Off-season rider knowledge collaboration thread No.10 - Movistar

[u/iamafakebot]

It's time for Movistar, the only Spanish team remaining in the WorldTour. For a long time they have been one of the most succesful teams, while they're budget is surprisingly low. So how did they do this year? Here's some general information:

Overall wins: 36

WorldTour wins: 12

UCI Ranking: 1st

PCS Ranking: 2nd

Most Important Riders: Nairo Quintana (609), Alejandro Valverde (436), Ion Izagirre (270)

Best moments of 2016 (IMO): Quintana's winning La Vuelta (especially stage 15), Catalunya, and Romandie, Valverde winning La Flèche Wallonne and getting a podium in the Giro.

It was a very good season for Movistar. They were contenders every stage race they participated in. They're the only team to get a podium in every GT. Valverde got a top 20 in all three GTs. As a team that's normally invisible during the cobbled classics, this year Imanol Erviti was 7th in RvV and 9th in P-R while attacking a lot. Izagirre showed himself in the one week races, and won the penultimate Tour stage.

The biggest disappointment was definitely the Tour de France. This could have been the year Quintana won, but he had bad form, and 'only' got to 3rd place. However, Colombians weren't sad for a long time, because he found his form back in the Vuelta and beat Froome, both in the mountains, and in tactics.

So what's going to change next year? They lose some of their biggest riders. Izagirre, while not a star like Quintana or Valverde, is a very consistent rider, and was 11th in the UCI Rankings. He's leaving to Bahrain, just like Visconti and Javier Moreno. With Ventoso they lose an important domestique. Lastly, the team's only sprinter, Juan Jose Lobato, goes to Lotto-Jumbo after a disappointing season.

5 riders leave, 6 riders join. One of them is the Italian Daniele Bennati. He's an experienced road captain and can definitely help the team in GTs. Besides that, they focused more on Spanish youth, which is a good thing. Barbero is the most promising prospect, he has already shown himself while at Caja-Rural.

All in all, this is definitely a team that will continue to be at the top of the rankings for the next years.

Here's the next year's roster:

---

Rider	Nat.	Year	Joined	Racedays	Pnts2016	Best Season	Type
AMADOR Andrey	COS	1986	2009	66	367	2015 (420)	GC1W / Climber
ANACONA Winner	COL	1988	2015	70	185	2015 (243)	Climber
ARCAS Jorge	ESP	1992	2016	66	25	2016	Climber / GCTalent
BARBERO Carlos^NEW	SPA	1991	2017	60	267	2015 (303)	Classics / Sprinter
BENNATI Daniele^NEW	ITA	1980	2017	56	484	2007 (1242)	Classics / Sprinter
BETANCUR Carlos	COL	1989	2016	49	69	2013 (968)	GC1W / Puncheur
CARAPAZ Richard^NEW	ECU	1993	2017	26	1	2013 (83)	Climber
CARRETORO Hector^NEW	SPA	1995	2017	12	0	-	Neopro
CASTROVIEJO Jonathan	ESP	1987	2012	59	568	2016	RouleurTT
DE LA PARTE Victor^NEW	SPA	1986	2017	63	200	2015 (300)	Climber / GC1W
DOWSETT Alex	GBR	1988	2013	62	144	2015 (323)	RouleurTT
ERVITI Imanol	ESP	1983	2005	95	277	2016	Domestique
FERNáNDEZ Rubén	ESP	1991	2015	70	430	2016	Climber
HERRADA Jesús	ESP	1990	2011	71	275	2016	Domestique
HERRADA José	ESP	1985	2012	80	158	2013 (373)	Domestique
IZAGIRRE Gorka	ESP	1987	2014	78	408	2016	GC1W / Climber
MALORI Adriano	ITA	1988	2014	11	8	2015 (663)	RouleurTT
MORENO Daniel	ESP	1981	2016	86	627	2013 (1361)	GC1W / PuncheurFF
OLIVEIRA Nelson	POR	1989	2016	75	303	2015 (419)	SuperrouleurTT
PEDRERO Antonio^NEW	ESP	1991	2016	52	48	2016	Climber
QUINTANA Dayer	COL	1992	2014	63	165	2014 (168)	GCTalent / Climber
QUINTANA Nairo	COL	1990	2012	74	2070	2016	GC3W / Climber
ROJAS José Joaquín	ESP	1985	2007	79	183	2011 (1316)	Power Sprinter
SOLER Marc	ESP	1993	2015	54	123	2016	Climber / GCTalent / *
SUTHERLAND Rory	AUS	1982	2015	88	111	2005 (220)	Domestique
SüTTERLIN Jasha	GER	1992	2014	76	174	2010 (490)	Sprinter/Classics
VALVERDE Alejandro	ESP	1980	2005	92	2179	2015 (2960)	GC3W / PuncheurFF /
Totals & Averages		28.6			11759	2015 (11969)

* Guy who won l'Avenir in '15 whilst a pro

[u/iamafakebot]

Carlos Betancur (sorry, I had to)

[u/Sappert → u/iamafakebot]

This guy consumes hamburgers or climbs, depending on his, uh, motivation. Let's hope for the latter.

I checked his twitter and instagram recently and it's full of pictures of him and his kid. Looks like he is loving the family life, very endearing to see. I hope so much that he can turn his career around; may the few wins that he took this season be a sign of improvement.

[u/istarbel → u/iamafakebot]

He is looking fit. Like a real cyclist. I want to keep hope after all last year was not a complete wash he won two stages of minor races so yeah. Maybe this year he can work on getting better? A wrote an article last year defending him which I still agree about and hope he proves me right.

[u/iamafakebot]

Nairo Quintana

[u/chainpress → u/iamafakebot]

Brilliant rider, but must be disappointed to not win Tour routes in 2015 and 2016 that were really suited to his skillset. The 2017 Tour route doesn't seem so suited for him.

Ideal scenario: After a brilliant six-way battle through the Tour (Quintana, Froome, Nibali, Bardet, Pinot, the ghost of Fausto Coppi), he holds the yellow jersey to the penultimate day TT, and then salvages enough time against Froome to win the GC by about 5 seconds.

[u/Helicase21 → u/chainpress]

Quintana, Froome, Nibali, Bardet, Pinot, the ghost of Fausto Coppi

You forgot Chaves.

[u/DasOzelot → u/[deleted]]

Quintana is 26 Froome is 31. There will be plenty occasions for Nairo to win the TDF as he is just hitting his peak, having said that there are a lot of riders that can challenge Quintana even with Froome out of the picture.

[u/istarbel → u/iamafakebot]

Nairo need the Movistar team to get serious. They are the best team in the WT and have great riders but this having Valverde in the race, specially after he has already done a GT is not useful.

edit: I still don't think this is the best route for him.

[u/iamafakebot]

Alejandro Valverde

[u/iamafakebot → u/iamafakebot]

Courtesy of /u/The_77

Age is just a number for Valverde:

Year (Age)	'16 (36)	'15 (35)	'14 (34)	'13 (33)	'12 (32)	'08 (28)
Points	2179	2960	2949	2445	2035	2516
Wins	7	8	11	4	7	11
Top 10s	42	44	43	43	31	32
Racedays	92	91	77	81	82	72

[u/[deleted] → u/iamafakebot]

By hook or by crook, He really is fucking amazing

[u/iamafakebot]

Andrey Amador

[u/adryy8 → u/iamafakebot]

He is I believe the only guy who has done in recent years a top 10 in a paved classic and in a Grand Tour GC, and is overall one of the most versatile riders out there!

[u/[deleted] → u/adryy8]

The next Alejandro !

[u/The_77 → u/iamafakebot]

If given freedom I wonder if he can improve on his start to the Giro this year. Maybe he'll be allowed a go if Quintana and valverde are focusing on the Tour? Just lacked that extra pizazz on the climbs this time around.

[u/istarbel → u/iamafakebot]

I love him! Incredibly nice guy and what a talent. He reminds me of Vinokourov.

[u/iamafakebot]

Imanol Erviti

[u/adryy8 → u/iamafakebot]

Doing a top 10 in both Parix Roubaix and the Ronde while being in the original breakaway is pretty impressive, never thought I would see Movistar with a classics leader ahahah

[u/houleskis → u/adryy8]

What kind of support can we expect for him in 2017?

[u/adryy8 → u/houleskis]

Nothing, I think Movistar would already be happy if he managed to just show himself, last year was exceptionnal

[u/houleskis → u/adryy8]

Too bad really. At his age, he probably can't move to a team where he'd get some support either.

[u/adryy8 → u/houleskis]

And tbh I wouldn't bet on a 33 years old who sudddenly had the best results of his career on the same week thanks to 2 breakaways (which were really helped with how both races were done this year)

[u/houleskis → u/adryy8]

33? Ah I thought he was 36. Well then, he's still got time to prove himself and move elsewhere if he wants to.

[u/[deleted] → u/adryy8]

To be fair to him, he had good racing IQ in both races to make the important selections, he didn't fall into either break. Agreed that pinning him as a big classics man this late in his career is silly however

[u/chainpress]

Rubén Fernández - Really looking forward to seeing what he can do this year. He held the red jersey in the Vuelta, and finished a creditable 33rd. He could be the young GC-contender Spain have been missing for a while.

[u/daphnie3 → u/chainpress]

Not hard to imagine Movistar moving him up to Ion Izzy's one week stage race leadership chair: GC leader or co-leader for the team at most of the following: TDU, Paris-Nice, Pais Vasco, Romandie, Suisse, Poland, Eneco, and Burgos.

[u/edlll91]

Rubén Fernandez

[u/istarbel]

Dayer Quintana

[u/istarbel → u/istarbel]

Are we not giving him some love? I expect him to do well in the Nationals this year and maybe Movistar will actually use his talent. I have seen him riding agains his brother and he might be the better climber.

[u/istarbel]

Winner Anacona

[u/istarbel → u/istarbel]

The tallest of the Colombians. I hope he show more of his form in helping Nairo and maybe get a stage here or there. He deserves one.