The Movistar team continues to configure its squad to face the 2022 season after a 2021 in which the second place of Enric Mas in the Tour of Spain figure as the main achievement in a season where falls have significantly reduced the team.
The team led by Eusebio Unzué has been one of the teams that has moved the most in the cycling market in recent weeks, betting on youth with the signings of the Spanish Óscar Rodríguez and Alex Aranburu (both from Astana) and from the German Max Kanter. The signing of Aranburu is especially striking, with which Movistar wants to increase its prominence in the Flanders classics and sprinting, two of the team’s weak points in recent seasons.
However, the changes in the Movistar do not end there, since the cyclists who come to the team must also be added to those who leave the ranks of the telephone squad. Among the casualties, Marc Soler stands out, who after seven seasons in the ranks of Movistar He heads to the UAE Emirates after a 2021 in which the falls left him with no options to fight for the general classification in the Giro d’Italia and help the team in the Tour de France. Another notable loss is that of Miguel Ángel López, who was emerging as one of the team’s leaders in the short and medium term and that he finally terminated his contract after his abrupt abandonment in the penultimate stage of the Vuelta a España.
Witness of this new stage of changes will be, except for capital surprise, Alejandro Valverde. At 41 years old, the Murcian cyclist plans to continue one more season in the ranks of Movistar, in what would be his eighteenth year with the team and his twenty-first as a professional. Valverde has already confirmed his intention to continue but the official confirmation by Movistar is still missing.
Waiting for possible movements and official confirmation of Valverde’s continuity, Enric Mas is running as the leader of Movistar for the great tours with the aim of shining in the Tour de France, where he has been Top-10 in 2020 and 2021 and where he hopes to make the leap to the podium in the coming years, in addition to climbing to the top of the La Vuelta podium after being second in 2018 and 2021.
Together with Mas, the base of Movistar 2022 is made up of young runners such as Iván García Cortina, Abner González, Matteo Jorgenson, Mathias Norsgaard, Einer Rubio, Sergio Samitier or Gonzalo Serrano. All a bet for the future that Movistar hopes will bear fruit in the short and medium term … waiting for more incorporations for next season.