Movistar Team Blogs

A gesture, during last May's Emakumeen Bira in the UCI Women's WorldTour, which describes the ambition and continuous quest for improvement by the Movistar Team.

A few minutes later, I cross the finish line and quickly seek for the place where my team-mates are standing after the usual scrums around team soigneurs. I know Mavi has made it into the front group near the finish -by what I could hear from my earpiece, Jorge calling the shots at the team car-, yet I don’t know what result she did get. I find a way through the team cars, riders, carers and fans asking for team bottles, and there I find here, with a displeased face. ‘Third place,’ she says to me, twisting her mouth.

My reaction is completely opposite to hers. I jump to hug and congratulate her with a big smile. You’ve got a third-place finish in a WorldTour race! “Yes – but no,” she answers. I try to put on her shoes and imagine what comes through her mind in that moment. Less than a year ago, we thought this was impossible, and now that we have such results at our reach, it seems like not getting them is a blow to our confidence.

At the final stage in Oñati, Mavi eventually came just short to an overall individual podium finish in Bira, yet unexpectedly, the Movistar Team’s name was shouted through the speakers at the finish zone. We had won the team competition! It was such a special moment to climb onto the podium in that rainy Saturday afternoon, at the hometown of Gary (team carer), in front of our home crowds. We left the place satisfied, because we had done things well, yet with a shadow of nonconformity which always follows this project.

— Follow Lorena at her profiles on Instagram, Twitter, Strava and Facebook.