Official announcement

Movistar Team defines early season schedules for Quintana and Valverde; Colombian set to ride Corsa Rosa, which he already won in 2014

Nairo Quintana will be at the start of the 100th Giro d'Italia. On the way to the biggest challenge of his season, the Tour de France, the Colombian rider will be back in the Corsa Rosa, which already saw him coming victorious through his maiden and, so far, only attempt to conquer pink, back in 2014. Quintana will thus aim for the Giro-Tour double for the first time in his career, looking for his fourth two-GT challenge after his presences in Giro-Vuelta, in 2014 (winner in Italy, DNF in Spain after wearing the red jersey), and in Tour-Vuelta for the last two seasons (2nd, then 4th in 2015; 3rd & winner in 2016).

Nairo will participate in at least one of the Mallorca Challenge trophies next week. Also confirmed are his appearances at both the Volta a la Comunitat Valencianaand the Abu Dhabi Tour, his first UCI WorldTour event of the season, during the month of February. Tirreno-Adriatico, in March, will be his final race before taking on an altitude stay at his home in Colombia, a final preparation for the Italian grandtour he'll complete with the Vuelta a Asturias in late April.

In turn, the Movistar Team's other big leader Alejandro Valverde, now recovered from the training crash sustained last week, will race a couple trophies from the Mallorca Challenge to start his season. Later on, he will be present at the Vuelta a Murcia, Clásica de Almería, Vuelta a Andalucía, Paris-Nice and one between Volta a Catalunya and Vuelta al País Vasco (he will be at the GP Miguel Indurain either way), before taking on his first main goal of the season in the Ardennes Classics (Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège), which have seen him claiming seven victories and 14 podium finishes. The Tour de France and the Vuelta a España will be his Grand Tours this season.