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With one Grand Tour victory under his belt, Movistar’s Nairo Quintana is hungry for more and some believe that the lithe climber may just be able to bag his second at this year’s Tour. It’ll take some doing to topple the heavily favored Chris Froome, and to that end his sponsors – Campagnolo in particular – are pulling out all the stops.


Nairo Quintana’s Canyon Ultimate CF SLX

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On his size-XS Canyon Ultimate CF SLX, a pair of prototype Campagnolo Bora 50 wheels should give Quintana added braking confidence, especially in the rain. As we reported earlier, the new wheels feature a textured brake track to enhance brake pad grip.

According to a Movistar mechanic there are only five sets of Campagnolo Bora wheels with the new brake track in the world, two pairs of 50mm wheels and three with 35mm deep rims. All are in the care of Team Movistar, and only Quintana and Alejandro Valverde will be riding them at this year’s Tour.

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The rest of Quintana’s bike is what we’ve come to expect for a Movistar team machine. Quintana uses a German Power2Max power meter, Canyon bar, stem and seatpost, a Super Record EPS groupset, Look pedals and Continental tires. (See photo captions for more details).

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Another interesting component on his bike is the Fizik Antares saddle. Quintana prefers to start a race as important as the Tour on a used saddle. So mechanics carefully measured his position and moved his saddle and seat post assembly over to the new bike they built for the Grand Depart. The underside of the saddles has several lead weights glued to it to bring his bike weight up to the required 6.8kg.

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It’s a strange place to add weight, with most preferring to do so as low as possible. Gluing it the underside of the shell may also stiffen the saddle, but as Quintana had previously ridden the seat he must be accustomed to it. In any case, when the Tour reaches the inclines of the Pyrenees, Mont Ventoux and the Alps, we’re sure to see the Movistar team leader attacking con gusto.