2015 Preview
Movistar Team starts its fifth season under Telefónica's sponsorship with an exciting challenge to keep success coming after majestic 2013-14 season, as well as a main goal: the Tour de France
ROSTER | Meet Movistar Team's 28 riders for 2015
116 victories, two consecutive triumphs in the team WorldTour ranking, five Grand Tour podiums -including the Giro d'Italia brilliantly conquered by Nairo Quintana last June-, seis Spanish Championships, lots of success and recognition around the world… The Movistar Team has achieved many of the goals at its reach when it was first launched at Telefónica's Madrid headquarters in 2011. And it did with a legion of fans, always growing up, following them on the road or through social media. Still, the only real limit is what our dreams tell us. That's why we keep looking above in 2015.
After profound changes gone through in 2014, with new, main partners (Canyon and Endura) forcing the group to adapt fast while keeping their victorious streak alive, 2015 will be a year of stability into Eusebio Unzué's ranks, to keep building on that success and improve it. Only four riders have joined a Movistar Team roster that will keep Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana as its main references: they are Marc Soler, who is taking the leap directly from the amateur Lizarte squad to the WorldTour aged 21; Winner Anacona and Rubén Fernández, two promising allrounders; and veteran Rory Sutherland, a key support for its team leaders. Welcome to 2015.
Valverde, UCI World's No. 1 for the third time in his career last season, will be back at both the Tour and the Vuelta as in 2014. On French soil, he will be Quintana's first and most loyal support; at the Vuelta, and always keeping the season's circumstances in mind, he'll aim for a seventh podium… or even a bigger result. Meanwhile, on Quintana's mind floats a goal that will be the whole team's: the Tour de France. The race that has made this team prestigious all the way through the last three decades. The most ungrateful, yet the most important. At the Giro, the likes of Jesús Herrada, Ion Izagirre, Intxausti or Lobato will have the responsibility and privilege to lead a group that, combative in 2013, claimed four stage wins.
Alex Dowsett's #PerfectHour will gather all attention from the team in London on February 27, while Adriano Malori, Dayer Quintana, Andrey Amador, Gorka Izagirre, Javi Moreno or Pablo Lastras continue an almost endless list -the 28-man roster will be one of the longest in the team's history-, completed by more than thirty number-one people in their own specialities: a staff made up by sports directors, mechanics, carers, communication experts, doctors, coaches and office members who, as ever, will give everything to keep Telefónica, and those ones who love and support them, on top of world cycling.