Nairo Quintana impressive in Tour of Valencia stage victory
Saturday 4 February 2017 17:52, UK
Nairo Quintana fired an early-season warning to his rivals with an impressive stage win on his birthday at the Tour of Valencia.
Quintana, likely to be one of Chris Froome's main rivals at the Tour de France, stormed clear on the final climb to Llucena to catch and pass Merhawi Kudus and claim victory on stage four.
The Movistar rider, now 27, also leads the overall standings by 23 seconds from Ben Hermans with a flat stage remaining on Sunday, finishing in Valencia itself.
Quintana proved a class apart on the steep climb to the summit finish and crossed the line to claim his first win of the 2017 season.
"The plan went perfectly. We are still seeing how my body is at this stage of the season and today, thankfully, it responded well," Quintana told Movistar's website.
"It is a very special victory for me on my birthday. It is a success that is very calming because it shows we have done great work through the winter."
Kudus finished second for Dimension Data ahead of Amaro Antunes (Porto Canal) with Team Sky's Wout Poels claiming fourth place, 48 seconds behind Quintana.
That finish moves Poels up to fourth overall, 1:02 behind, with team-mate David Lopez in 14th.
