Nairo Quintana

Colombian climber who won the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España and finished on the Tour de France podium three times.

Nairo Quintana was disqualified from the 2022 Tour de France after routine testing found trace amounts of a banned substance in his system, ending a race in which he'd been running inside the top ten -- a controversial exit that came nearly a decade after he'd first announced himself as one of the sport's most dangerous climbers. That first announcement, at the 2013 Tour, was about as complete a debut as a Grand Tour rookie can have: runner-up overall, the best young rider's white jersey, and the King of the Mountains title, all in the same race. He backed it with the 2014 Giro d'Italia and the 2016 Vuelta a España, giving him wins across all three Grand Tours' closest equivalents to a career sweep, missing only the Tour itself despite finishing runner-up there twice. Quintana's climbing style, built on a small frame that made him one of the lightest riders in the peloton's modern era, produced attacks that were genuinely hard for taller, more powerful rivals to follow on the steepest gradients -- a physical advantage in the mountains that his ban controversy has done little to erase from how the era's best climbers are remembered.

Quintana is renowned as one of the world's best climbers, excelling in high-altitude mountain stages where his natural ability and training at elevation in Colombia give him significant advantages. He combines excellent endurance with tactical intelligence, often waiting for the steepest gradients to make his decisive moves.

Quintana helped usher in a new golden age of Colombian cycling, inspiring a generation of riders from his home country to pursue professional careers in European racing.

• Giro d'Italia 2014
• Vuelta a España 2016
• Tour de France runner-up 2013, 2015, 3rd 2016