Teams & Riders Team Movistar-thread

[ice&fire]

Idan Ofer (Israel) now owns 43% of Movistar team

Idan Ofer buys into legendary professional cycling team as sports investments grow

Israeli shipowner highlights value of sport as part of team and community-building in business

www.tradewindsnews.com

He also owns 32% of the Atletico de Madrid football team.

Edit: Movistar also got links to Saudi Arabia via two different ways: direct sponsorship from Saudi Cycling Feeration , and via Movistar mother company Telefónica, which is owned in 9.97% by Saudi telecom group STC.

Unzué might be the man to get a deal with anyone you could imagine.

 

[Bkinn]

First roster of the new Movistar devo team.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1978743115084103875

View: https://x.com/Movistar_Team/status/1978743115084103875

 

[Alexandre B.]

What happened to Pelayo Sanchez this year? He finished only one race.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

What happened to Pelayo Sanchez this year? He finished only one race.

He had knee problems early in the year and then he was diagnosed with Lyme disease following a tick bite. It sounds like he has recovered from it now, but it didn't happen in time for him to be competitive in races this season.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Einer Rubio is following in the footsteps of luminaries like Sastre, Bala and Kuss and will be going for it in all 3 Grand Tours this season. Good man.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Einer Rubio is following in the footsteps of luminaries like Sastre, Bala and Kuss and will be going for it in all 3 Grand Tours this season. Good man.

Proper race program none of this woke bora nonsense

 

[Bkinn]

They have a short roster for next year (27 riders) and plan tu use the riders of the new devo team, but most of them are first year from 2007 so this could be a difficult year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'd expect to see a fair bit of Guatibonza in some of the flatter races, he's got plenty more racing experience than the majority of the others. Filip Novak is the other one I'd think we'll see a decent amount of, he has done a somewhat more varied set of races and was initially rumoured to the main team as well when they signed Pavel, but while the team likes to have its younger riders serve an apprenticeship in the Northern Classics that they don't really pay much heed to, going straight from juniors to 240km+ races might be a bridge too far leaving Guatibonza and maybe Pombo as the only logical picks that could do some of those.

I'd think we're most likely to see them in some of those races the team likes to do over undulating terrain, looking at the team's 2025 calendar, I'm looking at races like the Tour of Belgium, Boucles de la Mayenne, Tour de Wallonie, the May Bréton one-dayers and the autumn Belgian races, especially for Guatibonza who is more of a rouleur. Novák seems from his reputation (that's all I have to go off at this stage I'm afraid), like his brother, to like steep climbs, so might get more of the Spanish domestic calendar or the couple of Portuguese early season races the team does. And the Challenge Mallorca races would be a good option too of course because they can rotate a couple in and out. In previous years they've also done some races like the Tour du Limousin and the Tour of Britain with the main team that some of the academy guys could do, especially if as stagiares.

It will be interesting to see what calendar the academy team does given they can't start races the main squad does, I'd like to see them doing some of the Portuguese races - maybe not A Grandissima, but the GP Beiras, Troféu Joaquim Agostinho or the Volta ao Alentejo would be good - and maybe some major U23 and pro-am (2.2) mountain races like the Giro della Valle d'Aosta and the Tour des Pays de Savoie. The Spanish calendar has lost all of its old 2.2s like, fifteen years ago, where things like the Circuito Montañés and the Vuelta a León would have been good fits - often the races still exist but are pure amateur events now, and a lot of the domestic races will have the main Movistar team at them.