Chente joins Movistar Team’s pink adventure
04 May 2012

Giro d'Italia

García Acosta will make of the telephone squad's staff during this year's Corsa Rorsa, in his first cycling experience off the racing bike

After a 17-year career as a professional cyclist, Chente García Acosta is enjoying his first season off the bike, the way of earning a living for the Spaniard for almost two decades. The Navarran, however, will enjoy again from his previous times as part of the Movistar Team staff in the Giro d’Italia that will start on Danish soil on Saturday. “I’m really excited,” explains Chente, who flied today from Bilbao to join the Blue expedition at the Giro. “I was willing to come back to this world and make it in a different way than I did during my entire career. This rest period did phenomenally for me to take the pressure off and enjoy with my family, doing things I couldn’t before and fill up my batteries. It’s not that I missed cycling, because I felt comfortable during these months, but when the cycling season starts, you miss the atmosphere, the contact with your teammates…”

Surprisingly, Chente will start in his new role in the only GT -he rode 15 Vueltas and 12 Tours- he didn’t line up in as a rider: “Yes, it’s quite an anecdote. I haven’t ever been to the race, but I presume it won’t be really different to the other ones. For example, I’m excited to discover the Dolomites, which I have been told about so many times. I will be into the team cars together with Jaimerena and Arrieta, and that’s another plus for me. The first one was my director since I was an amateurs, and with Arri I’ve spent so many races as a room-mate. Let’s see how I fit in here. I’m really willing to get this opportunity started.”

The team’s general manager Eusebio Unzué also feels satisfied about having Chente with the Blues in the Italian race: “He’s a man entirely grown here and has our full confidence. We believe it’s good that he gets to know cycling from another point of view not related to bike racing itself, and that’s the reason why he’s coming with us to the Giro. His experience will be surely important for our riders and the rest of the staff. We want him to find out all these things around cycling first, and then there will be time to value what he can do in the future.”