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2nd at the current UCI ranking, Movistar Team comes back into the big action as Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico are ridden in the new month

Ranked second in the teams classification of the 2012 UCI World Tour, Movistar Team will be taking part in the first two European events of the world’s top tier in the next two weeks. After the inaugural race, the Tour Down Under in Australia, the roads of France and Italy will be the scenes for the most spectacular racing in two legendary courses: Paris-Nice, celebrating its 70th edition in 2012, and the 47th Tirreno-Adriatico.

At the Course au Soleil, Yvon Ledanois and José Luis Arrieta will conduct a block led by Alejandro Valverde -2nd-placed at the individual World Tour ranking- and completed by José Joaquín Rojas, David Arroyo, Imanol Erviti, Vasil Kiryienka, David López, Iván Gutiérrez and Javi Moreno. The French race will end with a mountain time trial up the Col d’Eze after seven other stages from this Sunday, with a hilly ITT of 9km finishing at Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse. After that, an opening road stage for the sprinters and two difficult finishes on Tuesday and Wednesday will preceed three mountainous routes en route to the Côte d’Azur.

In turn, José Luis Jaimerena will be Movistar Team’s DS at the Corsa dei Due Mari. The Italian race will be one of the toughest in recent years and is set to start with a 17k team time trial to Donoratico on Wednesday. The fourth stage, with no less than 252k of hard terrain, and the Queen stage on Sunday will be trascendental before the final time trial around San Benedetto del Tronto (9km) on Wednesday 9. The Blue squad will bring Rui Costa, Pablo Lastras, Beñat Intxausti, Andrey Amador, José Herrada, Branislau Samoilau, Fran Ventoso and Giovanni Visconti on Italian soil.