Quintana gets his farewell after all as Colombia name Worlds squad

The 2016 Vuelta winner was left out of Movistar's Grand Tour selection last month. He will instead end his career in the national jersey in Montréal.

Nairo Quintana has been named in Colombia's squad for the World Championships in Montréal, giving him the send off he was denied when Movistar omitted him from their Vuelta a España team.

National coach William Vargas has selected seven riders. Quintana will line up in the road race on 27 September alongside Egan Bernal, Santiago Buitrago, Sergio Higuita and Harold Tejada. Brandon Rivera and Walter Vargas complete the squad and will take the two time trial spots on 20 September.

Quintana confirmed in March, ahead of the Volta a Catalunya, that he would retire at the end of 2026, and indicated at the time that the Vuelta would be his final race for Movistar.

Instead, the team's eight rider selection went to Enric Mas, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Orluis Aular, Pablo Castrillo, Raúl García Pierna, Iván Romeo, Jorge Arcas and Carlos Canal.

Movistar general manager Pablo García Acosta addressed Quintana's omission after the race had begun.

"Nairo has been a really important rider for us, and it was a difficult decision because we had to think about the team we were bringing to the Vuelta," García Acosta told Domestique.

Quintana spent eleven seasons across two spells at Movistar and won the Vuelta with the team in 2016. He also won the Giro d'Italia in 2014 and finished on the Tour de France podium three times.

His 2026 season has been quiet by comparison. He missed both the Giro and the Tour, won the Vuelta Asturias in the spring and finished 18th at the Vuelta a Burgos in August. His last Grand Tour appearance came at the 2025 Giro.

Two of his Worlds teammates are currently riding the Vuelta. Buitrago has led the mountains classification since the Alto de Aitana and won five mountain sprints, the most by a Colombian in a single edition since Félix Cárdenas took seven in 2003. Tejada has remained in the general classification group throughout.

Montréal will mark Quintana's seventh World Championships. His best finish came in Innsbruck in 2018, where he placed fifteenth on a mountainous course that suited him about as well as any Worlds route has.

Colombia have never won a medal in the men's road race. Their only world title on the road came in the time trial, when Santiago Botero took gold in 2002, a year after winning bronze.

The Montréal circuit is unlikely to change that record. Sixteen ascents of Camillien Houde and 4,304 metres of climbing across 214.4 kilometres make it the hardest Worlds course in years. But it is, at least, exactly the kind of day Quintana built his career on.