It's not a bad move for Trofimov, he'll have some freedom there with Caja Rural's lineup having been absolutely gutted this offseason, losing most of their most established and strongest names with Bilbao, Barbero and Gonçalves among their riders with the best palmarès the last couple of years, and Carthy one of their most promising young riders. They've held on to Benito and Rosón which is good, but with Arroyo's future unclear, having some experienced WT hands to go with Pardilla makes sense.
There's also going to be a new Spanish-based South America-owned development team next year with the Equipo Bolivia coming into existence, seemingly following the same format as the Ecuadorian Team Ecuador and the Dominican Inteja-MMR. Across the squad they claim to have eighteen riders (seven Bolivians, two Colombians, an Ecuadorian and eight Spaniards) plus more to come, split across a professional and an amateur lineup, and former mountain goat Lale Cubino has come on board as director along with former Tour stage winner Javier Murguialday. The team will debut in Costa Rica in December before its first forays as a Continental team, likely in the Challenge Mallorca.
The only names announced so far are Spanish, although it's worth noting that they have perhaps done better than many of the other such teams in the Spanish péloton in that their first signing is a relatively established name, former Caja Rural and Cofidis pro Egoitz García, who has been slumming it at a lower level recently with Al Marakeb but has some solid results going back three or four years and against some of the weaker fields in domestic races he may be able to shore them up with results. They've also brought in Pedro Gregori, a veteran of the Spanish amateur scene who was a latecomer to the sport, won the Volta a Galicia back in 2013 and podiumed it again this year. This will be his first continental level team, at the age of 29 (the age on CQ is a typo, he's born '87 not '78); there's also Sergio Rodríguez Reche, 24, who they've plucked from Caja Rural's amateur feeder and a decent if unspectacular climber; and former Contentpolis rider Iván Martínez, 31, who's been bouncing around the amateur scene with the very strong Valencia Terra i Mar team for a few years and won the Vuelta a Tenerife and Vuelta a Ávila this year; finally the last of the five signings announced today was young prospect David Calleja, who I can't find much by way of notable results for, although he's very young and the article I found suggested he would be part of the amateur/development setup. Operating on a Bolivian licence means no .HC races for them, which would suggest Portugal rather than Burgos in August, too.
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