IN DEPTH: MOVISTAR WOMEN’S TEAM
FOUR YEARS AFTER IT LAUNCHED AS A PLATFORM TO DEVELOP HOME TALENT AND FOSTER GENDER EQUALITY IN CYCLING IN SPAIN, MO VI STAR WOMEN’ S TEAM HAS HIT A TURNING POINT IN 2021 FOLLOWING THE SIGNING OF POWERHOUSE ANNEMIEK VAN VLEUTEN. PROCYCLING FINDS OUT MORE
We go behind the scenes of the Spanish team, which showed its ambition in signing Annemiek van Vleuten
Movistar ventured into the unknown in 2018, after nearly four decades of being one of the most successful teams in men’s professional cycling. The team announced, at their sponsor headquarters of Telefonica, the launch of a women’s programme. The Spanish outfit would take their experience from men’s cycling to foster women’s cycling in Spain and generate equal opportunity in the sport. Working alongside the Spanish cycling federation, they would be joining a growing number of programmes with both men’s and women’s teams, including Sunweb, Astana, and Mitchelton-Scott.
It started small with a list of 10, mostly young, under-23 riders. The team enjoyed a slew of top-10 finishes throughout their debut season, including at the Ladies Tour of Norway, Giro Rosa, and the Madrid Challenge. Movistar began with a few international riders, national champions from France and Poland - Aude Biannic and Małgorzata Jasinska - but focus remained on the talent at home. They signed an additional two riders for 2019 but struggled, totalling three wins in Spain for the season.
“We were not into women’s cycling; we didn’t know that much,” team manager Sebastián Unzué tells Procycling of those first two years. “We never had any ambitious sporting goals because we wanted to work with young talent to help them develop.”
By contrast, the men’s team has a long, well-known history of success, beginning in 1980 as Reynolds and with the success of a young Pedro Delgado. Delgado would win the 1988 Tour de France for the team, and the Vuelta a España in 1989. The 1990s not only brought a new decade but also ushered in a new title sponsor, the Spanish bank, Banesto, until 2003.
The team’s success continued. They dominated stage races with Miguel Indurain, who became a five-time champion of the Tour de France, joining an elite group of champions in cycling history who have done the same. The team would change sponsors once again, becoming Caisse d’Epargne, before landing with its current sponsor, Telefonica/Movistar in 2011.
Throughout the programme it has kept focus on fostering Spanish talent and other Latino riders, primarily from Colombia, including Nairo Quintana and recent recruit Miguel Ángel López. The women’s team began with the same focus but has since expanded their roster into a more international team.
“We’ve been growing year by year at a steady and logical pace, trying to improve the quality of our roster,” Unzué says. “I think 2021 is going to be a turning point.”
A NEW HOPE
Last August, Movistar sent shockwaves through the women’s peloton, announcing the signing of the 2019 road world champion Annemiek van Vleuten, the Dutch powerhouse who has spent the last five years with Mitchelton-Scott.
Her arrival at Movistar will be a major tactical change from an opportunistic team of developing riders, to a team on the offensive. Van Vleuten revealed her
connections with the team date back to time spent training with the men’s squad in 2014.
“I really liked the experience; it felt like a ‘Spanish family’ for me, I felt really welcomed by them as they were the first professional men’s team that invited me to join them in endurance training,” Van Vleuten said in the announcement of her signing. “The atmosphere was so relaxing: no stress on the training, waiting for me after the climbs, and also every evening staying together after dinner, even playing table tennis with Alejandro Valverde!”
Beyond that initial training experience with the men’s team all those years ago, Unzué explains how they came to secure her move. Van Vleuten had taken notice of how Movistar’s young squad had raced at the Giro Rosa in 2019, complimenting their race tactics during a shared podium ceremony.
“That was the first contact we had,” Unzué says. “We started having conversations about cycling; I asked her if she would consider making a move to a team like Movistar. From that first moment she said to me, ‘I think that’s something that could suit me perfectly.’ I’ve always had the feeling that there was a good connection with her, right from the start.”
Van Vleuten had been linked to a move to Trek-Segafredo this year. Trek is a team that had earned the top ranking on the WorldTour thanks to the return of Lizzie Deignan. It was an obvious choice, but the Dutch rider had been training in Colombia for several winters and had expressed her fondness of Latin culture and the mentality of Spanish people.
“The easiest thing would have been for her to go to Trek,” Unzué admits. “But she will never choose the easy path. Trek is probably, along with SD Worx, the best team at the moment in women’s cycling. She’s much more motivated about taking on a challenge that is going to help her improve. The fact that there are no other big leaders on our team is really good. I think this is something she is starting to value and understand - finding a new source of satisfaction in working with the young riders, giving back to cycling everything the sport has given to her.
“Obviously, we want to win races with her, she’s the best rider in the world. But, she also brings many more good things to the table,
“I’m not the youngest in the team any more, but I’m super ambitious, and want to perform well for this team, I hope joining this team, this new environment, can help me find new energy”
Annemiek van Vleuten
like her commitment and work ethic - she’s amazing. The fact that she is so passionate about Colombia, Spain and Italy, I know those things helped her to make the decision. She also has a way of life that fits in really well with the way of life here in southern Europe. It’s been really long talks during confinement, many hours on the phone to shape up the team around such a big leader.”
“I’m not the youngest in the team any more, but I’m super ambitious, and want to perform well for this team,” Van Vleuten said during the team announcement. “I hope joining this team, this new environment, can help me find new energy.”
Van Vleuten promises to be both a challenge and big motivation for the team. Unzué is confident the young riders on the squad are ready for the step up. The team will look to riders who have been with the programme since its inception, like 2019 Spanish national road champion, Lourdes Oyarbide, Alicia González, and French TT specialist Biannic. Other young talents include Spanish classics rider Sheyla Gutiérrez, and Colombian climber Paula Patiño.
“Those riders have been growing every year, step by step, and I have no doubt that they’re ready to support someone like Annemiek in the biggest races of the season,” Unzue says.
“Annemiek is going to allow us to work on a philosophy that we’ve had for a long time, and for so
many years. Young riders and future champions grow better and develop better next to big leaders. This is something that we’ve been doing with our men’s team, and something that we think with the arrival of Annemiek, will allow those riders to improve a lot.”
Riders like Gutiérrez, for example, are atypical compared to the history of Spanish climbers. Gutiérrez has a huge passion for the cobbled classics, having developed her talents as a sprinter in the United States with Cylance prior to her move to Movistar. The team believes she’s a raw talent, and one to watch as a future contender for the classics.
“Annemiek will be a perfect mirror to look at for these riders,” Unzué says. “She has a method that works. She’s probably the most professional and methodical rider in the peloton. Every day is going to be like a masters degree for them, to look at races in a different manner, with the goal of getting the win at the finish.”
Patiño made big strides in 2020, finishing eighth on GC at the Giro Rosa. The Colombian climber signed with the team in 2019, after racing in Europe for several seasons with the UCI’s development team. She proved her ability to perform in a long stage race at the Giro and the result was a personal highlight, as the team looks to her as one of the key riders in the mountains for Van Vleuten next season.
“I’ve learned a lot from my team-mates, and the directors over the past two seasons with Movistar,” Patiño says. “Each year I feel like I’m growing and developing a little more. Despite the pandemic, 2020 turned out to be a really good year for me. Racing alongside Annemiek next season is going to be great. We’re going to learn and grow so much from her experience and all that she has won in her career. We will have a strong team that could potentially win any number of races.”
The team has also signed American Leah Thomas and sprinter Emma Norsgaard from Denmark, following the demise of the Équipe Paule Ka outfit. Unzué is optimistic about Thomas and her possibilities. Norsgaard is expected to contest the classics.
“She can do everything at a really good level,” he says of Thomas. “The good thing about Leah is that she started cycling pretty late, therefore this also means she has a lot of margin to improve. She’s over 30 years old but it’s like she’s 25.”
From the very beginning, the team decided it would work as one unit - sharing resources, staff, sponsors, expertise and equipment. The women would ride the same
bikes, wear the same kit, and be supported by the same staff as the men. In 2021, men’s sports director Pablo Lastras will move to the women’s team, alongside Jorge Sanz. Lastras raced his entire pro career of 18 years with the team before retiring and joining the staff in 2017. Last season he was asked to make the move to the women’s side.
“This is a huge advantage obviously, compared to other teams that don’t have a men’s squad,” Unzúe says. “Last year I asked Lastras how he would feel about starting to work with the women’s team. ‘I think I can bring many positive things to the table,’ he told me. This is just further proof of how people are discovering something that for us, until three years ago, was unknown.”
Uncertainty continues to reign for next season, with the everchanging covid-19 restrictions happening around the world. Not all the planned races will happen, but Movistar will look to the many races in Spain in May as a big target, a block of races that will be extremely important for the team racing on home roads. Two new Spanish races were added to the 2021 Women’s WorldTour: Itzulia Women from May 14-16, and Vuelta a Burgos Feminas May 20-23, slightly curving the disappointment of losing the Giro Rosa from the WorldTour calendar.
“Obviously, we’re always going to want more races. I think huge steps are being made in general,” Unzué says. “We can see the proof in the audiences, and new races coming up.
We are so proud that there will be so many races in Spain in May, for example. We have great news from both the Tour de France coming back in 2022, and the Vuelta a España plans for a five to seven-day stage race. For us, what is really special and exciting too is the debut of the women’s Paris-Roubaix.”
With the tactical changes and options now afforded them at the races thanks to Van Vleuten, Movistar will take each race as it comes, while hoping to make history, embarking on their next chapter. Theoretically, they can hope to win any big race.
“For someone like Annemiek, another huge challenge will be trying to bring the women’s team to the same level as the men’s, as a team that has won pretty much everything,” Unzué says. “It’s something that we are working and looking forward to achieving in the next few years.”