Tour Down Under lineup

Telephone squad heads to Adelaide with youthful seven-man roster.

For an eighth consecutive season -every single one since Telefónica took over the squad’s title sponsorship-, the Movistar Team will kick off its competitive schedule in Australia. The first official outing of the new kit and bike liveries for 2018 -already worn and used by all riders at the team launch in Madrid on 14th December– will be the highlight of this first stop of the UCI WorldTour calendar.

The Tour Down Under (Tuesday 16th – Sunday 21st January), prefaced by the People’s Choice Classic criterium in Adelaide on Sunday 14th, will see the Movistar Team lining up a really young squad (barely 25 years old in average), which features Carlos Barbero (ESP/26), Nuno Bico (POR/23), Jaime Castrillo (ESP/21), Rubén Fernández (ESP/26), Nelson Oliveira (ESP/28), Marc Soler (ESP/24) and Jasha Sütterlin (GER/25).

The biggest Australian week in cycling, which will be celebrating its 20th-anniversary edition, continues to offer a solid starting point to the season, with short, exciting stages that include the uphill finishes of Stirling (st. 2) and Willunga Hill (st. 5), added to the new, lumpy day four finale towards Uraidla (Friday 19th).