: Quintana will wear a number for the last time with the Colombian national team's jersey.

Montreal, a course with more than 4,300 meters of elevation gain for Nairo's last race

The World Championship will also not be a quiet race to say goodbye. The men's elite race in Montreal will take place on September 27 over 214.4 kilometers and will accumulate 4,304 meters of positive elevation gain. The course includes 16 ascents to Camillien-Houde and presents a particularly demanding profile.

A terrain that, at least on paper, fits much better with the characteristics that have defined Quintana throughout his career than other World Championship circuits.

This will be his seventh World Championship. So far, his best result in a World Championship road race came in Innsbruck 2018, another particularly mountainous course, where he finished 15th.

Quintana will arrive in Montreal after a rather discreet 2026 season. He did not compete in either the Giro d'Italia or the Tour de France, and his last participation in a grand tour remains the Giro of 2025. This season, he managed to win the Vuelta a Asturias and finished 18th in the Vuelta a Burgos during August.

Nothing comparable to the best years of a career in which he managed to win the Giro d'Italia in 2014 and La Vuelta in 2016, in addition to finishing on the podium of the Tour de France three times. In total, he has spent eleven seasons with Movistar divided into two stages.

Montreal will now put the final point. Nairo Quintana will not be able to say goodbye as he originally planned, competing in La Vuelta with Movistar, but he will be able to do so defending the colors of Colombia one last time and in a World Championship with more than 4,300 meters of elevation gain. A stage that, due to its course and symbolism, seems tailor-made for the last race of one of the best climbers of his generation.