« Enric Mas , the great pillar of the future of Movistar Team». Yesterday, in the title of the announcement of the signing of the Balearic cyclist for the next three seasons, the only Spanish team of the UCI World Tour summed it up almost everything. Alberto Contador's pupil will lead from next year a new era in Movistar, which faces these months its biggest and most important reconstruction of recent times. Of his four main leaders this season, only the eternal Alejandro Valverde will continue and Marc Soler will rise to that status, whose slow maturation process must be terminated. Above both, Mas will be the reference with which the Movistar will try to assault the top drawer of the Tour podium, that obsessive longing that resists him since the unexpected victory of Oscar Pereiro in 2006.

But fulfill all the wishes of the Movistar. On a sports level, he hires a present climber with a promising future, a leader capable of carrying the team's responsibility in the main events of the calendar, as he showed in the Tour of last year, in which he finished second after a spectacular victory of stage in Andorra in the penultimate stage. At the advertising level, Eusebio Unzué hires the one that aims to be the main bulwark of Spanish cycling in the coming years, with all that that implies at the image and brand level. In a way, the Movistar satisfies with Mas his eternal desire never filled with signing Accountant.

The operation was planned for months. The idyll with Nairo Quintana has long since broken down on the basis of disappointments and assaults every year more unsuccessful to the Tour podium, so the millionaire offer that the French Arkéa-Samsic Colombian received was the best solution for everyone. With Mikel Landa the approach was different, but Bahrain-Merida's determination to make him his unique leader, something that the 29-year-old Basque has not yet achieved in his career, thwarted any possibility of continuity. He did not catch Movistar by surprise, who had seen coming from last year that Alavés would bet on a new change of air by 2020.

The Movistar's approach, therefore, was for the future to go through Mas (24 years old), Soler (25) and Carapaz (26). A trident frustrated by the entry into scene of the Ineos, the next destination of the winner of the last Giro. It remains to be seen if Movistar is committed to signing a third head of ranks or betting everything on the two young Spaniards. The market does not offer many alternatives, beyond veteran Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), which was offered weeks ago to Unzué and who continues desperately looking for a squad that meets their high economic expectations.

And it is that the departures of Quintana and Landa - Carapaz had a fairly modest salary - still leave an important economic remnant in the pockets of Unzué. During the summer there have been rumors about Movistar's desire to sign a sprinter, with S am Bennett (Bora, with possible destiny to Deceuninck) and the histrionic Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) as protagonists in the mentideros, but it sounds strange that Unzué bet now for a type of cyclist who has always discarded in his team philosophy.

Much more reasonable are the possible incorporations of David de la Cruz (Ineos), Óscar Rodríguez (Euskadi Murias), Davide Villella and Dario Cataldo (both in Astana), all of them climbers who would cover the main deficit of Movistar in these last two years , the absence of a reliable middle class in the high mountains to clothe leaders and with the ability to score victories on their own. In the last year and a half, only Valverde, Landa, Quintana, Carapaz and Soler have raised their arms in a World Tour event, all of them as leaders for the general.

The only question he plans on Movistar is if Mas and Soler, still very young, are already prepared to carry all the responsibility of the team, beyond a Valverde that at some point, by pure nature, will have to be exhausted. The Balearic has been very protected and discharged from pressure by the Deceuninck-Quick Step, while the Catalan has barely had opportunities to be a leader in an important career, limiting his progression to the role of gregarious luxury. Next year, the degree of that requirement will be much higher for both.

Apart from Mas, Soler and Valverde, Movistar has already ensured the continuity of a good part of its most reliable gregarious ( Amador, Rojas, Arcas, Carretero, Lluís Mas, Oliveira, Pedrero and Verona , which had a valid contract) and has announced the signings of the young Iñigo Elosegui (Lizarte, 21 years old) and Gabriel Cullaigh (Team Wiggins, 23), whose profile, an English sprinter, could indicate that Movistar intends to clarify in the medium term its team culture, both geographically -Latin America You will lose a lot of weight - as in the type of cyclists. We will have to see it.

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  • Movistar Team
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  • Alejandro Valverde
  • Mikel Landa
  • Nairo Quintana

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