The Movistar Team have confirmed their eight rider team which will line up at the 105th Tour de France, which starts on Saturday 7th July in the Vendée department.
The squad directed by Eusebio Unzué will take its three main leaders to the start – Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde – with five support riders: Andrey Amador, Daniele Bennati, Imanol Erviti, José Joaquín Rojas and Marc Soler.
Quintana will be looking to add the Tour de France to his palmares having already won the Giro d’Italia in 2014 and Vuelta a España in 2016. The Colombian made his Tour de France debut in 2013 and finished with a stage win, a 2nd place overall and the KOM and Best Young rider jerseys. He also finished on the podium in 2015 (2nd) and 2016 (3rd).
Valverde won the Vuelta a España back in 2009, and has also finished on the podium at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. In total, he has won fourteen Grand Tour stages (nine at the Vuelta, four at the Tour and one at the Giro).
However, last year’s Tour was a disaster for Valverde. Seven kilometres into the prologue at Dusseldorf, he crashed on a wet corner and crashed against a barrier fractured his patella and astragal. The injuries took a number of months to heal before he was able to return to racing.
At last year’s Tour de France, Mikel Landa was supporting Chris Froome on Team Sky and despite working for the Briton, he still came close to landing a podium finish though, finishing just one second down on third-placed finisher Romain Bardet.
The Basque rider has also won stages at Grand Tours previously, at the Giro d’Italia in 2015 and 2017 in addition to winning the blue jersey as King of the Mountains in 2017. At the 2015 Vuelta a España, Landa helped Fabio Aru land the victory where he also took a stage win himself.
Movistar Team for the 105th Tour de France
Nairo Quintana
Mikel Landa
Alejandro Valverde
Andrey Amador
Daniele Bennati
Imanol Erviti
José Joaquín Rojas
Marc Soler
