Movistar Team and Alejandro Valverde start the new season
Years go by and Alejandro Valverde continues to reach each start of the season as one of the main strengths of Movistar Team, that in 2020 will complete ten years with the sponsorship of Telefónica at the head of the only World Tour category squad of the Spanish bunch. 41 years of cycling for Abarca Sports, a period when Valverde has become one of the greatest values of a society with big names such as Miguel Indurain, Pedro Delgado, Nairo Quintana, Óscar Pereiro, Ángel Arroyo or Julian Gorospe.
The headquarters of Telefónica in Madrid has once again welcomed the official presentation of a very renewed project for a campaign where the youth take a leading role in the squad led by Eusebio Unzué. Up to fourteen new faces fill a roster with Alejandro Valverde as helm and guide of a block that will continue to aspire to shine in the best races. The signing of Enric Mas, second in La Vuelta of 2018, or the continuity of Marc Soler confirm the reliability of a team that once again has great values of the Spanish cycling.
But if something identifies the Movistar Team 2020 project, it is its firm commitment to youth, as evidenced by the signings of the Colombians Einer Rubio (21) and Juan Diego Alba (22), the German Juri Hollmann (20), the Briton Gabriel Cullaigh (23), the Spanish Iñigo Elosegui (21), the American Matteo Jorgenson (20), the Danish Mathias Norsgaard (22) or the Swiss Johan Jacobs (22). Together with them arrive Sergio Samitier (24), the Olympic trackers Albert Torres and Sebastián Mora and the Italians Dario Cataldo and Davide Villella, excellent domestique rides in the mountains and that will surely become very important pieces for his team in the three-week events.
New Spanish champion jersey
The event has also served to unveil the uniforms that the Italian ALÉ has prepared for Movistar Team. It is a similar design, with the company’s corporate light blue as the dominant tone, but with great news in regard to the Spanish champion’s jerseys, which Alejandro Valverde and Lourdes Oyarbide will wear at least until the end of June. The new kit has a white background and the national flag crossing the chest, adding red and yellow edges (rainbow in the case of the world champion in Innsbruck) on the neck, sleeves and the lower part of the culotte.
Valverde will wear this jersey at the start of the season and in the Classics campaign, the first major challenge of a calendar that includes the Tokyo Olympic race and stops in the Tour de France, La Vuelta or the very hard World Championship in Switzerland.
Movistar Team (M): Juan Diego Alba, Jorge Arcas, Carlos Betancur, Héctor Carretero, Dario Cataldo, Gabriel Cullaigh, Iñigo Elosegui, Imanol Erviti, Juri Hollmann, Johan Jacobs, Matteo Jorgenson, Enric Mas, Lluis Mas, Sebastián Mora, Mathias Norsgaard, Nelson Oliveira, Antonio Pedrero, Eduard Prades, Jurgen Roelandts, José Joaquín Rojas, Einer Rubio, Sergio Samitier, Eduardo Sepúlveda, Marc Soler, Albert Torres, Alejandro Valverde, Carlos Verona and Davide Villella.
Movistar Team (W): Katrine Aalerud, Aude Biannic, Jelena Eric, Alicia González, Barbara Guarischi, Sheyla Gutiérrez, Eider Merino, Lourdes Oyarbide, Paula Patiño, Gloria Rodríguez and Alba Teruel.
Photo: Movistar Team