Movistar Team ends 2018 season with 42 victories
21 October 2018

Statistical overview

World Champion Alejandro Valverde's 14 wins lead the way in a year brilliantly wrapped up with Innsbruck's success, full of hope after a sensational maiden season for the women's squad.

280 days after their racing debut with the criterium preface to the Tour Down Under, the Movistar Team bid farewell to the 2018 season with the last stage of the Tour of Guangxi, end of their 39th consecutive year of activity since the current Abarca Sports organisation brought forward its first pro lineup in 1980 under Reynolds’ sponsorship.

42 victories embellish the palmarès of the two professional, Europe-based squads sponsored by Telefónica in 2018: the 27 wins notched up by its men’s team and the 15 obtained by the brandnew women’s team. Leading the individual table was the big leader of Eusebio Unzué’s group: Alejandro Valverde, author of a triumphant return to racing after his 2017 injury with 14 wins, including his first World Road Race Championship in Innsbruck.

Up to 16 Movistar Team members raised their arms victorious during 2018. From the ten ladies, seven were able to win and six scored more than one success -Jasinska and Merino, three each; Rodríguez, Teruel, Biannic and García won twice this year-. In turn, the men’s squad (nine different winners) saw Valverde’s astounding quota of success complemented by the three victories from both Carapaz and Barbero, with Nairo Quintana claiming two.

Valverde -leader of the 2018 UCI World Ranking at the end of the season- and Jasinska -inside the UCI women’s top-20- extend their commitment and consistency with the Movistar Team to their leads in the top-ten result rankings: 40 for the Spaniard (in 81 racing days) and 25 for the Polish allrounder (a similar percentage to ‘Bala’, having put a backnumber on 53 times this season).

During their 300-plus-day racing schedule in 2018, Movistar Team has covered with its two teams a combined 301,660 kilometers across 22 countries in Europe (ESP, FRA, ITA, LUX, BEL, NED, GBR, POR, GER, POL, NOR, SWE, SUI, AUT, CZE, AND), Asia / Pacific (UAE, CHN, AUS) and the Americas (CAN, ARG, COL). Almost eight laps around the world on bikes, which will start rolling again on January 13th, in 84 days’ time, as the WorldTour kicks off for 2019 Down Under.