The Movistar team was presented to the press in the Spanish capital Madrid today with an intention to reinvent the team, as well as an entirely new jersey. The team, which has been sponsored by French bank Caisse d’Epargne since 2005 but dates back the Reynolds team of the 1980s, has no Grand Tour contender for the first time in many years and so will be looking to race in other ways.
“We will ride in a different way because we are do not have a clear leader,” said general manager Eusebio Unzué, according to El Pais. “This will mean we have less responsibility to control races, but I’m sure we will achieve great things; we have to reinvent ourselves.”
The team’s biggest star of the last few years, Alejandro Valverde, will remain suspended until the end of the year and its leader in the last Tour de France, Luis León Sanchez, has left for Rabobank. For a team that oversaw five consecutive Tour victories, as well as two Giros d’Italia, for Miguel Indurain and, more recently, Tour victory for Oscar Pereiro and Vuelta victory for Valverde, it will be strange to have no contender over three weeks.
Unzué is unconcerned though, and is confident about the quality of his team.
"We have enough human material to have peace of mind," he said "The great goal is foremost to consolidate this structure and demonstrate to Telefónica and Movistar that they have not made a mistake in this agreement.”
During the presentation Unzué expresses surprise that the Geox-TMC missed out on ProTeam status, and on selection to the Tour de France.
“Sometimes a sponsor can’t guarantee anything,” he said on esciclismo.com, “but, with the effort made within the team, I think they deserve to be among the elite. It is one of the greatest teams, outside or not, and they will show this on the road.”
While Movistar has no hot favourite for the Grand Tours it does have some riders who have approached that level in the past. The team’s one Italian rider Marzio Bruseghin finished third in the 2008 Giro, while David Arroyo surprised many by going one better last year. These two will once again lead the team in the Corsa Rosa.
The rider likely to lead the team in the other Grand Tours will be new signing Xavier Tondo, who emerged from the shadow of team leader Carlos Sastre at the Cervélo TestTeam last year to finish sixth in the Vuelta a España. Although his 2010 performance points towards him leading the team this year though, Tondo is not making any assumptions.
“I don’t think I’m the team leader” he said in El Pais, “that’s something that the road itself will decide. However, if that responsibility falls upon me, I’ll be delighted.”
Prolonging a relationship that goes back to even before the days of Indurain, the team will continue to ride Pinarello bikes; uniquely in the peloton, Movistar riders will be using Campagnolo’s prototype electronic groupset.
Movistar Team roster 2011:
Andrey Amador, David Arroyo, Marzio Bruseghin, Imanol Erviti, Txente García Acosta, Iván Gutiérrez, Jesús Herrada, Beñat Intxausti, Javier Iriarte, Pablo Lastras, David López, Angel Madrazo, Sergio Pardilla, Luis Pasamontes, Fran Pérez, Rubén Plaza, José Joaquín Rojas, Enrique Sanz, Xavier Tondo, Francisco José Ventoso, Vasil Kiryenka, Ignatas Konovalovas, Carlos Oyarzun, Branislau Samoilau and Mauricio Soler.