Well, this is the other impact of the abject lack of time trial mileage in the Tour - all the climbers think they can win, and when a team has two world class climbers, why shouldn't both think they can win? The problem is that Unzué and before him Echavarrí don't have the best record of making the most of GC hydraheads. The only times it's worked has been when they haven't really had a genuine leader, such as with Pereiro in 2006 and Arroyo in 2010. The rest of the time, they've had to rely on allocating separate leadership roles to the varying leaders and have lost some worthwhile leaders as a result, most notably Purito leaving because of being treated like Valverde's kid brother. They've been more effective when they've had multiple leaders in keeping them apart, such as Zülle and Jiménez in 1999 or Quintana and Valverde in 2014. The multiple leader strategy has only worked periodically, such as 2016 and realistically that was more because Valverde was on his 3rd straight GT and knew Quintana was the leading strategy there (plus, having finally podiumed the Tour, a long term goal of his, he was much more tranquillo about personal aims). Otherwise it ends up like Olano and Jiménez in the 1998 Vuelta and while I know they did win that race, it did come at the expense of team unity, losing the team's biggest star and several years in the doldrums being outshone by ONCE, Kelme and others within the domestic scene (yes, I know Chava was more popular, and I do as much lionizing of Jiménez as anybody on this board, but let's face it, Olano was a lot more reliable).
The thing is, at this point in time, Valverde is more selfless and more willing to give up leadership roles in the good of the team than either of the other leaders, but the team also simultaneously cannot afford to sideline him because he's a far more reliable results-getter plus he's wearing some colourful jersey or another that comes with a lot of attention and pride - nor will they want to because Unzué loves Valverde almost like a son. As a result they have to then divide and conquer the major stage racing targets between Landa and Quintana, but with both having similar strengths and weaknesses they both have a tendency to want to target the same ones, especially GTs as in the short stage races Valverde is still an equal if not greater threat. Does one show deference toward Quintana because he has the better results in his back pocket (2 x GT wins, 4x other GT podiums) or toward Landa because he has the better results more recently (KOM 2017 Giro, 4th 2017 Tour, 7th 2018 Tour)? It is complicated by the fact that Landa has until recently not been afforded the same freedom, being asked to show deference to Aru at Astana and to Froome at Sky (and Thomas too in that Giro, remember that they were claimed as co-leaders but when that crash happened the whole team went with Thomas and Landa was abandoned to his fate, even though Landa then went on to salvage that race while Thomas went home and sulked before returning to his customary role at the Tour), and is also slightly older than Quintana too, so perhaps feels he doesn't have the same amount of time left to make good on his abilities, and that Landa is also of course a bigger deal to the team's home audience, not just meaning Spain but meaning Navarre, since the team, while not overtly Basque per se, is based nearby and draws a lot of its youngsters out of the Basque-Navarrese scene as well as several of its most recognizable faces, not least Miguel Indurain and Abraham Olano.
The other question is what they do with the emerging talents? Soler and Carapaz would seem to be ready for some more significant roles, Soler perhaps as a free role or as a last-man-in-the-line, but his skillset would suggest he best suits the Tour out of the three GTs; Carapaz perhaps best suits the Giro because for some reason or another South Americans seem to go best there - however the way he performed with Lizarte in the Basque-Navarrese races suggests short and mid-length but steep climbs are a strong suit for him, so perhaps the Vuelta would go well - or maybe even they may want to consider him for classics like Milano-Torino and Il Lombardia. The team's already renewed Barbero but I'm not sure what role he's likely to play with Edu Prades coming on board, since Prades will surely be able to perform the same role but better.
The team has, at least, strengthened its rouleur corps which was where they were sorely found wanting in 2018; they lost a lot of strong flat and all-terrain engines like Rory Sutherland, Alex Dowsett, the Herrada brothers and most of all Jonathan Castroviejo. I was surprised they didn't move for Lluís Más last year, as I thought he'd be precisely the kind of rider they need and they do periodically raid Caja Rural, while Roelandts provides a wealth of experience and a guiding hand in the flats and of course in the wind, because he does go well when it's windy, as we learnt when he ascended beyond the mortal realm in Gent-Wevelgem.
The interesting question will be, what happens with Jaime Rosón. He's still only provisionally suspended to the best of my knowledge, so if he is able to come back into action in the 2019 season, will they reintegrate him, after all he's still young and was pretty good in the half-season leading up to his suspension, plus his offences dated back to before his time with Abarcá which former precedent with Rubén Plaza and Alejandro Valverde suggests should not provide any obstacle to his continued employment with them. Because if he can return at that level (which is a big question mark of course) then he'd perhaps need to be made allowances for even if he didn't get any freedom as a leader, a bit like when Rui Costa returned to the team in 2011 after his tainted supplements saga.
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