Carlos Julian Quintero and Team Colombia-Coldeportes knew they would not have an easy job in defending the best climber’s green jersey in Tirreno-Adriatico’s queen stage, from Esanatoglia to the Terminillo uphill finish after 197 km.

But still they managed to achieve the feat: with 48 hours to go to the race finish, and only one categorized climb left in tomorrow’s stage, the Colombian still holds a 4-point lead over Danilo Wyss (BMC).

The Colombian fans had a lot to cheer about on the Terminillo mountain whitened by snow, fallen heavily deep in the race, recalling familiar scenarios from the Giro d’Italia dramatic climbs to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, and to the Stelvio in the last edition.

Just like in the latter occasion, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was a clear winner on the day, thanks to a sharp attack with 5 km to go that simply gave no chance to any of his opponents. Quintana, new overall leader of the race, finished 41 seconds ahead of Bauke Mollema (Trek), and 55 over a small group preceded by Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha). In the overall standings, Quintana stans over Mollema and another Colombian, Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quickstep), giving Colombian cycling another good reason to celebrate.

Quintero got to the line in 43rd position, second best in the team behind Alex Cano, 30th at 2.44 and looking much more confident than 24 hours earlier:

“Yesterday, I learned a very important lesson: I am still missing something to compete with the strongest, but today I took a step in the right direction, on a very tough stage made even more difficult by the weather,” he told the Colombia website.

The green jersey’s defense was not easy at all: after an early breakaway attempt launched by Quintero, and eight-man move –  Paul Voss (Bora-Argon18), Ángel Vicioso (Katusha), Alessandro De Marchi  (BMC), Jesús Herrada (Movistar), Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal),  Michele Scarponi  (Astana), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Andriy Grivko  (Astana) – earned over six minutes over the pack led by overnight leader Wouter Poels’ Team Sky, with Montaguti and Scarponi having the green jersey within reach.

The Escarabajos worked at the chase to reduce the leaders’ margin along with the GC men’s teams, and Scarponi was the last attacker to surrender, after distancing all of the former fellows on the Terminillo: his stage win ambitions were turned off by Quintana with 4000 metres to go.

“It was an epic stage, with a very hard route and so much snow, and the team made a huge job in pushing hard at the chase for 50 km to defend the jersey, after I have barely missed the breakaway," Quintero said. “It was very hard, but we made it. Tomorrow another battle is in store, but we are determined to take this jersey home with us.”

Tomorrow, Monday, Tirreno-Adriatico will hold its final road stage ahead of the closing time trial: Rieti – Porto Sant’Elpidio, 210 km, should call sprinters back to the fore, but Montelparo KOM, at km 131, will say the final word on who the final owner of the Tirreno-Adriatico green jersey will be.