Nairo Quintana: If I return to top races it will be a big win for Latin America

Nairo Quintana insists he will not throw in the towel on his professional career despite failing to find a team in the first three months of 2023 following his positive tests for tramadol during the Tour de France last year.

The Colombian faces an ongoing uphill battle to find a squad, with the Movement for Credible Cycling’s (MPCC) ban on its team members signing riders who test positive for tramadol arguably lengthening the odds on his doing so.

Since March 2019, tramadol has been banned for in-competition use by the UCI, although testing positive for tramadol does not constitute a WADA anti-doping rule violation. 

Having taken part in the Colombian Nationals as a privateer, Quintana has been in Europe for several weeks now, training in Andorra and dealing with family business affairs, and was recently interviewed by ESPN. 

The Colombian insists that he has not broken any rules, saying, "the day I put a race number on my back again in big events, it will be a great victory for myself, Colombia and all of Latin America."

"I have not done anything wrong, I'm holding my head high," Quintana said. "I was in the Nationals and I wanted to win, that's the truth."

"I'm at a good level, we're still moving forwards, with the hope of having a race number again for the top events in the sport. The day I achieve that, it'll be a big victory, not just for myself, but for Colombia and Latin America as well." 

Having parted ways with Arkéa-Samsic last year following his tramadol test,  and after rumours that he was going to retire proved to be unfounded, Quintana told ESPN that "things remain unchanged since last year, when it all went a bit awry."

"But I'm still convinced that I can do something and the numbers I have from training back me up."

Quintana, who has denied taking tramadol, insists that there is nothing to stop teams from signing him.

"I've been talking to various different people, and right now any team can contract me without any problem," he said. "We have to bear in mind that some already have full rosters and that makes things much more complicated."

Tramadol is an opiate pain medication which made headlines in the mid-2010s, with the MPCC having requested a ban on the drug as far back as 2013 following reports of widespread usage in the peloton. 

Arkéa-Samsic is a member of the MPCC and was praised earlier this year by the organisation for ending his contract.  

"In compliance with our strict ethical rules, it should be added that no MPCC member team subsequently decided to hire the Colombian rider and that this attitude seems to have become indispensable for everyone," the organisation stated.

Nine of the 19 men's WorldTour teams are members of the MPCC: AG2R Citroën, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Arkéa-Samsic, Bora-Hansgrohe, Cofidis, EF Education-EasyPost, Groupama FDJ, Intermarché Circus Wanty and Team DSM.  

Quintana is keen to move on, saying, "The Tour de France problems happened and got more serious, things got difficult and you get cross about that. But finally, I've come through it all and I don't want to fight with anybody, nor point any fingers, because what happened, happened."

Although he lost his appeal to the Court for Arbitration for Sport last year about the case, which saw him stripped of his results in the Tour de France, Quintana said that he will not be going back to the law courts again.

"At the moment all I want is to demonstrate what I can do well, what Nairo has done throughout his career. Now it's all about training hard, being at a good level and hopefully starting racing again soon."