Nairo Quintana claimed he would have won the 2015 Tour de France without the actions of one of his Movistar teammates on the final day, saying it was a "sad" memory.

Appearing on the ESPN Bike Show, Quintana did not name the rider in question, nor did he specify what the problem was, but he firmly believed that it cost him his missing link in the Grand Tour, the yellow jersey.

Quintana finished second behind Chris Froome in the 2015 Tour, where the final mountain stage finished at the summit of the Alpe d'Huez. Although he attacked and finished 1:20 ahead of Sky's Chris Froome (who later revealed that he had been suffering from illness), he was 1:12 short of the yellow jersey.

"In that Alpe d'Huez stage, we had a strategy, and some teammates did well and some did not," Quintana told ESPN Bikes.

"There was a moment that day when it was practically impossible to win the Tour de France because of this rider.

Movistar had two riders on the podium at the 2015 Tour, with Alejandro Valverde finishing third overall. Valverde attacked on the final stage on the Croix de Fer pass, and Quintana caught up to Valverde. Quintana briefly dropped Valverde near the summit, but was caught by Froome on the descent.

On the final climb to the Alpe d'Huez, Quintana attacked before Valverde caught him. Quintana again rode in front of Valverde until Valverde crashed with around 8km to go. At that point, Quintana was joined by compatriot and teammate Winner Anacona, who paced him for the next 3 km.

"It was a sad day of missed opportunities.

But then Quintana took a rather different view. A crosswind in the second stage gave him a time difference of 1:30.

"I gave it my all," he said. The team did a great job. Great winner Anacona helped me on the last part of the climb."

Quintana would win his third Tour podium in 2016, behind Froome, but has not returned since. He left Movistar at the end of 2019 due to a breakdown in communication between himself, Mikel Landa, and Alejandro Valverde at the Tour de France.

The rivalry between Quintana and Froome also sparked debate last week, which Quintana addressed on ESPN Bike.

Movistar boss Eusebio Unzué recently claimed that Froome was protected by a strong Sky and Ineos team and did not need to face Quintana one-on-one. Froome responded with a series of sarcastic emojis on social media: "For the record, I have the utmost respect for Nairo Quintana and it has been a real pleasure racing with him over the years. But I did have to chuckle a bit at this headline."

When asked about this, Quintana acknowledged that Froome was "stronger," but insisted that the team around him played a major role in his success.

"Yes, I read about Froome. I know he had a strong team and that they saved him on many occasions. But it's also true that he was stronger than me."

"The good fortune of being on that team brought him here. As for myself, I fought as hard as I could and will continue to fight."

Quintana enjoyed a storming start with his new team, Arkea Samsic, winning the Tour du Var and Tour de la Provence before a coronavirus outbreak interrupted his season. He recently raised 87,600,000 Colombian pesos (about £17,000) by raffling off the pink jersey he won at the 2014 Giro d'Italia.