Challenge (Preview)

After their debut in Australia and Argentina, Movistar Team starts with its European schedule on Sunday with the four trophies of the Balearic Challenge

Following the sweet taste left by their debut in the 2013 World Tour -with the second place from Javi Moreno and the squad at the Tour Down Under-, Movistar Team will be making their first Europe outing of a packed calendar this season in the Balearic Islands. The Challenge Ciclista a Mallorca will mark again the kick-off for the Spanish season, with four different trophies –Palma, Ses Salines, Serra de Tramuntana and Playa de Muro (the hardest ones on Tuesday and Wednesday)- where the squad managed by Eusebio Unzué will try to open their victory account.

The chance to line up different riders in each race will take fourteen Blue riders to the island this weekend: Andrey Amador, Rui Costa, Alex Dowsett, Imanol Erviti, Beñat Intxausti, Pablo Lastras, Ángel Madrazo, Rubén Plaza, José Joaquín Rojas, Enrique Sanz, Eloy Teruel, Alejandro Valverde, Fran Ventoso and Giovanni Visconti, father of a baby girl, Noemi, who was given birth on Wednesday evening. The riders –up to ten every day- that will take part in the race will be defined after the previous one. At the Trofeo Palma –the traditional city circuit in the island’s capital, with 10 laps and 116km in total- on Sunday, the roster will be formed up by Rui Costa, Dowsett, Erviti, Lastras, Plaza, Rojas, Sanz, Teruel, Valverde and Fran Ventoso.

Apart from the 2013 European debut for the Movistar Team riders, the Majorcan event will always be the first race as team DS’s for José Luis Laguía and Chente García Acosta, the men in charge of leading the telephone squad through the four days of competition.