Spanish rider prepares for his first season at British team after an entire career at Euskaltel
Mikel Nieve is preparing himself for an entirely different way of life as he joins Team Sky, having ridden for Euskaltel-Euskadi for his entire professional career. The 29-year-old from Navarra in northern Spain joined the Basque outfit in 2009 but, with the team folding at the end of this year, has been forced to look overseas.
“I’m ready to go,” Nieve says as he looks ahead to 2014. “After almost two months since the end of my season [he last raced at the Vuelta a España in September - ed] I want to start preparing gradually, and some rides on the road and mountainbike.
“Rob Ellingworth [Team Sky performance manager] told me to take things easy, and not to do anything more serious or demanding,” Nieve added. “The first training camp will be in December in Mallorca.”
Nieve will be joining the British team “with respect and enthusiasm because everything will be new to me and there are very good riders. There are the last two winners of the Tour of France, [Bradley] Wiggins and [Chris] Froome, and [Richie] Porte, and I have a responsibility to work for them.
“They want me to do my best and give the maximum for them in the mountains,” Nieve explained of his role at his new team. “They are the protected riders, and I will try to fulfil my role. I have clear ideas. To be part of a team whose leader wins the Giro or the Tour has to be a very big satisfaction and something important.”
Nieve was one of the first riders to secure a contract with a new team, once the news of Euskaltel-Euskadi’s demise was confirmed. Of the Basque team’s 29 riders, several are still without confirmed rides for 2014, including former Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez and multi-Grand Tour stage winner Igor Antón.
"The truth is that I feel a lucky because quickly solved my future and I can stay in the elite [peloton],” Nieve said. "The whole situation is very bad and I hope it can be fixed. At the Clasica de San Sebastián they told us that we could look for another team, and I had the opportunity to join Sky, the best team that one can go to.
“Logically I decided to leave and not wait for another project because we didn't know how it would be."