Early career He started his career on the team "Boyacá es para Vivirla". In 2010, Quintana won the
Tour de l'Avenir whilst part of the team (racing for the Colombia national team in that race), proving to be one of the great prospects for the future of Colombian cycling.
Movistar Team (2012–2019) 2012 season In 2012, Quintana moved to Europe to join the Spanish . He won the overall classification in the
Vuelta a Murcia. Later, he took a prestigious victory at the
Critérium du Dauphiné, when he sparked a counter-attack after a select group of riders including leader
Bradley Wiggins reached the last escapee of the day. He held on to his solo lead in the descent leading to
Morzine. After winning that stage, he later ended up winning the
Route du Sud that year. Quintana made his Grand Tour debut at the
Vuelta a España, where he was one of
Alejandro Valverde's key climbing domestiques as Valverde finished second overall. Quintana finished 36th overall. In October, Quintana won the
Giro dell'Emilia.
2013 season In 2013, Quintana won stage 3 of the
Volta a Catalunya, and the following month, he won the
queen stage of the
Tour of the Basque Country by sprinting to victory after the final climb in
Eibar–
Arrate, two seconds before a group of six fellow overall contenders. Quintana took the overall win in the final time trial by finishing second behind
Tony Martin (), gaining enough time over 's
Sergio Henao to take the leader's jersey from him. At the
Tour de France, Quintana attacked on the Col de Pailheres during Stage 8 and became the first man to cross the highest pass that year. He was later overtaken, on the stage's penultimate climb, by race favourite
Chris Froome. Quintana nonetheless took the lead of the
young rider classification and received the award for that stage's most aggressive rider. On stage 15 to
Mont Ventoux, Quintana again attacked early on and only the race leader Froome was able to match him, eventually dropping him in the final of the climb after they had raced up much of it together. As a result, Quintana was able to advance to sixth place in the overall standings. Stage 18 for the first time including doing the famous and iconic Alpe d'Huez climb twice. Quintana's 4th-place finish on stage 18 – including two ascents of the climb to
Alpe d'Huez – moved him into 3rd place in the overall standings. In stage 20, he attacked Froome, riding away from him in the last kilometre during the climb to Annecy-Semnoz. Quintana won the stage over
Joaquim Rodríguez and Froome, moving securely into second place overall where he finished the Tour. He also won the young rider classification and the
mountains classification. His second place in the general classification was the best result for a Colombian or Latin-American rider in the Tour de France, and the first Tour debutant to finish on the podium since
Jan Ullrich in
1996. After the Tour, Quintana went on to win the
Vuelta a Burgos, where he won stage 5 of the race after dropping
Vincenzo Nibali on the final climb.
2014 season Due to the high mountains included in the
Giro d'Italia, Quintana decided to aim for the Giro and skip the
Tour de France. His 2014 season started off with an early overall victory at the
Tour de San Luis after winning the mountaintop finish of Stage 4. Quintana placed second overall behind
Alberto Contador at
Tirreno–Adriatico in March, and finished fifth in the
Volta a Catalunya after getting sick between the races. at the
2014 Giro d'Italia At the Giro, Quintana entered the race in weakened condition due to his earlier illness. Quintana's began with 8th place in the opening team time trial in Belfast, 55 seconds down on winners , after rain during their effort. In Stage 6, Quintana was caught up behind a huge crash as the peloton approached the finishing climb of
Monte Cassino, which saw him sit 2 minutes and 8 seconds behind leader
Michael Matthews. After the individual time trial on Stage 12, Quintana was 6th overall, 3 minutes and 29 seconds behind new leader
Rigoberto Urán. Quintana started to show strong form on stages 14 and 15, reducing the gap to 2' 40". He would later reach his top form in the last week of the race. In Stage 16, he claimed the
general classification leader's pink jersey in controversial circumstances as some of his top rivals had mistakenly thought that the descent of the
Stelvio Pass was neutralised; riding through dense fog and low visibility, Quintana joined an attack with
Pierre Rolland and
Ryder Hesjedal, eventually winning the stage and gaining 4' 11" on Urán. In stage 19, Quintana flew up the
Monte Grappa, winning the mountain time trial by 17 seconds over
Fabio Aru to extend his overall lead over Urán to 3 minutes and 7 seconds. He maintained his lead on
Monte Zoncolan on Stage 20 and the final stage into
Trieste. Quintana also won the white jersey for best young rider. After the Giro, Quintana took a couple months off from racing. He returned to Europe in August aiming to win the
Vuelta a España. Two weeks before the Vuelta a España, Quintana won the
Vuelta a Burgos, winning stage 3 and coming in second in the final time trial to give himself enough time over second placed
Daniel Moreno. In the Vuelta a España, Quintana had the race lead coming in to stage ten's individual time trial. However, he crashed badly after misjudging a bend and lost 4 minutes and the red jersey. He crashed again at the beginning of the next stage and withdrew from the race due to a broken collarbone.
2015 season Quintana started his 2015 season at the
Tour de San Luis, finishing third overall. Quintana was originally scheduled to ride the
Vuelta a Andalucía, but a crash at the
Colombian National Road Race Championships caused his withdrawal. His next race was therefore the
Tirreno–Adriatico, where he took his first win of the 2015 season, in a snow blizzard on the summit finish at
Monte Terminillo, taking over the race lead as well. He would not relinquish the lead over the final time trial and went on to win the overall as well as the young rider jersey. Quintana was selected by his team for two cobbled
classics –
E3 Harelbeke and
Dwars door Vlaanderen – in order to prepare him for the cobblestones that had been scheduled to be part of the
Tour de France. Quintana continued his Tour de France preparation by racing the
Tour de Romandie and the
Tour of the Basque Country, finishing in 8th and 4th respectively. He then raced the
Route du Sud where he battled
Alberto Contador on stage 3 before finishing 2nd overall. Quintana then stayed home to train in June further before coming to France for the Tour. at the
2015 Tour de France On the second stage of the Tour de France, Quintana was caught out by a split in the peloton caused by high winds and lost a minute to
Chris Froome and other favourites. On stage ten, the first mountain day, Quintana was the only rival that could stay with Froome, finishing another minute behind him. Quintana then tried to distance himself from the yellow jersey in the last week of the Tour, advancing himself into second place overall on stage 17. Facing a 2' 38" deficit to Froome on stage 19, Quintana promised he would attack Froome and he fulfilled that promise, gaining 30 seconds on Froome by the end of the stage. On the penultimate stage, featuring the
Alpe d'Huez climb, Quintana attacked Froome again, using his teammates
Alejandro Valverde and
Winner Anacona to prize out an advantage before going solo with to go. He gained time on Froome all the way to the finish, finishing second on the stage. Quintana finished the Tour in second place, 1' 12" behind Froome with Valverde in third place overall. He also won the white jersey, with his winning the team classification. After the end of the Tour, Froome, Quintana, Valverde, and
Vincenzo Nibali, the top four finishers in the Tour de France, announced their intentions to race the following grand tour, the
Vuelta a España. However, early on, Quintana did not look like he was on his best form. On stage 11, the queen stage, he lost three minutes to race leader
Fabio Aru, falling to 9th place overall. Quintana admitted that he was suffering from a sickness and that he was considering abandoning the Vuelta. However, he never did and came back to form on stage 14, finishing in sixth place and taking several seconds out of his overall rivals. He began his comeback on stage 17, an individual time trial, finishing a surprising sixth place and advancing himself from eighth place to fifth place overall. On the penultimate stage, Quintana joined a breakaway late in the stage with
Rafał Majka to end the race in fourth place overall, just 30 seconds off the podium.
2016 season In November 2015 it was announced that Quintana would compete in the
Tour de France, the
Olympic road race and the
Vuelta a España in 2016 and that he would start his season at the
Tour de San Luis. He finished third in San Luis behind his brother, Dayer, who took the win. He went on to take the general classification at the
Volta a Catalunya, becoming the third Colombian to win the race and the first to do so since
Hernán Buenahora in 1998. Two weeks later, and struggling with the effects of illness, he finished 3rd in the overall classification of the
Tour of the Basque Country. Quintana finished 3rd in the general classification of the Tour de France after suffering from allergies throughout much of the tour; won the team classification for the second year in a row. After the tour Quintana stated, "I won't take part in the Olympic Games. I want to recover and be ready for the Vuelta a España to give emotions and animate the race." Quintana succeeded with this strategy and won the Vuelta a España ahead of
Chris Froome with the Colombian
Esteban Chaves finishing third. Quintana had gained over minutes over Froome on Stage 15 when he and
Alberto Contador () attacked together from into the stage and blew the race apart, isolating Froome from his teammates. Whilst Froome fought back and managed to gain back nearly all he had lost in a dominant victory on the stage 19 individual time trial to Calp, Quintana was able to follow several attacks by Froome on Stage 20, the final mountain stage to Alto de Aitana, to secure overall victory by 1:23 over Froome. By doing so, Quintana became the second Colombian after
Luis Herrera in
1987 to win the Vuelta.
2017 season In December 2016, Quintana confirmed that he would target both the
Giro d'Italia and
Tour de France in 2017. In March 2017, Quintana took overall victory at
Tirreno–Adriatico for the second time in three years. Quintana took the race lead after winning the queen stage of the race to
Monte Terminillo, and maintained it to the end of the race, ultimately winning by 25 seconds over rider
Rohan Dennis. At the Giro d'Italia, Quintana won Stage 9, the second mountain top finish stage of the race, arriving at the finish in Blockhaus 24 seconds ahead of
Thibaut Pinot () and
Tom Dumoulin () to take the overall race lead. However, Quintana could only finish 23rd on stage 10, a
individual time trial from
Foligno to
Montefalco, 2 minutes and 53 seconds behind Dumoulin who won the stage. By doing so, Dumoulin took the overall race lead by 2 minutes and 23 seconds over Quintana. Dumoulin won Stage 14, which featured a mountain top finish at
Santuario di Oropa to extend his lead over Quintana by a further 14 seconds. On Stage 16, Dumoulin experienced stomach problems and had to take a comfort break at the foot of the
Umbrail Pass; none of the other contenders waited for Dumoulin and he finished more than two minutes down on stage winner
Vincenzo Nibali (), with his lead over Quintana reduced to just 31 seconds. Dumoulin defended his lead until the stage 19 mountain finish in Piancavallo, where he crossed the line over a minute behind Quintana, who reclaimed the
Maglia rosa. Quintana put fifteen more seconds into Dumoulin the following day on stage 20. Quintana began Stage 21, the final stage, a -long individual time trial from
Monza to
Milan in the race lead, but was overhauled by Dumoulin, as second place on the stage took him from fourth to first place in the general classification. Quintana finished second overall, dashing his hopes of winning a Giro–Tour double. Quintana rode the Tour de France, but lost time on the first two mountain stages. Quintana lost even more time on the
Col de Peyresourde on Stage 12, finishing more than two minutes down on stage winner
Romain Bardet of . This left him more than four minutes off the race lead and he admitted after the stage that his Giro–Tour double bid 'has not worked out'. Quintana ultimately finished 12th overall, over 15 minutes down on the winner
Chris Froome ().
2018 season The main goal of Quintana's 2018 season was the
Tour de France. He finished 2nd in the new Colombian stage race,
Colombia Oro y Paz. His first race in Europe was
Volta a Catalunya, in which he finished 2nd overall, 29 seconds behind teammate
Alejandro Valverde. To prepare for the cobblestone stage in the Tour, Quintana chose to ride
Dwars door Vlaanderen, and finished in 60th position. A week later, Quintana started in the
Tour of the Basque Country. He advanced to 5th position overall on the final stage, after placing 5th on the stage. Quintana then prepared for the Tour by going to an altitude camp, and returned to racing for the
Tour de Suisse. On stage 7 to
Arosa, Quintana attacked with to go, and managed to reach the breakaway, pass it, and also keep the peloton behind him to take his first win of the season. Quintana's performance meant he was 2nd overall before the final
individual time trial; he ultimately dropped to third overall. At stage 1 of the Tour de France, Quintana already had issues as he punctured both tyres, from the finish line. This meant that he lost 1 minute and 15 seconds to the other overall contenders. The situation also sparked debate as no teammate was there to help Quintana until
Andrey Amador in the final kilometre. finished 10th on the stage 3
team time trial, losing almost a minute to , and . Quintana managed to finish together with the other overall contenders on the first challenging uphill finish on stage 6 to
Mûr-de-Bretagne. He had to many people's surprise no problems when riding the cobblestone stage, and lost no time to the overall contenders on that stage. But when the peloton reached the
Alps, Quintana suffered time losses. He made some small attacks, however they were all brought back by , and Quintana got dropped very quickly after being caught. On the shortest stage of the Tour, Quintana bounced back in brilliant fashion and won the stage. His attack looked very similar to the one in the Tour de Suisse a month prior; he attacked on the bottom of the last climb, and quickly got a huge gap. He caught the last rider from the breakaway
Tanel Kangert, and rode away in the distance. No one had the power to match him on that stage, and Quintana advanced to 5th place overall after the stage. Quintana looked strong at the start of the
Vuelta a España, and proved to be the best general classification rider on stage 13 to
La Camperona. However his form dropped, and when the race hit the third week, Quintana dropped out of the podium after the Time trial on stage 16. He lost even more time on the following day to Balcon de Bizkaia. On stage 19 Quintana was only 6th place overall and had to attack if he wanted to win the race. Therefore, he attacked almost at the bottom of the final climb, but
Thibaut Pinot and
Simon Yates attacked and bridged the gap to Quintana. Quintana could not follow their pace, and ended up riding in support for Valverde.
2019 season Quintana started his 2019 season in
Argentina at the
Vuelta a San Juan, where he finished 8th overall, with his usual domestique
Winner Anacona taking the overall win. His first win of the season came at the
Tour Colombia. Quintana was with the front group on the final climb on stage 6 to Alto de Palmas, before he was pushed off his bike after interference with a spectator. Quintana bridged the gap to the leaders before sprinting past
Iván Sosa and
Miguel Ángel López inside the final kilometre. In March, Quintana competed in
Paris–Nice; he managed to get through the first couple of days with crosswinds very well, and managed to finish 17th in the
individual time trial. On the stage to
Col de Turini, Quintana was the only rider to stay with race leader
Egan Bernal, and therefore climbed to 3rd overall in the race. On the final stage ascent to Côte de Peille, Quintana attacked and controlled the front group. He rode at the front of the race for almost before eventual stage winner
Ion Izagirre attacked and got away. At one point Quintana had the virtual race lead over Bernal, but with no cooperation from his companions, the lead shrank to only 4 seconds to Bernal at the finish line; thus, Quintana finished 2nd overall in the race.
Arkéa–Samsic (2020–2022) In September 2019, it was announced that Quintana – along with his brother
Dayer Quintana and
Winner Anacona – was moving to the team for the 2020 season. Two people, not employed by the team, but instead part of the personal entourage of riders understood to be Quintana and his two teammates, were put into custody.
2021 In 2021 he rode
Tirreno–Adriatico, the
Volta a Catalunya and the
Critérium du Dauphiné, but he finished outside the top 10 in each of them. During this timeframe, Quintana also won a stage, the general classification and the points classification at the
Vuelta a Asturias. He entered the
Tour de France but did not win any stages and finished 28th, having held the polka dot jersey as
mountains classification leader for five stages in the second week.
2022 In February 2022, he started off the season with victories in two French stage races – the
Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var and the
Tour de la Provence. Then in March he took top-five finishes in
Paris–Nice, and the
Volta a Catalunya, leading the latter for a day. Whilst Quintana participated in
Tour de France, including reaching fourth position at the start of the final week and finishing in the sixth position at the race's conclusion on July 24, his result was disqualified on August 17 when the
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announced that he had tested positive for
tramadol usage. He appealed the ruling, however the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed the appeal in November 2024. Quintana did not receive a competition ban as at the time tramadol was forbidden on medical grounds by UCI, but not a banned substance under WADA rules. On 1 October, Quintana announced he had left the Arkea-Samsic team even though he had signed a three-year contract extension with the team in August.
Free agent In February 2023, Quintana finished third in the
Colombian National Road Race Championships; after
Esteban Chaves made his race-winning attack with remaining, he was also beaten to the finish line by
Daniel Martínez.
Movistar (2023–) Quintana rejoined the Movistar team in October 2023. In May 2024, he took part in the
2024 Giro d'Italia placing 19th in the general classification and winning two combativity awards. In May 2025, he took part in the
2025 Giro d'Italia, with a plan of attempting wins of individual stages; Quintana did not achieve his goal of a stage win, but he did achieve a combativity award on Stage 11 and an overall ranking in the general classification of 25th. ==Career achievements==