The Movistar team doesn’t hide their ambitions for the 69th Vuelta a España. On paper, they have the strongest line up with Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. The young Colombian, a runner up in the 2013 Tour de France, has won the Giro d’Italia this year, and the Spaniard came fourth in the Tour de France last month. Valverde won the Vuelta five years ago. As a sponsor since 2011, Movistar hasn’t made it yet but the Navarra-based team has the experience, the collective strength and the motivation required for bringing the red jersey to Santiago di Compostela this time around.
“Every year, the Vuelta is the most important Grand Tour for us on pair with the Tour de France”, explained sport’s director José Luis Arrieta. “Therefore we try to line up riders who are still fresh even though the season is long. So we’ve combined riders who have taken a rest after winning the Giro with
Nairo and others who are still strong after the Tour de France. I believe we have a very nice team with our two captains but also Igor Anton, Adriano Malori, Jose Herrada, Gorka Izagirre, Jonathan Castroviejo and Imanol Erviti.”
This interesting mix of rouleurs and climbers are likely to handle the responsibilities in the race pretty early.
“Looking at the start list, the Vuelta is the number one Grand Tour this year”, Arrieta commented. “We’ve got two riders for winning, but we know that Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) has been preparing for this race for weeks. Astana looks very motivated with Aru. Team Sky needs to make up for the difficult time they’ve had. It won’t be easy for us but we’re confident. Quintana resumed racing this week at the Vuelta a Burgos and he already looks strong while Valverde has chosen to not race between the Clasica San Sebastian he won and the start of the Vuelta.”
Movistar’s first goal will be the inaugural team time trial at Jerez de la Frontera on August 23. “In a three-week long race, we have to gain time anywhere we can”, Arrieta added. “We always try to do well in team time trials. It would be wonderful to win it but we’ll be happy if we just don’t lose time there.”
More info on www.lavuelta.com