“Honestly, I need to find myself again” and “I just want to avoid bad luck in the Tour this year.” The first sentence refers to Nairo Quintana, who will be 34 years old next season, and the second refers to Nairo Quintana, who will be 34 years old next season. Enric Mas, He will turn 29 in January. The Colombian player returns to Movistar and the Majorcan runner breathes a sigh of relief after a very lonely 2023 as the sole leader of the team sponsored by Telefónica, which was officially introduced in Madrid this Thursday.
QuintanaThe Spanish team, winners of the Vuelta and Giro and a podium finisher at the Tour, are returning to the Spanish team after a year of secret sanctions (those weird things this sport does). anti-inflammatory He shouldn’t have done this, even though he wasn’t doping at the time and there was uncertainty about how his body would respond to a year without competition.
further, on the podium at the Vuelta, his career undoubtedly continues in cycling after a fall on the first stage of the 2023 Tour sidelined him from the Tour de France with no time to sweat his jersey; An accident that prevents you from reaching Embrace He progressed as desired and had to settle for sixth place in the general classification. The Tour remains his test and he will face it next year as the leader of the only Spanish team registered for the tournament. world TourIt’s like the honors division of world cycling.
Enric Mas During the tour he will lead Movistar during Telefónica’s centenary, Quintana He will be the boss of the Giro, in which he will return 10 years after his only victory (second in 2017), and the pair will share the honors in a Vuelta that starts and ends in 2017, culminating in a time trial in Madrid. in front of their sponsors’ buildings.
Quintana’s gratitude
“I am grateful, excited and happy to be part of this new stage and a great team. enrique“, admitted the Colombian cyclist, who, like his Mallorcan teammate, lives in Andorra. “I hope to perform very well in the general classification of the Tour,” he asked. further while emphasizing his return Quintana To the Spanish team where he made his first professional pedal strokes. “Nairo has become a great player here and now he will bring all his experience to us,” he added.
Movistar will embark on its 13th season in the professional peloton next year, but in fact Movistar is the oldest cycling team since its founding in 1980. José Miguel Echavarri Under the Reynolds name there would later be five Tours’ historic Banesto. Miguel Indurain. And if we mainly exclude Alberto Contador (negotiations for his place in the Alma Navarra squad never came to fruition), the best Spanish cyclists have passed through the ranks of this team; Pedro Delgado, logically Induráin, among others Ibrahim Olano, Oscar Pereiro and Alejandro Valverde.
What will happen next year 30 male runners And 16 women those who will wear Telefónica’s advertisement for cycling races. With the most important defeat of 10 transfers and two golden teammates, José Joaquín Rojas (remains technician) and Imanol Erviti (currently sporting director of Ineos) Movistar has signed 10 drivers in a bid to strengthen the middle class with the likes of Italians Davide Formolo and Davide Cimolai and the French Remi Cavagna With the desire to win more stages.
The women’s team, meanwhile, faces a year of change following the retirement of Annemiek van Vleuten, but with the goal of greater freedom for runners without having to keep an eye on a leader who is winning – or at least trying to win. All the races he participated in.