Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana, and a quest for legacy
More than a decade on from their greatest triumphs, one is about to retire, while one remains unretired
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How will the years of Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana be remembered? The pair shared the Tour de France podium three times between 2013 and 2016, the former the top step, the latter second or third. There was a time when Quintana seemed the most likely to break the Team Sky hegemony, with his surge up Alpe d’Huez in 2015 putting a second Froome yellow jersey in peril. Froome was seen as one of the greatest ever, somewhat justifiably.
A decade on, that feels very distant. The Tadej Pogačar era has shifted the goalposts for what the best bike rider in the world can be, while Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, to name but two, seem like much more complete cyclists than Froome and Quintana ever were. The pair won nine Grand Tours between them, and Froome was the last rider to win all three Grand Tours, and held all three titles at once, something beyond the current greats.
News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport. This piece is part of The Leadout, a newsletter series from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As ever, email [email protected] - should you wish to add anything, or suggest a topic.
However, it is four years since Quintana won a bike race, six since winning a WorldTour event. The last time Froome stood on the top step of a podium it was the 2018 Giro d’Italia, and the idea of a global pandemic was the stuff of horror films. Both are technically still active riders, the Colombian at Movistar, the Briton without a team but not officially retired; he is still in the registered testing pool for cyclists.
It was coincidence this week that the pair both updated us on their work plans, but it is interesting that the two, once inextricably linked, are still somehow cosmically tied to each other. Quintana is to retire at the end of the season, while Froome has a new job as chief innovation officer at Vekta, an AI training platform.
What connects the two, other than being at the top of the general classification tree in 2013-2016, my formative years as a cycling fan, are that they’re still, just about, going. A friend of mine had no idea Quintana was still cycling, but he did 64 race days last year, 70 the year before. Froome has been a bit more of an obvious presence in cycling, but it wouldn’t be outrageous for one to assume he has been retired for a while now, which is not the case.
The fact they have continued for so long has gone some way to diminishing their legacies. Froome is no longer the man who went on an epic solo raid at the 2018 Giro d’Italia to younger fans, but the man who finished just inside the top 100 overall at the Tour de Suisse last year. Quintana hasn’t been quite so anonymous in results, and surely has been playing a role at Movistar bringing the next generation through, but also hasn’t been pulling up any trees.
I wonder what the motivation was in keeping going, in still not quite giving up the dream even, in Froome’s case. Of course, there has been remuneration from the years of racing, a significant amount in the case of the Briton, but I also sense a desire to just keep racing. Neither knows much beyond the world of professional cycling, life on the road, or feeling part of a team. Quintana took a year out of the sport after his tramadol-based disqualification from the Tour in 2022, and still came back. Cycling must mean a lot to him.
How their era of cycling will be remembered is a separate question. While there have been some labelling these years of Pogačar domination boring, the dynamic racing and attacking feel keenly juxtaposed with the seasons of the Team Sky-train, and a stony-faced Quintana plugging away. I don’t find myself yearning for the 2013 Tour to return, I don’t know about you. This of course is neither the fault of Froome or Quintana, who were working to make the best of their abilities, to create a legacy. How that sits in history is still very much a live question.
The news of Froome’s next step is the most-read story on our site this week, the news of Quintana’s retirement, the most-read on Cyclingnews. Perhaps all it needs is a few years and we will think fondly of the 2010s, the battle between the young Movistar rider and the awkward-pedalling Sky leader, I’m just not sure that is now.
This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
If you want to get in touch with Adam, email [email protected].