Nairo Quintana is still looking for a team for 2023 and may have to keep looking after Italian professional team Collatec denied any ties to the Colombian, whose contract is up.

Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport recently reported that Quintana could sign with a team promoted to the second division this year.

Team Collatec, which signed Valerio Conti, Attilio Viviani, and Alexander Konicev over the winter, received an invitation to the Giro d'Italia on Thursday, but team boss Serge Parsani said that 2014 Giro winner Quintana has categorically denied that he is considering joining the team.

"In fact, there were no negotiations," Parsani told the Colombian website Mundo Ciclísto (opens in new tab). 'Nairo's agent asked our team if we were interested in signing him.'

"But we are a small team and we don't have the financial resources to acquire a rider like him. With this level of sponsorship, we don't have a chance."

Parsani added that Quintana's two positive tests for tramadol during the Tour de France and his later disqualification for sixth place also made the deal difficult, given Collatec's recent participation in the Clean Cycling Campaign (MPCC).

"At the end of December, we registered with the MPCC, which combats drug problems such as tramadol. The ASO has also asked us to join, but at this point it is difficult to reach an agreement with Nairo."

"The UCI needs to reach out to Nairo to get him on a WorldTour team. The only teams that can sign him are those that are not affiliated with the MPCC, such as Suredal-Quick Step and UAE Team Emirates."

The MPCC currently has nine World Tour teams, 15 professional teams, and 13 continental teams. This suggests that several doors are open for Quintana, who was dismissed from Arkea Samsic, where he had been for three years, after his contract expired.

Since then, the 32-year-old Quintana has received few invitations from the top level, and many World Tour teams have declined to sign him. However, he has received an offer from Medellín-EPM, a new team led by Miguel Ángel López.

In any case, Parsani's Collatech team joined the list of teams that would not sign Quintana.

"We will have to rely on a miracle. But today, not even the Pope can perform miracles."