Nairo Quintana flies to Tour de Suisse mountain stage win

Colombian climber supported by a strong Movistar Team, put in a world class attack on Arosa climb, with long-range attack, to take the stage and move up to  2nd overall

Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) claimed one of his most brilliant wins as a pro during Friday's stage seven of the 2018 Tour de Suisse. With true climbing quality and power, combined with a well-driven Telefónica-backed squad in the key phases of the race, saw the Colombian attack with 30 kms to go, into the long Arosa climb taking his victory of the season as he comes into form.

A big breakaway -29 riders which led for almost the entire stage , Quintana did not hesitate to jump off the front of the GC group at the foot of the first of two tough sections in the climb, quickly overtaking many of the escapees.

Nairo already had 25 seconds on race leader Richie Porte (BMC) and other contenders -including Mikel Landa-, De la Parte was joined by Nairo and started taking big turns which helped the Colombian easing off before the finale. Back at group two, Landa attacked to try and break the pace by Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), who was still able to get his leader to just 20" secs behind at the start of the final kick uphill, with 4kms to go.

Porte couldn't ubridge back in those final kilometers to Quintana, who raised his arms victorious for the 38th time as professional rider, bringing the Movistar Team up to 20 wins in 2018 in the process. Nairo climbed up to 2nd overall, 17 secs behind Porte, before the last two stages in Bellinzona: a semi-urban circuit for the sprinters (123km), on Saturday, and a decisive, 34-kilometer ITT on Sunday.

Nairo Quintana said after the stage win "I wanted to see what my real form was, and fortunately, I'm feeling great at the moment! The team's work was really good, with everyone taking efforts from the very beginning of the stage and as far as they could. We put Bennati to push at the front of the bunch on the flat before the climb, trying to keep the breakaway close and taking advantage from Víctor's position to bridge back and get further. De la Parte was fundamental up there on the flat between the climbs, pushing as much as he could for as long as possible. And in the end, it was my task - Mikel was also trying to attack the GC group and destroy the pace by BMC, just like I asked him to do."

"The whole strategy worked well, and it makes us happy, both the team and myself, to get things working and also being able to bring a victory to our DS José Luis Arrieta, who was celebrating his birthday in the team car today. It also goes to all of my team-mates, because they were superb today.

"It's important for one's own body and the whole squad to see ourselves doing great before the Tour de France. It was a big test for us today, and there's another one awaiting on Sunday. We'll have to ride strong on the flat, defend ourselves well and do our best. These nine days of racing have helped us building up calmly for July, and hopefully they'll bring us some luck, too!"

VIDEO: Tour de Suisse Stage 7 Highlights

2018 Tour de Suisse Stage 7 Top 10

1 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 4:01:39 
2 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:22 
3 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team   
4 Gregor Mühlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:38 
5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb   
6 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors   
7 Igor Anton (Spa) Dimension Data   
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:50 
9 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team   
10 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:59 

2018 Tour de Suisse GC after Stage 7

1 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 26:06:10 
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:17 
3 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:52 
4 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:53 
5 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:13 
6 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:28 
7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:31 
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:37 
9 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:48 
10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:26