ANALYSIS | A look into Movistar's 7 leaders for 2024, including Enric Mas and Nairo Quintana

Movistar Team faces an important 2024 season in which it hopes to stop being a team at the bottom of the World Tour and make a leap forward after a 2023 that started very well but ended up being disappointing due to the sad overall performance of the Spanish team in both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana.

On January 1, the Spanish team published several photos on their networks congratulating their fans and in one of them we could see those who will be the 7 leaders of Eusebio Unzué's squad in this campaign that is about to begin in Australia.

In the snapshot we see 4 Spanish riders (Enric Mas, Alex Aranburu, Iván García Cortina and Oier Lazkano) and 3 Colombians (Nairo Quintana, Einer Rubio and Fernando Gaviria). The team makes it clear that they are the important men of the squad from the very beginning.

One more year Enric Mas will be the first leader of the Spanish team in the Grand Tours. The Mallorcan came from two second places in the Vuelta a España in 2021 and 2022 before finishing a disappointing sixth in 2023. This season he will again double Tour-Vuelta. In the Tour he finished fifth in 2020 and sixth in 2021, but in the last two campaigns he had to abandon. Obviously, he hopes to improve his performance.

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In the Vuelta Enric will be accompanied in the leadership by a Nairo Quintana who returns to Movistar after 3 years in Arkéa Samsic and one in blank after his positive for tramadol and the fact that no team wanted to sign him in 2023. Thus, his performance is going to be all unknown, although in the team they trust him and give him the leadership in the Giro d'Italia to start the year.

The other man in the team who could be in contention for a good overall place in a Grand Tour is Einer Rubio. The young Colombian rode freely in last year's Giro and came close to a top 10 finish and a stage win. Movistar Team hopes he can take another step forward this season in the Italian race.

Fernando Gaviria, who started very well last season 2023 with victories in the Vuelta a San Juan and Tour de Romandie and good performances in UAE Tour, Tirreno and Milano-Torino, but he could not make it in a Giro d'Italia in which he was the only sprinter of note that failed to raise his arms. Then nothing at all in the second part of the year, in which he was left out of the Vuelta. This season they hope he can win in a Grand Tour.

One of the few joys of the Spanish team in a year in which its best UCI rider was a Matteo Jorgenson who took off for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. The flamboyant champion of Spain 2022 showed signs of being a more than remarkable classics rider and we assume that he will be part of the squad for the cobbled classics.

I finish the analysis of Movistar Team's 2024 leaders by joining Cortina and Aranburu because I think both are riders who are not doing well in their calendars in recent seasons, which is probably preventing them from winning. Cortina for example, it is clear that the distances of Flanders and Liège are huge for him and that in races like Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne or E3 Saxo Classic he can be a dangerous outsider who can opt for the win. In addition, it is complicated that he can win stages in Grand Tours, but if he expands his calendar to smaller races and practices more his sprinting, victories could come to him. 

With Aranburu more of the same. It is complicated that in Amstel Gold Race and Liège he can stand out while he continues to refuse to spend time on Belgian soil living and supporting his time. Nor does it make sense to see him in a Grand Tour. Last year he competed at a high level in Montreal and Quebec at the end of the season and came close to winning in Luxembourg and Piemonte. Those are the kind of races he should put the focus on.

Article written by Juan Larra.