Few riders have come to represent the cycling of an entire continent quite like Nairo Quintana (Cómbita, Boyacá; 1990). The first Latin American rider to lift the Trofeo Senza Fine, in Trieste in 2014, and the first Colombian to win Tirreno Adriatico, a race he conquered twice, in 2015 and 2017, the “Cóndor” became the symbol of an extraordinary generation that took Colombian cycling to the very top of the sport.

Monte Grappa, Blockhaus and Terminillo – the latter conquered twice – are just some of the great Italian climbs to bear his signature. Quintana began taking on the very best from the moment he made his WorldTour debut in 2012, making the mountains his natural terrain and the foundation of an exceptional career. He won the Giro d’Italia and came within touching distance of a second triumph in 2017, only to be denied by Tom Dumoulin in the final time trial in Milan. Add to that three podium finishes at the Tour de France, victory at the Vuelta a España and a long list of successes on some of the most prestigious climbs in international cycling.

Among the images that will endure, one stands above all: Val Martello in 2014, the scene of his first Giro stage victory and the decisive moment in his pursuit of the Maglia Rosa. “I was feeling pretty bad,” he recalled a few years later. “I had suffered so much from the cold on the Stelvio that I wanted to put a foot down so I could put on some warmer clothes, but a teammate – Gorka Izagirre, who has also recently retired – told me: ‘If you put a foot down, you abandon the race. And you’re not abandoning. We keep pedalling.’”

And Quintana kept pedalling. He won that day, conquered the Giro just a few days later and, in the years that followed, continued to leave his mark on mountains around the world. Now, the Columbian bids farewell to top-level cycling in the place where he has always felt most at home: up there, among the greats of his generation.

Congratulations on an extraordinary career, Nairo!